Global Pulse

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  • SpaceX IPO: rockets, AI losses and Musk in control

    SpaceX IPO: rockets, AI losses and Musk in control

    As Elon Musk’s aerospace and technology firm SpaceX moves toward one of the most highly anticipated initial public offerings (IPOs) in modern history, it is asking investors to place a massive bet on the billionaire’s long-term vision: interplanetary human settlement on Mars and a new generation of artificial intelligence data centers orbiting Earth. But for all the excitement surrounding the offering, the deal comes with a series of unusual caveats, steep ongoing losses, and structural safeguards that cement Musk’s permanent control over the company, even as it opens its doors to billions in new public capital.

    For decades, Musk’s track record of turning once-skepticized projects like Tesla into global industry giants has earned him a reputation as a visionary who can anticipate the next technological shift and build sustainable, world-leading businesses around it. It is this reputation that underpins SpaceX’s sky-high pre-IPO valuation of nearly $1.8 trillion, a figure that hinges entirely on investor expectations that Musk will pull off his most ambitious goals yet. Yet current financial results tell a far more uncertain story: while the company is growing rapidly, it is burning through cash at an unprecedented rate. In 2025, SpaceX posted $18.7 billion in annual revenue, a 33% jump from the prior year, but rising operating costs pushed its net loss to $4.9 billion. That downhill trajectory accelerated in the first quarter of 2026, where the company recorded another $4.3 billion in losses, on track for a full-year deficit that could exceed $15 billion.

    Despite these ongoing losses, SpaceX’s IPO projection forecasts that annual revenue could eventually surge past $28.5 trillion. The company frames its future profit streams as rooted first in Starlink, its growing satellite internet constellation, and ultimately in space-based AI data centers, a new market that Musk argues will outcompete terrestrial infrastructure for low-latency AI workloads. That said, Musk’s standalone AI subsidiary xAI has so far failed to keep pace with leading industry rivals: current annual AI revenue for the firm sits at roughly $500 million, a tiny fraction of the top-line revenue posted by OpenAI and Anthropic.

    One of the most defining structural features of the post-IPO SpaceX is that Musk will retain absolute control over all major company decisions, even after thousands of new investors buy into the stock. The company uses a dual-class share structure, a system adopted by other major tech giants including Google, Meta, and Snap to preserve founder control after going public. Ordinary retail and institutional investors will purchase Class A shares, which grant one vote per share. Musk, by contrast, holds Class B shares that carry 10 votes per share, putting roughly 82% of the company’s total voting power firmly in his hands, enough to override any collective decision from other shareholders.

    Having weathered years of shareholder lawsuits against his other publicly traded firm Tesla, Musk has also built an unprecedented legal fortress around SpaceX to limit investor legal recourse. All shareholder disputes against the company must be filed in a specialized Texas business court under the terms of the IPO filing. If a judge declines to hear the case, disputes are pushed into private arbitration, which eliminates the right to a jury trial and blocks class-action lawsuits – the primary legal tool that shareholders use to hold large corporations accountable for misconduct. The filing explicitly acknowledges that courts could eventually strike down these provisions if they are challenged, but they will remain in effect unless a ruling overturns them.

    In a break from traditional IPO structures that reserve the vast majority of offering shares for large Wall Street institutional investors, SpaceX has set aside 30% of its IPO shares for everyday retail investors, opening up access to the offering directly to Musk’s large global fanbase. This unusual allocation shifts the composition of early ownership away from hedge funds and mutual funds, some of which have already expressed skepticism about the company’s lofty valuation and ongoing losses. However, the broader access to retail investors also carries a notable downside: it could increase early stock volatility, as large numbers of enthusiastic retail buyers rushing to acquire shares could spark a sharp initial price spike.

    Beyond the enthusiasm of retail investors, a quirk of index fund rules guarantees a massive wave of automatic buying for SpaceX stock once it goes public. More than 60% of all U.S. stocks are held by passive index funds that track major benchmarks such as the Nasdaq 100. In a change that benefited SpaceX directly, Nasdaq revised its rules in May to cut the waiting period for new listed companies to join the index from three months to just 15 trading days. That means the trillions of dollars held in Nasdaq 100 index funds – which count millions of U.S. retirement plans among their investors – will be required to purchase SpaceX shares almost immediately after its IPO to keep their funds aligned with the index. Compounding this forced buying pressure is the fact that only 4% of SpaceX’s total $1.8 trillion valuation will be made available for public purchase, an extremely thin float that leaves far more buyer demand than available shares. The combination of forced index buying, retail enthusiasm, and limited supply could push SpaceX’s share price to sharply elevated levels in the first days of trading, even as the company continues to post billions in annual losses.

