Global Pulse

博客

  • Premier League again refuses Sudan war petition urging UAE action

    Premier League again refuses Sudan war petition urging UAE action

    England’s top-flight football competition, the Premier League, has for the third time rejected a grassroots human rights petition demanding that it hold Manchester City’s owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan accountable for the United Arab Emirates’ documented military backing of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group accused of genocide in Darfur.

    Mansour, who is a senior member of the Abu Dhabi royal family, UAE deputy prime minister and brother of the UAE’s president, purchased Manchester City in 2008, injecting hundreds of millions in investment that transformed the club from a mid-table side into one of the most dominant and successful football teams on the global stage. The purchase was framed from its inception as a soft power proxy for the UAE, with then-CEO Garry Cook telling Abu Dhabi’s negotiating team that the club would serve as the nation’s global public brand. Backed by leading UK politicians including former prime minister Tony Blair and former chancellor George Osborne, the investment also spawned large-scale urban regeneration deals between Manchester City Council and Abu Dhabi-linked entities. However, a 2024 University of Sheffield investigation revealed profits from these public-private deals were diverted to Abu Dhabi-controlled shell companies registered in the Jersey offshore tax haven, with working-class residents of east Manchester seeing almost no tangible benefit from the partnerships.

    The controversy over the club’s ties to the UAE’s foreign policy comes as Manchester City already faces unprecedented scrutiny after the Premier League concluded the club committed 114 serious breaches of the league’s financial fair play rules between 2009 and 2018. An independent regulatory commission found the club hid more than £830 million ($1.1 billion) in disguised, off-books funding via a web of “sham” commercial contracts and fraudulent arrangements. Manchester City has formally appealed the ruling and continues to deny all wrongdoing, claiming it holds incontrovertible evidence to prove its innocence. The Premier League has declined to issue any further comment on the case or the rejected petition.

    The petition, first launched in January 2024 by UK-based human rights advocacy group Christian Solidarity Worldwide outside Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium, calls on the Premier League’s chief executive, governing board and all member clubs to confront Mansour directly over the UAE’s long-running military support for the RSF, which has been mired in a brutal civil war with Sudan’s official armed forces since April 2023. The conflict has spiraled into the world’s worst current humanitarian crisis, displacing more than 10 million people and leaving millions facing acute famine.

    CSW confirmed that after rejecting initial submissions of the petition in April and May, the Premier League’s security staff explicitly said they had received formal orders not to accept any materials from the group during a second delivery attempt. A third rejection was issued on 14 October, 2024, marking the latest failure of activists to push for accountability.

    Multiple independent investigations, including reporting from Middle East Eye, the United Nations’ independent fact-finding mission, and major international outlets, have confirmed the UAE has systematically shipped weapons and military support to the RSF through third countries including Somaliland, Ethiopia, Libya and Chad. The New York Times has documented that Mansour maintains direct, regular contact with RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti. Additional investigations have found an Emirati private firm hired Colombian mercenaries to fight alongside RSF troops. The UAE has repeatedly denied any involvement in the Sudan conflict, despite the overwhelming body of open-source evidence confirming its role.

    The UN fact-finding mission has formally concluded that RSF operations in Darfur bear all the “hallmarks of genocide”, including systematic mass executions, widespread sexual violence, ethnic cleansing, and extortion of civilian populations. Last October, RSF forces captured el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, after a weeks-long siege that left hundreds of civilians dead. Activists note the third rejection of the petition came just under two weeks before the one-year anniversary of this atrocity.

    Addressing reporters during the latest attempt to deliver the petition, CSW’s Middle East and Africa team leader Khataza Gondwe stressed the urgency of the demand, noting “Never again should mean never again. But in this instance, it seems that it is over and over again.”

    Abdallah Idriss Abugarda, president of the Darfur Diaspora Association, tied the call for human rights accountability to the ongoing financial fair play controversy surrounding the club. “We are here today, not against football, but for justice, human rights and accountability… Our message to the Premier League is clear: human rights must matter as much as the financial rules. No club, no owner, no powerful institution should be beyond accountability,” he said.

