Global Pulse

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  • Man City complete £86m Bouaddi signing from Lille

    Man City complete £86m Bouaddi signing from Lille

    English Premier League powerhouse Manchester City has kicked off a major midfield overhaul with a blockbuster signing, securing Moroccan international Ayyoub Bouaddi from French Ligue 1 side Lille in an £85.6 million deal that makes the 18-year-old the most expensive teenager in Premier League history.

    Bouaddi has put pen to paper on a five-year contract with the club, with the transfer still waiting on formal international clearance to be finalized. The structure of the agreement sees Manchester City pay an initial £81.4 million upfront, with an additional £4.2 million tied to performance-based add-ons. The move comes just days after City offloaded two key first-team midfielders: fan-favorite Rodri, the 2024 Ballon d’Or winner, moved to Barcelona for £65 million, while Tijjani Reinders completed a £52 million switch to Saudi side Al-Qadsiah, clearing both salary cap space and a spot in the starting lineup for the teenage prospect.

    Bouaddi first caught the eye of top European scouts during this summer’s FIFA World Cup, where he started five of Morocco’s six matches as the North African side advanced to the tournament quarter-finals. Before his breakout international run, he had already cemented his status as a key starter for Lille in Ligue 1, emerging as one of the most promising young midfield talents in European football.

    “This is a very special day for me and my family,” Bouaddi told reporters after completing the move. “Manchester City are, for me, the best club in the world. It’s a dream to be here and be able to call myself a City player. I have spent most of my life working hard to become the best player I can be and reach the top of the game. I’ve watched City for many years, and I love their style of play. City always try and play quality football. And they have shown they are winners – this club feels like it was built to win.”

    The transfer fee for Bouaddi smashes the previous Premier League record for a teenager, which was set just last year when Manchester United signed another Lille young talent, French defender Leny Yoro, for £58.9 million. Bouaddi’s senior career trajectory has been nothing short of rapid: he made his first-team debut for Lille in 2023 at just 16 years old, becoming the youngest senior player in the club’s history when he took the pitch against Faroese side KI in a Europa League fixture. By 2024, he had announced himself to the global football community with a standout performance in Lille’s stunning Champions League victory over Real Madrid. Across two seasons with Lille, he made 96 first-team appearances and helped the club secure a third-place finish in Ligue 1 last season, earning eight international caps for Morocco along the way.

    Bouaddi is not the only new addition to City’s revamped midfield this transfer window. The club already completed a club-record £116 million signing of English international Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest earlier this summer. The two young talents are expected to complement each other perfectly: Bouaddi operates as a deep-lying playmaker who controls the tempo of matches from midfield, while Anderson is a dynamic box-to-box presence who can also fill the number six role for both club and country.

    Manchester City’s midfield rebuild is not yet complete, however. Club sources confirm the side is preparing a formal offer for Chelsea’s Argentine midfielder Enzo Fernandez, who is valued at £120 million by the London club, though it remains unclear whether the two sides can reach an agreement before the close of the transfer deadline on Tuesday.

    Bouaddi’s arrival is just the latest in a string of outgoing and incoming moves for City this week. Brazilian winger Savio (previously known as Savinho) completed a £75 million transfer to Tottenham Hotspur, while Tottenham have also agreed a loan deal for City’s Egyptian forward Omar Marmoush. Spanish midfielder Nico Gonzalez is also set to depart the Etihad Stadium, with Newcastle United having agreed an £85.6 million deal for his services.

    Speaking on the signing, BBC Manchester City reporter Shamoon Hafez noted that Bouaddi has big shoes to fill following Rodri’s departure, with the Spanish midfielder having cemented his status as one of the best holding midfielders in the world during his time at City. Unlike Rodri, who was already a proven elite talent when he joined the club, Bouaddi is signed for his unfulfilled potential, which places considerable pressure on the 18-year-old to adapt quickly to the pace and physicality of the Premier League. With Rodri, Reinders, Bernardo Silva, and soon Gonzalez all departing the City midfield this summer, Enzo Maresca’s side still needs additional depth to compete across all competitions this season. Now, with the 2025-26 Premier League season already underway, Bouaddi, Anderson, and any potential new signings will need to hit the ground running to integrate into City’s title-chasing squad.

  • Radiation link in flight attendant’s breast cancer, French court finds

    Radiation link in flight attendant’s breast cancer, French court finds

    In a groundbreaking legal decision that could reshape occupational health protections for aviation workers globally, a French court in Bayonne has become the first judicial body in the country to formally link cosmic radiation exposure to a flight attendant’s breast cancer, marking a historic turning point for aviation industry occupational safety.

    The case was brought by 59-year-old Sophie Lainault, a former Air France flight attendant who spent three decades in the air before retiring in 2019. Lainault, who is currently in remission from breast cancer, had petitioned the court to recognize her illness as an occupational disease caused by working conditions inherent to her role. The court’s ruling backed her claim, identifying cosmic radiation as one of three confirmed carcinogenic occupational hazards she faced during her career. The other two documented hazards are prolonged night shifts and chronic exposure to secondhand smoke, a common in-flight condition that persisted on Air France flights until smoking was banned on board in 2000.

