Demonstrators gathered in Tel Aviv on Thursday while the Israeli security cabinet convened
The Israeli prime minister’s announcement of plans to take control of Gaza City has been met with concern in Israel, particularly by families of hostages still being held by Hamas.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum: Bring Them Home Now has said the plan “means abandoning hostages”.
“By choosing military escalation over negotiation, we are leaving our loved ones at the mercy of Hamas,” the group said in a statement.
“The only way to bring the hostages home is through a comprehensive deal.”
The move was decided by majority vote at a security cabinet meeting which lasted 10 hours.
While the meeting was taking place, some protesters chained themselves together outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.
Anat Angrest, the mother of hostage Matan Angrest, said at the time: “For a year and 10 months we’ve been trying to believe that everything is being done to bring them back – you have failed.”
The group’s collective statement, published on Friday following the announcement, accused the government of “leading us toward a colossal catastrophe”.
Fifty hostages are still being held by Hamas – 20 of whom are believed to still be alive.
Yehuda Cohen, whose son, Nimrod, is one of t he captives, told the BBC World Service’s Newsday programme that Netanyahu’s decision is “endangering my son and other living hostages”.
“It is endangering the hostages and prolonging their suffering,” he added.
More widely within the country Tal Schneider, political correspondent at the Times of Israel, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Friday there had been a “huge public backlash” in Israel against the plans.
“All public polling suggests that the public is very much against this step,” she explained.
A hotelier in Tel Aviv, Danny Bukovsky, told Reuters news agency: “I think it’s a death sentence to all the hostages that are still being held there. And it’s the wrong decision to do it at this time.
“I think that we have to bring all the hostages back home safely.
“Afterwards, if they decide to take over the entire Gaza Strip – it’s their decision. I think we should do something about […] Hamas anyway, but not at this time.”
Israeli resident Talya Saltzman also told Reuters bringing the hostages home should be “first and foremost”.
“I know the plan is to get rid of Hamas, but we’ve been trying for two whole years,” she told the news agency.
Sean “Diddy” Combs gestures in the press room during the MTV Video Music Awards at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, on September 12, 2023. AFP via Getty Images
No way should the court grant Sean “Diddy” Combs’ request to do his hard time in home confinement on his private Miami island.
Yes, he avoided guilty verdicts on the most serious charges of racketeering and sex trafficking, which could’ve landed him a lifetime behind bars, but his convictions are still serious.
They include two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution — meaning he hired male escorts, flew them across the country, then forced his girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, and another unnamed woman to have sex with them.
And yes, that’s the Cassie that a hotel security tape shows Diddy brutally attacking then dragging across the floor.
House arrest at Combs’ palatial compound — worth a staggering $48.5 million — isn’t a punishment at all, it’s a vacation.
The 14,800-square-foot mansion on Star Island, one of the priciest zip codes in America, features multiple pools, a spa and even cabana-style pool houses; it’s not Rikers but Ritz Carlton.
Plus, it’s the scene of many of his drug-fueled “freak-offs”: The feds’ raid of the home last March found AR-15s, a cornucopia of drugs, boxes full of stripper heels, baskets full of lube and an array of sex toys.
Saying “it’s impossible” for Combs “to show he poses no danger to any person,” Judge Arun Subramian has already denied his request for a $50 million bond to await sentencing at his Miami estate, leaving him in a Brooklyn detention center where he belongs.
Sounds like Diddy is headed not to “jail at home” but to something a lot closer to the 51-to 63 months in prison that federal prosecutors want, which is at least a start on real justice.
Convicted triple-murderer Erin Patterson allegedly tried to repeatedly poison her husband, including with cookies she claimed their daughter had baked him, a court was told.
The Australian woman was last month found guilty of murdering three relatives – and attempting to kill another – with a toxic mushroom-laced beef Wellington.
The 50-year-old was originally charged with three counts of attempted murder against her estranged husband Simon Patterson, but these charges were dropped without explanation on the eve of her trial.
The details of the allegations, which Patterson denied, were suppressed to protect the proceedings, but can now be made public for the first time.
Three people died in hospital in the days after the lunch on 29 July 2023: Patterson’s former in-laws, Don Patterson, 70, and Gail Patterson, 70, as well as Gail’s sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66.
Local pastor Ian Wilkinson – Heather’s husband – recovered after weeks of treatment in hospital.
In lengthy pre-trial hearings last year, Mr Patterson had detailed what he suspected was a years-long campaign to kill him with tainted food – including one episode which had left him so ill he spent weeks in a coma and his family was twice told to say their goodbyes.
Camping trips and packed lunches
In a quiet moment during the early days of Patterson’s trial, her estranged husband choked up as he explained his sorrow to a near empty courtroom.
Mr Patterson’s parents and his aunt had been killed, and his uncle almost died too, after eating the toxic meal prepared by his wife. He had narrowly avoided the same fate, pulling out of the lunch gathering the day before.
“I have a lot to grieve,” he said to the judge, sitting in the witness box as the jury prepared to return from a break.
“The legal process has been very difficult… especially the way it’s progressed in terms of the charges relating to me and my evidence about that – or non-evidence now, I guess.”
“I’m sitting here, half thinking about the things I’m not allowed to talk about and… I don’t actually understand why. It seems bizarre to me, but it is what it is.”
What he wasn’t allowed to talk about – the elephant in the room throughout the trial – was his claim that Patterson had been trying to poison him long before the fatal lunch that destroyed his family on 29 July 2023.
Charges relating to Simon Patterson were dropped on the eve of the trial
Mr Patterson gave evidence during pre-trial hearings, which are a standard part of the court process and allow judges to determine what evidence is admissible – or allowed to be presented to a jury.
As the charges relating to Mr Patterson were dropped, his evidence on the matter was excluded from the raft of information presented at the nine-week trial this year.
But he had explained that, as far as he knows, it all began with a Tupperware container of Bolognese penne in November 2021.
Mr Patterson and his wife had separated in 2015 – though they still aren’t divorced – and he thought they remained on amicable terms.
Under questioning from Patterson’s lawyer, Mr Patterson confirmed he had noticed “nothing untoward” in their relationship at that point: “If by ‘nothing untoward’, you mean anything that would make me think she would try and kill me, correct.”
But after eating that meal, he began suffering from vomiting and diarrhoea, and spent a night in hospital.
“I had the idea I got sick from Erin’s food. I did not give it too much thought,” he said in his police statement, according to The Age newspaper.
Patterson claimed the fatal meal in 2023 was a tragic accident
Months later, in May 2022, he fell ill again after eating a chicken korma curry prepared by Patterson on a camping trip in the rugged mountains and alpine scruff of Victoria’s High Country region.
“While Erin was preparing food I was getting the fire going so I didn’t watch her prepare it,” he told the court.
Within days, he was in a coma in a Melbourne hospital, and a large part of his bowel was surgically removed in a bid to save his life.
“My family were asked to come and say goodbye to me twice, as I was not expected to live,” he said in a 2022 Facebook post, reported by The South Gippsland Sentinel Times two years ago.
In September 2022, while visiting a stunning, isolated stretch of Victorian coastline, he would become desperately unwell again after eating a vegetable wrap.
At first, he felt nausea and diarrhoea coming on, the court heard, before his symptoms escalated. He started slurring his speech, gradually lost control of his muscles, and began “fitting”.
“By the end of the journey [to hospital], all I could move was my neck, my tongue and lips,” he told the court.
The food diary and chapel meeting
A family friend who was a doctor, Christopher Ford, suggested Mr Patterson start a food diary so they could try to figure out what was making him so sick.
“I couldn’t understand why these things kept on happening to him in such a way that he had essentially three near-death experiences,” Dr Ford told the court.
Mr Patterson returned to see him in February 2023, five months before the fatal lunch, revealing he’d come to believe his estranged wife was responsible.
He told Dr Ford about a batch of cookies supposedly baked by his daughter, which he feared were treats tainted – possibly with antifreeze chemicals – by his wife, who had called repeatedly to check whether he had eaten any.
The court would hear investigators never figured out what Patterson had allegedly been feeding him, though they suspected rat poison may have been used on at least one occasion, and had found a file on Patterson’s computer with information about the toxin.
After this discovery, Mr Patterson changed his medical power of attorney, removing his wife, and quietly told a handful of family members of his fears.
Vice President JD Vance’s security detail had an Ohio river’s water level raised last week to accommodate a kayaking trip he took with his family for his 41st birthday. (AP video: Patrick Aftoora-Orsagos)
Vice President JD Vance’s security detail had an Ohio river’s water level raised last weekend to accommodate a kayaking trip he and his family took to celebrate his 41st birthday.
The U.S. Secret Service said it requested the increased waterflow for the Little Miami River, first reported by The Guardian, to ensure motorized watercraft and emergency personnel “could operate safely” while protecting the Republican vice president, whose home is in Cincinnati.
But critics immediately blasted the action as a sign of the vice president’s entitlement, particularly given the Trump administration’s focus on slashing government spending.
A sign for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources is seen along the Little Miami River, Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in Oregonia, Ohio. (AP Photo/Patrick Aftoora-Orsagos)
Richard W. Painter, who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, said on X that “it’s outrageous for the Army corps of engineers to spend taxpayer money to increase water flow in a river so @VP can go canoeing when budget cuts to the National Park Service have severely impacted family vacations for everyone else.”
The Corps of Engineers declined to address any financial impact of raising the river. Spokesman Gene Pawlik said the agency’s Louisville District temporarily increased outflows from the Caesar Creek Lake in southwest Ohio into the Little Miami “to support safe navigation of U.S. Secret Service personnel.” He said the move met operational criteria and fell within normal practice.
“It was determined that the operations would not adversely affect downstream or upstream water levels,” he said in a statement. “Downstream stakeholders were notified in advance of the slight outflow increase, which occurred August 1, 2025.” Vance’s birthday was on Aug. 2.
Trump announces peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia | Reuters
Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a U.S.-brokered peace agreement on Friday during a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump that would boost bilateral economic ties after decades of conflict and move them toward a full normalization of relations.
The deal between the South Caucasus rivals – assuming it holds – would be a significant accomplishment for the Trump administration that is sure to rattle Moscow, which sees the region as within its sphere of influence.
“It’s a long time – 35 years – they fought and now they’re friends, and they’re going to be friends for a long time,” Trump said at a signing ceremony at the White House, where he was flanked by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been at odds since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous Azerbaijani region mostly populated by ethnic Armenians, broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia. Azerbaijan took back full control of the region in 2023, prompting almost all of the territory’s 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia.
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Trump said the two countries had committed to stop fighting, open up diplomatic relations and respect each other’s territorial integrity.
The agreement includes exclusive U.S. development rights to a strategic transit corridor through the South Caucasus that the White House said would facilitate greater exports of energy and other resources.
Trump said the United States signed separate deals with each country to expand cooperation on energy, trade and technology, including artificial intelligence. Details were not released.
He said restrictions had also been lifted on defense cooperation between Azerbaijan and the United States, a development that could also worry Moscow.
Both leaders praised Trump for helping to end the conflict and said they would nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Trump has tried to present himself as a global peacemaker in the first months of his second term. The White House credits him with brokering a ceasefire between Cambodia and Thailand and sealing peace deals between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Pakistan and India.
However, he has not managed to end Russia’s 3-1/2-year-old war in Ukraine or Israel’s conflict with Hamas in Gaza. Trump on Friday said he would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on August 15 to work on ending the war in Ukraine.
ENDING SANCTIONS EVASION BLIND SPOT
U.S. officials said the agreement was hammered out during repeated visits to the region and would provide a basis for working toward a full normalization between the countries.
Item 1 of 3 U.S. President Donald Trump, Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, and Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan pose with their documents during a trilateral signing event at the White House, in Washington, D.C., August 8, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
The peace deal could transform the South Caucasus, an energy-producing region neighboring Russia, Europe, Turkey and Iran that is criss-crossed by oil and gas pipelines but riven by closed borders and longstanding ethnic conflicts.
Iran welcomed the agreement “as an important step toward lasting regional peace”, but warned against any foreign intervention near its borders that could “undermine the region’s security and lasting stability”.
In a statement posted on X, Iran’s foreign ministry said Tehran was ready to work with both countries through bilateral channels and regional frameworks.
Brett Erickson, a sanctions expert and adviser to Loyola University’s Chicago School of Law, said the agreement would help the West crack down on Russian efforts to evade sanctions.
“The Caucasus has been a blind spot in sanctions policy,” he said. “A formal peace creates a platform for the West to engage Armenia and Azerbaijan … to shut down the evasion pipelines.”
Tina Dolbaia, an associate fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Friday’s signing was a big symbolic move, but many questions remained, including which U.S. companies might control the new transit corridor and how involved Armenia and Azerbaijan would be in its construction.
Baluchistan has for years been the scene of an insurgency by separatist groups [FILE: March 12, 2025]Image: Banaras Khan/AFPThe Pakistan military, without providing evidence, said the militants had the backing of India.
Pakistani security forces killed 33 militants attempting to cross from Afghanistan, the military said Friday.
The overnight operation in Balochistan province’s Zhob district targeted fighters described as “Khwarij,” a term the government uses for the Pakistani Taliban.
On night 7/8 August 2025, movement of a large group of khwarij, belonging to Indian proxy Fitna al Khwaraj, who were trying to infiltrate through Pakistan-Afghanistan border, was detected by the security forces in general area Sambaza, Zhob District of Balochistan.
OpenAI on Thursday rolled out ChatGPT-5 free to all users.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk warned Microsoft chief Satya Nadella of OpenAI “eating” his company alive – on the day the Sam Altman-led tech giant rolled out GPT-5 across its platforms.
“Today, GPT-5 launches across our platforms, including Microsoft 365 Copilot, Copilot, GitHub Copilot, and Azure AI Foundry,” the Microsoft CEO said. “It’s the most capable model yet from our partners at OpenAI, bringing powerful new advances in reasoning, coding, and chat, all trained on Azure.”
Nadella said it had been only two and a half years since OpenAI CEO Sam Altman joined him in Redmond to debut GPT-4 in Bing, and said the progress since then had been “incredible”.
“The pace of progress is only accelerating, and I can’t wait to see what developers, enterprises, and consumers will do with this latest breakthrough,” he added.
Responding to Musk’s “eat Microsoft alive” remark, Nadella said, “People have been trying for 50 years and that’s the fun of it! Each day you learn something new and innovate, partner, and compete. Excited for Grok 4 on Azure and looking forward to Grok 5!”
Cursor AI, an AI-powered code editor based on Visual Studio Code, also confirmed GPT-5 integration, calling it “the most intelligent coding model our team has tested” and launching it free “for the time being.”
Musk, who backs the Grok AI platform, added, “Except that Grok 4 Heavy is still the most powerful AI.”
Earlier, Sam Altman said he felt “useless” after GPT-5 flawlessly solved a challenging email problem he struggled with. Speaking on a podcast, Altman described the experience as a “weird feeling,” seeing AI’s speed and precision.
Testing GPT-5, he said he was “scared” and compared the moment to the Manhattan Project. He cited physicist Robert Oppenheimer and suggested GPT-5 could have “permanent effects” on a similar scale, though not in a destructive sense.
In a stark discovery on Peru’s northern coast, archaeologists have unearthed the 3,000-year-old remains of 14 people believed to be victims of a ritual human sacrifice, offering a glimpse into the country’s ancient past.
A research team found the skeletal remains near what is thought to be a ritual temple of the Cupisnique culture, a civilization that thrived more than a millennium before the Incas. Some of the dead were buried face down with their hands tied behind their backs.
“The way in which these individuals were buried is atypical, as are the traumas and injuries they suffered during life and the violence they endured,” said Henri Tantalean, the archeologist who led the excavation.
The remains of the Puemape temple, where recent excavations led by the Chicama Archaeological Program have uncovered evidence that may reshape understanding of early ritual architecture and ancestor worship, are seen in La Libertad, Peru, in this handout photo released on August 7, 2025. Chicama Archaeological Program/Handout via REUTERS Purchase Licensing Rights
The position of the bodies, he explained, “is a typical form of human sacrifice.”
Unlike many elaborate burials found elsewhere in Peru, these victims were placed in simple pits in sand mounds, without any accompanying offerings or treasures.
Texas Senators attend a redistricting hearing for invited guests after Democratic lawmakers left the state to deny Republicans the quorum needed to redraw the state’s 38 congressional districts, at the Capitol in Austin, Texas, U.S. August 6, 2025. REUTERS/Nuri Vallbona/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
The FBI has agreed to help track down Democratic Texas lawmakers who fled their state to thwart Republican efforts to redraw congressional districts, Republican U.S. Senator John Cornyn said on Thursday, but it was unclear whether federal agents would take action.
The FBI has not deployed any resources yet, a source familiar with internal discussions said. A Justice Department official, granted anonymity to discuss internal conversations, said the FBI had committed to provide help if asked by Texas law enforcement. Such a request had not yet been made as of Thursday afternoon, the official added.
Legal experts expressed skepticism that the FBI has any legitimate authority to step in. A spokesperson for Cornyn referred questions to the FBI, which declined to comment.
The Democratic lawmakers, who have mostly been open about their whereabouts, have not been charged with any crimes. Earlier this week, the Republican speaker of the Texas House of Representatives issued civil warrants for the absent lawmakers – most of whom have gone to Democratic-led states including Illinois, New York and Massachusetts, in part to escape Texas jurisdiction – to be brought back to Austin.
The warrants apply only within the state and are based on House rules, not criminal law. Texas officials on Thursday asked a court in Illinois to make the warrants enforceable there.
Cornyn, who represents Texas, said in a statement that FBI Director Kash Patel had approved his request for the agency’s help locating the absent lawmakers.
JB Pritzker, the Democratic governor of Illinois, has brushed off the idea that the FBI could be deployed to round up legislators in his state, calling it “grandstanding” and warning that state troopers “protect everybody in Illinois.”
Barbara McQuade, a University of Michigan Law School professor and former U.S. attorney, said talk of involving the FBI appeared to be saber-rattling.
“Although federal agents do have authority to assist local law enforcement officials in tracking down fugitives, that requires a filed criminal charge,” she said.
More than 50 Democrats from the Texas legislature left the state ahead of Monday’s legislative session, denying Republicans a quorum necessary to vote on the redistricting plan that has been championed by President Donald Trump.
The rare mid-decade redistricting is intended to flip five Democratic seats in next year’s midterm elections, when Republicans will defend their razor-thin majority in the U.S. House.
The Texas fight has spread to other states, with the balance of power in Washington at stake. Democratic governors in states including California, Illinois and New York have threatened to redraw their own congressional maps to counteract Texas.
FLORIDA, INDIANA EFFORTS
The Republican speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, Daniel Perez, announced on Thursday he would create a select committee for congressional redistricting, according to local media reports.
Vice President JD Vance visited Indiana on Thursday, where he was expected to discuss redistricting with Republican leaders, a White House official said. Other Republican states that could target Democrats include Missouri, Ohio and New Hampshire.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has suggested that Democrats who raise money to help pay for fines levied due to their absence could be violating state bribery laws that prohibit officials from accepting money in exchange for avoiding their duties.
In a letter to Patel on Tuesday urging the FBI to assist the state’s local law enforcement in tracking the absent Democrats down, Cornyn wrote that he feared “legislators who solicited or accepted funds to aid in their efforts to avoid their legislative duties may be guilty of bribery or other public corruption offenses.”
The FBI has tools to help state law enforcement when parties cross state lines to flee “a scene of a crime,” Cornyn wrote.
One of the Texas Democrats who left the state, Armando Valle, told reporters on Thursday during a briefing organized by advocacy group Sabotaging Our Safety that the FBI has “no authority” to act.
The Trump administration on Thursday offered a $50 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.
“Maduro uses foreign terrorist organizations like [Tren de Aragua], Sinaloa and Cartel of the Suns to bring deadly drugs and violence into our country,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a video posted on X.
The Drug Enforcement Administration has thus far seized 30 tons of cocaine linked to Maduro and his associates, Bondi said, and “nearly seven tons linked to Maduro himself, which represents a primary source of income for the deadly cartels based in Venezuela and Mexico.”
The US is offering a $50 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Venezuelan President Maduro. AFP via Getty Images
The attorney general noted that cocaine linked to Maduro’s smuggling scheme “is often laced with fentanyl” and has resulted in “the loss and destruction of countless American lives.”
In March 2020, Maduro, 62, was hit with a slew of federal charges in the Southern District of New York related to his drug-trafficking efforts, including narco-terrorism, conspiracy to import cocaine, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.
Following the indictment, President Trump’s first administration had initially offered a $15 million reward for his capture.
The State Department, under former President Joe Biden, raised the bounty to $25 million on Jan. 10, which the Trump administration doubled on Thursday.
“The DOJ has seized over $700 million of Maduro-linked assets, including two private jets, nine vehicles and more. Yet Maduro’s reign of terror continues,” Bondi said.
A woman poses by a mural by street artist Jarrod Grech of the Australian woman who was found guilty of murdering three members of her husband’s family with a toxic mushroom-laced beef Wellington lunch, in Melbourne on Jul 9, 2025. (File photo: AFP/William West)
Australia’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with a chicken korma curry, according to accusations aired on Friday (Aug 8) after a suppression order lapsed.
Home cook Erin Patterson was found guilty in July of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt by lacing their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms.
A series of potentially damning allegations about Patterson’s behaviour in the lead-up to the 2023 meal were withheld from the jury in an effort to give the mother-of-two a fair trial.
Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale on Friday rejected an application to keep these allegations suppressed.
Patterson tried to kill her estranged husband, Simon, on three occasions between 2021 and 2022, police alleged in one of the major claims not heard during the trial.
She was accused of serving him poisoned dishes of pasta bolognese, chicken curry and a vegetable wrap, according to freshly released evidence.
Simon told a pre-trial hearing in October last year how Patterson had asked him to taste test a batch of curries she had made.
“I remember Erin saying that the purpose of the taste test was so she could, I guess, customise future curry production for our respective tastes,” he said.
He later fell ill after eating a mild chicken korma served by Patterson on a camping trip in 2022.
“At first I felt hot, especially in my head, and that led to feeling nauseous and then that led to me quite suddenly needing to vomit,” he said.
He later fell into a coma before surgeons operated to remove a section of his bowel.
Simon later told doctor Christopher Ford that he had come to suspect Patterson might be deliberately poisoning him.
He became worried when Patterson offered him a batch of homemade cookies, Ford said.
“Simon was apprehensive about eating the cookies, as he felt they may be poisoned,” the doctor told a pre-trial hearing last year.
“He reported to me that while they were away, Erin called several times and enquired about whether he had eaten any of the cookies.”
Prosecutors dropped those charges before the start of Patterson’s trial, with tight restrictions preventing the media from revealing any details.
LETHAL FUNGUS
Patterson hosted an intimate meal in July 2023 that started with good-natured banter and earnest prayer – but ended with three guests dead.
A 12-person jury found the 50-year-old guilty of murdering Simon’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, as well as his aunt, Heather Wilkinson.
She was also found guilty of attempting to murder Heather’s husband, Ian, a well-known pastor at the local Baptist church.
Patterson’s trial drew podcasters, film crews and true crime fans to the rural town of Morwell, a sedate hamlet in the state of Victoria better known for prize-winning roses.
Newspapers from New York to New Delhi followed every twist of what many now simply call the “mushroom murders”.
Throughout a trial lasting more than two months, Patterson maintained the beef-and-pastry dish was accidentally poisoned with death cap mushrooms, the world’s most lethal fungus.
From Eva Longoria to Alix Earle to Kim Kardashian, plenty of stars have gotten glowing with Dolce Glow products over the years.
Here comes the sun(-less tan).
Whether they’re prepping for red carpets, weddings or bikini shoots, everyone from the Kardashian-Jenners to Alix Earle to Selena Gomez has worked with celebrity spray tan artist Isabel Alysa over the years.
And while we can’t all have Alysa herself on speed dial, she’s bottled her pro glow with a line of at-home products, Dolce Glow. (Repeat client Miley Cyrus is even an investor.)
“When you’re looking at someone on the red carpet …. 99% of the time I’d say it’s because they got a good spray tan,” Alysa previously told us, noting a sunless glow also functions like a “filter on your skin” to “help tone, reduce appearance of cellulite [and] blur imperfections.”
As a self-tan novice, I was eager to get my hands on the formulas to see how they stack up for someone with no glam team (and a fear of looking orange).
While I was lucky enough to get tanned by Alysa herself a couple of years ago — and was beyond obsessed with the results — I was hesitant to try to replicate it at home. That said, I love that Dolce Glow creates a truly subtle glow, so there’s no need to worry about looking orange or overdone.
I can see why celebrities like Brittany Mahomes rely on it when they’re not having pros come to their homes.
Even though I invested in a self-tan sleep sack to try to avoid staining my sheets, the bronzer never transferred to any clothing/linens. (I can’t say the same of other spray tans I’ve gotten, which are liable to transfer long after the first rinse.)
While you’ll start to see the results within a few hours, it can take up to a day for the full color to develop — so I wouldn’t advise spritzing some on right before a big event.
The biggest con? Since the formula goes on completely clear, it can be difficult to tell where you’ve already sprayed. I wish I’d been more liberal in my application, as I definitely missed a few spots that I didn’t notice until the tan developed.
After Alysa airbrushed me years ago, my first question was, how can I achieve same effect at home?Luckily, she’s since developed this unique self-tanner pen, which is designed to last longer than your standard blend-and-go bronzer or contour stick. (Even Hailey Bieber’s on board; she used it in a YouTube video about her summer beauty routine last year.)
I was the most excited to try this product, since I love a good contour. Unlike a standard bronzer, this one develops over time, and I found that I couldn’t smudge the pigment with my hand once it was blended. (That said, both times I tried it, it didn’t last more than a day — so no need to be too worried if you put it on a bit lopsided at first.)
Since it can be applied either over or under makeup and moisturizers, I can see it being a nice touch for a no-makeup makeup look — especially if you’re going to the beach or somewhere you wouldn’t wear actual glam.
The final verdict
If you’re looking for a spray tan at home, we found that Dolce Glow provides a subtle, highly customizable glow. While it was difficult to tell which areas had already been sprayed with the clear self-tanner, we loved the resulting bronze. Of all the products we tried, we’d recommend the original Luce Clear Self-Tanning Mist the most for a serious glow, followed by the Contour Self-Tanning Sculpt + Glow stick.
How we tested
We tried all of the self-tanners at home sans professional spray tan artists, keeping the following points in mind throughout testing:
Quality of glow: Did the final color look orange or unnatural?
Ease of use: Was the formula suitable for a self-tan novice?
Stain risk: Did the formula transfer to sheets or clothing?
Kylie Jenner channeled Madonna in a vintage black cutout Jean Paul Gaultier cone bra and a matching pencil skirt for her family’s photo shoot to promote “The Kardashians” on Hulu.
She paired the eye-catching set with black patent ankle strap YSL pumps featuring a pointed toe, which retails for $845.
Jenner, 27, was confident in the look, sharing pics of herself posing in the edgy outfit on Instagram.
Jenner was clearly confident in the look, captioning her photos on Instagram, “I look major.” Kylie Jenner/Instagram
“I look major,” she wrote.
The Kardashian-Jenner family dressed in chic, all-black looks for the photo shoot on Wednesday.
Khloé Kardashian shared a fun post of her and all of her sisters — Kim Kardashian, Kourtney Kardashian, Kendall Jenner and Kylie — lip syncing, “Oh my God, I’m turning into my mother.” The camera then cuts to a beaming Kris Jenner, who lip syncs, “Good,” before joining them.
Madonna popularized the cone bra designed by Gaultier during her 1990 Blond Ambition tour. The pop singer’s version was a pale pink corset, which she wore with a belt.
Gaultier’s original conical bra, adorned with spiral stitching and an exposed zipper, was inspired by the bullet bras of the 1950s. Natalie Nudell, a fashion historian and adjunct instructor at the Fashion Institute of Technology, told Page Six Style about the garment’s deeper meaning back in 2021.
“Theoretically, you think about the corset as a very constricting garment; it holds the body, it controls the body, it forms the body, it molds the body,” Nudell explained.
“But what’s interesting in Gaultier’s version is that instead of being an undergarment, it’s the garment,” she continued. “And it sort of takes it out of this constrictive place into a place of female liberation.”
A demonstrably made-up story of British military officers being “captured” during a Russian raid in Ukraine has spread online this week, even being repeated by former British lawmakers. DW takes a look.
This image supposedly depicting captured British officers is clearly AI-generatedImage: x
The AI-generated images resemble cheap cartoons, the floating passport covers are illegible and there is no evidence that their alleged holders even exist.
Nevertheless, an entirely fabricated story of three British military officers being “captured” in a Russian raid on a Ukrainian naval base has spread online in the past week — even being shared by two former British members of parliament and gaining traction from Norway to Pakistan.
DW takes a look at a narrative which bears all the hallmarks of Russian disinformation and the channels via which such stories spread.
Claim: “Russian Spetsnaz RAID and capture senior UK officers in Ochakov!”
DW Fact Check: False
A story appeared in Russian media last week that three British military officers — supposedly two colonels in the British Army and an officer from British military intelligence (MI6) — were captured in a Russian raid on a Ukrainian naval base in the small southern city of Ochakiv, known in Russian as Ochakov.
One of the most prominent social media posts (screenshot above) regurgitating the story has accrued almost 500,000 views on X (formerly Twitter), another has almost 400,000 and another has over 222,000.
The “colonels” were named as “psychological ops specialist Edward Blake” and “Richard Carroll – a Ministry of Defence official with Middle East experience” who were captured during a “lightning-fast” nighttime raid by elite spetsnaz (special forces) troops in an operation codenamed “Skat-12.”
A spectacular military and diplomatic coup were it true — which it’s not; it’s completely made up.
As Craig Langford from the specialist UK Defence Journal (UKDJ) analyzed, there is no trace of “Edward Blake” or “Richard Carroll” in any recent British Armed Forces or Ministry of Defence (MoD) records.
“In short, there is no proof these individuals exist, let alone that they were captured,” wrote Langford. A spokesman for the MoD refused to even acknowledge the story when asked by DW.
Classic AI image errors
What’s more, four different images used to illustrate the story across various media outlets and social media channels don’t only depict six different men (who don’t exist); they have also demonstrably been generated using artificial intelligence.
The AI image detection tool SightEngine puts the probability of the four images being AI-generated at between 91% and 99%, but obvious visual errors suffice: cartoonish faces, oversize limbs, upside-down rifles, illegible passport covers, gibberish documents and an officer’s cap missing its peak.
“The uniforms worn by the kneeling men also reveal the image as a fake,” explained Langford for the UKDJ, referring to one of the main image at the top of this article, which appeared in some of the fake reporting.
“While the camouflage superficially resembles British Army patterns, the details are wrong. Military clothing follows strict patterns and standards, especially in operational environments, and these deviations suggest that the uniforms were generated based on visual approximations rather than real references.”
A typical Russian disinformation campaign
But this didn’t stop the story from appearing in several Russian outlets (here, here and here) before being reproduced in English on the Kremlin-controlled EurAsia Daily and Serbia’s state-owned B92. DW is banned in Russia but B92 didn’t respond to a request for comment on why they ran the story.
For Roman Osadchuk, director of threat intelligence at LetsData and non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, the whole story is typical of a Russian disinformation operation.
“The Kremlin effectively has sub-contractors such as the Social Design Agency or Storm 15-16 who will have groups of people conceiving stories and drawing up options for dissemination,” he told DW from Kyiv, Ukraine.
“The idea is simple: seed it on fringe or fake websites, forward it via Telegram channels until more outlets pick it up and begin to cite each other, a process known as media laundering. Then more mature Telegram channels with more followers will pick it up, and finally mainstream Russian media kick in, and the echo chamber grows. Then, there’s a chance that certain foreign actors will pick it up.”
Former British politicians spread fake news
Indeed, the story soon found mouthpieces in western Europe, including the Norwegian communist and conspiracy theorist Pal Steigan — who later retracted the story after recognizing that it was “poorly fact-checked on our part.”
In the United Kingdom, the story was amplified by former members of parliament George Galloway — who worked as a presenter on the Russian state-owned RT broadcaster for nine years until 2022 and has blamed NATO and the West for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — and Andrew Bridgen, who was expelled from the center-right Conservative Party in 2023 for tweeting that the use of COVID-19 vaccines was “the biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust.”
While DW approached both Galloway (who has over 825,000 followers on X) and Bridgen (over 300,000) for comment, requests which have gone unanswered, the story even made it as far as Pakistan.
Who is the target audience for Russian propaganda?
According to Osadchuk, the target audience abroad is “disgruntled people who believe that ‘the mainstream media won’t publish this.'” But he thinks the bigger audience is actually inside Russia itself, “to show Russians how mighty the military is.”
This is supported by an element of the story which would likely strike a greater chord among Russian readers than elsewhere: the idea of the United Kingdom as a shadowy geopolitical operator.
“A key trope of Russian propaganda is that the ‘Anglo-Saxons’ are puppeteers conducting the war,” explained Osadchuk.
“It’s the trope of the external enemy. It’s not Ukraine resisting; the British must be behind it. The British in particular are often considered responsible for military intelligence and covert operations, hence the claim that they captured a ‘psychological operations officer’ specifically.”
The western Sudanese city of El Fasher has been under siege for almost a year. Fighters in the country’s civil war have blocked all roads, putting around 300,000 inhabitants at risk of famine.
Around half of those trapped in El Fasher are children, according to UNICEFImage: UNICEF/Xinhua/picture alliance
Warnings have been coming for months.
Last December, the global hunger monitor Integrated Food Security Phase Classification reported famine in two camps near the Sudanese city of El Fasher, home to hundreds of thousands of displaced people. Even then, they warned Sudan’s ongoing civil war could see famine spread into the city by May.
The warning was prescient. El Fasher, the capital of the state of North Darfur, has now been under siege for over a year now. This week, the United Nations and a number of its agencies warned that approximately 300,000 people trapped inside the city face starvation.
“WFP [the World Food Program] has not been able to deliver food assistance to El Fasher by road for over a year as all roads leading there are blocked,” the UN aid program said in a statement on Tuesday. “The city is cut off from humanitarian access leaving the remaining population with little choice but to fend for survival with whatever limited supplies are left.”
Many residents are resorting to eating hay or animal fodder. Food that is available in the city costs significantly more than elsewhere in Sudan, making it unaffordable for most people.
“What we really need now is for a humanitarian pause to be agreed upon so that we can safely transport urgent food and nutrition supplies into the city,” Leni Kinzli, a WFP spokesperson based in Sudan, told DW.
Why is this happening?
Sudan’s civil war began in early 2023 when two rival military groups — the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) — started fighting for control.
The SAF, with about 200,000 personnel and led by the country’s de facto leader Abdel-Fattah Burhan, operates like a regular army. Burhan’s government, based in Port Sudan on the Red Sea, is recognized as Sudan’s government by the UN. The RSF is estimated to have 70,000 to 100,000 fighters and headed by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti. It functions more like a guerrilla force and includes the infamous Janjaweed militias, notorious for their brutality in Darfur in the early 2000s.
Both sides have been accused of war crimes.
El Fasher remains the only urban center in the Darfur region not controlled by the RSF. If the RSF wins here, they would control almost all of western Sudan.
The SAF-aligned militias inside El Fasher, known as the Joint Forces, prevent a complete RSF victory. This is why the RSF has laid siege to the city since April 2024, digging trenches and regularly launching attacks on it.
The situation worsened this past April when the RSF attacked two camps near El Fasher sheltering over 500,000 displaced people. Many fled into the city or nearby towns.
Siege on El Fasher has tightened
As the Joint Forces inside El Fasher lose ground, the RSF has tightened the siege in recent moments, said Shayna Lewis, senior adviser on Sudan for the US-based group PAEMA (Preventing and Ending Mass Atrocities).
“The Rapid Support Forces have besieged the city for over a year at this point,” she told DW in a televised interview. “But it’s particularly in the past few months that they’ve tightened that blockade. Nothing is coming in and out. We used to have donkey carts that carried food into the city but now barely anything is able to even be smuggled in.”
Locals have said the RSF aims to starve out SAF-allied forces. There are also reports that some of the forces inside the city are preventing civilians from leaving, using them as a protective buffer.
“They attacked us; it was exhausting,” Enaam Mohammed, a Sudanese woman who fled El Fasher for the nearby town of Tawila, told journalists this week. Tawila, around 40 kilometers (25 miles) away, has seen a massive influx of around 400,000 displaced people since April. Diseases like cholera and measles are now spreading there.
“[They asked us] ‘Where are the weapons? Where are the men?'” Mohammed continued, describing her experience with the RSF. “If they find someone with a mobile phone, they take it. If you have money, they take it. If you have a good, strong donkey, they take it.”
Mohammed said she also saw the RSF killing people and raping women.
What can be done?
Currently, the conflict is at what analysts have described as a “strategic stalemate.” Alongside other smaller groups, the RSF controls much of western Sudan, while the SAF controls the east. Earlier in July, the RSF set up their own civilian government, effectively splitting Sudan in two. There is no credible peace process and heavy fighting is also ongoing in other parts of Sudan.
“Both parties view the conflict through a zero-sum lens,” analysts at the Italian Institute for International Political Studies (ISPI) wrote earlier this year. “The victory of one side is entirely dependent on the defeat of the other.” Neither side wants to negotiate, observers say.
Exacerbating that situation is foreign backing for the different fighting groups. In July, the US postponed a meeting about Sudan that would have brought together Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt. The Saudis and Egyptians are thought to support the SAF and the UAE, the RSF — all deny providing military aid to Sudanese groups. The meeting is now rumored to be rescheduled for September.
This week, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called SAF leader Burhan to ask for a weeklong ceasefire that would allow aid into El Fasher. Burhan agreed, but the RSF has yet to consent.
The impact of the war also goes well beyond the besieged city of El Fasher, the WFP’s Kinzli pointed out.
The UN regularly calls what is happening in Sudan the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. Aid agencies estimate that around 12 million people of Sudan’s 46-million-strong population have been displaced by the conflict and that around 150,000 people have died as a result of it. There are famine conditions and infectious diseases in other parts of the country too.
BlueSG, the only car-sharing platform offering point-to-point services in Singapore, is suspending its operations until a relaunch in 2026.
