Global Pulse

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  • ‘I don’t encourage what’s going on’: Shane Flanagan vows to fight on as pressure mounts on the winless Dragons

    ‘I don’t encourage what’s going on’: Shane Flanagan vows to fight on as pressure mounts on the winless Dragons

    The 2025 NRL season has started in nightmare fashion for the St George Illawarra Dragons, who head into Friday’s clash against Manly Sea Eagles still searching for their first victory. With a winless 0-5 record and growing calls for head coach Shane Flanagan to step down, the veteran mentor has remained unshaken, doubling down on his commitment to turning the club’s fortunes around.

    Last week’s humiliating 0-nil defeat to the North Queensland Cowboys left fans furious, with the home crowd booing the team off the pitch after a dismal attacking performance. That loss amplified the already intense pressure on Flanagan, who has been the target of constant scrutiny from fans and media alike over the past fortnight, coming just two weeks after Manly Sea Eagles terminated the contract of head coach Anthony Seibold. If Flanagan can lead his side to an upset win over Manly on home turf in Wollongong, it would immediately ease the heat on the embattled coach.

    Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Flanagan struck a defiant but pragmatic tone, saying he will not be distracted by speculation over his future. “I’ve never been through this experience, but I’ve just got to battle on. All I can do is my best, and that’s what I’m doing at the moment. I turn up to work every day, prepare the team the best we can and look after the staff as best I can. That’s all I can do,” he said.

    Flanagan emphasized that his priority remains the long-term stability of the Dragons organization, rather than his own job security. “I’m not worried about my future. I’ve got more important things to worry about at this stage of my career. I’ve got to worry about the club, and I value the stability, the team and the whole organisation, rather than self. If I do my job and we get through it, then that’s great. If we don’t, I can walk away and say I did my best.”

    The 2016 premiership-winning coach acknowledged that pressure is inherent to coaching in the NRL, but added that the intensity of recent criticism has been difficult to endure. “It’s the NRL. If you don’t win, it’s going to come. I can’t believe the way that we attack each other in this great game of ours. I love the game, I love the people I’ve met through it and I love the players that I’ve coached. I understand it (the pressure), but I don’t enjoy it and I don’t encourage what’s going on. I wouldn’t wish what’s going on with me over the last few weeks on anyone,” he said.

    For the pivotal Manly clash, Flanagan has made key positional adjustments to address the team’s ongoing attacking woes. Star captain Clint Gutherson will miss the game with a hamstring injury, while playmaker Kyle Flanagan – Shane Flanagan’s son – is set to return to the starting side after a scary head knock ruled him out of last week’s game. Flanagan rejected claims of nepotism around his son’s selection, saying the young halfback has earned his spot through consistent performance.

    “He’s our best halfback in the club and he competes hard. You can ask all our other coaches who have got some qualifications behind them, Mick Ennis and Dean Young and Willie Talau. I don’t go pick Kyle because of his surname. He’s got to do a job and he is within our top three or four players – competitive wise – week in, week out. He’s our best halfback in the club at the moment, so we pick him,” Flanagan said.

    Key recruit Daniel Atkinson, who struggled with a poor kicking performance against the Cowboys while filling in at halfback, has been shifted from halfback to five-eighth. Flanagan explained the change is designed to play to both players’ strengths: Kyle Flanagan will take charge of on-field organization, while Atkinson can focus on his strength: running the ball and generating attacking momentum.

    “As time’s gone on, we just feel that Kyle’s strength is to organise the team and get them around the park. Daniel’s probably felt a bit of pressure, especially last week with Kyle not there, to do both. His strength is his running game and his kicking (even though) he kicked a couple dead last week, but that was probably under pressure being on his own. It’ll take the pressure off Daniel and we’ll go back to Kyle’s strength about getting the team around the park. So I think it’s just a change in number, but it’s also a change in mindset,” Flanagan said.

    The Dragons have already been rocked this season by the sudden departures of star players Ben Hunt and Zac Lomax, departures that have disrupted the team’s structure and left gaps in the starting lineup. Flanagan noted that young development players have stepped up in their absence and shown promise for the future, but a win Friday is critical to turning around the club’s devastating start to the 2025 campaign.

  • Watch: BBC asks Artemis II crew a question in space

    Watch: BBC asks Artemis II crew a question in space

    In a groundbreaking moment connecting space exploration and terrestrial journalism, the four-member crew of NASA’s Artemis II mission has fielded a question from the British Broadcasting Corporation while positioned inside their deep-space capsule, marking a rare interaction between a major media outlet and astronauts ahead of their mission’s conclusion.

