Global Pulse

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  • Zverev heads up final four in men’s French Open semis

    Zverev heads up final four in men’s French Open semis

    The landscape of the 2025 French Open men’s singles draw has been turned upside down following stunning early exits of the tournament’s top title contenders, leaving Germany’s Alexander Zverev as the undisputed favorite to claim his first career Grand Slam trophy when the semi-finals kick off on Friday. Even as the 29-year-old second seed brushes off questions about favorite status, the weight of expectation sits firmly on his shoulders heading into his clash against 26th seed Jakub Mensik of the Czech Republic. The winner of that match will go on to face either Italy’s Flavio Cobolli or Matteo Arnaldi in Sunday’s Roland Garros final, completing an unexpected final four bracket.

    After world No. 1 Jannik Sinner and 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic both departed the tournament far earlier than predicted, Zverev has emerged as the clear pick to end his run as one of tennis’s most high-profile nearly-men. The 2020 Olympic gold medalist has been in imperious form through the first two weeks of the clay-court major, dropping just one set across five matches to secure his place in the final four. His most recent victory, a straight-sets quarter-final win over rising Spanish teenager Rafael Jodar, took less than two and a half hours and served as further proof of his sharpness entering the semi-finals.

    Despite being the highest-ranked, most experienced and most decorated player remaining in the draw, Zverev says he is blocking out all noise about a potential first title and focusing solely on his upcoming opponent. “As I said before, I don’t particularly care about being the favourite,” Zverev told reporters after his quarter-final win. “I focus on next match, and I focus on the opponent as they cross the net, and that’s the only thing that I can control.”

    Standing between Zverev and a fourth Grand Slam final is 20-year-old Mensik, who is into the final four of a major for the first time in his young career. The 196cm serving powerhouse has already notched a career-defining title, upsetting Djokovic to win the 2024 Miami Open, and has fought through a tough draw to reach this stage at Roland Garros. His straight-sets quarter-final victory over Brazilian breakout star Joao Fonseca cemented his status as one of the most exciting young prospects on the ATP Tour, and he is not intimidated by the challenge of facing the tournament favorite. The pair have met once before this season, with Zverev claiming a tight three-set win on the clay of Madrid. “The match with Sascha in Madrid, of course, it was a close one. It was best-of-three,” Mensik noted. “Right now it’s a different situation… I would say bigger match, best-of-five. I’m excited for the challenge.”

    The second semi-final will make Grand Slam history, as it pits two Italian players against each other in the men’s draw for the first time ever. Pre-tournament predictions expected Italy’s top star Sinner to be in this position, but instead it is 10th seed Flavio Cobolli and unseeded Matteo Arnaldi who will contest an all-Italian semi-final for a spot in the final.

    Cobolli, ranked 10th in the world, booked his first ever Grand Slam semi-final spot with a tight victory over Canada’s fourth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime on Court Philippe Chatrier, and described the moment as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. “I felt like this is the chance of my life,” Cobolli said after the win. His opponent Arnaldi advanced to the semi-finals without hitting a shot in his quarter-final, as compatriot Matteo Berrettini was forced to withdraw due to injury. Currently ranked 104th in the world, Arnaldi is enjoying his best ever Grand Slam performance after returning from a recent injury layoff, and has spent more time on court than any other semi-finalist this fortnight. Despite the heavy workload, he says he has plenty of energy left for the match. “I have been playing a lot, but at the same time, I’m happy to be on court and to spend time on court, because I missed playing,” Arnaldi said. “I for sure have some energy left for the next matches.”

    The pair share a 1-1 head-to-head record, and their meeting on Friday will be a rematch of the 2024 French Open second round, where Cobolli claimed a four-set win. Cobolli says the historic semi-final is a win for Italian tennis regardless of who comes out on top. “For sure it will be another derby, but I think we have to be happy for Italian tennis,” Cobolli said. “Another Italian, apart from Sinner and Lorenzo (Musetti), are in the final this week. So we have to be happy, and we have to enjoy that match.”

