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  • How Andy Burnham stood up to Starmer over Israel and could now reshape UK foreign policy

    How Andy Burnham stood up to Starmer over Israel and could now reshape UK foreign policy

    Less than two years after securing a landslide general election win, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer finds his grip on the premiership slipping, following a resounding by-election victory that has cleared the path for a major leadership challenge from popular former Manchester mayor Andy Burnham.

    Starmer’s position has been precarious for months. Earlier this year, the Peter Mandelson scandal rocked his administration: sordid connections between the ex-US ambassador, a close Starmer ally, and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein prompted widespread calls for the prime minister to step down. That controversy was followed by devastating losses in May’s local elections, where Labour hemorrhaged support in its traditional northern English and London strongholds. Still, Starmer managed to hold on, with internal Labour sources confirming no party figure was willing to force a leadership change ahead of the local votes.

    The current crisis began in mid-May, when former Health Secretary Wes Streeting resigned from Starmer’s cabinet, citing a loss of confidence in the prime minister’s leadership, warning that “where we need vision, we have a vacuum. Where we need direction, we have drift.” Hours after Streeting’s departure, Labour MP Josh Simons resigned his safe Makerfield seat in northern England, triggering a by-election designed to return Burnham to parliament. Under Labour Party rules, only sitting Members of Parliament can stand for the party leadership, so the by-election was a critical first step for any would-be challenger.

    On Thursday, Burnham secured a decisive win, capturing 55% of the vote in a seat that had seen major defections to Nigel Farage’s far-right Reform UK in recent years. With his return to the Commons confirmed, Burnham now joins Streeting as one of two formal challengers set to oust Starmer.

    The outcome of this looming leadership contest is poised to reshape British foreign policy, most notably on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – an issue that has roiled UK politics for more than two years amid Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. Polling expert John Curtice has confirmed that the Green Party, the most prominent major political voice opposing UK support for Israel, inflicted far greater damage on Labour’s local election vote share than Reform UK, as left-wing and pro-Palestinian voters abandoned the party in droves over its position. To win back these voters and counter the Green insurgency, any new Labour leader will be forced to adopt a harder line on Israel.

    Both challengers have laid out different positions on the conflict, with Burnham boasting a long track record of breaking with Starmer’s approach. Burnham, a popular soft-left figure within the party, has a nuanced political history on the issue: he voted for the 2003 UK invasion of Iraq, joined the pro-Israel group Labour Friends of Israel in 2015, and during his 2015 Labour leadership run described the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement as “spiteful” and called Israel a “democracy that has a long history of protecting minorities.”

    But beyond his pro-Israel credentials, Burnham has a lengthy record of criticizing the Israeli government and advocating for Palestinian statehood. He visited the occupied West Bank in 2012 with the pro-Palestine group Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East, called Benjamin Netanyahu’s 2015 re-election “depressing” over his pledge to expand illegal settlements, and publicly backed recognition of Palestinian statehood as a right, not a gift, as early as 2015. He has also called for an end to Israeli occupation and illegal settlement expansion, while condemning Hamas terrorist attacks.

    Burnham’s most significant break from Starmer came in the weeks after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks, when Starmer controversially backed Israel’s total blockade of Gaza – a move widely categorized as a war crime. Just two days after Starmer’s statement, Burnham released a statement that carefully distanced himself from the party leader, conditioning Israel’s right to self-defense on compliance with international law and calling for unimpeded humanitarian access to Gaza. By late October 2023, as the Gaza death toll surged, Burnham broke ranks entirely to join London mayor Sadiq Khan and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar in calling for an immediate ceasefire, directly challenging Starmer’s refusal to back that position. He also publicly criticized Starmer for branding pro-ceasefire MPs disloyal, and used the moment to apologize for his own past vote for the Iraq War, acknowledging that the 2003 invasion had caused massive civilian harm and fueled global terrorism.