Following BlueSG’s announcement of a pause in services, car-sharing operators said they were not looking to offer point-to-point services at the moment. (Photo: iStock)
With BlueSG pausing its services, several major car-sharing firms told CNA they would not be filling the point-to-point void for now, although one did not rule out moving into that space in future.
Car-sharing operators GetGo and Tribecar said a point-to-point service would be operationally more challenging and that they are focusing on enhancing their current offerings, while Drive Lah said it is “possible” they may consider such a service in future.
BlueSG is suspending its operations from 11.59pm on Friday (Aug 8), in what it calls a “strategic pause” as it prepares for a relaunch next year.
The company is the only car-sharing platform that offers point-to-point services in Singapore. This allows users to pick up a car at one location and return it at another.
Experts said its move to suspend operations was likely influenced by losses caused by an ageing fleet.
OPERATIONALLY CHALLENGING
GetGo’s chief executive and co-founder Toh Ting Feng said a point-to-point car-sharing model would present “significant operational challenges”.
“It requires a substantial investment in infrastructure, such as dedicated parking and charging stations across the island, and a complex logistical network to ensure vehicles are properly distributed and maintained,” he told CNA.
“Our current model, which focuses on a ‘point A to A’ service, is a strategic choice that allows us to provide a reliable and consistent experience for our users without these complexities.”
GetGo said that since its launch in 2021, it has seen “sustainable growth” – from over 400 vehicles and 10,000 users, to around 3,000 cars and half a million users in three years.
Similarly, Tribecar’s co-founder Adrian Lee said it would be operationally more challenging and labour-intensive to offer point-to-point services, as cars could be parked in many different locations across Singapore.
“The primary challenge is that the current regulatory and infrastructural framework does not support the entry of new players into the point-to-point space,” he said.
“Without a change in policy, it is not possible to launch such a service.”
When asked if Tribecar may have plans to offer point-to-point services, he said the company’s primary focus is to ensure users in heartlands have sufficient vehicles that are readily available.
Tribecar is only allowed to park registered cars that are specifically tagged to individual carparks that allow season parking.
The company has a fleet of 1,400 vehicles, an increase from an initial 350 vehicles five years ago. Mr Lee said Tribecar has seen a 35 per cent year-on-year increase in users over the past five years and described the car-sharing sector as a “competitive market”.
Drive Lah’s chief executive and co-founder Dirk-Jan Ter Horst said expanding into the point-to-point space was not on top of their list at the moment, but he did not rule out the possibility.
Drive Lah’s peer-to-peer model means car owners and commercial providers can rent out their vehicles on the platform, and users can lease these cars. Describing the company as an “Airbnb for cars”, Mr Ter Horst said the platform now has 275,000 users and about 2,000 cars.
Explaining why moving into the point-to-point space was not currently a top priority, Mr Ter Horst said its model means owners want their cars to be returned to their homes.
“We see the type of use cases where people take it a little bit longer, not just for half an hour but from point to point, but they return it.
“And actually, from a cost point of view, it still makes sense – because the cost for one day or renting for six hours may still be worth it instead of doing two point-to-point trips,” he added.
When asked if Drive Lah may in the future own a fleet to provide point-to-point services, he said this was “certainly possible”.
Transport analyst Dr Terence Fan said he does not think car-sharing operators will move into the point-to-point service space immediately.
The assistant professor at the Singapore Management University (SMU) noted barriers to entry, such as securing parking lots in sought-after locations and taking the time to grow to a “reasonable presence”.
“The competition has grown significantly over the past few years. Now almost every medium-to-large housing estate has one or more dedicated car parks used by car-sharing operators,” Asst Prof Fan said.
“New entrants need to offer something more to be competitive.”
ACCREDITATION
There were 97 complaints about car-sharing services in the first half of this year, said the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) on Tuesday.
These complaints included pre-existing defects, poor maintenance, billing issues, high insurance excess and service reliability.
The watchdog said it was working with operators to develop a CaseTrust accreditation scheme for the sector. This is aimed at raising standards and giving customers peace of mind, said CASE president Melvin Yong.
“Consumer education will also play an important role as more people use car-sharing services. CASE will work with the industry to educate consumers on how to safeguard their rights and prevent disputes when using car-sharing services,” Mr Yong told CNA on Thursday.
Car-sharing services are private commercial arrangements and are not regulated by the Land Transport Authority.
All three car-sharing operators told CNA they supported the accreditation scheme.
Tribecar’s Mr Lee said it would “formalise the role of car-sharing as an integral part of Singapore’s sustainable transport ecosystem and provide a clear set of standards for the industry”.
“We have advocated for tough, comprehensive standards that will not only challenge us but also our peers and future entrants,” he added.
“This is because we firmly believe that elevating the entire industry is the only way forward to ensure sustained growth and public trust.”
Trials of a daily obesity pill have shown it can help patients lose around 12% of their body weight over 72 weeks.
The manufacturer, Eli Lilly, says the drug, which is not yet licensed, could be available next year.
The daily pill, called orforglipron, works by suppressing appetite and making you feel more full.
Preliminary results of a major trial show those on the highest dose lost an average of 12 kilos (nearly two stone) over 16 months but about one in 10 stopped taking the pills due to side effects, including nausea and vomiting.
In addition to weight loss, participants also benefited from reductions in cholesterol, blood fats and blood pressure.
Dr Kenneth Custer of Eli Lilly said the company was planning to submit the drug for licensing before the end of the year and preparing for a “global launch to address this urgent public health need”.
So where might this weight loss pill fit in to the blockbuster multi-billion pound market dominated by injectable drugs like Mounjaro, Wegovy and Ozempic?
The pill is much less effective than injectables.
The 12% weight loss achieved by those taking orforglipron compares to 22% weight loss for patients on Mounjaro, given by weekly injection. Both drugs are made by Eli Lilly.
Despite being less effective, there is likely to be a significant market for weight loss pills, as a needle-free means of cutting obesity levels.
Obesity experts hope the oral drug will be far cheaper than current injectables which would make it available to many more patients.
The manufacture of the tiny tech that powers billions of devices is under a microscope.
US President Donald Trump has said he plans to introduce 100% tariffs on semiconductor imports.
The tiny chips power a range of different devices and are integral to modern technology and the global economy.
While some semiconductor producers could be spared from the taxes, they may still impact the tech industry and could push up the price of some products.
What is a semiconductor and how are they used?
Semiconductors have enabled a slew of modern devices – from smartphones and laptops to video game consoles, pacemakers and solar panels.
Sometimes referred to as microchips or integrated circuits, they are made from tiny fragments of raw materials, such as silicon.
Semiconductors, as the name suggests, can partially conduct electricity – alternating between doing so and acting as an insulator.
This allows them to be used as electronic switches, speaking the binary language of 0s and 1s that underpins computing.
Which countries make semiconductors?
The UK, US, Europe and China rely heavily on Taiwan for semiconductors.
The country’s Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) provides over half of the world’s supply.
Founded in 1987 as the world’s first foundry – dedicated to producing semiconductors for device manufacturers – TSMC now makes them for tech giants like Nvidia, Apple and Microsoft.
It has also been caught up in so-called “chip wars” between the US and China. Each country has tried to slow or cut off the other’s access to essential components, materials and parts of supply chains as they race to develop the best tech.
Samsung Electronics in South Korea is the next biggest supplier.
Together with SK Hynix, it has established the country as one of the world’s biggest semiconductor hubs – particularly for the supply of memory chips.
Why does Trump want 100% tariffs on semiconductors?
One of the main aims of President Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs during his second term has been to encourage firms to manufacture more products in the US.
In April, the White House exempted smartphones, computers and some other electronic devices from tariffs, including 125% levies imposed on Chinese imports. The tech industry breathed a sigh of relief.
But in early August, Trump reiterated plans to impose tariffs on foreign semiconductors – saying he would introduce a 100% tax on chips from abroad.
He did not offer more details on the tariffs, but said companies could avoid them by investing in the US.
The country is already home to some companies that design, manufacture and sell processing chips, such as Intel and Texas Instruments.
But it wants to be home to more manufacturers, particularly those making the most advanced and in-demand products – many of which are based in Asia.
The President and members of his administration have also cited national security concerns about microchips being produced or sourced from elsewhere.
Cameroon’s constitutional council has upheld the decision by the country’s electoral body to exclude opposition leader Maurice Kamto from the 12 October presidential election.
While the firebrand political figure was sidelined, 92-year-old President Paul Biya whose candidacy also faced opposition, was cleared to run for what would be his eighth term in the oil-rich Central African nation.
If he were elected for another seven-year term, he could remain in power until he was almost 100.
Kamto was ruled out because a rival faction of the Manidem party which endorsed him presented another individual as a candidate, highlighting an internal squabble.
His exclusion sparked outrage, with his lawyers describing the rejection of his petition as more of a political than a legal move.
Who are the main candidates?
Of the 83 candidates who submitted their applications to the electoral body, only 12 have been approved.
The reasons given by Elections Cameroon (Elecam) for the disqualification of the 71 range from incomplete files, non-payment of the required deposit, to multiple candidacies from the same party.
Of all the contestants, six are seen as the main contenders:
1. Paul Biya
At 92, Paul Biya is the world’s oldest serving head of state. He has been in power for nearly 43 years since 1982. Biya leads the ruling CPDM party which dominates the political scene. He is widely considered the favourite, now that his main rival, Kamto, is out of the way.
The veteran politician has never lost an election since the return of multi-party politics in 1990. However, his victories have been marred by allegations of vote rigging – claims which his party and the government have continuously denied.
Announcing his intention to run, Biya said his eighth mandate would focus on the wellbeing of women and young people.
2. Bello Bouba Maigari
Bello Bouba Maigari, 78, is an experienced politician who hails from Cameroon’s vote-rich northern region.
He is the president of the National Union for Democracy and Progress (NUDP) party founded in 1990. He served in the governments of both of Cameroon’s presidents -Ahmadou Ahidjo and Paul Biya.
In fact, he was Biya’s first prime minister between 1982 and 1983. Since 1997, Maigari has forged an alliance with Biya’s CPDM party that helped the latter clinch significant votes from the north.
However, this political marriage ended in June following pressure from within his party to run independently.
While serving as Minister of State for Tourism and Leisure, Maigari announced his resignation and declared himself a candidate against Biya, who he also faced in the 1992 presidential election.
3. Issa Tchiroma Bakary
Another former Biya ally whose candidacy came as a surprise is 75-year-old Issa Tchiroma Bakary. Like Maigari, he is from the country’s north and has been influential in helping Biya secure the region’s votes.
After a 20-year stint in different government roles, Tchiroma finally pulled the plug on his time with the 92-year-old leader, resigning from his role as Minister of Employment and Vocational Training to announce his candidacy.
Tchiroma, who heads the Cameroon National Salvation Front (CNSF) party, criticised Biya’s governance style and hinged his presidential bid on a promise to overhaul the system, which he described as “suffocating”.
4. Cabral Libii
Cabral Libii, president of the Cameroon Party for National Reconciliation (PCRN), is a vibrant member of parliament who is making his second attempt at getting the country’s top job.
In 2018, he was the youngest of the nine presidential candidates, aged just 38, coming third with 6% of the vote.
Libii’s candidature in this year’s election was challenged by PCRN founder Robert Kona, who disputed the lawmaker’s legitimacy to lead the party.
However, the Constitutional Council rejected Kona’s petition and upheld the electoral body’s decision to allow Libii to stand.
5. Akere Muna
Akere Muna was a candidate in the 2018 presidential election but pulled out at the last minute and threw his weight behind Kamto. This time around, Muna, a staunch international anti-corruption lawyer, says he wants to challenge Biya himself.
The 72-year-old is from a family of politicians – his late father Solomon Tandeng Muna served as Prime Minister of West Cameroon after independence, Vice-President of the then Federal Republic of Cameroon and Speaker of the National Assembly.
As Speaker, Solomon Muna swore in Biya when he took over as president after Ahmadou Ahidjo resigned.
Muna is promising to rid the bilingual country of the corruption and bad governance that he says have soiled its image at the international scene.
6. Joshua Osih
JoshuaOsih is jumping into the presidential race for the second time after his first attempt in 2018 proved futile.
He heads the Social Democratic Front (SDF) party, succeeding the iconic late opposition leader John Fru Ndi. The SDF used to be the country’s main opposition outfit, but its influence later dwindled, exacerbated by infighting and the expulsion of several party members in 2023.
Osih, 56, came fourth in the 2018 polls with 3%, but is hoping to defeat Biya through a promise of social and institutional reforms.
Who poses the strongest challenge to Biya?
For many decades, President Biya has succeeded in maintaining a firm grip on power, making it difficult for him to lose elections.
The decision of political heavyweights Bello Bouba Maigari and Issa Tchiroma Bakary to challenge him appeared to make life more difficult, but some analysts believe they do not pose a significant threat to Biya.
Dr Pippie Hugues, a policy analyst with Cameroonian think-tank Nkafu Policy Institute, argues that their alliance with the current regime lessens their credibility with opposition voters.
“Cameroonians need more than just a resignation to trust them,” he told the BBC. “Both have been with the system and watched the nation suffer.”
Dr Hugues further suggested that the two northern candidates might be part of a political plot staged by the regime.
However, ruling party officials have portrayed the rupture as genuine, acknowledging that the CPDM could struggle to obtain as many votes from the north as before.
Given Kamto’s exclusion, Biya’s strongest challenger in 2018, third-placed Libii could arguably claim to be his main threat this year.
Although he got just 6% of the vote, Libii’s political evolution since then has been praised.
He led his party to win five seats in parliament and seven local councils during the 2020 legislative and municipal elections. Since becoming a member of parliament in the process, he has challenged the government on key policy issues, promising sweeping changes if he takes over the reins of power.
However, Dr Hugues says Libii’s vision is opaque, citing Akere Muna as a more convincing candidate with a much clearer project for the nation of nearly 30 million people.
“Muna has a wealth of international experience and diplomatic character, and that is what the nation needs now,” he said, while praising the renowned lawyer’s five-year transition plan to “put the nation back on track”.
Could the opposition unite?
Historically, Cameroon’s opposition has been fragmented especially during elections, with analysts saying this has disadvantaged them.
Ahead of this year’s presidential election, there has been much talk about the need for the opposition to unite and harmonise strategies to take on Biya. But with each candidate prioritising their own interests, it remains unclear if most – let alone all – of them would work together, despite the risk this could help the president.
“It might be the end of their political careers, or their parties, if they don’t come together,” said civil society leader Felix Agbor Balla.
“Kamto and the others must look for someone in the opposition who can carry the baton – and they must put the nation first, rise above their personal ego to look for a consensual candidate that can give the CPDM a run on the 12th of October,” he told the BBC.
Ajit Doval meets Putin in Moscow day after Trump doubles tariff on India
Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with India’s National Security Adviser Ajit Doval at the Kremlin on Thursday, Russia’s state-run RIA news agency reported, citing the Kremlin press service.
The two countries stressed their commitment to a “strategic partnership” during bilateral security talks in Moscow, held a day after US President Donald Trump announced higher tariffs on Indian imports in response to India’s continued purchases of Russian oil.
On Wednesday, President Trump signed an executive order imposing an additional 25 per cent tariff on goods imported from India, taking the total import duty to 50 per cent. The United States has also threatened secondary sanctions on countries buying Russian crude unless Moscow agrees to end the war in Ukraine – now entering its fourth year – by Friday.
The new tariff measure, announced on Wednesday, will come into full effect in two phases: the first 25 per cent hike began on August 7, and the second is scheduled for 21 days later, unless negotiations alter the course.
The move has deepened tensions between Washington and New Delhi, with India calling the decision “unfortunate” and promising to protect its interests.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal, condemned the tariffs as “unfair, unjustified and unreasonable” and warned that New Delhi would take “all actions necessary” to defend its economic sovereignty. Washington has also faced accusations of double standards, with critics highlighting its continued imports of Russian uranium hexafluoride, palladium, and fertilisers.
From allies to rivals, over 90 countries faced tariffs during Donald Trump’s presidency. Here’s a detailed look at which nations were impacted, how much duty was imposed, and what it meant for global trade dynamics.
On July 31, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order titled “Further Modifying the Reciprocal Tariff Rates” to adjust the existing tariff framework under his administration’s trade policy. This marked the formal announcement of updated tariff rates for a wide range of countries, reflecting economic and national security priorities.
OFFICIAL LIST OF COUNTRIES WITH NEW TARIFF RATES
The table below is compiled directly from Annex I of the Presidential Executive Order, which details country-specific reciprocal tariff adjustments
WHO WAS TARGETED
Over 90 countries faced tariff impositions ranging from 0% to 50%. These were not just economic rivals, but also long-standing US allies. The broad sweep of these tariffs reflected the administration’s aggressive stance toward redefining trade norms.
Blackstock worked as Clarkson’s manager and inspired hit songs before they split
Kelly Clarkson’s ex-husband Brandon Blackstock has died at 48Credit: GettyTRAGIC LOSS Kelly Clarkson’s ex-husband Brandon Blackstock dead at 48 after singer abruptly cancels Vegas concerts
KELLY Clarkson’s ex-husband Brandon Blackstock has died at just 48 years old after a three-year battle with cancer.
The heart-wrenching news came one day after the singer revealed he was ill and abruptly canceled shows to be with their two children.
On Thursday, Starstruck Entertainment, which is the agency where Blackstock worked, confirmed that he had died.
“It is with great sadness that we share the news that Brandon Blackstock has passed away,” they wrote in the statement first published by People.
“Brandon bravely battled cancer for more than three years.
“He passed away peacefully and was surrounded by family.
“We thank you for your thoughts and prayers and ask everyone to respect the family’s privacy during this very difficult time.”
Blackstock’s father, famous music manager Narvel, was once married to country singer and The Voice coach Reba McEntire before their split in 2015. (Blackstock and Clarkson both remained close to McEntire even after the divorce.)
Clarkson postponed her residency in Los Angeles on Wednesday to spend time with her and Blackstock’s children River, 11, and Remington, 9.
She said, “While I normally keep my personal life private, this past year, my children’s father has been ill and at this moment, I need to be fully present for them.”
Clarkson and Blackstock were married in 2013, but finalized their divorce in 2022 after a messy, years-long split.
They settled tit for tat lawsuits over the years until finally withdrawing their legal filings in 2024 and putting the war to rest.
In March, Clarkson took a sudden weeks-long leave from hosting her daytime talk show, and sources told The U.S. Sun at the time that she was dealing with a “family issue.”
Now, other insiders have said that she was helping to take care of Blackstock in what would be his final months, Page Six reported.
One insider described the situation as “exhausting and so sad” and said, “Kelly has been working so hard, as well as looking after Brandon.
“Despite their difficult divorce, he’s still the man she loved and still her kids’ father.”
LOVE STORY
Clarkson first met Blackstock at an event in 2006, when his father was her manager.
Blackstock was still married to his ex-wife, with whom he shares two children, when he met Clarkson, but they started dating after the couple split.
In 2013, the two got married, and Blackstock, who had worked with Blake Shelton, became Clarkson’s manager.
Clarkson gushed about her husband in their first years of marriage.
In 2015, she released the single Piece by Piece, which was about how Blackstock provided the love and stability that Clarkson never received from her father
In a 2017 interview with SiriusXM, the singer described her husband as the first person she felt sincerely “sexually attracted” to.
“And I’m not downing my exes. You know, everybody’s different, but there was something about him,” she said at the time.
The Pentagon said the planned migrant detention center at Fort Bliss in Texas would be the largest ever built.
US President Donald Trump, seen here touring a civilian migrant detention center, is pushing for military involvement in his migrant crackdownImage: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP
The United States is planning to build its largest ever migrant detention facility on a military base in Texas.
The initial plan is to hold 1,000 migrants at the Fort Bliss base near the Mexican border starting this month, the Pentagon said on Thursday.
The facility, named Camp East Montana, would then be expanded to provide 5,000 beds for migrants in “the weeks and months ahead,” according to the Department of Defense.
Migrant detention in tents at US base
When completed, it would be the largest federal detention center in the US, the Pentagon added.
The Defense Department is funding the detention center, which will consist of short-term tent-like housing, according to US media reports citing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Although the facility is being built on a military base, the Department of Homeland Security is expected to be responsible for the people held there, according to Reuters news agency.
US President Donald Trump has made the arrest and rapid deportation of undocumented migrants a key focus of his second term and masked, armed ICE agents have taken people into custody in raids at factories and farms around the country.
The number of migrants detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement hit record levels in recent weeks.
Nationwide, nearly 57,000 people are being held in detention, according to ICE figures, which also showed the vast majority of those taken into custody have no conviction, despite the president’s campaign promises to go after hardened criminals.
Trump administration using military amid migrant crackdowns
During Trump’s first term, the Pentagon balked at building facilities to house detained migrants and the idea was dropped.
His decision to activate the military in his second term is meeting with more success.
The childcare industry has grown rapidly in recent years
Twice a week, Ben Bradshaw drops his young son off at a Sydney childcare centre before heading off to work.
Like thousands of parents and carers across Australia, the 40-year-old had always been confident that the staff have his child’s best interests at heart.
But in recent months, that trust in the childcare system has been “eroded”, the father-of-two says, after several high-profile cases of alleged sexual and physical abuse at centres across Australia.
“It’s that old adage of cockroaches – if you see one in your house, there’s 10 that you don’t see. These are the ones that get caught. It’s more scary the ones that you can’t see,” he tells the BBC.
In the past few weeks, 2,000 children in Victoria have been urged to undergo infectious disease testing after a childcare worker was charged with the mass sexual abuse of babies; police have named a Sydney man who worked for 60 after-school-care providers and is accused of taking “explicit” images of children under his supervision; a Queensland woman has faced court over allegations she tortured a one-year-old boy; and another two workers in Sydney have been charged after a toddler was left covered in bruises.
It comes as the nation is still reeling from the crimes of childcare worker Ashley Paul Griffith – dubbed “one of Australia’s worst paedophiles” – who was late last year sentenced to life in prison for raping and sexually abusing almost 70 girls.
The series of allegations have sparked panic and fear among parents, child safety advocates have demanded action to fix what they call a dangerously incompetent system, and politicians have promised reform to keep Australia’s most vulnerable safe.
“Some childcare centres are still safe, but the current childcare system is definitely not working to protect children or prioritise their safety,” says Hetty Johnston, a leading child protection advocate.
“It fails at every step.”
Rapid growth, greater risks
In recent years, there has been a nationwide push to give more children access to early childhood education and care, which research indicates has many positive long-term impacts.
Millions of dollars have been poured into the sector from federal and state governments, including funding to guarantee three days of childcare for low and middle-income families.
Such measures have prompted rapid growth in the sector, with a rush of new centres opening which has deepened a shortage of qualified staff.
The growth has led to “significant vulnerabilities”, says Prof Leah Bromfield, director of the Australian Centre for Child Protection.
“Whenever you grow something really quickly, that comes with risks,” she says, listing off a lack of regulation and monitoring, limited training for managers, and the disparate and casual nature of the workforce.
“You put all that together and you’ve created a weak system from the perspective of a predatory perpetrator… a system where it’s easier to infiltrate.”
In the wake of the Melbourne child sexual abuse case where Joshua Dale Brown was charged with 70 counts of abuse against eight babies, the federal government gave itself greater powers to strip funding from providers that breach quality and safety standards.
Federal Education Minister Jason Clare said the measure was not designed to “shut down centres” but rather increase pressure for them to “raise standards”.
But Mr Bradshaw wants more. He says taking away funding from a centre “doesn’t stop the crime, it just punishes it”.
“You have to do things that are proactive in nature.”
Creating safe spaces
The spate of alleged crimes have sparked a heated national conversation about how to better protect kids. Limiting the role of men in childcare is one of the most controversial suggestions.
There was a public call to ban men from certain tasks such as changing nappies and taking children to the toilet – though some warned this could place extra pressure on female staff.
“It’s not about banning male educators, but about providing families with agency and informed choice,” says Louise Edmonds, an advocate for child abuse survivors.
Brown’s case prompted G8 Education – who owned the centre where he worked – to introduce so-called “intimate care waivers”, giving parents and carers the opportunity to choose who carried out private and sensitive duties. It also pledged to install CCTV at all of its centres.
Ms Johnston – who founded child protection group Bravehearts – says these are natural responses, but cautioned that, though “men are definitely a higher risk”, women do abuse children too and offenders can do so in all kinds of settings.
“They are opportunistic… when others don’t pay attention, when they are distracted, complacent, disinterested or too trusting, they create ‘opportunities’ for offenders.”
Other practical measures centres could adopt to improve child safety include having two educators with direct line of sight of children at all times and getting rid of blind spots in centres – replacing solid doors with glass panes, eliminating windowless walls, and putting more mirrors up to create “incidental supervision”.
“It’s all about reducing opportunities for predators to isolate or conceal in nooks and crannies,” Ms Johnston says.
Hiding in plain sight
But massive system reform is also long overdue, experts say.
In 2017, more than 400 recommendations emerged from a years-long royal commission into child sex abuse in institutional settings – like churches, schools and childcare – but critics say progress has stalled on some of the most significant changes.
One of those outstanding recommendations, to be discussed by the country’s attorneys-general at a meeting this month, is to overhaul Australia’s checks on those who work with children.
Currently, each state and territory complete what is essentially a police check required for those who work alongside children, but they don’t share the information with each other. Advocates have called for a nationalised system, but some say the checks themselves don’t go far enough.
“It’s inconsistent, relies too heavily on prior convictions,” Ms Edmonds says.
For instance, many say, the system should capture red flags such as formal complaints, workplace warnings, police intelligence, and people identified as alleged abusers in confidential applications to the national redress scheme set up after the royal commission.
Casting a broader net is important, experts argue, as child abuse allegations can be difficult to stand up in court. Often the witnesses are young children, who are either non-verbal or have limited vocabulary, may struggle with memory, and often have a lack of situational understanding.
“Catching someone red-handed and being able to prove it beyond reasonable doubt is almost impossible,” Ms Johnston says.
That’s why Prof Bromfield is among those calling for a national registration scheme for the childcare sector – like those that exist for doctors or teachers. It would require workers to prove their qualifications, could provide a detailed work history, and would bind them all by a code of conduct.
Advocates argue the system could also capture many of the things the working- with-children checks currently do not.
“Often in child sexual abuse cases, when you look back, you see lots and lots of red flags,” Prof Bromfield says.
“There might be a pattern, but [at the moment] we just don’t see that because they are moving between states or between sectors or between providers.”
Mr Bradshaw says having access to more information about staff would help parents like him make informed decisions.
Childcare is a necessity for his family, he explains, as he works full-time and his wife, a high school teacher, works four days a week.
But often, there’s little detail about the childcare centre’s staff “beyond the pictures on the wall” of the teachers and educators, so parents often have to assess a provider “based on vibes”.
“It’s a bit of a blackbox and you’re bound because you need to have your kids in childcare so you can pay for living in a big city.”
That’s where greater education for parents is needed too, Prof Bromfield says, so they know what questions to ask and, in the worst-case scenarios, how to spot signs of grooming themselves.
Tips include enquiring about a provider’s child safety policies, asking about its staff turnover, and assessing the physical spaces for any visibility issues.
There also needs to be better, more regular training for managers in the sector on how to prevent and identify problematic behaviour or patterns, experts say.
For Prof Bromfield – who was part of the team which conducted the royal commission into child sex abuse – these are conversations she has been having for over a decade.
After nearly two years of war, Hamas’s military capability is severely weakened and its political leadership under intense pressure.
Yet, throughout the war Hamas has managed to continue to use a secret cash-based payment system to pay 30,000 civil servants’ salaries totalling $7m (£5.3m).
The BBC has spoken to three civil servants who have confirmed they have received nearly $300 each within the last week.
It’s believed they are among tens of thousands of employees who have continued to receive a maximum of just over 20% of their pre-war salary every 10 weeks.
Amid soaring inflation, the token salary – a fraction of the full amount – is causing rising resentment among the party faithful.
Severe food shortages – which aid agencies blame on Israeli restrictions – and rising cases of acute malnutrition continue in Gaza, where a kilogramme of flour in recent weeks has cost as much as $80 – an all-time high.
With no functioning banking system in Gaza, even receiving the salary is complex and at times, dangerous. Israel regularly identifies and targets Hamas salary distributors, seeking to disrupt the group’s ability to govern.
Employees, from police officers to tax officials, often receive an encrypted message on their own phones or their spouses’ instructing them to go to a specific location at a specific time to “meet a friend for tea”.
At the meeting point, the employee is approached by a man – or occasionally a woman – who discreetly hands over a sealed envelope containing the money before vanishing without further interaction.
An employee at the Hamas Ministry of Religious Affairs, who doesn’t want to give his name for safety reasons, described the dangers involved in collecting his wages.
“Every time I go to pick up my salary, I say goodbye to my wife and children. I know that I may not return,” he said. “On several occasions, Israeli strikes have hit the salary distribution points. I survived one that targeted a busy market in Gaza City.”
Alaa, whose name we have changed to protect his identity, is a schoolteacher employed by the Hamas-run government and the sole provider for a family of six.
“I received 1,000 shekels (about $300) in worn-out banknotes – no trader would accept them. Only 200 shekels were usable – the rest, I honestly don’t know what to do with,” he told the BBC.
“After two-and-a-half months of hunger, they pay us in tattered cash.
“I’m often forced to go to aid distribution points in the hope of getting some flour to feed my children. Sometimes I succeed in bringing home a little, but most of the time I fail.”
In March the Israeli military said they had killed the head of Hamas’s finances, Ismail Barhoum, in a strike on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. They accused him of channelling funds to Hamas’s military wing.
It remains unclear how Hamas has managed to continue funding salary payments given the destruction of much of its administrative and financial infrastructure.
One senior Hamas employee, who served in high positions and is familiar with Hamas’s financial operations, told the BBC that the group had stockpiled approximately $700m in cash and hundreds of millions of shekels in underground tunnels prior to the group’s deadly 7 October 2023 attack in southern Israel, which sparked the devastating Israeli military campaign.
These were allegedly overseen directly by Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar and his brother Mohammed – both of whom have since been killed by Israeli forces.
Anger at reward for Hamas supporters
Hamas has historically relied on funding from heavy import duties and taxes imposed on Gaza’s population, as well as receiving millions of dollars of support from Qatar.
The Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing which operates through a separate financial system, is financed mainly by Iran.
A senior official from the banned Egypt-based Muslim Brotherhood, one of the most influential Islamist organisations in the world, has said that around 10% of their budget was also directed to Hamas.
In order to generate revenue during the war, Hamas has also continued to levy taxes on traders and has sold large quantities of cigarettes at inflated prices up to 100 times their original cost. Before the war, a box of 20 cigarettes cost $5 – that has now risen to more than $170.
In addition to cash payments, Hamas has distributed food parcels to its members and their families via local emergency committees whose leadership is frequently rotated due to repeated Israeli strikes.
That has fuelled public anger, with many residents in Gaza accusing Hamas of distributing aid only to its supporters and excluding the wider population.
Israel has accused Hamas of stealing aid that has entered Gaza during the ceasefire earlier this year, something Hamas denies. However BBC sources in Gaza have said that significant quantities of aid were taken by Hamas during this time.
Flags from the anime One Piece have emerged across Indonesia as a form of protest against an increasingly centralised government
In the popular Japanese anime One Piece, black flags bearing a skull with a straw hat are carried by a rowdy crew of pirates who have made it their mission to challenge a draconian regime and fight for freedom.
But in July, these emblems started popping up across Indonesia – along doorways, on the backs of cars, and painted on walls.
For many, they were a response to Indonesian leader Prabowo Subianto’s call for Indonesians to fly their national red and white flag ahead of the country’s Independence Day on 17 August.
Instead, some Indonesians chose to raise these pirate flags, known as Jolly Rogers, as a symbol of their discontent, with many criticising what they say is an increasingly centralised government led by Prabowo.
But the movement has not been well received by all. Earlier last week, the country’s Deputy House Speaker criticised the flag displays, calling it an “attempt to divide the nation”. Another lawmaker even suggested it could be treason.
In the popular Japanese anime One Piece, black flags bearing a skull with a straw hat are carried by a rowdy crew of pirates who have made it their mission to challenge a draconian regime and fight for freedom.
But in July, these emblems started popping up across Indonesia – along doorways, on the backs of cars, and painted on walls.
For many, they were a response to Indonesian leader Prabowo Subianto’s call for Indonesians to fly their national red and white flag ahead of the country’s Independence Day on 17 August.
Instead, some Indonesians chose to raise these pirate flags, known as Jolly Rogers, as a symbol of their discontent, with many criticising what they say is an increasingly centralised government led by Prabowo.
But the movement has not been well received by all. Earlier last week, the country’s Deputy House Speaker criticised the flag displays, calling it an “attempt to divide the nation”. Another lawmaker even suggested it could be treason.
One Piece, first published in 1997 as a manga by Eiichiro Oda, is one of the most popular franchises in the world. The manga has sold more than 520 million copies while the TV series has run for more than 1,100 episodes.
The series has a large and dedicated fan base in Indonesia, where Japanese anime is well loved.
In the same way the pirates in the series, led by their leader Monkey D Luffy, raise the Jolly Rogers as a symbol of freedom against their government, some Indonesian residents say raising the flag is a “symbol that we love this country, but don’t completely agree with its policies”.
The anime reflects the injustice and inequality that Indonesians experience, said Ali Maulana, a resident of Jayapura city in the Papua province.
“Even though this country is officially independent, many of us have not truly experienced that freedom in our daily lives,” he told BBC Indonesian.
For him and many others, the decision to fly the flag was a response to a speech given by President Prabowo in late July.
“Raise the red and white flag wherever you are. Red represents the blood shed for our independence, white represents the purity of our souls,” Prabowo had said.
Dendi Christanto, who owns the Wik Wiki apparel store in Central Java, said he has received “thousands of orders” for the flags following the president’s speech.
“Since the end of July, I received hundreds of orders a day from all over Indonesia,” Dendi told news outlet Jakarta Post.
Some top officials however, have been less than impressed.
Deputy House Speaker Sufmi Dasco Ahmad, widely regarded as Prabowo’s right-hand man, described the movement as “a coordinated attempt to divide the nation”.
“We must collectively resist such actions,” he had said earlier last week.
Another lawmaker from the centre-right Golkar Party, Firman Soebagyo, suggested that displaying these flags could even amount to treason.
But on Tuesday, the country’s state secretary minister Prasetyo Hadi said the president himself had “no objection” to the flags as a form of “creative expression”.
“However, it should not be used to challenge or diminish the significance of the red and white flag. The two should not be placed side by side in a way that invites comparison or conflict,” his office said in a statement.
In Indonesia, there are no laws that restrict the display of fictional flags, but the law stipulates that if they are flown alongside the red-and-white national flags, the country’s flag must always be hoisted higher.
Police in the capital Jakarta have said they are “monitoring the use of non-national flags and symbols that don’t align with the spirit of nationalism, including pirate or fictional-themed flags”.
‘A threat to national security’
Indonesia’s hard-won democracy, the third largest in the world, has faced growing challenges in recent years.
Its popular former leader Joko Widodo rose to power as a promising democrat, but his one-of-us image lost some of its sheen towards the end of his second term, when he revived the death penalty for drug traffickers and appointed Prabowo, a controversial ex-general, as his defence minister.
Public frustration has intensified since Prabowo took over as president last October. In February, thousands took to the streets to protest budget cuts and legislative changes that would allow the military to take a bigger role in government.
“The red-and-white flags are too sacred for us to raise now,” said one user on Instagram, in a post that has been widely shared.
And while some lawmakers have criticised the display of the Jolly Rogers, others say they accept it as a form of public expression.
They are a way for people to “convey their expectations”, said Deputy Home Affairs Minister Bima Arya Sugiarto. “Such a form of expression is a natural phenomenon in a democracy.”
“This kind of symbolic action is better than street protests that could turn violent,” said Deddy Yevri Sitorus from the opposition Democratic Party of Struggle.
Because of One Piece’s popularity among Indonesians of all ages, the flags have offered a way to “raise awareness around political issues in a different and unique way”, said Dominique Nicky Fahrizal, a researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
French firefighters were battling on Wednesday to control the country’s biggest wildfire in almost 80 years, with the blaze in the southern Aude region having already swept through an area bigger than Paris.
One person died in the village of Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse, about 30 kilometers from the city of Perpignan, the prefecture said. The fire, which spread very rapidly through forests and villages, has burnt down at least 25 houses, forcing residents and tourists to flee. Many roads are closed.
“It’s a catastrophe of unprecedented scale,” Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said as he visited Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse.
So far, over 15,000 hectares have burned. That is similar to the total area that burned across all of France in several of the past years, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said. He added this was the biggest area burnt by one single fire in France since 1949.
The fire moved incredibly fast, leaving no time to prepare, said Dutch national Renate Koot, who was on holidays in Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse with her partner and had to flee.
“One moment we were on the phone with our children … thinking, ‘Look, a fire!’. The next, we had to jump in the car and leave, while praying for protection. We didn’t take anything with us and just left,” she said. “We’re okay. Miraculously.”
“It’s unbelievable. It’s a catastrophe,” said Spanish national Issa Medina, as the sound of firefighters echoed in the background. Medina was with her family in Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse.
The prefecture said the fire was progressing “very quickly” and that nearly 2,000 firefighters were trying to bring it under control. Around 2,500 households in the area were currently without electricity, it said.
Firefighter spokesman Eric Brocardi told RTL radio the fire was spreading at 5.5 kph (3.4 mph).
HIGH RISK OF FIRES
An aerial view of a wildfire near the village of Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse, southern France, August 6. French firefighters are battling to control the country’s biggest wildfire in almost 80 years, with the blaze in the southern Aude region having already swept through an area bigger than Paris. via Securite Civile Purchase Licensing Rights
Officials and experts warned the wind could change direction, further complicating efforts to fight the wildfire.
Scientists say the Mediterranean region’s hotter, drier summers put it at high risk of wildfires. Once fires start, plentiful dry vegetation and strong winds in the region can cause them to spread rapidly and burn out of control.
“With climate change, the risk of having wildfires is expected to increase during the summer, but also to extend into the autumn and spring, and to spread toward the southwest, the center, and the north of France,” said Serge Zaka, a climate and agriculture analyst.