    Over her 30-year career from 1989 to 2019, Lainault accumulated a total of 12,600 flight hours, with more than half of those logged on overnight routes. Many of her long-haul high-altitude trips out of Paris operated near the North Pole, a region where cosmic radiation exposure is far more intense than at lower latitudes. Unlike most locations on Earth, the North Pole receives weaker protection from the planet’s magnetic field, which normally deflects the energetic particles that make up cosmic radiation originating from the sun and distant stars.

    The implications of this ruling extend far beyond Lainault’s individual case. For the former flight attendant, the decision unlocks critical benefits: she will now be eligible for early retirement, and all future medical costs related to her cancer will be fully covered by France’s public health system. Legal experts note that the ruling also sets a binding precedent that clears the path for hundreds of other current and former aviation crew members to file similar claims seeking occupational disease recognition for radiation-linked cancers.

    Speaking after the decision, Lainault shared her hope that the ruling would empower other aviation workers to come forward. “My dearest wish is that the decision encourages other women who up until now have not had the courage to take this step,” she said.

    Her lawyer Elisabeth Leroux emphasized the uniqueness of the ruling, explaining that while France had previously recognized links between breast cancer and occupational hazards for workers such as nurses, this is the first time the connection has been formalized for a flight attendant.

    The decision aligns with newly published research from Harvard Medical School in the United States, which underscores the elevated cancer risk faced by aviation crews. A study released by the institution this month analyzed mortality data across more than 500 different professions, finding that flight attendants and pilots have the highest proportion of radiation-related cancer deaths among all occupational groups tracked. Researchers found that roughly 6.9% of all deaths among flight attendants and 6.7% of deaths among pilots are attributable to radiation-related cancers — proportions higher even than nuclear technologists, a profession routinely exposed to non-cosmic radiation, which ranked 12th on the list.

    While it has long been understood that high-altitude air travel exposes people to elevated levels of cosmic radiation, public health experts have long held that the cumulative exposure for occasional leisure travelers is too low to pose a statistically significant cancer risk. For crew members who spend hundreds of hours annually at high altitude, however, cumulative exposure adds up to a measurable long-term health hazard.

    In a statement following the ruling, Air France noted that it had not participated in Lainault’s legal proceedings and had not reviewed the full text of the court’s reasoning. The airline reaffirmed its commitment to employee well-being, saying, “The health and security of our staff is an absolute imperative. Every employee has a medical accompaniment that goes well beyond the regulatory minimum.”

  • Hundreds missing and at least 8 killed after avalanche triggers deadly flash floods in Nepal

    Hundreds missing and at least 8 killed after avalanche triggers deadly flash floods in Nepal

    A catastrophic natural disaster has struck northern Nepal, where a combined ice and rock avalanche unleashed devastating flash floods on Wednesday, leaving at least eight people dead, hundreds unaccounted for, and critical local infrastructure in ruins. Among the 384 people reported missing are 291 international tourists hailing from nations including India, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Malaysia, according to official government statements.

    The destructive floodwaters surged along the Bhotekoshi River starting around 9 a.m. local time, wiping out entire riverside villages, key travel routes, and large-scale hydropower projects along its path. In response to the crisis, Nepali authorities issued urgent evacuation and safety warnings to communities across multiple districts, urging residents to immediately relocate to higher ground away from the banks of the Bhotekoshi, Trishuli, and Narayani rivers, all at risk of dangerous surging waters.

    To bolster ongoing search and recovery operations, the Nepali government has formally requested international assistance from neighboring India and China, confirmed Sasmit Pokharel, a spokesperson for the national administration.

    The hardest-hit region, Rasuwa district, faced an almost identical disaster just 14 months prior, in August 2023. On that occasion, outburst flooding from a glacial lake in the adjacent Tibet Autonomous Region of China, driven by record high temperatures in the high Himalayas, killed nine people and destroyed critical cross-border infrastructure, including a key bridge connecting Nepal and China.

    Climate and disaster researchers based at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), a Kathmandu-based leading regional research institution, have pinpointed the cause of Wednesday’s disaster: a sudden avalanche breaking loose from a Nepal-based glacier. Experts explain that the avalanche deposited a massive block of ice and rock into the Lhende Khola River, a major tributary of the Bhotekoshi, temporarily damming the waterway before the accumulated pressure triggered a catastrophic sudden surge downstream that turned into the destructive flash flood. This marks the second major flood event on the Lhende Khola in just over a year, a striking increase in frequency for the region.

    Scientists warn that this disaster is far from an isolated event, and is directly tied to accelerating human-caused climate change heating the Hindu Kush Himalaya region far faster than the global average. This rapid warming has made the entire mountain range exponentially more vulnerable to extreme events including avalanches, outburst floods, landslides, and glacial melt events. Earlier research published by ICIMOD this year confirmed that glacial ice loss across the entire Hindu Kush Himalaya region has doubled since 2000, with rising global temperatures identified as the primary driver of the accelerating melt.