    This positioning paid off electorally: while Starmer’s Labour lost a third of its vote share in majority-Muslim areas during the 2024 local elections, Burnham comfortably retained his post as Greater Manchester mayor, where a large Muslim electorate resides. In the years since, he has repeatedly pushed the Labour government to take bolder action, joining a cross-party group in 2025 to urge immediate recognition of Palestinian statehood – a demand the Starmer government ultimately conceded to in September of that year.

    For his part, Streeting has sought to position himself as a secret critic of Starmer’s policy since resignating from cabinet, releasing leaked 2025 text messages in which he claimed Israel was “committing war crimes before our eyes” and engaging in “ethnic cleansing.” However, many voters have not forgotten that Streeting publicly backed Starmer’s line for months after 7 October, and opposed ceasefire calls through that period. Unlike Burnham, Streeting has largely stayed aligned with the party’s official position for most of the conflict, and only recently softened his public stance, under pressure from challengers. In the 2024 general election, Streeting nearly lost his seat to a young British Palestinian independent candidate, who came within 528 votes of unseating him.

    Under the current Starmer administration, London has already taken small steps to distance itself from Israel, imposing a partial arms embargo amid growing public anger, but it has maintained deep military and political cooperation with Israel throughout its campaign in Gaza. Regardless of which challenger prevails, analysts agree that the next Labour leader will almost certainly ramp up criticism of Israel and could take far more concrete action, such as imposing full sanctions on illegal West Bank settlement goods to win back disillusioned left-wing and pro-Palestinian voters.

    For Burnham, the path to the premiership remains littered with obstacles. But if he can overcome them, insiders say he is the most likely candidate to return the Labour Party to its traditional centre-left roots. One thing is certain: all leadership contenders will be forced to take a clear stance on Starmer’s handling of the Gaza crisis, and a fundamental shift in Britain’s approach to the Middle East is likely in the coming months.

  • World Cup 2026: Why Sahrawis are rallying behind Algeria and not Morocco

    World Cup 2026: Why Sahrawis are rallying behind Algeria and not Morocco

    On a baked-earthen football pitch cut into the arid desert of southwestern Algeria’s Smara refugee camp, fine orange dust hangs thick in the still late-afternoon air, billowing in choking clouds every time a player sprints after a loose ball. Despite the unrelenting desert heat, a group of young men and teenage boys has gathered for their weekly match—one of the few steady rituals in a life defined by displacement. For the fans leaning on makeshift barriers watching the game, conversation drifts quickly from the local play to the World Cup unfolding thousands of miles across North America, and the deep, history-bound loyalty that draws nearly every Sahrawi refugee in Algeria’s camps to cheer for one team: Algeria.

    According to United Nations data, more than 173,000 Sahrawi refugees currently reside in a network of camps near Tindouf, Algeria. Their displacement stretches back 50 years, rooted in a decades-long dispute over their indigenous homeland of Western Sahara, a 266,000-square-kilometer desert expanse in Northwest Africa bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, Morocco, Mauritania and Algeria.

    The conflict’s origins trace to the late 19th century, when Spain colonized the region, then called Spanish Sahara. After Morocco gained independence from colonial rule in 1956, it staked a long-standing territorial claim to Western Sahara. By 1973, the Polisario Front formed to advocate for Sahrawi independence, launching an armed movement after Spain agreed to cede the territory to Morocco and Mauritania in the 1975 Madrid Accords—an agreement negotiated without any input from Sahrawi representatives, following Morocco’s mass Green March of 350,000 civilian supporters into the territory. The resulting war forced thousands of Sahrawis to flee across the border into Algeria, where they established the refugee camps that remain home to generations of displaced people today.

    A 1991 UN-brokered ceasefire established the MINURSO peacekeeping mission to oversee a planned independence referendum for Western Sahara, but the vote has never been held due to disputes over voter eligibility. The ceasefire collapsed entirely in 2020, after Morocco launched military operations in a UN buffer zone, and sporadic fighting has resumed in the years since. Today, Morocco controls most of Western Sahara, incentivizing Moroccan settlers to move to the region, while the Polisario Front holds a smaller eastern stretch of desert and continues to campaign for full Sahrawi independence—with Algeria as its most prominent regional backer.