  • Trump’s Iran war widens rift with European nationalists once viewed as MAGA allies

    Trump’s Iran war widens rift with European nationalists once viewed as MAGA allies

    BUDAPEST, Hungary – When Donald Trump reclaimed the U.S. presidency one year ago, a core pillar of his international agenda was clear: reinvigorate the close ideological bonds his first administration had built with right-wing and nationalist movements across Europe, laying the groundwork for a new populist global order. Today, that project lies in tatters, as a growing wave of revulsion against Trump’s war with Iran has split the transatlantic right, once seen as a unified rising political force.

    The high-profile visit of U.S. Vice President JD Vance this week, where Vance stumped directly for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán ahead of this weekend’s hotly contested general election, is increasingly an outlier, not the norm, for European conservative and far-right leaders. Just months ago, most of these figures counted Trump as a key ideological ally. Now, many are openly breaking with the U.S. administration over its Middle East policy.

    Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, one of Europe’s most prominent nationalist leaders, rejected Washington’s request to use a Sicilian U.S. air base for strikes against Iran. Marine Le Pen, head of France’s major far-right National Rally party, has slammed Trump’s war aims as deeply erratic. Even Alternative for Germany, the country’s largest opposition far-right party, has gone a step further: its leader is now calling for all U.S. military forces to withdraw from German soil entirely.

    While a fragile ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran is currently holding, Orbán’s longstanding alliance with the Trump administration faces its biggest test yet ahead of this weekend’s vote. For more than a decade, the Hungarian leader has been the ideological standard-bearer for global right-wing populism, a model that many American conservatives have openly cited as a blueprint for restricting immigration, restructuring state institutions, and locking in long-term partisan control for his ruling Fidesz party.

    Charles Kupchan, a professor of international relations at Georgetown University and senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, notes that while Orbán’s longstanding ties to Trump may buffer him from the anti-Trump backlash roiling other European far-right factions, that protection is far from guaranteed. “Getting a blessing from Donald Trump is now a mixed blessing,” Kupchan explained.

    This break between Trump and European nationalists follows an earlier rift triggered by Trump’s controversial demand earlier this year that Denmark cede control of Greenland to the U.S., a move that sparked widespread outrage across the European political spectrum, including among right-wing factions. Trump doubled down on his criticism of the transatlantic alliance earlier this week, writing on social media that “NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN,” going on to label Greenland “THAT BIG, POORLY RUN, PIECE OF ICE!!!”

    Daniel Baer, a former U.S. ambassador and Obama administration State Department official now with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said the ongoing friction between Trump and European far-right groups lays bare the fundamental limitations of his goal to build a global bloc of nationalist leaders. “Building some sort of international coalition around national chauvinism is very difficult,” Baer noted. “It’s clear the majority of people in these countries, if not anti-American, have turned anti-Trump.”

    To date, Orbán has refused to join the wave of criticism against Trump, sticking to the careful neutrality he has maintained throughout the conflict. In a recent interview with British conservative outlet GB News, Orbán argued that the question of whether Trump launched a war or pursued peace remains unresolved. “It hasn’t been decided yet, historians will make a decision on that,” he said. “I think we need some time to understand whether we are moving to the peace by these strikes, or just the opposite. It’s too early to say.”

    Orbán’s reluctance to criticize Trump extends far beyond shared ideology: for years, he has framed his close personal and political ties to Trump, as well as other global strongmen like Russian President Vladimir Putin, as a unique asset that lets him defend Hungarian national interests more effectively than any opposition candidate could. He has repeatedly highlighted Trump’s public praise for his leadership to his conservative base, and built his reelection campaign around the claim that his alliance with the Trump administration guarantees Hungarian security and economic prosperity.

    Still, that strategy carries growing risks as anti-Trump sentiment spreads even among Hungarian voters. Vance’s visit this week, which saw the vice president denounce European Union critics of Orbán as foreign interferers in Hungary’s democratic process, did follow a familiar ideological script: Vance praised a elite Hungarian higher education institution funded by Orbán’s government and led by the prime minister’s political director for “build[ing] up the foundations of Western civilization” — echoing the Trump administration’s own domestic push to reshape the ideological direction of elite U.S. universities.

    But Mario Bikarsku, senior Europe analyst at global risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft, warns that Vance’s high-profile visit could end up hurting rather than helping Orbán’s election chances, as public opinion of the Trump administration has turned increasingly negative even within Hungary. “Vance’s visit could have the opposite effect on Orbán’s popularity than the one intended,” Bikarsku said.

