Global Pulse

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  • Could Tupac verdict inspire new efforts to also find killer of his rap rival?

    Could Tupac verdict inspire new efforts to also find killer of his rap rival?

    After three decades of unresolved speculation surrounding one of hip-hop’s most shocking tragedies, a Las Vegas court has finally handed down a guilty verdict in the murder trial of iconic rapper Tupac Shakur, closing a chapter that has haunted global music culture for generations. The defendant, Duane “Keffe D” Davis, was convicted of orchestrating the 1996 drive-by shooting that killed the West Coast rap legend, a outcome that drew raw emotional reactions from Shakur’s family inside the courtroom and reignited calls to solve the parallel unsolved killing of East Coast rap star The Notorious B.I.G.

    For legal experts, the conviction marks a historic end to one of America’s highest-profile cold cases. “We’re talking about the greatest rapper of all time, an icon, and not a single arrest or prosecution for 30 years,” former prosecutor Neama Rahmani told the BBC, describing the case as an uphill battle that few believed prosecutors could win. “This is huge. It was a tough case. It’s a cold case. It gives closure to 30 years of mystery, the end of an era.”

    Inside the courtroom, the moment the guilty verdict was read brought immediate tears and embraces from Shakur’s loved ones, with one family member even hugging the lead prosecutor on the case. For his part, Davis has already announced he plans to appeal the ruling, while legal observers and hip-hop fans alike have turned their attention to the long-dead case of Christopher Wallace, better known by his stage names Biggie Smalls and The Notorious B.I.G., Shakur’s iconic East Coast rival who was killed in a nearly identical drive-by shooting in Los Angeles just six months after Shakur’s death.

    What makes the Davis conviction particularly notable is that the entire case rested almost entirely on Davis’ own repeated public admissions of his role in the killing. Over decades, Davis openly discussed his involvement in multiple media documentaries, a published memoir, podcast interviews, and even a secret police interrogation. He claimed that on the night of September 7, 1996, he placed a firearm in the backseat of a vehicle, and his nephew Orlando Anderson fired the fatal shots at Shakur as their car pulled alongside Shakur’s near the Las Vegas Strip. Anderson, who always denied killing Shakur, was shot and killed in a separate gang confrontation in 1998.

    Notably, prosecutors presented no physical evidence to corroborate Davis’ admissions: there were no eyewitnesses who could place Davis in the vehicle during the shooting, no murder weapon was ever recovered, and no video or photographic evidence placed Davis at the scene that night. Davis’ defense team argued aggressively that his repeated confessions were nothing more than fabricated tall tales designed to sell books and boost his public profile, telling the jury that there was no concrete proof of his guilt. Trial attorney Shaun Kent summed up the prosecution’s position ahead of the verdict, noting that “the strongest witness against him – is him.” The case only moved forward because Davis repeatedly chose to discuss his role publicly, with Kent explaining “the case really evolved with each interview and moment that Davis decided to open his mouth and talk about the case more.”

    Rahmani argued that Davis’ repeated willingness to confess on the record makes him one of the most unassuming criminals in recent history. “He would have never have faced charges if he had stayed silent,” Rahmani said. “He really couldn’t stop himself. Even when he was arrested and in custody, he was giving interviews.”

    The trial also pulled the jury back into the context of 1990s hip-hop culture, when a brutal high-profile feud between East Coast and West Coast rap scenes dominated the genre, and deep-seated gang influence and a street code of silence kept witnesses from cooperating with police. Even after being fatally wounded, Shakur refused to name his attackers to responding officers, telling an ambulance crew that he would handle the situation on his own. That same code of silence allowed Biggie’s killing to remain unsolved for 29 years.

    Davis has long been tied to Biggie’s killing as well: he was acquainted with the rapper and was present at the same Los Angeles party the night Biggie was killed, and the investigator who interviewed Davis after Biggie’s death even testified during the Tupac trial. The Los Angeles Police Department has confirmed that Biggie’s murder remains an active, open investigation, and legal experts are hopeful that the Tupac conviction will encourage investigators to re-examine the 29-year-old cold case.

    “It’s really a stain on the LAPD. The fact that this could happen and not a single arrest was made and no one was prosecuted,” Rahmani said of Biggie’s unsolved death, which occurred on a public street in the middle of America’s second most populous city. “Prosecutors don’t like to lose and tend to be a little gun shy, but maybe this [Tupac’s conviction] will embolden folks in Los Angeles to maybe take another look at it, a cold case that’s coming up on 30 years.”

    In a statement to the BBC, LAPD Lieutenant Elpidio Orozco confirmed the department remains committed to solving the case, saying “The murder of Christopher Wallace remains an open, unsolved case within LAPD’s Robbery-Homicide Division,” and urging any member of the public with new information to contact authorities.

    For fans and family of Tupac Shakur, however, the verdict brings a long-awaited end to three decades of uncertainty, closing one of the most infamous chapters in modern music history.

  • UK leader Burnham faces lawmakers for first time since taking office

    UK leader Burnham faces lawmakers for first time since taking office

    Six weeks after stepping into the role of United Kingdom Prime Minister, Andy Burnham will finally face questioning from fellow lawmakers in the House of Commons on Tuesday, taking the floor at a moment when dual active conflicts in Europe and the Middle East hang heavily over his core campaign pledges to reboot Britain’s stagnant economy and ease the crippling cost of living crisis.