    That decades-long political and humanitarian partnership has woven deep ties between Sahrawi refugees and their host nation. For generations, Sahrawi refugees have attended Algerian schools and universities, received medical care in Algerian hospitals, and built interwoven family, cultural and political bonds across the border. To many, Algeria is far more than a place of refuge—it is a steadfast ally in their struggle for self-determination.

    “My support for Algeria is unconditional,” Brahim Salem, a long-term camp resident, told Middle East Eye. “For us, Algeria is not just a neighbour. It’s a country that stood against oppression and gave us safety when we needed it most.”

    That loyalty translates directly to the football pitch. Because the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic remains unrecognized by FIFA, Sahrawi players cannot compete as an independent national team in major international tournaments. For displaced Sahrawis, supporting Algeria becomes a way to channel collective pride and national aspiration that cannot be expressed through their own team.

    Algalya, a 60-something refugee who fled Western Sahara as a war refugee decades ago, is among the millions of Sahrawi fans ready to cheer on Algeria. She still vividly remembers the joy of Algeria’s 2019 Africa Cup of Nations victory, when the entire camp erupted in celebration with traditional zaghareet ululations that lasted long into the night. “I remember having nowhere to go, and Algeria welcomed us with open arms,” she said. “I pray Algeria make us happy again.”

    Across the camps, football is woven into the fabric of daily life: children chase balls across dusty dirt streets between tents, families huddle around bulky secondhand televisions to watch major tournaments, and local weekly matches like the one in Smara draw crowds of enthusiastic spectators. For local players Hafdala Mohamed and Khalil, their World Cup plan is already set: they will gather to watch every single one of Algeria’s matches together, no matter how late kickoff falls.

    For Hafdala, like many other Sahrawi refugees, football is far more than just entertainment. It is one of the only unchanging certainties in a life shaped by decades of exile. Even as the conflict over their homeland remains unresolved, and the dream of self-determination stays unfulfilled, the shared joy of supporting Algeria on the world’s biggest football stage offers a rare moment of collective connection and hope.

  • Boy, 12, wins hearts after trying to check sick chicken into Ethiopian hospital

    Boy, 12, wins hearts after trying to check sick chicken into Ethiopian hospital

    For 12-year-old Markos Abaye, a displaced child growing up in rural Ethiopia, one small feathered companion has become his whole world. So when his beloved pet chicken fell ill earlier this month, unresponsive to every home remedy his young mind could devise, he did what felt like the only logical step: he laced up his shoes, tucked the ailing bird close to his chest, and rushed her straight to the nearest local hospital.

    Markos’ desperate act of kindness has since captured global attention after a nurse on duty at Denbecha Primary Hospital, located in Ethiopia’s Amhara region, filmed the unlikely patient and her worried young owner and shared the clip on TikTok. To date, the video has amassed more than 770,000 views, leaving thousands of viewers across Ethiopia and beyond moved by the preteen’s profound compassion for his animal companion.

    In the viral footage, Markos can be seen cradling the sick hen tightly, his face etched with worry as he explains to the nurse, “She is wheezing.” Nurse Umer Chane, who recorded the interaction, gently responded: “Listen, there are doctors who treat animals. You have to take her there. This is a hospital for humans. Okay, dear?”

    What many viewers do not know from the 15-second viral clip is the deeper backstory that binds Markos to this chicken. Markos moved in with his uncle and guardian Kelemework Amogne in August 2023, when violent conflict broke out between the Ethiopian national army and local Fano militias in Amhara. Fearing for the boy’s safety, his grandparents sent him away to live with his uncle, and gave him the chicken as a cherished parting gift.

    Since then, Markos has formed an unbreakable bond with the hen. His uncle shared that the boy watches the bird’s every move, even mapping her footpaths and building tiny earthen bridges over small holes in the ground to keep her from falling. When the chicken fell ill, Markos was so distraught that he stopped eating and attending to his schoolwork. Kelemework had suggested the boy seek out professional help for the hen, but Markos had no idea that specialized veterinary clinics existed in his town of Denbecha – to him, a hospital was simply a place where any sick living thing could get care.