  • In open letter to Putin, Zelensky calls for meeting and ceasefire

    In open letter to Putin, Zelensky calls for meeting and ceasefire

    In an unprecedented public diplomatic move that marks one of the highest-profile direct outreach attempts from Kyiv to the Kremlin since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky formally proposed a face-to-face negotiating meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin alongside a temporary full ceasefire for the duration of talks in an open letter published Thursday. The appeal landed just hours after Putin acknowledged growing gaps in Russia’s air defense networks, amid a sharp uptick in long-range Ukrainian drone strikes penetrating deep into Russian territory, including attacks on targets in Saint Petersburg this week.

    Zelensky’s public letter laid out the core terms of his proposal clearly: an immediate, full ceasefire that would remain in place throughout the negotiations, and a set meeting date for direct talks between the two heads of state. “Ukraine proposes ending this war through direct engagement between us — you and me. I am proposing a meeting,” the letter read. “I propose to set a clear date for such a meeting. Ukraine is ready for a full ceasefire for the duration of the negotiations.” The Ukrainian president also issued a stark warning: “If you do not personally come to the conclusion that it is time to end this war, Ukraine will continue fighting for its existence.”

    The timing of the appeal was significant: it came one day after Ukrainian drones carried out strikes in Saint Petersburg, Putin’s hometown, which was playing host to the high-profile Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), a landmark annual event often called Russia’s equivalent of the World Economic Forum in Davos. This direct public address to Putin from Zelensky remains a rare occurrence, even after more than three years of open conflict. Zelensky has long held that only direct, face-to-face talks with the Russian leader can produce a viable territorial peace agreement, after months of US-facilitated indirect negotiations failed to bring the two warring parties any closer to a breakthrough deal.

    Russia has set hard preconditions for any formal peace talks, demanding that Ukraine withdraw all its military forces from the entirety of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, large swathes of which remain under Kyiv’s control more than three years into the invasion. Ahead of the publication of Zelensky’s letter, Putin spoke to international reporters in Saint Petersburg and repeated longstanding Russian questions over Zelensky’s constitutional legitimacy, arguing that the expiration of Zelensky’s original five-year presidential term in 2024 required further “analysis” of his status. Ukraine has held that the country’s martial law, which bans national elections during wartime, gives the current administration full legal standing, and Zelensky has previously offered to hold a public vote or referendum on any final peace settlement once a full ceasefire is implemented.

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded to the letter publicly shortly after its release, noting that Putin had not yet been presented with the document, but claimed that “Zelensky can come at any time to Moscow” for talks. This proposal was already explicitly rejected by Zelensky in his original letter, ruling out any meeting on Russian territory. Putin has for months maintained that he will only meet Zelensky to sign off on a fully pre-negotiated deal, refusing to hold open-ended talks before an agreement is already finalized.

    The public exchange comes amid shifting battlefield dynamics that have worked in Ukraine’s favor in recent months. After accelerating its long-range retaliatory strikes against Russian military and energy infrastructure in response to relentless Russian nightly missile barrages across Ukraine, Kyiv has managed to recapture more territory than it lost to Russian forces for two consecutive months, according to an Agence France-Presse analysis of data from the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War. Russia’s overall offensive advance across the front line has slowed sharply since late 2025, with Ukrainian forces pushing back in multiple sectors.

    During his forum address in Saint Petersburg, Putin struck a defiant tone amid shifting realities, hailing what he called his forces’ battlefield achievements and rejecting suggestions that the full-scale invasion has become a strategic failure for Russia. “We are advancing along the entire line of contact,” he told reporters, adding that “We are absolutely ready and willing to reach an agreement with Ukraine through peaceful means.” At the same time, he conceded the urgent need to upgrade and reinforce Russia’s air defense networks in the wake of the Saint Petersburg drone strikes: “Russia has an air defence system. Yes, we must improve it. Yes, we must strengthen it. And we will do so.”

