Global Pulse

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  • ‘Listening bars’ bloom as hottest new nightlife trend

    ‘Listening bars’ bloom as hottest new nightlife trend

    Across major cities from Paris to New York to London, a one-of-a-kind new nightlife concept is rapidly growing in popularity, offering music lovers a radically different alternative to crowded club nights and noisy gig venues: the ‘listening bar.’ Born from Japan’s iconic cozy jazz kissa culture, this trend prioritizes high-fidelity audio quality that allows audiences to connect with recorded music in a way that modern streaming and cheap portable audio gear rarely can.

    The core of every authentic listening bar is an investment in top-tier audio equipment purpose-built to deliver unparalleled sound. At Listener, a popular venue in central Paris, co-founder Jerome Thomas notes the underground soundproof listening room boasts a system that retails for roughly €200,000, featuring handcrafted speakers from niche Greek manufacturer Tune Audio. The result is an audio experience that reveals hidden layers of familiar recordings: crisp, clear treble and rich, resonant bass that listeners can feel in their chest.

    Venues split into two broad models to suit different guest preferences. Some focus on active listening sessions, where guests pay admission to gather in a quiet, acoustically treated space, with full attention directed to the music and the sound system. Others pair high-quality audio with a more traditional social setting, allowing guests to enjoy drinks and conversation with elevated music as a backdrop. Many venues stick to vinyl records, rather than compressed digital streams, and rely on high-end cabling and tube amplifiers to maximize audio quality, though some use premium lossless streaming services like Tidal or Qobuz for digital offerings.

    For regular guests, the experience fills a gap left by modern music consumption habits. Thirty-one-year-old Camille Calloch, who recently attended a dedicated listening session focused on British neo-soul artist Sampha at Listener, explained the concept has become a core part of how she enjoys music. “It really makes you listen to every word, every instrument, every note,” she said, adding that it complements other experiences from concert attendance to personal headphone listening.

    Thomas, a former medical industry worker, says the most rewarding part of running his venue is watching guests rediscover music they have loved for years. “They come to me saying ‘I thought I knew that track by heart, I’ve been listening to it for 15 years, but I heard new instruments, I could hear the mix from the sound engineer’,” he shared. The trend directly pushes back against the low-quality compressed audio that defines most modern listening: while recorded music is more ubiquitous and portable than ever, most consumers stream compressed tracks through Bluetooth headphones or cheap portable speakers, losing much of the detail captured in the original recording.

    The boom in listening bars also comes as traditional nightlife shifts. Many cities have seen a steady decline in club attendance, driven by soaring commercial rent costs and changing leisure preferences among younger generations. In contrast, the listening bar scene is expanding exponentially. Dan Wissinger, co-owner of Eavesdrop, a Brooklyn listening bar that opened in 2022, says growth in the sector has been explosive in recent years. Wissinger notes that proper acoustic treatment is a non-negotiable for any legitimate listening bar: “If they don’t have acoustic treatment, then they’re just fake listening bars. In a hospitality space, if you don’t have good damping, you’re not going to be hearing music first.”

    London’s fast-growing scene includes both long-running European pioneers like Brilliant Corners and new entries from major hospitality brands. One of the newest additions is Hidden Grooves, launched by the Virgin Hotels group at its Shoreditch location. The venue curates a collection of 5,000 vinyl records, worked with London-based sound engineering firm Project Audio (which has designed systems for top Ibiza clubs) to tune the space, and installed £50,000 Tannoy speakers from the 100-year-old British audio manufacturer. Neil Aline, Virgin’s head of cultural entertainment and a former DJ, first fell in love with the concept while touring in Japan, where the original jazz kissa bars invented the intimate, music-focused model. “If I’m going out to experience music, the concept of a good listening bar checks all the boxes for me,” Aline said. “As a music lover, it’s a whole different way of experiencing music outside of live venues or clubs.”

  • 250 missing after migrant boat sinks in Indian Ocean

    250 missing after migrant boat sinks in Indian Ocean

    A devastating maritime disaster off the coast of Southeast Asia has left around 250 people, including dozens of children, unaccounted for after an overloaded migrant trawler sank in the Andaman Sea last week, United Nations agencies for refugees and migration confirmed in a joint statement. The vessel, which departed from southern Bangladesh with the final destination of Malaysia, capsized amid heavy wind and rough sea conditions, a disaster exacerbated by the extreme overcrowding on board, according to the agencies.

    The Bangladesh Coast Guard told AFP that one of its patrol vessels pulled nine survivors from the water on April 9, though the exact timing of the capsizing remains unconfirmed. One of the survivors, 40-year-old Rafiqul Islam, described his harrowing experience of drifting adrift for nearly 36 hours before rescue, saying he suffered severe burns after being exposed to oil that leaked from the sinking vessel. He told reporters that the prospect of securing stable employment in Malaysia was the key factor that convinced him to undertake the risky crossing.

    This tragedy comes amid a years-long humanitarian crisis that has forced hundreds of thousands of Rohingya, a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority from Myanmar, to flee their homes. Since a brutal military crackdown in 2017, more than 700,000 Rohingya have crossed the border into Bangladesh, where they are hosted in sprawling refugee camps. Rohingya people are constitutionally denied citizenship in Myanmar, a Buddhist-majority nation, leaving them effectively stateless with no access to basic rights or protection in their home country.