    Even as onlookers in the hospital teased the boy for bringing a chicken to a human medical facility, Umer the nurse said he could see nothing but pure, earnest kindness in Markos’ face. “He hugged the chicken tightly, worried about her condition, even as others tried to make fun of him,” Umer told the BBC. Struck by the moment, Umer posted the video to TikTok, never expecting it to blow up across the country.

    When Markos returned home after his hospital trip, he only told his uncle that people had laughed at him. It was not until days later, when the family stumbled on the viral video online, that they realized the boy’s act of love had captured national attention. “He thought of a hospital as one that could treat both people and animals,” Kelemework explained, adding that he has been stunned by the outpouring of support for his nephew. “It seemed like a dream!”

    Thankfully, Markos’ beloved chicken has already made a full recovery. The 12-year-old told reporters he is now planning to let the hen hatch the 12 eggs he has saved up for her.

    Following the viral spread of Markos’ story, a local Ethiopian poultry company has stepped forward to honor his love of animals: the firm announced it will donate 100 chickens to Markos, as well as provide him with formal training in poultry farming to help him turn his passion into a skill for the future.

  • Dragon Boat Festival links modern China to traditions more than 2,000 years old

    Dragon Boat Festival links modern China to traditions more than 2,000 years old

    Across mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, millions of people gathered Friday to mark the annual Dragon Boat Festival, a millennia-old cultural celebration that blends historic legend, ancient philosophical beliefs, and lively communal competition. What began more than 2,000 years ago as a festival tied to summer solstice rhythms and traditional concepts of health and cosmic balance has grown into one of China’s most vibrant and widely observed cultural holidays, centered on its iconic signature event: competitive dragon boat racing.

    Unlike many modern holidays that have shed much of their original cultural context, the Dragon Boat Festival retains deep roots in Chinese history and folk tradition. Historians note the celebration’s origins stretch back to ancient beliefs surrounding the summer solstice, when shifting seasonal energy created imbalance between yin and yang. Communities developed rituals aimed at restoring harmony, protecting public health, and aligning human activity with the natural world.

    “Of all traditional Chinese festivals, the Dragon Boat Festival stands out as the richest and most diverse in its customs,” explained Liu Xiaofeng, a history professor at Tsinghua University. “Across China’s different regions, local communities built out a wide range of unique traditions, all rooted in core ideas connected to the summer solstice and balancing yin and yang energies.”

    For most around the world, the festival is most closely linked to the legendary story of Qu Yuan, an ancient Chinese poet and scholar who, according to centuries-old lore, drowned himself in a river over political injustice more than 2,000 years ago. Out of respect and grief, local residents rushed out onto the water in long boats to search for his body, and threw packets of rice into the river to prevent fish from feeding on his remains. These acts of mourning eventually evolved into the two most iconic Dragon Boat traditions: dragon boat racing and zongzi, the savory sticky rice dumplings still enjoyed by families across the country today.

    This year’s celebrations kicked off with a three-day competitive racing event hosted in Beijing, running through June 21 along the capital’s historic Grand Canal. The tournament features separate men’s, women’s, and mixed-team divisions, with races contested over 100-meter, 200-meter, and 500-meter courses. Dozens of teams from five regions across China — including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, and Guangdong — have traveled to the capital to compete over the holiday weekend.

    On the opening day of the competition, rowers kept perfectly synchronized strokes to the thunderous rhythm of on-board drummers, each long, colorful dragon boat surging forward through the water as crowds of spectators along the banks cheered for their favorite teams. For those who could not attend in person, many gathered at home with family, eating zongzi and watching broadcast coverage of the races.

    “The competition didn’t just help our team build stronger teamwork and spirit,” said Li Maoshan, a competitor who took part in Friday’s opening races. “It also gave all of us a chance to show the values of perseverance and dedication that this tradition has carried for centuries.”

    In Hong Kong, Friday’s races added an extra touch of playful creativity, with some competitors dressing in themed costumes, including a playful cartoon iteration of Ne Zha, a beloved deity from Chinese Taoist tradition.