    “In a warming Himalaya, functional early warning systems are the first line of adaptation for at-risk communities,” said Saswata Sanyal, a disaster risk reduction specialist at ICIMOD, emphasizing the urgent need for improved preparedness as extreme weather events grow more frequent.

    This reporting is part of the Associated Press’ global climate and environmental coverage, which receives philanthropic funding from multiple private foundations, with the AP retaining full editorial control over all independent content.

  • Nepal floods at China border kill 8, cause ‘major casualties’ in Tibet

    Nepal floods at China border kill 8, cause ‘major casualties’ in Tibet

    A catastrophic flash flood and subsequent mudslide event along the shared Nepal-China border has left at least eight people dead in Nepal and caused “major casualties” on the Chinese side of the boundary, authorities confirmed Wednesday. The disaster, which unfolded in the Himalayan border region, has destroyed infrastructure, swept away homes and vehicles, and disrupted critical services across both sides of the frontier.

    Eyewitness accounts and visual evidence captured the devastating scale of the flood. Images released by Nepal Police show muddy floodwaters surging through river valleys, with only the top floors of submerged homes visible above the silt. Social media videos shared by law enforcement and local residents document torrents of brown water crashing through mountain valleys in Nuwakot, the Nepali district that forms the border with China’s Tibet Autonomous Region.

    “I witnessed the flood sweep away eight or nine trucks, along with houses and people,” 34-year-old local teacher Suman Chalise told AFP from Nuwakot. “It was absolutely heart-wrenching. I had not witnessed such devastation before.”

    As of Wednesday evening, Nepali police had recovered eight bodies, with search and rescue operations still ongoing across the affected zone. “So far, eight bodies have been found. Rescue operations are underway,” Nepal police spokesman Abi Narayan Kafle told AFP. Early in the response, authorities had already issued evacuation orders for communities located along the region’s riverbanks, as officials initially worked to assess the full extent of the damage.

    The Nepal Army has deployed helicopters and specialized disaster response teams to the hard-hit area to support search and recovery efforts. Critical energy infrastructure has also been heavily impacted: the Nepal Electricity Authority announced that approximately 430 megawatts of power generation capacity from hydropower and solar facilities was damaged by the flood. Floodwaters damaged generation stations, transmission lines and distribution networks, cutting electricity service to large parts of the affected region.

    Preliminary geoscientific assessments point to a natural geological trigger for the disaster originating on Nepali territory. Sarthak Shrestha, a remote sensing and geo-information analyst at the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), said initial surveys found no unusual activity on the Chinese side of the border. “We believe a rock-ice avalanche occurred in Nepal, blocking the Lhende river and causing the cascading flood event,” Shrestha explained.

    On the Chinese side of the border, the disaster triggered a major mudslide at Gyirong Port, a key trade hub connecting Tibet and Nepal. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported Wednesday that the mudslide originating on the Nepali side caused major casualties and multiple missing people at the port. AFP has not yet been able to independently verify the footage released by CCTV, which shows floodwaters carrying debris and tree branches across a submerged road.

    Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered full-scale rescue operations in the affected area of Tibet, according to Chinese state media. “The most urgent task is doing everything possible to search for and rescue the missing people… quickly treat injured people and minimise casualties to the greatest extent possible,” Xi stated, per CCTV. No official figures for deaths or injuries on the Chinese side have been released as of Wednesday. Local traffic authorities in Tibet’s Shigatse City have warned that roads in the area remain at high risk of additional mudslides and are unsafe for travel. This is not the first deadly disaster to strike the region: last July, 17 people went missing following a mudslide near Gyirong Port, according to official Chinese reports.

    The disaster comes amid annual monsoon season that spans from June to September across South Asia, a period that regularly brings deadly floods and landslides to the Himalayan region. Climate scientists have warned that human-caused climate change is increasing both the frequency and intensity of these extreme weather events across the Hindu Kush Himalaya region.

    Authorities are already warning of a second imminent flood threat. A blocked river channel remains upstream along the border river, and Qianggong Zhang, head of climate and environmental risks at ICIMOD, told AFP that a secondary flood event could occur in the coming days as response efforts continue.

  • A Wildberries depot in Russia is hit again and destroyed as Ukraine extends its drone campaign

    A Wildberries depot in Russia is hit again and destroyed as Ukraine extends its drone campaign

    In a dramatic escalation of Ukraine’s cross-border aerial campaign, Ukrainian long-range drones have completely destroyed a major logistics warehouse operated by Russia’s largest e-commerce giant Wildberries — marking the second strike on the same facility in just over a month, local Russian authorities confirmed Wednesday.

    Located in Russia’s Tambov region, hundreds of kilometers southeast of Moscow and far from the Ukrainian front lines, the depot first came under Ukrainian attack on July 18. That initial strike killed seven people and opened a new chapter of sustained drone assaults on Wildberries infrastructure that has rippled across Russian territory in recent weeks. Often compared to U.S. retail giant Amazon for its market dominance and central role in Russian domestic commerce, Wildberries has become a key target for Ukrainian forces. Kyiv officials say the company’s product catalog includes military equipment and technical components that directly support Russia’s military operations in Ukraine.