    The unfolding situation has also drawn new scrutiny to former Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, who left office earlier in 2024. Last week, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority released records of meetings Burnham held with Manchester City officials, including club chairman Khaldoon al-Mubarak, but omitted records of two private hospitality dinners Burnham attended with the Emirati executive at Manchester City matches in 2017 and 2018.

  • Anti-government protesters battle with police in Albania

    Anti-government protesters battle with police in Albania

    On Saturday, the Albanian capital of Tirana descended into its most chaotic day of civil unrest since anti-government demonstrations began five consecutive days prior, turning the city’s central districts into battlegrounds between thousands of young protesters and lines of riot police.

    What started as small-scale student-led demonstrations over education policy grievances in early summer has rapidly evolved into a broad, cross-demographic anti-government movement fueled by widespread allegations of systemic corruption tied to Prime Minister Edi Rama’s administration, with demonstrators unified by a core demand that the long-serving leader step down immediately.

    By Saturday, the violence had reached new levels of intensity. Masked demonstrators, a large share of whom are high school and university students, launched repeated assaults on the Albanian Ministry of Education—one of the primary focal points of the movement—hurling cobblestones, rocks and incendiary petrol bombs at police lines defending the building. In response, security forces deployed high-pressure water cannon and repeated volleys of tear gas to disperse the crowds, with unconfirmed reports indicating that rubber bullets were used against demonstrators for the first time since the unrest began.

    As the afternoon progressed, the center of action shifted to Rama’s official office located on Tirana’s main central boulevard, where crowds swelled to sizes far larger than those seen on any previous day of protest. Riot police faced a relentless hail of stones and fireworks, responding with continuous barrages of tear gas; many canisters landed deep in the assembled crowds, triggering waves of panic. Protesters, enraged by the gas, would wait for the fumes to clear before renewing their charges on police lines. Demonstrators came prepared for the confrontation: many wore gas masks or protective face coverings, and volunteer medics distributed saline syringes to flush tear gas from irritated eyes. The constant thud of exploding petrol bombs echoed across the city center, while black smoke billowed from a burning vehicle and the wail of police sirens and ambulance alarms cut through the chaos. As dusk fell, elite police special forces were deployed to reinforce overstretched riot police units.

    To date, the unrest has left dozens injured on both sides, with 80 people already charged with public disorder offenses and hundreds more either arrested or currently under investigation for their role in the demonstrations. The core of Tirana now resembles a makeshift war zone, its streets littered with shattered glass, charred debris and abandoned projectiles.

    George, a 19-year-old medical student who works as an electrician to cover his tuition costs, stood near the fire-damaged education ministry building Saturday, wrapped in a protective face scarf and goggles, clutching two rocks intended for police lines. When asked if he feared harming officers, he explained that protesters had maintained 135 days of peaceful demonstrations without seeing any policy or leadership changes. “We have mothers too. We have family too,” he said. “Our government doesn’t want peace, so we are using violence, just like the protests in France. We are trying to bring about real change.”

    Many participants are even younger: 17-year-old Klea, a first-year university student in Tirana, told reporters that nearly all students have boycotted classes to join the movement, walking out of campuses to demand systemic political change. She also alleged that unknown provocateurs have infiltrated the demonstrations, smashing storefronts and bank branches to discredit the protest movement and paint participants as violent rioters.

    Rama, leader of the Socialist Party, has held power for 13 years and dominated Albanian politics, following a pattern of concentrated authority similar to that of his long-ruling predecessor, opposition Democratic Party leader Sali Berisha. Protesters have rejected the entire established political class as corrupt, not just Rama’s administration, leaving open questions about what political structure would replace the current government. Osman Stafa, a prominent Albanian journalist and pro-reform activist, has put forward a proposal for a one-year neutral caretaker government that would oversee new, early parliamentary elections to resolve the crisis.

    A key layer of irony surrounds the unrest for European policymakers: Rama has long been viewed favorably by the European Union, which Albania has been seeking to join, and he has campaigned on a promise to secure Albanian membership by 2030. In a social media statement posted Saturday morning, Rama urged Albanians to “not forget that we have achieved extraordinary things” under his leadership, blaming the unrest on the opposition Democratic Party and what he called a “sinister agenda of foreign actors, intent on halting our progress” toward EU accession. He did not name any specific foreign actors in the post.