    Burnham assumed office on July 20, following Keir Starmer’s two-year tenure marked by widespread public pessimism. Since taking power, he has toured the UK to tout a vision of renewed national optimism, rolling out a slate of targeted, modest cost-cutting policies designed to give households and struggling businesses much-needed “breathing space.” These measures include a tax reduction on residential energy bills and lower business levies for pubs and nightclubs, two sectors hit particularly hard by post-pandemic economic volatility and rising energy costs.

    Until Tuesday, however, neither opposition parties nor dissenting voices within Burnham’s own Labour Party have had the opportunity to challenge the prime minister on the details of his commitments, which are being pursued against a fraught backdrop of mounting global security threats and persistent domestic economic strain, amplified by ongoing conflict linked to Iran.

    Parliament returns this week from its summer recess, and Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch — who reshuffled her top opposition team on Monday to appoint new spokespeople for the economy and foreign affairs — will get her first formal chance to grill Burnham on his policy agenda.

    A former Greater Manchester mayor who spent nearly a decade outside of parliamentary politics before winning a House of Commons seat in June, Burnham is set to deliver a flagship statement outlining his vision for a more interventionist yet less centralized British state. According to Downing Street, the prime minister will lay out “a clear plan for how we turn things round” for the UK, highlighting his proposal for greater public oversight of water, energy, and transportation sectors. Burnham argues this increased public involvement will drive long-term economic growth and reduce household financial pressure, though observers remain uncertain how far he intends to reverse decades of privatization in these core economic pillars.

    Opposition lawmakers are prepared with a long list of contentious questions, starting with Burnham’s plan to open a second prime ministerial office dubbed “No. 10 North” in Manchester. Burnham frames the project as a key step to devolve more power to regional leaders and rebalance economic growth away from London and the Southeast, but critics have dismissed it as a costly political gimmick that will do little to address regional inequality.

    Domestic challenges extend far beyond the devolution debate. Burnham is also facing mounting political pressure over the crisis of overcrowding in British prisons, after he was forced to roll back plans to release some low-risk offenders early. The reversal came after widespread public outcry, including a high-profile appeal from the widow of a police officer killed in a hit-and-run who demanded her husband’s killer remain behind bars.

    On the foreign policy front, Burnham has already moved to cement Britain’s longstanding support for Ukraine, making his first international trip as prime minister to Kyiv last month to reaffirm the UK’s commitment to the country’s defense against Russian invasion. Like other Western European allies, the UK faces growing pressure to ramp up military spending to address ongoing aggression from Russia and align with shifting global security priorities, compounded by changes to U.S. foreign policy under the Trump administration.

    In the coming weeks, Burnham’s government will be required to detail exactly how it plans to fund its pledge to meet NATO’s target of spending 3.5% of gross domestic product on defense by 2035, a commitment that will require difficult trade-offs with domestic spending priorities. The prime minister also faces a deeply contentious looming decision on whether to approve new oil and gas extraction projects in the North Sea. The policy is publicly backed by U.S. President Donald Trump but faces fierce opposition from climate activists and clean energy advocates who warn expanding fossil fuel production will undermine the UK’s net-zero climate commitments.

  • The election campaign to replace Macron in France is heating up as the summer vacation season ends

    The election campaign to replace Macron in France is heating up as the summer vacation season ends

    PARIS – As France’s annual summer holiday period draws to a close, the 2027 race to succeed Emmanuel Macron as President of France has officially entered its active campaign phase. Macron, constrained by France’s constitutional term limits, cannot run for a third consecutive mandate – a rule that has sparked a flood of candidacies from across the political spectrum, producing one of the largest and most diverse candidate fields in modern French electoral history.

    France holds unique weight across the European Union: it is the bloc’s largest member state by territory, its second-largest national economy, and the only EU member with nuclear weapons capabilities, making this upcoming leadership vote one of the most consequential global elections of 2027. While not all declared and potential candidates will secure the required sponsorship signatures from elected officials to make it onto the April 18 first-round ballot, the historically crowded field already carries significant electoral risks for mainstream parties, analysts warn.

    A crowded fragmented field mirrors the 2002 presidential election, when a record 16 candidates split the first-round vote, allowing far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen – father of current candidate Marine Le Pen – to qualify for the second round, triggering a nationwide political earthquake. That same dynamic could work to Marine Le Pen’s advantage this cycle, experts say.

    Socialist Party chief Olivier Faure became the latest major figure to announce his candidacy over the weekend, joining more than two dozen other politicians who have either formally declared their intent to run or are actively exploring a presidential bid.

    For Marine Le Pen, this 2027 campaign marks her fourth attempt at the presidency, following failed runs in 2017 and 2022, and political analysts and pollsters agree this is her strongest shot at capturing the Elysee Palace for her nationalist, anti-immigration National Rally party. A Le Pen victory would send shockwaves across the European Union, placing one of the bloc’s core member states in the hands of a politician who has spent decades opposing EU integration and many of the bloc’s core collective policies.