    The expanded drone campaign, enabled by advances in Ukrainian unmanned aerial technology developed after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, has hit dozens of Wildberries facilities across Russia in recent weeks. Beyond disrupting potential military supply chains, the strikes advance Ukraine’s war objectives in two critical ways: they sow uncertainty and anxiety among Russian civilian populations living far from the combat zone, and they create growing strain on the Russian domestic economy.

    The strike on the Tambov depot left two people injured, regional governor Yevgeny Pervyshov confirmed. A 19-year-old man suffered a concussion, while a 49-year-old woman sustained a broken finger. Wildberries itself acknowledged the overnight attack and subsequent fire, confirming all personnel were evacuated from the facility, but declined to comment further on the scale of damage. In a separate drone incident Wednesday in Russia’s Lipetsk region, south of Moscow, a falling drone crashed into a residential home and sparked a fire, killing two people and wounding two more, regional governor Igor Artamonov reported.

    Wildberries is not the only critical economic target Ukraine has prioritized in its recent drone offensive. Ukrainian forces have also repeatedly targeted Russian oil infrastructure, the backbone of Russia’s state revenue and global economic power as one of the world’s top energy producers. On Wednesday, unconfirmed reports emerged of a large fire at an oil refinery in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region, an area that has faced multiple Ukrainian drone strikes in recent months. Regional governor Gleb Nikitin confirmed an attack had caused damage to an unspecified industrial facility, but offered no further details on the site’s identity or the extent of destruction.

    The latest wave of drone strikes comes amid consistent heavy exchanges of fire across the conflict. Russia has responded to the nightly drone assaults with large-scale missile and bomb attacks on Ukrainian territory, launching volleys of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, glide bombs and jet-powered drones that have killed thousands of Ukrainian civilians since the full-scale invasion began. On Wednesday, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that its air defense systems shot down 426 Ukrainian drones overnight across 15 Russian regions and the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula. Ukraine has stated its strategy of launching mass drone attacks nearly every night is designed to overwhelm Russian air defense networks, increasing the likelihood that drones reach their intended targets.

    In the wake of the strike, Russian President Vladimir Putin has already issued a new decree that allows the Russian state to seize control of private infrastructure damaged in Ukrainian drone attacks, according to related reporting on the conflict.

  • Canada’s retaliation tests the limit of American power under Trump

    Canada’s retaliation tests the limit of American power under Trump

    The fragile landscape of US-Canada trade relations collapsed abruptly over the weekend, with a leaked set of private comments from US Vice-President JD Vance adding fuel to already tense negotiations that ultimately ended in a full breakdown and new reciprocal tariffs.

    Two days before Canadian negotiators walked away from the table, Vance told attendees at a closed-door private fundraiser that Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney was a “very sweet guy” who puts on a tough performance to outmatch former president and current White House incumbent Donald Trump. Vance dismissed this posturing as hilarious, adding that Canadian officials ultimately back down on most contentious trade issues. The private remarks, captured on an audio recording leaked to Canada’s national press, spread rapidly across Canadian media outlets. While analysts do not label the comments as the direct cause of the negotiation breakdown, they are widely agreed to have poisoned the atmosphere for talks.

    The sudden end to negotiations for a updated bilateral trade deal has triggered a new cycle of retaliatory tariffs between the two countries, which share more than $872 billion in annual two-way trade. This deepening rift is the latest example of the second Trump administration’s approach to global diplomacy, which applies aggressive pressure to both allies and adversaries alike – and underscores the significant unintended disruptive risks that come with this strategy.

    What is more, the Trump administration’s core assumption that Canada would quickly cave to US pressure, as many other US allies have done over the past 19 months of Trump’s second term, appears to be a critical miscalculation. The fallout from this misjudgment could shape bilateral relations for the remainder of Trump’s presidency.

    Cross-border trade friction between the two nations is not a new development. Tensions stretch back to Trump’s first term, when the United States renegotiated the 1990s North American Free Trade Agreement into the updated US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a process marked by open personal friction between Trump and then-Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau. Ahead of Trump’s 2024 return to the White House, he infamously mocked Trudeau as the “governor” of America’s so-called 51st state, Canada.

    These public insults reflect a broader Trump administration geopolitical framework that frames the US as the dominant hemispheric power entitled to exert political, military and economic influence over its immediate neighbors. Senior administration officials have repeatedly argued that Canada contributes far too little to regional collective defense while reaping outsized economic benefits from open trade with the US. In Trump’s worldview, economic security and national security are inseparable, making Canada and Mexico – America’s two largest trading partners – natural early targets for renegotiation and pressure. This same framework underpinned Trump’s public comment that he wanted to acquire Greenland from Denmark.

    “If you listen to really anybody in state, treasury, or commerce [departments], you will hear the phrase ‘economic security is national security’,” explained Drew Delong, head of corporate statecraft at the Kearney Foresight think tank.

    By the start of 2026, while North American trade negotiations lurched forward in uneven stops and starts, Trump’s foreign policy attention shifted away from Canada to military interventions in Venezuela and later the Middle East. Even across disparate regions, however, the core pillar of Trump’s international strategy remains unchanged: the US is a global power that can impose its will to advance its own national interests. But this approach is increasingly running into hard limits, and Trump’s second term has become a sustained test of where those boundaries lie.