SPAIN, PORTUGAL
Meanwhile, Spain is experiencing a prolonged heatwave since Sunday that was expected to extend into next week, with temperatures reaching 43 degrees Celsius (109.4 degrees Fahrenheit) in some areas.
The high temperatures have helped to fan several wildfires.
Emergency services on Wednesday were still fighting to put out a blaze in the kitesurfing resort of Tarifa in southern Spain that was believed to have been started when a caravan in a campsite caught fire.
Gusts of wind of up to 50km/h and high temperatures meant that some parts of the fire that had been extinguished were reignited, said Antonio Sanz, interior minister for the regional government of Andalusia.
In Portugal, wildfires have burned through more than 42,000 hectares so far this year, the largest area since 2022 and eight times more than at the same time last year.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Elon Musk in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 13, 2025. India’s Press Information Bureau/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
In January, an old post on Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, became a concern for police in the Indian city of Satara. Written in 2023, the short message from an account with a few hundred followers described a senior ruling-party politician as “useless”.
“This post and content are likely to create serious communal tension,” inspector Jitendra Shahane wrote in a content-removal notice marked “CONFIDENTIAL” and addressed to X.
The post, which remains online, is among hundreds cited by X in a lawsuit it filed in March against India’s government, challenging a sweeping crackdown on social media content by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration.
Since 2023, India has ramped up efforts to police the internet by allowing many more officials to file takedown orders and to submit them directly to tech firms through a government website launched in October.
X argues India’s actions are illegal and unconstitutional, and that they trample free speech by empowering scores of government agencies and thousands of police to suppress legitimate criticism of public officials.
India contends in court documents that its approach tackles a proliferation of unlawful content and ensures accountability online. It says many tech companies, including Meta (META.O), and Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O), Google, support its actions. Both companies declined to comment for this story.
Musk, who calls himself a free-speech absolutist, has clashed with authorities in the United States, Brazil, Australia and elsewhere over compliance and takedown demands. But as regulators globally weigh free-speech protections against concerns about harmful content, Musk’s case against Modi’s government in the Karnataka High Court targets the entire basis for tightened internet censorship in India, one of X’s biggest user bases. Musk said in 2023 that the South Asian nation had “more promise than any large country in the world” and that Modi had pushed him to invest there.
This account of the behind-the-scenes battle between the world’s richest person and authorities in the world’s most populous country is based on a Reuters review of 2,500 pages of non-public legal filings and interviews with seven police officers involved in content-removal requests. It reveals the workings of a takedown system shrouded in secrecy, some Indian officials’ ire over “illegal” material on X, and the broad spectrum of content that police and other agencies have sought to censor.
While the takedown orders include many that sought to counter misinformation, they also encompass directives by Modi’s administration to remove news about a deadly stampede, and demands from state police to scrub cartoons that depicted the prime minister in an unfavourable light or mocked local politicians, the filings show.
X didn’t respond to Reuters questions about the case, while India’s IT ministry declined to comment because the matter was before the court. Modi’s office and his home ministry didn’t respond to questions.
There have been no immediate signs of souring personal relations between Musk and Modi, who have enjoyed a warm public rapport. But the showdown comes as the South African-born entrepreneur, whose business empire includes EV maker Tesla (TSLA.O), and satellite internet provider Starlink, gears up to expand both ventures in India.
Even supporters of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have faced scrutiny of their online musings from police officials newly empowered by the IT ministry to target social media activity.
Koustav Bagchi, a lawyer and BJP member, posted an image on X in March that depicted a rival, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, in an astronaut suit. State police issued a takedown notice, citing “risks to public safety and national security”.
Bagchi told Reuters the post, which is still online, was “light-hearted” and that he wasn’t aware of the takedown order. The chief minister’s office and state police didn’t respond to Reuters queries.
Of the earlier 2023 post, Shahane, the Satara police officer, told Reuters he couldn’t recall the takedown order, but said police sometimes proactively ask platforms to block offensive viral content.
‘CENSORSHIP PORTAL’
For years, only India’s IT and Information & Broadcasting ministries could order content removal, and only for threats to sovereignty, defense, security, foreign relations, public order, or incitement. Some 99 officials across India could recommend takedowns, but the ministries had the final say.
While that mechanism remains in place, Modi’s IT ministry in 2023 empowered all federal and state agencies and police to issue takedown notices for “any information which is prohibited under any law”. They could do so under existing legal provisions, the ministry said in a directive, citing the need for “effective” content removal.
Companies that fail to comply can lose immunity for user content, making them liable for the same penalties a user might face – which could vary greatly depending on the specific material posted.
Modi’s government went a step further in October 2024. It launched a website called Sahyog – Hindi for collaboration – to “facilitate” the issuance of takedown notices, and asked Indian officials and social media firms to get on board, memos contained in court papers show.
X didn’t join Sahyog, which it has called a “censorship portal”, and sued the government earlier this year, challenging the legal basis for both the new website and the IT ministry’s 2023 directive.
In a June 24 filing, X said some of the blocking orders issued by officials “target content involving satire or criticism of the ruling government, and show a pattern of abuse of authority to suppress free speech.”
Some free-speech advocates have criticised the government’s stricter takedown regime, saying it is designed to stifle dissent.
“Can a claim that some content is unlawful be termed as indeed unlawful merely because the government claims so?” said Subramaniam Vincent, director of journalism and media ethics at Santa Clara University’s Markkula Center for Applied Ethics.
“The executive branch cannot be both the arbiter of legality of media content, and the issuer of takedown notices.”
RED DINOSAUR
Court filings reviewed by Reuters show federal and state agencies ordered X to remove around 1,400 posts or accounts between March 2024 and June 2025.
More than 70% of these removal notices were issued by the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre, which developed the Sahyog website. The agency is within the home ministry, which is headed by Modi aide Amit Shah, a powerful figure in the ruling BJP.
To counter X in court, India’s government filed a 92-page report drafted by the cybercrime unit to show X is “hosting illegal content”. The unit analysed nearly 300 posts it deemed unlawful, including misinformation, hoaxes, and child sexual-abuse material.
X serves as a vehicle for “spreading hate and division” that threatens social harmony, while “fake news” on the platform has sparked unspecified law-and-order issues, the agency said in the report.
The government’s response to X’s lawsuit highlighted examples of misinformation.
In January, the cybercrime unit asked X to remove three posts containing what officials said were fabricated images that portrayed Shah’s son, International Cricket Council chairman Jay Shah, “in a derogatory manner” alongside a bikini-clad woman. The posts “dishonour prominent office bearers and VIPs”, the notices said.
Two of those posts remain online. Jay Shah didn’t respond to Reuters queries.
Other directives went beyond targeting fake news.
X told the court India’s railways ministry has been issuing orders to censor press reports about matters of public interest. These included February directives seeking the removal of posts by some media outlets, including two by Adani Group’s NDTV (NDTV.NS), that contained news coverage of stampede at New Delhi’s biggest railway station that left 18 dead.
The NDTV posts are still online. NDTV didn’t respond to Reuters queries and the railways ministry declined to comment.
In April, police in Chennai asked X to remove many “deeply offensive” and “provocative” posts, including a now-inaccessible cartoon featuring a red dinosaur labelled “inflation”, which portrayed Modi and the chief minister of Tamil Nadu state as struggling to control prices.
Semiconductor chips are seen on a circuit board of a computer in this illustration picture taken February 25, 2022. REUTERS/Florence Lo/Illustration/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
President Donald Trump said the United States will impose a tariff of about 100% on imports of semiconductors but offered up a big exemption – it will not apply to companies that are manufacturing in the U.S. or have committed to do so.
The move is part of Trump’s efforts to bring manufacturing back to the United States, and his remarks on Wednesday were made in tandem with an announcement that Apple (AAPL.O), would be investing an additional $100 billion in its home market.
For companies like Apple, which have committed to build in the United States, “there will be no charge,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.
He warned, however, that companies should not try to wrangle out of pledges to build U.S. factories.
“If, for some reason, you say you’re building and you don’t build, then we go back and we add it up, it accumulates, and we charge you at a later date, you have to pay, and that’s a guarantee,” Trump added.
The comments were, however, not a formal tariff announcement, and much remains unclear about how companies and countries around the world will be impacted.
His remarks produced an immediate flurry of reactions from concerned countries and business lobbies.
South Korea’s top trade envoy said on Thursday that major chipmakers Samsung Electronics (005930.KS), and SK Hynix (000660.KS), will not be subject to 100% tariffs, and South Korea will have the most favourable levies on semiconductors under a trade deal between Washington and Seoul.
On the other end of the spectrum, the president of the Philippine semiconductor industry, Dan Lachica, said Trump’s plan would be “devastating” for his country.
In Malaysia, trade minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz warned parliament his country “will risk losing a major market in the United States if its products become less competitive as a result of the imposition of these tariffs.”
Among those expected to be relatively unscathed is Taiwanese chip contract manufacturer TSMC (2330.TW), – which has factories in the United States, so big customers such as Nvidia (NVDA.O), are unlikely to face increased tariff costs.
Nvidia, which makes cutting-edge AI graphics processing units, also plans to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S.-made chips and electronics over the next four years. An Nvidia spokesperson declined to comment for this story.
“Large, cash-rich companies that can afford to build in America will be the ones to benefit the most. It’s survival of the biggest,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at investment advisory firm Annex Wealth Management.
Congress created a $52.7 billion semiconductor manufacturing and research subsidy program in 2022. The Commerce Department under President Joe Biden last year convinced all five leading-edge semiconductor firms to locate chip factories in the U.S. as part of the program.
The department said the U.S. last year produced about 12% of semiconductor chips globally, down from 40% in 1990.
“There’s so much serious investment in the United States in chip production that much of the sector will be exempt,” said Martin Chorzempa, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
He added that chips made by China’s SMIC or Huawei are unlikely to be exempt, but noted that chips from these companies entering the U.S. market were mostly incorporated into devices assembled in China.
“If these tariffs were applied without a component tariff, it might not make much difference,” he said.
The EU has said it agreed to a single 15% tariff rate for the vast majority of EU exports, including cars, chips and pharmaceuticals. Japan has said that the U.S. agreed not to give it a worse tariff rate than other countries on chips.
When Bill Clinton looked out of the private plane window as it came to land in Africa, he likely had no idea how much the 2002 trip would change his life.
The tour was to launch his new nonprofit AIDS initiative, taking in five countries and even spending the day with former South African president Nelson Mandela.
But those aspects of the trip have long been forgotten as the ex-president, Kevin Spacey, Chris Tucker and others were flying as guests of Jeffrey Epstein about the infamous jet later to be known as The Lolita Express.
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell enjoyed a tour of the White House in 1993. William J. Clinton Presidential Library
Devious Epstein, later exposed as a pedophile, had staffed the jet with young girls — one of the tactics he is said to have employed to impress and coerce powerful people.
“I felt Epstein put the President at risk with those young girls on board,” said Spacey in an interview with Piers Morgan last year. “It was disturbing. There were young girls on those flights. I didn’t understand at the time who they were or why they were there.”
An eyebrow-raising photo which later surfaced from that trip shows Clinton, then 56, reclining in an airport lounge in a yellow shirt while Chauntae Davies, a 22-year-old massage therapist in Epstein’s employ, rubs his shoulders.
This week Clinton and his wife, ex-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, were subpoenaed to testify before the House Oversight Committee about Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
The Committee’s letter to Hillary Clinton described a potential “close relationship” between her family and Epstein and Maxwell, according to reports.
By the time of the 2002 trip, Clinton had been linked to mysterious Manhattan financier Epstein for at least a decade.
Epstein donated $1,000 to Clinton’s election campaign in 1992, and later gave his wife $20,000 for her US Senate campaign in 1999, according to public records.
In between, both Epstein and Maxwell visited the White House 17 times during Clinton’s two terms in office, starting in 1993.
Epstein also later visited Clinton at the Harlem office of the Clinton Foundation in 2002, according to reports.
The African trip was the second of Clinton’s estimated 26 trips on Epstein’s “Lolita Express,” on which he occasionally traveled without the Secret Service, according to flight logs — a breach of presidential protection protocol.
Now federal lawmakers are re-examining those trips and the former president’s relationship with Epstein amid a widening probe into the financier. The move comes after the Justice Department interviewed Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for recruiting underage girls for her and Epstein to abuse. She is said to have given her lawyers 100 names associated with Epstein.
After the September 2002 Africa trip, Clinton’s former close aide Doug Band claimed to Vanity Fair that he tried for years to keep Epstein at a distance, but Clinton just couldn’t stay away.
Band said in early 2003, the former president visited Epstein’s private Caribbean retreat, Little St. James — now known as “Pedophile Island.”
The Clinton camp has many times insisted the former president never set foot on the island.
However, according to late Epstein accuser Virginia Roberts Giuffre, Clinton was spotted sitting across the dinner table with “two lovely girls” on Epstein’s private Caribbean Island.
Giuffre, who also said she was parceled out as a sex slave to Prince Andrew, made the claim in a fictionalized “memoir” she wrote that was included in a legal complaint against Maxwell, who she sued for defamation in 2015.
“Teasing the girls on either side of him with playful pokes and brassy comments, there was no modesty between any of them,” Giuffre wrote in the never-published manuscript, “The Billionaire’s Playboy Club.”
“We all finished our meals and scattered in our own different directions. Strolling into the darkness with two beautiful girls around either arm, Bill seemed content to retire for the evening.”
Clinton has sought to downplay his relationship with Epstein over the years, saying that he cut off their friendship well before either of his arrests — in 2007 and 2019 — and he was unaware of his crimes.
In 2019, a spokesman for Clinton said he “knows nothing about the terrible crimes Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to in Florida some years ago, or those with which he has been recently charged in New York.”
A representative for Clinton did not return a request for comment Wednesday and Clinton has not been accused of any sexual misconduct regarding Epstein’s victims.
Spencer Kuvin, a Florida lawyer who represented some of the first victims of Epstein to come forward in 2007, said during his investigations he didn’t find any evidence of Clinton engaging in “inappropriate behavior” but said that he had “a pattern of socializing” with Epstein.
“He was seeking influence from all sides,” said Kuvin, referring to Epstein. “He wanted to befriend as many high-profile people and have them in his orbit. If they were stuck on a plane with him for a long time, they had to speak to him and he could build a relationship that way.”
While Bill sought to distance himself from Epstein, the financier liked to remind his acquaintances of the association. A reporter who met Epstein a year before he died noted how he kept a picture of himself with Clinton on display.
After his death, when the FBI raided his mansion, they uncovered a large painting of Clinton in a brightly colored blue dress — resembling the one worn by Monica Lewinsky, whom Clinton was embroiled in his own sex scandal with — from the property.
“MasterChef México” alum Yanin Campos was pronounced dead after a horrifying car crash in Mexico. She was 38.
The cook reportedly lost control of her SUV and rammed into a parked car in her hometown of Chihuahua around 6:30 a.m. Saturday, according to a local news outlet.
She was transported to the Hospital del Parque, where she succumbed to her injuries on Monday.
“Masterchef México” alum Yanin Campos has died following a car crash in her hometown of Chihuahua, Mexico. TV Azteca
The cause of the crash is under investigation.
Yanin’s brother, Raúl Campos, confirmed her death via Facebook, writing, “To family and friends. We inform you and mourn the passing of my sister Yanin Campos.”
He welcomed his loved ones to “say goodbye” at a local funeral home on the same day she was pronounced dead.
Yanin rose to fame on “MasterChef Mexico” in 2018.
At the time, she placed sixth in the competition.
In 2019, she was invited to participate in “MasterChef: La Revancha” to face several of her former contestants.
Yanin often shared videos of her life on TikTok for her nearly 100,000 followers, including several of herself with her cat and tackling various social media trends.
An employee works at a semiconductor chips factory in Huai’an, in eastern China’s Jiangsu province on Apr 29, 2024. (File photo: AFP/STR)
Chip-related shares were down in early Asian trade on Thursday (Aug 7), after US President Donald Trump said he planned to impose a 100 per cent tariff on imported semiconductors.
Tokyo Electron, a major Japanese producer of chipmaking equipment, plunged 3.4 per cent as markets opened in Tokyo, and chipmaker Renesas was down 2.5 per cent.
In Seoul, chip giant SK Hynix plunged 2.9 per cent, while traders awaited the market’s opening bell in Taipei, where TSMC – the world’s largest contract maker of chips – is listed.
Trump said on Wednesday at the White House that “we’re going to be putting a very large tariff on chips and semiconductors”.
The level would be “100 per cent”, he told reporters, although he did not offer a timetable for the new levy being enacted.
“But the good news for companies like Apple is, if you’re building in the United States, or have committed to build … in the United States, there will be no charge,” Trump said.
Apple announced on Wednesday that it will invest an additional US$100 billion in the United States, taking its total pledge to US$600 billion over the next four years.
Governments around the world are bracing as new waves of US tariffs are due to take effect this week.
They hit many products from Brazil on Wednesday and are set to hit dozens of other economies – including the European Union and Taiwan – beginning on Thursday.
The likes of Tencent, Alibaba and ByteDance are pouring billions of dollars into the region. It’s less about geopolitical pressure and more about potential, analysts say.
Passengers at Singapore’s Jewel Changi Airport consult a Tencent Cloud–powered digital human concierge for real-time, multilingual travel assistance and personalised recommendations. (Photo: Tencent Cloud)
At Singapore’s Jewel Changi Airport, a smiling digital concierge powered by Tencent Cloud greets travellers, offering directions, dining tips and real-time shopping recommendations in five languages.
Once the realm of science fiction, such smart services are increasingly becoming everyday realities across Southeast Asia – and China is positioning itself at the heart of this digital transformation.
From cloud deployments in Jakarta to artificial intelligence (AI) models tailored for Thai users, China’s tech titans – Alibaba, ByteDance, SenseTime, Tencent and others – are expanding their regional footprint with new scale and sophistication.
Heightened US-China tensions, tighter export controls and volatile Western markets have spurred Chinese firms to look beyond the West. Analysts say Southeast Asia has emerged as a key focus, a view echoed by Chinese tech executives in interviews with CNA.
“It’s very clear to me that the investment is real. The market opportunity they are envisioning is real,” Ray Wang, research director for semiconductors, supply chain and emerging tech at advisory firm The Futurum Group, told CNA.
But rather than a short-term pivot, observers say the shift is the result of a long-cultivated strategy – a multi-billion-dollar digital courtship aimed at turning Southeast Asia into a cornerstone of China’s next global tech chapter.
TECH, TIE-UPS AND TRANSFORMATION
While an overall headline figure is hard to pin down, Chinese tech firms have been pouring billions of dollars into the region.
In February, TikTok – the ByteDance-owned social media platform facing a potential ban in the United States – pledged US$8.8 billion over the next five years to build data centres and digital infrastructure in Thailand.
Alibaba Cloud is also scaling up, announcing in July its third data centre in Malaysia, with another due to open in the Philippines this October.
This development is part of Alibaba’s 380 billion yuan (US$53 billion) investment plan in AI and cloud infrastructure over the next three years, a sum the company has said exceeds its total spending in this area over the past decade.
The launch of its AI Global Competency Center in Singapore last month further underscores its regional ambitions, with the facility aiming to support AI adoption for more than 5,000 companies and 100,000 developers worldwide.
SenseTime has also deepened its engagement in Southeast Asia. Best known for its AI and computer vision software, the firm signed an agreement with the Indonesian government at the recent World AI Conference in Shanghai.
The agreement centres on jointly developing homegrown AI models, smart city technologies and nurturing local AI talent. It builds on SenseTime’s existing footprint in smart city and green technology solutions in Singapore and Malaysia.
All these moves are backed by massive national-level investment. Chinese AI capital expenditure is on track to reach US$98 billion this year, up 48 per cent from the previous year, according to a report by Bank of America, driving home Beijing’s ambition to lead globally in AI, cloud computing and smart infrastructure.
On the ground, Chinese technologies are increasingly embedded in everyday life and business operations across Southeast Asia.
In June, GoTo Group and Alibaba Cloud announced the successful migration of GoTo Financial’s infrastructure to Alibaba Cloud’s data centres in Jakarta.
In the Philippines, media organisation ABS-CBN uses Alibaba Cloud services for content storage and archiving, while in Thailand, the company partners with telecoms provider TrueBusiness to support digital transformation for local enterprises.
At Indonesia’s Telkomsel, Tencent Cloud’s AI-powered palm verification technology is used to confirm users’ identities and enable secure payments.
In Malaysia, mobile network provider YTL Communications leverages Tencent’s digital ID tools to streamline mobile registrations and curb fraud.
“We have helped many Southeast Asian enterprises adopt a robust multi-cloud strategy that is best suited to their business and compliance needs,” Bluefin Zhao, vice president of Tencent Cloud and managing director for APAC, told CNA.
“Our clients scale their business growth and success together with us in an ongoing and long-term manner,” he added.
Zhao noted that Tencent’s presence is particularly strong in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand – priority markets where the company has made “significant headway”, achieving double-digit growth rates over the past three years.
He linked this progress to Tencent’s roots in consumer technology.
“We have decades of experience from running one of the world’s largest digital ecosystem platforms, WeChat/Weixin, that serves over a billion users to the largest video gaming ecosystems in the world,” Zhao said.
That expertise is now powering Tencent’s next-generation AI push.
Its large model technology, Hunyuan, has recently been integrated into more than 700 internal products across Tencent’s ecosystem, spanning 30 industries from public services and healthcare to tourism and finance.
Large model technology refers to AI systems trained on vast amounts of data to perform a wide range of complex tasks, such as understanding language, generating content and analysing patterns.
Wu Yongjian, the head of Tencent Cloud AI product and technology R&D, told CNA that Hunyuan delivers strong performance without heavy computing requirements, making it a good fit for mid-sized businesses and fast-growing markets.
QUICK SHIFT OR COMMITTED STRATEGY?
Geopolitical tensions are among the factors prompting Chinese tech firms to look more closely at Southeast Asia, as business with the West grows increasingly fraught, analysts say.
The US has ramped up export controls on advanced semiconductors, placed dozens of Chinese tech firms on its export control entity list and urged allies and partners to curb reliance on Chinese digital infrastructure.
But observers say it’s not the overriding reason. Instead, they point to business fundamentals – from booming digital demand to favourable demographics – as the main drivers behind China’s deepening tech pivot to the region.
“(It is) a medium to long-term strategy for (the Chinese companies) to drive more growth to places beyond China and the North American market,” said Wang from The Futurum Group.
Wang said Southeast Asia is “naturally” appealing to Chinese tech companies due to years of business familiarity, established relationships and geographic proximity.
These factors lower barriers to expansion and make it simpler to deploy talent and run cross-border operations compared to more distant markets, he said.
“Culturally, it’s just a lot easier for Chinese companies to figure out … geographically, it’s also a lot closer for the companies to set up their headquarters (in the region) and send the employees there.”
Jia Kai, an associate professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s School of International and Public Affairs, highlighted the diversity of Southeast Asia and the varying levels of AI maturity across its economies.
“The Southeast Asian market is important because if we want to realise the potential of AI, we still need many applications in different fields, in different cultures and environments,” he told CNA.
“The most important thing for AI is to find different environments … the digital infrastructure of Southeast Asia has already been well established.”
Senior executives from major Chinese tech firms interviewed by CNA also emphasised that Southeast Asia is a core strategic focus, especially considering the growing regional demand for AI services in the region.
Governments, businesses and consumers are rapidly adopting AI-powered services to drive growth, boost efficiency and enhance daily life – a shift fuelled by urbanisation, mobile-first consumer behaviour and national efforts to digitise economies.
AI, including its generative form, is expected to contribute around US$120 billion to Southeast Asia’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 2027, according to an April report by Boston Consulting Group.
Global management consulting firm iMARC Group noted that the Southeast Asian cloud computing market reached US$208.8 billion last year, and is projected to grow at a 10.49 per cent compound annual growth rate to exceed US$512 billion by 2033.
Wu, the head of Tencent Cloud AI product and technology R&D, said that the company “absolutely sees” Southeast Asia as a key strategic region, both as a market and as a testbed for refining its offerings.
Fellow Tencent Cloud executive Zhao added that the region’s rapid digital transformation, driven by progressive enterprises and supportive national policies, has been a “key catalyst” for the company’s accelerated growth there.
“The region is incredibly diverse and dynamic, with markets and industry verticals at varying stages of digital maturity,” Zhao said, adding that this presents opportunities as businesses seek customised digital solutions.
In the case of the digital concierge at Jewel Changi Airport, for instance, early results from the pilot that began in March show that travellers prefer this intuitive, hands-free mode of engagement over traditional directories.
Jeff Shi, SenseTime’s Asia Pacific president, described the Southeast Asia market as “huge and characterised by a young population” compared to others such as Northeast Asia, where the market is smaller and dominated by major corporations such as Sony and Honda.
“We are seeing faster growth and investing more, with over half of our approximately 200 enterprise customers in Asia based in Southeast Asia. Singapore, in particular, acts as a showcase for the region,” Shi told CNA.
Choong Hon Keat, Singapore country manager at Alibaba Cloud Intelligence, said that Alibaba Cloud likewise views Southeast Asia as a key market, driven by “escalating demand from local customers”.
He added that a skilled workforce is the “cornerstone” of successful digital transformation. “We are unwavering in our commitment to invest in the development of digital talent (in the region),” Choong told CNA.
Across the region, Alibaba Cloud is forging academic alliances. In Singapore, it has partnered with Nanyang Technological University to establish the Alibaba-NTU Global e-Sustainability CorpLab, aimed at advancing green technologies and promoting sustainable living.
Meanwhile in the Philippines, the company has forged a partnership with De La Salle University to train students in advanced AI and cloud computing technologies.
BUILDING TRUST ALONGSIDE INFRASTRUCTURE
Even as Chinese tech firms eye further inroads into Southeast Asia, analysts warn that obstacles lie in store.
Many governments and major firms in Southeast Asia remain more familiar with and are often deeply integrated into Western technology ecosystems.
A 2023 report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies noted that US cloud giants such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Auzure and Google Cloud maintain a dominant foothold in the region.
At the same time, the report found that US cloud computing companies face rising competition from Chinese rivals. It did not provide specific market share figures.
This legacy integration – especially in government, banking, and regulated industries – means that most national agencies and large enterprises deploy hybrid or multi-cloud strategies, layering Western and Chinese infrastructure to balance performance with security and regulatory compliance.
Jia from Shanghai Jiao Tong University said that adapting to divergent AI regulatory frameworks across the region poses a major hurdle for Chinese tech firms.
CNA previously reported on how a race for AI regulation is taking place to avert the risks of the technology while hopefully reaping the rewards, with action being taken at the global, regional and national levels, including in Southeast Asia.
This regulatory patchwork means that building trust will be just as important as building infrastructure, observers say.
“At present, I think misunderstanding and mistrust are the most significant bottlenecks to future cooperation or for Chinese tech companies entering the Southeast Asian market,” Jia said.
Some companies in the region may have reservations about adopting Chinese cloud services or AI, said Wang from The Futurum Group.
These concerns often centre on data privacy, regulatory compliance, and potential geopolitical pressure, particularly as governments grow more sensitive to issues of digital sovereignty and foreign influence.
The Chinese tech firms will also need to carefully balance their own operational standards with those of local partners, Wang said.
This tension between national concerns and global cooperation is not lost on Beijing, which has increasingly framed AI as a shared endeavour rather than a zero-sum race.
“AI must move toward inclusivity and shared benefit. It should become a public good for the benefit of all humanity,” said Chinese Premier Li Qiang as he opened the World AI Conference in Shanghai on Jul 26.
He said if the world instead pursues “technological monopolies, imposes controls, and erects barriers, AI will inevitably become a game exclusive to a privileged few”.
Open AI ecosystems encourage diversity and multi-party engagement, providing an “equal playground” for all, rather than central dominance, noted Jia from Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
He further suggested that the effectiveness of these collaborative models will help determine whether Southeast Asia becomes primarily a proving ground or a true shaper of the next generation of Chinese AI models.
“If it’s a public good, there is no leader – only stakeholders,” Jia said, describing the future of AI as a shared, multilateral enterprise rather than a contest for supremacy.
Executives at Chinese tech firms acknowledge these sensitivities, saying they are working to build trust by focusing on long-term partnerships, transparency, and shared success.
Wu from Tencent Cloud said that its partners help tailor workflows, knowledge management and deployment to specific industries.
Only around 9% of plastics are turned into something new, and many types can’t be recycled at allImage: FRED DUFOUR/AFP
The amount of plastic being churned out annually is far outpacing the global capacity to manage and recycle it.
While some products are vital, much is made for single-use items that not only lead to direct plastic pollution but have a long tail of climate and environmental impacts.
Some 99% of plastics are derived from fossil fuels, which at a time when the world is gradually transitioning towards clean energies to power homes, cars and economies, serves as a lifeline for the oil and gas industries that are heating up the planet.
In addition, refining and processing fossil fuels into plastic products such as packaging, textiles, electronics and construction materials releases billions of tons of greenhouse gases. In 2019, it accounted for over 5% of the world’s emissions.
Despite this, the production of new or virgin plastic has rapidly expanded in the last two decades and is projected to increase two or even threefold by 2050, potentially tripling associated global emissions. This would account for around a quarter of the remaining carbon budget scientists say the world can afford to use if it hopes to prevent runaway heating.
Yet experts say there is little sign of a changing trend away from growth.
Is plastic production increasing everywhere?
It is “absolutely true” that plastic production is rapidly increasing, said Ambrogio Miserocchi, business coalition co-lead at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a UK charity focusing on promoting a circular economy. “Even if you look at the planned investment, even if you look at the capacity that is being installed…it is actually growing very fast.”
This is despite the fact that an increasing number of countries are limiting single-use plastic products, with at least 140 nations having introduced either bans or restrictions on some form of plastic products.
“The only place where capacity is going down slightly is in the European Union,” said Joan Marc Simon, founder of Zero Waste Europe, a network dedicated to reducing plastic waste. “The rest of the world is increasing.”
However, Simon added that high production costs have led to producers either manufacturing outside Europe or importing plastic from elsewhere.
“We know for sure that all main producers are increasing capacity: US, China, South Africa, Brazil, Iran, Saudi Arabia,” said Simon, adding that more virgin plastic is also being produced in countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia — very often by Chinese companies.
China is the world’s biggest plastics manufacturer, accounting for around a third of global production.
Can production be regulated?
Activists have long argued that slowing production is the solution to overflowing plastic, but for years, public narratives and international negotiations have instead focused on tackling the resulting waste with things like beach clean-ups and recycling.
However, only 9% of plastics are recycled, and many types can’t be made into new products. As a result, the vast majority end up in landfills or being incinerated. Many leaks into the environment in the form of microplastics, which have been found in the most remote parts of the earth, in the air we breathe and even our bodies.
Reduction was the main sticking point at the inconclusive global plastic talks in Korea last December. It will likely again be a key point of contention during resumed negotiations in Geneva.
Giulia Carlini, senior attorney in the environmental health program at the Center for International Environmental Law says that while capping production raises many open questions — including whether it should mean stopping new plants coming online — the primary hurdle is simply reaching a consensus on reduction.
“What’s really not there is agreement on doing it.”
Last year, while over 100 nations supported capping production, a handful — including Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and China — blocked the measure, said Christina Dixon, ocean campaign lead at the UK charity, Environmental Investigations Agency. “This very small group of countries, which are, I guess, predominantly petro-states, are saying, just no, it’s a hard red line.”
Carlini says one obstacle to reducing production is the strong influence that powerful corporate actors have established at international negotiations.
According to CIEL analysis,fossil fuel and chemical lobbyists comprised the largest delegation in Korea, larger than those of the entire EU and its member states. Carlini adds that in some cases they are “enshrined” at the governmental level with some corporate lobbyists registered as part of national delegations.
Ghana’s defense and environment ministers died in a helicopter crash that killed all eight people on board.
Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama has declared three days of mourning for those killed in the helicopter crashImage: Seth/Xinhua/IMAGO
Ghana’s Defense Minister Edward Omane Boamah and Environment Minister Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed were among the eight people killed in a helicopter crash on Wednesday.
What we know so far
Everyone on the military Z9 helicopter was killed in the accident in Ghana’s central Ashanti region, a government spokesperson said.
The Ghanaian Armed Forces said the air force helicopter took off in the morning from the capital, Accra, and was heading northwest into the interior toward the gold-mining area of Obuasi in Ashanti when it went off the radar.
The wreckage was later found in the forested Adansi area of Ashanti.
Three other officials, including the vice chair of the ruling National Democratic Congress party, Samuel Sarpong, were killed alongside three Ghana Air Force crew members.
The cause of the crash was not immediately known, and the armed forces said they had launched an investigation.
Ghana news site My Joy Online reported a strong security presence of military and police at the crash site.
Ghanaian media reported that the helicopter was on its way to an event on illegal mining, a major environmental issue in the west African country.
Ghana declares three days of mourning
“The president and government extend our condolences and sympathies to the families of our comrades and the servicemen who died in service to the country,” said President John Dramani Mahama’s chief of staff.
Mahama declared three days of mourning and had canceled his official activities for the day, the spokesperson said.
Mourners gathered at the Boamah’s residence as well as at the party’s headquarters, and Ghana’s government described the crash as a “national tragedy.”
Mahama was “down, down emotionally,” Haruna Iddrisu, Ghana’s education minister, told reporters outside the presidency after news broke of the crash.
Donald Trump could meet Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy as early as next week. The announcement follows his envoy’s talks in Russia that the US president called “highly productive.” DW has more.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022Image: Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu Agency/IMAGO
Trump speaks of ‘good chance’ of Putin meeting ‘very soon’
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday there was a “good chance” of him meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin “very soon.”
Trump described the talks between his special envoy Steve Witkoff and the Russian leader, which he said were “very good talks.” The US president stressed that “we made a lot of progress” on Russia.
“There’s a good chance that there will be a meeting very soon,” Trump told reporters.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also addressed the potential meeting between the two presidents, saying that considerable work lay ahead to overcome “many impediments.”
“Today was a good day, but we got a lot of work ahead. There’s still many impediments to overcome, and we hope to do that over the next few days and hours, weeks maybe,” Rubio told Fox Business.
Earlier on Wednesday, reports cited the White House as saying Trump was open to a meeting with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (see entry below).
Trump to meet Putin as early as next week, reports say
US President Donald Trump could meet in person with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, as early as next week, according to media reports citing anonymous White House sources.
The reports follow talks between Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and the Russian leader that Trump described as “highly productive.”
The New York Times, CNN, AP and Reuters news agencies were among those reporting on Wednesday evening that Trump told European leaders he plans to meet soon with Putin, potentially as early as next week.
Trump would hold a meeting with Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after the initial meeting with the Russian leader, they said, citing people familiar with the plan.
“The Russians expressed their desire to meet with President Trump, and the president is open to meeting with both President Putin and President Zelenskyy,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said. “President Trump wants this brutal war to end.”
She didn’t specify a date or location for a possible meeting.
Last week, Trump set a deadline of “10 or 12 days” for Russia to stop the war in Ukraine or face US sanctions.
During the 2024 election campaign, Trump had vowed to bring an end to the war on his first day in office.
Russia ‘more inclined’ to Ukraine ceasefire, Zelenskyy says
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country supports a “lasting and reliable” peace with Russia, before later adding that Moscow seems “more inclined” to a ceasefire.
“The main thing is that they do not deceive us in the details,” Zelenskyy said in a nightly address.
The Ukrainian leader also commented on the meeting earlier Wednesday between US envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Russia must end the war that it itself started,” Zelenskyy posted on his X account, adding that Kyiv will “definitely defend its independence.”
Zelenskyy said European leaders had also joined his call with US President Donald Trump, without providing names.
Sanctions targeting Russia partners still on the table, White House says
The White House said on Wednesday that US is still set to impose “secondary sanctions” on Russia’s trading partners, despite the “great progress” touted by President Donald Trump after US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Russia President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
Trump had set a Friday deadline for the Kremlin to agree on a ceasefire in Ukraine. Although few details have been released about specifics, the sanctions are widely expected to target Russia’s remaining trade partners to further impair Moscow’s access to financing.
This could include Russia’s oil-buying partners like China and India. In June, Trump had threatened 100% tariffs on buyers of Russian oil.
The Financial Times newspaper reported US measures could also target Russia’s “shadow fleet” of oil tankers used to circumvent western sanctions on Russian oil, by using often dilapidated tankers with murky ownership.
The measures would be the first punitive action towards Moscow from Washington over the war in Ukraine since Trump took office in January. However, Trump has previously set deadlines for Moscow, only to walk them back.
Moscow, so far, has shown no sign of backing down. On Tuesday, the Kremlin slammed “threats” to hike tariffs on Russia’s trading partners as “illegitimate.”
US President Donald Trump has hinted at the possibility of imposing additional tariffs on China. Currently, China faces a 30% US tariff.
United States President Donald Trump with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping (File Image) Photo : AP
United States President Donald Trump has signalled that more tariffs could be imposed on China. When asked whether Washington had similar plans for Beijing, like those recently imposed on Indian imports, Trump said that it “could happen.” Currently, China faces a 30 per cent US tariff.
On being asked, ‘On the Indian penalties, do you have any similar plans to enact more tariffs on China’, Trump said,, “Could happen. Depends on how we do. Could happen.”
#WATCH | On being asked, ‘On the Indian penalties, do you have any similar plans to enact more tariffs on China’, US President Donald Trump says, “Could happen. Depends on how we do. Could happen.”
On Wednesday, Trump had announced his decision to impose an additional 25 per cent tariff on India, raising it to 50 per cent. Earlier, Trump had announced a 25 per cent tariff on Indian products being imported to the US. After the new levy, India will attract the highest tariff of 50 per cent along with Brazil.
Trump signed an executive order – Addressing Threats to the US by the Government of the Russian Federation – imposing the additional tariff over and above the 25 per cent levy which comes into effect from August 7.
The United States has imposed this additional tariff or penalty for Russian imports only on India while other buyers such as China and Turkey have so far escaped such measures. The 30 per cent tariff on China and 15 per cent on Turkey is lower than India’s 50 per cent.
Memories of the Sheikh Hasina regime, manipulated elections and political violence linger in the Bangladeshi psyche. The road to healing runs through the ballot box
On the first anniversary of the July Mass Uprising—a day now marked as a watershed moment in Bangladesh’s democratic evolution—Muhammad Yunus, chief advisor of the country’s interim government, formally announced that national elections will be held in February 2026, just before the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan.
