Global Pulse

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  • A look at the deadliest Russian attacks on Ukraine this year

    A look at the deadliest Russian attacks on Ukraine this year

    As Russia ramps up the intensity of large-scale offensive operations against Ukraine in a bid to wear down Kyiv’s defensive capabilities, the deadliest attack of the year so far has claimed at least 37 civilian lives in a Ukrainian village west of the capital. The overnight strike on Friday targeted a civilian warehouse in the small settlement of Myla, located in Kyiv’s western suburbs, leaving a devastating trail of death and destruction that has drawn renewed attention to the human cost of Moscow’s full-scale invasion.

    Local officials confirmed that 34 of the fatalities from the Myla attack occurred at a residential care facility for elderly and disabled citizens, located adjacent to the targeted warehouse. According to Ukrainian authorities, the warehouse was allegedly being used to illegally store munitions. The initial drone strike triggered a chain of secondary explosions and fast-spreading fires that rapidly spread to neighboring residential structures, including the care home. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy labeled the incident an “absolutely terrible situation”, noting that the scale of loss appeared to stem from “terrible negligence on the part of those who stored explosives right next to ordinary people”.

    The Myla attack is not an isolated incident: 2024 has seen a string of lethal Russian strikes on Kyiv and its surrounding regions that have killed dozens of civilians and tested Ukraine’s overstretched air defense networks. Just over a month before the Myla attack, on July 6, a wave of coordinated missile and drone strikes across Kyiv region left 22 people dead. Notably, every ballistic missile launched in that assault successfully hit its intended target, a stark demonstration of the growing gaps in Ukraine’s air defense capabilities that have left Kyiv pleading for additional advanced interceptors, particularly U.S.-manufactured Patriot systems. After that attack, Ukraine’s Emergency Service ordered the evacuation of roughly 600 residents from the Kyiv suburb of Vyshneve over risks posed by unexploded ordnance. In a pattern that mirrored the Myla incident, Zelenskyy later confirmed that munitions had also been illegally stored at the targeted Vyshneve site.

    Weeks earlier, on July 2, Russia launched a hours-long combined drone and missile barrage across Kyiv that killed 31 people and wounded more than 100 others. Moscow explicitly framed the attack as retaliation for earlier Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil infrastructure. Air raid sirens sent more than 50,000 Kyiv residents scrambling for shelter in the city’s underground subway stations, as repeated explosions rocked residential neighborhoods across the capital. For a full day, emergency response teams worked through the rubble of collapsed, burned-out apartment blocks to recover victims and search for any survivors.

    The first of the year’s deadliest major attacks on Kyiv occurred on May 14, when a Russian cruise missile strike leveled a nine-story apartment building, killing 24 people and wounding dozens more. At the time, Ukraine’s Air Force called the assault the largest single missile barrage launched against the capital since Russia expanded its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

    The string of high-casualty strikes comes as Russia continues to increase the frequency of major offensive attacks across Ukraine, with the strategic goal of exhausting Ukraine’s air defense networks and demoralizing civilian populations ahead of a planned push for new territorial gains. International observers note that repeated gaps in Ukrainian air defense have left civilian populations in Kyiv and other major urban centers increasingly vulnerable, even as Western allies continue to debate the pace and volume of additional military aid to Kyiv. Associated Press coverage of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war is available at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine.

  • Australia usually hosts the world’s biggest cuttlefish mating event – not this year

    Australia usually hosts the world’s biggest cuttlefish mating event – not this year

    Each winter, a narrow stretch of South Australia’s iconic Cuttlefish Coast becomes the global stage for the world’s largest aggregation of breeding Australian giant cuttlefish, a one-of-a-kind marine species found nowhere else on Earth. In abundant years, hundreds of thousands of these color-changing, shape-shifting cephalopods gather in the area’s shallow coastal waters to mate, drawing thousands of enthusiastic recreational and scientific divers eager to witness the spectacular natural event. This year, however, that yearly gathering has hit an unprecedented historical low, triggering urgent warnings of a potential catastrophic collapse of the local population.