    While there are obvious gaps between an active military conflict in Iran and a trade dispute with a close neighbor, the core strategic lesson is surprisingly similar: in both cases, the US faces a counterpart that, despite holding far less overall power, still retains meaningful tools to retaliate against American pressure. For Iran, that leverage comes from targeting US regional allies and disrupting global energy trade by threatening the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical maritime chokepoints. For Canada, that means leveraging its position as a key economic and trade partner to inflict tangible damage on the US economy. Canada’s new round of targeted tariffs, announced this week, is just the first step; future measures could include cutting off US access to Canadian energy supplies, critical mineral exports, and even widespread consumer boycotts of American-made goods.

    “As the broader world shifts into a more economic security theatre, you see this game of chokepoints and leverage angles continue to pan out across supply chains,” DeLong noted, adding that nations around the globe are now actively identifying these tools to push back against great power pressure.

    At present, clear offramps to de-escalation are scarce. Trump has ramped up his aggressive rhetoric, repeatedly claiming Canada is “ripping off” the US economy, while Ontario Premier Doug Ford responded with a blunt rebuke, telling the American president to “kiss my ass”.

    “Every time we push allies and partners away, I think we incentivise them to look for new relationships and new partnerships rather than trying to acquiesce to US demands,” said Imran Bayoumi, deputy director of the GeoStrategy Initiative at the Atlantic Council.

    Despite the escalating rhetoric, there remains a window for cooler heads to restart negotiations. Canada’s new tariffs will not go into effect for another two weeks, and the Trump administration’s most significant proposed retaliatory measure – a 25% universal tariff on all Canadian-built vehicles and auto parts – will not take effect until early 2027. While cycles of escalation are notoriously difficult to break in any conflict, whether economic or military, this multi-month gap before the next major tariff increase gives negotiating teams time to restart discussions. Before the breakdown late last week, talks had actually been showing incremental signs of progress.

    The more pressing timeline shaping the current standoff is the upcoming November 2026 US midterm elections. If Democrats score major congressional victories, they could significantly curtail Trump’s policy authority. Conversely, unexpected strong results for Republicans would likely embolden the White House to take an even harder line with Canada. Right now, the Canadian government in Ottawa is betting on a Democratic wave, calculating that Trump will back down before election day to avoid economic pain for voters in key industrial swing states such as Michigan and Ohio that would be hit hard by continuing trade tensions.

    “I don’t think there’s the kind of internal political divisions in Canada that maybe the Trump administration would have expected,” Bayoumi said. “I think Carney has a lot of political runway to really get a good deal for Canada and not settle for anything less.”

    Still, another long-term outcome is increasingly possible, one that Prime Minister Carney has publicly acknowledged since Trump returned to office: Canada could permanently shift its economic and diplomatic alignment away from the United States, deliberately widening the gap between the two nations. “We cannot depend on traditional alliances when the rules of the game have fundamentally changed,” Carney has argued. While geographic proximity will ensure the two countries remain tied in many ways, the deeply integrated bilateral economic relationship built over the past three decades may be reaching its end.

    This trajectory puts Canada in stark contrast to Mexico, which has moved toward closer economic integration with the US in recent months. Meanwhile, other US allies across Europe and Asia are closely watching Canada’s confrontational approach to Washington as a potential blueprint for their own future dealings with the Trump administration.

    “Ten years from now, this is going to be taught in classrooms,” DeLong said. “You have these bifurcating paths within North America, and the question is: Are they going to come back together, or is this going to continue to split? And if it does, who benefits most in the long run?”

    If even traditionally diplomatic, close ally Canada is willing to stand up to a more aggressive United States, other nations may well draw the same conclusion and follow suit.

  • The epic La Tomatina food fight draws thousands to a small Spanish town

    The epic La Tomatina food fight draws thousands to a small Spanish town

    BUNOL, Spain – On the last Wednesday of August 2026, tens of thousands of travelers and festival-goers flooded the tiny eastern Spanish town of Buñol, ready to take part in the world’s largest and most iconic food battle: the annual La Tomatina tomato fight. Organizers prepared to unleash 165 tons of soft, overripe tomatoes for the hour-long chaotic celebration, transforming the town’s narrow streets into a sea of bright red pulp by the end of the event.

    Local authorities and residents take specific precautions ahead of every festival, covering every building along the fight route with heavy waterproof tarps to protect structures from sticky tomato residue. The event carries a long, storied history dating back to an impromptu street food fight that broke out among local young people in 1945. What began as a spontaneous outburst of community fun grew into a beloved yearly tradition, until it was banned entirely in the 1950s during the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco. It was not until the 1980s, when widespread televised coverage brought the quirky festival to national attention, that La Tomatina grew into a global cultural attraction drawing visitors from across the world.