    This report included contributions from AP video producer Liu Zheng in Beijing and AP reporter Kanis Leung in Hong Kong. Associated Press religion and cultural coverage receives support through a collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The Associated Press is solely responsible for all content in this report.

  • Billionaire Ambani’s Jio announces what could be India’s biggest share sale

    Billionaire Ambani’s Jio announces what could be India’s biggest share sale

    One of India’s most transformative technology and telecom ventures is finally set to hit public markets, in a move that analysts are hailing as one of the most significant initial public offerings in the nation’s modern history. Jio Platforms, the digital telecommunications subsidiary of Reliance Industries helmed by Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani — ranked among the world’s wealthiest people with an estimated net worth of $90.6 billion by Forbes — has received board approval for its IPO draft prospectus. Ambani made the official announcement during Reliance’s annual general shareholder meeting held Friday.

    As India’s largest mobile network operator, Jio currently boasts a user base of more than 500 million subscribers across the country. Multiple media reports project the offering will raise approximately $4 billion, making it one of the biggest share sales India has seen in recent years. The listing is being closely watched by global and domestic investors alike, as it will serve as a key barometer of market appetite for new offerings after months of heightened volatility in India’s equity markets.

    In his address to shareholders, Ambani framed the IPO as a watershed moment for India’s technology ecosystem, stating: “The proposed listing of Jio will demonstrate to the world that India can build technology companies of global scale, global capability, and global value.”

    Since its launch in 2016, Jio has reshaped India’s digital landscape. The firm upended the country’s stagnant telecom sector by introducing ultra-low-cost mobile data plans, attracting hundreds of millions of subscribers in just a few years and pushing outdated, high-priced competitors out of the market. In the years following its disruptive entry, Jio has expanded its footprint far beyond consumer mobile services, branching into fast-growing new verticals including cloud computing, enterprise digital solutions, and artificial intelligence.

    Just last year, Jio solidified its global partnerships by signing a deal with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to bring the company’s low-orbit Starlink satellite internet service to India, matching a similar agreement struck by rival Bharti Airtel. The upcoming IPO marks the end of a year-long planning process for the public listing; Ambani first announced plans for Jio to go public by the first half of 2025, pushing the launch to 2026 to align with market conditions.

    The Jio announcement comes just 24 hours after India’s National Stock Exchange (NSE) filed its own draft prospectus for its long-awaited IPO, creating a wave of momentum for India’s slowing IPO market. Media estimates project the NSE offering will raise more than $3 billion. Combined, the two back-to-back listings would rank among the largest IPOs in India in the last five years, matching the size of Hyundai Motor India’s $3.3 billion blockbuster offering two years ago.

    Market analysts and investors are particularly focused on Jio’s IPO as a potential catalyst for wider market sentiment. India’s new issuance market has seen a marked slowdown in activity over the past 18 months, and a successful, oversubscribed Jio offering is widely expected to revive confidence and encourage other high-quality private firms to pursue public listings.

    Jio’s expansion into AI and digital infrastructure has already attracted major global tech investment. Earlier this month, Meta Platforms announced it would lease capacity at a 168-megawatt AI-optimized data center that Reliance is constructing in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The deal builds on a longstanding partnership between the two firms that began in 2020, when Meta invested $5.7 billion in Jio. Since that initial investment, the two companies have expanded their collaboration to include initiatives that open up Meta’s open-source AI models to millions of Indian businesses and local developers.

    Investment banking firm Jefferies estimated in a November 2025 note that Jio carries an implied valuation of roughly $180 billion, which would position it as one of the most valuable telecommunications companies on the globe. For the Reliance Group, the Jio IPO represents a historic milestone: it is the first major public offering from one of the conglomerate’s core business units since Reliance Petroleum listed on Indian markets in 2006.