    Official population data published this month puts the total number of breeding cuttlefish at just 1,811, marking a staggering 97% drop from the 63,000 counted during last year’s mating season. State environmental officials point to a persistent toxic algal bloom that has ravaged South Australia’s coastline for more than 18 months as the most likely driver of this sharp decline. The plummeting numbers have also reignited calls for the species to be formally listed as endangered under Australian conservation legislation.

    Unlike many marine species, adult giant cuttlefish have an extremely short lifespan of just 12 to 18 months, and die immediately after breeding. This means every annual mating season is make-or-break for the next generation of the population. This year, survey teams only counted 440 cuttlefish eggs across the entire breeding grounds, a stark contrast to the millions of eggs that are typically laid during a healthy season.

    Manny Katz, a 28-year-old diver commissioned by South Australia’s Department of Environment and Water (DEW) to conduct the underwater egg survey, explained the urgency of the work. “Because there have been so few cuttlefish, DEW thought it would be worth going out and trying to do an assessment of how many eggs there currently are around the coastline to understand what the population is going to be next year,” he said. Over two days in July, Katz and three other divers completed eight hour-long dives, combing the undersides of rocky reefs across 8 kilometers of coastline to count every egg. “Along the eight kilometers of coastline, there would normally be millions of eggs, because each female can lay dozens of eggs and tens of thousands usually turn up to breed,” Katz noted. “We pretty much looked under every single rock that we could have and we only found about 440 eggs.”

    With the species’ one-year lifespan, the outcome of this breeding season will directly determine the size of next year’s population, leaving the future of the aggregation uncertain. “Under our current circumstances, with there being so few eggs along the coastline, we don’t know if the population is ever going to be able to recover,” Katz said. While it will take 12 to 24 months to confirm the long-term impact of this year’s low numbers, Katz said the result aligns with expectations, given the ongoing damage from the toxic algal bloom first detected in South Australian waters in March 2024.

    During his survey, Katz also observed unusual behavior in the small number of adult cuttlefish his team encountered. Where tens of thousands would normally be visible, the team spotted only around a dozen individuals, all of which were far more skittish than usual, spending most of their time hiding under rocks. “Because there’s so few cuttlefish hanging out at the moment, they don’t have strength in numbers,” he explained.

    While toxic algal blooms are a naturally occurring phenomenon, the current prolonged event is driven by a combination of ocean warming, marine heatwaves, and nutrient runoff, all of which are being amplified by human-caused climate change. For conservation advocates, the plummeting cuttlefish numbers are a warning sign of broader systemic damage to Australia’s coastal marine ecosystems. “Our marine habitats have been getting wiped out for the past year and a half now… this is an indicator that our marine ecosystems are in real big trouble – the canary in the coal mine, so to speak,” Katz said.

    Last year’s breeding season was largely unaffected, as the algal bloom had not yet reached Cuttlefish Coast by winter 2024, but low concentrations of the toxic algae have been recorded in the area since late last year. Cuttlefish, along with other cephalopods including octopus and squid, are uniquely sensitive to the toxins produced by the bloom, making the spread especially concerning for the species.

    Stefan Andrews, co-founder of the Great Southern Reef Foundation, has formally called for the Australian giant cuttlefish to be listed as a threatened species in response to what his organization describes as a catastrophic decline. Andrews acknowledges that while the algal bloom is the most plausible explanation for the collapse, current data does not yet confirm it is the sole cause. Even so, he warned that the lack of breeding activity this year will almost certainly lead to a very small cohort of young cuttlefish entering the population next year. “That will make the next breeding season especially challenging,” he said.

    In response to the findings, a spokesperson for South Australia’s Department of Primary Industries and Regions noted that giant cuttlefish populations have naturally fluctuated significantly in response to changing environmental conditions in the past. Previous surveys have recorded population lows of 13,500 in 2013, and highs of 247,000 just seven years later in 2020. “The cuttlefish population estimate rebounded to more than 100,000 just two years following the low numbers in 2013,” the spokesperson said. “While it appears likely the algal bloom has impacted cuttlefish numbers, researchers are working to determine whether this contributed to the reduced population or was just one of the potential impacts.”