    This year, organizers expect more than 20,000 participants to squeeze into Buñol’s fight zone. Data from Spanish national news agency EFE shows that over the past three years, nearly 40 percent of attendees have been international tourists traveling to Spain specifically for the event. In recent years, the festival has seen a dramatic surge in visitors from India, a shift widely traced to the 2011 Bollywood blockbuster *Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara* (You Only Live Once). The film, which follows three friends on a Spanish road trip for a final bachelor party, includes a famous scene recreating La Tomatina, introducing the iconic festival to millions of Indian moviegoers.

    That pop culture introduction was what brought 27-year-old Mumbai clothing business owner Romail Khokhar to Buñol for his third La Tomatina on Wednesday. Waiting for the fight to kick off, Khokhar shared his enthusiasm for the one-of-a-kind event: “I feel really great, actually. It’s the best festival that I ever had, and I enjoy a lot here.”

    La Tomatina’s global fame has inspired copycat tomato-flinging events across six continents, with similar celebrations held in cities including Florida, London, Amsterdam, the Colombian town of Sutamarchán, and Hyderabad, India. None, however, match the scale and legacy of the original event in Buñol.

    To keep the day as safe as possible, event organizers enforce only one core rule: all participants must squash their tomatoes before throwing them to reduce the risk of injury from hard, solid fruit. Even with that rule, most attendees come prepared, wearing disposable swimming goggles and earplugs to block out sticky pulp and acidic juice. Non-local participants are required to purchase a 15-euro (approximately $17.50 USD) entry ticket, which helps organizers manage crowd sizes and fund cleanup operations after the event.

    After exactly 60 minutes of chaotic throwing, a single cannon blast signals the end of the fight. Participants then head to communal public showers set up around the town to wash off tomato juice and pulp, while municipal crews move in to spray down the entire street with high-pressure hoses. Surprisingly, while tomato stains often set permanently on clothing, the citric acid found in tomato juice acts as a natural cleaning and degreasing agent, leaving Buñol’s streets cleaner than they were before the festival began.

  • Heavy casualties feared as flash flood sweeps across parts of northern Nepal

    Heavy casualties feared as flash flood sweeps across parts of northern Nepal

    A catastrophic flash flood that swept through remote districts of northern Nepal early Wednesday has left entire communities submerged, critical infrastructure destroyed, and dozens of people unaccounted for, with emergency officials warning the final casualty toll could be severe.

    The disaster struck Rasuwa district, a mountainous border region located roughly 60 miles north of Nepal’s capital Kathmandu that shares a frontier with China’s Tibet Autonomous Region and serves as the backbone of Nepal-China trade routes. According to local disaster officials, the flood originated when sudden glacial melt from the Himalayan plateau surged into the Bhote Koshi River, which flows across the border into Nepal, triggering a fast-moving wall of water that overwhelmed river banks and downstream communities.

    In the hours after the flood hit, initial reports paint a grim picture of destruction. Entire villages along the river have been washed away, and a major hydropower dam in the region has sustained significant damage, raising further risks of downstream flooding for low-lying areas. Several districts along the river’s lower course have already been placed on the highest level of alert, as authorities work to evacuate at-risk populations.
    Narendra Pariyar, chief district officer of Rasuwa, told reporters that it remains too early to calculate the full scope of damage, though preliminary assessments confirm destruction is widespread. As of Thursday morning, search and rescue teams have pulled 12 people from flood-hit areas, but operations have been hampered by damaged communication infrastructure, which has left large swathes of the district without mobile or radio signal.

    That communication blackout has left families and employers waiting for news of missing loved ones and workers. Yee Liang, a Chinese business owner based in Kathmandu, told the BBC his logistics firm had seven container trucks operating along the flood-hit trade route when the disaster hit, with all seven Nepali crew members unaccounted for. “There was no warning ahead of the flood,” Yee said. “While occasional mudslides and landslides are common here during monsoon season, this event is far more severe than anything we have seen in recent years.”
    Authorities confirmed Thursday that 13 armed police officers stationed at two outposts in Rasuwa are officially missing, and dozens of additional law enforcement personnel deployed across the district have also not been reached. Nepal’s federal disaster management authority has issued an urgent advisory urging all residents living along river banks in high-risk zones to move to higher ground immediately and take emergency precautions.

    Nepali Prime Minister Balendra Shah held an emergency cabinet meeting shortly after the disaster to coordinate response efforts, announcing in a subsequent social media post that search and rescue operations are already underway in partnership with local medical teams, scout organizations, and the Nepal Red Cross Society.
    This is not the first major flood to hit Rasuwa in the last 12 months. In 2025, a similar glacial outburst flood originating on the Chinese side of the border killed 18 people in the district. But officials familiar with the situation told the BBC Wednesday’s disaster is already on track to be far deadlier and more destructive than last year’s event, highlighting the growing risk of glacial melt-driven disasters in the Himalayan region as global temperatures rise.

  • Dolly Parton was the one thing most Americans could agree on

    Dolly Parton was the one thing most Americans could agree on

    When news of Dolly Parton’s passing broke this week, Americans across every political and cultural divide united in grief, celebrating the life of a one-of-a-kind entertainer whose legacy stretched far beyond the country music stage. To the world, Parton was many things: a genre-defying musician, a Hollywood star, a shrewd business leader, and a dedicated philanthropist whose giving lifted millions. One title she never claimed, however, was politician – a choice that became the foundation of her rare, cross-cutting appeal in an increasingly divided nation.