    Kupchan added that most successful European far-right parties have already built solid domestic political foundations independent of American support, giving them little incentive to align with an unpopular U.S. administration on the global stage. “Trump’s effort to create a transnational movement of far-right populists may affect the margins, but the main reason you’re seeing Reform U.K. and AfD and National Rally and other far-right parties prosper has little to do with Trump and more to do with national factors,” he explained.

    That dynamic works against Orbán in particular: across the globe, voters are increasingly leaning toward opposition parties in the wake of widespread economic and political instability. For most European far-right groups, which have spent years out of power, that trend has boosted their poll numbers. For Orbán, who has held uninterrupted power for 16 years, that same wave of anti-incumbent sentiment puts his grip on office in serious jeopardy. “We are living in an age,” Kupchan said, “where being an incumbent sucks.”

  • US resumes processing Afghan visas that will result in denials, says rights group

    US resumes processing Afghan visas that will result in denials, says rights group

    A leading advocacy organization for Afghan evacuees has sounded a sharp alarm over the Trump administration’s recent restart of special immigrant visa (SIV) processing for Afghans who supported the U.S. government, calling the long-awaited resumption a calculated deception preordained to end in widespread, blanket denials.

    #AfghanEvac, the coalition coordinating evacuation and advocacy efforts for at-risk Afghans, made the allegations public in a formal statement released Wednesday. According to group leadership, the Trump administration has begun directing Afghan SIV applicants to coordinate cross-border travel and schedule in-person interviews at U.S. embassies, but it is intentionally withholding a critical piece of information from those applicants: under current administration policies, their applications are almost certainly set to be rejected.

    “This is not speculative rumor — this is confirmed by sworn testimony from a senior State Department official,” said Shawn VanDiver, president of #AfghanEvac.

    The testimony in question comes from Andrew Veprek, the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration, who submitted the statement to a federal court in Washington, D.C. on March 30 as part of ongoing litigation in the case *Afghan and Iraqi Allies v Rubio*, filed late last year. Veprek confirmed in his testimony that SIV processing resumed in February of this year, a step the administration was ordered to take by the court.

    However, #AfghanEvac emphasizes that processing an application is not equivalent to approving entry into the United States. Veprek’s own testimony acknowledges that the Trump-era Afghan travel ban remains fully in force via executive order, and consular officers face no requirement to notify applicants in advance of potential inadmissibility grounds that will lead to denial.

    The timing of the visa processing restart carries added significance amid a separate administration deadline to close Camp As Sayliyah, a U.S. processing facility in Qatar that currently holds more than 1,000 at-risk Afghans stuck in limbo while waiting for U.S. resettlement approval. The Trump administration originally set a March 31 deadline to shut down the camp, and the State Department has been searching for third countries willing to accept the displaced Afghans. Department officials have also blamed the prior Biden administration for what they claim was inadequate vetting of the Afghan evacuees.

    Interviews with multiple Afghans currently held at the Qatar camp contradict that claim, however. Multiple evacuees told Middle East Eye they have already received approved U.S. visas, some through pathways outside the SIV program, and standard protocol requires extensive pre-screening before evacuees are ever flown to the Qatar facility in the first place.

    As of April 8, the camp remains open, contradicting the original March 31 shutdown timeline. The only Afghans who have been allowed to leave the facility so far have accepted U.S. government stipends to return to Afghanistan — a move the State Department previously told Middle East Eye it would not pursue.

    VanDiver explained the tangible harm of the administration’s deceptive policy: “In plain terms: people are being told to show up for a process that the government already expects to end in denial, without being told that upfront. For many, that means spending scarce resources, crossing borders, and taking on real personal risk for an outcome that is effectively predetermined.”

    Veprek’s testimony also outlined new plans to increase monthly visa interview scheduling at the U.S. embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan — where thousands more Afghans are waiting for SIV outcomes — by 25% this month. Even with that increase, however, Veprek acknowledged the U.S. cannot expand processing much further, noting that allocating the majority of interview slots to Afghan applicants rather than Pakistani citizens risks damaging bilateral relations between Washington and Islamabad.