    While Bangladesh has provided refuge to the displaced population, dire living conditions in the overcrowded camps, combined with shrinking international humanitarian funding and ongoing violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, have eliminated most hope of a safe voluntary return home in the near future. These pressures have pushed growing numbers of refugees to attempt dangerous irregular sea crossings to neighboring Malaysia, which many see as a potential safe haven in the region.

    Irregular migrant vessels operating this route are almost always small, severely overcrowded, and lack basic necessities including clean drinking water, sanitation, and emergency safety equipment. The crossings are consistently deadly: many vessels never reach their destination, with passengers dying of exposure, dehydration, or shipwreck. Those who do complete the crossing are often detained and deported, while many others are turned away by authorities or coastal communities in Malaysia and Indonesia. Most recently in January 2025, Malaysian authorities turned away two boats carrying approximately 300 refugees after providing only limited emergency food and water.

    One Rohingya refugee based in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, the site of the world’s largest Rohingya refugee camp, previously explained to Reuters the desperate logic driving these journeys. “People are dying in the fighting, dying from hunger. So some think it’s better to die at sea than to die slowly here,” they said.

    In their joint statement, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) framed the Andaman Sea disaster as a tragic symptom of a larger unresolved crisis. “This tragic incident reflects the dire consequences of protracted displacement and the absence of durable solutions for the Rohingya,” the statement read. The agencies called on the international community to immediately increase and sustain funding to support Rohingya refugees and their host communities in Bangladesh, and renewed calls for urgent action to address the root causes of displacement inside Myanmar. As Bangladesh prepares to mark its new year, the agencies said the disaster is a stark reminder of the urgent need to create conditions that allow Rohingya refugees to return to their home country voluntarily, safely, and with dignity.

  • ‘Blindsided’: US farmers strained as fertilizer costs surge on war

    ‘Blindsided’: US farmers strained as fertilizer costs surge on war

    As spring planting gets underway across the American heartland, farmers in North Carolina and beyond are grappling with an unprecedented crisis spurred by escalating tensions in the Middle East. Skyrocketing fertilizer prices, paired with unexpected delivery delays and supply chain disruptions triggered by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, have left agricultural producers blindsided and squeezed between mounting input costs and uncertain harvest outcomes.

    On Andy Corriher’s North Carolina farm, where corn and soybean seedlings are starting to take root, the crisis has hit at the worst possible moment. Weeks after placing an order for liquid nitrogen, one of the most critical inputs for spring planting, he still has no clear timeline for when his shipment will arrive. Since U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran prompted Tehran to block the key shipping waterway that carries much of the world’s fertilizer and energy exports, Corriher estimates the price of the nitrogen he relies on has jumped by at least 40 percent. At the Port of New Orleans, a major hub for fertilizer imports, urea prices have surged by roughly 50 percent overall.

    To adjust, Corriher has cut his fertilizer application by one-third—a move he fears will translate to lower crop yields at harvest time. He is far from alone in facing this double blow of soaring costs and restricted supply. Forty-year-old Russell Hedrick, who tends 1,000 acres of corn and soybeans near Hickory, North Carolina, purchased around 75 percent of his fertilizer after prices spiked following the closure of the strait. Like most small to mid-sized American farmers, he lacks the on-farm storage capacity and upfront capital to stock up on fertilizer months in advance of planting season, leaving him fully exposed to the market shock. He has dialed back his usage to the bare minimum, holding out for an opportunity to top-dress crops later if prices and supply stabilize.

    Even before the current conflict, Hedrick noted, steadily rising input costs had forced farmers to stretch every bag of fertilizer as far as possible, joking that “farmers have essentially become like Breaking Bad chemists with fertilizer, to get the most out of it.” Now, the sudden disruption has pushed that balancing act to breaking point. “This year, we just kind of got blindsided,” he said, adding that past supply chain shocks, such as China’s 2021 phosphate export restrictions, gave farmers months of advance warning to prepare—something this crisis completely lacked.

    For 55-year-old Marshville farmer Derrick Austin, comments from U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins that 80 percent of American farmers had purchased spring fertilizer before the conflict broke out offered little relief. Austin was among the 20 percent who could not afford to buy early, and the announcement felt like a “gut shot,” he said. He only managed to secure enough nitrogen for his wheat crop at pre-crisis prices after a supplier gave him a break, calling the overall situation “devastating.”

    The crisis carries significant political weight, as the farming community forms a core support base for President Donald Trump, who won 78 percent of the vote in 2024 in counties dependent on agriculture. Trump has attempted to address the anger, blaming “price gouging from the fertilizer monopoly” in a Saturday statement and vowing “American Farmers, we have your back!” But the disruption has left even some of his long-time backers questioning the administration’s handling of the Middle East conflict, and its failure to anticipate the blowback for American households.