    The question of public office has followed Parton for decades. Back in 1999, during an appearance on the talk show *Prime Time Country!*, a young audience member asked if she would ever run for political office. With her signature sharp, warm wit, Parton demurred, quipping: “I think of myself more as a diplomat. That’s the kind of people who tell you to go to hell in such a way you look forward to the trip.”

    That self-described diplomacy turned Parton into a rare unicorn in modern American society. Her fanbase spanned generations, from great-grandmothers to Gen Z fans, and included Republicans and Democrats, drag performers and evangelical Christians alike. For Sarah Phillips, an Indiana University professor who made Parton the subject of an acclaimed anthropology course, the icon’s ability to bridge deep political and cultural divides was unparalleled. Phillips, who still struggles to refer to Parton in the past tense, says she broke down in tears in her office when she heard the news of her death, a testament to how deeply Parton touched even those who study her career academically.

    Public opinion data bears out that unprecedented cross-group appeal. A recent YouGov poll put Parton’s net approval rating at 65% – far outpacing major figures from across the political and entertainment spectrum: former President Barack Obama scored 14%, pop star Taylor Swift earned 3%, former President Donald Trump hit -19%, and current President Joe Biden landed at -18%.

    Parton’s universal appeal stemmed from a deliberate, consistent choice: she refused to pick sides in partisan politics, wary of alienating the broad community of fans that supported her. “I’ve got as many Republican fans as Democrats and I don’t want to make any of them mad at me, so I don’t play politics,” she once told Fox News. That commitment to neutrality even led her to turn down one of the nation’s highest civilian honors twice: she declined offers of the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Donald Trump, citing scheduling and health concerns, and later turned it down from Joe Biden as well, to avoid appearing to favor one party over the other.

    Yet to frame Parton as apolitical would be a mistake. While she avoided partisan clashes, she spoke openly and consistently on core social issues, including women’s rights, LGBTQ+ equality, and Black Lives Matter. Phillips argues that this combination of refusal to align with a partisan camp and commitment to speaking her truth is what made her so widely beloved.

    “She has always been a model for women, carving your own path, looking out for yourself, making sure that you retain the rights to your intellectual property, looking out for your own financial and creative independence,” Phillips told the BBC. “And if that’s not feminism, I don’t know what is.”

    Parton broke the mold of country music stardom from the earliest days of her career. After rising to become a crossover pop sensation in 1977, she retained her loyal country audience while growing her global following. Three years later, she made her film debut alongside Jane Fonda in the workplace rights comedy *9 to 5*. At the time, Fonda was widely shunned in conservative circles for her anti-Vietnam War activism, but Parton refused to distance herself from her co-star to appease fans. “I respect anybody’s beliefs and the fact that they’re willing to stand up for whatever it is. But I’m also the kind of person that if I don’t like where you got it, I can tell you where to put it,” she said at the time. Following Parton’s death, Fonda paid tribute, writing: “She is woven into all our lives and hearts forever.”

    Parton’s carefully cultivated public image – glamorous, camp, and endlessly warm – was no accident. A shrewd entrepreneur who understood both showbusiness and human nature, she intentionally crafted a persona that brought people together. When journalist Barbara Walters questioned her over-the-top aesthetic in a 1977 interview, asking if Parton saw herself as a joke, Parton pushed back with characteristic confidence. “Everybody thinks that the joke’s on me, but in fact, the joke is on the public. I know very well what I’m doing, and I can change my image any time I want to,” she told Walters. Phillips notes that moment was a perfect demonstration of Parton’s self-possession: she was always in control of her own narrative.

    Over decades, journalists repeatedly tried to draw Parton into partisan political fights, but she always pivoted away, using humor and self-deprecation as her shields. At a 2016 press conference, when asked about the presidential race, she joked: “I’ve been thinking about running myself… we could use a few more boobs in the race.” Though Parton’s father campaigned for his daughter in his own way, driving around town with a “Dolly for President” bumper sticker, she never pursued public office.

    Instead, she channeled her energy and fortune into philanthropy, work rooted in her own experience growing up in abject poverty in rural Appalachian Tennessee. One of 12 children raised in a one-bedroom log cabin, Parton never forgot her roots. When her career took off, she employed dozens of family members in her businesses and invested heavily in her local community. In 1986, she purchased a struggling mountain theme park near her hometown, rebranding it Dollywood – today, it remains the largest employer in the entire county. She also founded the Imagination Library, a program that mails free books to children around the world, and contributed critical early funding to the development of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine.

    Those who worked with Parton highlight her quiet, personal kindness, which extended far beyond large charitable donations. James Rogers, board president of the American Eagle Foundation, which partners with Dollywood on a bald eagle sanctuary, recalled a decades-old encounter that stuck with him. When Parton arrived for a performance, she spotted Rogers, his wife, and his 10-year-old daughter Heather waiting off to the side, and stopped her entire entourage to kneel down and talk to the little girl one on one. “She’s even sweeter than you realise,” Rogers said.