  • How Syria’s captagon trade shifted to Sweida after Assad’s fall

    How Syria’s captagon trade shifted to Sweida after Assad’s fall

    Eighteen months after the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, a new chapter of the global captagon trade is unfolding in the country’s southern border province of Sweida, where dismantled drug networks have reconstituted themselves amid fragmented governance and rising regional tensions. Once a key transit corridor for Assad’s multi-billion dollar narcotics empire, the strategically located province has rapidly evolved into one of Syria’s most active captagon production and smuggling hubs, presenting a major test for Damascus’s new transitional government and neighboring security forces alike.

    Under Assad’s decades-long rule, captagon – an inexpensive, highly addictive amphetamine – functioned as a de facto source of state revenue. Western and regional security officials repeatedly documented that the regime’s elite Fourth Armoured Division, commanded by Assad’s brother Maher, and the Military Intelligence Directorate ran an extensive industrial network of captagon factories. At the trade’s peak, the UK government confirmed in 2023 that this network produced roughly 80% of the world’s entire captagon supply. When the new transitional government led by President Ahmad al-Sharaa took power in December 2024, it launched an aggressive nationwide crackdown on this legacy infrastructure, with official data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) showing that by November 2025, authorities had shuttered 15 large-scale production labs, 13 smaller storage facilities, and seized more than 500 million tablets across Syria.

    But while the national crackdown has succeeded in disrupting networks in most regions, Sweida has emerged as a stark exception. Local investigations reveal that as production hubs were dismantled elsewhere, trafficking factions in Sweida retained local control and reorganized their operations, turning the province into a strategic reserve for captagon raw materials and stockpiles left over from the Assad era. For decades under the former regime, Sweida’s position along the Jordanian border made it the primary transit route for narcotics heading to Jordan and consumer markets across the Gulf, with the Assad government relying on alliances with local Bedouin and Druze communities to facilitate cross-border smuggling. That structure has not only survived the regime’s collapse but grown more powerful following sweeping political changes in the province.

    In July 2025, sectarian violence erupted in Sweida that left an estimated 1,700 people dead and triggered the withdrawal of Damascus government forces from most of the province. More than 40 local Druze factions merged into the Druze-led National Guard, which now holds de facto control over Sweida, with explicit political and military backing from Israel. Israel has long positioned itself as a protector of Syria’s Druze minority, and views an autonomous, fragmented southern Syria as a critical strategic buffer against a unified central government in Damascus.

    Security data collated by Syria Weekly confirms that cross-border smuggling from Sweida into Jordan has surged by more than 325% since the National Guard seized control of the province. Between January and July 2025, Jordanian border forces intercepted just 21 trafficking attempts originating in Sweida; over the subsequent nine months, that number skyrocketed to 128 interceptions. Local reporting from Sweida-based outlet Suwayda 24 estimates that 12 to 15 captagon production facilities are now operating across the province, ranging from permanent industrial factories to mobile pill presses hidden inside civilian vehicles. One newly built facility was documented operating in a dense residential neighborhood in the center of Sweida city, directly overseen by National Guard forces, who use local civilian residents as human shields to deter potential airstrikes. The report adds that the operation relies on local technicians who received advanced training from Hezbollah experts prior to Assad’s fall – a continuation of the longstanding alliance between the Iranian-backed Lebanese group and the ousted Syrian regime. Hezbollah has repeatedly denied any involvement in the captagon trade.

    Jordanian intelligence assessments have concluded that Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajari, the Druze religious leader who heads the National Guard, has intentionally built a permissive operating environment for traffickers in exchange for significant revenue, replicating the corrupt financial model that propped up Assad’s rule for decades. For Jordan, the expansion of captagon production on its northern border represents one of the most pressing national security threats, prompting Amman to launch direct military action inside Syrian territory. In early May 2026, the Royal Jordanian Air Force launched F-16 airstrikes targeting at least six suspected captagon facilities across Sweida, an operation officially named “Operation Jordanian Deterrence” that targeted factories, storage warehouses, and smuggling staging hubs. This strike marked the fifth cross-border attack Jordan has carried out since Assad’s fall, and the third since the National Guard took control of Sweida.

    Retired Jordanian Major-General Mamoun Abu Nowar framed the strike as a clear strategic message in comments to Al Jazeera, stating: “This is a warning to groups inside Sweida cooperating with Israel, and to Israel itself: do not advance destabilizing projects along our border. Jordan will not hesitate to strike these smuggling nests.” Retired Air Force Colonel Abdullah al-Sarhan added that the strikes were a pre-emptive measure, noting that traffickers have rapidly adopted increasingly sophisticated smuggling technologies to evade detection, from small quadcopter drones to large GPS-guided helium balloons fitted with timed remote release mechanisms that can carry far larger loads across the border at a fraction of the cost.