The long-anticipated declaration, made during a nationally televised address on August 5, was not merely a procedural announcement. It was the culmination of a year-long political experiment in interim governance, one that has sought to restore trust, order and legitimacy to a nation long bruised by authoritarianism.
Yet the announcement is more than a fulfilment of a constitutional obligation. It is, in essence, an acknowledgment of a deeper political necessity: Bangladesh, after over a decade of increasingly centralised rule and a period of extraordinary transition, desperately needs to return to the foundational principle of representative democracy.
“Now, it is time for us to fulfil our final duty: to hold the election,” Yunus said, underscoring the interim government’s final and most critical mandate—transferring power to an elected regime. Since the ouster of the previous Sheikh Hasina government last August under the weight of a student-led movement, Bangladesh has been in a unique political limbo. The interim regime, led by a Nobel Laureate with no party affiliation, has made strides in administrative reform and national healing, but its legitimacy stands rooted in its temporariness.
Yunus had previously announced that elections were likely to be held in April 2026. This June, after his meeting with Bangladesh Nationalist Party acting chairperson Tarique Rahman in London, there was buzz that the polls would be advanced. Rahman had suggested that the polls in 2026 be held before Ramadan in February.
The urgency of the parliamentary elections arises not merely from the calendar but the structural and civic vacuum that any unelected regime, however well-intentioned, inevitably inhabits. No matter how consultative the interim government has been, the absence of electoral accountability gnaws at the heart of democratic consent. Only a directly elected government can claim the mandate to steer the nation through the next phase of reconstruction.
Yunus’s announcement comes against the backdrop of the July 2024 uprising—a nationwide rebellion sparked by a court decision reinstating the much-contested quota system in public employment. It was a movement led primarily by students and the youth, quickly joined by workers, women and ordinary citizens across the country. “The students, workers and masses of this nation stood firm and fearless At the forefront of this movement were our indomitable women,” Yunus recalled in his address, paying homage to those who lost their lives for the promise of a freer, more just Bangladesh.
The uprising was not merely about quotas. It was an expression of years of accumulated frustration—over authoritarian drift, institutional decay, unemployment, inflation and the erosion of civil liberties. It was, fundamentally, a referendum on the democratic deficit. That deficit can only be repaired through elections that are credible, participatory and inclusive.
Since assuming power, the interim government has worked to stabilise the nation, pursuing what Yunus called the triad of “reform, justice and election”. Major structural changes were introduced in the judiciary, public administration and economy. A National Consensus Commission was established to engage political actors in formulating the ‘July Charter’—a new political framework that is now at its final stage.
Yet reform, no matter how extensive, cannot substitute for political representation. Without elected officials to implement and oversee these changes, the entire structure risks collapsing into technocratic overreach. Reforms gain permanence only when ratified and enforced by a parliament that derives its authority from the people.
Equally crucial has been the interim regime’s emphasis on transitional justice. Trials for alleged crimes against humanity committed against the protesters are already underway. “Those involved in the horrific massacres of history will be brought to justice on the soil of this country,” Yunus affirmed. Yet justice systems themselves must be safeguarded by democratic oversight. In the long run, only an elected government can ensure that such processes remain transparent, accountable and beyond reproach.
Earlier the same day, Yunus unveiled the ‘July Declaration’ at the Jatiya Sangsad’s South Plaza—a document that places the uprising within Bangladesh’s broader history of popular democratic movements, from the Liberation War to the anti-autocracy struggles of the 1990s. The declaration, drafted with input from political parties, offers a new political vision for the country—one that the interim government hopes future governments will adopt.
But declarations and charters must translate into laws, policies and budgets. That requires a functioning legislature, not a caretaker administration. The transformation from a street movement to state mandate can only be legitimised through elections.
Yunus was careful to frame the upcoming election not just as a constitutional formality but as a national celebration. “We want to make election day feel like Eid. The joy of voting will be shared by all,” he said. His emphasis on participation was pointed and expansive, with special appeals to women, youth, first-time voters and expatriates—those most often disenfranchised in previous electoral cycles.
His remarks were also a warning. “A certain group is eager to obstruct the election process engaging in various conspiracies to derail our democratic progress,” he cautioned, hinting at both domestic saboteurs and foreign actors with a vested interest in Bangladesh’s instability. This makes the February 2026 election not merely a vote but a test of national resolve and unity.
Beyond the moral and political arguments, there lies an urgent economic rationale for a return to electoral legitimacy. Yunus highlighted improvements in the economy—reduced inflation, revived investor confidence and increased foreign partnerships. But such gains are precarious. International confidence, particularly in development finance and foreign direct investment, hinges on predictable governance. For Bangladesh to consolidate economic recovery, it must transition from interim stewardship to elected stewardship.
Moreover, remittances—one of the key lifelines of the economy—must be acknowledged through political inclusion. “One of the key reasons Bangladesh was able to recover so swiftly is the extraordinary contribution of our remittance heroes,” Yunus noted, confirming that the Election Commission was working to ensure their participation in the upcoming polls.
With this announcement, Yunus has effectively opened the final chapter of the interim government’s 16-month transitional mandate. The task ahead is not just to conduct elections but to restore faith in democracy itself. The memory of manipulated polls, disenfranchisement and political violence still lingers in the national psyche. A clean, fair, and inclusive election is therefore essential—not just to hand over power, but to heal the social contract.
A six‑year‑old Indian‑origin girl in Waterford, Ireland, was assaulted by a group of boys who punched her, hit her private parts with a bicycle, and hurled racist abuse, telling her to “go back to India”. Her mother, a nurse, who recently became an Irish citizen, said the child is now terrified to play outside and the family feels unsafe.
A six‑year‑old Indian‑origin girl in Waterford, Ireland, was assaulted. Similar unprovoked attacks have previously been reported last month. (Images for representation/Unsplash)
A six-year-old girl of Indian origin was brutally assaulted by a group of boys outside her home in Waterford, Ireland, while they shouted, “Go back to India”. The attackers also hit her in the private parts. This marks the first reported racist assault on a child of Indian origin in Ireland, though a string of unprovoked attacks in the country have previously been reported against other Indians.
The attack took place on Monday evening, August 4, when she was playing outside her home along with her friends. According to the mother, the gang included a girl aged around eight and several boys between 12 and 14.
Her mother said she was watching her daughter play with other kids right outside her home when she had to go and feed her toddler son, who is just 10-months-old. The mother also said how she was keeping an eye on her daughter from inside, but when her youngest child started crying she went to feed him.
“I told her I would be back in a second after feeding the baby,” the mother told The Irish Mirror, a Dublin-based news outlet.
But she said the girl-child came back into the house upset after around a minute. The mother said: “She was very upset, she started crying. She couldn’t even talk, she was so scared.”
One of her friends told her mother that a gang of boys older than them hit her on the private parts with a cycle and five of them punched her in her face, The Irish Mirror reported.
“She told me five of them punched her in the face. One of the boys pushed the bicycle wheel onto her private parts and it was really sore. They said the F word and ‘Dirty Indian, go back to India. She told me today (Wednesday) they punched her neck and twisted her hair,” the woman, who has been a nurse and living in Ireland for eight years and recently became an Irish citizen, told The Irish Mirror.
The family moved to the Kilbarry area of Waterford City in January this year.
DO NOT FEEL SAFE HERE: INDIAN-ORIGIN NURSE
The mother said her daughter cried in bed after the attack and is now too afraid to play outside.
“We no longer feel safe here, even right in front of our own home. It doesn’t feel like she can play without fear,” she said.
Expressing her anguish, the mother added: “I feel so sad for her. I could not protect her. I never expected such an incident would happen. I thought she would be safe here.”
She later spotted the group of boys involved in the assault, who, she said, stared at her in a confrontational manner.
“I saw the gang afterward. They were staring at me, laughing. They know I am her parent. The boys were maybe 12 or 14, and they were still roaming around here,” she told The Irish Mirror.
INDIAN-ORIGIN MOTHER FILES COMPLAINT WITH IRISH POLISH
Although the mother has reported the incident to the Garda, she said she is not seeking punishment for the boys. Instead, she hopes they are given counselling and proper guidance.
“I don’t know how the government will address this. We came here to fill a labour gap, we are professionals, we have all the certificates,” she said.
“It is a struggle to come here. We don’t come without qualifications. We are well-trained, and the government needs us,” she added, according to The Irish Mirror.
Guangdong authorities have vowed to take “decisive and forceful measures” to stop the spread of the disease
More than 7,000 cases of a mosquito-borne virus have been reported across China’s Guangdong province since July, prompting measures similar to those taken during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In Foshan city, which has been hit the hardest, chikungunya patients must stay in hospital, where their beds will protected with mosquito nets. They can only be discharged after they test negative or at the end of a week-long stay.
Spread through the bite of an infected mosquito, the virus causes fever and severe joint pain, which sometimes can last for years.
Although rare in China, chikungunya outbreaks are common in South and South East Asia and parts of Africa.
How widespread are the infections in China?
Aside from Foshan, at least 12 other cities in the southern Guangdong province have reported infections. Nearly 3,000 cases were reported in the last week alone.
On Monday, Hong Kong reported its first case – a 12-year-old boy who developed fever, rash and joint pain after traveling to Foshan in July.
The virus is not contagious, and only spreads when an infected person is bitten by a mosquito that then goes on to bite others.
Officials say all the reported cases have been mild so far, with 95% of the patients discharged within seven days.
Still, the cases have led to some panic, given the virus is not widely known in the country.
“This is scary. The prolonged consequences sound very painful,” one user wrote on Chinese social media platform Weibo.
The US has urged travellers to China to exercise “increased caution” following the outbreak.
What else is China doing to curb infections?
Authorities across Guangdong province have vowed to take “decisive and forceful measures” to stop the spread of the disease.
Those with symptoms, such as fever, joint pain or rashes, are being urged to visit the nearest hospital so they can be tested for the virus.
Authorities have instructed residents to remove stagnant water in their homes, such as in flowerpots, coffee machines or spare bottles – and warned of fines up to 10,000 yuan ($1,400) if they don’t do this.
They are also releasing giant “elephant mosquitoes” that can devour smaller, chikungunya-spreading bugs; and an army of mosquito-eating fish.
Last week, officials in Foshan released 5,000 of these larvae-eating fish into the city’s lakes. In parts of the city, they are even flying drones to detect sources of stagnant water.
Some neighbouring cities had ordered travellers from Foshan to undergo a 14-day home quarantine, but that has since been withdrawn.
Some people have compared these measures to those imposed during the pandemic, and questioned their necessity.
A user on Weibo wrote, “These feel so familiar… But are they really necessary?”
Another wrote: “What’s the point of the quarantine? It’s not as though an infected patient will then go around biting other people?”
China implemented severe restrictions during the pandemic, including forcing people into quarantine camps and sealing residential buildings and whole neighbourhoods on short notice for days or even weeks.
What is chikungunya?
Most people bitten by an infected mosquito will develop symptoms of chikungunya within three to seven days.
Apart from fever and joint pain, other symptoms include rash, headache, muscle pain and swollen joints.
In most cases, patients will feel better within a week. In severe cases however, the joint pain can last for months or even years.
Those at risk for more severe disease include newborns, the elderly, and people with underlying medical conditions, such as heart disease or diabetes.
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) plans to cancel $500m (£376m) in funding for mRNA vaccines being developed to counter viruses like the flu and Covid-19.
The move will impact 22 projects being led by major pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer and Moderna, for vaccines against bird flu and other viruses, HHS said.
Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a vaccine sceptic, announced he was pulling the funding over claims that “mRNA technology poses more risks than benefits for these respiratory viruses”.
Doctors and health experts have criticised Kennedy’s longstanding questioning of the safety and efficacy of vaccines and his views on health policies.
The development of mRNA vaccines to target Covid-19 was critical in helping slow down the pandemic and saving millions of lives, said Peter Lurie, a former US Food and Drug Administration official.
He told the BBC that the change was the US “turning its back on one of the most promising tools to fight the next pandemic”.
In a statement, Kennedy said his team had “reviewed the science, listened to the experts, and acted”. “[T]he data show these vaccines fail to protect effectively against upper respiratory infections like COVID and flu,” he said.
He said the department was shifting the funding toward “safer, broader vaccine platforms that remain effective even as viruses mutate”.
Kennedy also claimed that mRNA vaccines can help “encourage new mutations and can actually prolong pandemics as the virus constantly mutates to escape the protective effects of the vaccine”.
Health experts have said that viruses mutate regardless of whether vaccines exist for them.
Dr Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, noted the flu virus mutates every year regardless of whether people get vaccinated, while the measles virus has not mutated, despite the majority of people being vaccinated with an mRNA shot.
He said mRNA vaccines are “remarkably safe” and a key to helping prevent against severe infections from viruses like Covid-19.
HHS said the department that runs the vaccine projects, Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), would focus on “platforms with stronger safety records and transparent clinical and manufacturing data practices”.
While some vaccines use an inactivated virus to trigger an immune response, mRNA vaccines work by teaching cells how to make proteins that can trigger an immune response. Moderna and Pfizer’s mRNA vaccines were tested in thousands of people before being rolled out and were found to be safe and effective.
Dr Offit, who invented the rotavirus vaccine, said the funding cancellation could put the US in a “more dangerous” position to respond to any potential future pandemic. He noted mRNA vaccines have a shorter development cycle, which is why they were crucial to responding to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Since taking office, Kennedy has taken a number of steps to transform how the nation’s health department develops and regulates vaccines.
Hulk Hogan’s grieving family and celebrity pals held a private funeral for him Tuesday — and included a touching tribute to the beloved WWE legend.
Hogan’s coffin was carried into the service by pallbearers wearing yellow boutonnieres – an apparent nod to the iconic yellow costume he wore in the wrestling ring throughout his decades-long career.
Among the attendees were other WWE icons such as wrestler Triple H and the WWE’s former co-CEO Stephanie McMahon, according to People magazine.
WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan was laid to rest in a private funeral in Clearwater, Florida, on Aug. 5, 2025. MiamiPIXX/VAEM / BACKGRID
Other friends who arrived to say goodbye included musician Kid Rock and comedian Theon Von, according to photos obtained by the outlet.
Hogan, whose real name was Terry Bollea, died July 24 at 71.
He suffered a heart attack at his Clearwater home and was rushed to the hospital but later declared dead.
Assorted reef fish swim above a finger coral colony as it grows on the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Cairns, Australia October 25, 2019. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef has suffered the largest decline in coral cover in two of its three regions over the last year, research released on Wednesday showed, following a mass bleaching of its corals that was among the worst on record.
The Australian Institute of Marine Sciences said the reef has experienced the largest annual decline in coral cover in its northern and southern regions since monitoring began 39 years ago, with coral cover dropping between a quarter and a third after several years of solid growth.
“We are now seeing increased volatility in the levels of hard coral cover,” said Mike Emslie, head of institute’s long term monitoring programme.
“This is a phenomenon that emerged over the last 15 years and points to an ecosystem under stress.”
The reef, the world’s largest living ecosystem, stretches for some 2,400 km (1,500 miles) off the coast of the northern state of Queensland.
Since 2016, the reef has experienced five summers of mass coral bleaching, when large sections of the reef turn white due to heat stress, putting them at greater risk of death.
The 2024 event had the largest footprint ever recorded on the reef, with high to extreme bleaching across all of its three regions, the report said.
The Great Barrier Reef is not currently on UNESCO’s list of world heritage sites that are in danger, though the UN recommends it should be added.
A court verdict against Tesla (TSLA.O), last week, stemming from a fatal 2019 crash of an Autopilot-equipped Model S, could hurt its plans to expand its nascent robotaxi network and intensify concerns over the safety of its autonomous vehicle technology.
A Florida jury ordered Musk’s electric vehicle company on Friday to pay about $243 million to victims of the crash, finding its Autopilot driver-assistance software defective. Tesla said the driver was solely at fault and vowed to appeal.
The verdict follows years of federal investigations and recalls related to collisions involving Tesla’s autonomous-vehicle technology, and comes as CEO Elon Musk seeks regulatory approval to rapidly expand the robotaxi service across the U.S.
“The public perception of this verdict or things like this are going to fuel pressure on regulators to say, ‘We just can’t let this stuff be launched without a lot more due diligence’,” said Mike Nelson, founder of Nelson Law and an expert on legal issues in the mobility sector.
Tesla could have a tough time convincing state regulators that its technology is road-ready, threatening Musk’s goal of offering robotaxis to half the U.S. population by year end, legal experts and Tesla investors said.
Expanding its robotaxi service is crucial for Tesla as demand for its aging lineup of EVs has cooled amid rising global competition and a backlash against Musk’s far right political views. Much of Tesla’s trillion-dollar market valuation hinges on his bets on robotics and artificial intelligence.
Success in the self-driving realm will require winning the confidence of regulators and potential customers on the full-self driving (FSD) software that underpins Tesla’s robotaxis, analysts said.
“The timing (of the verdict) for Tesla in light of the FSD rollouts and robotaxis is awful,” said Aaron Davis, co-managing partner at law firm Davis Goldman. “Now there’s essentially an opinion that some aspect of Tesla’s business is not safe and maybe the safety that the company advertises isn’t what it’s cracked up to be.”
The FSD is an advanced version of Autopilot.
Autopilot, which was been updated since 2019, controls speed, distance and lane centering on highways, while the FSD can operate on city streets, helping the vehicle make automatic turns and change lanes.
“This case does not have direct implications for Tesla’s FSD roll-out,” analysts at Piper Sandler said in a note on Sunday, citing the modern iterations of the software.
A spokesperson on behalf of Tesla acknowledged the company had received a request for comment from Reuters but had not provided one by the time of publication.
REGULATORY ROAD AHEAD
A Tesla robotaxi drives on the street along South Congress Avenue in Austin, Texas, U.S., June 22, 2025. REUTERS/Joel Angel Juarez/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Perfecting autonomous vehicles has been harder than expected. The high costs of hardware, years of trial and error, and regulatory hurdles have forced many players to close shop or pivot, including General Motors’ (GM.N) Cruise unit.
Musk, however, has pursued what he calls a simpler and cheaper path, relying only on cameras and AI instead of pricey sensors such as lidars and radars used by Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O), Waymo, Amazon’s (AMZN.O), Zoox and others.
After years of missed deadlines, Musk rolled out a small robotaxi trial in June with about a dozen Model Y crossover SUVs in Austin, Texas, each overseen by a human safety monitor in the front passenger seat.
While Musk has said Tesla was being “super paranoid about safety”, he has also pledged to expand the service fast and make it available for half of the U.S. population in the next five months – a stark contrast to Waymo’s cautious years-long rollout.
Until Tesla’s entry, Waymo was the only U.S. firm to operate a paid, driverless robotaxi service.
Tesla is currently awaiting approvals in several states, including California, Nevada, Arizona and Florida.
California’s department of motor vehicles declined to comment on the impact of the verdict on regulatory approval.
Nevada said it held talks with Tesla about a robotaxi program several weeks ago, while Arizona said it was still considering Tesla’s request for certification. Both did not comment on the verdict.
Florida did not respond.
Tesla has typically either won other Autopilot litigation or resolved the case with the plaintiffs out of court. The Florida verdict stands out. Several such cases are pending.
The case involved a Model S sedan that went through an intersection and hit the victims’ parked Chevrolet Tahoe as they were standing beside it. The driver had reached down to retrieve a dropped cellphone and allegedly received no alerts as he ran a stop sign before the crash.
We need smarter approaches to minimise the impact of heat on our health and daily activities, says Fabian Lim of NTU.
A woman cools off under a tree during a spell of hot weather in Singapore. (Photo: Calvin Oh)
From blistering summers to raging wildfires, many countries are experiencing higher temperatures more frequently and for longer parts of the year. Besides taking steps to prevent global warming, we must also learn to cope with a hotter environment.
By 2100, Singapore may see daily maximum temperatures exceed 35 degrees Celsius for up to 351 days per year. Presently, such peak temperatures are recorded occasionally in the hotter months of May to July each year.
Being in the tropics, we also have to cope with a higher level of humidity, which impedes heat removal from the body to the environment. The combination of heat and humidity not only poses health risks, but also significantly reduces productivity, particularly for those working outdoors or in non-air-conditioned environments.
Research conducted by the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine indicates that companies lose approximately S$21 (US$16) per worker per hot day due to decline in productivity. When scaled up across the labour force, this amounts to S$2.2 billion in annual economic losses by 2035 if current warming trends persist. These findings show that the impact of heat is not just physiological, but also economic.
BUILDING RESILIENCE IN OUR PHYSIOLOGY
The mechanisms that regulate body temperature can adapt to manage a greater heat load through heat acclimatisation. This process involves gradual and daily exposure to a hot environment.
For most healthy individuals, heat acclimatisation may start from 20 to 30 minutes of walking at normal pace during the warmer part of the day and increasing in duration to 1 to 2 hours over 10 to 14 days.
Water should be consumed freely during the walk and the duration of walk should be based on individual physical ability, without causing symptoms of over-exertion such as heavy panting, exhaustion or dizziness.
There is evidence that heat acclimatisation brings about increased physical performance and lower body temperature when carrying out the same tasks.
ADJUSTING DAILY ROUTINES
Around the world, people are adjusting their daily routines to cope with rising heat. Cambodia has shortened school days by two hours to help children avoid peak daily temperature, and Spain and several Gulf states prohibit outdoor work during midday.
Across Europe and the Middle East, work and leisure are increasingly scheduled around cooler periods of the day. Early gym sessions and late-night construction are becoming more common. In a recent paper, I described this trend as a shift towards a semi-nocturnal lifestyle, where activities take place before sunrise and after sunset to avoid midday heat.
Another strategy is imposing a work-rest ratio for those working outdoors. This allows time for the body to cool so that the next cycle of work starts at a lower body temperature.
In occupational settings, the general work-rest ratio is around 45 to 60 minutes of work to 15 to 20 minutes of rest, though this depends on the duration and intensity of the activity, profile of workers and environmental conditions. Taking showers or wiping the body with a towel soaked in cold water can add to heat removal during rest intervals.
INFRASTRUCTURE AND TECHNOLOGY
Shade is especially useful in shielding pedestrians from the hottest part of the day. Outdoor shade is plentiful in Singapore because of its history of landscaping walking paths with trees and building sheltered walkways.
Urban planners could take this a step further by viewing shelters and pathways as one entity. Under this concept, the construction of walking path is not complete until it is also sheltered. Singapore’s small geographical size makes this strategy more manageable.
The provision of cooling spots in public spaces will allow people to seek reprieve from the heat. Air-conditioned buildings can serve as cooling spots. In parks and industrial areas, air-conditioned “cooling pods” can be provided.
Singapore has made promising progress in passive cooling. Heat-reflective roof coatings and cooling paints, which can lower the surface temperature of buildings, such as the ones deployed on HDB blocks, can help reduce indoor heat without additional energy consumption.
The fan is not as effective for body cooling when air temperature exceeds skin temperature (above 35 degrees Celsius). More viable solutions are likely to come from personal body cooling, air-conditioning and self-cooling clothing materials. Devices that cool the body rather than indoor spaces are promising due to their smaller carbon footprint, given the need to reduce emissions to avert the climate crisis.
However, these technologies are still in their early stages due to limitations in energy supply, mobility and capacity for heat removal. They would need further development to be ready for mass production.
Palestinians climb onto trucks as they seek aid supplies in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip on Aug 4, 2025. (File photo: Reuters/Hatem Khaled)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is favouring a complete military takeover of Gaza, Israeli media reported on Tuesday (Aug 5), as ceasefire negotiations with Hamas collapsed and deaths from hunger and strikes continue to rise in the besieged Palestinian territory.
Netanyahu was expected to meet senior security officials, including Defence Minister Israel Katz and military Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir, to finalise a new strategy for Cabinet consideration later this week, an Israeli official told Reuters. Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, a close confidant of Netanyahu, would also attend.
The reported strategy would reverse a 2005 decision to withdraw settlers and troops from Gaza while retaining control of its borders, a move that Israeli right-wing parties blame for enabling Hamas to gain power in the enclave.
Israeli Channel 12, citing an official in Netanyahu’s office, said the prime minister was leaning towards full control of the enclave. However, it remains unclear whether this would mean a long-term occupation or a limited operation to dismantle Hamas and rescue hostages. The prime minister’s office declined to comment.
“It is still necessary to complete the defeat of the enemy in Gaza, release our hostages and ensure that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to Israel,” Netanyahu said on Tuesday at a military base. “We are not giving up on any of these missions.”
Mediation efforts have broken down despite sustained international pressure for a ceasefire to halt the fighting, ease hunger and address worsening humanitarian conditions.
Gaza’s health ministry said eight more people had died of starvation or malnutrition in the last 24 hours, while 79 others were killed in the latest Israeli fire. Palestinian authorities say more than 61,000 people have been killed in the conflict, most of them civilians.
UNITED NATIONS ALARMED BY REPORTS OF EXPANSION
The United Nations on Tuesday called reports about a possible decision to expand Israel’s military operations throughout the Gaza Strip “deeply alarming” if true.
UN Assistant Secretary-General Miroslav Jenca told a UN Security Council meeting on the situation in Gaza that such a move “would risk catastrophic consequences … and could further endanger the lives of the remaining hostages in Gaza.”
“International law is clear in the regard; Gaza is and must remain an integral part of the future Palestinian state,” he added.
The conflict was triggered by a Hamas-led attack on Oct 7, 2023, when militants crossed into Israel from Gaza, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and seizing 251 hostages, according to Israeli figures.
Israel’s military response has devastated the densely populated enclave, with more than 61,000 people killed, most of them civilians, according to Palestinian health authorities. Nearly all of Gaza’s over 2 million residents have been forced from their homes, and a global hunger monitor last week described the situation as an unfolding famine.
Gaza health authorities said on Tuesday that 188 people, including 94 children, have died from hunger since the war began. Eight more deaths from starvation or malnutrition were recorded in the past 24 hours. An Israeli security official acknowledged there may be hunger in some areas but rejected reports of famine.
The hunger crisis has drawn international outrage, while the collapse of ceasefire negotiations has dashed hopes for immediate relief. On Tuesday, Israeli strikes killed another 79 Palestinians, the health ministry said.
HOSTAGE VIDEO SPARKS OUTRAGE
On Saturday, Hamas released a video showing Evyatar David, one of 50 hostages still held in Gaza, appearing gaunt and pale in what looked like an underground tunnel. The footage shocked the Israeli public and drew condemnation abroad.
Israeli officials estimate 20 of the remaining hostages are still alive. Most captives were released during earlier truces negotiated with international backing. Israel broke the last ceasefire.
A senior Palestinian official told Reuters the threat of a full Gaza takeover could be a pressure tactic aimed at forcing Hamas to make concessions. The Palestinian Foreign Ministry urged the international community to treat the possibility seriously and act to prevent it.
TANK PUSH
Israeli tanks pushed into central Gaza earlier on Tuesday, but it was unclear whether this was part of a broader ground offensive.
Palestinians in the remaining quarter of Gaza where Israel has yet to assert full control said any further incursion would be catastrophic.
“If the tanks pushed through, where would we go, into the sea? This will be like a death sentence to the entire population,” said Abu Jehad, a Gaza wood merchant, who asked not to be named in full.
A Palestinian official close to the negotiations said the threat of a full takeover may be an Israeli tactic to pressure Hamas into concessions.
“It will only complicate the negotiation further. In the end, the resistance factions will not accept less than an end to the war and a full withdrawal from Gaza,” the official said.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry urged the international community to take reports of an Israeli takeover seriously and to intervene urgently to prevent such plans, regardless of whether they are genuine or a pressure tactic.
Despite the deepening crisis, some goods have reportedly entered Gaza. A source told Reuters that trucks carrying chocolates and biscuits had been allowed in for a local merchant. It is hoped that essential items such as children’s milk, meat, fruit, sugar and rice will also be permitted soon, which could ease shortages and lower soaring prices.
The United States’ Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said last week he was working with the Israeli government on a plan that could end the conflict. However, Israeli officials have also floated proposals to expand the military campaign and potentially annex parts of Gaza.
The failed ceasefire talks in Doha had aimed to secure a 60-day truce, during which aid would be flown in and Hamas would release half of the hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
The Israeli military was expected on Tuesday to present cabinet with alternative strategies, including expanding operations into parts of Gaza where it has not yet conducted ground incursions, according to two defence officials.
Jeffrey Epstein’s ex-girlfriend wants to keep grand jury records secret in the sex trafficking case that sent her to prison.
Jeffrey Epstein ‘s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, wants to keep grand jury records secret in the sex trafficking case that sent her to prison, her lawyers said Tuesday as prosecutors continued urging a court to release some of those records in the criminal case-turned-political fireball.
Maxwell hasn’t seen the material herself, her attorneys said — the grand jury process is conducted behind closed doors. But she opposes unsealing what her lawyers described as potentially “hearsay-laden” transcripts of grand jury testimony, which was given in secret and without her lawyers there to challenge it.
“Whatever interest the public may have in Epstein, that interest cannot justify a broad intrusion into grand jury secrecy in a case where the defendant is alive, her legal options are viable and her due process rights remain,” attorneys David O. Markus and Melissa Madrigal wrote.
Prosecutors declined to comment.
Government attorneys have been trying to quell a clamor for transparency by seeking the transcripts’ release — though the government also says the public already knows much of what’s in the documents.
Most of the information “was made publicly available at trial or has otherwise been publicly reported through the public statements of victims and witnesses,” prosecutors wrote in court papers Monday. They noted that the disclosures excluded some victims’ and witnesses’ names.
Prosecutors had also said last week that some of what the grand jurors heard eventually came out at Maxwell’s 2021 trial and in various victims’ lawsuits. There were only two grand jury witnesses, both of them law enforcement officials, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors made clear Monday that they’re seeking to unseal only the transcripts of grand jury witnesses’ testimony, not the exhibits that accompanied it. But they are also working to parse how much of the exhibits also became public record over the years.
While prosecutors have sought to temper expectations about any new revelations from the grand jury proceedings, they aren’t proposing to release a cache of other information the government collected while looking into Epstein.
The transcript faceoff comes six years after authorities said Epstein killed himself while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges and four years after Maxwell was convicted of grooming underage girls to participate in sex acts with him. The British socialite denied the allegations and has appealed her conviction, so far unsuccessfully.
Some of President Donald Trump ’s allies spent years suggesting there was more to the Epstein saga than met the eye and calling for more disclosures. A few got powerful positions in Trump’s Justice Department — and then faced backlash after it abruptly announced that nothing more would be released and that a long-rumored Epstein “client list” doesn’t exist.
After trying unsuccessfully to change the subject and denigrating his own supporters for not moving on, the Republican president told Attorney General Pam Bondi to ask courts to unseal the grand jury transcripts in the case.
A top Justice Department official, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, interviewed Maxwell late last month, at the government’s request. Last week, she was moved from a federal prison in Florida to a prison camp in Texas to continue serving her 20-year sentence. Officials didn’t explain why.
Trump said Tuesday that he didn’t know ahead of time about Maxwell’s prison transfer and hadn’t spoken to Blanche about his conversation with her.
“I think he probably wants to make sure that people should not be involved, or aren’t involved, are not hurt by something that would be very, very unfortunate, very unfair to a lot of people,” Trump said in a news conference Tuesday.
The Epstein uproar also has reached Congress, where the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed the Justice Department on Tuesday for files in the case. The committee also issued subpoenas to conduct sworn questioning of former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and eight former top law enforcement officials.
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, the Long March-5B Y4 carrier rocket carrying the space lab module Mengtian blasts off from the Wenchang Satellite Launch Center in south China’s Hainan Province on Oct. 31, 2022. (Hu Zhixuan/Xinhua via AP, File)
A top Philippine security official on Tuesday condemned China’s latest rocket launch, which caused suspected debris to fall near a western Philippine province. Authorities said the incident sparked alarm and posed a danger to people, ships, and aircraft.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage from the suspected Chinese rocket debris that fell near Palawan province Monday night, National Security Adviser Eduardo Año said. However, he added that these posed “a clear danger and risk to land areas and to ships, aircraft, fishing boats and other vessels” near the expected drop zones.
“We condemn in no uncertain terms the irresponsible testing done by the People’s Republic of China of its Long March 12 rocket which alarmed the public and placed the people of Palawan at risk,” Año said in a statement.
People were alarmed after hearing loud explosions Monday night in Palawan’s Puerto Princesa city and nearby towns, Año said, adding that “local residents also saw a fireball cross the sky that later exploded causing the ground to shake.”
Chinese officials did not immediately comment on Año’s statement.
China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported that the Long March-12 rocket that lifted off Monday night from a commercial spacecraft launch site on the southern island province of Hainan successfully carried a group of internet satellites into pre-set orbit. It was the 587th mission by the Long March carrier rockets, Xinhua said, citing the launch site.
It was not immediately clear if Chinese authorities notified nearby countries like the Philippines of possible debris from its latest rocket launch.
Such Chinese rocket debris have been found farther away from the Philippine archipelago in the past.
The Philippine Space Agency said Monday that debris from the rocket launch was expected to have fallen within two identified drop zones about 21 nautical miles (39 kilometers) from Puerto Princesa City in Palawan and 18 nautical miles (33 kilometers) from Tubbataha Reef Natural Park, an area of coral reefs in the Sulu Sea off eastern Palawan that is popular among divers and conservators.
“Unburned debris from rockets, such as the booster and fairing, are designed to be discarded as the rocket enters outer space,” the space agency said. “While not projected to fall on land features or inhabited areas, falling debris poses danger and potential risk to ships, aircraft, fishing boats and other vessels that will pass through the drop zone.”
A student of Gurukul school of Art completes artwork of U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, in Mumbai, India, Friday, Aug. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)
The men shared bear hugs, showered praise on each other and made appearances side by side at stadium rallies — a big optics boost for two populist leaders with ideological similarities. Each called the other a good friend.
In India, the bonhomie between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Donald Trump was seen as a relationship like no other. That is, until a series of events gummed up the works.
From Trump’s tariffs and India’s purchase of oil from Russia to a U.S. tilt toward Pakistan, friction between New Delhi and Washington has been hard to miss. And much of it has happened far from the corridors of power and, unsurprisingly, through Trump’s posts on social media.
It has left policy experts wondering whether the camaraderie the two leaders shared may be a thing of the past, even though Trump has stopped short of referring to Modi directly on social media. The dip in rapport, some say, puts a strategic bilateral relationship built over decades at risk.
“This is a testing time for the relationship,” said Ashok Malik, a former policy adviser in India’s Foreign Ministry.
The White House did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Simmering tensions over trade and tariffs
The latest hiccup between India and the U.S. emerged last week when Trump announced that he was slapping 25% tariffs on India as well as an unspecified penalty because of India’s purchasing of Russian oil. For New Delhi, such a move from its largest trading partner is expected to be felt across sectors, but it also led to a sense of unease in India — even more so when Trump, on social media, called India’s economy “dead.”
Trump’s recent statements reflect his frustration with the pace of trade talks with India, according to a White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal administration thinking. The Republican president has not been pursuing any strategic realignment with Pakistan, according to the official, but is instead trying to play hardball in negotiations.
Trump doubled down on the pressure Monday with a fresh post on Truth Social, in which he accused India of buying “massive amounts” of oil from Russia and then “selling it on the Open Market for big profits.”
“They don’t care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine. Because of this, I will be substantially raising the Tariff paid by India to the USA,” he said.
The messaging appears to have stung Modi’s administration, which has been hard-selling negotiations with Trump’s team over a trade deal by balancing between India’s protectionist system while also opening up the country’s market to more American goods.
“Strenuous, uninterrupted and bipartisan efforts in both capitals over the past 25 years are being put at risk by not just the tariffs but by fast and loose statements and social media posts,” said Malik, who now heads the India chapter of The Asia Group, a U.S. advisory firm .
Malik also said the trade deal the Indian side has offered to the U.S. is the “most expansive in this country’s history,” referring to reports that India was willing to open up to some American agricultural products. That is a politically sensitive issue for Modi, who faced a yearlong farmers’ protest a few years ago.
Trump appears to be tilting toward Pakistan
The unraveling may have gained momentum over tariffs, but the tensions have been palpable for a while. Much of it has to do with Trump growing closer to Pakistan, India’s nuclear rival in the neighborhood.
In May, India and Pakistan traded a series of military strikes over a gun massacre in disputed Kashmir that New Delhi blamed Islamabad for. Pakistan denied the accusations. The four-day conflict made the possibility of a nuclear conflagration between the two sides seem real and the fighting only stopped when global powers intervened.
But it was Trump’s claims of mediation and an offer to work to provide a “solution” regarding the dispute over Kashmir that made Modi’s administration uneasy. Since then, Trump has repeated nearly two dozen times that he brokered peace between India and Pakistan.
For Modi, that is a risky — even nervy — territory. Domestically, he has positioned himself as a leader who is tough on Pakistan. Internationally, he has made huge diplomatic efforts to isolate the country. So Trump’s claims cut a deep wound, prompting a sense in India that the U.S. may no longer be its strategic partner.
India insists that Kashmir is India’s internal issue and had opposed any third-party intervention. Last week Modi appeared to dismiss Trump’s claims after India’s Opposition began demanding answers from him. Modi said that “no country in the world stopped” the fighting between India and Pakistan, but he did not name Trump.
Trump has also appeared to be warming up to Pakistan, even praising its counterterrorism efforts. Hours after levying tariffs on India, Trump announced a “massive” oil exploration deal with Pakistan, saying that some day, India might have to buy oil from Islamabad. Earlier, he also hosted one of Pakistan’s top military officials at a private lunch.
Sreeram Sundar Chaulia, an expert at New Delhi’s Jindal School of International Affairs, said Trump’s sudden admiration for Pakistan as a great partner in counterterrorism has “definitely soured” the mood in India.
Chaulia said “the best-case scenario is that this is just a passing Trump whim,” but he also warned that “if financial and energy deals are indeed being struck between the U.S. and Pakistan, it will dent the U.S.-India strategic partnership and lead to loss of confidence in the U.S. in Indian eyes.”
India’s oil purchases from Russia are an irritant
The strain in relations has also to do with oil.