    Corriher, a long-time Trump supporter, said the crisis felt like an avoidable “collateral damage” of the conflict. “It didn’t seem like we had really thought out all the consequences to the American people,” he said. Austin, meanwhile, said he is “starting to question some of (Trump’s) reasoning” even as he still prefers the current administration to opposing alternatives. Hedrick, who has voted for Trump three times, struck a more measured tone: “He’s human like the rest of us. I think he makes good calls, I think he makes mistakes. If the conflict’s resolution brings long-term peace and a reopened Strait of Hormuz, that’s all I can hope for.”

    Beyond the immediate political fallout, agricultural economists warn the crisis could deepen the prolonged slump facing the U.S. farm sector. Iowa State University professor Chad Hart noted the U.S. agriculture economy “has been in a recession for the last couple of years,” with net farm income declining while business costs have stayed persistently high. This year, the overall impact on yields and farm profits may be muted, as some farmers did lock in fertilizer supplies early, either in the fall of 2024 or early this spring. But if the conflict drags on and the Strait of Hormuz remains closed, Hart warned the 2027 crop could face far more severe disruption, as farmers will no longer have the buffer of pre-purchased fertilizer to draw on.

    The pain is not limited to farms either. Soaring diesel and energy costs tied to the Middle East conflict have pushed up prices for all American households, with Corriher noting “Everybody seems to be suffering.”

  • Diplomacy on ice: Mark Carney and Alexander Stubb play hockey

    Diplomacy on ice: Mark Carney and Alexander Stubb play hockey

    In a striking fusion of athletic competition and high-level diplomacy, Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney and Finland’s President Alexander Stubb took to the ice together for a friendly hockey game during Carney’s first official bilateral visit to Canada’s capital. The unlikely pairing of two heads of state on a hockey rink, with both leaders suiting up to join the Ottawa Charge amateur team, turned a routine diplomatic meeting into a memorable display of cross-national connection.

    Diplomatic summits and formal bilateral talks often rely on carefully staged photo opportunities and rigid policy discussions, but this event broke with tradition. Carney, a Canadian leader with longstanding ties to the country’s beloved national sport, joined Stubb – an avid hockey enthusiast – for the casual game, showcasing the shared cultural love of hockey that unites both Nordic and North American nations.

    The visit marks Carney’s first formal one-on-one bilateral engagement with a European head of state since taking office, making the informal athletic interlude more than just a recreational activity. Analysts view the moment as a deliberate, approachable gesture to strengthen people-to-people ties between Canada and Finland, two nations that already cooperate closely on Arctic security, climate action, and trade. By meeting on the ice rather than just in a cabinet room, the leaders signaled a willingness to build a more personal, open working relationship ahead of formal policy negotiations scheduled during the visit.

    Local spectators at the Ottawa rink called the event a welcome break from typical stuffy political events, with many fans capturing photos of the two leaders skating alongside amateur teammates. The game itself remained low-stakes, focused on fun rather than competition, but the symbolic weight of the moment resonated far beyond the rink’s boards: it demonstrated how shared cultural passions can serve as a foundation for deeper diplomatic cooperation in an increasingly divided global political landscape.

  • Chinese slimmers trade lost fat for beef

    Chinese slimmers trade lost fat for beef

    As obesity emerges as one of China’s fastest-growing public health crises, local governments across the country have rolled out a creative, incentive-driven strategy to encourage residents to lose weight: trading lost body mass for free groceries, from premium beef to fresh produce. One of the most high-profile of these programs, launched in the eastern Chinese city of Wuxi, has already drawn massive public interest since kicking off in March.

    At Wuxi’s local community center, hundreds of participants like 44-year-old Shu Fangqiang, a man with a BMI of 30 that qualifies him as obese, have already signed up. The program’s rules are simple: for every 500 grams a participant loses by the final weigh-in scheduled for January 2027, they earn 500 grams of boneless beef, or 1.5 kilograms of bone-in beef. Those who exceed weight loss targets can even earn premium cuts such as oxtail, with a maximum total reward capped at 10 kilograms of free meat. Organizers reported that more than 1,000 eligible local residents have registered, with thousands more turned away due to local residence requirements. When an AFP correspondent visited the site, queues for initial measurements stretched to a dozen people in both men’s and women’s lines, with staff logging height, weight, BMI and waist measurements, offering encouraging notes, and on-site doctors providing personalized health guidance. Event banners also emphasize safe, sustainable weight loss over rapid results, warning against dangerous practices such as unregulated diet drugs, self-induced vomiting and extreme fasting.

    For many participants, the program offers a welcome extra push to stick to long-planned health goals. “Even without the beef, I wanted to lose weight for my health,” Shu said, noting that his excess weight has disrupted his sleep, hurt his productivity at work and impacted his overall quality of life. He aims to lose 20 kilograms through the program. Forty-four-year-old participant Zheng Haihua added that the incentive helps hold her accountable to her goal of moving more and cutting back on overeating, admitting that “when you see delicious food, it’s hard to resist.”

    Wuxi’s “Trade Fat for Beef” initiative is far from unique. Similar community-led programs have popped up across China and gone viral on Chinese social media. In southwestern Yunnan province, a “Flab for Potatoes” program rewards participants for shrinking their waistlines, with top performers eligible for free chicken instead of potatoes. National supermarket chain Yonghui Superstores has launched its own version, allowing customers to trade 1.5 kilograms of weight lost over 10 days for 500 grams of beef, crayfish or kiwifruit.