    “It’s clearly a crucial election, just because the far right might win this one and it never was the case before,” explained Gilles Ivaldi, a populism and radical right politics researcher at Paris’ prestigious Sciences Po university. “With Le Pen as president, we know that the EU will be weakened. To what extent we don’t know, but we know she’s against the EU. This would create a lot of instability.”

    Polling conducted over the past several months has consistently placed Le Pen as the first-round front-runner, with a high likelihood that she will advance to the May 2 runoff as the top vote-getter – a first for her political career. In both 2017 and 2022, she trailed Macron in the first round before losing decisively in the head-to-head second round.

    Unlike her father, whose 2002 second-round qualification was seen as a massive upset and who was widely rejected by most voters over his ties to WWII Nazi collaborators and repeated hate speech convictions including Holocaust denial, most political observers now see a failure for Marine Le Pen to advance to the runoff as the real upset. Over the past decade, she has worked systematically to distance the National Rally from her father’s extremist rhetoric, and that rebranding has already paid major electoral dividends: since 2024, the National Rally has held the largest number of seats in the powerful lower chamber of the French parliament. She received another critical boost in July, when a Paris appeals court cleared her path to run by reducing a ban on holding public office linked to a prior embezzlement conviction.

    While Le Pen is broadly expected to secure one of the two spots in the decisive runoff, the race for the second spot remains wide open and highly unpredictable. Her most prominent competitors include veteran far-left anti-capitalist leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who is aiming to reach his first runoff after placing third in 2022 and fourth in both 2017 and 2012, as well as two centrist former prime ministers from Macron’s administration, Edouard Philippe and Gabriel Attal. Other leading potential candidates include conservative former Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, mainstream left European Parliament member Raphaël Glucksmann, and Ecologists party leader Marine Tondelier, who is campaigning ahead of the upcoming birth of her second child.

    Seven of the leading non-Le Pen candidates participated in an unofficial campaign kickoff debate last week at Paris’ iconic Roland Garros tennis arena, where they discussed policy proposals to address France’s persistent economic struggles and exchanged critical barbs aimed at Le Pen, who responded with criticism of her own.

    Polls currently indicate that if Le Pen and Mélenchon – the two candidates representing the far right and far left extremes – face off in the runoff, Le Pen would be likely to win. That scenario has led to speculation that some mainstream candidates may eventually drop out of the race to consolidate support behind a single mainstream alternative. “What we don’t know is who’s going to be against her” in a possible second-round matchup, Ivaldi noted. “The more the fragmentation, the more the chances that Mélenchon will be that person.”

    This 2027 campaign is unfolding against an unusually volatile global and domestic backdrop unmatched by any French presidential race this century. The ongoing Iran conflict has driven up energy costs, adding further pressure to France’s already stagnant economy, while the war in Ukraine has left French policymakers concerned that Russia could target a NATO ally next, raising the risk of broader European conflict. A potential second Donald Trump U.S. presidency has also eroded French confidence in the stability of the trans-Atlantic alliance, while China’s growing manufacturing and export power and the rapid global AI revolution have stoked fears that France could fall behind economically and technologically.

    Domestically, France’s growing and increasingly costly public debt has shrunk the fiscal room for maneuver that Macron’s successor will inherit, and widespread public anger over Macron’s policy decisions during his two terms led to repeated mass street protests. Ultimately, the election will turn on whether French voters choose to upend the established order by backing two extreme candidates in the runoff, or rally around a mainstream candidate as a safer alternative. “It will be quite interesting to see which of these two forces will win in the end,” Ivaldi said. “These are two different forces, two antagonistic forces that are playing against one another.”

  • China warns of ‘consequences’ for Taiwan after Taipei envoys attend Pacific leaders summit

    China warns of ‘consequences’ for Taiwan after Taipei envoys attend Pacific leaders summit