  • Artists threaten legal action against Venice Biennale over inclusion in visitors’ ballot

    Artists threaten legal action against Venice Biennale over inclusion in visitors’ ballot

    The 2025 edition of the Venice Biennale, one of the world’s most prestigious contemporary art events, has devolved into the most contentious iteration in recent decades, as more than 100 participating artists, curators and pavilion commissioners are pushing forward with legal threats over a flawed visitor-voted award system that replaced traditional jury-selected Golden Lion prizes. Tensions erupted at the event even before its public opening on May 9, when the entire panel of jurors stepped down in a dramatic act of political protest, citing International Criminal Court investigations into alleged crimes against humanity linked to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. The jury’s resignation forced Biennale organizers to scrap the iconic Golden Lion awards and implement a last-minute replacement: public voting by visitors at the show’s two core venues, the Giardini and Arsenale, to select winners in two categories — best national pavilion, and best participant in the central exhibition *In Minor Keys*, curated per the vision of the late curator Koyo Kouoh. Winners of the visitor-voted awards are scheduled to be announced on the Biennale’s closing day, November 22. In the lead-up to the public opening, intense protests also unfolded outside the Russian and Israeli national pavilions during the press preview week, amplifying the political friction that has defined this year’s event. On Wednesday, the protesting artists published an open letter leveling sharp criticism at the replacement voting process, arguing it lacks basic transparency and accountability. The group first requested that their names be removed from the public ballot back on May 20, but say Biennale leadership failed to respond to their initial demand, prompting them to initiate formal pre-litigation procedures. As of the letter’s publication, the coalition includes roughly 70 artists taking part in the central exhibition and organizers from nearly 40 national pavilions. High-profile participants backing the demand include the national pavilions of Iceland, Norway and Denmark — all of which have previously been at the forefront of calls to bar Russia from the Biennale, following Moscow’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Prominent Austrian artist Florentina Holzinger, whose acclaimed installation using recycled wastewater from portable toilets outside the Austrian Pavilion has become one of the most talked-about works of this year’s show, is also among the signatories. In its official response to the coalition’s demands, the Biennale circulated a May 28 letter clarifying that it would retain all names on the public ballot “to guarantee all visitors have the freedom of expression.” However, organizers confirmed that none of the artists who requested removal would actually be eligible to win the awards. The protesting coalition dismissed this compromise as meaningless, calling the arrangement a “waste of time” that forces visitors to cast votes that will never be counted toward final results.

  • Iran leader says dealt enemies ‘decisive blow’ in Mideast war

    Iran leader says dealt enemies ‘decisive blow’ in Mideast war

    As weeks of high-stakes negotiations to end the ongoing Middle East conflict and reopen the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz end in deadlock, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has declared that the United States and Israel have suffered a “decisive blow” at the hands of Tehran, marking a sharp rebuke to ongoing diplomatic overtures from Washington.

    Khamenei’s public message, delivered via a prayer leader at the annual commemoration of the death of the Islamic Republic’s founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, came just one day after the U.S. House of Representatives passed a historic resolution calling for an immediate end to American military involvement in the conflict. It was the first formal public statement from Khamenei since he was wounded in the February 28 opening U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign that killed his father and predecessor, Ali Khamenei. This year’s commemoration saw an empty chair bearing his predecessor’s portrait displayed at Khomeini’s mausoleum, a stark visual reminder of the upheaval the conflict has wrought on Iran’s leadership.

    In his address, Khamenei argued that Iran’s adversaries, after their battlefield setbacks, are now enduring “a deeply meaningful and profound humiliation.” He further accused the U.S. and Israel of seeking to sow division, sowing “the seeds of doubt, despair, fear, mistrust and division” among the Iranian public, and called on domestic political factions to unify to neutralize what he framed as a “sinister plot” against the country.

    The current standoff comes after weeks of on-again off-again talks marred by repeated threats of violence and intermittent clashes that have failed to produce any path toward a permanent ceasefire. While Tehran has laid out strict non-negotiable conditions for any deal, U.S. President Donald Trump has maintained a public posture of optimism, telling reporters this week that a final agreement “could happen… over the weekend.”