  • A Miami art exhibit is celebrating Africa’s soccer legacy throughout the World Cup

    A Miami art exhibit is celebrating Africa’s soccer legacy throughout the World Cup

    MIAMI (AP) — Near the entrance of a new Miami art exhibition, a striking photograph captures Brazilian star Vinícius Júnior mid-goal celebration, one fist raised high in triumph. It hangs adjacent to a vivid acrylic work by Tasanee Durrett, depicting a Black woman heading a soccer ball, her dreadlocks floating mid-air. A glass-cased replica of the FIFA World Cup trophy anchors the nearby display space, encircled by an array of photographs, paintings and national flags that weave together the untold stories of generations of African footballers and their soccer dreams.

    This immersive collection, titled *Art and the Beautiful Game: Africa on the World Stage*, is the work of AfriKin, a foundation dedicated to amplifying African and African diaspora art. Curated by Alfonso D. Brooks, a former longtime sound engineer turned arts organizer, the exhibition opened in Miami in advance of the World Cup, drawing together works from more than 50 creators spanning 25 countries. The show traces soccer’s deep embedded role in African history, while honoring the sport’s most globally influential figures — from the late Brazilian legend Pelé to contemporary French star Kylian Mbappé.

    Every one of the 10 African nations qualifying for the World Cup is highlighted and celebrated in the exhibition, with a special tribute reserved for Cape Verde. The tiny island nation off West Africa pulled off one of the tournament’s most surprising upsets in its World Cup debut, securing a historic draw against European powerhouse Spain. AfriKin is scheduled to host an official honorary ceremony for Cape Verde on Saturday evening, ahead of the team’s group stage match against Uruguay.

    As the World Cup draws tens of thousands of global football fans to Miami, Brooks and participating artists set out to create a welcoming communal space where the African diaspora can gather, connect and celebrate its distinct cultural legacy throughout the tournament. “Miami is a huge melting pot,” explained Durrett, a 31-year-old Orlando-based artist and licensed architect. “We have Latin residents, Haitian communities, Caribbean communities, so many different cultural influences. Now that we have this platform and this voice, why not lift that story up?”

    Brooks, who was born in the Dutch Caribbean territory of St. Maarten and relocated to Miami in 2008, developed his love for soccer from its humble grassroots origins across the African continent. He recalls growing up watching young children kick makeshift soccer balls — or any round object they could find — down school hallways, in living rooms, across uneven concrete streets. “This is where you get the term ‘the beautiful game,’” he said. “Because it required nothing but a beautiful spirit.”

    That joyful simplicity runs through the entire exhibition, which offers intimate glimpses into neighborhood pick-up pitches while also highlighting the sport’s unique global power to unite people across differing backgrounds, races and languages.

    Columbus-based artist Bamazi Talle, a native of the West African nation of Togo, explores this unifying theme through paintings of the calabash — a large, woody gourd that holds deep cultural meaning across many African communities. Beyond its practical uses, from serving meals to being hardened into water-carrying vessels, the calabash stands as a cultural symbol of community connection and hospitality. Talle paints the gourds floating against the backdrop of flags of all competing World Cup nations, drawing a parallel between the fruit’s cross-cultural history and the unifying spirit of the global tournament. “Calabash became one thing that united all of us,” Talle said. “And this cup, this World Cup is, I think, this celebration of all of us coming together.”

    Durrett, whose acrylic work greets visitors at the entrance, uses her art to lift up the underrepresented stories of Black women in soccer. She first took up drawing as a therapeutic practice years ago, and has centered her work on highlighting marginalized communities, often creating full canvas pieces in a single continuous line. “I hope that visitors see the unique stories that we as artists are telling,” she said. “And I hope they see themselves reflected in these stories.”

    The exhibition also highlights what Brooks terms “Hidden Africa” — a section focused on European national teams including France, Belgium and England that field numerous players of African heritage, who were either born or developed their football skills in European countries. Through this framing, Brooks aims to highlight the far-reaching connections of the African diaspora across the entire World Cup field, while opening up conversations around identity, immigration, and the complex factors that shape a player’s choice of which nation to represent internationally.

    “I’m not just showing a football and hanging up pretty pictures or highlights of goals,” Brooks emphasized. “We want to tell a real story that people can walk into, engage with, and leave saying ‘Wow, I didn’t know that.’ People need to learn from this exhibition.”