    A Jordanian government official confirmed that Amman will not tolerate active drug production hubs operating along its shared border, stressing that the May 2026 strikes were coordinated with Damascus’s transitional government, consistent with a January 2025 bilateral agreement to establish a joint security committee to combat cross-border smuggling of narcotics and weapons. As part of this growing cooperation, Jordan recently hosted a 300-strong cohort of Syrian Internal Security Forces officers at the Jordanian International Police Training Centre for advanced training in modern counter-narcotics tactics, physical fitness, self-defense, and weapons handling. Trained officers are set to deploy soon to rural areas of Sweida still under central government control to bolster border security.

    Data from independent analysts shows the scale of the smuggling challenge: Charles Lister, Senior Fellow and Syria Director at the Middle East Institute, reports that Jordanian forces have intercepted at least 46 million captagon pills from Sweida since July 2025, most of which were being smuggled via GPS-guided helium balloons. In mid-May 2026, Syrian authorities announced they had foiled a plot to smuggle 142,000 pills into Jordan using the same balloon technology, underscoring how rapidly trafficking networks are refining their tactics to evade enforcement.

    Today, the majority of captagon flowing through Sweida originates in Lebanon, where remnants of Assad’s regime have taken refuge alongside Hezbollah, which maintained a close alliance with the ousted president for decades. Syria’s transitional government has cracked down heavily on Hezbollah-linked trafficking operations across the country, and official data from Syria Weekly shows that in the past six months alone, Syrian authorities have seized nearly 33 million captagon pills entering from Lebanon – accounting for 77% of all captagon seized by the government nationwide. In one major operation in January 2026, Syrian counter-narcotics forces in Yabroud, just 20 to 25 kilometers east of the Lebanon border, seized 226 smuggling balloons, 106 kilograms of hashish, 650,000 captagon pills, 238 grams of crystal meth, and $30,000 in counterfeit currency, all originating from Lebanon and bound for Jordan and the Gulf.

    In response to the shared threat, security cooperation between Damascus and Lebanon’s new government has expanded dramatically in recent months. In April 2026, coordinated operations between anti-narcotics agencies from Syria, Lebanon, and Kuwait dismantled an international trafficking ring plotting to smuggle 85 kilograms of narcotics to Kuwait. The same month, Syrian authorities arrested one of Lebanon’s most wanted captagon traffickers after he crossed into Syrian territory, and later transferred him back to Lebanese judicial authorities through the Masnaa border crossing in a demonstration of growing cross-border judicial cooperation. Beyond Jordan and Lebanon, Syria’s transitional government has also launched joint counter-narcotics operations with Iraq and Turkey over the past six months.

    Despite these coordinated efforts, regional security analysts warn that trafficking networks have proven remarkably adaptable to post-Assad political shifts, exploiting gaps in central government authority to re-establish their operations in weakly governed areas like Sweida. The combination of fragmented local control, foreign patronage, and persistent demand across the Middle East has ensured that what was once Assad’s state-run captagon empire survives in new form, threatening regional security years after the former regime’s collapse.

  • Polanski and Corbyn join calls for Britons who served in Israeli army to be tracked

    Polanski and Corbyn join calls for Britons who served in Israeli army to be tracked

    A heated debate has erupted across British politics after two senior party leaders added their voices to growing demands that the UK government track and monitor British citizens who have served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), following allegations of widespread war crimes and genocide in Gaza.

    Zack Polanski, leader of the Green Party, and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn were among the high-profile signatories of an open letter coordinated by investigative outlet Declassified UK, addressed to UK Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper. The letter calls on authorities to systematically track the movements of British nationals who have served in the IDF, and implement mandatory secondary screening for these individuals at UK ports of entry when deemed necessary. It also pushes for full, rigorous war crimes investigations that adhere to both domestic UK legislation and international legal frameworks.

    Current data suggests that approximately 2,000 British-Israeli dual nationals have served in the IDF during Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza, a conflict that a United Nations commission of inquiry formally ruled constituted genocide in 2024. Since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that killed roughly 1,200 people in southern Israel, Israeli military operations in Gaza have killed nearly 73,000 Palestinians, injured more than 170,000, and left thousands more unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of destroyed civilian infrastructure.