    KOROR, Palau — The 52nd annual gathering of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), an 18-member bloc of small island nations and territories spanning the Pacific basin, opened this week in Palau’s capital Koror, where long-simmering geopolitical competition between Beijing and Taipei has overshadowed the region’s core policy priorities and sparked a sharp diplomatic standoff. Neither China, the United States, nor Taiwan hold formal membership in the bloc, but great power competition for influence over the region’s strategically vital shipping lanes, resource-rich exclusive economic zones, and key geographic positions has repeatedly turned the annual PIF summit into a proxy stage for global geopolitical rivalry – a dynamic summit host Palau has publicly pushed back against. This year’s meeting was primed for friction from the outset: Palau, a western Pacific nation located east of the Philippines that maintains formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan alongside just 10 other UN member states and the Vatican, invited both Chinese and Taiwanese envoys to participate in pre-summit ceremonial events, a move that drew immediate condemnation from Beijing. Multiple regional leaders skipped the 2024 summit, and while some absences were tied to domestic political obligations or pre-planned health issues, independent analysts have speculated that at least some no-shows were the result of diplomatic pressure from Beijing aimed at isolating Taiwan. The core dispute unfolded around the seating arrangement for the summit’s opening ceremony, where Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. placed official delegations from both China and Taiwan in the same front row, separated into distinct seating blocks, after hosting separate welcome events for Taiwanese Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung, the island’s lead representative to the summit. Following the opening ceremony, Qian Bo, China’s top Pacific envoy, told reporters that allowing Taiwanese officials to participate in the summit activities was “very inappropriate.” When pressed on whether Beijing would impose retaliatory measures over Taiwan’s attendance, Qian confirmed that “there would always be consequences” – a statement he later sought to soften, denying it constituted an explicit threat and declining to share further details on what actions Beijing might pursue. Beijing has a longstanding policy of blocking Taiwan’s participation in multilateral international gatherings through coordinated diplomatic pressure, a stance reinforced this week by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun, who argued that Taiwan holds no legitimate status as either a dialogue or development partner of the PIF, and thus had no right to take part in the summit’s proceedings. Lin, speaking to reporters Tuesday, rejected Beijing’s claims that his delegation’s presence was illegitimate, pushing back against what he framed as Chinese overreach in the region. “If we go to a party, we always follow the directions of the host,” Lin said. “However, whenever China goes to a party, it makes itself as if it’s the host and China ruins the whole atmosphere of the party.” He also accused Beijing of sowing division among Pacific island nations to distract from its own expanding influence in the region. Ahead of the opening of formal talks, President Whipps used his keynote address to push back against outside interference in the bloc’s work, urging major non-member powers to let PIF members set their own regional agenda. “Our partners are welcome to sail with us but they do not choose our destination,” Whipps said. “The Pacific agenda must be driven by us and for us.” Over the past decade, major powers have accelerated their efforts to court Pacific island leaders, intensifying a geopolitical contest for influence that pits China against the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and other partners. What began as a low-key annual gathering of regional leaders has grown into a high-stakes international event attracting more than 2,000 attendees this year, as powers seek to lock in new security partnerships, access to natural resources, and strategic port access across the region. Non-member nations attend as official partners: China holds formal dialogue partner status, while Taiwan is registered as a development partner. Taiwan’s participation in PIF summits has long been a flashpoint for tensions: last year’s summit in the Solomon Islands was upended when Beijing’s pressure resulted in Taiwan-aligned partner nations being barred from attending the gathering. The standoff over Taiwan’s attendance this year has exposed deep divisions not just between outside powers, but also among PIF member states themselves. For every summit, regional leaders prioritize a domestic policy agenda focused on issues they frame as existential to their nations: accelerating climate change impacts that threaten to submerge low-lying island states, ongoing economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, and skyrocketing fuel import costs that have strained budgets for nations heavily reliant on tourism and foreign aid. But as competing major powers offer billions in infrastructure funding, security agreements, and visa access in exchange for diplomatic alignment, the bloc’s ability to present a unified regional front has been repeatedly undermined. Just months ago, PIF foreign ministers failed to reach consensus on a public statement criticizing Beijing’s July ballistic missile test launch into the South Pacific Ocean. While a majority of member states strongly condemned the test, the refusal of two member nations to endorse the draft statement prevented it from being released at all. While some analysts see the absence of multiple national leaders at this year’s summit as further evidence of that fragmentation, officials in attendance have downplayed those concerns, noting that senior delegations representing absent leaders will still allow for full, productive negotiations on the region’s priority issues.

  • Transfer deadline day for Europe’s top soccer leagues with Balogun expected to be among the movers

    Transfer deadline day for Europe’s top soccer leagues with Balogun expected to be among the movers

    Tuesday marks the final day of the summer transfer window for Europe’s top five soccer leagues, and the 24 hours have shaped up to be one of the most frantic deadlines in recent memory, with a string of high-profile deals expected to cross the line before clocks run out. Among the most anticipated outgoing moves is American striker Folarin Balogun, who is on the cusp of a transfer from Ligue 1 side AS Monaco to Premier League club Everton, multiple industry reports confirm.

    Across the Premier League, defending champion Manchester City continues its aggressive spending spree, closing in on a £60 million ($81 million) deal to sign Everton winger Iliman Ndiaye. The agreement for Ndiaye is expected to put an end to City’s widely reported pursuit of Liverpool attacker Cody Gakpo. City has also been linked with a blockbuster move for Chelsea midfield star Enzo Fernandez throughout the entire window, but time is rapidly running out for the Etihad Stadium side to get a deal over the line before the window closes. In outgoing business from City, winger Jack Grealish is set to return to Everton on a season-long loan deal, sources confirm.

    So far, the summer 2025 transfer window for the Premier League is on track to break all previous spending records, with total outlay across league clubs already hitting £2.82 billion ($3.8 billion). The current all-time record for a single Premier League transfer window stands at £3.14 billion ($4.25 billion) set back in 2023, a mark that is expected to be surpassed before Tuesday’s closure. The Premier League window will officially close at 22:00 GMT, while rival top leagues across the continent have earlier cutoff times: Germany, France and Italy all close at 18:00 GMT, with Spain’s window shutting one minute before 22:00 GMT at 21:59 GMT.