  • Andy Burnham is the ‘King of the North’ with his eyes on 10 Downing Street

    Andy Burnham is the ‘King of the North’ with his eyes on 10 Downing Street

    LONDON — After a decades-long political career that has taken him from junior Parliament member to the widely popular mayor of Britain’s northern industrial powerhouse, Andy Burnham has cleared the final hurdle to mount a challenge for leadership of the Labour Party and the office of British prime minister, positioning himself as a populist alternative to incumbent Keir Starmer.

  • Zimbabwe MPs pass bill to extend president’s time in power

    Zimbabwe MPs pass bill to extend president’s time in power

    Zimbabwe’s political landscape has been thrown into sharp debate after the country’s lower house of parliament passed a sweeping constitutional amendment that will extend presidential terms from five to seven years and allow 83-year-old incumbent President Emmerson Mnangagwa to stay in office until 2030, two years beyond his previously scheduled departure.

    The vote held on Thursday delivered a decisive victory for ruling party Zanu-PF, which has held continuous power since Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980. Final tallies showed 216 lawmakers backing the amendment, easily clearing the constitutionally required two-thirds majority threshold of 187 votes needed to change the nation’s founding charter. Only 42 parliamentarians cast votes against the controversial proposal.

    Beyond extending Mnangagwa’s current term, the amendment carries far-reaching changes to Zimbabwe’s political system. It scraps direct public presidential elections, a system that has been in place since 1990, and transfers the power to select the head of state to parliament itself. It also extends parliamentary terms from five to seven years and pushes the next scheduled parliamentary election, originally planned for 2028, back to 2030.

    The proposal is the end result of a months-long push by Zanu-PF, which secured cabinet backing for the constitutional amendment plan back in February. The bill will now move to Zimbabwe’s senate for a final vote, where political observers widely predict it will pass, before heading to Mnangagwa to be signed into law.

    This development marks a striking reversal for the president, who has previously positioned himself as a committed constitutionalist and publicly pledged to respect the existing two-term limit that was set to see him step down in 2028. Mnangagwa first rose to the presidency in 2017, when he ousted long-time authoritarian ruler Robert Mugabe in a military-backed takeover. He subsequently won contested national elections in both 2018 and 2023, results that have faced widespread scrutiny from international observers and opposition groups.

    Opposition voices, civil society organizations, and constitutional legal experts have united in criticism of the amendment process, arguing that such a fundamental restructuring of Zimbabwe’s political system requires approval via a national public referendum, rather than a vote solely by sitting lawmakers. Their criticism draws on the text of the 2013 constitution, which currently states that any change to presidential term limits must be approved by voters in a public referendum, and that a sitting president cannot personally benefit from an extension without explicit voter approval in a second public vote.

    A last-ditch legal challenge to block the bill was heard and dismissed by Zimbabwe’s Constitutional Court just one day before the lower house vote, clearing the way for Thursday’s proceeding.

    When Mnangagwa first took office, many observers and domestic supporters hoped he would usher in a new era of democratic reform and economic recovery for the struggling southern African nation. Instead, his tenure has been defined by persistent severe economic crises, repeated disputed electoral contests, and growing international and domestic concern over steady democratic backsliding.

    The amendment has intensified long-simmering tensions over Zimbabwe’s political trajectory. Opponents warn that the changes will drastically weaken democratic accountability and consolidate one-party control, while proponents of the amendment argue the longer terms and shifted election process are necessary to deliver political continuity and national stability as the country works to address its deep economic challenges.

  • Police charge a third suspect in a Melbourne synagogue arson allegedly directed by Iran

    Police charge a third suspect in a Melbourne synagogue arson allegedly directed by Iran

    In a major development in an antisemitic terror investigation, Australian law enforcement announced Friday that a third suspect has been charged in connection with a devastating late 2024 arson attack on a prominent Melbourne synagogue, an attack Australian authorities allege was orchestrated by Iran.