    In the text of the open letter, signatories — a cross-group coalition of politicians, legal professionals, human rights advocates, journalists, and other public figures — argue that monitoring the entry of IDF-serving dual British nationals into the UK and investigating potential ties to war crimes serves a clear public interest. The letter notes that many of these individuals have returned to the UK after fighting in Gaza and now reside in British communities, even holding positions in public institutions including hospitals, law enforcement agencies, and schools. It adds, “Nobody wants to live next to a potential war criminal – not least members of the Palestinian community in the UK who have family or friends who have been subjected to war crimes.”

    This latest push for action comes after London’s Metropolitan Police sparked outrage in April 2025 when it announced it would not open investigations into 10 British nationals accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity for their service with the IDF in Gaza. The decision came more than a year after the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) and the UK-based Public Interest Law Centre (PILC) submitted a 240-page evidence dossier to the Metropolitan Police’s dedicated War Crimes Team. The dossier outlined detailed allegations that the 10 British nationals, a number of whom hold dual UK-Israeli citizenship, participated in targeted killings of civilian bystanders and humanitarian aid workers, carried out indiscriminate strikes on densely populated civilian areas, attacked hospitals and other protected civilian sites, and aided in the forced displacement of Palestinian civilians. In justifying its refusal to move forward with the case, the Met claimed there was no realistic prospect of securing a conviction and that a thorough, effective investigation could not be completed.

    Alongside Polanski and Corbyn, the open letter has secured support from multiple sitting UK parliamentarians, including independent lawmakers and high-profile Labour Party rebels John McDonnell and Diane Abbott.

    The move has drawn fierce condemnation from opponents on the opposite side of the political and ideological spectrum. Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake criticized the initiative in an interview with The Telegraph, arguing that “At a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise, Zack Polanski should not be stoking further division and hostility in our society.” The Board of Deputies of British Jews, a leading UK Jewish community organization that has publicly backed Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, echoed that criticism, saying the letter represented “another attempt to demonise Israelis and promote an atmosphere of intimidation against British Jews.”

    In response to the backlash, a spokesperson for Polanski defended the call for action, noting that the IDF has faced credible, well-documented allegations of catastrophic war crimes in Gaza from leading global human rights bodies including the UN Human Rights Council, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International. The spokesperson emphasized that “the UK Government should be taking robust action against any British citizen complicit in these crimes.”

    The renewed debate comes amid escalating Israeli military operations in Gaza. Data from the Palestinian Ministry of Health recorded 119 Palestinian deaths at the hands of Israeli forces in May 2025, marking the highest single-month death toll since November 2024. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has confirmed that the IDF continues to expand its territorial control across Gaza, currently holding roughly 60 percent of the enclave with plans to push that figure to 70 percent in coming operations.

  • EU invests in ocean monitoring as US cuts funding

    EU invests in ocean monitoring as US cuts funding

    As climate change accelerates ocean warming and amplifies extreme weather events worldwide, and the Trump administration moves forward with deep cuts to a critical U.S. ocean observation program, the European Union is stepping into the gap with a €92 million ($107 million) investment to expand its international ocean monitoring network. Named OceanEye, the new initiative was announced Wednesday by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who said the funding will position the EU at the forefront of global efforts to map and study Earth’s largely underexplored oceans.

    Oceans cover more than 70% of the planet’s surface, underpinning global life systems by producing half the world’s oxygen and absorbing roughly 30% of human-caused carbon dioxide emissions. But decades of greenhouse gas emissions have pushed ocean temperatures to record highs, with warming accelerating faster in recent decades than at any point in modern recorded history. This warming has supercharged tropical cyclones, extended drought conditions, bleached and killed 50% of the world’s coral reefs, and pushed thousands of marine species toward extinction — threats compounded by overfishing and industrial ocean pollution. Scientific projections warn that climate change will continue to increase the intensity of heatwaves and severe storms across Europe in the coming decades, making accurate ocean data more critical than ever for disaster preparedness and mitigation.

    Systematic, continuous ocean monitoring is the foundation of effective marine protection: it maps existing ecosystem damage, identifies emerging threats, and provides the empirical data needed to craft evidence-based regulations to halt biodiversity loss. “This is about using science and good governance to understand our ocean and secure our future,” von der Leyen emphasized in her announcement of the initiative.