    Professor Mike Steer, executive director of the South Australian Research and Development Institute, which assisted with the 2025 underwater surveys, called the unprecedented low count “disheartening.” But he echoed the government’s cautious optimism, pointing to the species’ history of rapid recovery when environmental conditions improve. “We know from the past that this population has the capacity to recover when conditions are favourable,” Steer said, adding that there are early positive signs: adult cuttlefish are still successfully laying eggs, meaning the population could rebound over the next several years if conditions improve.

  • South Africa hold off All Blacks fightback to level series

    South Africa hold off All Blacks fightback to level series

    The rugby world witnessed another chapter of what is widely hailed as ‘rugby’s greatest rivalry’ this weekend, as world champion South Africa secured a hard-fought 33-26 victory over New Zealand at Cape Town Stadium, pulling the three-Test series level at 1-1 with one decider remaining.

    Going into the second Test, the All Blacks carried high stakes: a win would have marked them as the first New Zealand men’s side to claim back-to-back away Test victories on South African soil since the iconic 1996 ‘Incomparables’ squad. What unfolded was a tense, high-octane clash that delivered on every bit of the pre-series hype, even defying pre-match disruption that reshaped both sides’ lineups ahead of kickoff.

    Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus stunned observers with five last-minute changes to his original matchday squad announced earlier that week. Fly-half Handre Pollard was ruled out with a recurrence of an injury just days after being declared fit, while wing Cheslin Kolbe made a reverse journey from injury casualty to starting lineup. Most dramatically, Erasmus swapped out his entire starting front row for the bench unit in the final hours before kickoff, a gamble that would ultimately pay off for the world champions.

    From the opening whistle, South Africa threw everything at their visitors. At nearly 40 years old, hooker Deon Fourie — the oldest Springbok to ever represent the national side — executed a pinpoint line-out throw that set up a powerful rolling maul deep inside New Zealand’s 22-metre line. Quick, clean ball from the breakdown saw centre Jesse Kriel crash over the try line for a try within the opening two minutes, with Kolbe slotting the conversion to give the hosts an immediate 7-0 lead.

    New Zealand slowly grew into the contest, referee Angus Gardner — himself a late replacement for original official Nika Amashukeli — allowing a fast, free-flowing game to unfold. After a series of threatening attacking sequences, intricate handling from the All Blacks freed fullback Will Jordan down the right flank, who linked up with standout scrum-half Cam Roigard for New Zealand’s first try. Fly-half Ruben Love slotted the simple conversion to level the scores at 7-7.

    The try reignited South Africa’s cutting edge, which had been muted in the first Test loss the week prior. Kolbe knocked over a penalty to restore the lead, before another dominant rolling maul created the space for centre Damian de Allende to barrel over for the Springboks’ second try, pushing the lead out to 17-7. New Zealand hit back almost immediately: captain Ardie Savea broke from a line-out, and a sequence of sharp passing gave fullback Damian McKenzie an unopposed walk-in try, cutting the deficit back to three points as halftime approached.

    In a match-defining sequence right before the break, Erasmus brought on elite scrummagers Malcolm Marx and Ox Nche off the bench, and the pair immediately won a penalty from a five-metre scrum. With New Zealand’s pack backpedaling under pressure, Springbok captain Siya Kolisi — returning to the starting lineup after a spell out — crashed over for a third try. Kolbe’s conversion pushed the halftime score to 24-14, giving South Africa a crucial 10-point buffer.

    South Africa extended their advantage in the opening stages of the second half: New Zealand coughed up possession in dangerous territory, and conceded a soft penalty that Kolbe converted. Another breakdown penalty from Marx saw Kolbe slot his fourth penalty, pushing the lead out to 16 points with just 30 minutes left to play.

    Though the second half lacked the frantic try-scoring pace of the first, the All Blacks refused to fold. Led by Roigard, the New Zealand backline manufactured a sequence of stunning attacking opportunities, with centre Leroy Carter finishing off a sweeping movement to score in the left corner in the 62nd minute. A late break down the right flank by Jordan set up captain Savea to crash over with just three minutes left on the clock, cutting the Springbok lead to just seven points and setting up a nerve-wracking closing sequence.