    The protests have already seriously damaged Rama’s carefully cultivated public image as a charismatic progressive leader steering Albania toward economic growth and European integration. Compounding his political woes is a growing corruption investigation being conducted by Albania’s special prosecution service, a body established in 2019 under pressure from the EU and United States to root out systemic political corruption. Prosecutors recently arrested Vlora Hyseni, Albania’s powerful former intelligence service chief, on charges that she helped Ergys Agasi—a prominent businessman, former government official and close personal friend of Rama—evade prosecution. Agasi, 39, is also in custody, and both he and Hyseni have denied the allegations: Agasi’s lawyer says his client has no connection to corrupt activity, while Hyseni told prosecutors she only contacted Agasi to recruit him for the intelligence service. Multiple independent Albanian media outlets have alleged that Agasi acted as a middleman between Rama and organized criminal networks, claims Rama has denied, acknowledging he knows Agasi but saying he had no knowledge of any illegal activity linked to the businessman.

    Political analyst Lutfi Dervishi, a university lecturer, told reporters that Rama is now caught in an intractable political position. “He’s the victim of his own success,” Dervishi explained. “By concentrating so much power in his own hands, he has made himself the only person the people blame for their grievances.” With Rama’s Socialist Party holding a comfortable 83-seat majority out of 140 total seats in Albania’s parliament, and the next scheduled parliamentary election not set to take place until 2029, the country now faces a prolonged period of political uncertainty as the unrest continues to escalate.

  • European Council warns companies not to finance Israel’s E1 West Bank settlement construction

    European Council warns companies not to finance Israel’s E1 West Bank settlement construction

    Days ahead of a key bidding deadline for a controversial Israeli settlement expansion project in the occupied West Bank, the European Council — the EU body that sets the bloc’s overarching political direction — has issued a sharp public warning to global companies and financial institutions: involvement in the E1 construction plan will carry severe legal, economic, and reputational consequences.

    The E1 development scheme, advanced by the Israeli government, proposes building thousands of new residential units across a corridor linking Jerusalem to the existing Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, which sits 7 kilometers east of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank. If completed, the project would connect a patchwork of existing Israeli settlements with occupied East Jerusalem, and physically split the West Bank into two disconnected segments. International observers and policymakers broadly agree this fragmentation would eliminate any practical geographic possibility for a contiguous, sovereign Palestinian state, destroying the long-proposed two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. All Israeli settlements built in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are widely recognized as illegal under international law, a position the EU has repeatedly reaffirmed.

    The formal conclusions released by the European Council, which have been endorsed by the leaders of all 27 EU member states, explicitly call on Israel to immediately reverse all settlement expansion plans and cancel the ongoing tender process for E1 construction. The statement goes a step further, urging private businesses not to submit bids for E1 or any other settlement construction contracts, and reiterating the wide-ranging risks for entities that participate, including potential serious violations of international law.

    This high-profile intervention from the EU comes on the heels of new British sanctions targeting Israeli settlement activity that entered into force earlier this week, which impose restrictions on entities involved in financing settlement construction. Israeli media outlet Haaretz reported last week that major Israeli banks are already bracing for negative financial fallout from the UK measures, while independent outlet Middle East Eye has extensively documented ongoing ties between UK-based companies, charities, and settlement projects across occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

    The bidding timeline for the E1 project remains unfolding: the first tender’s submission deadline is October 19, a second tender is set to open for bids on October 25, and a third will launch in November. Earlier this month, Israel’s attorney general ordered that the announcement of winning bidders be delayed until after the country’s upcoming general election, creating a temporary pause in the project’s progression even as bids continue to be accepted.

    The EU’s warning aligns with its longstanding position that the E1 project fundamentally eliminates any path to a viable two-state solution. It also comes amid a documented surge in violent attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank. On October 12, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) confirmed that nearly 200 settler attacks linked to the annual Palestinian olive harvest have resulted in casualties or property damage so far in 2024. Just this week, video footage circulated widely online showing a group of settlers beating Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine with sticks and knocking her to the ground during an incident in the West Bank.

    EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas laid out the bloc’s potential next steps in remarks last month, arguing the EU should adopt the same firm stance on illegal Israeli settlements that it applied to Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea. “When Crimea was occupied, it was very clear: it’s illegal, we don’t recognise this, which means that we stop the trade with any products that come from Crimea,” Kallas said. “We should have the same principled stance — you know this is illegal, everybody agrees — so we should stop trading with occupied [Palestinian] Territories.”

  • Hundreds arrested in France as police clash with protesters

    Hundreds arrested in France as police clash with protesters

    On Saturday, mass demonstrations against declining education standards and soaring living costs across France descended into widespread civil disorder, leaving a trail of destroyed property, hundreds of arrests, and deep political division in the country. An estimated 550,000 protesters gathered in cities from Paris to Marseille, marking the latest escalation of weeks of growing public unrest that has compounded existing pre-election political uncertainty.

    While the bulk of the officially organized march in central Paris remained peaceful through the afternoon hours, pockets of unrest broke out across the capital and other major urban centers. By the end of the day, at least 400 people had been taken into police custody, a figure the French government cited as evidence of a sharp escalation in violent activity during the demonstrations. Riot police deployed tear gas and water cannons to disperse disruptive crowds in multiple locations, including Paris’ iconic Place de la République, where vehicles and street fixtures were set ablaze by agitators.

    In Lyon, one of the hardest-hit cities, demonstrators set fire to the city’s central tourism office, a historic 19th-century structure that stood as a landmark for the community. Lyon Mayor Grégory Doucet called the destruction a devastating loss for the city, telling local outlet BFMTV that the damage “breaks our hearts because it’s a very iconic, well-known historic building.” Local law enforcement officials reported that hostile groups of protesters blocked firefighters from reaching the blaze, preventing them from containing the fire before the building was destroyed. In Paris, a popular local bar named La Barrique was also burned to the ground, multiple shops were ransacked, and at least one central restaurant was completely gutted by fire. Looting spread across the country: an Apple Store in the northern city of Lille was broken into and emptied, while clothing and grocery stores across Paris were targeted by raiders. Reports of vandalism, arson and looting were also confirmed in Marseille, Rennes, Toulouse, Angers, Grenoble, Avignon, Pau, Montpellier and Valence, with city halls, private businesses and public infrastructure bearing the brunt of the damage.

    The current wave of protests first began as a student-led movement over recent weeks, with hundreds of thousands of secondary school students (who attend lycées for students aged 15 to 18) walking out to protest severe staff shortages and crumbling, dilapidated campus facilities. On Saturday, the student movement was joined by thousands of trade union members and other activist groups, swelling the size of the protests and amplifying broader anger over the rising cost of living across France. Many peaceful protesters who spoke to the BBC expressed frustration with the lack of political progress on their demands, with a group of young demonstrators saying they identified as pacifists who “just trying to make things change, but nothing is moving.”

    This outbreak of unrest comes as France enters a period of profound political uncertainty ahead of next year’s presidential election. Polling indicates the race is likely to be a tight contest between Marine Le Pen, leader of the right-wing National Rally, and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, head of the hard-left La France Insoumise. Both national leaders have weighed in on the Saturday violence, trading sharp political blame. Mélenchon, who participated in the demonstrations, condemned the arson and looting while accusing police of “unleashing” excessive force against peaceful protesters. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu blasted Mélenchon’s comments as “dangerous and cynical,” noting that officers faced “violence of extreme intensity” and arguing that rogue groups were using the protests as a “warm-up” for next year’s election. “No-one will impose their political agenda through violence,” Lecornu said. Le Pen, for her part, said the “legitimate demands” of protesters had been “held hostage by the far left” and blamed Mélenchon for fueling the violence that unfolded Saturday. Outgoing President Emmanuel Macron echoed the prime minister’s hard line, stating that all people found responsible for damaging property, attacking public buildings and looting “will be prosecuted and punished.”

    In an attempt to de-escalate the student-led component of the unrest, Education Minister Édouard Geffray announced an apparent concession earlier this month, promising to add 3,000 new temporary supply teachers to understaffed campuses during an October 8 television interview. The gesture has done little to quell public anger, however, and protests have continued to grow in intensity in the weeks since the announcement.