    One of the first high-profile deals completed on deadline day sees Aston Villa add 19-year-old winger Ibrahim Mbaye from Paris Saint-Germain, a transfer that continues PSG’s massive summer sell-off that has now brought in a combined $460 million in transfer revenue for the French giants. Mbaye joins a reshaped Villa attacking line that has already added Nicolas Jackson and Alejandro Garnacho this window. Unai Emery’s side, which qualified for the Champions League last season, has endured a rocky start to the new domestic campaign, dropping all three points in its opening two league matches.

    In La Liga, one of the biggest deadline-day moves sees Brazil striker Gabriel Jesus complete a three-year transfer from Arsenal to FC Barcelona. Jesus struggled with repeated injury issues during his tenure at the Emirates Stadium, but still contributed to Arsenal’s 2024-25 Premier League title triumph. Jesus is the latest forward to exit Arsenal this window: Leandro Trossard already completed a move to Turkish side Besiktas, while first-team winger Gabriel Martinelli and young star Ethan Nwaneri are both expected to finalize exits before the Premier League window closes.

    Across Serie A, Newcastle United forward Nick Woltemade is reported to be finalizing a season-long loan move to Juventus, just 12 months after he moved to the Premier League from the German domestic league.

    In the Bundesliga, the biggest deadline-day signing to date sees 20-year-old Spanish center forward Marc Guiu move from Chelsea to RB Leipzig on a permanent five-year contract, for a total fee that could rise to 17 million euros ($19.7 million). Guiu was part of Chelsea’s 2024 Conference League and Club World Cup-winning squad, but never managed to secure a regular first-team spot at the London club, failing to score a single Premier League goal during his tenure.

  • Hopes high, expectations low for Germany as it prepares to host Women’s Basketball World Cup

    Hopes high, expectations low for Germany as it prepares to host Women’s Basketball World Cup

    BERLIN – A series of pre-tournament setbacks, including multiple key player injuries and three consecutive warm-up losses, have failed to dampen the competitive spirit and medal ambitions of the host German national team ahead of the 20th FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup, kicking off this week in the German capital.

    This year marks only the second time Germany has qualified for the quadrennial global tournament, 28 years after the country last hosted the event in 1998. On that historic first appearance, Germany advanced to the second group stage, and this year’s squad has set its sights on exceeding that achievement by claiming a podium finish. That goal, however, comes with significant hurdles: the team will be missing its biggest star, Satou Sabally of the WNBA’s New York Liberty, who continues to recover from a concussion – her second brain injury of 2026, sustained during a June match against the Las Vegas Aces.

    Injury struggles extend beyond the elder Sabally. Her younger sister Nyara Sabally, who plays for the Toronto Tempo, has yet to return to action from a calf injury, while another key WNBA-based German player, Leonie Fiebich of New York Liberty, only recently resumed training following a prolonged foot injury recovery. Team captain Marie Gülich also just made her return to the court from a serious knee injury, stepping back into play during Germany’s 65-60 warm-up loss to Spain.

    Germany’s preparations for the expanded 16-team tournament have been far from ideal, with the squad dropping three straight warm-up matches to Spain, Hungary, and most recently a narrow 63-62 defeat to Turkey in Cologne last Thursday. Despite the disappointing run of results, German guard Luisa Geiselsöder emphasized that warm-up results do not define the team’s tournament outlook. “Of course, we were hoping for a win but it was just a friendly,” she noted.

    A major factor in the team’s underwhelming warm-up form is the absence of three WNBA-based players – Satou Sabally, Fiebich, and Portland Fire’s Frieda Bühner – who missed the exhibition matches due to club commitments. Head coach Olaf Lange says their arrival will transform the squad’s dynamic. “We learned a lot today,” Lange said after the Turkey defeat. “But with the three (WNBA players yet to arrive) we’re a completely different team.”

    Lange also added that recent MRI results give him confidence Nyara Sabally will be fit enough to feature in the tournament. When the event gets underway, Germany will rely heavily on veteran combo guard Alexis Peterson to anchor the team’s offensive playmaking as key contributors work their way back to full match fitness.

    Germany opens its 2026 World Cup campaign on Friday with a rematch against familiar rival Spain at the 14,000-capacity Berlin Arena, the main tournament venue renamed temporarily for the competition to avoid confusion over the venue’s frequently changing commercial sponsor naming rights. A second group stage match will follow on Saturday against Japan at Berlin’s historic Max-Schmeling-Halle, a 9,000-seat multipurpose venue named after legendary 1932 German heavyweight boxing champion Max Schmeling, which will also host additional tournament matches. Germany closes out Group A play against Mali on September 7, a match most analysts project as a winnable contest for the host side.

    Ahead of the opening tip, Germany faces an uphill battle against Spain: the two sides have met seven times in competitive play, and Germany has never come away with a win. Their most recent matchup came during the EuroBasket group stage in Hamburg last year, where Spain claimed a comfortable 79-60 victory. For this tournament, only the bottom-placed team from each of the four groups will be eliminated from competition. Group winners earn an automatic spot in the quarterfinals, while second and third-placed teams advance to knockout playoffs to claim the remaining quarterfinal slots.

    Despite the on-court challenges facing the host team, organizers are celebrating unprecedented public interest in the tournament. Officials confirmed earlier this week that more than 200,000 tickets have already been sold – a new record for the Women’s Basketball World Cup, surpassing totals from every previous edition. The September 13 final is already completely sold out.