India had faced strong pressure from the Biden administration to cut back its oil purchases from Moscow during the early months of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Instead, India bought more, making it the second-biggest buyer of Russian oil after China. That pressure sputtered over time and the U.S. focused more on building strategic ties with India, which is seen as a bulwark against a rising China.
Trump’s threat to penalize India over oil, however, brought back those issues.
On Sunday, the Trump administration made its frustrations over ties between India and Russia ever more public. Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff at the White House, accused India of financing Russia’s war in Ukraine by purchasing oil from Moscow, saying it was “not acceptable.”
Miller’s remarks were followed by another Trump social media post on Monday in which he again threatened to raise tariffs on goods from India over its Russian oil purchases.
“India is not only buying massive amounts of Russian Oil, they are then, for much of the Oil purchased, selling it on the Open Market for big profits. They don’t care how many people in Ukraine are being killed by the Russian War Machine,” Trump wrote.
Some experts, though, suspect Trump’s remarks are mere pressure tactics. “Given the wild fluctuations in Trump’s policies,” Chaulia said, “it may return to high fives and hugs again.”
THIS is the shocking moment a Virgin Atlantic passenger hurled abuse at a hostess he threatened to “gang rape and set alight”
Disturbing footage shows Salman Iftikhar, 37, tell stewardess Angie Walsh she would be attacked in her hotel after landing.
Angie (left) was supported by sister Claire Walsh (right) at Birmingham Crown CourtCredit: Central News
He spouted his vile rant after downing champagne on an eight-hour flight from London Heathrow to Lahore on February 7 2023.
Iftikhar said Ms Walsh would be taken from her hotel room, gang raped and set on fire.
Another passenger, who filmed the shocking scenes, can be heard saying “holy s**t”.
Iftikhar repeatedly accuses Ms Walsh of being a racist and says: “You called me a P**i in front of everybody.”
The 37-year-old had been flying with his wife and three children, Isleworth Crown Court heard.
Prosecuting, Abdul Kapadia, said: “During the defendant’s first meal service, the defendant was seen helping himself to ice, leaning over the bar he was drinking at, and taking ice with his hands.
“When told to stop, the defendant became irate, and started to film cabin crew with his phone, telling them: ‘Do not tell me what to do you b***h.
“When asked by the cabin crew to return to his seat, he then said: ‘Don’t tell me what to do you racist f***ing b***h. I know where you are from in Cardiff.”
Staff alerted the pilot and the seat belt signs were turned on, which only aggravated Iftikhar more.
He continued to call Ms Walsh a “f***ing b***h” before his escalating behaviour sparked a possible flight diversion to Turkey.
“The defendant was informed of this possible diversion, to which he replied: ‘I don’t care. F**k-it, go to Turkey. I have contacts,” the prosecutor told the court.
“The defendant then sat down, but his aggressive behaviour continued.
“His wife was ashamed. His three children were also on-board,
and other crew members were called to assist, but the defendant continued shouting and swearing.
“He was slurring his words, with his voice raised.
“He shouted at the cabin crew: ‘Do you know who I am?’
“The defendant’s wife went to the food bar and tried to talk to cabin crew, but the defendant pushed his wife away, and shouted at her not to talk to crew.”
He grabbed one flight attendant, called Tommy Merchant, and threatened him with a fight.
‘YOU WILL BE DEAD’
The out-of-control passenger then told cabin crew he would blow up the floor of their hotel.
“The defendant knew the specific hotel, but also the hotel room numbers, and threatened the cabin crew with this,” Mr Kapadia told the court.
“He told Ms Walsh: ‘You will be dead on the floor of your hotel’.
“Iftikhar shouted at Ms Walsh and said: ‘The white sheep sh**ging b***h will be dead. The floor of your hotel will be blown up and it will disappear.
“He told Ms Walsh: ‘You will be dragged by your hair from your room and gang raped and set on fire’.”
His violent rant unfolded in front of his wife and three young children – who were brought to tears.
Iftikhar was arrested at his £900,000 detached home in Iver, Bucks, on March 16, 2024.
‘IT HAS BROKEN ME’
In an impact statement, Ms Walsh said she was forced to take off 14 months and the altercation “changed my life enormously”.
“I can’t quite believe that one passenger has had this much of an impact on my, my job, my career and my life,” she said.
“I am a strong brave, happy stewardess, and loved my job. I am well known within the company.
“But I had to take 14 months off work.
“I have been flying with Virgin Atlantic for 37 years. I was working when all flights were grounded on 9/11, and I’ve even flown into a warzone. But this incident has broken me.
“But I don’t feel strong enough anymore. I was abused for eight hours and 15 mins. It has broken me. It was a very personal attack.
“I was doing everything in my power to protect passengers and the crew from him. I felt exposed and vulnerable, especially as we were 39,000 feet in the air. There was nowhere for me to go.
“There was one moment where I felt I could not cope. I went into the cockpit and had a meltdown. I said to the captain I don’t know what to do.
“Even the threat of diverting the plane to Turkey or Baku, Azerbaijan, had no effect.
“I was traumatised by the threat of being gang raped.
“Never in my entire career flying for 37 years have I not been sure what to do.
“I have had the best career in the world for 37 years. But he has taken that away from me.”
“He told Ms Walsh: ‘You will be dead on the floor of your hotel’
Iftikhar, of Iver, Bucks, admitted making threats to kill and racially aggravated harassment, in relation to Ms Walsh.
He was cleared of assault by beating and threats to kill in relation to Mr Merchant.
Ben Walker-Nolan, defending, said Iftikhar was suffering from “amnesia blood loss” at the time.
Mr Walker-Nolan added: “Although there were over 100 incidents over the course of eight hours, the most serious, including threats to kill, were limited.
“The defendant has buried his head in the sand for a long period, and expressed regret.
“He has a long standing drug and alcohol problem which he has not addressed for many years.
“He is a successful businessman who employs a lot of people.”
THUG JAILED
Iftikhar has six previous convictions arising from 15 offences, including common assault in 2004 and drink driving in 2008 and failing to stop and possession of cannabis in 2021.
Judge Ms Recorder Annabel Darlow KC said: “Your threats to kill were made in the presence of children, specifically your three young children.
“These were threats made with significant violence.
“Your children had to be comforted by cabin crew staff while you made those threats.
“Ms Walsh has given up a job which she has loved for 14 months, but thankfully has now returned to work.
“This was a sustained incident which involved repeated racist abuse to Ms Walsh.
“You have a lengthy and appalling record of misconduct. You have not addressed the underlying cause of this for many years, that is your drug and alcohol problem.
“Given your lifestyle and your ability to earn money, your harm and risk has not moved.
“This was an appalling incident which has caused long lasting and devastating consequences.”
Iftikhar cried in the dock as he was jailed for 15 months.
His LinkedIn profile stated that he was the director and founder of recruitment firm Staffing Match.
A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson commented: “The safety and security of our customers and crew is always our top priority, and we take a zero-tolerance approach to any disruptive or abusive behaviour on board our aircraft.
“We will always work closely with the relevant authorities and will not hesitate to seek prosecution for those individuals that cause disruption onboard through unacceptable behaviour.
PARENTS have been warned to keep an eye out for a potentially fatal disease that’s cropping up in daycares across the US.
The sickness mainly affects children under five and can have some terrifying symptoms.
Public health officials have announced that hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) has been detected in daycares.
Earlier this year, there were six outbreaks in Virginia, according to an alert published by the Fairfax County Health District.
And a massive 189 cases have been confirmed in St Thomas, including one possible infection that proved fatal, the US Virgin Islands Department of Health said.
The disease isn’t just affecting children either.
Though it’s more dangerous in young kids, more cases have been seen in adults, which have left patients with rashes and nail loss, medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel told Fox News.
HFMD cases peak in the summer, so parents should know what to look for, especially if their children are surrounded by other toddlers.
Most kids who catch the disease develop a fever, sore throat, painful mouth sores that blister, and a rash on the hands and feet, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
The illness is usually harmless, and most children will recover from mild symptoms after seven to ten days.
However, it is highly contagious.
Other kids can get HFMD from droplets that spread from sneezing, coughing, or talking, or from surfaces that have the virus on them.
Fluid from blisters and poop can also carry the nasty sickness.
PREVENTING INFECTION
To prevent children from catching HFMD, parents should try their best to keep their kids away from anyone who is infected.
It’s important to wash hands often, especially after using the restroom, sneezing, or changing a diaper.
If a kid has blisters, parents should help keep them clean and wash their child’s face.
Caregivers should also try not to hug or kiss children who are infected.
People suffering from HFMD should be kept at home and take over-the-counter pain medications.
Because they might have sores in their mouths, it’s important to try and force children to drink water so they aren’t dehydrated.
There aren’t any vaccines to prevent against HFMD.
One health expert said that a commonly used item can transfer HFMD.
More than 1 million Ukrainians have fled to Germany since Russia’s full-scale invasion of their home country in February 2022Image: Jochen Eckel/IMAGO
Markus Söder, premier of Bavaria, Germany’s largest state, wants to do away with current rules governing access to aid money for Ukrainian refugees living in Germany. The head of the Christian Social Union (CSU), part of Germany’s conservative CDU/CSU union, is of the opinion that Ukrainian refugees should get less money in general — no matter if they are new arrivals or have been living in Germany for years.
Söder’s proposal far exceeds the changes promised in the CDU/CSU’s coalition agreement, which it signed with the Social Democrats (SPD) in May to form the current government. In the contract — which forms the basis for the coalition’s existence — signatory parties agreed to cut financial assistance to new Ukrainian refugees applying for asylum in the country. The coalition agreement, however, explicitly exempted cuts for Ukrainian refugees already living in Germany.
How much do Ukrainian refugees get in Germany — and elsewhere in Europe?
To date, Ukrainian refugees fleeing to Germany have all been afforded so-called citizens’ money [Bürgergeld] payments, meaning they receive the same amount of welfare assistance that an unemployed German would. For single adults, that means a sum of €563 ($650) each month. Further, German taxpayers cover the cost of rent and health insurance for their guests. In all, that means Germany is among the most financially generous countries when it comes to assistance for Ukrainians forced to flee their homes because of war. Unlike others, Ukrainian refugees are also given permission to immediately enter the German labor market upon arrival.
Bavaria’s Söder now wants to slash that assistance to people applying for asylum. That would mean a monthly stipend between €353 and €441 for single adults, depending on their living situation. Families would also receive between €299 and €391 monthly for each child they have, with payments varying according to age.
Ukrainian refugees in the European Union
The European Union (EU) classifies Ukrainian refugees as individuals “deserving of temporary protection” under a mechanism established in 2001. These guidelines were activated for the first time in 2022, shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The guidelines stipulate that EU host countries must provide refugees, in this case Ukrainians, with access to housing, employment and health care. The guidelines do not, however, define the value of those payments and/or services, leading to great disparities across the 27-member bloc.
Poland
Poland does not hand out monthly payments and Warsaw has even gone so far as to do away with its previous one-time payment of roughly €70 for each adult refugee arriving from Ukraine. Ukrainian refugees in Poland are instead given a personal identification number, giving them access to jobs, education and free health care.
Ukrainian parents are given a monthly €190 payment for their first child, with smaller payments for each child after that. Parents caring for children with a disability or those with chronic illnesses may also apply for welfare assistance.
Hungary
In Hungary, the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban — known for his anti-immigrant sentiments — tightened rules defining which Ukrainian refugees it feels are “deserving of temporary protection.” Western Ukraine, for instance, is now viewed as a safe place of origin in the eyes of Hungary’s lawmakers, meaning refugees hailing from those parts have no right to free housing at state-run refugee facilities. The international NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) decried the move, saying it put thousands of Ukrainians on the streets.
Adult refugees considered worthy of protection are afforded a €55 monthly payment as well as about €34 a month for each child in their family.
Belgium
In Belgium, single adult refugees from Ukraine receive approximately €1,100 per month in assistance, the highest rate in the EU. Moreover, they receive publicly funded health insurance and have the right to publicly funded housing. Furthermore, refugees can apply for financial assistance for the acquisition of furniture, clothing, medical necessities (including glasses) and food.
Sweden
Ukrainian refugees in Sweden do not receive monthly stipends but daily cash allotments. Adults can receive up to about €180-€190 by month’s end but only if they have no other income.
Payment for children adds up to roughly €140 per month. Additional funds are available for items such as winter clothing or baby carriages. Ukrainian refugees theoretically have access to funds for things like glasses, yet they generally only have the right to medical assistance in emergency situations or in the case of care that cannot be delayed.
Despite aid being air-dropped into Gaza, the situation on the ground remains dire. Israel faces mounting pressure to allow more aid to enter through land crossings.
Aid being airdropped is significantly less efficient than bringing it in by landImage: AFP/Getty Images
In response to Gaza’s worsening hunger crisis, Israel has allowed several countries to airdrop food pallets into the war-torn territory. On Monday, planes from the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Germany, Belgium and Canada dropped 120 aid packages, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.
On Tuesday, Israel said it would partially reopen the entry of goods for trade in Gaza through local vendors to decrease itsdependency on humanitarian aid.
However, Palestinians on the ground and humanitarian organizations say the aid is insufficient and poorly distributed.
“What’s being dropped from the sky doesn’t reach anyone except those who can fight others,” said Diaa al-Asaad, a 50-year-old displaced father of six in Gaza City who spoke to DW by phone. Foreign journalists are barred from entering Gaza.
Some drop zones, strategic locations where supplies are airdropped, are difficult to access, he continued, as they are often located near or inside Israeli-controlled militarized areas, known as “red zones.”
“We need aid to be distributed fairly to all residents, not this way,” he said.
Majed Ziad, a resident of Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp, echoed those concerns: “The solution isn’t to throw food at us. People need normal, humane access [to food] — unlike animals chasing prey in the jungle.”
‘Worst-case scenario unfolding’
The airdrops come amid a worsening humanitarian catastrophe. Gaza’s 2.2 million residents face severe shortages, with many dependent on external aid. Local food production has been largely destroyed. And throughout the war, experts have warned that Gaza is on the brink of starvation.
The UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) warns that the “worst-case scenario of famine is unfolding,” while the World Health Organization (WHO) noted a sharp rise in malnutrition-related deaths among children last month.
Israel, which controls Gaza’s border, cut off supplies in early March to pressure Hamas— a designated terrorist organization by many countries — saying the group was diverting supplies.
Amid intentional pressure, Israel resumed limited aid deliveries in May but shifted to distribution sites managed by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). Hundreds have been killed near these distribution points, allegedly by Israeli fire.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly blamed Hamas for looting aid and said that Israel was ‘vilified’ by claims that there is hunger in Gaza.
“They lie about us. They say that we are deliberately starving Palestinian children. That’s a bare-faced lie. Since the beginning of the war, we have let in almost 2 million tons of food,” he said in a video posted on X.
Since the war began in October 2023, Hamas-run local health authorities have reported over 60,000 deaths, with many more feared trapped under rubble. Local authorities do not distinguish between combatants and civilians, though the vast majority of victims are said to be women and minors.
Controversies over aid airdrops
Humanitarian groups consider airdrops a last resort due to risks on the ground.
On Monday, reports emerged that a nurse in Gaza was killed when a falling aid pallet struck him during the latest round of drops.
UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X that airdrops are costly and less effective than land deliveries through crossings.
“Airdrops are at least 100 times more costly than trucks. Trucks carry twice as much aid as planes,” he wrote.
On a recent trip to Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories, Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul acknowledged the limitation of airdrops and called on Israel to open land crossings for effective aid delivery.
“The land route is crucial,” he said. “Here, the Israeli government has a duty to quickly allow sufficient humanitarian and medical aid to pass through safely, so that mass starvation deaths can be prevented.”
He acknowledged that more aid trucks were entering Gaza, but added “it is still insufficient,” calling for a “fundamental change” in Israeli policy.
Tactical pauses and humanitarian corridors
Alongside airdrops, the Israeli military announced tactical pauses and humanitarian corridors for aid convoys in three Gaza regions last week. Yet the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarians Affairs (OCHA) reported aid entering Gaza “remains insufficient” and convoys face delays and dangers. For example, a fuel delivery recently took 18 hours to travel just 24 kilometers (15 miles).
Many Palestinians have been killed near GHF distribution sites or while waiting for aid convoys. Aid trucks often do not reach intended recipients due to looting, either by desperate residents or black-market dealers.
Dalia al-Affifi, a mother of two in Gaza City, said most aid never reaches ordinary people. Prices for basics, like flour, have skyrocketed, sometimes reaching 100-120 shekels (€25-€30, $29-$35) per kilogram, well beyond the reach of many.
Jihadist violence has displaced rural communities from Nigeria’s northern agricultural heartland. Now, aid agencies warn that funding cuts and abandoned farmlands threaten food security in Nigeria.
A growing food and security crisis in northern Nigeria could have a severe impact on the whole country, experts warnImage: Abiodun Jamiu/DW
The United Nations (UN) has described a looming hunger crisis in northern Nigeria as “unprecedented,” with analysts estimating that at least 5 million children are already suffering from acute malnutrition. This is despite northern Nigeria traditionally being the nation’s agricultural heartland, producing maize, millet, and sorghum.
In northeastern Nigeria alone, which includes Borno State, over one million people are believed to be facing hunger. Margot van der Velden, Western Africa Regional Director for the World Food Programme (WFP), said nearly 31 million Nigerians face acute food insecurity and need life-saving food, just as funds for West and Central Africa are shrinking.
Dwindling aid funds
Many aid programs in West Africa face closure following the Trump administration’s dismantling of USAID. The WFP warned its emergency food aid program would stop by July 31 due to “critical funding shortfalls” and that its food and nutrition stocks “have been completely exhausted.” By late July, the WFP’s appeal for over $130 million (€113 million) to sustain operations in Nigeria for 2025 was only 21% funded.
“It is a matter of emergency for the government to see what it can do urgently to provide relief so that there is no outbreak of conflict which will be counter-productive to the progress made in the past,” Dauda Muhammad, a humanitarian coordinator in northeastern Nigeria, told DW.
Dauda adds that reduced funding, along with few job opportunities and soaring prices, would bring about food insecurity that could undo years of work that tried to diminish the influence of armed jihadist groups, such as Boko Haram, in northern Nigeria.
However, Samuel Malik, a senior researcher at Good Governance Africa, a pan-African think-tank, told DW that the root cause of the problem lies elsewhere. “The hunger crisis currently crippling northern Nigeria is fundamentally a consequence of poor governance and protracted insecurity, rather than the result of aid cuts.”
He says that although “plays a vital role in alleviating the most severe manifestations of Nigeria’s food insecurity, it was never designed to be comprehensive or a long time.”
Villagers have been forced to flee unsafe rural areas to places like the Ramin Kura displacement camp in Sokoto, northwestern Nigeria. 40-year-old Umaimah Abubakar from Ranganda village told DW she moved there after bandits killed her husband and rustled all her in-laws’ animals.
“Whenever we heard they were approaching, we would run and hide,” she said, adding that the community has tried to protect itself by recruiting vigilantes. “Everyone is suffering because there’s no food. We couldn’t farm this year. Sometimes, when we manage to plant, the bandits attack before the harvest. Other times, after you’ve harvested and stored your crops, they come and burn everything.”
She says she earns a little money by washing plates to buy food for her children.
“Those who didn’t farm will surely go hungry. No farming means no food, especially for villagers like us,” Abubakar told DW, “Many now resort to begging or doing odd jobs. We used to plant millet, guinea corn, maize, and sesame.”
Sowing seeds of fear on the frontline
Gurnowa, located in Borno State, which borders the Lake Chad region of Cameroon, Niger and Chad has been hit by a massive exodus. Situated 5 km (3 miles) from the military fortified town of Monguno, Gurnowa has been deserted for years following jihadist attacks. Residents have sought shelter in sprawling, makeshift camps under military protection in Monguno, 140 km north of the regional capital Maiduguri. The camps accommodate tens of thousands of internally displaced people, who fled their homes to escape the violence, which, according to the UN, has already killed over 40,000 people and displaced more than two million from their homes in the last 16 years.
“What is driving the crisis more persistently is the Nigerian state’s failure to provide security and deliver basic governance to its rural populations,” analyst Samuel Malik tells DW. “In the absence of safety, displaced persons are unable or unwilling to return to their farmlands, thus cutting off from their primary means of livelihood. And in this context, hunger is not simply the byproduct of war, but also of systemic neglect.”
But Gurnowa is just one instance. While Boko Haram militants threaten the northeast, banditry and farmer-herder clashes plague the northwest and north-central regions of Africa’s most populous nation. Rural economies are producing less, with crop farmers unable to carry out their livelihoods, and remain unable to feed Nigeria or communities in neighboring Niger. In addition to less food, the price of staples has shot up, creating more financial stress.
Plea for farmers to return to their fields
Borno State Governor Babagana Umara Zulum recently renewed calls for the displaced to return to their farms in time for the rainy season to grow food.
Local governments say internally displaced peoples’ camps are no longer sustainable, but aid agencies still worry about the risk of jihadist violence. “We are in a difficult situation, especially with hunger and lack of food,” a displaced person from Borno State told DW. “Some of us refugees claim they are better off by joining the Boko Haram terrorist group,” he added.
DW found more instances of young men in Borno State saying they remained jobless and hungry, despite government promises to reward them for leaving jihadist groups. Local governments, however, are wary of appearing to support ex-jihadists over the victims of their violence.
“India should not be buying oil from Russia. But China, an adversary and the number one buyer of Russian and Iranian oil, got a 90-day tariff pause,” Nikki Haley said in a post on X.
Nikki Haley was the former Governor of South Carolina (File)
The US should not burn its relationship with a “strong ally like India” and give a pass to China, Indian-American Republican leader Nikki Haley said on Tuesday, amid President Donald Trump’s attacks against New Delhi over tariffs and purchases of Russian oil.
“India should not be buying oil from Russia. But China, an adversary and the number one buyer of Russian and Iranian oil, got a 90-day tariff pause,” Nikki Haley said in a post on X.
“Don’t give China a pass and burn a relationship with a strong ally like India,” she said.
Haley, the former Governor of South Carolina, was the US Ambassador to the United Nations under Trump’s first presidential term, becoming the first Indian-American to be appointed to a cabinet-level post in the US administration.
In 2013, she officially announced her candidacy for the 2024 presidential election and withdrew from the race in March last year. Her comments came hours after Trump said India has not been a “good trading partner” and announced he will raise tariffs on India “very substantially over the next 24 hours” because New Delhi is buying Russian oil and “fueling” the “war machine”.
India on Monday mounted an unusually sharp counterattack on the US and the European Union for their “unjustified and unreasonable” targeting of New Delhi for its procurement of Russian crude oil.
New Delhi’s response came after Trump asserted that Washington will substantially raise tariffs on goods from India over its energy ties with Russia.
Meanwhile, Trump, in an interview with CNBC responded to a question on China and its leader, Xi Jinping, and said, “We have a very good relationship”.
Trump added that he might have a meeting with the Chinese President “before the end of the year, most likely, if we make a deal.” He said he won’t have a meeting if a deal doesn’t materialise.
August 5 marks one year when Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina was forced to flee amid a movement against her authoritarian regime. But was it just a students’ agitation that brought her powerful government down, or was it urban guerilla tactics of attacking security personnel or the army’s hands-off approach? Decoding what became the ultimate nemesis for Hasina.
Protestors stormed into Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Dhaka residence, Ganabhaban, on August 5, 2024, after she was forced to flee. (AFP Image)
On August 5 last year, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina boarded a military helicopter in the nick of time to flee from Bangladesh as lakhs of protesters headed towards her official residence in Dhaka. Such was the haste that she couldn’t even record an address to the nation that she wanted to. But how did the regime of Hasina, who ruled with an iron fist for 15 years, crumble within weeks?
Was it more than just a student-led uprising? Did urban guerilla-style attacks aided by Hasina’s political rivals and the hands-off approach of the military play as big a role as the agitation itself in pulling down the Awami League-led government?
Bangladeshi political experts and activists in Dhaka and those in self-imposed exile describe how it was a perfect storm that combined all the above to blow away the regime that had the backing of the security and intelligence apparatus and foot soldiers of her Awami League and its student wing, the Chhatra League.
The official death toll of the mass protest, which saw security personnel opening fire on unarmed protesters and retaliatory attacks on the police, stands at 1,400. Experts suggest the toll to be much higher.
Bangladeshi-American political analyst Shafquat Rabbee says it was a “confluence of fortuitous events and conditions that all came together, ending up in a spectacular collapse for Hasina the tyrant”.
Rabbee talks about how the videos of brutal killings by the security forces got all sections of Bangladeshi society to take to the streets against Hasina.
A political commentator from Dhaka, requesting anonymity, tells India Today Digital that anti-Hasina forces had cultivated people for years within the administration. As the students-led agitation peaked, those officials stopped functioning, bringing about a total collapse of the state machinery.
Political parties like the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Jamaat-e-Islami, which were suppressed by the Hasina regime, too played their part, the experts agree. The students wouldn’t have lasted even a single night without the support of the parties’ street-fighters, who have protected them with their experience of taking on the police force.
Bangladeshi political activist and writer Faham Abdus Salam says the attack on the police personnel revealed the movement had moved to the next phase, and that the Hasina government had lost its fear factor.
The last nail in the Hasina regime’s coffin was Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman’s declaration that the forces wouldn’t shoot at protesters. This came as a booster shot for the crowd, which now had students, common people and members of political and Islamist outfits.
Salam also reveals that some within the military establishment harboured thoughts of preparing a guerilla force if Hasina hung on to power beyond August 5.
A year on, as the haze somewhat lifts, the July-August movement can be divided into three distinct phases, which reveal the role of the political parties and the military in the ouster of Hasina. Till now, the July-August movement was perceived as only a student-spearheaded agitation.
BRUTAL KILLING VIDEOS FANNED ANTI-HASINA IRE
Sheikh Hasina returned to power for a fourth consecutive term in January 2024. The election was boycotted by the BNP, the main opposition party, and was alleged to have been extremely rigged and stage-managed.
People were tired of the corrupt regime, but enforced disappearances by the establishment forced people to stay silent. The brutal Aynaghar torture or the fear of it forced some of the best brains to flee Bangladesh. The government was seen to be working just for Hasina cronies and Awami Leaguers.
Amid this, the Bangladesh High Court’s decision in June to reinstate a quota that would reserve 30% of the civil service jobs for descendants of 1971 War veterans, seen as Hasina backers, lit the fuse.
Students took to the streets in a country where a government job is seen by millions as the only way out of poverty. The protests gained momentum in July, and Hasina’s branding the students “Razakar”, a highly despicable term in Bangladesh, acted like a catalyst. The protests spread across Bangladesh.
By mid-July, Chhatra League members, along with the police, were fighting the protesters on the streets of Dhaka. On July 16, six protesters, including 25-year-old student Abu Sayed, were killed by police firing.
“For the Hasina government, after July 17, it was all about crushing the movement. People retaliated, and then the regime started killing people indiscriminately,” says Salam, who has been living in Australia in a self-imposed exile for a decade.
The image of Abu Sayed inviting bullets with open arms went on to define the protests. Videos of brutal attacks and killings of protesters unnerved all sections of Bangladeshi society.
“Urban guerilla tactics work by creating victims, and fighting the war around them,” says the political commentator from Dhaka.
Hasina tried to buy peace by promising a probe, but the situation had spiralled out of control. On August 3, the Students Against Discrimination came out with a single-point demand — Sheikh Hasina’s resignation.
Most organic protests do not last beyond days without support from established political or civil structures. That the students-led agitation and the students themselves survived and fought for weeks pointed at the role of political parties and the military in the fall of Hasina.
MASTANS OF BNP, JAMAAT PROVIDED STREET MUSCLE
Political parties like the BNP and the Jamaat, facing political suppression, had been emaciated. Such was the situation, that the Jamaat didn’t manage to even unlock its sealed office in Dhaka over the years.
The students’ protest gave the parties the much-needed oxygen, and they used the students’ agitation to launch a full-scale attack on the Hasina apparatus.
“After July 19, police were attacked not by university students, but by BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami activists and daily-waged labourers who had joined in the protests by then,” Salam tells India Today Digital.
As evidence of that, the activist points to a video of protesters chasing away a team of security personnel in five vans, which went viral.
“You can see one person starts running at the police, and then a crowd follows him and starts chasing the cops. The person who first started chasing the cops was later identified as a BNP member. This was the case in most instances. Those leading the attacks against cops were either BNP or Jamaat members or daily-waged labourers,” says Salam.
Rabbee says among all the political parties, the BNP counts the highest number of dead activists during the July-August agitation for a reason.
“Parties like the BNP had seasoned leadership who were battle-hardened and knew how to survive and fight government machinery. The young student leaders brought political innocence into the play and attracted the masses, and the BNP and the Jamaat provided street credibility and muscle,” Rabbee tells India Today Digital.
Major political parties like the BNP also arranged physical safety and safe houses for the student leaders when they were on the run.
Salam says the Hasina government, which had dealt with online activists, was spooked by two things — shut down of remittances by Bangladeshi expats and attacks on police stations.
“People attacking the cops was an escalation that showed that the movement was in the next phase. The retaliation was evidence that the fear of the Hasina regime was gone, and it could be toppled,” explains Salam.
What goes on to show that it wasn’t the students who were mostly involved in the street warfare was that the worst violence took place after Hasina fled Bangladesh on August 5. There were political reprisal killings in which scores of Awami League and Chhatra League leaders were massacred.
“Members of Islamist organisations and Jamaat members were at the forefront when it came to attacking cops and Awami League leaders. They followed urban guerilla tactics to bring down the Hasina government, and exact revenge after that,” said the Dhaka-based commentator.
Bangladesh had descended into lawlessness and chaos for days after the fall of the Hasina regime, and the army had to step in.
BANGLADESH ARMY’S DECISION NOT TO SHOOT WAS GAMECHANGER
Waker-Uz-Zaman was appointed Bangladesh Army Chief in June 2024, when the country was already simmering.
Zaman, a relative of Hasina, operated with fairness during the entire agitation, according to multiple sources.
By then, protests had even started in Defence Officers Housing Society areas in Dhaka. This was unprecedented because military officers were pampered by Hasina and their children brought up in relative affluence.
“Hasina not only took care of the military with unprecedented largesse, but she also changed the Constitution to deter political intervention by the military, making it a crime of high treason,” says Rabbee.
The lower-rung officers and sepoys, like some of the civilian officials, had by then gone into a civil-disobedience mode. That was a result of news of young relatives falling prey to bullets, sources told India Today Digital.
On August 4, with the Hasina government finding itself embattled with millions ready for the long March to Dhaka a day later, a shoot-at-sight curfew was ordered.
Waker-Uz-Zaman, in a meeting with the top Army commanders on August 4, decided that his force would not shoot at protesters. This, and the reports of military officers unwilling to act against protesters earlier, boosted the confidence of the protesters.
Hundreds of thousands started pouring into Dhaka at daybreak on August 5. That is when General Zaman visited Hasina and asked her to board the military helicopter and save her life.
“Ultimately the military had to force her collapse, mostly because the sheer number of people on Dhaka’s streets with bricks and sticks were simply multiple folds of the count of ammunition the security establishment had at their disposal,” says Rabbee.
Not only did the army take a hands-off approach, some lower-ranking military personnel were also looking at options to bring down the regime if Hasina lasted beyond August 5.
“A military official told me he considered resigning and arming civilians for urban guerrilla warfare if Hasina had not fled on August 5,” says activist-writer Salam, adding, “This tells you this was a civil war situation.”
Donald Trump vowed to keep America out of wars, but the Ukraine conflict has left that promise in tatters. Now, by slapping tariffs on India, he is trying to convince MAGA that he is acting against Russia, even though the move does little beyond raising costs at home and straining ties with New Delhi.
US President Donald Trump vowed to keep America out of wars, but the Ukraine conflict has left that promise in tatters. (Image: File)
On the campaign trail, Donald Trump vowed to keep America out of foreign wars: “They’re dying, Russians and Ukrainians. I want them to stop dying. I’ll have that done in 24 hours,” he said, casting himself against Democrats and touting his friendship with Vladimir Putin as proof he could bring back peace. But with Trump in office, the Ukraine war pulled Washington in deeper, with billions flowing to Kyiv and his promise of distance looking hollow. To convince his MAGA base, Trump has reached for tariffs, hitting Indian imports to project that he’s acting against Russia.
Trump, who inherited the Ukraine-Russia war from predecessor Joe Biden, has ended up making it his own battle. From publicly admonishing Ukrainian President Vlodomir Zelenskyy for “starting the war” to threatening Moscow with nuclear submarines, Trump’s shift has been fast over the last few months. But how does he show he is tough on Russia without confronting Moscow directly? Target India, which has trade and arms ties with Russia.
On July 30, he imposed a 25 percent tariff on all Indian goods, explicitly linking the move to New Delhi’s purchases of Russian arms and discounted crude.
Trump paired the announcement with a blast of sharp rhetoric on Truth Social, writing: “I don’t care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care.”
Days later, in another post, Trump said, “India is not only buying massive amounts of Russian oil, they are then, for much of the oil purchased, selling it on the open market for big profits. Because of this, I will be substantially raising the tariff paid by India to the USA.”
For a man who prides himself on transactional politics, the message was less about India’s policy choices than about the optics he could deliver to his supporters at home. It also drew India-US trade on edge.
TRUMP SPEAKS TO MAGA ON RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR
The tariffs serve one audience above all: Make America Great Again or MAGA proponents.
They revive Trump’s old trade war posture, pleasing protectionists who cheered him the first time around when he went after China.
Tariffs are taxes directly paid by importers, who generally pass it on to the consumers, who are Americans in this case. How it is expected to hurt Indian exporters is by making their goods less competitive and by driving the demand for their goods due to higher pricing.
It is also true that his supporters are already not fans of Indians. Many in the MAGA base resent Indians, who they think “take American jobs” for a cheaper price.
More importantly, they give him a talking point to claim he is “hitting Russia”, not by sanctioning Moscow itself, which could risk escalation, but by punishing one of its biggest customers.
For his base, this becomes proof that Trump is acting tough on Putin while still keeping America out of another foreign war.
This strategy rests on shaky ground, but it has clearly energised parts of the MAGA base.
“To most people, tariffs sound like boring trade policy. To Trump, it’s the most beautiful word in the dictionary. Behind the chaos lies a master plan — Trump’s Tariff Doctrine: Blueprint for a MAGA World Order,” one supporter gushed on X.
Others have echoed that enthusiasm, praising the tariffs as proof of Trump’s toughness.
Yet critics see it differently. As one post put it, Trump is “fooling the base with optics” while shifting the costs onto ordinary Americans who will face higher prices.
REALITY CHECK NEEDED FOR TRUMP?
The reality of India’s Russia ties is more complicated than Trump’s rhetoric allows.
Since the Ukraine war began, Russia has surged to become India’s largest crude supplier, by early 2025 accounting for roughly 35-36% of its imports, up from around 2% in pre-war time, according to data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) and trade tracking cited by Reuters.
In this context, New Delhi’s purchases are a matter of economic necessity, not some grand strategy to prop up Moscow.
At the heart of New Delhi’s approach is its long-standing doctrine of “strategic autonomy”.
That doctrine is not likely to change because of Trump’s tariffs. Instead, India has already pushed back hard, denouncing the move as “unjustified and unreasonable.”
Officials in New Delhi have also pointed to Western hypocrisy. After all, Europe still imports Russian energy in various forms, even while scolding others for doing the same.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs pointed out how the US “actively encouraged” India’s oil imports from Russia because traditional supplies were diverted to Europe after the outbreak of the conflict.
“With his scorched-earth tariff policies and disdain for norms, Trump is a bull in the geopolitical china shop. Dealing with him is a challenge for any country — even more so for risk-averse India. His latest threat prompts India to call out Western hypocrisy on trade with Russia,” wrote strategic affairs expert Brahma Chellaney.
A bruising trade war risks undermining that effort and pushing India to double down on its trade partnerships with Russia and even Beijing.
Moscow weighed in on Trump’s tariff threats against India, saying they were “attempts to force countries to stop trade relations with Russia”.
“We believe that sovereign countries should have, and have the right to choose their own trade partners, partners in trade and economic cooperation,” said Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov.
In standing up to Washington, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also sending out a message that the country is a power in its own right, not a subordinate to American interests. India, as a sovereign country, has all the right to pursue its foreign policy without caring for any intimidation.
As part of the posturing, Trump said last week that he ordered two nuclear submarines to move to the “appropriate regions” after remarks by Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chair of Russia’s security council and former President.
India said that the United States continues to import key materials from Russia, including uranium hexafluoride for its nuclear industry, palladium for electric vehicles, as well as fertilisers and chemicals.
Trump steps up pressure on India to continue to buy oil from Russia.(Photo: Reuters)
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he was unaware that the United States imports uranium and fertilisers from Russia — a point put forward by India as it pushed back against Western criticism of its continued oil trade with Moscow.
“I don’t know anything about it. I have to check it out,” Trump said when asked about India’s mention that Washington was singling it out unfairly while continuing to do business with Russia itself.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had issued a statement a day earlier, defending its Russian oil imports and accusing the US and European Union of hypocrisy.
According to MEA, American companies continue to buy uranium hexafluoride for the nuclear industry, palladium for the EV sector, fertilisers, and chemicals from Russia — even as they pressure India to scale back its own trade ties.
The MEA called the criticism “unjustified and unreasonable” and said India’s energy purchases are dictated by economic necessity. It also reminded the US that Washington had earlier “actively encouraged such imports by India to strengthen global energy markets stability.”
This comes as Trump steps up pressure on India to stop buying oil from Russia, warning that extra tariffs could be imposed within the next 24 hours.
“India has not been a good trading partner, because they do a lot of business with us, but we don’t do business with them. So we settled on 25 percent, but I think I’m going to raise that very substantially over the next 24 hours, because they’re buying Russian oil. They’re fuelling the war machine,” Trump said in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday.
TRUMP HINTS AT TARIFFS ON IMPORTS FROM RUSSIA
When asked whether he would consider imposing a 100% tariff on countries that continue to buy energy from Russia — including China — Trump suggested that action could be on the table.
“I never said a percentage, but we’ll be doing quite a bit of that. We’ll see what happens over the next fairly short period of time. But we will see what happens… We have a meeting with Russia tomorrow. We’re going to see what happens,” Trump said.