    With South Africa down to 14 men after lock Lood de Jager was sin-binned for a high tackle, New Zealand launched one final attacking push to level the game. But replacement forward Cameron Hanekom won a match-saving turnover at the breakdown — an area the Springboks dominated all game — to secure the win.

    Man of the match honors went to Kolbe, who stepped into kicking duties for inexperienced fly-half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu for the second week running, scoring 18 points from three conversions and four penalties to anchor South Africa’s victory.

    While New Zealand outscored South Africa by four tries to three, the Springboks’ superior discipline and dominance of set pieces and breakdown play proved the difference on the day. The result levels the first three-Test series between the two global rugby powers in 30 years, with the decider set to take place next Saturday at altitude in Soweto, Johannesburg.

    The All Blacks’ first Test win a week prior at Ellis Park had pushed them above South Africa in the official World Rugby rankings, but the home side has now restored their status at the top and carries momentum into the final decider. Despite the loss, New Zealand’s dynamic attacking play across the first two Tests means they still retain hope of becoming the first side in 30 years to claim a historic away series win, and all eyes in the global rugby community will now turn to Soweto for the final showdown.

  • Right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos deported from US to UK

    Right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos deported from US to UK

    In a striking turn of irony that has reverberated across American political circles, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has confirmed that controversial British right-wing commentator Milo Yiannopoulos has been deported back to his home country following detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The 41-year-old, a former editor at conservative outlet Breitbart News and one-time political advisor to rapper and 2020 presidential candidate Kanye West, was removed from the country on August 29, according to an official DHS statement shared with the BBC.

    DHS officials characterize Yiannopoulos as an illegal alien from the United Kingdom who violated U.S. immigration law by overstaying his authorized period of entry after arriving in the country in May 2019. The commentator was first taken into custody on August 27 when he landed at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, marking the end of his multi-year overstay. What makes the deportation particularly notable is Yiannopoulos’s long history of advocating for harsh, restrictive U.S. immigration policies — stances that put his own treatment at the hands of immigration authorities in the national spotlight.

    A self-described provocateur who has styled himself as the “most fabulous supervillain on the internet,” Yiannopoulos built his public profile on incendiary rhetoric that has drawn widespread condemnation from critics, who label his statements as hate speech targeting marginalized groups. Over the years, he has openly called for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, demanding the immediate removal of anyone unable to prove legal status in the U.S. Just last year, he pushed for full legal immunity for ICE agents conducting enforcement operations, writing on social media in 2025 that “we have got to deport millions and millions of people. Without that, nothing else matters.”

    Yiannopoulos first rose to national prominence as an early supporter of Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election, headlining the “Gays for Trump” event at that year’s Republican National Convention. While he still expresses general support for Trump’s policy agenda, he has become a public critic of the former president and current commander-in-chief, claiming in a March 2025 post on X that Trump had “lost his way, bought off by foreign interests.”

    The commentator’s career has been marked by repeated controversy. In 2017, he was disinvited from speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) — a major annual gathering of U.S. conservatives that has long hosted Trump — after surfacing footage showed him appearing to condone pedophilia. Yiannopoulos denied the allegations, claiming the comments referenced his own childhood abuse experiences, but he ultimately resigned from his position at Breitbart following the backlash. He has also been frequently associated with the alt-right movement, a loose coalition of anti-political correctness groups that includes white supremacists and neo-Nazis; while he has rejected labeling himself as a member of the movement, he has described it as “energising and exciting.”

    Beyond his political commentary, Yiannopoulos has held a series of controversial political roles: he assisted Kanye West’s 2020 independent presidential campaign, and later worked for former Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who ultimately split with Trump and resigned from office after becoming a fierce critic of the former president. Yiannopoulos, who once identified as gay, now describes himself as “ex-gay,” and has drawn outrage for his inflammatory comments about transgender people, Muslims, Black Lives Matter, feminists, and LGBTQ+ people.

    Fellow far-right commentator Laura Loomer, a Trump ally who has had a long public feud with Yiannopoulos, publicly claimed credit for tipping off authorities that led to his arrest. In a post on X Friday evening, Loomer wrote that Yiannopoulos’s deportation flight had already departed, adding that “this subversive foreign agent is already out of the United States and DHS tells me he’s NEVER allowed to come back to the United States ever again.”