    German Basketball Federation president Ingo Weiss hailed the milestone as a sign of growing global popularity for women’s basketball. “We’re witnessing an extraordinary evolution of our sport, and this World Cup in Berlin will mark another major milestone,” Weiss said. “200,000 tickets is a fantastic sign, and we’re far from finished yet.”

  • ‘No hollow or empty space’: A drone operator reveals challenges in Nepal’s tunnel rescue efforts

    ‘No hollow or empty space’: A drone operator reveals challenges in Nepal’s tunnel rescue efforts

    Just two days before a catastrophic glacial outburst triggered deadly flash floods across the Himalayan border region shared by Nepal and China, local Nepali filmmaker and professional drone pilot Manish Maharjan crossed back into Nepal via the Rasuwagadhi border checkpoint – the same crossing closest to the disaster’s origin. What he did not anticipate on his return home was that his specialized piloting skills would quickly become a critical asset for rescue operations along a route he has traveled extensively for work over the years.

    When catastrophic flash floods struck on August 26, authorities across both countries immediately mobilized dozens of search-and-rescue and relief teams. One day after the disaster unfolded, Maharjan volunteered his expertise to embed with the Nepal Army’s rescue mission. The disaster has already claimed more than 1,000 lives across Nepal and southern Tibet, leaving thousands more unaccounted for.

    Maharjan’s primary role has been operating thermal-equipped drones to support ground teams, with a core focus on locating nearly 900 missing workers from 12 regional hydropower projects that were completely buried under massive mudslides and debris. Of these missing workers, an estimated 500 are thought to have been trapped inside hydropower plant tunnels when the flood hit.

    The drone pilot explained that unmanned aerial systems have proven remarkably effective for pinpointing survivors stranded on isolated hillsides and in hard-to-reach locations such as mountain caves. Beyond thermal imaging to detect body heat, Maharjan’s team adapted creative tactics to draw out trapped people. “We mounted microphone speakers to our drones to call out to anyone who might be stuck. In some areas, we even played music and waited for a response,” he shared. “That tactic actually worked in a handful of cases, and helped us locate survivors who could not be seen from the air.”

    While drones have successfully helped extract stranded people from open terrain, searching the collapsed hydropower tunnels has presented an entirely unprecedented set of challenges, Maharjan noted. When teams have scanned tunnel entrances, they found the structures completely packed solid with mud, dense as toothpaste squeezed into a tube, with no hollow or empty space left inside for survivors to take shelter.

    The disaster originated high in the Himalayas, when scientists analyzing post-event satellite imagery confirmed that a section of bedrock beneath a glacial formation collapsed, pulling a portion of the overlying glacier down with it. The scale of the rockfall was so massive that it registered as a magnitude 5.2 seismic event on global monitoring systems. The cascading rock and melted glacial water surged down into the river valleys below, creating a destructive wall of water that swept through communities and infrastructure across both Tibet and Nepal.

    The torrent destroyed critical regional infrastructure, including the under-construction and operating hydropower projects, highways, residential buildings, and bridges. According to Mohan Kumar Dangi, president of Nepal’s Independent Power Producers’ Association, some workers inside the tunnels managed to place emergency calls for help when the flood hit, and workers who successfully escaped confirmed their colleagues remained trapped inside. To date, there has been no confirmed contact with the trapped workers since those initial distress calls.

    As the clock ticks past the critical 72-hour window for rescue, search teams face rapidly dwindling odds of finding additional survivors. Survival experts emphasize that access to clean water and breathable air are non-negotiable for people trapped in disaster settings, and chances of survival drop sharply once the 72-hour mark passes without rescue.

    At the Rasuwagadhi hydropower project, Maharjan successfully maneuvered his drone all the way to the end of the tunnel’s main corridor, scanning every inch for signs of life. No signs of survival were detected. “We checked the space repeatedly, but the entire tunnel was just filled with mud and debris,” he said. “Just looking at the extent of the blockage, you can only imagine the incredible force of the flood that did this.”

    Tunnel search operations remain incredibly difficult beyond the full blockage at many sites, Maharjan added. The layout of most hydropower tunnels limits the ability of drones to operate effectively. “I can only safely and effectively fly drones in long, straight tunnel sections,” he explained. “Once there are bends, turns, or zigzags in the layout, controlling the drone and conducting a thorough search becomes exponentially harder.”

  • Robert Moreno hired as interim head coach as South Korea aims for calm after a turbulent summer

    Robert Moreno hired as interim head coach as South Korea aims for calm after a turbulent summer

    After a season of unprecedented turmoil that shook the foundations of South Korean men’s football this summer, the Korea Football Association (KFA) has formally named former Spain national team head coach Robert Moreno as the program’s new interim leader. Announced in a press statement Tuesday, Moreno’s initial contract covers six scheduled friendly and qualifying matches set for the September and November 2024 international match windows, with KFA officials confirming the deal could be extended to lead the squad through the 2027 Asian Cup, which kicks off in January next year.