    Public health data underscores the urgency of China’s obesity challenge. The World Health Organization estimates that as of 2022, more than one-third of Chinese adults are overweight, and 8.3 percent meet the WHO’s definition of obesity. While those rates are far lower than the United States’ 72.4 percent overweight and 42 percent obesity rates, China’s obesity crisis has grown at an alarming pace: the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports the national obese population tripled between 2004 and 2008. By 2021, a study published in *The Lancet* found China had 402 million overweight or obese adults over 25 — the largest obese population of any country worldwide. The 2021 study attributed the trend to China’s rapid urbanization, which has pushed more workers into sedentary office jobs, shifted national diets toward processed, high-sugar and high-fat foods, and reduced average daily physical activity. If current growth rates continue, China’s National Health Commission (NHC) projects that 70.5 percent of Chinese adults could be overweight or obese by 2030, using the commission’s stricter national obesity criteria.

    National public health officials have already launched nationwide anti-obesity campaigns, driven by concerns over rising rates of chronic obesity-linked diseases and growing healthcare costs. Local community programs like Wuxi’s are widely seen as a complementary effort to boost public engagement. Local physician Wu Changyan called the incentive model “a fun way to get people motivated” to adopt healthier habits, noting that modern life’s conveniences and chronic workplace stress have made it easier than ever for people to gain excess weight. Still, some public health experts urge tempered expectations. Li Sheyu, a clinical professor at Sichuan University’s West China Hospital, noted that these programs are fundamentally a traditional incentive-based approach to weight loss, not a transformative solution for the national obesity crisis. “I would not consider it a gamechanger in the big picture,” he said. “But it is a good example of disseminating weight-loss ideas to the public.”

  • Ceasefire not included: Lebanon begins historic ‘exploratory’ talks with Israel

    Ceasefire not included: Lebanon begins historic ‘exploratory’ talks with Israel

    In a groundbreaking step that marks the first formal direct diplomatic engagement between Israel and Lebanon in over 30 years, the second Trump administration hosted top diplomatic representatives from both nations at a Washington meeting on Tuesday. But despite the historic opening of dialogue, the summit was hobbled by glaring limitations from its outset: a formal ceasefire to end weeks of deadly Israeli strikes on Lebanese soil was excluded from the official agenda, and the influential group Hezbollah, a core point of contention for both sides, had no seat at the negotiating table, leaving Lebanese delegates with drastically limited negotiating power.

    U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio framed the talks to reporters after the opening session, pushing back on questions about the absence of ceasefire discussions. “This is a lot more than just about that,” Rubio said. “This is about bringing a permanent end to 20 or 30 years of Hezbollah’s influence in this part of the world – not just the damage that it’s inflicted on Israel, but the damage that it’s inflicted on the Lebanese people.” The U.S. first formally designated Hezbollah as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997; despite this designation, the group, founded in 1982 to oppose Israeli occupation of Lebanese territory, remains the most powerful military actor in Lebanon and holds elected seats in the country’s parliament.

    Rubio acknowledged that the decades-long complexities of the conflict could not be untangled in a single session, but said the meeting laid critical groundwork for future progress. “All of the complexities of this matter are not going to be resolved in the next six hours. But we can begin to move forward to create the framework where something can happen – something very positive, something very permanent,” he remarked. In the end, the closed-door talks wrapped up after just two hours, far shorter than the projected timeline Rubio referenced earlier.

    The delegation roster reflected the low-key, exploratory nature of the summit: Lebanon sent its Washington ambassador Nada Hamadeh Moawad, while Israel was represented by its own U.S. ambassador Yechiel Leiter. Senior U.S. officials including U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz, and State Department Counsellor Michael Needham, Rubio’s top aide, also joined the talks.

    In post-meeting comments to reporters, Leiter struck an optimistic tone, framing the gathering as a unifying step for both nations. “We discovered today that we’re on the same side of the equation,” he said. “That’s the most positive thing we could have come away with. We are both united in liberating Lebanon from an occupation power dominated by Iran called Hezbollah.”

    A later official statement from State Department Deputy Spokesperson Tommy Pigott offered a more measured framing of the day’s outcomes. Washington reaffirmed its longstanding position that Israel holds the right to defend itself, while Israel reiterated its demand for the complete disarmament of all non-state armed groups and the dismantling of all militant infrastructure across Lebanon. For its part, Lebanon’s delegation called on all parties to uphold the November 2024 ceasefire agreement brokered by the prior Biden administration – a deal that Israel has violated thousands of times, according to Lebanese accounts. The 2024 framework already lists Hezbollah’s disarmament as a core future step in the process.

    Hezbollah has repeatedly rejected any disarmament talks as long as Israel maintains what it calls a direct threat to Lebanese sovereignty, amid growing rhetoric from Israeli officials about expanding Israel’s northern border into Lebanese territory. Over the past six weeks alone, Israeli military operations in Lebanon have killed more than 2,000 Lebanese people, according to on-the-ground reports. The Lebanese national army, which the 2024 agreement tasks with disarming Hezbollah, lacks the advanced training and military equipment required to confront the Iran-backed group, which has decades of built-up military capacity.