    The conflict has put intense domestic political pressure on Trump ahead of looming U.S. midterm elections, with the war roiling global energy markets and proving deeply unpopular among American voters. The House resolution, which passed by a narrow 215-208 margin Wednesday, saw four Republican lawmakers join Democrats to support the order to withdraw U.S. troops from the conflict. Democrats framed the vote as an unambiguous mandate from the American public, writing on social platform X that “it’s time to end his deeply unpopular and illegal war of choice in Iran.” Despite the historic vote, the resolution remains largely symbolic: it would need Senate approval, and Trump has the power to veto any such measure if it reaches his desk.

    At a recent congressional hearing, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that Iran’s stockpiles of highly enriched uranium remain the core sticking point in negotiations. Washington’s demands are clear: Tehran must surrender all of its near-weapons-grade enriched uranium, agree to permanent curbs on its nuclear program, and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which handles roughly 20% of global oil flows and its closure has sent shockwaves through energy markets since the war began. Iran has repeatedly defended its right to peaceful nuclear enrichment, and has made ending Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon a non-negotiable precondition for any deal. On Wednesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned that any Israeli strike on the Lebanese capital Beirut would trigger an immediate “full-scale resumption” of the wider regional war.

    The parallel conflict in Lebanon remains one of the most intractable parts of the broader crisis. On Wednesday, Israel and Lebanese negotiators announced a new ceasefire agreement after two days of direct talks in Washington. The deal requires Hezbollah to implement a complete cessation of hostilities, and establishes pilot border zones where the official Lebanese Armed Forces will take exclusive control, barring all non-state armed groups from the area. Follow-up negotiations are scheduled to begin the week of June 22, with the goal of reaching a comprehensive long-term agreement to end the conflict.

    The new deal replaces a failed April 17 truce that was never fully implemented, with violence escalating steadily across the border in the weeks since. Even hours after the new ceasefire was announced, both sides reported fresh clashes: Israeli authorities triggered air raid sirens after reporting what they called a “hostile aircraft infiltration” in northern Israel, while Lebanese state media documented new Israeli drone strikes in southern Lebanon. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz framed the agreement as a win for Israel, saying it grants Israeli forces “freedom of action, with American backing, to strike in Beirut in response to fire on Israeli communities.” Israel is currently conducting its deepest ground offensive into Lebanese territory in 20 years, and Katz confirmed that Israeli troops will remain in their current positions while continuing to “dismantle terrorist infrastructure” linked to Hezbollah, which has long been backed by Iran. Just days before the new ceasefire announcement, an Israeli strike in southern Lebanon killed a man, his son, and his daughter, whose funeral was held Saturday in the Christian border village of Qlayaa, a stark reminder of the human cost of the ongoing violence.

  • Technology, participation mark Ethiopia’s election

    Technology, participation mark Ethiopia’s election

    Ethiopia’s seventh national general election, held on Monday, has drawn positive early feedback from regional election monitoring groups, which have highlighted the nation’s innovative use of digital electoral tools and record-breaking voter engagement as key milestones in the country’s ongoing work to consolidate democratic governance — even as persistent security concerns remain a pressing challenge.

    This election marks only the second general election held in the East African nation since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed took office following the 2018 poll. As one of Africa’s most populous countries and a prominent diplomatic actor across the continent, Ethiopia’s electoral developments are being closely monitored by regional governments and global stakeholders alike.

    Preliminary assessments published Wednesday by observer delegations from the African Union (AU) and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) outline clear progress in core electoral processes, including voter registration, poll administration, and expanded inclusive access to voting, while confirming that ongoing insecurity continues to disrupt operations in several regions of the country.

    Data from the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) shows that total registered voters surpassed 50.5 million — exceeding the board’s original enrollment target and representing a substantial jump in registered voters compared to the previous general election. Under a newly implemented hybrid digital-analog registration system, more than 5.5 million voters completed their enrollment via online digital platforms.

    Monitoring teams have singled out the integration of technology as a defining, standout feature of this year’s election. Tech upgrades include GIS-based mapping to digitize, analyze, and map the geographic locations of all voting centers, streamlined digital voter registration tools, and tailored voting accommodations for internally displaced persons (IDPs) and active security service members.