    As of this report, the BBC has reached out to the UK Home Office for comment on the deportation, and has not yet received a response. DHS has also publicly released the booking mugshot of Yiannopoulos following his detention, confirming the details of his arrest and removal.

  • China censors videos showing deadly flash floods on the Nepal-Tibet border

    China censors videos showing deadly flash floods on the Nepal-Tibet border

    A deadly flash flood event that hit the border region between Nepal and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China has triggered a separate development involving online content control, as visual recordings of the disaster have largely disappeared from China’s tightly regulated internet ecosystem.

    Multiple sources familiar with China’s online content policies confirm that footage capturing the flood’s damage and human impact has been systematically removed from major domestic social media platforms, search engines, and video-sharing sites. As a result, users accessing the internet through China’s mainstream network infrastructure now face extreme difficulty locating any user-uploaded or independent recordings of the cross-border natural disaster.

    Flash floods in the mountainous Nepal-Tibet border region are a recurring seasonal hazard, fueled by intense monsoon rainfall or sudden glacial lake outburst events that can sweep through river valleys with little warning, causing widespread destruction to local communities and infrastructure. This latest event has already been confirmed to have resulted in fatalities on both sides of the border, according to initial regional reports.

    China’s national internet regulatory framework is designed to restrict the spread of what authorities classify as “disruptive information” or content that could spark public unease, leading to routine removal of unapproved coverage of natural disasters, accidents, and other sensitive events. This latest incident of content removal highlights the ongoing operation of that censorship system in the context of a cross-border natural disaster.

  • Far-right British provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos has been deported after his immigration arrest in US

    Far-right British provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos has been deported after his immigration arrest in US

    U.S. immigration officials confirmed Saturday that controversial far-right British commentator Milo Yiannopoulos has been taken into custody and deported back to the United Kingdom.

    The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that Yiannopoulos, who originally entered the United States legally in May 2019, was expelled to his home country on Friday following allegations that he had overstayed the terms of his entry visa. According to a DHS spokesperson, an immigration judge issued a final formal removal order on July 22, after Yiannopoulos failed to appear at a scheduled immigration hearing to address his overstay violation.

    The commentator was taken into custody by officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) this past Thursday during processing at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, located in the state of Louisiana. No immediate public statement has been issued regarding the deportation: requests for comment sent to Yiannopoulos’ representatives have gone unanswered as of Saturday.

    Yiannopoulos has built a high public profile as an outspoken advocate for far-right conservative causes, known for repeatedly taking intentionally provocative stances on divisive social and political issues. He has drawn widespread controversy for his public criticisms of feminism, Islam, and immigrant communities, and was an early and prominent supporter of former President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration restriction policies.

  • Iran reports $7.5bn in oil revenues amid US naval blockade

    Iran reports $7.5bn in oil revenues amid US naval blockade

    Six months into the US-Israeli military conflict with Iran and amid a crippling US naval blockade disrupting its key oil exports, Tehran has hit nearly all of its first four-month oil revenue projections for the current Iranian calendar year, transferring $7.5 billion in oil earnings to the country’s central bank, Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency reported Saturday. Citing official data from Iran’s oil ministry, Fars noted that the accumulated $7.5 billion will cover all of the Iranian government’s planned foreign currency expenses for the six-month period from July through December.

    Between March 21 and July 22, the opening four months of Iran’s 1404 calendar year, total oil revenue reached 99 percent of the target outlined in the country’s annual national budget, the outlet confirmed. The milestone comes as Washington’s naval blockade has severely disrupted Tehran’s oil exports and broader maritime trade, with the status of the Strait of Hormuz — the strategic waterway that carries roughly a fifth of the world’s daily oil consumption — emerging as the core flashpoint in ongoing tensions between the US and Iran.

    Iran has restricted transit through the key chokepoint since the conflict began, while the US has demanded full reopening to guarantee unimpeded navigation. A landmark June Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) reached to de-escalate the US-Israeli war on Iran included two core provisions: lifting the US naval blockade and reopening the Strait of Hormuz to full commercial traffic. But Iranian officials have repeatedly emphasized that Tehran will not fully reopen the waterway until Washington fulfills all its commitments under the MoU, which also include releasing billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets and rolling back sweeping international sanctions.