    Data from the U.S. government compiled by #AfghanEvac underscores the staggering scale of the ongoing backlog. As of August 2025, 178,110 Afghan applicants have already received chief of mission approval, the formal qualification step for an SIV. None of these approved applicants have yet completed their required interviews or received their issued visas. #AfghanEvac warns the backlog could take more than a decade to clear at current processing rates, a timeline stretched even longer by widespread staff cuts implemented last year as part of the Trump administration’s DOGE initiative.

  • Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia a new regional power block?

    Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia a new regional power block?

    In a breakthrough diplomatic development announced by Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the United States and Iran have reached agreement on a two-week ceasefire that came into effect in the early hours of April 8. Negotiators from both adversarial nations are scheduled to convene for follow-up peace talks this Friday in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, marking the first formal direct engagement between the two sides in months.

    This ceasefire announcement arrives less than two weeks after Islamabad hosted a high-profile summit bringing together Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Turkey. At that gathering, the four nations issued a unified call for an immediate end to hostilities across the Persian Gulf, and formalized their grouping — now dubbed the Middle East Quartet — as the primary mediating channel between Tehran and Washington. Analysts view this collective effort as the foundation of an emerging regional order aimed at reducing the influence of both Iran and Israel, whose escalating confrontations have plunged the Middle East into chaos since the outbreak of full-scale conflict in late February 2026.

    Long before the current war ignited, both Iran and Israel faced growing regional isolation, a shift that has completely upended decades of Western-led diplomatic strategy in the region. The 2020 Abraham Accords, spearheaded by the United States to normalize relations between Israel and Arab states, have effectively collapsed. The accords’ core strategic goal — securing normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia — is now completely out of reach. While the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed normalization deals under the accords, Saudi Arabia has repeatedly maintained it will never formalize ties with Israel without the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. That prospect was formally ruled out by the Israeli parliament in a 2024 vote, and recent reporting indicates Saudi Arabia is already moving forward with plans to reroute a key fiber-optic cable connecting the kingdom to Europe, replacing Israel with Syria as the transit hub.

    Regional alienation of Israel has deepened across the Muslim world. Turkey suspended all formal diplomatic and economic ties with Israel in 2024 in protest of the Gaza conflict, while relations between Doha and Tel Aviv broke down completely in September 2025 following an Israeli targeted strike on Hamas leaders in the Qatari capital, an attack that drew unanimous condemnation from the United Nations Security Council.

    For its part, Iran finds itself even more isolated than it was at the start of the conflict. Once counting Russia, and to a far lesser degree China and Yemen’s Houthi movement, as its only core allies, Iran has seen its fragile regional partnerships crumble in recent months. China has deliberately distanced itself from Tehran since the outbreak of full-scale hostilities, while the Houthis, who entered the conflict in support of Iran, have been severely weakened by years of targeted Israeli airstrikes. The long-standing close alliance between Iran and Qatar was severed entirely after Iranian missiles struck Qatar’s critical Ras Laffan natural gas facility on March 18. Even Iran’s 2023 detente with Saudi Arabia, a breakthrough agreement brokered by China after years of open hostility, has collapsed completely following Iranian missile attacks on Saudi energy infrastructure earlier this year.

    It is against this backdrop of mutual pariah status for both Iran and Israel that the four-nation quartet of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Turkey has stepped up to fill the diplomatic vacuum, prioritizing regional stability after months of destructive conflict.

    The quartet’s shared strategic and economic interests have aligned to drive their push for a restructured regional order. All four states maintain robust political and economic ties with the United States, and are active members of U.S. President Donald Trump’s 2026-established Board of Peace, an international body tasked with resolving global conflicts and overseeing long-term reconstruction in Gaza. Each member also brings unique, critical assets to the alliance: Pakistan is a recognized nuclear-armed state with advanced defense capabilities; Saudi Arabia controls the world’s second-largest proven crude oil reserves, giving it unmatched global energy influence; Egypt holds strategic control over the Suez Canal, one of the world’s most vital commercial waterways; and Turkey is a longstanding NATO member with a powerful regional military. Combined, the four nations boast a total population of 500 million, making them the most politically and militarily influential bloc of Muslim-majority countries on the global stage.

    While the quartet’s collective influence is undeniable, the alliance is not without historical friction. For decades, the four nations have endured periods of tense relations, requiring deliberate diplomacy to overcome long-standing divides. Egypt and Saudi Arabia’s relationship has long been described as a “difficult marriage”: Egypt’s mid-20th century leadership of pan-Arab secular nationalism was historically viewed as a direct threat to the Saudi monarchy, but since Abdel Fattah el-Sisi took power in Cairo in 2014, the two sides have resolved their core differences. Sisi offered critical political and military support to Saudi Arabia’s 2015 military operation against the Houthis in Yemen, and the pair have since deepened their defense cooperation significantly.