    Observers commended NEBE for its strong administrative and operational capacity, noting that these new systemic improvements directly boosted accessibility, transparency, and overall efficiency across the entire voting process.

    In a joint media briefing Wednesday, the AU and IGAD observer teams stated: “The way the election board conducted the 7th General Election is commendable,” pointing to the electoral body’s demonstrated neutrality, robust technological preparedness, commitment to inclusive participation, and professional poll administration.

    Per mission reports, voting proceeded successfully in 501 of Ethiopia’s constituencies. However, polls were unable to open in the entire Tigray region, as well as parts of Oromia and Amhara, due to active security threats and logistical barriers. Overall, while more than 50,000 polling stations operated as planned across the country, 143 locations remained closed on voting day because of instability, local media reports confirm.

    Speciosa Wandira-Kazibwe, head of the IGAD Election Observation Mission, described the level of public engagement in the election as among the most impressive she has observed during decades of election monitoring work across the African continent. “We have never encountered the level of public participation we saw in Ethiopia in other countries,” she said.

    Former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who led the AU’s observer delegation, also echoed positive assessments, applauding the conduct of the polls and welcoming the efforts by Ethiopian authorities to strengthen the national electoral process.

    In line with Ethiopia’s electoral legal framework, official final results are scheduled to be released between one and two weeks after the conclusion of voting.

  • Rain stops play at Lord’s with England 24-1 vs New Zealand in the first test

    Rain stops play at Lord’s with England 24-1 vs New Zealand in the first test

    The much-anticipated opening Test match of England’s home series against New Zealand at the iconic Lord’s Cricket Ground got off to a rain-interrupted start on Thursday, with barely any play completed before play was called off for the morning session. Just 45 minutes of game time and 10 full overs were possible before persistent rain forced the officials off the outfield, and an early lunch was declared one hour after play was initially halted.

    The only wicket to fall on the opening morning belonged to England debutant Emilio Gay, who made his first Test appearance just one year after featuring in Twenty20 internationals for Italy. Gay got his Test career off to a promising start: he claimed two driven boundaries off New Zealand fast bowler Kyle Jamieson early in his innings, including a wide full toss he dispatched to the rope, before he fell for eight runs. On 16-1, Gay edged a perfectly pitched delivery that nipped away from him to first slip, ending his knock and extending a worrying trend for the home side.

    When play was paused, England’s remaining batters had the side on 24-1: opening partner Ben Duckett was not out on 12, while fellow young batter Jacob Bethell had compiled four runs. Remarkably, that 24-run total after 10 overs marks England’s lowest opening session score since head coach Brendon McCullum took the reins in 2022, the same year he launched the team’s now-famous aggressive batting philosophy dubbed ‘Bazball’.

    Gay’s early wicket also extended another unwelcome pattern for England: the side has now lost an opening innings wicket within the first 10 overs in every Test since the opening Ashes match in Perth last November. That 2023-24 Ashes tour in Australia ended in a disappointing 4-1 series loss for England, a result that came after the side entered the campaign with high hopes of beating an injury-hit Australian squad, and has triggered significant critical backlash in the months since. This Lord’s Test is England’s first international match since that January series defeat down under.

    Over the past week, McCullum has publicly spoken about his side’s plan to refine their aggressive approach and play smarter, more strategic cricket moving forward. However, England’s plans suffered an early setback even before the first ball: captain Ben Stokes, celebrating his 35th birthday on Thursday, lost the coin toss, and New Zealand skipper Tom Latham immediately elected to bowl first. The Black Caps are fielding a rare full-strength fast bowling attack for the opening Test, a boost that Latham was keen to take advantage of on a fresh pitch expected to offer early movement.

    The bowling unit is particularly notable for the return of two key pacemen: Kyle Jamieson and Will O’Rourke, who have both recovered from long-term back injuries to play alongside each other in a Test match for the first time. Gay’s wicket was Jamieson’s first in Test cricket since February 2024, marking a successful return to international action for the tall seamer. Matt Henry leads the New Zealand attack, while Nathan Smith earned his place as the fourth seamer after claiming eight wickets against Ireland in a warm-up fixture in Belfast last week.