  • Egypt’s Sisi declares his presidency will end in 2030

    Egypt’s Sisi declares his presidency will end in 2030

    In a public address to graduating cadets at Cairo’s Egyptian Military Academy on Saturday, 71-year-old Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi has publicly closed the door to any speculation about extending his rule beyond 2030, stating that the timeline for the end of his current presidential term is final and will not be revisited. During the remarks, Sisi also emphasized that Egypt’s existing constitution will remain untouched, rejecting any potential amendments that could alter the current term limits structure. Sisi is currently serving a six-year term that is scheduled to conclude in 2030. “The year 2030 will mark the end of my presidential term. This matter is completely settled,” Sisi told the gathered crowd, adding that he would not step away from guiding the Egyptian state until it is fully led by a new generation of domestic leaders capable of bearing the burden of governance. He also used the platform to highlight the military academy’s role in cultivating this next wave of national leadership for the country.

    Sisi first rose to national power in 2013, when he led a military coup that ousted Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi. His nearly 11 years in office have drawn consistent international criticism from global human rights organizations, which document widespread crackdowns on political opposition and dissent. Rights groups estimate that more than 60,000 prisoners of conscience are currently detained in Egyptian correctional facilities, a population that includes over 1,000 women. Multiple high-profile detainees, including Morsi himself and a number of prominent opposition politicians, have died in custody due to inadequate medical care and inhumane prison conditions, rights groups have confirmed.

    Sisi’s announcement comes as the North African nation navigates a period of heightened geopolitical turbulence across the broader Middle East and Horn of Africa region. Just last week, Egyptian Foreign Minister reaffirmed Cairo’s unwavering support for Saudi Arabia in its long-running military conflict with Yemen’s Houthi movement, stressing that Gulf regional security is inseparable from Egypt’s own national security interests, and that Cairo maintains full solidarity with Riyadh. Egypt is also currently engaged in a series of active military and diplomatic disputes across its borders: just days ago, an Egyptian air strike targeting what Cairo said were militant positions accidentally killed 72 civilian workers at a gold mining site located along the Egypt-Sudan border. In Sudan’s ongoing internal civil conflict, Egypt openly backs the Sudanese Armed Forces in their fight against the Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group backed by the United Arab Emirates.

    One of Egypt’s most persistent high-stakes regional disputes is with Ethiopia, centered around two core points of tension: Cairo views Addis Ababa as a growing strategic rival for influence over Red Sea trade routes, and the two nations have been locked in a years-long deadlocked negotiation over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which Egypt says poses an existential threat to its access to Nile River water. In a recent show of coordinated opposition to Ethiopia, Egypt hosted a high-level strategic gathering attended by military and diplomatic representatives from Sudan, Somalia, and Eritrea to discuss joint coordination of military and intelligence activities in the event that open conflict breaks out between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

  • Sarah Helm doubles down as pro-Israel groups urge police action and Zack Polanski praises her ‘bravery’

    Sarah Helm doubles down as pro-Israel groups urge police action and Zack Polanski praises her ‘bravery’

    A high-profile British journalist and author has refused to back down amid demands from pro-Israel lobbying groups that law enforcement open a criminal investigation into her public support for Irish novelist Sally Rooney, who has pulled her entire catalog of works from UK distribution over her backing of the proscribed activist group Palestine Action.

    Sarah Helm, a 83-year-old veteran former foreign correspondent for *The Independent* and long-standing critic of Israeli government policy toward Palestinians, is married to Jonathan Powell, who currently serves as national security, foreign policy, and intelligence advisor to Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government, a role he retained after Andy Burnham took office earlier this year.

    The controversy ignited after veteran Sky News journalist Adam Boulton attacked Rooney during an on-air segment Thursday, claiming the best-selling author held a “very strong pro-Palestine, and, I have to say, anti-Israel and anti-Jewish stance”. In response, Helm posted a concise, pointed retort to X: “God help us authors who support Palestine and Palestine Action. Sounds like Adam would have all our books swept off the shelves in a jiffy.”