    Turkey, under the long leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has positioned itself as a regional power broker and conflict mediator, but it too has a history of frosty relations with other quartet members. Ankara’s ties with Cairo collapsed after the 2013 military coup that ousted Turkish ally Mohammed Morsi, while relations between Turkey and Saudi Arabia plunged to a historic low following the 2018 assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. A 2021 U.S. intelligence assessment concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the killing, a claim he has consistently denied.

    In recent years, however, the quartet has worked through these historical divides. A formal rapprochement between Turkey and Saudi Arabia was completed in 2022, followed by a normalization of ties between Turkey and Egypt in 2025. Erdoğan toured both Cairo and Riyadh in February 2026, where he proposed multiple cross-regional geoeconomic projects to connect Asian and European markets, including the proposed Middle East Corridor designed to foster economic integration across Asia, the Persian Gulf, and Europe. Even amid recent tensions — where Pakistan has declined to intervene militarily to support Saudi Arabia against Iranian attacks, despite a 2025 strategic mutual defense pact between the two nations — the bloc has maintained its unified diplomatic push.

    As the US-Iran ceasefire holds and follow-up talks approach, the quartet’s ad hoc alliance of convenience has solidified into a transformative force in the Middle East, filling the power vacuum left by the mutual isolation of Iran and Israel and paving the way for a fundamentally restructured regional order.

    This analysis is by Natasha Lindstaedt, Professor in the Department of Government at the University of Essex, republished with permission under Creative Commons license.

  • Watch: Pope Leo XIV spins basketball on his finger, with help from Harlem Globetrotters

    Watch: Pope Leo XIV spins basketball on his finger, with help from Harlem Globetrotters

    A lighthearted and memorable moment unfolded at the Vatican this week, when the world-famous American exhibition basketball team the Harlem Globetrotters welcomed a surprising new student: Pope Leo XIV. Known globally for their jaw-dropping trick shots, comedic basketball performances, and decades of entertaining audiences across every continent, the squad traveled to the Holy See for a special audience that quickly went viral for its unexpected playful twist.

    During the meeting, team members guided the pontiff through one of the Globetrotters’ most recognizable signature skills: spinning a basketball smoothly on the tip of a finger. Video footage of the interaction captured the warm, good-natured energy of the encounter, showing players leaning in to offer steady guidance as Pope Leo XIV successfully balanced the spinning ball.

    The meeting marks a rare intersection of global religious leadership and pop culture entertainment, highlighting the approachable demeanor of the new pontiff and the Harlem Globetrotters’ long history of connecting with diverse audiences across all walks of life. Fans around the world have already shared the clip widely across social media, praising the light moment that bridges different worlds in a simple, joyful display.

  • You’re being watched: Japan battles online abuse of athletes

    You’re being watched: Japan battles online abuse of athletes

    As the 2025 Asian Games in Aichi and Nagoya draw near, Japanese sports authorities are sending a clear message to internet trolls targeting competing athletes: all abusive activity will be closely monitored and acted upon. After decades of unaddressed harm to competitors across sports, Japan has finally launched a multi-pronged strategy to curb online harassment, a crisis that has devastated athletes’ mental health, impaired on-field performance, and forced many talented competitors to walk away from their careers entirely.

    Online abuse is not a uniquely Japanese problem: athletes across every sport and every region have faced dehumanizing, threatening comments on social media for years. But Japan’s response, coming later than many global initiatives, builds on lessons learned from major international events to create a structured framework for protection. At the 2025 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, the Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) ran its first large-scale social media monitoring program, testing the model ahead of the home Asian Games. Six staff based in Milan and 22 working from Tokyo conducted 24/7 checks for abusive content targeting Japanese athletes, combining manual reviews with AI-powered search tools to identify harmful posts. The team collaborated directly with major social platforms including Meta — owner of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp — and domestic tech giant LINE Yahoo to remove violating content. Across the course of the Games, the JOC requested the removal of nearly 2,000 abusive posts, successfully securing the takedown of approximately 600 of the most harmful entries.

    This successful test run has paved the way for expanded protection at the upcoming Asian Games. Not only will the JOC repeat its monitoring program for Japanese athletes, but event organizers are rolling out a broader initiative to protect competitors from all participating nations. For JOC officials, the pilot program at the Milan-Cortina Games provided invaluable insight into the scale and nature of online harassment targeting athletes. “We now understand what kinds of comments appear on a daily basis and how they upset athletes,” said JOC official Hirofumi Takeshita. “We’ve learned how much energy we need to devote to this.”