    According to official statements from the Victorian Joint Counter Terrorism Team — a specialized unit combining resources from federal police, state law enforcement, and Australia’s primary domestic intelligence service — the 20-year-old suspect is accused of being one of three masked assailants who forced their way into the Adass Israel Synagogue in the early hours of December 6, 2024. The offenders allegedly doused the interior of the sacred space with flammable liquid before igniting the blaze, which left the building with widespread structural and interior damage. One worshipper who was at the site suffered minor physical injuries during the incident.

    The newly charged suspect was already in custody at a Melbourne correctional facility facing unrelated, undisclosed charges, and police have not released his name to the public. He joins two previously arrested co-accused: 21-year-old Giovanni Laulu, taken into custody in July 2024, and 20-year-old Younes Ali Younes, who was arrested one month later. He is scheduled to make his first court appearance on the new arson and terrorism-related charges next week.

    Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese publicly accused Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of directing not just this synagogue attack, but a second arson that targeted a kosher restaurant, Lewis’ Continental Kitchen, in Sydney two months prior to the synagogue incident. Mike Burgess, director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), confirmed that the IRGC leveraged an intricate network of proxies to conceal its direct role in both antisemitic attacks, which have shaken Australia’s Jewish community.

    In response to these allegations, the Australian government expelled Iran’s ambassador to Canberra and three additional Iranian diplomatic staff. The Iranian government has repeatedly and vehemently denied any involvement in the attacks.

    Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Peter Crozier told reporters Friday that the investigation remains active, with investigators collaborating closely with international partner agencies to unpack the full scope of the plot. A key ongoing line of inquiry, Crozier noted, is determining whether the three accused arsonists knew the identities of the individuals who ordered the attack. “They may not actually be aware of the people who are directing or the principals of these operations. That remains a key line of inquiry for us,” Crozier said.

    Victoria Police Acting Assistant Commissioner Paul O’Halloran added that authorities prioritized notifying the local Jewish community of the third arrest before making the news public, to avoid causing unnecessary surprise or alarm. “Our heart goes out to them. Again, this brings back this terrible incident,” O’Halloran said. “People deserve the right to feel safe and be safe in their community and particularly at their place of worship. Today’s charges are a strong testament to this.”

    The arrest comes as Australia confronts a documented rise in antisemitic violence across the country. In response to the growing threat, the federal government has launched a public inquiry to examine the surge in hate crimes, which includes a deadly December shooting at a Sydney Hanukkah celebration that left 15 people dead.

  • Meet Merlin the Duck: Mexico’s World Cup ‘ambassador’

    Meet Merlin the Duck: Mexico’s World Cup ‘ambassador’

    In the buzz of World Cup excitement that swept across Mexico City, one unlikely celebrity has risen to capture the hearts of thousands of soccer fans, turning an ordinary pet duck into the nation’s most talked-about unofficial ambassador. That star is Merlin, a domestic duck whose casual daily waddles through the busy streets of the capital, decked out in a tiny, perfectly fitted jersey emblazoned with the Mexican national team’s colors and crest, have sparked a viral social media frenzy that drew massive crowds of adoring fans eager to catch a glimpse of the feathered icon.

    BBC correspondent Will Grant was on the ground amid the throngs of supporters that flocked to meet Merlin, documenting the chaos and joy that surrounded the duck’s sudden rise to fame. What started as a simple, charming quirk from Merlin’s owner—dressing the pet up to support the team during the tournament—quickly exploded beyond the small neighborhood where Merlin lives, as clips and photos of the duck strolling past sidewalk cafes, city parks, and busy intersections spread like wildfire across TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter.

    Unlike many manufactured viral sensations, Merlin’s appeal comes from his effortless, unscripted charm. Fans have latched onto the duck as a lighthearted, unifying symbol of national pride amid the high-stakes tension of international soccer, turning casual meet-and-greets into impromptu street celebrations. What began as a pet owner’s bit of fun has now cemented Merlin’s place as a beloved unofficial World Cup ambassador, a reminder that the most memorable moments of major sporting events often come from the most unexpected places.