    Even before the talks kicked off, Hezbollah’s leadership pushed for the summit to be scrapped entirely. “We reject negotiations with the usurping Israeli entity,” Hezbollah Secretary General Naim Qassem said in a statement on Monday. “These negotiations are futile and require a full Lebanese agreement and national consensus that does not exist right now.”

    In his official statement, Pigott outlined the U.S.’s broader strategic goals for the process: Washington aims to go beyond the parameters of the 2024 Biden-era ceasefire deal, and insists that any final hostilities agreement must be negotiated directly between the Lebanese and Israeli governments, with U.S. mediation, ruling out any separate negotiation tracks involving non-state actors. Notably, the word “ceasefire” did not appear anywhere in the U.S.’s official policy statement – it was only referenced by Lebanon’s ambassador, who called for an immediate end to fighting and urgent measures to address the severe humanitarian crisis unfolding across southern Lebanon. Analysts note that the U.S.’s refusal to endorse the term implies that Washington will continue to allow Israel to conduct military strikes in Lebanon it classifies as self-defense, even if informal hostilities pause.

    To incentivize continued negotiations, the U.S. held out the promise of major post-conflict support: Pigott said future negotiations “have the potential to unlock significant reconstruction assistance and economic recovery for Lebanon and expand investment opportunities for both countries.” He confirmed that all three sides reached agreement to launch a broader formal direct negotiation process at a time and location to be mutually agreed by all parties.

    Outside experts who spoke to Middle East Eye expressed widespread skepticism about the talks’ ability to shift the current trajectory of violence. Jeffrey Feltman, former U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon and a current fellow at the Brookings Institution, noted that neither side was willing to reject the U.S.-led process publicly, even as core demands remain irreconcilable. “Neither side wanted to be seen by the Americans as refusing to talk, even if the conditions felt wholly unrealistic,” Feltman explained. “One side can’t do what the Israelis want. The other side will refuse to do what the Lebanese want. The Israelis are not going to stop hitting Lebanon right now, whether these talks go on or not, and I don’t believe that President Trump will restrain Netanyahu in Lebanon any more than President Biden restrained Netanyahu in Gaza.”

    For Lebanon, participation in the talks carries a specific symbolic purpose: it allows the Lebanese government to assert its sovereign authority over the country’s foreign policy, even though it cannot represent the large segment of the Lebanese population that supports Hezbollah, particularly in southern Lebanon. Iran, which holds major influence over Hezbollah, is currently pushing to fold the Lebanese conflict into broader regional ceasefire talks with the U.S. and Israel, but the Lebanese government has pushed back against being framed as a mere proxy for Iranian interests.

    Steven Simon, a former National Security Council official in the Clinton administration and current fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, described Lebanon’s position as fraught. “They’re the meat in the sandwich, really, and they’re not captains of their own fate,” Simon said. He added that Iran is willing to prioritize its broader regional strategic goals over Hezbollah’s position if necessary: “Iran has a strong interest in folding the Lebanese conflict into the broader conflict… and if it’s necessary for Iran to shove Hezbollah under the bus, I think they’ll do that. It would just be a strategic necessity.”

    Simon also pointed out a fundamental contradiction in the U.S. and Israeli framework: continued Israeli military operations on Lebanese soil are actively eroding the legitimacy and credibility of the Lebanese government that both countries insist must disarm Hezbollah. “As long as Israeli combat operations are taking place on Lebanese soil, particularly given their intensity, the Israelis are weakening the credibility or the legitimacy of the Lebanese government on which they’re depending to disarm Hezbollah,” Simon said. “It’s counterproductive. It’s self-jamming.”

    Feltman added that while the talks broke a decades-long political taboo in Lebanon against direct official engagement with Israel, Lebanon’s top civilian leaders remain unable to enforce any deal that contradicts Hezbollah’s position. “When Hezbollah refuses to go along with that, there’s not much that [Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and President Joseph Aoun] have been able to do to force Hezbollah to comply,” he noted.

  • Atletico resist Barca comeback to reach Champions League semis

    Atletico resist Barca comeback to reach Champions League semis

    A dramatic all-Spanish Champions League quarter-final clash ended in heartbreak for Barcelona and jubilation for Atletico Madrid, as Diego Simeone’s side held on to seal a 3-2 aggregate victory and secure their place in the competition’s final four, despite a 2-1 second-leg defeat on Tuesday night at the Metropolitano.

    Barcelona came out of the gate firing from the opening whistle, nearly taking the lead inside the first minute when teenage star Lamine Yamal’s sharp effort was tipped around the post by Atletico goalkeeper Juan Musso. The Catalan side did not have to wait long for their opening goal, however: in the fourth minute, Yamal pressured Atletico defender Clement Lenglet into a costly turnover, collected a return pass from Ferran Torres, and slid a low shot between Musso’s legs to silence the capacity home crowd and ignite Barca’s comeback bid, built on a 2-0 first-leg deficit.