    JOC official Misa Chida, who participated in the Milan-Cortina monitoring effort, explained that even a single harsh comment can cause lasting harm. Many athletes respond by stepping back from social media entirely to avoid abuse — a choice that means they also miss out on the overwhelming majority of positive, supportive messages from fans. “Even a single negative comment can cut deeply,” Chida told AFP. “Athletes don’t want to see things like that, so a lot of them choose not to look at social media at all, and that means they miss the 99 percent of messages that are supportive. That’s a real shame.” Chida added that as more athletes and support staff become aware of these protection initiatives, it directly boosts competitors’ psychological safety, letting them focus on competition rather than fearing online harassment.

    Beyond in-house monitoring, Japan has added legal support for athletes facing abuse, a step that experts say fills a long-empty gap in the country’s sports ecosystem. Lawyer Shun Takahashi leads a seven-person legal group founded in 2024 specifically to support athletes targeted by online trolls. Takahashi notes that Japan was relatively slow to adopt formal protections compared to other nations, and many athletes face cultural barriers to speaking out about abuse. Many are raised with the expectation that they must always project strength, leading to fears that acknowledging the harm of harassment will lead coaches to see them as unfit to compete and bench them. Takahashi’s group serves as a confidential “safe haven” for athletes to seek support without risking their careers.

    One high-profile case the group supported underscores the severity of the abuse many athletes face: professional baseball player Taiki Sekine took legal action against online abusers last year after receiving threatening messages including “I hope your whole family dies in an accident”. Sekine has secured multiple civil settlements and filed criminal complaints against the worst offenders, a process that was simplified by the fact that all abusers in the case were based in Japan. Cross-border abuse cases remain far harder to prosecute, a persistent challenge for global anti-harassment efforts. Takahashi says that visible legal action carries a strong deterrent effect, particularly since most online trolls are teenagers or young adults who often underestimate the legal consequences of their actions. “It makes them realise the risk involved,” he explained.

    While Japan’s new proactive approach marks a major shift from years of inaction, stakeholders across the board agree that there is still a long way to go to fully solve the problem. During the Milan-Cortina monitoring program, less than a third of the posts the JOC requested to be removed were actually taken down by social media companies. Though Takeshita emphasized that tech platforms have been cooperative, he acknowledged that platform’s standards for what counts as offensive content often do not align with the JOC’s perspective. “Yes, there was a gap, but it was a gap that we were able to identify by actually doing this work,” he said. “That’s better than having an unidentified gap that never gets bridged. Now that we know where the differences lie, we can work to close them.”

    Japan’s effort joins a growing global movement to protect athletes from online abuse: the International Olympic Committee ran a multi-language monitoring program covering more than 35 languages at the 2024 Paris Games, and similar initiatives have been launched by governing bodies in football and tennis. As the Asian Games approach, Japan’s expanding framework sets a new example for regional event organizers, while highlighting ongoing work needed to align platform policies with athlete protection needs.

  • Chinese researcher’s death after questioning in US prompts anger in Beijing

    Chinese researcher’s death after questioning in US prompts anger in Beijing

    A recent tragic death of a Chinese semiconductor researcher at the University of Michigan has sparked diplomatic demands from Beijing for a full, transparent investigation into the incident, raising fresh concerns about the growing scrutiny of Chinese academics working in the United States amid ongoing bilateral tensions. The researcher fell to his death from a campus building on March 19, and multiple US and Chinese sources have confirmed his identity as Danhao Wang, an assistant research scientist in the university’s department of electrical and computer engineering whose work focused on semiconductor technologies.

    Shortly before his death, CBS News reported, Wang had completed questioning by US federal law enforcement agents, which Chinese authorities have described as hostile. The University of Michigan confirmed in an official statement that it is treating the incident as a suspected act of self-harm, though the full circumstances surrounding the death remain unconfirmed. Both the university and Chinese government institutions have initially declined to publicly confirm Wang’s identity out of respect for the privacy of his grieving family, a position the institutions have maintained through the early stages of the case.