    In recent comments, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian acknowledged the heavy toll US sanctions have inflicted on Iran’s domestic economy, pushing back against public claims that the restrictions have had no meaningful impact. “Some say sanctions have no effect at all; to those people, I really don’t know what to say,” Pezeshkian told Iranian state television in an interview. “We are in a war situation, and we must accept these wartime conditions.”

    Tehran Governor Mohammad Sadeq Motamedian echoed that assessment Saturday, telling a televised panel that the combined pressure of the naval blockade, intensified sanctions, and targeted attacks on critical domestic infrastructure have created unprecedented challenges for governing the country, per remarks carried by the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA). “The blockade imposed on our country in the maritime domain meant that managing the country took place under truly exceptional and unique conditions,” he said.

    Motamedian added that US-Israeli strikes have heavily focused on infrastructure across Iran, particularly in the capital Tehran, but quick response teams have restored most damaged services rapidly. More than 1,200 electricity infrastructure sites across Tehran province have been targeted in attacks, he confirmed, though power services were restored within a short timeframe after each strike. Water infrastructure also sustained damage but was quickly repaired, while telecommunications and natural gas distribution facilities also suffered disruptions, he added. Intensified international sanctions imposed during the conflict have piled additional economic pressure on the country, the governor noted.

    The US-Israeli military campaign against Iran launched on February 28, with initial strikes targeting military sites, nuclear facilities, and critical civilian infrastructure across the country. Tehran responded with coordinated missile and drone strikes targeting Israeli territory and US military bases across the Middle East, escalating the regional conflict. The June MoU was designed to open negotiations for a permanent ceasefire and broader peace agreement, but those talks have since stalled over intractable disagreements on security guarantees and rules for navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.

    As the standoff continues, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) released an update Friday warning that hundreds of commercial vessels and thousands of seafarers remain stranded in the Persian Gulf six months after the conflict began. “While some ships and their crews have been able to leave the Gulf, up to 400 ships carrying around 6,000 seafarers have been unable to depart safely since the conflict began,” IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez said in a statement. Dominguez also warned that the ongoing disruption to global fuel and fertilizer supply chains stemming from the closure carries “grave” consequences for vulnerable communities and national economies around the world. This report is compiled from original independent coverage by Middle East Eye.

  • Franck Kessie rejoins Atalanta after Juventus also tried to sign him

    Franck Kessie rejoins Atalanta after Juventus also tried to sign him

    In a move that brings his European football journey full circle, 29-year-old Ivorian national team captain Franck Kessie has officially signed with Italian Serie A side Atalanta, returning to the first club that launched his career on the continent, the club announced Saturday.

    The Bergamo-based club confirmed Kessie has put pen to paper on a multi-year contract, but chose not to disclose further financial or contract duration details to the public. The transfer ends a lengthy summer chase that saw another top Italian club, Juventus, also in the running for the midfielder’s signature. However, Juventus head coach Luciano Spalletti confirmed last Friday that financial fair play compliance rules blocked the club from completing a deal. “If we don’t sell someone first, it’s really difficult to bring in new players,” Spalletti explained, outlining the club’s budget constraints.

    Kessie’s connection to Atalanta dates back to 2015, when he first arrived at the club to join its youth development squad. After a one-season loan spell at lower-division side Cesena, Kessie made a stunning senior debut for Atalanta in Serie A in 2016, netting two goals on his first appearance. Following his breakout season with the Bergamo club, Kessie went on to build his career across top European and global leagues, with stints at Serie A giant AC Milan, Spanish La Liga powerhouse Barcelona, and most recently, Saudi Pro League side Al-Ahli.

    Off the club pitch, Kessie has been in strong form for the Ivorian national team this year, leading the side to the knockout round of the 2024 FIFA World Cup – the first time the country has advanced past the group stage in the tournament’s history. Kessie found the back of the net in Ivory Coast’s closely contested group stage match against Germany, despite the team ending on the losing side of the result.