    Phillips, who grew up in the North Carolina mountains just across the valley from Parton’s Tennessee hometown, describes Parton’s approach to contentious issues as “Dollitics” – a term coined by Parton’s nephew that captures her commitment to lifting everyone up, rather than defeating political opponents. “She wants all boats to rise,” Phillips said.

    Phillips added that Parton embodied the core, old-fashioned American Dream: the idea that with talent and relentless hard work, anyone can build the life they want. And unlike so many public figures, Parton was truly one of a kind. When Phillips traveled through Europe this summer, she asked audiences across France and Poland to name their own country’s Dolly Parton. No one ever had an answer. There will never be another like her.

  • America unites in mourning for Dolly Parton

    America unites in mourning for Dolly Parton

    The United States has come together in a rare moment of cross-ideological unity to mourn the passing of Dolly Parton, the iconic country music singer and cultural treasure who died at the age of 80. For decades, Parton stood out as one of the only public figures beloved by people across the political, social and cultural spectrum, and tributes poured in this week from current and former presidents, A-list entertainers, and global business leaders alike.

    Political figures from both major U.S. political parties put aside divides to honor Parton’s legacy. Former President Donald Trump, who ordered all U.S. flags to be flown at half-staff for seven days in her memory, called her passing “a true loss for millions of people.” In a post to his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote, “Very sad to report that Dolly Parton, one of the greatest Country singers, and far beyond, EVER, has just passed away. There has never been anyone like her, and never will.”

    His Democratic predecessor Joe Biden echoed that sentiment, describing Parton as “an American original” who built her career on treating every person she met with consistent kindness and respect. Republican former President George W. Bush highlighted Parton’s decades of philanthropic work, which included initiatives to boost literacy across the U.S., expand access to healthcare, and strengthen local communities. Democratic former President Bill Clinton simply called her “one of a kind,” while New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani praised her as “an irreplaceable champion of the working class,” adding, “We are a better country because of her.”

    Tributes from the global entertainment industry reflected the deep, cross-genre influence Parton built over her 60-plus year career. Miley Cyrus, who counted Parton as her godmother, shared her grief on social platform X, writing, “So many evil people in this world and we had to lose a pure heart like Dolly Parton. Devastating day for humanity.”

    Taylor Swift, the global pop superstar who launched her career in country music, said a world without Parton “doesn’t feel possible, real, or right,” adding in a statement to entertainment outlets *Variety* and *The Hollywood Reporter* that “Her legacy will be an everlasting one.” Beyoncé, who collaborated with Parton on her Grammy-winning 2024 album *Cowboy Carter*, called Parton “Bold and brilliant. Talented and tenacious. You taught so many lessons on how to be uniquely oneself.”

    Rock musician Jack White, who recorded a popular cover of Parton’s iconic hit “Jolene,” called for Parton’s “instant sainthood” in an Instagram post. Country rapper Kid Rock, who worked with Parton on multiple projects, called her “quite simply the greatest of all time,” writing, “Thanks for the songs, the laughs, the humility and grace. Without a doubt a woman who God truly has his hands on.”

    Many artists who worked with Parton highlighted her warm, generous spirit as much as her artistic talent. Country star Carrie Underwood noted that Parton “was probably the one person on planet Earth that everyone loved and could agree on.” Young pop star Sabrina Carpenter, who collaborated with Parton in 2024, recalled their first meeting and described Parton as “an angel walking the earth,” writing on Instagram, “Your light will be something the world will search forever to find again.”

    Jane Fonda, who starred alongside Parton in the hit 1980 comedy *9 to 5*, said Parton would remain a permanent part of public life: “Dolly will always be with us because she was so present, so powerful, so generous and playful that she is woven into all our lives and hearts forever.” Julia Roberts, Parton’s co-star in *Steel Magnolias*, called her “a magical and joyous human.” Country star Jason Aldean, who met Parton multiple times over his career, wrote on X, “She was truly a bright light that shined just a little brighter than anyone else in the room.”

    Even iconic artists outside of country and pop shared their grief. Former Beatle Paul McCartney recalled meeting Parton early in her career, writing on Instagram that “she was so bubbly and full of life it is difficult to take in the news that she has passed.” Rapper Eminem praised Parton for the personal note she sent him when he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, writing on X, “She definitely didn’t have to take the time to do it. Even for a kid who mostly listened to rap music, she was an icon. A superstar in every sense.”

    Leaders of the global business community also joined in paying tribute to Parton’s legacy. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said he and his wife Lauren Sanchez Bezos were “so grateful to have known her.” Apple CEO Tim Cook called Parton a “brilliant songwriter, cultural icon and dedicated philanthropist” whose music “helped light up the world.”

    As fans gathered at Parton’s Hollywood Walk of Fame star in Los Angeles to leave flowers and handwritten tributes, the cross-cultural outpouring of grief underscored the unique place Parton held in American life: a unifying figure whose talent, generosity and authenticity transcended the divides that often split the nation.