    The Chinese Embassy in Washington and China’s foreign ministry have repeatedly pushed US authorities to open a full investigation into the incident. Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in the US, told the BBC this week that the embassy was deeply distressed by the tragedy. Liu confirmed that Chinese diplomatic officials have made multiple formal representations to US government agencies and the University of Michigan regarding the case, and have been in direct contact with Wang’s family to provide full support and assistance with post-death arrangements. The embassy has also issued an advisory to all Chinese citizens studying and working in the US, urging them to increase personal safety awareness and prepare to handle interactions with US law enforcement appropriately.

    In public comments on the case, China’s foreign ministry has stressed that the death, following what Beijing calls hostile interrogation by US law enforcement, violates the fundamental legal rights of Chinese citizens, erodes trust needed for people-to-people exchanges between the two countries, and perpetuates a harmful chilling effect for Chinese academics working in the US. “China will continue to take what is necessary to firmly defend Chinese citizens’ legitimate and lawful rights and interests,” foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning reiterated to the BBC on Wednesday, reaffirming Beijing’s demand that US authorities deliver a full investigation and a transparent, responsible explanation to both Wang’s family and Chinese government.

    This death marks the latest high-profile incident to draw international attention to the precarious position of Chinese academics working in the US, as geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing continue to shape policy toward Chinese students and researchers. In 2024, another Chinese-American neuroscientist at Northwestern University died by suicide following a multi-year federal investigation into her alleged ties to Chinese academic institutions; her family has since filed a lawsuit against the university alleging unfair treatment throughout the investigation.

    Over the past five years, the US government has significantly ramped up scrutiny of Chinese researchers and students on US campuses, justifying the tougher measures with national security concerns. During the first Trump administration, a 2020 executive order barred Chinese students and researchers with suspected ties to the Chinese military from receiving US visas. In the year preceding the 2020 election, the administration further announced it would aggressively revoke visas for Chinese students, particularly those with alleged links to the Chinese Communist Party or working in sensitive, critical technology fields. That hardline position was later softened amid bilateral trade talks, when the US issued more than 600,000 student visas to Chinese citizens in a visible policy reversal.

  • Bruce Lehrmann suffers crushing court blow as High Court knocks back appeal on Brittany Higgins defamation findings

    Bruce Lehrmann suffers crushing court blow as High Court knocks back appeal on Brittany Higgins defamation findings

    One of Australia’s most high-profile and polarizing legal sagas has reached its final conclusion, after the High Court of Australia formally rejected former Liberal Party staffer Bruce Lehrmann’s last-ditch bid to overturn a devastating defamation ruling against him brought by Network 10 and journalist Lisa Wilkinson. In the wake of the court’s ruling, Brittany Higgins, the woman at the center of the original allegations, has called the decision a long-awaited end to a years-long period of trauma.

    The legal battle traces its origins back to 2019, when Higgins alleged that Lehrmann raped her inside the parliamentary office of their then-boss, Senator Linda Reynolds, following a night of social drinking. The allegations first entered the public spotlight in 2021, when Higgins gave an interview about her experience on Network 10’s flagship current affairs program *The Project*, hosted by Wilkinson. Lehrmann subsequently launched defamation proceedings against the outlet and Wilkinson, claiming the interview had destroyed his reputation.

    The first major ruling in the case came in the Federal Court, where Justice Michael Lee delivered a landmark verdict finding that on the balance of probabilities, Lehrmann had indeed raped Higgins. Lee wrote in his judgment that Lehrmann was “hellbent on having sex” with Higgins and did not consider whether she consented to the encounter. Lehrmann immediately launched an appeal to the Full Court of the Federal Court, but the three justices hearing the appeal not only upheld Lee’s original ruling but strengthened the findings against him: they concluded Lee should have explicitly found Lehrmann had “actual knowledge” that Higgins did not consent, and also reaffirmed the original ruling that Lehrmann lacked credibility as a witness.

    Undeterred, Lehrmann launched a final appeal to the High Court, arguing that Lee had improperly conducted independent research outside the scope of the trial and relied on non-legal academic material to reach his verdict. Lawyers for Network 10 pushed back against this claim, noting that Lee only referenced the academic work to contextualize legal arguments, and explicitly stated in his judgment that he would not rely on any information not entered as evidence in the trial. On Thursday, the High Court issued a brief, decisive ruling: “Special leave refused with costs.” The ruling marks the end of all appeal avenues available to Lehrmann.