    For Atalanta, the signing of Kessie adds a world-class experienced midfielder to a squad that has started the 2024-25 Serie A campaign on a positive note. Led by head coach Maurizio Sarri, Atalanta opened its league schedule with a win over Sassuolo last weekend, and is set to host Bologna for its second match of the season this coming Monday.

  • 8 officials suspended after probe into Pakistan hospital fire that killed 14 newborns

    8 officials suspended after probe into Pakistan hospital fire that killed 14 newborns

    ISLAMABAD – Fourteen newborns are dead after a fast-spreading fire ripped through a neonatal nursery at Pakistan’s leading public medical facility, the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), prompting Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to announce sweeping disciplinary and criminal action against responsible parties, his office confirmed in an official statement Saturday.

    The tragedy, which unfolded earlier this week, left just one surviving infant out of the 15 babies receiving care in the third-floor nursery, after flames spread too rapidly for medical staff to evacuate all patients. The interim findings of a government-appointed investigative committee, led by retired senior civil servant Shahid Khan, painted a damning picture of systemic negligence that set the stage for the fatal incident.

    Investigators confirmed the nursery was not equipped with any working fire alarms or sprinkler systems, basic fire safety infrastructure required for medical facilities. Worse, the hospital lacked comprehensive emergency response protocols and had never provided staff with adequate training to contain or respond to fire outbreaks. When the fire ignited, no senior supervisory personnel were on duty at the facility, the report found, and emergency responders were not alerted until six minutes after the blaze began. First responders took an additional 15 minutes to reach the scene after receiving the distress call. Of the hospital’s 13 formal standard operating procedures, only two passing references were made to fire or emergency response, investigators added.

    Following the committee’s interim report submission, Sharif ordered the immediate suspension of eight senior and mid-level officials, and directed that both departmental disciplinary proceedings and formal criminal charges be filed against all parties found culpable for the negligence that led to the deaths. The suspended officials include PIMS’ executive director, two joint executive directors, the head of the hospital’s neonatal department, two additional attending doctors, PIMS’ assistant security director, and the head of emergency services for the Capital Development Authority. Sharif also approved legal action against the private contracted company responsible for hospital security and its leadership.

    In a notable act of recognition for extraordinary courage during the blaze, Sharif approved a committee recommendation to award the Sitara-i-Khidmat, one of Pakistan’s highest state honors for public service, to a nurse who risked her own life to rescue the sole surviving infant before flames overtook the ward. Footage of the two-minute-long fire progression from the nursery’s surveillance system was reviewed during Saturday’s leadership meeting, though the recording has not been released to the public as of this reporting.

    The fatal fire has already sparked widespread public outrage across Pakistan, with grieving family members of the deceased infants and civil society organizations organizing widespread calls for full accountability for the tragedy. “Those guilty of criminal negligence deserve no leniency,” Sharif said in comments released by his office.

    The national government has announced 5 million Pakistani rupees, approximately $18,000, in compensation for each of the bereaved families. The tragedy has also triggered broader nationwide reviews of fire safety standards at all healthcare facilities across the country. Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, has already ordered an immediate urgent audit of fire suppression systems, firefighting equipment, and emergency response infrastructure at all public and private hospitals in the region. This fire adds to a string of deadly preventable tragedies involving children in Pakistan in recent months; in June, 14 schoolchildren were killed when an under-construction tutoring center roof collapsed in the eastern city of Lahore.

  • What we know about Trump’s deal giving US access to vast oil reserves in Venezuela

    What we know about Trump’s deal giving US access to vast oil reserves in Venezuela

    Weeks after U.S. forces conducted a controversial overnight raid that removed former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power and brought him to New York to face federal drug trafficking charges, U.S. President Donald Trump has made a dramatic announcement: what he calls “the biggest oil deal in world history” for Venezuela’s massive untapped crude reserves. Beyond a single social media post from Trump, however, the White House has released almost no additional verified information about the agreement, leaving policy experts, industry analysts and Venezuelan citizens with far more questions than answers.