The president also added that the goal of the talks will be to end the war between Ukraine and Russia.
“This is the one I’m trying to stop. And one I’m working hardest on. The others stopped within a matter of days,” Trump said.
ROCK star David Roach has died at the age of 59 after battling cancer.
The musician passed away on August 2, according to a post shared by the hard rock band Junkyard.
Rock star David Roach has died after a battle with cancerCredit: Getty
Roach, who co-founded the rock band in 1987, died just two weeks after he married his wife Jennifer.
He was battling a form of aggressive squamous cell carcinoma that affected his head, neck and throat, according to a GoFundMe fundraiser.
Junkyard announced his death in a social media post.
“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of David Roach,” the band said.
“After a courageous battle with cancer, David passed away peacefully last night at home, in the loving arms of his wife.
“He was a gifted artist, performer, songwriter, and singer — but above all, a devoted father, husband, and brother.
“Our thoughts are with the entire Roach family and everyone who loved him.”
In June, Junkyard shared a social media post explaining that Roach’s cancer was “aggressive”.
Roach and Jennifer were said to be shattered by his diagnosis.
“It’s devastating and life-altering, and we’re trying to navigate through the emotions and uncertainty that come with it,” she wrote on social media.
“David is showing such incredible strength and resilience, and even in the midst of this darkness, he’s still managing to keep his sense of humor. It’s a reminder of how amazing he is.
“But we know this journey ahead will be extremely tough, David made it clear he is not giving up hope and we’re going to need all of your love and prayers.”
Roach performed alongside the guitarist Chris Gates, bassist Clay Anthony, drummer Patrick Muzingo, and guitarist Brian Baker between 1987 and 1992.
The band performed in live shows in the early 2000s, and released what was their first studio album in more than 20 years in 2017.
Tributes have been paid to Roach following his death.
Award-winning composer Jake Curtis Allard said Roach was an ‘excellent’ singer.
Music stars Chip Z’Nuff and Danko Jones have also sent their condolences.
Squamous cell carcinoma is usually not life-threatening, but if left untreated, it can spread to other parts of the body.
It is a common type of skin cancer, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Nodules, which are bumps on the skin, are a symptom of the cancer.
This bump can be the same color as the skin or different.
Other symptoms include sores inside the mouth, or a sore on old skin.
Health chiefs urge anyone with symptoms to book an appointment with their local doctor if a sore doesn’t heal within two months.
KIM Kardashian’s ‘dangerous’ Skims face wrap could cause a number of health issues, including ‘joint misalignment,’ a top doctor has told The U.S. Sun.
In addition to potentially being harmful to one’s health, the medical expert insisted that the shapewear company’s claims of jaw sculpting and other face structural changes are not accurate, as they are “not backed by science.”
Kim Kardashian flaunts her tiny frame in a Mugler CorsetCredit: Instagram/KimKardashian/PierreSnaps
Kim, 44, sent the internet into a frenzy when she announced last week that Skims is now selling “Seamless Sculpt Face Wraps.”
The product, which retails for $48, is a small piece of fabric that tightly wraps around one’s jaw, neck, and head.
Skims advertises the wrap: “Our first-ever face innovation is here. This must-have face wrap boasts our signature sculpting fabric and features collagen yarns for ultra-soft jaw support.
“Velcro closures at the top and nape of the neck allow for easy, everyday wear.”
However, according to medical experts, the long-term effects of the wrap might be more harmful than helpful.
A top Beverly Hills cosmetic doctor told the U.S. Sun that the wrap will “not reshape your face permanently as claims of permanent jaw sculpting or structural changes are not backed by evidence.”
The medical expert continued to explain: “If you have TMJ pain or grinding, it is best to consult a dentist or TMJ specialist before turning to garment compression.
“It is not a replacement for proven interventions like facial exercises, contouring treatments, fillers, surgery or professional care for TMJ.”
And added: “Temporary use may offer a calming or stabilizing effect on overworked jaw muscles, similar to a light support brace.
“However, regular or unsupervised use may result in skin irritation or temporary muscle discomfort or weakness if over-compressed.
“Prolonged use might also alter resting jaw posture, especially if the fabric pushes the jaw backward or upward unnaturally.”
The highly-renowned doctor added that the piece could potentially even trigger “more joint misalignment or clenching.”
A spokesperson for Skims has even boasted of the product, “We changed the shape wear game forever—and we’re not done.
“[We are] introducing the Seamless Sculpt Face Wrap: a must-have addition to your nightly routine.”
The Kardashians star posted about the product and bragged that it “snatches your little chinny-chin-chin.”
THAT’S A WRAP
Shortly after Skims announced its latest release, it didn’t take long for critics to come out and slam the brand for “monetizing on customers’ insecurities.”
One fan begged the question: ”Y’all really out here dropping $60 on a ‘collagen’ (FOH) jockstrap for your chin sold by a billionaire cosplaying as a beauty guru?”
Another added: ”Don’t get it twisted! She’s not helping YOU! She’s weaponized vanity in beige nylon, while monetizing your insecurities and self-hate, one pathetic product at a time.”
A third said: “‘Collagen infused fabric’ sounds like a stupid cash grab, like what? Collagen will not leave the fabric and absorb into your skin. Not how it works.”
While one more added that the product is a “scam” and jokingly suggested the company change its name to “Skams.”
Even A-list celebrities, like Sir Anthony Hopkins, got in on the conversation and have poked fun at the product.
Having seemingly been gifted a Seamless Sculpt Face Wrap from the brand – or perhaps he had a similar garment- the Hannibal Lecter actor took to Instagram while donning the garment.
VLADIMIR Putin is ready to meet Volodymyr Zelensky, the Kremlin said while issuing a warning to Donald Trump’s nuclear threat.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said his boss will meet the Ukrainian leader “after preparatory work is done at the expert level”.
Vladimir Putin may meet Zelensky, the Kremlin has saidCredit: AFP
He added that such work has not yet been done.
Putin has previously rejected a slew of proposals from Zelensky to meet for negotiations.
He said last week that peace talks had made some positive progress, but that Russia had the momentum in the war.
But Donald Trump has put pressure on Russia to urgently agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine.
Trump’s deadline for a Ukraine peace is set to expire in just days after the MAGA prez cut the 50-day waiting period to just “10-12 days”.
This would mean the Russians will have till August 8 to strike a peace deal with Ukraine or else face criplling sanctions which could further stifle Moscow.
Despite the pressure from Washington, Russia has continued its onslaught against its pro-Western neighbour.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin said everyone should be “very, very careful” about nuclear rhetoric in its first public reaction to Trump’s nuclear warning.
The US commander-in-chief ordered that two nuclear submarines be positioned near Russia before warning America is “totally prepared” for a nuclear war.
The extraordinary escalation by Trump followed a slew of “inflammatory” threats against America from Kremlin comrade Dmitry Medvedev.
The Kremlin played down its significance and said it was not looking to get into a public argument with him.
Peskov said: “In this case, it is obvious that American submarines are already on combat duty. This is an ongoing process, thats the first thing.
“But in general, of course, we would not want to get involved in such a controversy and would not want to comment on it in any way.
“Of course, we believe that everyone should be very, very careful with nuclear rhetoric.”
Trump has expressed frustration with Putin, questioning whether the Russian leader really wants peace with Ukraine.
He reiterated that he was “very unhappy” with Putin since their last phone call made no progress on the Ukraine peace deal – something the US president has pushed for since returning to power.
Putin has snubbed peace and is instead steadily increasing his overnight bombing raids – which could soon hit 1,000 drones and missiles a day.
Just days ago, 31 people died including five children after the Rusisans fired an Iskander missile into a residential tower block in Kyiv.
Putin, who has consistently rejected calls for a ceasefire, said over the weekend that he wants peace but that his demands for ending his invasion were “unchanged”.
“We need a lasting and stable peace on solid foundations that would satisfy both Russia and Ukraine, and would ensure the security of both countries,” Putin told reporters.
But he added that “the conditions [from the Russian side] certainly remain the same.”
Meanewhile, Trump confirmed his special envoy Steve Witkoff will visit Russia in the coming week.
The Republican leader said Witkoff would visit “I think next week, Wednesday or Thursday.”
Moscow today said that Witkoff’s visit would be important and helpful.
“We are always happy to see Mr. Witkoff in Moscow… We consider such contact important, substantial and helpful,” Peskov said.
He added that a meeting with Putin was in Moscow’s diary.
Putin has already met Witkoff multiple times in Moscow before Trump’s efforts to mend ties with the Kremlin came to a grinding halt.
The US special envoy has held long conversations with Putin but failed to persuade him to agree to a ceasefire.
Back in May, Zelensky had challenged the Russian dictator to meet him face-to-face to turn the screw and make a deal.
Putin instead dodged peace and said he would only meet him when there was a done deal.
Former President Jair Bolsonaro has already been fitted with an ankle monitorImage: Eraldo Peres/AP Photo/picture alliance
Brazil’s Supreme Court on Monday ordered the house arrest of Jair Bolsonaro.
The former president is standing trial for allegedly leading a coup attempt after losing the 2022 election to Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
Why did the court order house arrest for Bolsonaro?
Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is overseeing the case against Bolsonaro in court, issued the order.
He said in his decision that Bolsonaro had violated the precautionary measures imposed on him in July.
Last month, the Supreme Court ordered that Bolsonaro wear an electronic ankle monitor and imposed a curfew on his activities during the trial.
The far-right leader was also barred from using social media after being accused of trying to disrupt the trial with fiery speeches shared online by his sons and allies.
Under the ban, third parties are barred from sharing his public remarks.
On Sunday, allies of Bolsonaro defied the court order by broadcasting a live call between the 70-year-old and one of his sons at a pro-Bolsonaro rally.
As well as ordering house arrest, this latest order also banned the former president from receiving visits, with exceptions for lawyers and people authorized by the court.
Moraes also ordered the seizure of mobile phones from Bolsonaro’s home in Rio de Janeiro.
Bolsonaro’s lawyers said in a statement they would appeal the court’s latest decision, arguing the former president had not violated any court order.
US swift to condemn Bolsonaro’s house arrest
The US State Department has condemned the house arrest order, according to Reuters news agency.
It said that Moraes was using Brazilian institutions to silence opposition and threaten democracy and added that the US would “hold accountable all those aiding and abetting sanctioned conduct.”
US President Donald Trump has previously called the trial against Bolsonaro a “witch hunt.”
Trump imposed 50% tariffs on a raft of products imported from Brazil, including coffee, late last week, directly tying these to the Bolsonaro trial.
That is the highest tariff rate Trump has imposed on any country in the world.
The Trump administration has also put sanctions on Moraes under the Global Magnitsky Act, which allows the US to sanction foreigners it considers human rights abusers.
Tesla said it sees Musk as a “magnet for hiring and retaining talent” as the company moves more towards developing AI-powered automated transport and robotics.
Tesla’s sales and profits have dropped in 2025Image: Gonzalo Fuentes/REUTERS
Electric auto giant Tesla granted its CEO Elon Musk shares of the company worth some $29 billion (€25 billion) in a deal aimed at keeping him at the helm of the firm.
Tesla described the deal as an “interim award,” a “good faith” payment to honor Musk’s more than $50 billion pay package from 2018 that was struck down by a Delaware court last year.
Delaware judge Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick had upheld her earlier order that Tesla revoke Musk’s multibillion-dollar pay package, arguing that Musk engineered the pay package in sham negotiations with directors who were not independent.
The ruling was part of a lawsuit filed by a Tesla stockholder who challenged Musk’s 2018 compensation package.
It all comes as Tesla shares have plunged 25% this year, amid flagging sales, and intensifying competition from both the big Detroit automakers and China
Musk’s earlier role in the administration of US President Donald Trump, and focus on political pursuits, have also left investors worried.
Tesla seeking to keep Musk
Under the deal, Musk can claim the new award if he remains in a top executive role for another two years.
Additionally, Musk is only eligible for the money if a court does not reinstate the 2018 package, which is currently on appeal.
“While we recognize Elon’s business ventures, interests and other potential demands on his time and attention are extensive and wide-ranging… we are confident this award will incentivize Elon to remain at Tesla,” said a special committee Tesla formed this year to consider Musk’s compensation.
European hotel owners are angry over the “best price” clause at the online booking giant they say had kept them from offering rooms for less on their own websites.
Amsterdam-based Booking.com denies it pricing strategy cost hotels moneyImage: Robin Utrecht/picture alliance
European hotel owners are joining together in a class action suit against the online platform Booking.com, with more than 10,000 hotels have now signed on to the damages suit.
According to the Association of Hotels, Restaurants and Cafes in Europe HOTREC, which represents the industry within the EU, hotel owners will seek compensation for losses incurred between 2004 and 2024 as a result of so-called “best-price” clauses that keep hotels from offering rooms for less on their own sites.
The initiative is also backed by 30 national hotel associations, including the German Hotel Association (IHA).
Netherlands-based Booking.com used the clauses as a way to prevent what it called “free-rider” bookings, which it defined as a customer discovering a hotel on Booking.com but then booking directly with the hotel and not the online giant.
These clauses had required hotels not to offer rooms at lower prices on other platforms, including their own websites.
What is the basis of the claims?
A suit to be brought before an Amsterdam court by the Hotel Claims Alliance — and supported by HOTREC and 30 more hotel associations — cites a September 19, 2024 European Court of Justice (ECJ) verdict finding best-price clauses illegal.
The ECJ ruled that online platforms could operate without putting such restrictions on partner hotels.
Booking.com did away with the clause in 2024 as a result of the European Union Digital Markets Act.
“European hoteliers have long suffered from unfair conditions and excessive costs,” according to HOTREC President Alexandros Vassilikos.
“This joint initiative sends a clear message: abusive practices in the digital market will not be tolerated by the hospitality industry in Europe.”
HOTREC on Monday announced an extension of the time limit to join the suit against Booking.com until August 29.
“The class action is receiving overwhelming support,” IHA Managing Director Markus Luthe told Germany’s DPA news agency.
China said the US unreasonably cancelled Chinese students’ visas under the pretext of ideology and national rights. (Photo: iStock)
The US could require bonds of up to US$15,000 for some tourist and business visas under a pilot programme launching in two weeks, a government notice said on Monday (Aug 4), an effort that aims to crack down on visitors who overstay their visas.
The programme gives US consular officers the discretion to impose bonds on visitors from countries with high rates of visa overstays, according to a Federal Register notice.
Bonds could also be applied to people coming from countries where screening and vetting information is deemed insufficient, the notice said.
President Donald Trump has made cracking down on illegal immigration a focus of his presidency, boosting resources to secure the border and arresting people in the US illegally.
He issued a travel ban in June that fully or partially blocks citizens of 19 nations from entering the US on national security grounds.
Trump’s immigration policies have led some visitors to skip travel to the United States.
Transatlantic airfares dropped to rates last seen before the COVID-19 pandemic in May and travel from Canada and Mexico to the US fell by 20 per cent year-over-year.
Effective Aug 20, the new visa programme will last for approximately a year, the government notice said.
Consular officers will have three options for visa applicants subjected to the bonds: US$5,000, US$10,000 or US$15,000, but will generally be expected to require at least US$10,000, it said.
The funds will be returned to travellers if they depart in accordance with the terms of their visas, the notice said.
A similar pilot programme was launched in November 2020 during the last months of Trump’s first term in office, but it was not fully implemented due to the drop in global travel associated with the pandemic, the notice said.
The State Department was unable to estimate the number of visa applicants who could be affected by the change. Many of the countries targeted by Trump’s travel ban also have high rates of visa overstays, including Chad, Eritrea, Haiti, Myanmar and Yemen.
US Travel Association, which represents major tourism-related companies, estimated the “scope of the visa bond pilot programme appears to be limited, with an estimated 2,000 applicants affected, most likely from only a few countries with relatively low travel volume to the United States”.
Numerous countries in Africa, including Burundi, Djibouti and Togo also had high overstay rates, according to US Customs and Border Protection data from fiscal year 2023.
CNA’s court journalists take a closer look at the concept that was brought up in the case of cancer-stricken tycoon Ong Beng Seng.
Ong Beng Seng leaving the State Courts after pleading guilty on Aug 4, 2025. (Photo: CNA/Wallace Woon)
Property tycoon Ong Beng Seng pleaded guilty on Monday (Aug 4) to a charge of abetting former Transport Minister S Iswaran in obstructing justice.
A second charge for instigating Mr Iswaran to obtain flights and a hotel stay from Ong will be taken into consideration during sentencing, which was adjourned to Aug 15.
Both the prosecution and defence called for the court to exercise judicial mercy and impose only a fine, in light of what Ong’s lawyer described as “a devastating cocktail of medical problems”.
What is judicial mercy?
It’s an extraordinary measure in which the sentence of an accused person is reduced on humanitarian grounds, criminal lawyer Adrian Wee of Lighthouse Law said.
He said that factors considered by the court in applying judicial mercy include the severity of the crime and others such as the risk of re-offending.
“Ultimately it is a balancing exercise between the need to punish offenders and putting an individual, for example, one who is gravely ill, at risk,” said Mr Wee.
Ms Joyce Khoo from Quahe Woo & Palmer described judicial mercy as the tempering of punishment imposed, in light of the offender’s personal circumstances.
“The court would take into account the offender’s exceptional circumstances and ameliorate the punishment imposed to reflect the court’s and society’s humanity towards the offender’s plight,” she said.
Mr Sanjiv Vaswani of Vaswani Law Chambers meanwhile defined it as the power that the courts have to impose a lenient sentence in light of exceptional mitigating circumstances.
In exercising judicial mercy, the court “effectively displaces the culpability of the offender as a central consideration, with considerations of humanity”, he added.
In Ong’s case, the court heard how cancer had damaged his skeletal system and severely compromised his immune system, making him vulnerable to life-threatening infections. He also suffers from complications which could exacerbate his risk of infection and gangrene.
His lawyer Cavinder Bull said Ong’s risk of infection would increase in prison due to the movement of people, in turn increasing his risk of death. In contrast, Ong’s home environment is more controlled, and he has access to medical personnel who have been treating him for years.
How does it differ from a mitigating factor?
Ms Khoo said the court considers whether judicial mercy ought to be exercised only after considering all mitigating factors and arriving at a sentence.
If exercised, the eventual sentence would be lowered to reflect the court’s sympathy to the offender.
“When exercising judicial mercy, the court is not so concerned with the eventual sentence being proportional to the offending behaviour,” she said.
“This is considered at the mitigation stage. In exercising judicial mercy, the court is concerned about alleviating the effects of imprisonment on the basis that it is the humane thing to do given a specific circumstance.”
Lawyer Chooi Jing Yen, who runs his own eponymous law firm, said everyone is entitled to raise mitigating factors when they plead guilty to an offence, but not everyone is entitled to judicial mercy.
“If successfully raised, the sentence will be substantially outside the norm, and generally cannot be relied on as a precedent for other cases,” he said.
Veteran criminal lawyer Ramesh Tiwary said judicial mercy was “more than merely mitigatory because it shifts the focus of the sentence to account for the illness”, rather than being punitive.
Lawyer Mark Yeo from Fortress Law said the purpose of citing ill-health as a mitigating factor would be to persuade the court that a longer term of imprisonment would have a disproportional impact on an offender, compared with someone without the same medical condition.
A reduction in sentencing with ill health as a mitigating factor would not be as significant compared to if judicial mercy was exercised, he said.
Why still prosecute if judicial mercy will be exercised?
While it is solely up to the prosecution to decide who to prosecute and what for, lawyers offered some insight.
Ms Khoo said that convicting an offender shows that they are guilty of an offence. Just because judicial mercy is eventually exercised does not mean that the offender is not guilty or not liable.
Mr Chooi pointed to the possibility of a “signalling effect” in the form of a message of deterrence still being sent to the general public.
He also noted that if a court exercises judicial mercy, it cannot step outside legislative bounds or where sentences are fixed.
This means that if an offence has a mandatory minimum jail term, or has to be punishable by death – such as in capital offences involving murder and drug trafficking – then that is the sentence that must be meted out.
In Ong’s case, the offence of abetting obstruction of justice carries a jail term of up to seven years, a fine, or both.
While both the prosecution and defence have called for judicial mercy to be exercised here, the court has the discretion to decide if it chooses to do so.
How often is judicial mercy invoked?
Lawyers all told CNA the exercise of judicial mercy was “very rarely” applicable in Singapore.
Mr Tiwary said: “The accused must have a terminal illness or an illness which would be life-threatening in a prison environment.”
Mr Chooi said the threshold for invoking it was “extremely high” and would take very exceptional cases, by and large on the grounds of ill health.
In 2018, a man’s jail term of three weeks was reduced to a S$250 (US$194) fine on account of his terminal cancer.
Lim Kah Heng, 68, had pleaded guilty to a charge of corruption. He was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia shortly after he was sentenced.
On appeal, the prosecution did not object to Lim’s application for judicial mercy.
A High Court Judge said he accepted that grounds existed for judicial mercy. He noted that corruption was a serious offence, and imposed a fine.
In 2008, retail tycoon Tang Wee Sung was sentenced to one day’s jail and fined S$17,000 after he tried to buy a kidney and lied about it. One of the two charges he pleaded guilty to had mandatory imprisonment.
This comes after floods in Beijing’s northern suburbs killed at least 44 people and left nine missing.
A man walks past a rain damaged area from the past few days in Huairou district, on the outskirts of Beijing on Jul 30, 2025. (Photo: AFP/Pedro Pardo)
Chinese authorities evacuated over 82,000 people across Beijing at risk from heavy rainfall, state media said, after dozens of people died in flooding in the capital’s suburbs last week.
State news agency Xinhua said tens of thousands had been relocated from vulnerable areas as of 9pm (1pm GMT) on Monday (Aug 4), according to the city’s flood control headquarters.
Authorities warned of flooding risks in the northwestern suburb of Miyun – the hardest hit by last week’s deluge – as well as southwestern Fangshan, western Mentougou and northern Huairou.
The municipal weather service also announced a red alert – the highest in a four-tier system – forecasting heavy rain from noon on Monday until Tuesday morning.
Floods in Beijing’s northern suburbs killed at least 44 people and left nine missing last week, according to official figures.
Some 31 fatalities occurred at an elderly care centre in Miyun – prompting a local official to admit “gaps” in disaster readiness.
Residents of flood-hit areas told AFP journalists that they had been surprised at the speed with which the rushing water inundated homes and devastated villages.
Natural disasters are common across China, particularly in the summer, when some regions experience heavy rain while others bake in searing heat.
It was explosive from the start between Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas.
The two got into an intense public argument before starring together in 1992’s “Basic Instinct,” the actress claimed in an interview with Business Insider published Friday.
Stone alleged Douglas didn’t even want to test with her for the erotic thriller because of their friction when they first met at Cannes. Stone alleged the argument happened because she defended a friend that Douglas was talking negatively about and it “triggered” him.
“A bunch of us were all sitting, and he was talking about someone and their kids,” she claimed. “I really, really knew this person he was talking about. So I said something and he responded to me, saying, ‘What the f–k do you know?’ It was in regard to a father-child relationship.”
Sharon Stone claimed Michael Douglas screamed at her in public during an incident at Cannes before she was cast in 1992’s “Basic Instinct.” Corbis via Getty Images
Stone claimed Douglas screamed at her across a whole group of people.
“I’m not the person who goes, ‘Oh, excuse me, superstar,’” she said. “I pushed back my chair and said to him, ‘Let’s step outside.’ That’s how we first met.”
The actress said they did step outside and she explained to him that she was best friends with the family that he was talking about. She said they parted ways “amicably,” though apparently, it left an impression on Douglas.
“So, fast forward to casting ‘Basic Instinct,’ I don’t think he wanted me to be his co-star,” she said.
Stone didn’t regret the encounter, because she said it worked to her advantage during filming.
“I was not rattled if he yelled at me,” she explained. “That was interesting for the character because Michael has a temper, and I didn’t care.”
“That worked very well in our dynamic,” she continued. “Eventually, we became the greatest of friends, to this day. I admire him tremendously.”
But Douglas’ rep tells Page Six that the actor “doesn’t recall” even meeting Stone ahead of her casting.
“Michael Douglas doesn’t recall meeting or knowing of Sharon Stone until seeing [director] Paul Verhoeven’s test of her for ‘Basic Instinct,’” the rep says. “When he saw the test he said she was the right actress for the part. He remembers they were in Cannes together to promote the film which was screened at the festival.”
Stone, 67, previously revealed that she only made $500,000 for her role as crime writer Catherine Tramell, while Douglas, 80, made $14 million for his role as detective Nick Curran.
“Now, I was new. I was new and he was a very big star,” she shared at the New York Women in Film & Television’s 43rd annual Muse Awards lunch in March 2023.
Taylor Swift was caught in Donald Trump’s sights Monday, deemed “NO LONGER HOT” by the president for a second time as he took to social media Monday with his thoughts on “Anyone But You” actress Sydney Sweeney’s newly-revealed status as a registered Republican.
What does that have to do with the 14-time Grammy winner, you ask? Keep reading for all the details.
Taylor Swift’s director reveals there’s a music video for ‘King of My Heart’ — and why she decided to scrap it
There’s a secret she was hoping, dreaming, dying to keep.
Joseph Kahn, who has directed eight Taylor Swift music videos and “one commercial,” revealed on a recent episode of the Ourselves podcast not only that “King of My Heart” was originally planned as the second single off 2017’s “reputation” album — but also why it was never finished.
Kahn, who met the global superstar in 2014, told the podcast host there was a ninth video he’d worked on for the singer, but it was later “scrapped.”
Kahn told the podcast host he filmed a music video for “King of My Heart,” but it was later “scrapped.” FilmMagic
“We never finished it because [Swift] switched gears in the middle of it to do ‘…Ready For It,'” the director explained.
“We actually shot for King of My Heart. [It was] this sort of very conceptual thing. And then she decided ‘…Ready For It’ was a better single and just decided to go that way instead.”
Kahn said it was a “completely shot video,” and they just needed to create the “highly visual effects.”
Despite the potential financial loss, Kahn praised the decision, saying, “She’s a risk taker. And you know what? In this business, people that are willing to throw it all on the line should be rewarded if they become successful.”
As for what Taylor Swift is like as a coworker, Kahn said she is the consummate professional.
“She had a level of commitment that very few artists do. She’d always be waiting. I would never have to wait for her, you know?”
Kahn added that he was “super happy that she has all the rights [to her albums] back because she deserves it.”
“She’s a boss.”
Taylor Swift fan takes baby daughter’s monthly milestone pics to the next level with adorable Eras theme
This baby’s got Style.
As parents do, Jori Rand (aka JorLinn on TikTok) has been documenting her infant daughter Noa James’ growth with monthly photoshoots since giving birth in February. But this die-hard Swiftie has gone viral for taking it to the next level with a Taylor Swift theme — dressing her baby to match each of the Grammy winner’s albums in chronological order, beginning with Swift’s self-titled debut to mark little Noa’s first month of life.
To recreate the global superstar’s iconic looks, Rand crafts an outfit that matches both the color palette and vibe of the album.
When she can’t quite find the perfect pieces for each era, the mom either makes them herself or asks her creative friends to help out.
“A friend and I had discussed it, and we were collaborating together,” Rand told People. “We started collecting pieces. I have put a lot of thought into it, and I’ve done a lot of DIY for the photos themselves.”
Every month she starts planning the next one, sourcing the materials she might need to recreate each iconic look.
The Swiftie explained that she looks “everywhere for different items” including “going to Walmart or sourcing people to make things.”
Rand also shared that she loves hearing others share their thoughts on the mini-photoshoots.
“We know the Swiftie community is strong, and it is cool reading and seeing other people’s ideas,” she adds. “People have told me they’re going to do the same when they have their daughter.”
This mom has no doubt that her daughter will grow up to be a Swiftie for life just like her.
Chris Hemsworth is best known as the hammer-wielding Norse god Thor in Marvel’s cinematic universe.
But now the Australian actor is trading superpowers for science, introspection and a new set of personal challenges, many of which are far scarier than battling fictional villains.
The 41-year-old is back for a second season of Limitless which sees him confront some of his deepest fears as he explores how to live longer, healthier and better.
“The first season almost killed me,” Hemsworth tells the BBC. “And I thought, ‘never again.'”
In season one, Hemsworth tackled physical and mental challenges designed to delay aging including free diving, fasting, stress training and walking along a crane 900 feet above the ground.
The actor says he chose to “torture” himself again as he had a burning curiosity to “ask bigger and deeper questions” about aging and the meaning of life.
“It was exhausting but also profoundly rewarding,” he says. “But now I do have more questions rather than answers!”
Season two takes a different path as Hemsworth continues to test himself, but not just physically. With the help of Ed Sheeran, he learns to play a musical instrument for the first time and inspired by his children’s carefree risk-taking, he climbs a 600-foot Alpine dam.
“Being thrust into unfamiliar environments where you’re facing adversity or risk helps you understand how fragile life is and how quickly it can change,” he says.
Hemsworth, whose brothers, Liam and Luke, are also famous actors, says he now takes nothing for granted and has learnt to not “settle for the easy route as the greatest lessons come from the more challenging times”.
One of the biggest challenges for the actor was in the first season of the National Geographic series when a genetic test revealed he carries two copies of the gene ApoE4, one from his mother and one from his father, making him between eight and 10 times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s than those without both copies of the gene.
“That warning sign was further motivation to take care of myself,” Hemsworth explains.
“It also felt like a great opportunity to offer up education and a better understanding for people navigating it as Alzheimer’s is something a lot of people face.”
While Hemsworth has become increasingly interested in how to live better, he says there’s a fine line between healthy aging and extreme biohacking.
Biohackers want to make their bodies and brains function better by “hacking” their biology.
“You want to live a longer and better life but at what cost? You could have your exact routine but there’s no point doing all of that if you’re isolated and lonely at home,” says Hemsworth.
“I’m going to put energy into health and wellness but I also want to enjoy life.”
This mindset puts him at odds with more extreme elements of the biohacking movement, which has gained attention through figures like tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson.
Johnson, 47, has spent millions of dollars in a bid to slow down aging – his regime, Project Blueprint, has seen him take numerous supplements a day, follow a strict diet and sleep routine and undergo a plasma exchange.
It’s an approach that Hemsworth finds intriguing but admits he has “no interest to explore”.
“I like dancing in and out of those spaces,” Hemsworth explains. “Sometimes I try one thing, then another, and different pieces of science resonate at different times in your life.
“If you’re too boxed in with one way of thinking, you close the doors to other opportunities.”
As well as reversing his biological age, Johnson also wants to crack the code on how to live forever.
But the Marvel star says no one has figured out how to cheat death yet and he doesn’t think anyone will so “we have to embrace death”.
“Suffering comes from denial of our inevitability of death – we all have an expiration death.”
He adds: “If you were told you had 200 years guaranteed you’d become more complacent and reckless. The idea that life can be taken away at any second is a beautiful reminder to appreciate every moment.”
He also explains that if humans could live forever then relationships with other people wouldn’t be as important, and for Hemsworth, family appears to really matter.
The Thor actor lives in Byron Bay with his wife, actress Elsa Pataky, and their three children. Limitless touches on how his choices affect not just his own life, but those around him.
Part of what spurred him on to film a second series was “the great feedback from young kids, parents and grandparents” and realising that he was able to inspire others to challenge themselves.
Despite his status as a global action star, Hemsworth is very introspective and seems to be deeply driven in finding constant meaning and purpose to his life.
“This experience reminds me of what I’m offering up and receiving,” he says, adding that it’s important for him to always remember that “we don’t survive and thrive on our own”.
Alongside his lifelong quest to live better, Hemsworth is also thinking about what is next in his acting career.
A former federal minister, Shibu Soren represented the tribal-dominant state of Jharkhand
Shibu Soren, a prominent Indian tribal leader and a three-time chief minister of the eastern state of Jharkhand, has died at the age of 81.
He was undergoing treatment in Delhi for a kidney ailment and had been on life support after he suffered a stroke last month.
In a political career of more than 40 years, Soren co-founded the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), an influential regional party that has been at the forefront of the creation of the tribal-dominated eastern state.
He became the chief minister of Jharkhand three times, but failed to complete his any of these terms in office due to political instability in the state.
His son Hemant Soren, who is the current chief minister of Jharkhand, announced the leader’s death on Monday.
“Our respected Dishom Guru has left us, I have nothing left,” he wrote on X, referring to Soren by his moniker, which means “great leader” in Santhali, the language spoken by the Santhal tribe – one of India’s largest tribal communities.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the tributes, calling Soren “a grassroot leader who rose through the ranks of public life with unwavering dedication to the people”.
Born in 1944, Soren grew up in a small village in present-day Jharkhand at a time when the state was still a part of Bihar.
He founded the JMM in 1973 with the main objective to carve out a separate state for tribespeople from Bihar’s southern districts.
After Jharkhand was granted statehood in 2000, Soren became an influential figure in the region’s politics.
In 2004, he became the federal coal minister in the Congress party’s cabinet but quit a few months later, after he was convicted in a murder case.
He returned to the cabinet after getting bail later that year. In 2005, he resigned from the position to become the chief minister of Jharkhand, but had to step down within 10 days after his party failed to prove its majority in the state assembly.
Soren was re-inducted into the federal government as the coal minister later that year. But he had to resign again, after he was convicted in another murder case, this time in connection with the kidnapping and murder of his personal secretary Shashinath Jha in 1994. He was eventually cleared of those charges in 2018.
On Monday, as the news of his death broke, leaders across political parties paid tributes to the leader.
Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh called him “the pivotal figure” who led the movement for the creation of Jharkhand. “He was truly a legend whose passion for social and economic justice was inspirational,” Ramesh wrote on X.
“For the people of Jharkhand, he was no less than a god,” said Sanjay Raut, a member of the influential Shiv Sena (UBT) party of Maharashtra state.
Benjamin Netanyahu will convene his security cabinet this week to decide on Israel’s next steps in Gaza following the collapse of indirect ceasefire talks with Hamas, with one senior Israeli source suggesting more force could be an option.
Last Saturday, during a visit to the country, U.S. Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff had said he was working with the Israeli government on a plan that would effectively end the war in Gaza.
But Israeli officials have also floated ideas including expanding the military offensive in Gaza and annexing parts of the shattered enclave.
The failed ceasefire talks in Doha had aimed to clinch agreements on a U.S.-backed proposal for a 60-day truce, during which aid would be flown into Gaza and half of the hostages Hamas is holding would be freed in exchange for Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel.
After Netanyahu met Witkoff last Thursday, a senior Israeli official said that “an understanding was emerging between Washington and Israel,” of a need to shift from a truce to a comprehensive deal that would “release all the hostages, disarm Hamas, and demilitarize the Gaza Strip,” – Israel’s key conditions for ending the war.
A source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday that the envoy’s visit was seen in Israel as “very significant.”
But later on Sunday, the Israeli official signalled that pursuit of a deal would be pointless, threatening more force:
“An understanding is emerging that Hamas is not interested in a deal and therefore the prime minister is pushing to release the hostages while pressing for military defeat.
Israel’s Channel 12 on Monday cited an official from his office as saying that Netanyahu was inclining towards expanding the offensive and seizing the entire Palestinian enclave.
“STRATEGIC CLARITY”
What a “military defeat” might mean, however, is up for debate within the Israeli leadership. Some Israeli officials have suggested that Israel might declare it was annexing parts of Gaza as a means to pressure the militant group.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends a discussion at the plenum in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, in Jerusalem, July 23, 2025. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Others, like Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir want to see Israel impose military rule in Gaza before annexing it and re-establishing the Jewish settlements Israel evicted 20 years ago.
The Israeli military, which has pushed back at such ideas throughout the war, was expected on Tuesday to present alternatives that include extending into areas of Gaza where it has not yet operated, according to two defence officials.
While some in the political leadership are pushing for expanding the offensive, the military is concerned that doing so will endanger the 20 hostages who are still alive, the officials said.
Israeli Army Radio reported on Monday that military chief Eyal Zamir has become increasingly frustrated with what he describes as a lack of strategic clarity by the political leadership, concerned about being dragged into a war of attrition with Hamas militants.
A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) declined to comment on the report but said that the military has plans in store.
“We have different ways to fight the terror organization, and that’s what the army does,” Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said.
On Tuesday, Qatar and Egypt endorsed a declaration by France and Saudi Arabia outlining steps toward a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which included a call on Hamas to hand over its arms to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.
Hamas has repeatedly said it won’t lay down arms. But it has told mediators it was willing to quit governance in Gaza for a non-partisan ruling body, according to three Hamas officials.
It insists that the post-war Gaza arrangement must be agreed upon among the Palestinians themselves and not dictated by foreign powers.
A visitor looks at watch models at the IWC Schaffhausen booth at the Watches and Wonders exhibition in Geneva, Switzerland, April 9, 2024. REUTERS/Pierre Albouy/File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Switzerland is ready to make a “more attractive offer” in trade talks with Washington, its government said on Monday, following a crisis meeting aimed at averting a 39% U.S. import tariff on Swiss goods that threatens to hammer its export-driven economy.
The Federal Council – the country’s governing cabinet – said it was determined to pursue discussions with the United States, if necessary beyond the August 7 deadline that U.S. President Donald Trump has set for the tariff to come into effect.
“Switzerland enters this new phase ready to present a more attractive offer, taking U.S. concerns into account and seeking to ease the current tariff situation,” it said in a statement.
The statement said it was committed to securing fair treatment compared with its primary trading competitors, but did not give any details on what the Swiss government may offer. It was not currently considering any countermeasures, it added.
Switzerland was left stunned on Friday after Trump hit it with one of the highest tariffs in his global trade reset, with industry associations warning that tens of thousands of jobs were at risk.
The duties are scheduled to go into effect on Thursday, giving Switzerland, which counts the U.S. as its top export market for pharmaceuticals, watches, machinery and chocolates, a small window to strike a better deal.
The government declined to comment on whether Swiss President Karin Keller-Sutter would travel to Washington for more talks, as called for by some, including Nick Hayek, CEO of flagship Swiss watchmaker Swatch (UHR.S)
The White House said on Friday it decided on the 39% import duty because of what it called Switzerland’s refusal to make “meaningful concessions” by dropping trade barriers, calling the two nations’ current trade relationship “one-sided”.
Swiss industry leaders and politicians, however, have struggled to understand why the country was singled out.