    Hyun Young-min, who leads the KFA’s National Teams Committee, highlighted the key reasons behind the governing body’s selection, noting that Moreno stood out from other candidates thanks to his deep, nuanced grasp of Korean football and his knack for designing flexible, diverse tactical approaches tailored to the squad’s strengths. “We hope he and his new supporting staff will help lift our national team’s performance and put us back on a positive trajectory,” Hyun added.

    Moreno brings a wealth of top-tier coaching experience to the role. He took the helm of the Spanish men’s national team for a stint in 2019, and has since held senior head coaching positions at prominent European clubs including Ligue 1 side AS Monaco, La Liga outfit Granada, and most recently Russian Premier League club Sochi, where his contract concluded in August 2023.

    The top job for South Korea’s men’s national team has sat vacant since late June, when former manager Hong Myung-bo stepped down in the wake of the team’s unexpected group-stage elimination from 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifying. Widespread public anger over Hong’s 2024 appointment boiled over this summer, forcing not only Hong’s exit but also the resignation of long-time KFA president Chung Mong-gyu. Both figures were later called to testify under questioning during a parliamentary hearing held in July, capping a period of intense public and political scrutiny of the country’s football governing body.

    One of Moreno’s core mandates, KFA officials confirmed, is to reset the culture and mood of the national team as it works to rebuild following a brutal stretch of off-field and on-field disappointment. Moreno will make his debut on the South Korean sideline on September 24, when the team hosts Ecuador in a friendly match in Suwon, a major city just south of the capital Seoul.

  • Zambia’s president to be sworn in for second term while opponent detained

    Zambia’s president to be sworn in for second term while opponent detained

    Zambia is preparing to inaugurate President Hakainde Hichilema for his second five-year term on Tuesday, a ceremony that comes against a backdrop of contested election results, treason charges against the main opposition candidate, and mixed assessments of the country’s nascent economic recovery.

    According to official electoral commission results, Hichilema secured a decisive victory in the August 13 poll, capturing 60% of the national vote. His main challenger, Brian Mundubile of the opposition, finished second with 38% of ballots cast, but has rejected the outcome, claiming widespread tampering with the results. Mundubile was ultimately blocked from launching a formal legal challenge to the election, after court buildings were sealed off on the final deadline for filing petitions.

    International observer missions have echoed some of the opposition’s concerns over procedural irregularities. While most observers acknowledged that voting proceeded largely without violent disruption on polling day, multiple teams flagged significant flaws in the national vote tallying process. A European Union observer mission noted that staff at numerous tallying centers failed to document results on official paper sheets immediately after they were announced, creating a gap between public announcements and formal records. The mission also reported widespread weak cross-verification between digital result entries and physical paper records, and found that local returning officers often paused counting operations for extended periods while waiting for guidance from electoral headquarters.

    Tensions escalated sharply in the days after the poll. The day after voting concluded, Zambian security forces raided a Lusaka property linked to Mundubile. The operation left a former cabinet minister dead and resulted in the arrest of multiple opposition figures. State authorities claimed the raid was necessary to foil a planned armed insurrection by the opposition, a charge opposition leaders have firmly denied. After days in hiding, Mundubile and his running mate Makebi Zulu were taken into police custody last week and formally charged with treason over the weekend.

    For Hichilema, the inauguration marks the start of a new term built on the economic stabilization work he prioritized during his first term, which began in 2021. When the 64-year-old former businessman first took office following a 2021 landslide win, Zambia was grappling with a recent default on its international sovereign debt and annual inflation that surpassed 24%. In pre-election comments to the BBC, Hichilema emphasized the depth of the crisis his administration inherited, describing the country as broken and the economy as steadily declining.

    Over his first term, Hichilema’s government successfully negotiated a major restructuring of Zambia’s outstanding debt and repaired frayed relations with international creditors. Inflation has also been pulled down from the extreme highs recorded in 2021, though persistent price growth continues to place heavy cost-of-living pressure on ordinary Zambians, many of whom still struggle to afford basic goods and services. Ahead of his inauguration, Hichilema has signaled he will focus on expanding on the economic foundations laid during his first five years in office.

    The inauguration ceremony is scheduled to take place at Lusaka’s National Heroes Stadium, with a number of regional heads of state in attendance. Confirmed guests include the presidents of Kenya, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Tanzania, among other African leaders. Hichilema will be sworn in alongside his vice presidential running mate, Mutale Nalumango, who will also begin her second term in office.

  • It’s taken me a long time to process Olympic experience – Raygun

    It’s taken me a long time to process Olympic experience – Raygun

    In the summer of 2024, breaking made its long-awaited debut as an official medal sport at the Paris Olympic Games, and one unexpected Australian competitor became the center of a global firestorm that extended far beyond the dance floor. 38-year-old Rachael Gunn, known professionally to the breaking community as Raygun, is far from a typical elite Olympic athlete: by trade, she is a university lecturer, who only stepped into full-time athletic training months before the Games.

    Gunn’s Olympic journey was fraught with personal struggle long before she stepped onto the Paris competition stage. Just hours before she marched alongside the Australian delegation in the Paris opening ceremony, the weight of her unexpected opportunity crashed down on her as she walked through the Olympic village, surrounded by some of the most experienced competitive athletes in the world. In an upcoming Netflix documentary chronicling her Games experience, Gunn recalled the overwhelming moment that left her questioning her place at the event.