    According to limited details shared by acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez and an anonymous U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity, the agreement creates a new joint private company between the U.S. government and an undisclosed Venezuelan private operator. This new entity has been granted 100-year drilling rights to 17 undeveloped Venezuelan oil fields holding 65 billion barrels of proven oil reserves. The deal grants the U.S. 55% of the company’s effective output, split between an official ownership stake and discounted rights to purchase crude at production cost. All U.S.-sourced oil from the venture will be allocated to the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve and military fuel supplies. The unnamed U.S. official confirmed that the new firm would become the second-largest corporate holder of proven oil reserves globally, trailing only Saudi Aramco. Rodríguez has framed the agreement as a critical catalyst for Venezuela’s economic recovery, arguing the deal could attract up to $100 billion in new investment to the country’s oil sector and generate more than $209 billion in tax revenue for the Venezuelan government over the life of the contract. Trump added that the deal was negotiated by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Rodríguez.

    For Trump, the deal aligns with two key policy and political priorities: advancing his long-stated goal of unlocking Venezuelan energy resources for U.S. use, and easing persistent high gas prices ahead of November’s U.S. midterm elections. Ongoing conflict in Iran has disrupted Persian Gulf oil shipments, keeping global crude prices elevated and pushing U.S. domestic gas prices far above 2023 levels. As of Saturday, AAA data put the U.S. national average for a gallon of regular gas at $4.08, up from $3.20 per gallon one year prior. Trump has publicly claimed the deal will bring down gas costs for American consumers, but energy experts uniformly push back on that near-term promise.

    Venezuela’s oil extraction and transportation infrastructure has been decaying for decades, requiring billions of dollars in investment and years of reconstruction before any meaningful production increase can occur. “This could be helpful in the long run, but it’s not going to do anything to change the price of gasoline at the retail station for Labor Day weekend,” explained Amy Myers Jaffe, director of the Energy, Climate Justice and Sustainability Lab at New York University. That assessment is shared by other industry analysts, who note that critical details about funding for infrastructure repairs remain entirely unaddressed by both sides of the agreement. No full text of the deal has been released to the public, and officials have not confirmed which entity will cover the upfront costs of modernizing the sector.

    The announcement has already sparked sharp division within Venezuela, where national sovereignty over oil resources has been a core nationalist principle for decades. Many Venezuelans view the deal as an outright betrayal of that long-held commitment. In an on-the-record interview at a Caracas market Saturday, local resident Douglas Borjas expressed fierce criticism of the agreement, arguing that acting leaders had traded national resources to retain power. “Venezuela has resources that can be exploited, but for the benefit of the people, not for the benefit of the corrupt elite,” Borjas said. The criticism extends to prominent Venezuelan economists and former officials based abroad: Harvard University professor and former Venezuelan planning minister Ricardo Hausmann labeled the agreement a “shameful deal” in a social media post, arguing that Rodríguez lacks constitutional and legitimate authority to sign such an agreement on Venezuela’s behalf. “Venezuelans will not respect this illegitimate deal and no major US oil company will take it seriously because they know it will not last,” Hausmann wrote.

    A long list of critical questions about the deal remains unresolved months after the Maduro raid and days after Trump’s announcement. The identity of the private Venezuelan operator involved in the joint venture has not been disclosed, and the breakdown of the U.S.’ 55% output share—how much comes from direct ownership versus discounted purchases—remains unclear. Persuading major U.S. oil firms to participate in the venture also remains an open question, given the country’s ongoing political uncertainty and crumbling infrastructure. Chevron, the only U.S. oil company currently producing crude in Venezuela, declined to comment on the deal, though the firm has been holding independent talks to expand its existing investments in the country separate from Trump’s announcement.

    David Oxley, chief climate and commodities economist at Capital Economics, noted that the agreement could theoretically double U.S. proven oil reserves and reduce American dependence on crude imports from Canada and Mexico. But Oxley cautioned that significant logistical barriers stand in the way of that outcome, adding that previous reserve estimates under former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez likely inflated the actual size of Venezuela’s untapped deposits. Even with full legal and security guarantees from U.S. and Venezuelan acting authorities, Oxley concluded that “it is not clear that U.S. oil companies would be eager to invest,” noting that “there simply might be more enticing commercial opportunities on offer elsewhere.”