    Shortly after Helm’s post went live, Campaign Against Antisemitism – a pro-Israel organisation that has repeatedly faced accusations of bad-faith targeting of public critics of Israeli policy – formally called on London’s Metropolitan Police to launch a criminal probe into Helm, demanding she “face the full force of the law” over her comments.

    Instead of retreating, Helm has doubled down on her position, drawing widespread cross-party support from critics of the Starmer government’s controversial July 2025 ban on Palestine Action. The proscription, which marked the first time a UK government has outlawed a direct action protest group, criminalises membership in or public expressions of support for the organisation – which targets infrastructure tied to companies manufacturing weapons for export to Israel – with penalties of up to 14 years in prison. Human rights groups have universally decried the ban as a draconian attack on free speech, and thousands of people across the UK have been arrested for low-level acts of support, including holding pro-Palestine Action placards at demonstrations, since the ban took effect.

    Green Party leader Zack Polanski publicly defended Helm’s comments, telling independent outlet Middle East Eye that the journalist “is speaking absolute common sense and should be commended for her bravery”. Polanski pointed to the sweeping fallout of the proscription: “In a week when the Labour government’s ludicrous and authoritarian proscription of Palestine Action has led to the banning of one of the most influential authors from our bookshelves and pensioners continue to be arrested for opposing a genocide, it is obvious to everyone apart from this Labour government that Palestine Action must be de-proscribed immediately.”

    When reached for comment Saturday, Helm pointed reporters to a 2020 interview she conducted for Middle East Eye with 92-year-old Yaakov Sharett, son of Moshe Sharett – one of Israel’s founding fathers, the country’s first foreign minister, and its second prime minister. In that conversation, Yaakov Sharett offered a scathing rebuke of modern Israeli policy that aligns closely with Helm’s own views. “Now, at 92-years-old, I realise that the story started with the very idea of Zionism, which was a utopian idea. It was meant to save Jewish lives but at the cost of a nation of occupants who inhabited Palestine at this time. The conflict was unavoidable from the beginning,” he told Helm. He went further to say that “the treatment of the Palestinians today is Nazi treatment. We don’t have gas chambers, of course, but the mentality is the same. It is racial hatred. They are treated as subhuman,” branding Israel a “criminal state” and arguing that distinguishing between antisemitism and legitimate criticism of Israel is a critical line that global observers too often fail to uphold.

    Helm, who released her latest book *Gaza: The Long Road to Destruction, 1870-2024* – a comprehensive historical account of the region featuring interviews with 1948 Nakba survivors – earlier this year, addressed the growing backlash to her post in a follow-up statement on X. “Thanks to all supporters. As an 83 yr old survivor of the Nakba and one of my many friends in Rafah (now obliterated) said to me when I was last there, ‘keep writing Sarah we need all the pencils we can get’,” she wrote.

    70-year-old retired tax adviser and grandmother Marji Mansfield, who was arrested earlier this year for defying the Palestine Action ban and had counter-terrorism officers visit her home over a short social media clip expressing support for the group, said Helm’s willingness to speak out reflects the growing resistance to the government’s crackdown. “Sarah Helm is similarly at risk of arrest for speaking out against the first ever ban of a direct action protest group in Britain. We are on the right side of history,” Mansfield said.

    As of this weekend, the Metropolitan Police confirmed that Helm’s original post “is in the process of being assessed to determine whether any further police investigation may be required”. A Downing Street spokesperson distanced the government from Helm’s comments, noting that “These views are held by an individual who does not represent the government in any capacity,” even as internal fractures within the Labour administration over the ban have begun to surface in recent weeks.

    Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband acknowledged last month that the Burnham government is internally reviewing the political wisdom of the proscription, admitting that the administration never intended the ban to lead to mass arrests of ordinary activists. “I don’t think anyone’s intent was to have those people criminalised, but obviously the Supreme Court has got to look at this issue, and obviously it’s something we keep looking at as government,” Miliband said.

    The controversy follows news earlier this week that Rooney, who previously canceled a 2024 trip to England to accept a major literary award over fears she would be arrested for her pro-Palestine views, would voluntarily withdraw all her books from UK distribution after stating she would donate a portion of her book royalties to Palestine Action following the group’s proscription.