  • India’s Modi meets Delcy Rodriguez as India expands Venezuela oil imports

    India’s Modi meets Delcy Rodriguez as India expands Venezuela oil imports

    Against a backdrop of widespread global energy supply disruptions that have rattled international energy markets, India has moved to deepen diplomatic and economic collaboration with oil-rich Venezuela, holding high-level strategic talks between top leaders from both nations this Thursday in New Delhi.

    Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened official discussions with Venezuela’s acting President Delcy Rodriguez, with energy partnership standing as the central pillar of the agenda, according to senior Indian foreign ministry official Rudrendra Tandon. In recent weeks, this growing collaboration has already yielded tangible results: Venezuela has risen to become India’s third-largest supplier of crude oil, a milestone that underscores the shifting dynamics of India’s energy sourcing strategy.

    Tandon emphasized that India is proactively pursuing diversified new sources of crude oil and energy to shore up its long-term energy security. “Venezuela represents a clear opportunity, and it is very much part of our strategic plans going forward,” he told reporters following the leaders’ meeting.

    Beyond energy cooperation, the two leaders also surveyed the landscape for expanded Indian investment across multiple key Venezuelan sectors. These opportunities span mining development, critical mineral extraction, pharmaceutical manufacturing and automobile production, opening avenues for deeper cross-border economic integration beyond the energy sector.

    This high-level meeting comes in the wake of steady growth in Indian imports of Venezuelan crude over recent months. For the world’s third-largest oil importer, this shift has elevated Venezuela from a secondary supplier to a core part of India’s energy import portfolio.

    India’s extreme dependence on foreign oil creates persistent structural vulnerability in its energy market: the country imports roughly 85% of its total crude oil demand, and nearly half of all incoming oil shipments pass through the Strait of Hormuz, a critical chokepoint that has faced heightened disruption risks amid escalating regional tensions. This geopolitical risk has pushed Indian policymakers to accelerate efforts to diversify their supply network away from overreliance on Gulf shipments.

    Following her meeting with Prime Minister Modi, Rodriguez also held separate talks with India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Thursday. She is scheduled to meet with India’s Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri in the coming days, and will also tour leading facilities in India’s energy, pharmaceutical and automobile sectors to explore potential on-the-ground collaboration opportunities.

  • A Yazidi tells an Australian court she was enslaved and raped in an IS home in Syria

    A Yazidi tells an Australian court she was enslaved and raped in an IS home in Syria

    MELBOURNE, Australia — A disturbing case of alleged wartime enslavement tied to the Islamic State group has opened in an Australian court, with prosecutors laying out graphic accusations of systematic abuse against a 15-year-old Yazidi girl who was held captive in Syria more than six years ago.

    Thirty-one-year-old Zeinab Ahmad appeared at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court this week, filing an application for bail while facing two counts of slavery-related crimes against humanity. Her bail hearing will resume Friday, after police laid out the full scope of the allegations before the court.

    Zeinab and her 53-year-old mother Kawsar Ahmad — also known as Kawsar Abbas — have been held in Australian custody since last month. The pair returned to Australia from a Syrian refugee camp alongside a larger group of Australian women and children with confirmed ties to the Islamic State, after years spent living in territory controlled by the extremist group.

    Detective Senior Constable Mark Clendenning, leading the case for police, told the court that the anonymous Iraqi-born Yazidi complainant, who was a minor when the abuse occurred, laid out years of mistreatment in a formal police statement. According to the statement, Zeinab’s father and Kawsar’s husband, Mohammed Ahmad, purchased the then-teen for $10,000 in 2017 in Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Islamic State’s self-declared caliphate at the time.

    Clendenning told the court that Kawsar actively participated in purchasing the teen for enslavement — an unusual role for a woman within the extremist group’s hierarchical structure. He added that the entire Ahmad family held elevated status and privileges within the Islamic State that most other supporters did not access, granting them exceptions to the group’s standard internal practices.