Monday’s statement pointed out that bilateral trade between the two nations has quadrupled in the past two decades, and Switzerland is now the sixth-largest investor in the United States.
“Switzerland unilaterally scrapped all tariffs on industrial goods as of 1 January 2024, meaning over 99% of U.S. goods enter Switzerland tariff-free,” it said.
Trump has stated he wants to rebalance global trade, claiming that current trade relations are stacked against the United States and are responsible for a $1.2 trillion U.S. goods trade deficit.
Switzerland had a 38.5 billion Swiss franc ($48 billion) trade surplus with the U.S. last year.
“The president (Trump) is really focused on the trade deficit, because he thinks that this is a loss for the United States,” President Keller-Sutter told Reuters on Friday.
‘DISTINCT DISADVANTAGE’
Bern’s statement on Monday said the new tariff rate would apply to nearly 60% of Swiss exports to the U.S. and “puts Switzerland at a distinct disadvantage compared with other trading partners with similar economic profiles”.
The EU, Japan and South Korea, which have negotiated 15% tariff rates with Washington, all have larger trade surpluses with the U.S. – around $235 billion for the EU, $70 billion for Japan, and a nearly $56 billion surplus for South Korea.
Swiss Business Minister Guy Parmelin, who over the weekend said the government was open to revising its offer, said options included Switzerland buying U.S. liquefied natural gas or further investments by Swiss companies in the United States.
While the government appears focused on proposing a more enticing deal to Washington, some Swiss politicians have pushed for retaliation, including calls to scrap 6-billion-franc deal to buy F-35A Lightning II fighter jets from the United States.
The new tariff rate – up from an originally proposed 31% tariff that Swiss officials had already described as “incomprehensible” – would deal a major blow to Switzerland’s economy.
Swiss economic output would be reduced by 0.3% to 0.6% if the 39% tariff was imposed, said Hans Gersbach, an economist at ETH, a university in Zurich. That figure could rise above 0.7% if pharmaceuticals, which are currently not covered by the U.S. import duties, are included.
China’s defence ministry has said this year’s exercises are aimed at “further deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership” between the two countries.
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese and Russian warships take part in joint naval drills in the East China Sea, Dec 27, 2022. (File photo: Xinhua via AP/Xu Wei)
China and Russia began joint naval drills in the Sea of Japan on Sunday (Aug 3) as they seek to reinforce their partnership and counterbalance what they see as a United States-led global order.
Alongside economic and political ties, Moscow and Beijing have strengthened their military cooperation in recent years, and their relations have deepened since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
The “Joint Sea-2025” exercises kicked off in waters near the Russian port of Vladivostok and would last for three days, China’s defence ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
The two sides will hold “submarine rescue, joint anti-submarine, air defence and anti-missile operations, and maritime combat”.
Four Chinese vessels, including guided-missile destroyers Shaoxing and Urumqi, are participating in the exercises alongside Russian ships, the ministry said. After the drills, the two countries will conduct naval patrols in “relevant waters of the Pacific”.
China and Russia have carried out annual drills for several years, with the “Joint Sea” exercises beginning in 2012. Last year’s drills were held along China’s southern coast.
The Chinese defence ministry said Friday that this year’s exercises were aimed at “further deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership” of the two countries.
Temple Mount is home to religious structures revered by Jews, Muslims, and ChristiansImage: Gazi Samad/Anadolu/picture alliance
Hamas says ready to deliver aid to hostages if Israel opens humanitarian corridors permanently
Hamas’ armed wing said it is ready to deliver Red Cross aid to hostages it is holding in Gaza if Israel opens humanitarian corridors permanently.
“[We] are ready to respond positively [to] any request by the Red Cross to deliver food and medicine to enemy prisoners. However, we condition our acceptance on the opening of humanitarian corridors… for the passage of food and medicine… across all areas of the Gaza Strip,” Hamas’ armed wing wrote in a statement.
The statement was published after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked the ICRC for help to provide food to hostages held in Gaza (see below).
Netanyahu asks Red Cross for help after shock hostage videos
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has spoken with the coordinator of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to see if the organization can help reach hostages held captive in Gaza.
Netanyahu’s office said he spoke with Julien Lerisson and “requested his involvement in providing food to our hostages and… immediate medical treatment.”
ICRC has previously coordinated the transfer of hostages from Hamas militants back into Israel, as well as the return of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli detention.
The aid organization said in a statement it was “appalled by the harrowing videos” and reiterated its “call to be granted access to the hostages.”
Propaganda videos released by Hamas, designated as a terrorist group by the US, the EU and Israel, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, sparked widespread anger in Israel over the weekend.
The undated footage from Hamas appears to show a visibly frail Israeli hostage, Evyatar David, standing in an apparent tunnel. In one section, he is shown digging a hole, which, he says, is for his own grave.
The footage came after the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, which is also holding Israeli hostages, released its own video appearing to show a visibly frail Rom Braslavski, who was also taken captive over the course of October 7, 2023, terror attacks.
SHOCKING footage from the first megafire of the year shows the terrifying reality crews are facing as they continue to battle the raging inferno.
The Dragon Bravo Fire in Arizona, sparked by lightning on July 4, has been burning for almost a month and continues to pose a threat to the Grand Canyon.
The Dragon Bravo Fire has been burning for almost one month after being ignited by lightningCredit: www.facebook.com/SWAIMT2
It has already incinerated the Grand Canyon Lodge, an iconic tourist location on the North Rim that first opening in 1928.
Heartbreaking images show the historic lodge engulfed by flames with officials from the national park saying they have been “devastated by the loss”.
Other structures were destroyed including the North Rim visitor Center and a number of cabins.
The blaze officially achieved “megafire” status on Friday, officials confirmed.
It comes as it is now over 105,000 acres in size, making it the largest wildfire in the continental United States so far this year.
After already burning through around 100 structures, it is the biggest fire to hit the Grand Canyon National Park since 1984 and is the 10th largest wildfire in the state since 1990.
Timelapse footage shows orange plumes of smoke and vapors billowing into the sky above the tree line, powerful enough to create it’s own weather system.
“They’re known to generate storms, produce lightning, or even tornadoes,” the Southwest Area Incident Management Team 2 overseeing the wildfire response said on Facebook.
As of Saturday, the inferno was over 114,500 acres in size – almost three times bigger than Washington DC.
While crews desperately battle the flames officials say it is still expected to grow thanks to heavy winds, high temperatures, and dry conditions.
The Kaibab National Forest lying north and south of the Grand Canyon confirmed in an update that over 1,180 people are battling the flames with 11% of it contained as of August 2.
“You can see the flames at night. You can see clouds of smoke during the day.” Lisa Jennings, a spokeswoman for the Southwest Area Team said of the view from the South Rim, 11 miles away.
Fire Behavior Analyst Arthur Gonzales gave an update on the fire saying that the north perimeter was causing a concern for “rapid fire spread” due to the combination of winds and dry land.
He detailed how embers can be “lofted over containment lines or down into additional fuels ahead of the fire”.
“We’re at a 100% chance today that any ember that hits those fuels will take,” he warned on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the southwest flank of the inferno on the North Rim of Grand Canyon and at the Kaibab National Forest is “well-established over the rim edge” making it even more difficult to tackle.
This area of the fire is being further encouraged by 100 degree temperatures in the Grand Canyon and could spread west by half a mile, Gonzales said.
The National Weather Service has issued an Extreme Heat Warning until Friday.
“We’re kind of locked in a dry, breezy, abnormally hot pattern because our monsoon hasn’t showed up,” Benjamin Peterson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Flagstaff, told the New York Times.
As efforts continue to dampen and extinguish the fire, the North Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park will remain closed for the rest of the 2025 season.
Meanwhile, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs has launched a probe into the fire after the decision was made early on to have a “controlled burn”.
This is a technique often to try to prevent other fires by burning up the vegetation that fuels major fires but strong winds on July 11 saw the fire exceed containment lines and burn the Grand Canyon lodge and other buildings.
SELECT Americans have just hours left to claim an impactful cash grab.
The direct payment comes as part of a new benefits program that seeks to assist those in need this summer.
Some Americans can get payments of $177 soon (stock image)Credit: GETTY
SUN Bucks Hawai’i, run through the state’s Department of Human Services, is an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) initiative that offers money to qualifying families with children.
The funds go towards food purchases parents have to make during the summer that their kids would’ve gotten at school for free.
Checks worth $177 will be sent out for each child, to be spent over the summer months.
Some households must apply for the SUN Bucks benefits, and an application deadline is approaching fast on August 3, 2025.
Those that have children attending a school operating with the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), where all meals are free to all students, must apply.
Additionally, households that have children who are attending a school operating with the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) who were not approved for free or discounted meals during the school year but may now be eligible because of income limits must submit an application.
QUALIFY INSTANTLY
There are only four criteria that would make a child automatically eligible and not require an application, according to the FAQ page on the Hawai’i Department of Human Services website.
One way would be that the child resides in a household that is participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) between July 1, 2024, and August 3, 2025.
The child could also have been identified as a ward of the state (foster), or identified by their school as unhoused, a migrant, or a runaway.
Another way to instantly qualify for SUN Bucks would be for the child to have attended a school that offers NSLP, and the household where they reside already applied for and was approved for free or discounted school meals.
Lastly, there are exceptions that would allow the school-age requirement to apply to Head Start and/or pre-K students, so long as they attended a program that offered NSLP.
Those who automatically qualify or submit an application and are approved will get EBT debit cards in the mail to be used anywhere they are accepted.
This includes local farmers markets and most retailers.
Applications can be submitted through the Hawai’i Department of Human Services website or by calling 1-888-975-7328.
According to data collected so far from the state agency, at least 80,000 children have already gotten benefits this year worth a combined $14 million.
OFFICIALS SPEAK OUT
Except, thousands more are likely eligible, according to a statement from First Lady Jaime Kanani Green at a recent news conference.
“In Hawai’i, we care for one another — we mālama our keiki, our kūpuna and our ‘ohana,” she said.
“SUN Bucks reflects those values. It’s about ensuring every child has what they need nutritionally to grow and thrive — not just during the school year, but all year long.”
“No child in Hawai’i should ever go hungry and this program helps us live up to that kuleana.”
This was further emphasized by Governor Josh Green, who also explained that small businesses would benefit as a side effect.
“Today is about something simple, but incredibly important — making sure our children have enough to eat,” Green noted.
“SUN Bucks is a reminder that when we invest in our keiki, we invest in the future of our state.”
“These benefits don’t just help families — they strengthen our local economy by putting dollars directly into our grocery stores, farmers markets and food systems,” he added.
Other states also have programs helping families in need this summer.
Hamas said on Sunday it was prepared to coordinate with the Red Cross to deliver aid to hostages it holds in Gaza, if Israel meets certain conditions, after a video it released showing an emaciated captive drew sharp criticism from Western powers.
Hamas said any coordination with the Red Cross is contingent upon Israel permanently opening humanitarian corridors and halting airstrikes during the distribution of aid.
According to Israeli officials, 50 hostages now remain in Gaza, only 20 of whom are believed to be alive. Hamas, thus far, has barred humanitarian organizations from having any kind of access to the hostages and families have little or no details of their conditions.
On Saturday, Hamas released its second video in two days of Israeli hostage Evyatar David. In it, David, skeletally thin, is shown digging a hole that, he says in the video, is for his own grave. The arm of the individual holding the camera, which can be seen in the frame, is a regular width.
The video of David drew criticism from Western powers and horrified Israelis. France, Germany, the UK and the U.S. were among countries to express outrage and Israel’s foreign ministry announced that the UN Security Council will hold a special session on Tuesday morning on the issue of the situation of the hostages in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday he had asked the Red Cross to give humanitarian assistance to the hostages during a conversation with the head of the Swiss-based ICRC’s local delegation.
A statement from The Hostages Families Forum, which represents relatives of those being held in Gaza, said Hamas’ comments about the hostages cannot hide that it “has been holding innocent people in impossible conditions for over 660 days,” and demanded their immediate release.
“Until their release,” said the statement, “Hamas has the obligation to provide them with everything they need. Hamas kidnapped them and they must care for them. Every hostage who dies will be on Hamas’s hands.”
Six more people died of starvation or malnutrition in Gaza over the past 24 hours, its health ministry said on Sunday as Israel said it allowed a delivery of fuel to the enclave, in the throes of a humanitarian disaster after almost two years of war.
The new deaths raised the toll of those dying from what international humanitarian agencies say may be an unfolding famine to 175, including 93 children, since the war began, the ministry said.
Egypt’s state-affiliated Al Qahera News TV said two trucks carrying 107 tons of diesel were set to enter Gaza, months after Israel severely restricted aid access to the enclave before easing it somewhat as starvation began to spread.
COGAT, the Israeli military agency that coordinates aid, said later in the day that four tankers of U.N. fuel had entered to help in operations of hospitals, bakeries, public kitchens and other essential services.
There was no immediate confirmation whether the two diesel fuel trucks had entered Gaza from Egypt.
Hala Al-Masri, 17, reacts at the site of an overnight Israeli strike on an UNRWA school that was sheltering displaced people, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, August 3, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled Purchase Licensing Rights
Gaza’s health ministry has said fuel shortages have severely impaired hospital services, forcing doctors to focus on treating only critically ill or injured patients.
Fuel shipments have been rare since March, when Israel restricted the flow of aid into the enclave in what it said was pressure on Hamas militants to free the remaining hostages they took in their October 2023 attack on Israel.
Israel blames Hamas for the suffering in Gaza but, in response to a rising international uproar, it announced steps last week to let more aid reach the population, including pausing fighting for part of the day in some areas, approving air drops and announcing protected routes for aid convoys.
U.N. agencies say airdrops are insufficient and that Israel must let in far more aid by land and open up access to the territory to prevent starvation among its 2.2 million people, most of whom are displaced amidst vast swathes of rubble.
COGAT said that during the past week over 23,000 tons of humanitarian aid in 1,200 trucks had entered Gaza but that hundreds of the trucks had yet to be driven to aid distribution hubs by U.N. and other international organisations.
Meanwhile, Belgium’s air force dropped the first in a series of its aid packages into Gaza on Sunday in a joint operation with Jordan, the Belgian defence ministry said.
France on Friday started to air-drop 40 tons of humanitarian aid.
LOOTED AID TRUCKS
The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said on Sunday that nearly 1,600 aid trucks had arrived since Israel eased restrictions late in July. However, witnesses and Hamas sources said many of those trucks have been looted by desperate displaced people and armed gangs.
More than 700 trucks of fuel entered the Gaza Strip in January and February during a ceasefire before Israel broke it in March in a dispute over terms for extending it and resumed its major offensive.
Palestinian local health authorities said at least 80 people had been killed by Israeli gunfire and airstrikes across the coastal enclave on Sunday. Deaths included persons trying to make their way to aid distribution points in southern and central areas of Gaza, Palestinian medics said.
Among those killed was a staff member of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, which said an Israeli strike at its headquarters in Khan Younis in southern Gaza ignited a fire on the first floor of the building.
A woman was knocked from her boat off the Jersey Shore when a distressed whale bashed the vessel – sending her flying into the frothing waves, shocking footage shows.
The incident went down Sunday off in Barnegat Bay in New Jersey, when a small motor boat came across a minke that was seen thrashing in shallow waters.
A distressed whale bashed into a boat Sunday off Barnegat Bay in New Jersey. Facebook/Kim Mancini
Its fin and back could be seen lurching out of the water in evident desperation.
When the boat approached, the whale became even more frantic and wound up under its hull – eventually tipping the vessel during the thrashing and sending a woman into the water.
She was quickly pulled to safety, and wasn’t injured.
The incident was caught on camera by Kim Mancini, who said the whale seemed to be in trouble before boaters arrived.
Sometimes, a Formula 1 win is less about speed than strategy and gritty driving.
Lando Norris held off McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri in a tense finish to win the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday and boost his title chances.
Overtaking in Hungary is tough, but Norris had to work hard to keep the win as Piastri loomed behind him in the final laps.
Norris celebrated with a double fist pump on top of his car after claiming McLaren’s 200th F1 win by less than a second to cut Piastri’s standings lead to nine points from 16.
“I’m dead. It was tough, it was tough,” Norris said. “The final stint, with Oscar catching, I was pushing flat out.”
It was the fourth one-two finish in a row for McLaren, with Norris winning three of those head-to-heads as the momentum swung back toward him ahead of the four-week midseason break.
Making the right call
A year on from a contentious first win for Piastri over Norris in Hungary after awkward radio messages, this was a race decided on the track.
Norris briefly dropped to fifth on the first lap but made his tires last to stop only once, while Piastri changed tires twice.
Piastri steadily cut into Norris’ lead in the latter stages of the race but the British driver held on with old tires to take the win. Piastri nearly collided with his teammate when he locked up a wheel while trying to pass on the second-to-last lap. Still, it was Norris who held on to have the last word in their title fight.
“Good racing. Good strategy. Good call,” was how Norris summed it up on the radio.
Piastri’s two-stop approach happened because, at the time, he and McLaren were more focused on getting ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, whose pace eventually fell away anyway.
“It wasn’t obvious that we just had enough pace to blow past (Leclerc),” Piastri said. “For Lando, there was virtually nothing to lose by trying a one-stop race. For myself, potentially there was.”
George Russell took third for Mercedes after fighting his way past Leclerc in a contest that earned Leclerc a time penalty for nearly colliding with Russell while defending.
Defending champion Max Verstappen was only ninth after being off the pace all week. He stays third in the standings, but drops to 97 points off leader Piastri in another heavy blow to an already unlikely title defense.
Ferrari frustration
Leclerc started on pole position with hopes of landing Ferrari its first Grand Prix win of the year, but ended up fourth after a radio message of what he later admitted was misplaced blame aimed at the team.
“This is so incredibly frustrating. We’ve lost all competitiveness,” he told the team over the radio. However, he later told broadcaster Sky Sports that the car actually had a chassis problem he only learned about later.
A day after calling himself “useless” and questioning whether Ferrari might need to replace him, Lewis Hamilton ended up 12th, exactly where he started. His comments after the race seemed set to fuel more speculation about his troubled first season with the Italian team.
“There’s a lot going on in the background that is not great,” Hamilton told Sky Sports, without explaining further.
Hamilton never seemed to have the pace to fight for points and was at one stage forced off the track by Verstappen as his old rival overtook him.
The sheet of paper says “Wanted Person” at the top. Below is a photo of a young woman, a headshot that might have been taken in a studio. She looks directly at the camera, smiling with her teeth showing, and her dark, shoulder-length hair is neatly brushed.
At the bottom, in red, are the words: “A reward of one million Hong Kong dollars,” together with a UK phone number.
To earn the money, about £95,000, there is a simple instruction: “Provide information on this wanted person and the related crime or take her to Chinese embassy”.
The woman from the photo is standing in front of me. She shudders when she looks at the building.
We are outside an imposing structure that was once home to the Royal Mint and which China hopes it can develop into a new mega-embassy in London, replacing the far smaller premises it has occupied since 1877.
The new premises, opposite the Tower of London, is already being patrolled by Chinese security guards. The building is ringed with CCTV cameras too.
“I’ve never been this close,” admits Carmen Lau.
Carmen, who is 30, fled Hong Kong in 2021 as pro-democracy activists in the territory were being arrested.
She argues that the UK should not allow China’s “authoritarian regime” to have its new embassy in such a symbolic location. One of her fears is that China, with such a huge embassy, could harass political opponents and could even hold them in the building.
There are also worries, among some dissidents, that its location – very near London’s financial district – could be an espionage risk. Then there is the opposition from residents who say it would pose a security risk to them.
The plans had previously been rejected by the local council, but the decision now lies with the government – and senior ministers have signalled they are in favour if minor adjustments are made to the plan.
The site is sprawling, at 20,000 square metres, and if it goes ahead it would mark the biggest embassy in Europe. But would it also really bring the dangers that its opponents fear?
The biggest embassy in Europe
China bought the old Royal Mint Court for £255m in 2018. The area has layer upon layer of history: across the road is the Tower, parts of it were built by William the Conqueror. For centuries kings and queens lived there.
The plan itself involves a cultural centre and housing for 200 staff, but in the basement, behind security doors, there are also rooms with no identified use on the plans.
“It’s easy for me to imagine what would happen if I was taken to the Chinese embassy,” says Carmen.
In 2022, a Hong Kong pro-democracy protester was dragged into the grounds of the Chinese consulate in Manchester and beaten. British police nearby stepped over the boundary to rescue him.
Back in 2019, mass protests had erupted in Hong Kong, triggered by the government’s attempt to bring in a new law allowing for Hong Kong citizens to be extradited to China.
China’s response included a law that forced all elected officials in Hong Kong, including Carmen who was then a district councillor, to take an oath of loyalty to China. Carmen resigned instead.
She claims that journalists for Chinese state-run media started following her. The Ta Kung Pao newspaper, which is controlled by China’s central government in Beijing, ran a front page story alleging she and her colleagues had held parties in their council offices.
“You know the tactics of the regime,” she says. “They were following you, trying to harass you. My friends and my colleagues were being arrested.”
Carmen fled to London but believes that she has continued to be targeted.
Hong Kong issued two arrest warrants for her alleging “incitement to secession and collusion with a foreign country or with external elements to endanger national security”.
The bounty letter sent from Hong Kong to half a dozen of her neighbours followed.
“The regime just [tries] to eliminate any possible activists overseas,” she says.
Steve Tsang, a political scientist and historian who is director of the SOAS China Institute, says he can see why people from Hong Kong, or certain other backgrounds, may be uncomfortable with the new embassy.
He argues “the Chinese government since 1949 does not have a record of kidnapping people and holding them in their embassy compounds.”
But he says some embassy staff would be tasked with monitoring Chinese students and dissidents in the UK and they’d also target UK citizens, such as scientists, business people, and those with influence, to advance China’s interests.
The Chinese embassy told the BBC it “is committed to promoting understanding and the friendship between the Chinese and British peoples and the development of mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries. Building the new embassy would help us better perform such responsibilities”.
Warnings about espionage
There is another fear, held by some opponents, that the Royal Mint Court site could allow China to infiltrate the UK’s financial system by tapping into fibre optic cables carrying sensitive data for firms in the City of London.
The site once housed Barclays Bank’s trading floor, so it was wired directly into the UK’s financial infrastructure. Nearby, a tunnel has, since 1985, carried fibre optic cables under the Thames serving hundreds of City firms.
And in the grounds of the Court, is a five-storey brick building – the Wapping Telephone Exchange that serves the City of London.
According to Prof Periklis Petropoulos, an optoelectronics researcher at Southampton University, direct access to a working telephone exchange could allow people to glean information.
This has all prompted warnings about potential espionage – including from Conservative frontbencher Kevin Hollinrake, as well as senior Republicans in the US.
An official with security experience in former US president Joe Biden’s administration told me it’s perfectly possible that cables could be tapped with devices that would capture passing information – and that this would be almost impossible to detect.
“Anything up to half a mile from the embassy would be vulnerable,” he says.
However, he argues that China may not be inclined to do this because it has other ways of hacking into systems.
Regarding these concerns, the Chinese embassy said: “Anti-China forces are using security risks as an excuse to interfere with the British government’s consideration over this planning application.
“This is a despicable move that is unpopular and will not succeed.”
What the neighbours think
At the back of the Royal Mint Court is a row of 1980s-built flats. Mark Nygate has lived here for more than 20 years. He gestures across his low garden wall. “Embassy staff will live there and overlook us,” he says.
“We don’t want [the embassy] there because of demonstrations, because of the security risks, because of our privacy.”
Opponents of the embassy – Hong Kongers, Tibetans, Uighurs, and opposition politicians – have already staged protests involving up to 6,000 people.
Mostly, though, he fears an attack on the embassy – that could harm him and his neighbours.
But Tony Travers, a visiting professor in the LSE Department of Government, lives near the current embassy and isn’t convinced that these sorts of protests will materialise for the new neighbours, if the relocation goes ahead.
“I’m not aware of any evidence that there are regular protests that block the road outside the current Chinese embassy… self-evidently, there are much larger protests outside a number of other countries’ embassies and high commissions.”
The Chinese embassy in London says that the proposed development would “greatly improve the surrounding environment and bring benefits to the local community and the district”.
When President Xi raised the issue
China’s first planning application to develop the site was rejected by Tower Hamlets council in 2022 over safety and security concerns – and fears protests and security measures could damage tourism.
Rather than amend the plan or appeal, China waited, then resubmitted an identical application in August 2024, one month after Labour came to power.
On 23 August, Sir Keir Starmer phoned Chinese President Xi Jinping for their first talks. Afterwards Sir Keir confirmed that Xi had raised the issue of the embassy.
Since then, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has exercised her power to take the matter out of the council’s hands, after being urged to do so by Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
This is in the context of an attempt by the government to engage with China after previous Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak declared in 2022 that the so-called “golden era” of UK-China relations were over.
For his part, Prof Travers believes that politics is involved in planning decisions.
“The Secretary of State has to make the decision on the basis of the documentation in front of them and the law surrounding and affecting the issue,” he argues.
“But it would be naïve to imagine that politics didn’t play a role.”
‘Kissing up to China’
Lord Peter Ricketts, a former diplomat who chaired the UK’s National Security Council, advising prime ministers on global threats, stresses that the country’s relationship with China is complex.
A National Security Strategy published in June laid out the conflicting priorities in the government’s approach, highlighting its desire to use the relationship to boost the UK economy but also likely “continued tension” over human rights and cyber security.
But is that duality of reaping the business benefits while pushing on the human rights transgressions, even possible?
“It is absolutely an adversary in some areas, which tries to steal our intellectual property, or suborn our citizens,” says Lord Ricketts. “(But) it is a commercial market, a very important one for us, and it’s a player in the big global issues like climate and health.
“We have to be able to treat China in all those categories at the same time.”
The embassy decision, he says, cuts to the heart of this. “There are acute dilemmas, and there are choices to be made, whether to privilege the 30, 40 or 50-year relationship with China, which an embassy, I guess, would symbolise.
“Or whether to give priority to the short-term security threats, which are no doubt real as well.”
The Conservative MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith is convinced giving the go-ahead for the new embassy would be a big mistake. “They think that the only way they’ll get growth is by kissing up to China and getting them to invest,” he tells me.
But for all the concerns around security, having one big embassy could well make it easier to keep an eye on what Chinese officials are up to in the UK, according to Prof Tsang.
“Allowing the Chinese to put their staff on one site is preferable,” he argues, “because they’re at the moment all over the place in London, you can’t actually keep an eye on them.”
He is not convinced that rejecting or approving the embassy will have an effect on business and trade.
“The Chinese are the absolute ultimate pragmatists. They are not going to suddenly say that no, we’re not selling our best electric vehicles to you any longer just because you denied us the embassy,” he says.
Seventy-four people remain missing after a boat carrying 154 passengers sank off Yemen’s coast in the Arabian Sea. Local media reported that rescue teams continue to search for bodies and any possible survivors.
The vessel, with 154 Ethiopian migrants on board, sank in the Gulf of Aden. (Representative Image: AFP)
A boat carrying 154 migrants capsized on Sunday in waters off the coast of Yemen, leaving at least 68 African migrants dead and 74 others missing, the United Nations’ migration agency confirmed.
Abdul Qadir Bajameel, a senior health official in the province, said only 10 survivors had been rescued so far — nine of them Ethiopian nationals and one Yemeni. “Dozens remain unaccounted for,” he added, while rescue operations continued late into the night.
Local media reported that rescue teams were still searching for bodies and possible survivors.
The vessel, with 154 Ethiopian migrants on board, sank in the Gulf of Aden off the southern Yemeni province of Abyan early Sunday, Abdusattor Esoev, head of the International Organization for Migration in Yemen told The Associated Press.
MIGRANTS RISK LIVES ON DEADLY ROUTE
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has repeatedly warned about the dangers of the sea route between the Horn of Africa and Yemen. Migrants — mostly from Ethiopia and Somalia — regularly attempt the dangerous crossing with hopes of reaching Saudi Arabia or other Gulf nations in search of work.
“This is one of the world’s busiest and most perilous mixed migration routes,” the IOM said in a statement. The agency said that more than 60,000 migrants risked their lives to cross into Yemen in 2024 — a slightly lower number than the 97,200 who made the journey in 2023.
The IOM believes the drop in migrant arrivals is likely due to stepped-up patrols along the sea routes. According to the agency, 558 people died on the route last year, and over the past decade, at least 2,082 migrants have gone missing — with 693 of those confirmed to have drowned.
Despite the ongoing humanitarian crisis and fragile security situation, Yemen is still a destination and transit country for migrants. Since the outbreak of the Yemeni civil war in 2014, thousands of African migrants have entered the country, some seeking safety, others using it as a route to the Gulf, and many locals have left.
A truce deal reached in April 2022 between Houthi rebels and Yemen’s internationally recognised government has led to a relative decrease in violence.
A RUSSIAN volcano has erupted for the first time in centuries, sending ash surging 29,000ft into the sky.
The volcano roared back to life in the Kamchatka region of eastern Russia after last week’s major 8.8 Richter scale earthquake.
Its eruption has triggered a red alert for planesCredit: East2West
Last week’s quake saw tsunami warnings issued across the Pacific Ocean.
Pilots have been warned of flight dangers with a red aviation alert after the eruption of Krasheninnikov.
While it is listed as an active stratovolcano, it has not erupted for around 600 years – before observations were made.
New footage emerged today of tsunami waves climbing up the land in the remote Kuril Islands.
A man and his dog retreating could be seen fleeing as a fresh warning was issued following another earthquake of 7 on the Richter scale in eastern Russia.
The dramatic footage was captured on Shumshu Island, just off the southern coast of the Kamchatka peninsula.
Vsevolod Yakovlev, head of the Kronotsky Nature Reserve, said today: “Its eruption is not something out of the ordinary for a region with high volcanic activity.
“During satellite monitoring, thermal spots have been repeatedly noted in the area of the Krasheninnikov volcano.
“This is a significant increase in temperature on the Earth’s surface compared to neighbouring areas.”
Tsunami warnings following last week’s quake have since been lifted.
Ash coated the Kronotsky Nature Reserve – which includes dozens of volcanoes.
It is also home to the Valley of the Geysers, and has one of the world’s largest concentrations of brown bears.
Russian volcanologist Alexei Ozerov said: “A crack opened up along the volcano from the top of the crater, and a steam-gas mixture is currently rising from this crack.
“Emissions are occurring, and a large amount of ash was ejected during the opening of the crater crack.
“This ash reached the Valley of Geysers, and …the smell of gas…
“A question is immediately raised about the evacuation of the Valley of Geysers, those tourists who are there.”
But according to Russian officials, there was no immediate threat to life or wildlife.
The response team said: “The explosive eruption of the volcano continues.
“Ash explosions up to 10 km (32,800 ft) above sea level could occur at any time.
RUSSIAN forces last night bombed a key bridge used to transport military logistics in the Ukrainian frontline city of Kherson
Footage shows a Russian airstrike destroying the key road crossing on the Dnipro River after dropping two guided bombs.
A view of damage at the road bridge connecting the central part of Kherson with the Korabel after a Russian attackCredit: Getty
The attack damaged a bridge connecting the city to the Korabel neighbourhood.
A few homes and a high-rise residential building were also damaged, officials said.
A defiant Vladimir Putin has snubbed peace and is instead steadily increasing his overnight bombing raids – which could soon hit 1,000 a day.
Governor Oleksandr Prokudin urged residents of the Korabel district to evacuate, citing complications with logistics and infrastructure.
He wrote on Telegram: “As a result of the enemy airstrike, logistics have been complicated.
“Because of this, it will be difficult to deliver food and other things for the time being.”
Kherson Oblast, which is just near the Russian-occupied Crimean region, is frequently targeted by the Russians.
Kyiv sought revenge by launching a massive drone attack targeting Russia’s main resort city of Sochi, where Putin is said to be rebuilding one of his palaces.
More than 120 firefighters were trying to extinguish a blaze at an oil depot that was sparked by the drone attack, regional Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said.
A massive fuel tank with a capacity of 2,000 cubic metres was on fire, Russia’s RIA news agency reported.
Some 30 huge explosions led to a massive inferno at the facility close to the main airport often used by the Russian dictator.
The Russian defence ministry said that its air defence units destroyed 93 Ukrainian drones overnight, including one over the Krasnodar region and 60 over the waters of the Black Sea.
Rosaviatsia, Russia’s civil aviation authority, temporarily halted flights at Sochi’s airport to ensure air safety.
Meanwhile, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant was also attacked today, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.
The UN nuclear watchdog said that its team at the power plant heard explosions and saw smoke coming from a nearby location.
But a fire after Ukrainian shelling has been brought under control, Russian authorites in the Moscow-held region said.
The plant’s administration said on Telegram that a civilian had been killed in the shelling, but that no plant employees or members of the emergency services had been injured.
“The auxiliary facility is located 1,200 metres from the ZNPP’s site perimeter and the IAEA team could still see smoke from that direction in the afternoon,” the nuclear watchdog said.
Russian forces seized the Zaporizhzhia plant in the first weeks of Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Both sides have accused each other of firing or taking other actions that could trigger a nuclear accident.
The station, Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant, is not operating but still requires power to keep its nuclear fuel cool.
It comes just three days after 31 people died including five children after Putin’s forces fired an Iskander missile into a residential tower block in Kyiv.
US President Donald Trump branded Putin’s tactics “disgusting” as emergency workers worked through the night to pull bodies from the ruins.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, he said: “Russia – I think it’s disgusting what they’re doing. I think it’s disgusting.”
Putin’s bloodbath comes as Russia faces Trump’s new deadline for peace on August 7.
Trump warned the Kremlin that it had just 10 or 12 days to come to the table and agree on peace.
As the death toll climbed this morning, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky lamented the deaths.
He said: “The youngest child was only two years old. My condolences to the families and loved ones of the deceased. 159 people were injured, 16 of them children.
“Once again, such a vile strike by Russia shows that additional pressure on Moscow and sanctions are necessary.
“No matter how much the Kremlin denies their effectiveness, they work and must be stronger – hitting everything that allows such strikes to continue.
“And it is very important that the world does not remain silent about them.
“I thank everyone who has supported our people. We appreciate that President Trump, European leaders, and our other partners clearly see what is happening and condemn Russia.”
Trump has said that the US is “totally prepared” for a nuclear war following a slew of threats against America from a Kremlin comrade.
In an extraordinary escalation, the commander-in-chief ordered that two nuclear submarines be positioned near Russia.
Mandy Moore is calling out the hit-and-run driver who sped off after hitting her family.
“The woman who rear ended my family and then drove off we pulled over, hope your karma finds you,” the “A Walk To Remember” star wrote on her Instagram Stories Friday.
“Thankfully everyone was ok but what kind of human does that?” Moore, 41, continued.
Mandy Moore fired back at a hit-and-run driver who “rear-ended my family” via her Instagram Stories Friday. Mandy Moore/Instagram
The singer, who is married to Dawes frontman Taylor Goldsmith, didn’t reveal any more details about the accident. She and Goldsmith share three children together: sons August, 4, and Oscar, 2, and daughter Louise, 10 months.
A rep for Moore did not immediately respond to Page Six’s request for comment.
The “This is Us” star has become known as a fierce defender of her family over the years.
In January, she clapped back at social media users who criticized her for sharing a GoFundMe campaign aimed at helping her in-laws recover from the Los Angeles fires.
After noticing the swift backlash from fans, who said the actress could help her family with her large net worth, Moore responded to the criticism with an updated caption.
“”****And people questioning whether we’re helping out our own family or attributing some arbitrary amount of money google says someone has is NOT helpful or empathetic. Of course we are,” she wrote.
“We just lost most of our life in a fire too. Kindly F OFF. no one is forcing you to do anything.”
She’s even gone so far as to slam an Amazon driver who delivered a package to her recently torched in-laws’ home after it was destroyed by the Los Angeles wildfires.
People visiting the Smithsonian Museum of American History on the National Mall in Washington, Apr 3, 2019. (File photo: AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
The recent removal of a placard at the National Museum of American History that detailed Donald Trump’s two impeachments did not come after White House pressure, the museum’s parent organization said on Saturday (Aug 2).
The placard was meant to be temporary and “did not meet the museum’s standards in appearance, location, timeline, and overall presentation”, the Smithsonian Institution said in a statement on X.
“It was not consistent with other sections in the exhibit and moreover blocked the view of the objects inside its case. For these reasons, we removed the placard.
“We were not asked by any administration or other government official to remove content from the exhibit.”
The Smithsonian statement came after The Washington Post reported on Thursday that the museum last month removed the placard describing Trump’s impeachments and reverted to old signage that said “only three presidents have seriously faced removal” – Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.
The Post said the removal stemmed from a Smithsonian content review after the White House pressured the organisation to remove a director of one of its art museums.
Trump is the only American president to have been impeached twice – first in 2019 for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, then in 2021 for inciting an insurrection. He was acquitted by the Senate both times.
Since starting his second term in January, the Republican has moved to control major cultural institutions, while slashing arts and humanities funding.
In March, Trump signed an executive order to “restore the Smithsonian Institution to its rightful place as a symbol of inspiration and American greatness” and “remove improper ideology”.
The order accused the institution of having “come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology” and argued the shift has promoted narratives that portray American values as “inherently harmful and oppressive”.
The German government said it has taken note of “limited initial progress” in the flow of aid into Gaza, but said the amount was “very insufficient” to meet the needs of people there. DW has the latest.
Many children in Gaza are being treated for severe malnutritionImage: Jehad Alshrafi/AP Photo/picture alliance
Palestine Red Crescent says Israeli military attacked headquarters in Khan Younis
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) humanitarian organization said Israeli forces attacked its headquarters in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.
The PRCS said the attack killed one staff member and injured three others. The PRCS posted a video of what it said was the Israeli attack on social media platform X, with the footage showing fire and an explosion inside a building.
The Israeli military has yet to comment.
Turkey delivers Azerbaijani gas to Syria via new pipeline
Turkey has begun delivering Azerbaijani natural gas to Syria.
The Turkey-Syria Natural Gas Pipeline, which goes through the southern Turkish border region of Kilis, was inaugurated in an event on Saturday, with Turkish, Azerbaijani, Syrian and Qatari officials in attendance.