    Barca continued to dominate the opening exchanges, with Dani Olmo coming close to doubling their lead before his lobbed effort was gathered by Musso. The second goal finally arrived in the 24th minute, when Torres outpaced Lenglet to meet Olmo’s through ball and fired a clinical finish into the top corner, drawing the tie level on aggregate. Fermin Lopez nearly put Barca ahead on aggregate soon after, but Musso clawed away his header — an intervention that left Lopez bloodied after Musso’s boot caught him in the face.

    Against the run of play, Atletico clawed their way back into the tie in the 31st minute when Barcelona switched off defensively for the first time. Marcos Llorente broke behind Barca’s high defensive line down the right flank and delivered a pinpoint cross for Ademola Lookman, who converted the finish to restore Atletico’s aggregate lead. Lookman, who had troubled Barca defender Jules Kounde all night, would see his strike prove the decisive goal of the tie.

    The second half brought even more tension and controversy. Barcelona thought they had extended their lead on the night early on when Torres volleyed home, but the goal was ruled out for offside, leaving the Catalan side frustrated. With 20 minutes remaining to find the goal that would force extra time, Barca manager Hansi Flick — who had previously benched star forwards Marcus Rashford and Robert Lewandowski in favor of high-energy pressing from Torres and Gavi — brought on the two veteran attackers to turn the tide.

    Tempers boiled over as the clock wound down: Atletico’s Matteo Ruggieri was left bleeding from the face after Gavi caught him with an elbow, and tensions reached a breaking point when Barcelona defender Eric Garcia was sent off for clipping the heels of Alexander Sorloth as the striker bore down on goal. The red card mirrored the first leg’s dismissal of Pau Cubarsi, leaving 10-man Barca with an uphill battle to salvage the tie. Flick pushed center-back Ronald Araujo into the forward line in a last-ditch attempt to find the needed goal, but Atletico held firm through eight minutes of stoppage time to confirm their progression.

    This run marks Atletico’s first appearance in the Champions League semi-finals since 2017, and the club will next face either Arsenal or Sporting Lisbon for a spot in the final. The capital side has never lifted the Champions League trophy, having fallen in the 2014 and 2016 finals under Simeone’s leadership. Following the final whistle, Atletico captain Koke expressed his side’s pride at knocking out one of Europe’s elite clubs.

    “Very happy, knocking out a great Barca side. We had a great game away… it was really hard for us at the start of this one, but the team knew how to get back on its feet,” Koke told Movistar.

    For Barcelona, the defeat extends their 10-year wait for a sixth Champions League crown, having last won the competition in 2015. Despite the exit, midfielder Frenkie de Jong said the club is still progressing in the right direction under new leadership. “I think we had a very good game, we gave our lives out there, we tried everything,” the Dutch midfielder said. “I feel like luck was not on our side. We have to continue — we’re on a good path, we’re growing every year.”

  • Slot in the firing line as Liverpool blown away by PSG

    Slot in the firing line as Liverpool blown away by PSG

    For the second straight season, Paris Saint-Germain sent Liverpool packing from the Champions League on their home soil — but this year’s exit was far more devastating, ending the Merseyside club’s hopes of any trophy this campaign and casting major uncertainty over the future of manager Arne Slot.

    Ousmane Dembele scored both goals in PSG’s 2-0 second-leg win at Anfield on Tuesday, wrapping up a lopsided 4-0 aggregate victory that exposed a yawning gap in quality between the two sides. The French champions did not even need to hit their full stride to eliminate the Reds, a stark contrast to 12 months prior, when Liverpool fell to the eventual tournament winners only on penalties, leaving with their heads held high.

    Slot’s tenure got off to a promising start, with Liverpool claiming the Premier League title in his debut season last year. Buoyed by that success, the club’s ownership launched a historic £450 million ($605 million) summer transfer splurge, aiming to build on the foundation Jurgen Klopp left after his trophy-laden tenure and push for both domestic and European glory. Liverpool broke its own transfer record twice, landing Alexander Isak for an English-record £125 million from Newcastle United and Florian Wirtz for another nine-figure fee, while adding Hugo Ekitike, Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez to create a new-look squad. It was the biggest single-window spend by any club in history.

    But the campaign was overshadowed by tragedy before it even began: fan favorite Diogo Jota died in a car accident while returning to Merseyside for pre-season training. While the emotional impact of losing a beloved teammate can never be measured, it has hung over the club all season, and on-pitch results have descended into chaos.

    The disappointing campaign has already triggered a raft of high-profile exits. Mohamed Salah, who signed a two-year contract extension just 12 months ago, has cut his time at Anfield short a year early. Tensions between Salah and Slot boiled over in December when the Egyptian winger launched an angry outburst after being dropped from the starting lineup, and he was left on the bench for both legs of the PSG tie. Long-serving full-back Andy Robertson has also confirmed he will leave at the end of the season, meaning only Virgil van Dijk, Alisson Becker and Joe Gomez remain from the Liverpool squad that lifted the Champions League trophy in 2019.

    Key departures of key first-team stars Trent Alexander-Arnold and Luis Diaz left a major hole in the squad, and the rebuild’s thin depth has been stretched even further by a devastating string of injuries. When Slot fielded all five summer signings in the starting XI for the first time against PSG, the experiment lasted less than 30 minutes before Ekitike went down with a suspected ruptured Achilles, an injury that will almost certainly rule him out for the rest of this season and well into the next.