    Per the allegations laid out by Clendenning, the victim was brought into the family’s Raqqa home, where the couple lived with their five children, including Zeinab. The victim was assigned to share a bedroom with Zeinab, the court heard. Mohammed explicitly told the victim upon bringing her to the home that he had purchased her for two purposes: repeated sexual assault and unpaid domestic labor, even introducing her to the entire family with that explicit explanation.

    Court documents further detail that Zeinab’s first husband, an Islamic State fighter, was killed in a 2016 drone strike, after which she remarried an Egyptian IS fighter who had lost a limb in combat.

    Police have alleged that Zeinab was present on multiple occasions when her father abused the victim, including one incident where Mohammed beat the captive and dragged her by her hair down two flights of stairs inside the family home. Mohammed beat the victim two to three times every month for the entire duration of her captivity with the Ahmad family, Clendenning said, with all members of the family present during the assaults.

    While Zeinab never physically harmed the victim, the complainant told police that Zeinab repeatedly issued violent threats against her and ordered her to complete endless domestic housework. The victim also stated that Mohammed sexually assaulted her “many times” despite consistent resistance from the captive.

    After 16 months of captivity, Mohammed sold the victim to another IS member for the same $10,000 he had paid to acquire her, justifying the sale by claiming the teen was “bad” and refused to follow his orders. Mohammed is currently incarcerated in an Iraqi prison for his role in Islamic State-linked crimes.

    The case unfolds against the long-documented historical context of the Islamic State’s systematic persecution of the Yazidi people, a small Kurdish-speaking ethno-religious minority primarily concentrated in Iraq, Syria and Turkey. The victim told investigators she was just 15 years old when she was captured as part of the IS’s mass enslavement campaign that trapped more than 6,800 Yazidi women and children. Over five years of captivity, she was traded between 17 different IS members before Kurdish forces liberated her from extremist control in 2019.

    Court records show that three generations of the Ahmad family originally relocated from Melbourne to Syria via Turkey between 2013 and 2014, with Zeinab flying to the conflict zone to join the group with her first husband in 2014.

    In opposing Zeinab’s bail application, Clendenning argued that releasing her from custody would create an unacceptable public safety risk. He noted that Zeinab has married multiple men with ties to the Islamic State, and her current husband, an Egyptian IS fighter, has an unknown current whereabouts. Critically, Clendenning added that Zeinab has never explicitly renounced the Islamic State or stated that she no longer supports the extremist group’s ideology following her surrender to Kurdish forces earlier this year.

    If convicted on both charges of enslavement and the use of an enslaved person, Zeinab faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison for each count.

  • UK lawmaker says she is suing Elon Musk’s company over fake Grok bikini images

    UK lawmaker says she is suing Elon Musk’s company over fake Grok bikini images

    LONDON — A landmark legal challenge targeting artificial intelligence accountability has emerged in the United Kingdom, as a sitting Labour Party legislator has launched a privacy invasion lawsuit against Elon Musk’s AI development firm xAI over deepfake explicit images generated without her consent by the company’s Grok chatbot.

    Jess Asato, who serves in the UK parliament for the governing party, revealed Thursday that the unauthorized deepfake content was produced in January, shortly after she publicly spoke out against the growing proliferation of non-consensual deepfake pornography across digital platforms. According to Asato’s account, an anonymous party leveraged Grok’s image generation capabilities to create fake photos of her wearing a bikini that were never shot or authorized by her.

    The formal legal claim was submitted to London’s High Court this week, with Asato arguing that xAI violated the UK Data Protection Act through the misuse of her private personal information. Beyond seeking monetary damages for the harm she has endured, the lawmaker has a larger strategic goal: to establish a binding legal precedent that holds AI developers legally responsible for dangerous design flaws in their systems that enable harmful misuse.

    In a statement explaining her decision to pursue legal action, Asato drew a parallel between the online violation and a physical offense. “Nobody would be able to walk up to me in the street and strip me and put me in a bikini, and I don’t see why anybody should be able to do that to me online, because the feeling, while it is not quite the same, is very similar,” she said. “It is like somebody has digitally stripped me without my consent.”

    Asato also said she encourages other people who have suffered similar harm from AI-generated non-consensual deepfakes to join her legal action, framing the case as a broader fight for digital privacy safety.