  • Alligator kills 71-year-old man fishing in Florida

    Alligator kills 71-year-old man fishing in Florida

    A fatal alligator attack has claimed the life of a 71-year-old fisherman at a central Florida public park, prompting local law enforcement to renew urgent public safety advisories about coexisting with the state’s native apex predators. The incident unfolded shortly after 5 p.m. local time Friday at Dr Bradford Memorial Park, located just a few miles west of Orlando along the shoreline of Lake Apopka in Winter Garden. According to Winter Garden Police Captain Michael Mason, the 12-foot (3.7-meter) reptile approached the shore where the man was fishing and launched an unprovoked assault. Following the initial attack, the alligator dragged the victim into the lake, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) officials confirmed via the BBC’s U.S. partner network CBS News.

    In response to the attack, licensed wildlife trappers were called to the scene to capture and remove the alligator, which was subsequently dispatched as a public safety risk, Mason added. This tragedy marks the second fatal alligator attack in Florida in 2025. Earlier this year in June, a 31-year-old woman was killed by an alligator while swimming with companions in another area near Orlando.

    Despite their ubiquitous presence across the state, with an estimated population of 1.3 million alligators maintained at a steady level for decades, fatal attacks remain extremely uncommon, FWC data shows. Between 1948 and 2025, the commission has recorded just 32 fatal alligator attacks across the state out of a total of 500 documented unprovoked incidents. Mason emphasized that alligator sightings are entirely routine in the Lake Apopka area, noting that the large waterbody is home to a substantial alligator population.

    In the wake of the killing, authorities are urging residents and visitors to remain vigilant when recreating near Florida’s waterways. “Always be aware of your surroundings, always be safe. Local wildlife – respect it, keep your distance,” Mason said in a statement to reporters Friday night. “It looks like it’s docile, it looks like your Florida emblem, but it can be dangerous.” The BBC has confirmed it is reaching out to FWC officials to gather additional details about the attack for further reporting.

  • Pope to be discharged days after lung cancer surgery

    Pope to be discharged days after lung cancer surgery

    Just four days after undergoing a 90-minute surgical procedure to remove a cancerous growth from his lung, Pope Leo XIV is preparing to leave Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Saturday afternoon, in a faster-than-expected recovery that has surprised observers globally.

    The Vatican confirmed that following his discharge, the Pope will resume one of his most iconic public duties on Sunday: delivering the traditional Angelus prayer and imparting his blessing to gathered pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square. This mirrors his appearance last week, when he shocked the world by publicly announcing his upcoming surgery ahead of the procedure.

    On Friday, official photographs were released showing the Pope leading Mass and distributing Holy Communion to hospital staff within his room, offering a visible sign of his improving condition. A formal statement released by his medical team confirmed that routine blood work and a post-operative chest X-ray have documented “steady improvement” in the 80-some-year-old pontiff’s health following Tuesday’s procedure, which removed the lower lobe of his right lung. At this time, results from additional testing to check for any spread of the cancer remain pending.

    Beyond his recovery, the Pope held a high-profile diplomatic call on Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, their first conversation since June 2025. The Vatican confirmed the core focus of the call was an urgent push for “dialogue and peace” amid a sharp escalation of Russian airstrikes across multiple Ukrainian cities, which has driven a sharp rise in civilian casualties and shown no indication that the Kremlin is preparing to end its full-scale invasion.

    In a specific appeal tied to the ongoing conflict, Pope Leo also called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshkiy, where relentless shelling has trapped civilians and cut off access to basic supplies. Recent reporting from the BBC has documented the extreme desperation of Oleshkiy residents, who have reportedly been forced to eat weeds grown in home gardens to avoid starvation.

    The pontiff’s public schedule had been fully cleared through October 20, so his rapid return to public life comes as a welcome surprise to millions of Catholic faithful around the world, who have been anxious for updates on his health.

    Close associates of the Pope have noted that he is eager to move forward with a planned apostolic trip to Latin America scheduled for early November, which includes a stop in Peru — the country where he served as a missionary for decades prior to his election to the papacy. As of Saturday, it remains unconfirmed whether the pontiff will be medically cleared to undertake the international trip, or if he will need to adjust his schedule to accommodate further cancer treatment.