    “I felt like an imposter,” Gunn shared in the film. After spotting a familiar Australian team member, she was unable to control her panic. “I just could not stop crying… I had a panic attack. ‘What am I doing? What have I done? Should I be doing this?’” Within hours, she had pulled herself together to sail down the River Seine in the opening ceremony parade, waving to crowds of spectators lining the riverbanks.

    Less than two weeks later, Gunn’s competitive run at the Paris Games came to an end. She failed to secure a win in any of her three round-robin battles, but the athlete said she left the competition proud of how she showed up. When she finished her final routine, reigning world champion Dominika “Nicka” Banevic publicly praised her movement, the event emcee celebrated her performance, and the overall atmosphere in the arena was overwhelmingly positive, she told BBC Sport.

    What Gunn could never have anticipated was that her signature routine, which featured playful, unconventional moves including a sprinkler and a kangaroo hop that paid homage to her Australian identity, would spread like wildfire across global social media. The clip of her performance spawned thousands of memes, earned a parody spot on *The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon*, was referenced by global pop star Adele during one of her concerts, and drew a public show of support from Hollywood star Chris Hemsworth during an interview on *Jimmy Kimmel Live!*. Even Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stepped forward to publicly praise Gunn for taking the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and giving it her all.

    “It was pretty wild the way I became a topic of conversation in spaces I never thought I would be,” Gunn said of the sudden global attention.

    Beneath the lighthearted viral attention, however, a darker wave of harassment and misinformation began to spread online. Baseless conspiracy theories emerged claiming nepotism had secured Gunn her Olympic spot, falsely alleging that her husband and personal trainer Samuel Free had sat on the national selection committee that approved her spot on the Australian team – a claim that was entirely untrue. “It was really tough when mine and Sammy’s credibility, ethics and motivations were being called into question,” Gunn said. “You could just spend 30 seconds researching and find plenty of sources to debunk these conspiracies, but that’s not how people use the internet anymore.”

    The unrelenting scrutiny and online trolling took a severe toll on Gunn’s mental health. “I felt like my whole life was just kind of crumbling before me… and I was just trying to get through the day,” she says in the documentary. But working with filmmakers to chronicle her experience has helped her regain control of her story after months of being defined by online criticism. “It’s taken a long time for me to process what happened,” Gunn told BBC Sport. “It’s really exciting for me to finally have a voice again.”

    Gunn’s path to Paris began after breaking was confirmed for the 2024 Games, when she secured her spot on the Australian team by winning qualification at the 2023 Oceania Breaking Championships in Sydney. “I’ve never participated in anything of such high stakes before. It was all international judges, but I was relieved and excited when I qualified. And then the next whirlwind happened,” she recalled.

    After qualification, Gunn quickly made the decision to adapt her life to meet the demands of Olympic competition, something she had never done before. In February 2024, she earned a scholarship from the New South Wales Institute of Sport, which allowed her to begin a structured strength and conditioning program. “That was great, but also overwhelming because I was training with people who had been doing that stuff since they were kids,” she noted.

    The documentary also uncovers additional personal struggles Gunn navigated during her pre-Games training: her mother suffered three separate brain aneurisms while she was preparing for competition, and Gunn began taking anti-depressants to manage chronic anxiety. As she competed in pre-Olympic qualifying events, she began to fully grasp the scale of the challenge she had taken on, competing against athletes who had trained at the highest level for decades. Even so, she committed to stepping onto the Olympic floor and giving her best performance.

    With that context, Gunn made a deliberate creative decision to lean into her unique strengths rather than trying to match her competitors’ elite athleticism. She designed a routine that leaned into creativity – one of the official judging criteria for Olympic breaking – that leaned into playful, distinctly Australian flair. “I was aware that I was never going to beat my competitors on athleticism,” she explained. “For me, my strength is creativity. With that being one of the [judging] criteria, our thinking was, ‘why don’t we put all our eggs in that basket and really try and wow them? Maybe we can make a moment.’ We never, ever expected the impact it might have.”

    The documentary also reveals that limited support was available to Gunn during her training: Lowe Napalan, head of the Australian Breaking Association, only worked with Gunn a handful of times before the Games, as he was overwhelmed by administrative duties for the new Olympic program. That meant Napalan saw Gunn’s viral routine for the first time when she stood side-stage waiting to compete in Paris. “I had to not have a face of shock,” Napalan admitted in the film.

    In late 2024, multiple reports claimed that the controversy surrounding her Olympic performance had pushed Gunn to quit breaking entirely. She is quick to correct that false narrative. “I don’t know where that came from,” Gunn said. “I wouldn’t let what happened take dancing away from me. I love breaking, I’ll always break, I’ll always be a part of the community.”

    Now, Gunn hopes her upcoming documentary will help reframe the conversation around her Olympic experience, allowing her to move forward after a year of turmoil. “It feels nice to lay it all out there and now be able to look to the future. I’m actually excited about what’s to come, which is the first time for a while,” she said. For anyone struggling with the mental health impacts of online harassment, support resources are available via the BBC Action Line.