    In a public statement issued immediately after the ruling, Higgins said the High Court’s decision brought “a measure of finality to a long and painful chapter.” She argued that Lehrmann had exploited Australia’s defamation laws to continue silencing her and the journalists who reported her experience, a tactic she said is far too common for survivors of sexual violence. “Defamation claims brought by perpetrators of violence against women retraumatise victim-survivors, who have already endured profound personal violation, and extend the harm we suffer,” she wrote. Higgins called for a national reckoning with Australia’s legal framework, urging reforms to better protect survivors who speak out, safeguard press freedom to report on sexual violence, and prevent the legal system from being misused as a tool of ongoing abuse. Moving forward, she said her focus will be on healing and continuing her advocacy for legal reform that treats survivors with dignity and protection.

    The ruling also carries severe financial consequences for Lehrmann. He has been ordered to cover all court costs incurred by Network 10 and Wilkinson throughout the entire proceedings, totaling an estimated AU$2.5 million: roughly AU$2 million from the original Federal Court trial, AU$500,000 from the Full Court appeal, and additional costs for the High Court application. Court records have previously established Lehrmann is currently an unemployed student, leaving him at high risk of bankruptcy. During earlier appeal proceedings, Lehrmann’s solicitor Zali Burrows told the court her client could not raise a AU$200,000 surety requested by Network 10, noting that “the only shot he’d probably ever have in making money is by going on OnlyFans or something silly like that”, arguing the media coverage of the case had left him effectively unemployable.

    This long-running legal saga has an additional prior chapter: Lehrmann previously faced a criminal trial for sexual assault charges in the Australian Capital Territory Supreme Court, but those proceedings were dismissed after juror misconduct forced a mistrial. The charges were ultimately dropped entirely out of concern for Higgins’ mental health and wellbeing. Lehrmann has maintained his consistent denial of all allegations from the start, asserting no sexual contact occurred between him and Higgins on the night in question, and claiming the two separated immediately after entering the parliamentary office and did not interact again that evening.

  • Australia moves to shore up fuel supplies as it prepares for extended disruptions

    Australia moves to shore up fuel supplies as it prepares for extended disruptions

    BRISBANE, Australia — Amid lingering global energy market disruptions tied to Middle East conflict, the Australian government has announced a landmark emergency scheme to backstop two of the nation’s largest fuel suppliers amid inflated spot market prices, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese warns that supply chain disruptions will persist long after a newly announced two-week ceasefire in the region takes hold.

    Speaking to reporters Thursday during a visit to an Ampol refinery in Brisbane, Albanese confirmed the government has finalized terms to underwrite purchases of gasoline and diesel by top domestic suppliers Ampol and Viva Energy. The agreement covers spot market fuel acquisitions made at prices well above typical commercial rates, a response to the upward price shocks that have rippled through global energy markets since the escalation of conflict in the Middle East.

    Under the scheme, the federal government will also gain authority to direct fuel distribution across the country, with priority given to regional communities and agricultural regions that have experienced widespread fuel shortages and empty gas station tanks over recent weeks.

    Albanese stressed that even if the newly brokered two-week ceasefire in the Middle East holds, the damage to global fuel supply chains will not reverse quickly. “This will have a long tail,” he said. “If the ceasefire holds, that doesn’t mean that the world global capacity comes online in a week or a month. It will take a considerable period of time. This will have a long tail. That is very, very clear.”

    Albanese described the ceasefire announcement itself as an important positive step forward, but made clear the government is preparing for extended supply-side instability. In a immediate follow-up move to shore up long-term fuel security, he will travel to Singapore Friday for high-level talks with Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong focused on strengthening bilateral energy trade and supply chain resilience.

    Albanese noted that the fast-arranged meeting — scheduled on relatively short notice — underscores the close strategic and economic ties between the two nations. “We don’t preempt one-on-one meetings at leaders’ levels, but the fact that we’re being welcomed at relatively short notice to Singapore speaks about the strength of the relationship,” he said.

    A statement from the Singaporean government confirmed the visit aligns with both nations’ ongoing regional commitments to maintaining open energy trade and consistent fuel flows. The two countries have deep existing energy interdependence: Australia ranks as Singapore’s second-largest supplier of liquefied natural gas, while Singapore is Australia’s single largest source of refined petroleum products.

    “This visit follows Australia and Singapore’s joint commitment to keep fuel flowing between both countries and to work together to strengthen energy supply chain resilience,” the Singaporean government statement added.

    Albanese emphasized that his administration is moving with urgent speed to boost domestic fuel supply and address the shortages that have disproportionately impacted non-urban areas of the country, framing the emergency underwriting scheme and upcoming Singapore talks as complementary steps to protect Australian households and businesses from extended energy market volatility.