Taking part in the Kilis inauguration ceremony, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar called the opening of the pipeline a “historic moment.” Bayraktar said that “in the initial phase, up to two billion cubic meters of natural gas per year could be exported to Syria.”
Bayraktar said gas deliveries will first be sent to Aleppo in northern Syria, and will later be extended to the city of Homs in the central part of the country.
Syrian Energy Minister Mohammed al-Bashir, who was at the launch event, hailed the gas pipeline as a “strategic step” that boosts energy security and will “positively impact the economy and living conditions.”
Syria’s Sunni Islamist-led interim government has close ties with Turkey, with Turkish investments playing a key role in rebuilding the country after the ouster of Syrian leader Bashar Assad. Turkey opposed Assad’s rule and backed rebels fighting against him during the Syrian civil war, which ignited in 2011.
Family of Israeli hostage accuse Hamas of tormenting him with hunger
The family of Evyatar David, an Israeli held hostage in Gaza, saw him for the first time after Hamas released a video of him, looking very frail.
The propaganda video has led to widespread anger, with families of Israeli hostages held captive by Hamas calling on the Israeli government to secure their release.
In one section of the video, Evyatar David is shown being forced to dig a hole in the ground that he says will be his grave.
David was kidnapped at the Nova Music Festival on October 7, 2023, during the terrorist attack by Hamas in which 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage.
His family said in a statement that “Hamas is using our son as a live experiment in a vile hunger campaign. The deliberate starvation of our son as part of a propaganda campaign is one of the most horrifying acts the world has seen.”
The video is juxtaposed with pictures of starving Palestinian children.
In a UN statement on Tuesday, UN-backed food security experts said that “the worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in Gaza,” with UN World Food Programme director of emergencies Ross Smith saying the situation was “unlike anything we have seen in this century.”
German military aircraft delivers more humanitarian aid into Gaza
Germany’s Bundeswehr armed forces delivered about 9.6 tons of aid into Gaza on Saturday, according to the DPA news agency.
An A400M military transport aircraft dropped 22 pallets of humanitarian aid containing food and medical supplies into Gaza, the report said.
The Israeli military said countries like France, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates delivered about 90 pallets of aid into Gaza on Saturday.
A United Nations-affiliated organization that tracks food security worldwide issued a dire warning earlier this week about the hunger crisis in the Gaza Strip.
It confirmed that, based on data up to July 25, a “worse-case” famine scenario, was unfolding across Gaza.
Israeli authorities control the only three border crossings at the Strip and cut off all supplies to Gaza at the beginning of March.
Israeli authorities then reopened some aid centers in May, but with restrictions they said were designed to stop goods from being stolen by Hamas militants.
Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by Israel, the US, Germany, the EU and others.
Malnutrition-related deaths spiked in Gaza in July, according to the World Health Organization.
Airdrops have been sharply criticized by some humanitarian groups as expensive, inefficient and dangerous.
US envoy Witkoff tells families of Israeli hostages he was working to bring their loved ones home
US envoy Steve Witkoff on Saturday visited Hostages Square in Tel Aviv and vowed to secure the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza.
“We will get your children home and hold Hamas responsible for any bad acts on their part,” Witkoff told families of Israeli hostages who had gathered at the square to stage a protest to call upon the Israeli government to secure a deal to release their loved ones from captivity.
Witkoff was cited as saying so, according to a statement by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. He added “We will do what’s right for the Gazan people.”
Protesters had gathered at the square after videos of Israeli hostages held in Gaza were released by militant groups, sparking anger and outrage.
One video of an Israeli hostage was released by the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad on Thursday. A second video was released by Hamas on Friday (see posts above). It is unclear when those videos were filmed.
Witkoff on Friday also visited an aid distribution site in southern Gaza run by theUS-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The foundation has been widely criticized for failing to improve conditions in the besieged enclave.
Ukraine says it has struck some key oil and military facilities on Russian territory. A blaze that broke out near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant after Ukrainian shelling has been brought under control. DW has the latest.
Oil pumping units like these in the Republic of Tatarstan have been the target of Ukrainian strikes in RussiaImage: Stringer/Anadolu/picture alliance
Sochi hit by Ukrainian drone attack, Russian official says
A Ukrainian drone attack has ignited a fire at an oil depot in the Russian Black Sea resort city of Sochi, Russian official Veniamin Kondratyev said on Telegram.
Kondratyev is the regional governor of Krasnodar Krai, a Russian federal subject that includes Sochi.
Kondratyev said firefighting efforts have begun to take out the blaze in Sochi’s Adler district.
Flights at Sochi’s airport were halted after the attack, according to Russia’s civil aviation authority.
Ukraine has not yet commented on the reported attack.
Ukraine’s anti-corruption bodies say they’ve uncovered corruption related to drone procurement
Ukraine’s anti-corruption bodies said Saturday that they had uncovered a major graft scheme that procured military drones and signal jamming systems at inflated prices.
The development comes just two days after the agencies’ independence was restored following major protests, prompting a policy reversal from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The independence of Ukraine’s anti-graft investigators and prosecutors, NABU and SAPO, was reinstated by parliament on Thursday after a move to take it away resulted in the country’s biggest protests since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
In a statement published by both NABU and SAPO on social media, the agencies said they had caught a current lawmaker, two officials and some national guard personnel taking bribes.
“The essence of the scheme was to conclude state contracts with supplier companies at deliberately inflated prices,” it said, adding that the offenders had received kickbacks of up to 30% of a contract’s cost. Four people have so far been arrested.
“There can only be zero tolerance for corruption, clear teamwork to expose corruption and, as a result, a just sentence,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram.
Earlier this week, Zelenskyy had to row back plans to give his government more powers and independence of the country’s anti-corruption agencies.
This climb down came of thousands of people took to the streets of Kyiv to express anger the Ukrainian president’s decision to have the country’s anti-corruption bodies under the control of state prosecutors.
India to continue buying oil from Russia: report
India will keep purchasing oil from Russia despite US President Donald Trump’s threats of penalties.
This is according to two Indian government sources and reported on by the Reuters news agency, via the New York Times.
“These are long-term oil contracts,” Reuters reported one of the sources as saying. “It is not so simple to just stop buying overnight.”
Trump last month suggested on social media that India would face additional penalties for purchases of Russian arms and oil.
Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant brought under control, says Russia
A fire that broke out near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant after Ukrainian shelling has subsided after being brought under control, the Moscow-installed administration of the Russian-held plant in Ukraine said on Saturday.
Russia seized the Zaporizhzhia plant in the first weeks of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which got underway in February 2022.
Since Moscow took the plant, both sides have accused each other of firing or taking other measures that could increases the danger of a nuclear accident.
Friends confirmed that Chahal had been receiving frequent death threats from pro-Khalistan groups but remained resolute in his advocacy
The timing of Chahal’s death, just before a significant Khalistan Referendum event on August 17 in Washington DC, which he was actively opposing, has heightened suspicions among his associates. Image/Facebook
The sudden and mysterious death of Sukhi Chahal, a notable US-based businessman and social activist known for his strong opposition to Khalistani separatism, has deeply impacted the Indian diaspora and anti-Khalistani communities, according to a Times of India report. Chahal’s unexpected demise in California has raised numerous questions among his friends and associates.
Jaspal Singh, a close friend, revealed that Chahal attended a dinner at an acquaintance’s home on Thursday. “Shortly after the meal, his health rapidly declined, and he passed away on the spot,” Singh explained on Saturday, noting that Chahal had been in good health before the incident.
As the founder and CEO of The Khalsa Today, Chahal was a prominent critic of Khalistani elements operating abroad. Friends, including Boota Singh Kaler, confirmed that Chahal had been receiving frequent death threats from pro-Khalistan groups but remained resolute in his advocacy. The timing of his death, just before a significant Khalistan Referendum event on August 17 in Washington DC, which he was actively opposing, has heightened suspicions among his associates.
An Ohio couple, Lindsey and Tim Pierce, had a baby from an embryo frozen for over 30 years. The embryo, created in 1994, was transferred to Lindsey in 2024.
A baby boy born last week to an Ohio couple developed from an embryo that had been frozen for more than 30 years (Representational image)
In a significant breakthrough, an Ohio couple welcomed a baby developed from an embryo that had been frozen for over 30 years.
Lindsey Pierce (35) and Tim Pierce (34) of London, Ohio, who were trying to conceive for the last seven years, finally welcomed Thaddeus Daniel Pierce into the world last week on Saturday.
The embryo was one of the four produced by Linda Archerd, now 62, using in vitro fertilisation (IVF) in 1994. Among the four embryos, one was transferred to Archerd and resulted in the birth of a daughter, who is now 30 and mother to a 10-year-old. The other embryos were cryopreserved and stored, as per the report by BBC.
In November 2024, one embryo was moved to Lindsey after being cryopreserved in liquid nitrogen for approximately 30 years, the report added.
Following a divorce, Archerd was awarded custody of the embryos. She then found out about Nightlight Christian Adoptions and their “Snowflakes” program, which allows donors to select adoptive families based on values like religion and ethnicity.
Archerd had a preference for her embryo to be “adopted” by a white, Christian married couple.
“The first thing that I noticed when Lindsey sent me his pictures is how much he looks like my daughter when she was a baby. I pulled out my baby book and compared them side by side, and there is no doubt that they are siblings,” she said to MIT Technology Review.
The fertility clinic that transferred the embryo is run by John Gordon, a reproductive endocrinologist and Reformed Presbyterian who is working to reduce the number of embryos in storage, the report added.
“We have certain guiding principles, and they’re coming from our faith. Every embryo deserves a chance at life and that the only embryo that cannot result in a healthy baby is the embryo not given the opportunity to be transferred into a patient,” he said as reported by The Guardian.
In a statement, Lindsey and Tim Pierce said the clinic’s support was just what they needed.
“We didn’t go into this thinking about records — we just wanted to have a baby,” Lindsey Pierce said.
According to experts, this instance breaks the previous record, which was set by twins born in Oregon in 2022 from embryos frozen in 1992, the BBC report added.
A boat filled with participants cruises the UNESCO World Heritage recognized canals during the annual gay pride parade in Amsterdam, Netherlands August 2, 2025. REUTERS/Yves Herman Purchase Licensing Rights
Around 80 colorful pride boats sailed through Amsterdam’s World Heritage canals on Saturday in the finale of a week-long celebration in the city that stood in stark contrast to recent crackdowns on LGBTQ+ rights in fellow EU member state Hungary.
While the flotilla is not political, attendees used the occasion to criticise conflicts or world leaders for their stance on LGBTQ+ rights.
Thehany Gilmore, a 43-year-old Dutch-Caribbean dressed in a leather outfit with a whip, said banning of the Budapest pride parade “is a form of oppression.”
“People everywhere should have their own pride to be able to represent who they are,” she said.
Palestinian flags were spotted among the crowd of revelers, and Dutch police arrested four activists who had jumped in the water to vandalize the Booking.com boat in protest over its listings in settlements in Israeli-occupied territories.
Others criticized U.S. President Donald Trump, whose administration implemented anti-trans policies and cut funding for international aid programs, dealing a setback to HIV prevention efforts in Africa.
Some waved a hybrid U.S./Pride flag, while one boat declared itself a ‘Trump-Free Pride Boat’ with signs reading ‘Trans Rights Are Human Rights.’ Another featured mock graveyards and the message ‘Trump’s Actions Kill. Love Saves Lives,’ highlighting fears over U.S. AIDS funding cuts.
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRKa.N), said on Saturday it took a $3.76 billion write-down on its stake in Kraft Heinz (KHC.O), during the second quarter, an acknowledgment the decade-old investment hasn’t worked out.
Berkshire also reported a 4% decline in quarterly operating profit as insurance underwriting premiums fell. The write-down and lower gains from common stocks caused a 59% drop in overall net income.
Buffett’s conglomerate signaled it remains cautious about market valuations, amid uncertainty about tariffs and growth in the broader economy.
It reported a near-record $344.1 billion cash stake, and sold more stocks than it bought for an 11th straight quarter. As of mid-July, Berkshire hadn’t repurchased any of its own stock since May 2024.
Buffett, 94, has led Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire since 1965, though he plans to step down at year-end.
“Investors are getting antsy and want to seek activity, and nothing is happening,” said Kyle Sanders, an analyst at Edward Jones. “Buffett definitely views the market as overvalued, and will sit back and wait for something to come to him.”
Uncertainty about trade policies, including tariffs, has become a headwind as delayed orders and shipments led to declining revenue at most of Berkshire’s consumer businesses.
Jazwares, which makes the popular Squishmallows plush toys, saw revenue fall 38.5% in the year’s first half.
Analysts viewed overall results as lackluster.
“Berkshire and the economy are at an inflection point,” said Cathy Seifert, a CFRA Research analyst. “I don’t think the market will embrace the combination of mediocre results, a lack of stock buybacks, and Berkshire’s recent share underperformance amid a management transition.”
Seifert and Sanders rate Berkshire “hold.”
KRAFT HEINZ
Second-quarter operating income fell to $11.16 billion, or about $7,760 per Class A share, from $11.6 billion a year earlier. Results included $877 million of currency losses as the U.S. dollar weakened.
Net income, including gains and losses on stocks such as Apple (AAPL.O), and American Express (AXP.N), fell to $12.37 billion from $30.35 billion. Revenue fell 1% to $92.52 billion.
Buffett views unrealized investment gains and losses, including on stocks Berkshire has no plans to sell, as often meaningless to understanding his company.
The $3.76 billion after-tax write-down for Berkshire’s 27.4% Kraft Heinz stake, equal to $5 billion before taxes, followed the struggling food company’s announcement it would consider strategic alternatives, which could include a breakup.
Berkshire had carried Kraft Heinz on its books at above-market value but said economic and other uncertainties, and its longer-term plans to remain an investor, made the gap “other-than-temporary.”
People watch as Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett is seen on a screen speaking at the Berkshire Hathaway Inc annual shareholders’ meeting, in Omaha, Nebraska, U.S., May 3, 2025. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY Purchase Licensing Rights
The write-down is Berkshire’s second for Kraft Heinz, following a $3 billion write-down in 2019.
Buffett acknowledged at the time that Berkshire overpaid in the 2015 merger of Kraft Foods and H.J. Heinz, one of his biggest investment missteps.
Kraft Heinz has suffered as more shoppers favor healthier and private-label alternatives. Its approximately 200 brands include Oscar Mayer, Kool-Aid, Velveeta and Jell-O.
Berkshire also carries another big investment, its 28.1% stake in Occidental Petroleum (OXY.N), at $5.3 billion above fair value, but reported no need for a write-down.
LAGGING THE MARKET
Shares of Berkshire have fallen more than 12%, and lagged the Standard & Poor’s 500 (.SPX), by about 22 percentage points, since Buffett announced on May 3 he would step down as chief executive at year end.
Vice Chairman Greg Abel, 63, will succeed him, though Buffett will remain chairman.
Analysts said the premium embedded in Berkshire’s stock price because of the presence of Buffett, arguably the world’s most well-known investor, has eroded, while growth may slow in the insurance sector, a major Berkshire profit center.
The lack of new investments has also been a drag. Analysts believe Berkshire’s BNSF unit could buy CSX (CSX.O), to create another transcontinental railroad, after Union Pacific (UNP.N), agreed on July 29 to buy Norfolk Southern (NSC.N).
Buffett transformed Berkshire over six decades from a troubled and since-closed textile company into a $1.02 trillion conglomerate.
Berkshire owns several insurers and reinsurers, electric utility and renewable energy businesses, several chemical and industrial companies, and familiar consumer brands such as Dairy Queen, Fruit of the Loom and See’s Candies.
BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL
Berkshire said the 12% quarterly decline in insurance underwriting profit stemmed primarily from reinsurance businesses and some smaller insurance businesses.
Geico, its best-known insurance business, saw pre-tax underwriting profit rise 2%, as a 5% increase in premiums offset a smaller rise in accident losses.
The car insurer has been ceding market share to State Farm and Progressive (PGR.N), while focusing on improving underwriting quality and technology and cutting jobs.
Analysts said higher tariffs could be a headwind for Geico if the cost of auto parts rose, potentially increasing losses from accident claims.
BNSF is also cutting expenses. Lower fuel costs helped boost quarterly profit 19% gain, though revenue and cargo volumes barely changed.
Hamas forced emaciated Israeli hostage Evyatar David to dig his own grave in a sick new propaganda video, as the twisted terror group continued to stall negotiations to release the remaining living captives.
In the nearly 5-minute clip released Friday, the 24-year-old David is seen in a tunnel with a ceiling roughly as high as he is tall, crossing off dates on a calendar and digging a grave.
“I haven’t eaten for a few days in a row,” David says in the footage.
The video shows David digging inside a tunnel. Hamas / Hostages and Missing Families Forum
In the middle of the video, the person behind the camera hands him a can of beans.
“This can is for two days,” David says. “This whole can is for two days so that I don’t die.
“This is the grave I think I’m going to be buried in. Time is running out.”
The David family, which allowed the release of the video, said in a statement sent to the Hostages Families Forum Headquarters, “We are forced to witness our beloved son and brother, Evyatar David, deliberately and cynically starved in Hamas’s tunnels in Gaza — a living skeleton, buried alive.
“The deliberate starvation of our son as part of a propaganda campaign is one of the most horrifying acts the world has seen.”
The appalling video sparked outrage in Israel and across the globe.
“Hamas terrorists deliberately starve our hostages, documenting them in a cynical, humiliating, and malicious manner,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Naftali Fürst, a Holocaust survivor, said she watched the images of the hostages with a “heavy heart,” taking her back decades.
“I survived Auschwitz and Buchenwald. I know hunger up close. In the camps, we were given rations of bread and watery soup,” she said. “We were so hungry, we would even eat grass if we could find it.
“I remember the humiliation—the complete stripping of human dignity. I know the fear, the terror.”
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill pointed to Hamas’ monstrous treatment of David as a reminder of the terrorist group’s barbarity and role in prolonging the bloody conflict in Gaza.
“The chilling video of Hamas hostage Evyatar David is a grotesque reminder of why America must stand with Israel and demand every hostage’s release,” retiring Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) told The Post.
He added, “If Hamas released the tortured hostages, this war would end.”
“Iran-backed Hamas terrorists have held innocent people hostage, starving them for 666 days,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said of the horrifying footage.
“Just look at these photos — it’s gut-wrenching. Every day that goes by is a risk to their lives. We cannot stop until every hostage is home and Hamas is destroyed.”
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA.) recounted how he met with David’s family and demanded Hamas release the hostages.
“I cannot even begin to imagine the horror of this video for them. I continue to stand with these families and every last hostage. Hamas: send these poor souls home, disarm, and end this hell on earth in Gaza,” Fetterman said in response to the chilling video.
Hudson Valley Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) called the imagery “vile” and underscored Hamas’ role in fueling the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
“This is vile. Where are all those demanding Israel end this war now? Lawler stressed. “Where are all those decrying the humanitarian crisis now?
“The only entity for the devastation that has been inflicted upon innocent Israelis and Palestinians is Hamas. Period. Full stop.”
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-Bronx) said, “The world’s silence about the deliberate starvation of Israelis and Jews — at the hands of Hamas and Islamic Jihad — is as deafening as its hypocrisy.”
“A humanitarianism that devalues Jewish life is no humanitarianism at all, for it has been hollowed out by antisemitism,” Torres added.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot called the images “vile” and “unbearable.”
“The hostage’s hell must end,” he wrote on X Saturday.
Israel has come under heightened pressure on the world stage over the conditions in Gaza, with countries such as Canada, the UK and France moving to recognize a Palestinian state as soon as next month.
But top US officials have repeatedly sought to drill home to allies that Hamas is the one preventing peace.
“The fastest way to end the Humanitarian Crises in Gaza is for Hamas to SURRENDER AND RELEASE THE HOSTAGES!!!” President Trump emphasized on Truth Social earlier this week.
Hamas is believed to still have 20 living hostages in captivity and 30 who are dead. Despite that, Israel has moved to allow more humanitarian aid to the war-torn enclave, including from airdrops, tactical pauses in key areas, and the opening of new routes for aid to flow through.
The cruel hostage video marks the second one released by the terror group this week.
On Thursday, chilling footage showed Israeli hostage Rom Braslavski ghostly and frail as he cried during the six-minute video.
Both were kidnapped at the Nova music festival during the Oct. 7 terror attack and are among the remaining 20 hostages believed to still be alive.
“They are on the absolute brink of death,” brother Ilay David said Saturday, speaking in English before a crowd of thousands in Tel Aviv gathered for their weekly demonstrations to call for the release of all hostages and an end to the war.
David called on Trump to secure the release of the hostages “by any means necessary.”
“To remain silent now is to be complicit in their slow agonizing death,” he said.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff, meanwhile, told Israeli hostages’ families in a meeting in Tel Aviv earlier Saturday, that he had no news of progress in talks with Hamas, according to Hebrew media.
“I hear your frustration. But the situation is complicated. There are many reasons that I cannot detail,” he said.
Witkoff added that an end to the war was “very close,” according to a statement by the Hostages Families Forum Headquarters.
Before koalas became Australia’s animal ambassadors, the country tried platypus diplomacy
In 1943, a camouflaged ship set off from Australia to England carrying top secret cargo – a single young platypus.
Named after his would-be owner, UK prime minister Winston Churchill, the rare monotreme was an unprecedented gift from a country desperately trying to curry favour as World War Two expanded into the Pacific and arrived on its doorstep.
But days out from Winston’s arrival, as war raged in the seas around him, the puggle was found dead in the water of his specially made “platypusary”.
Fearing a potential diplomatic incident, Winston’s death – along with his very existence – was swept under the rug.
He was preserved, stuffed and quietly shelved inside his name-sake’s office, with rumours that he died of Nazi-submarine-induced shell-shock gently whispered into the ether.
The mystery of who, or what, really killed him has eluded the world since – until now.
Two Winstons and a war
The world has always been fascinated by the platypus. An egg-laying mammal with the face and feet of a duck, an otter-shaped body and a beaver-inspired tail, many thought the creature was an elaborate hoax; a taxidermy trick.
For Churchill, an avid collector of rare and exotic animals, the platypus’s intrigue only made him more desperate to have one – or six – for his menagerie.
And in 1943 he said as much to the Australian foreign minister, H.V. ‘Doc’ Evatt.
In the eyes of Evatt, the fact that his country had banned the export of the creatures – or that they were notoriously difficult to transport and none had ever survived a journey that long – were merely challenges to overcome.
Australia had increasingly felt abandoned by the motherland as the Japanese drew closer and closer – and if a posse of platypuses would help Churchill respond more favourably to Canberra’s requests for support, then so be it.
Conservationist David Fleay – who was asked to help with the mission – was less amenable.
“Imagine any man carrying the responsibilities Churchill did, with humanity on the rack in Europe and Asia, finding time to even think about, let alone want, half-a-dozen duckbilled platypuses,” he wrote in his 1980 book Paradoxical Platypus.
On Mr Fleay’s account, he managed to talk the politicians down from six platypuses to one, and young Winston was captured from a river near Melbourne shortly after.
An elaborate platypusary – complete with hay-lined burrows and fresh Australian creek water – was constructed for him; a menu of 50,000 worms – and duck egg custard as a treat – was prepared; and an attendant was hired to wait on his every need throughout the 45-day voyage.
Across the Pacific, through Panama Canal and into the Atlantic Ocean Winston went – before tragedy struck.
In a letter to Evatt, Churchill said he was “grieved” to report that the platypus “kindly” sent to him had died in the final stretch of the journey.
“Its loss is a great disappointment to me,” he said.
The mission’s failure was kept secret for years, to avoid any public outcry. But eventually, reports about Winston’s demise would begin popping up in newspapers. The ship had encountered a German U-boat, they claimed, and the platypus had been shaken to death amid a barrage of blasts.
“A small animal equipped with a nerve-packed, super sensitive bill, able to detect even the delicate movements of a mosquito wriggler on stream bottoms in the dark of night, cannot hope to cope with man-made enormities such as violent explosions,” Mr Fleay wrote, decades later.
“It was so obvious that, but for the misfortunes of war, a fine, thriving, healthy little platypus would have created history in being number one of its kind to take up residence in England.”
Mystery unravelled
“It is a tempting story, isn’t it?” PhD student Harrison Croft tells the BBC.
But it’s one that has long raised suspicions.
And so last year, Mr Croft embarked on his own journey: a search for truth.
Accessing archives in both Canberra and London, the Monash University student found a bunch of records from the ship’s crew, including an interview with the platypus attendant charged with keeping Winston alive.
“They did a sort of post-mortem, and he was very particular. He was very certain that there was no explosion, that it was all very calm and quiet on board,” Mr Croft says.
A state away, another team in Sydney was looking into Winston’s life too. David Fleay’s personal collection had been donated to the Australian Museum, and staff all over the building were desperate to know if it held answers.
“You’d ride in the lifts and some doctor from mammalogy… [would ask] ‘what archival evidence is there that Winston died from depth charge detonations?'” the museum’s archive manager Robert Dooley tells the BBC.
“This is something that had intrigued people for a long time.”
With the help of a team of interns from the University of Sydney, they set about digitising all of Fleay’s records in a bid to find out.
Even as far back as the 1940s, people knew that platypuses were voracious eaters. Legend of the species’ appetite was so great that the UK authorities drafted an announcement offering to pay young boys to catch worms and deliver them to feed Winston upon his arrival.
In the platypus attendant’s logbook, the interns found evidence that his rations en route were being decreased as some of the worms began to perish.
But it was water and air temperatures, which had been noted down at 8am and 6pm every day, that held the key to solving the mystery.
These readings were taken at two of the cooler points of the day, and still, as the ship crossed the equator over about a week, the recorded temperatures climbed well beyond 27C – what we now know is the safe threshold for platypus travel.
With the benefit of hindsight – and an extra 80 years of scientific research into the species – the University of Sydney team determined Winston was essentially cooked alive.
While they can’t definitively rule out the submarine shell-shock story, they say the impact of those prolonged high temperatures alone would have been enough to kill Winston.
“It’s way easier to just shift the blame on the Germans, rather than say we weren’t feeding it enough, or we weren’t regulating its temperature correctly,” Ewan Cowan tells the BBC.
“History is totally dependent on who’s telling the story,” Paul Zaki adds.
Platypus diplomacy goes extinct
Not to be dissuaded by its initial attempt at platypus diplomacy, Australia would try again in 1947.
High off the achievement of successfully breeding a platypus in captivity for the first time – a feat that wouldn’t be replicated for another 50 years – Mr Fleay convinced the Australian government to let the Bronx Zoo have three of the creatures in a bid to deepen ties with the US.
Unlike Winston’s secret journey across the Pacific, this voyage garnered huge attention. Betty, Penelope and Cecil docked in Boston to much fanfare, before the trio was reportedly escorted via limousine to New York City, where Australia’s ambassador was waiting to feed them the ceremonial first worm.
Betty would die soon after she arrived, but Penelope and Cecil quickly became celebrities. Crowds clamoured for a glimpse of the animals. A wedding was planned. The tabloids obsessed over their every move.
Platypus are solitary creatures, but New York had been promised lovers. And while Cecil was lovesick, Penelope was apparently sick of love. In the media, she was painted as a “brazen hussy”, “one of those saucy females who like to keep a male on a string”.
Until 1953 that is, when the pair had a four-day fling – rather upsettingly described as “all-night orgies of love”, fuelled by “copious quantities of crayfish and worms”.
Alas, Penelope soon began nesting, and the world excitedly awaited her platypups, which were to be a massive scientific milestone – only the second bred in captivity, and the first outside Australia.
After four months of princess treatment and double rations for Penelope, zookeepers checked on her nest in front of a throng of excited reporters.
But they found no babies – just a disgruntled-looking Penelope, who was summarily accused of faking her pregnancy to secure more worms and less Cecil.
“It was a whole scandal,” Mr Cowan says – one from which Penelope’s reputation never recovered.
This photo, released by Reliance Industries Limited in Jamnagar shows their crude oil refinery in the Indian state of Gujarat on June 17, 2021 (PhotoL AP/Reliance Industries Limited in Jamnagar)
India will continue to purchase oil from Russia, despite US President Donald Trump’s threats of penalties, two Indian government sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
“These are long-term oil contracts,” one of the sources said. “It is not so simple to just stop buying overnight.”
Trump last month indicated in a Truth Social post that India would face additional penalties for purchases of Russian arms and oil. On Friday (Aug 1), Trump told reporters that he had heard that India would no longer be buying oil from Russia.
The New York Times on Saturday quoted two unnamed senior Indian officials as saying there had been no change in Indian government policy, with one official saying the government had “not given any direction to oil companies” to cut back imports from Russia.
Reuters reported this week that Indian state refiners stopped buying Russian oil in the past week after discounts narrowed in July.
“TIME-TESTED PARTNERSHIP” WITH RUSSIA
“On our energy sourcing requirements … we look at what is there available in the markets, what is there on offer, and also what is the prevailing global situation or circumstances,” India’s foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters during a regular briefing on Friday.
Jaiswal added that India has a “steady and time-tested partnership” with Russia, and that New Delhi’s relations with various countries stand on their own merit and should not be seen from the prism of a third country.
The White House in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Indian refiners are pulling back from Russian crude as discounts shrink to their lowest since 2022, when Western sanctions were first imposed on Moscow, due to lower Russian exports and steady demand, sources said earlier this week.
The country’s state refiners – Indian Oil Corp, Hindustan Petroleum Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp and Mangalore Refinery Petrochemical Ltd – have not sought Russian crude in the past week or so, four sources familiar with the refiners’ purchase plans told Reuters.
100% TARIFF THREAT
On July 14, Trump threatened 100 per cent tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil unless Moscow reaches a major peace deal with Ukraine. Russia is the top supplier to India, responsible for about 35 per cent of India’s overall supplies.
Russia continued to be the top oil supplier to India during the first six months of 2025, accounting for about 35 per cent of India’s overall supplies, followed by Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
India, the world’s third-largest oil importer and consumer, received about 1.75 million barrels per day of Russian oil in January-June this year, up 1 per cent from a year ago, according to data provided to Reuters by sources.
Nayara Energy, a major buyer of Russian oil, was recently sanctioned by the European Union as the refinery is majority-owned by Russian entities, including oil major Rosneft.
Smoke from Canadian wildfires hovered over several Midwestern states Saturday, bringing warnings of unhealthy air for at least the third day.
Air quality alerts were in effect in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, as well as eastern Nebraska and parts of Indiana and Illinois. Forecasters said the smoky skies would remain for much of the day.
Canadian environmental officials said smoke from the forest fires would persist into Sunday for some areas.
The Switzerland-based air quality monitoring database IQAir, which assesses air quality in real time, listed the city of Minneapolis as having some of the worst air pollution in the world since Friday. The Air Quality Index (AQI) was expected to reach the red or unhealthy category in a large swath of Minnesota.
AQI is a system used to communicate how much air pollution is in the air. It breaks pollution down into six categories and colors, along with advice on what is and is not safe to do. They range from “good” (the color green) to “hazardous” (maroon).
People with lung disease, heart disease, children, older adults and pregnant women are most susceptible to the poor breathing conditions.
“What’s been unique in this go-around is that we’ve had this prolonged stretch of smoke particulates towards the surface, so that’s where we’ve really had the air quality in the red here for the past few days,” said Joe Strus, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area in Minnesota.
“We’ve sort of been dealing with this, day in and day out, where you walk outside and you can taste the smoke, you can smell it,” Strus said. “Sometimes we’ve been in higher concentrations than others. Other times it’s just looked a little hazy out there.”
The air was improving Saturday, he said, specifically across the Twin Cities and southwestern Minnesota, but state health officials warned that conditions could remain unhealthy for sensitive groups through Monday.
Officials said the smoke could spread as far south as Tennessee and Missouri.
The EPA’s Air Quality Index converts all pollutant levels into a single number. The lower the number, the better. Anything below 50 is classified as “healthy.” Fifty to 100 is “moderate” while 100-150 is unhealthy for “sensitive groups.” Anything above 150 is bad for everyone. Parts of Minnesota exceeded that number on Saturday.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps pay for PBS, NPR, 1,500 local radio and television stations as well as programs like “Sesame Street” and “Finding Your Roots,” said Friday that it would close after the U.S. government withdrew funding.
The organization told employees that most staff positions will end with the fiscal year on Sept. 30. A small transition team will stay until January to finish any remaining work.
The private, nonprofit corporation was founded in 1968 shortly after Congress authorized its formation. It now ends nearly six decades of fueling the production of renowned educational programming, cultural content and emergency alerts about natural disasters.
Here’s what to know:
Losing funding
President Donald Trump signed a bill on July 24 canceling about $1.1 billion that had been approved for public broadcasting. The White House says the public media system is politically biased and an unnecessary expense, and conservatives have particularly directed their ire at NPR and PBS.
Lawmakers with large rural constituencies voiced concern about what the cuts could mean for some local public stations in their state. They warned some stations will have to close.
The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday reinforced the policy change by excluding funding for the corporation for the first time in more than 50 years as part of a broader spending bill.
How it began
Congress passed legislation creating the body in 1967, several years after then-Federal Communications Commission Chairman Newton Minow described commercial television a “vast wasteland” and called for programming in the public interest.
The corporation doesn’t produce programming and it doesn’t own, operate or control any public broadcasting stations. The corporation, PBS, NPR are independent of each other as are local public television and radio stations.
Rural stations hit hard
Roughly 70% of the corporation’s money went directly to 330 PBS and 246 NPR stations across the country. The cuts are expected to weigh most heavily on smaller public media outlets away from big cities, and it’s likely some won’t survive. NPR’s president estimated as many as 80 NPR stations may close in the next year.
Mississippi Public Broadcasting has already decided to eliminate a streaming channel that airs children’s programming like “Caillou” and “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” 24 hours a day.
Maine’s public media system is looking at a hit of $2.5 million, or about 12% of its budget, for the next fiscal year. The state’s rural residents rely heavily on public media for weather updates and disaster alerts.
In Kodiak, Alaska, KMXT estimated the cuts would slice 22% from its budget. Public radio stations in the sprawling, heavily rural state often provide not just news but alerts about natural disasters like tsunamis, landslides and volcanic eruptions.
From Big Bird to war documentaries
The first episode of “Sesame Street” aired in 1969. Child viewers, adults and guest stars alike were instantly hooked. Over the decades, characters from Big Bird to Cookie Monster and Elmo have become household favorites
Entertainer Carol Burnett appeared on that inaugural episode. She told The Associated Press she was a big fan.
“I would have done anything they wanted me to do,” she said. “I loved being exposed to all that goodness and humor.”
Sesame Street said in May it would also get some help from a Netflix streaming deal.
Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. started “Finding Your Roots” in 2006 under the title “African American Lives.” He invited prominent Black celebrities and traced their family trees into slavery. When the paper trail ran out, they would use DNA to see which ethnic group they were from in Africa. Challenged by a viewer to open the show to non-Black celebrities, Gates agreed and the series was renamed “Faces of America,” which had to be changed again after the name was taken.
The show is PBS’s most-watched program on linear TV and the most-streamed non-drama program. Season 10 reached nearly 18 million people across linear and digital platforms and also received its first Emmy nomination.
Grant money from the nonprofit has also funded lesser-known food, history, music and other shows created by stations across the country.
Documentarian Ken Burns, celebrated for creating the documentaries “The Civil War,” “Baseball” and “The Vietnam War”, told PBS NewsHour said the corporation accounted for about 20% of his films’ budgets. He said he would make it up but projects receiving 50% to 75% of their funding from the organization won’t.
Influence of shows
Children’s programing in the 1960s was made up of shows like “Captain Kangaroo,” ’’Romper Room” and the violent skirmishes between “Tom & Jerry.” “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood” mostly taught social skills.
“Sesame Street” was designed by education professionals and child psychologists to help low-income and minority students aged 2-5 overcome some of the deficiencies they had when entering school. Social scientists had long noted white and higher income kids were often better prepared.
One of the most widely cited studies about the impact of “Sesame Street” compared households that got the show with those who didn’t. It found that the children exposed to “Sesame Street” were 14% more likely to be enrolled in the correct grade level for their age at middle and high school.
OLYMPIC champion athlete Sha’Carri Richardson was arrested at an airport on charges of alleged domestic violence after a row with her boyfriend Christian Coleman.
The sprinter, who won a 4x100m relay gold medal and 100m silver at last year’s Paris Games, was reportedly held in custody for less than 20 hours.
Richardson and her boyfriend ColemanCredit: Instagram / @itsshacarri
It is understood that Richardson got into a heated argument with her boyfriend and fellow athlete Christian Coleman near a TSA security checkpoint at a Seattle airport.
According to The Athletic, a police report states that an officer claims to have witnessed Richardson shoving her boyfriend multiple times as he tried to walk away.
Footage of the alleged incident was reportedly captured on a security camera at the airport, which cops deemed enough probable cause for her arrest.
The clip reportedly shows Richardson reaching out with her left arm and grabbing Coleman’s backpack before pushing it away.
She then appeared to block Coleman’s way before shoving him into a wall.
The police report later said that Richardson seemingly threw an item at Coleman, which the TSA indicated may have been headphones.
The case was cleared and the Olympic athlete was released from jail after Coleman allegedly refused to press charges and “declined to be a victim”, DailyMail reports.
Richardson landed in custody at the SCORE South Correctional Facility in Des Moines, Wash at 6:54pm on Sunday and was released at 1:30pm on Monday, according to police records.
The Team USA star rose to fame for competing in the 200m and 100m events at the Paris Olympics.
The sprinter is not only known for her lightning speed, but also her distinctive style.
The Texan gained popularity for her eye-catching hair colours, long painted nails and unique tattoos.
Richardson missed out on her Olympics debut at Tokyo 2020 due to a ban but made up for it the last year’s games.
Richardson served a one-month ban after testing positive for THC (cannabis).
The American accepted the ban “for an anti-doping rule violation for testing positive for a substance of abuse” and worked her way back to the spotlight.
Richardson told Vogue: “I’m better at being Sha’Carri. I’m better at being myself.”
Sha’Carri Richardson came back strong in 2023 with some stunning results in the World Championships in Budapest.
Richardson won the gold medal in the 100m event and bronze in 200m.
The runner also anchored Team USA to first place in the 4x100m relay race.
And the Texan’s journey back to the spotlight at Paris 2024 has been recorded in the new SPRINT series on Netflix.