    “It is part of our season,” Slot told reporters after the defeat. “We had Alex, Hugo and Florian together for only 88 minutes before tonight. We added 28 minutes and I would be surprised if we can add a few more minutes to that (this season).”

    Isak, the club’s record signing, made his first start back after a broken leg that kept him sidelined since December. Frimpong’s first season at Anfield has been ruined by recurring muscle injuries, forcing another half-time substitution against PSG. While Wirtz has avoided major injury problems, he has failed to replicate the form that made him the star of Bayer Leverkusen’s Bundesliga title-winning side two seasons ago.

    Liverpool currently sits fifth in the Premier League table, with only one remaining goal for the season: securing a top-five finish to qualify for next season’s Champions League. Holding a four-point lead over sixth-placed Chelsea, the Reds are still favorites to claim that spot — but it remains unclear whether Slot will be the one leading them into it.

    Speculation over Slot’s future has been growing for weeks, with Liverpool fans chanting for former Reds midfielder Xabi Alonso during the club’s 4-0 FA Cup defeat to Manchester City earlier this month. Alonso, who left his role as Real Madrid head coach in January, is widely tipped as the leading candidate to replace Slot if the club’s hierarchy decide to sack the Dutchman just 12 months after he won the Premier League.

  • Peru candidate calls for vote annulment as count tightens

    Peru candidate calls for vote annulment as count tightens

    As vote counting continues for Peru’s contentious first-round presidential election, right-wing ultraconservative candidate Rafael Lopez Aliaga has escalated tensions by formally calling for the entire electoral process to be annulled, basing his demand on unproven allegations of systemic voter fraud.

    Lopez Aliaga, a Christian nationalist and former mayor of Lima who has openly modeled his political brand on former U.S. President Donald Trump, is locked in a razor-thin three-way race for second place in Sunday’s contest. The top two vote-getters will advance to a June runoff election against current frontrunner Keiko Fujimori, daughter of Peru’s controversial former president Alberto Fujimori.

    The first round of voting was marred by widespread logistical failures across the capital city of Lima, where delayed delivery of ballots and other critical electoral materials left tens of thousands of eligible voters unable to cast their ballots on election day. Multiple polling stations were forced to reopen on Monday to accommodate disenfranchised voters, creating widespread disruption and opening the door for unfounded fraud claims to gain traction.

    As of Wednesday, with 80 percent of all ballots counted, Fujimori holds a clear lead with approximately 17 percent of the vote. Lopez Aliaga trails in second place with 12.5 percent, with just 0.9 percentage points separating him from third-place social democratic candidate Jorge Nieto, who holds 11.6 percent. Leftist former minister Roberto Sanchez sits just behind Nieto at 10.7 percent, meaning the final outcome of the race for second place remains too close to call.

    Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Lopez Aliaga repeated his baseless fraud allegations and called on Peru’s national electoral commission to invalidate the entire first-round process. “I ask [the electoral commission] to act, declare this entire process null and void, or figure out how to resolve this,” he said. In response to questions from Agence France-Presse, Lopez Aliaga confirmed he was seeking full annulment of the vote to select Peru’s ninth president in just 10 years, and urged his supporters to participate in public protests. “Don’t let them steal our future,” he wrote in a post on his official Facebook page.

    Nicknamed “Porky” for his admitted resemblance to the rotund cartoon character Porky Pig, Lopez Aliaga campaigned on a hardline, nationalist platform focused on cracking down on rising violent crime and irregular migration. Among his most controversial policy pledges was a proposal to build maximum-security penal colonies in the Amazon rainforest, surrounded by what he called a “natural fence” of venomous vipers.

    Peru has faced chronic political instability over the past decade, with four presidents impeached or removed from office, and this election fielded a record 35 candidates for the nation’s highest office. The entire campaign season was dominated by voter anger over surging extortion and contract killings, as well as widespread public disillusionment with a political establishment broadly viewed as corrupt and ineffective. No candidate is on track to win the 50 percent of the vote required for an outright first-round victory, confirming that a runoff will be held in June as planned.

    Independent election observers, including a delegation from the European Union, have publicly confirmed that while the first round was plagued by significant logistical dysfunction, there is no concrete evidence to support Lopez Aliaga’s fraud claims. “Her team found no evidence of fraud,” said Annalisa Corrado, head of the European Union’s election observer mission.

    Political analyst Eduardo Dargent, a political scientist based in Peru, told AFP that the widespread logistical failures of the first round handed ammunition to candidates like Lopez Aliaga who are willing to undermine democratic legitimacy to advance their political goals. “The logistics mess has given arguments…to several people who will cry fraud or worse if they are not happy with the result,” Dargent explained.

    The chaos has already eroded public trust in Peru’s democratic process among many voters. “We don’t know if the results are true,” Yeraldine Garrido, a 35-year-old Lima receptionist, told AFP. Luis Gomez, a 60-year-old self-employed Lima resident, called the mishap “a major democratic failure.”

    In response to the logistical collapse, Peruvian police have already detained one local election official and executed a raid on the private contractor blamed for the late delivery of electoral materials.