  • Rare pink diamond goes on display in France 100 years after amateur heist

    Rare pink diamond goes on display in France 100 years after amateur heist

    Nearly a century to the day after it was stolen from its permanent home, one of the world’s rarest historically significant pink diamonds is making its long-awaited return to public exhibition in northern France. The 9-carat pear-shaped gem, famously known as the Grand Condé, holds a dramatic, one-of-a-kind history that places it among the most intriguing royal jewels still in existence today.

    As one of the handful of royal French gems that managed to survive the chaos and widespread looting of the French Revolution, the diamond’s modern story took an equally sensational turn in October 1926. Thieves carried out an overnight raid on the Château de Chantilly, the historic estate located 31 miles north of Paris, and made off with the priceless stone. In a plot that sounds like it was pulled straight from a heist film, the thieves hid the stolen diamond inside a hollowed-out apple, planning to retrieve it once the search for the gem died down.

    Their clever plan fell apart completely when a hungry maid working at the hotel where the thieves were staying bit into the apple just weeks after the robbery, uncovering the hidden gem and leading to the diamond’s swift recovery. For nearly 100 years after that bizarre incident, the Grand Condé has not been shown to the general public — a drought that ends this season with a new special exhibition at the Condé Museum housed within the Château de Chantilly, which will run through January 3.

    Mathieu Deldicque, director of the Condé Museum, addressed the widely shared skepticism around the incredible hollowed-out apple story, confirming that the unusual event was extensively documented in contemporary newspaper reports from 1926, proving it is far more than a colorful local myth. Deldicque has also faced questions about the decision to put the one-of-a-kind gem on public display amid a recent wave of high-profile jewelry and art heists targeting major European cultural institutions over the past year, including the brazen daytime robbery of precious jewelry from Paris’s Louvre Museum.

    While Deldicque declined to share details of the diamond’s insurance value with CNN, he confirmed that the museum has carried out extensive academic analysis of the diamond’s unique physical properties, creating a complete record that makes the stone fully identifiable, should any theft attempt be made. The exhibition itself will not only showcase the rare diamond: it will also present the full results of this new academic study, alongside never-before-seen archival documents that detail the gem’s long history and its 1926 theft.

    Naturally occurring pink diamonds are among the rarest gemstones on Earth, with high-quality examples regularly selling for tens of millions of dollars at auction. According to auction house Sotheby’s, the current world record for a pink diamond sold at auction stands at $71.2 million, set back in 2017.

    The full origins of the Grand Condé remain shrouded in mystery to this day. The first surviving written record of the gem appears in a 1740 inventory drawn up after the death of Louis Henri de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, the French nobleman for whom the diamond is named. After passing through the Bourbon family, the diamond entered the collection of Queen Marie-Amélie of Bourbon-Sicily, wife of King Louis Philippe I of France, before being inherited by her son Prince Henri of Orléans, Duke of Aumale. The Duke eventually bequeathed the entire Château de Chantilly estate, along with the Grand Condé and thousands of other artworks and manuscripts that form the Condé Museum collection, to the Institut de France, which still owns the site today.

  • Pope’s health should not be taken ‘for granted’, says top Vatican diplomat

    Pope’s health should not be taken ‘for granted’, says top Vatican diplomat

    A senior Vatican official has publicly acknowledged that the newly revealed lung cancer diagnosis of Pope Leo XIV has upended expectations surrounding the pontiff’s long-term tenure, marking a notable shift for the Roman Catholic Church just months into his leadership. Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Vatican’s foreign minister who has held the role since 2014, shared candid insights in an exclusive pre-recorded interview with the BBC, set to air this weekend on BBC Radio 4’s *The Sunday Programme*. The 71-year-old Pope underwent a scheduled procedure on Tuesday afternoon at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital to remove a lower lobe of his right lung, after doctors detected a suspicious nodule during routine screening. The surgery was confirmed by the Vatican to be fully successful with no reported complications, and a post-operative pathology examination confirmed the growth was lung adenocarcinoma.