    This lawsuit comes amid a growing global backlash against the spread of non-consensual deepfake pornography, which has triggered widespread calls for tighter regulation of AI tools. Back in January, after the incident involving Asato drew public attention and international outcry, xAI announced it would update Grok’s policies to ban users from editing images of real people to remove clothing.

    The UK passed a national law last year that explicitly criminalizes the creation or solicitation of non-consensual deepfake images of adults, but Asato argues that existing accountability frameworks are incomplete. Even after companies patch dangerous flaws in their AI systems, she notes, irreversible harm has already been done to victims of misuse.

    “Once the damage is done, the damage is done,” Asato said. “If you think about any other products, like a car, for example, that might have been manufactured with a fault, it doesn’t matter if, you know, the cars get recalled and the faults are fixed and no more harm is done.” Companies must still be held responsible for the harm their flawed products caused before the fix, she argues.

    As of Thursday, xAI had not issued any immediate public response to requests for comment on the new lawsuit.

  • Dutch police detain 4 suspects in probe into men who drugged, abused women they knew

    Dutch police detain 4 suspects in probe into men who drugged, abused women they knew

    THE HAGUE, Netherlands – Dutch law enforcement has taken four men into custody as part of a sweeping probe into allegations of systematic drug-facilitated sexual assault, where perpetrators allegedly targeted women they knew, recorded the abuse, and circulated graphic footage among private online groups. The investigation carries striking parallels to the high-profile Gisèle Pelicot abuse case that shocked France late last year.

  • Ukraine accused of killing four in occupied Crimea

    Ukraine accused of killing four in occupied Crimea

    Escalating cross-border strikes have sent fatalities climbing across Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories and mainland Russia, marking a sharp intensification of hostilities three months into the fifth year of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The latest outbreak of violence began with a series of Ukrainian strikes on the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula, where Russian-installed local authorities confirmed at least four civilian and personnel deaths across two separate attack sites.

    In the regional capital of Simferopol, one strike targeting what local officials described as non-residential infrastructure left three people dead and seven others injured. This incident marks the first recorded fatal Ukrainian attack on Simferopol since Russia illegally occupied and annexed the peninsula from Ukraine in 2014, a move ordered directly by Russian President Vladimir Putin. A second attack targeted a commuter train en route to Kerch, killing one additional passenger and wounding three more, according to the Moscow-appointed head of Crimea.

    As of publication, Ukrainian officials have not issued any official comment on the Crimean strikes. This wave of attacks marks the third consecutive day that Ukrainian forces have been accused of targeting transport and infrastructure in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories. In addition to its strikes on occupied Crimea, Kyiv has steadily expanded the scope and frequency of its long-range strikes deep inside Russian territory over recent weeks.

    The most high-profile of these recent strikes came on Wednesday, just hours before the official opening of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Russia’s flagship annual economic event designed to draw foreign investment into the country. Once known as the “Russian Davos,” the forum drew high-profile Western political and business delegations before Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that Ukrainian drones struck multiple targets near St. Petersburg, including an oil terminal and a naval facility in Kronstadt, the primary outpost of Russia’s Baltic Fleet. A separate Russian-installed official in occupied Donetsk reported that a drone strike on a passenger bus in the region killed seven civilians the same day.

    Over the four years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion, Ukraine has rapidly expanded and developed its domestic defense industry, allowing it to produce enough long-range drones and other precision weapons to regularly strike targets deep inside Russian and Russian-occupied territory. Ukrainian military strategy prioritizes strikes on energy and oil infrastructure, which Kyiv views as critical to sustaining Russia’s war effort. This escalation in Ukrainian long-range strikes has been matched by continued heavy Russian strikes across Ukrainian population centers, which have resulted in consistent civilian casualties. On Monday alone, combined Russian missile and drone strikes across multiple Ukrainian cities killed at least 22 civilian people.

    Moscow has continued to frame its illegal 2014 annexation of Crimea as a permanent territorial acquisition, a claim rejected by the vast majority of the international community and UN member states. Ukraine has repeatedly stated it aims to fully liberate all occupied territories, including Crimea, as a core condition of any lasting peace deal.