  • China and US can together shape global consumer trends, says business leader

    China and US can together shape global consumer trends, says business leader

    Against the backdrop of ongoing shifts in global trade and cross-border commercial relations, a leading U.S. business leader has articulated a forward-looking vision for collaborative growth between the world’s two largest economic powers, arguing that China and the United States hold unique combined influence to shape the future of global consumer markets. Speaking in an exclusive interview with China Daily on the sidelines of the ongoing China International Consumer Products Expo in Hainan, Sean Stein, president of the US-China Business Council, emphasized that the two countries’ dual status as the world’s largest economies and largest consumer markets gives them unparalleled sway over global industry trends, research and development (R&D) trajectories, and cross-border supply chains. That combined market power, Stein noted, opens up vast untapped potential for collaboration across consumer sectors spanning from premium cosmetics to cutting-edge life sciences — a potential that is on full public display at this year’s Hainan expo. “The US and China together play an incredibly big role in determining trends and what products roll out globally. What’s really interesting is seeing US and Chinese companies collaborate and take things global,” Stein said. He pointed to the successful expansion of Chinese lifestyle brand Pop Mart in San Francisco as a tangible example of this collaborative future in action, noting that the brand’s global success grew directly out of strategic international partnerships with established industry players. “I was incredibly happy to see Chinese brands doing well globally. Their success comes from international partnerships with established brands,” he said. “As the world’s two largest consumer markets, we should have the world’s largest consumer brands working together.” Stein also pushed back firmly against persistent speculation that U.S. firms are accelerating a full exit from the Chinese market, stressing that ongoing investment flows and long-term strategic commitments tell a far different story. “American companies are continuing to invest. American companies aren’t going anywhere,” he said. He added that the core value proposition China offers to international businesses has shifted dramatically over the past three decades: where 25 years ago firms entered the market primarily to access low-wage labor, today they are drawn to China’s growing pool of highly skilled workers and its unmatched ability to scale new products and technologies quickly for global markets. “Twenty-five years ago, no one came to China to do R&D. Now, what I’m seeing is that the best companies are coming and doing some of their most important R&D in China,” he said. Several exhibitors at this year’s expo illustrate that evolution firsthand. Beauty giant Estee Lauder now designs fully customized products specifically for Chinese consumers, a process that extends far beyond simple packaging changes to core product formulation and in-market R&D. Tapestry Inc., the parent company of luxury brands Coach and Kate Spade, has established a dedicated full-fledged R&D center in Dongguan, Guangdong province, where teams design new products locally for distribution to global consumers. This fundamental shift in how global firms engage with China has led Stein to redefine the country’s role in the global economy. “It’s not the China market anymore — it’s the China platform,” he said. “That platform includes consumers, the business-to-business market, partnerships with Chinese firms, R&D, supply chain, and supply chain resilience. All of those are part of it, and that’s only becoming more important.” To unlock the full potential of this collaborative platform, Stein argued that policymakers on both sides need to approach national security concerns in a deliberate, measured way to support more resilient and healthy bilateral trade relations. “We should rationalize security concerns and make it the right size, not over-blow it,” he said. His comments align with recent official statements from Chinese trade authorities: He Yadong, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of Commerce, noted last week at a Beijing press conference that China remains committed to maintaining open communication with the U.S. through existing economic and trade consultation mechanisms to address issues of mutual concern. Despite ongoing macroeconomic and geopolitical headwinds in bilateral relations, Stein said that progressive policy opening initiatives such as the Hainan expo have made China a more profitable and lower-risk destination for foreign direct investment, noting that new policy adjustments from Chinese regulators are continuously removing barriers to market entry. He offered a recent concrete example from Hainan: before new policy changes, a major U.S. firm that specializes in refurbishing pre-owned goods sourced from Southeast Asia and Japan was unable to operate this business model within China. Following the launch of Hainan’s island-wide special customs supervision regime in December 2025, the company has begun establishing a regional refurbishment and re-export base in the province. “That’s a big, encouraging change,” Stein said. The positive impact of Hainan’s policy opening is already visible across a range of foreign firms operating in the province. U.S. electric vehicle maker Tesla has reported a sharp surge in customer activity across its Hainan retail locations. A Tesla spokesperson told China Daily that Hainan’s unique ecological advantages and open policy environment make it “an ideal base for promoting green mobility worldwide”. Driven by new favorable customs policies and local government support incentives, Haikou-based Tesla stores have recorded a 20% month-on-month increase in in-store customer foot traffic, the spokesperson added. Joanne Crevoiserat, CEO of Tapestry Inc., echoed Stein’s optimistic outlook on the Chinese market, noting that Chinese consumers have set a high bar for global brands. “The Chinese consumer is very discerning. They expect high quality and innovation, and that’s why I love being part of this market,” she said. Delivering on those expectations by developing innovative, high-quality products locally for Chinese consumers doesn’t just benefit the company’s domestic performance, Crevoiserat explained — it also strengthens its competitive standing across global markets. Looking ahead, she added, Tapestry sees significant room for further expansion across China, extending beyond established core markets in first- and second-tier cities to fast-growing smaller urban centers across the country.