    The EU’s investment comes at a moment of growing gap in global ocean observation capacity. In May of this year, the Trump administration signaled plans to eliminate funding for the U.S. Ocean Observatories Initiative, a 10-year-old network of more than 900 fixed and mobile ocean sensors that cost $386 million to build. Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, the initiative has collected free, real-time ocean data on everything from circulation patterns to marine ecosystem shifts, climate change trends and extreme weather activity. That open-source data has supported more than 500 peer-reviewed scientific studies, and the project was originally scheduled to operate for another 15 to 20 years before the funding cuts were proposed.

    Prior to the U.S. funding announcement, global ocean observation efforts were coordinated through the UN-affiliated Global Ocean Observing System, with the United States historically collecting more than half of all global ocean observation data, Europe contributing roughly 25%, and the remainder coming from Japan, Australia, India and China. EU officials and ocean scientists say the funding gap created by U.S. cuts makes increased European investment an urgent priority.

    “Europe needs to do more,” explained Pierre-Yves Le Traon, oceanographer and scientific director of Toulouse-based Mercator Ocean International. Under the OceanEye plan, the EU has set an ambitious target to take responsibility for 35% of global ocean monitoring by 2035, and to become the world’s leading provider of standardized “ocean intelligence” data for researchers, governments and private industries.

    Ocean observation data powers far more than just climate research. Data collected by underwater drones, robotic sensors and orbiting ocean-focused satellites is shared with shipping companies, commercial fisheries, emergency disaster response agencies, and research institutions. Mercator Ocean International is currently building the Digital Twin Ocean, a real-time interactive virtual reality replica of the world’s oceans that relies entirely on continuous observational input to model changes. Le Traon noted that this data is critical not just for climate adaptation, but for a wide range of coastal and maritime sectors including aquaculture, Arctic shipping, coastal tourism, agriculture, and even maritime security operations. “Knowledge is essential if we want to manage the ocean,” Le Traon said. “We really have to be very active for the monitoring and protecting of the ocean because the ocean matters to everyone: for life at sea, for life on Earth.”

    Odran Corcoran, a policy advisor for the marine conservation non-profit Oceana, added that systematic observation is particularly critical to filling gaps in existing scientific knowledge that hold back effective policy. Only by collecting consistent data from the deep ocean — which remains one of the least understood environments on Earth — can lawmakers craft evidence-based regulations for sustainable fisheries management, marine protected area expansion, and marine ecosystem restoration projects. “Europe does not just need more ocean data; it needs data that closes biodiversity and seabed knowledge gaps,” Corcoran said.

    Funding from the OceanEye initiative will go toward two core priorities: supporting private sector innovation incubators for ocean monitoring technology, and expanding the capacity of existing international coordination bodies including the Global Ocean Observing System. Of the EU’s 27 member states, 22 have coastal territories bordering the Baltic Sea, Atlantic Ocean, Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea. France holds the bloc’s largest network of ocean science institutions and the most extensive maritime boundaries, stretching from Réunion in the South Pacific to Saint Martin in the Caribbean to the Scattered Islands in the Indian Ocean.

    This reporting is supported by a grant from the Walton Family Foundation, with The Associated Press retaining full editorial control over all content.

  • Israel seeks to recruit ultranationalists for police unit at Al-Aqsa Mosque

    Israel seeks to recruit ultranationalists for police unit at Al-Aqsa Mosque

    A newly revealed recruitment initiative by Israeli law enforcement has sent shockwaves through the region, with Israeli authorities actively courting ultranationalist activists and Jewish settlers to serve in police units stationed at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz has reported.

    The call for new hires came directly from Daniel Lerach, deputy commander of the police detachment tasked with overseeing the sensitive religious site. In a public online appeal, Lerach explicitly sought what he termed “religious officers” to be deployed at Al-Aqsa. In messages circulated across social media platforms and private WhatsApp groups—many of which are tied to Israeli settler communities in the occupied West Bank—Lerach extended an open invitation: “Anyone who wants to take part in implementing sovereignty is welcome to contact me.”

    Haaretz’s reporting further confirms that rabbis affiliated with the Temple Mount movements, extremist organizations that stage frequent incursions into the Al-Aqsa compound and openly advocate for the destruction of the mosque to make way for a third Jewish temple, have urged their followers to answer the recruitment call. Arnon Segal, a high-profile leader of the Temple Mount movement, hailed the initiative as a pivotal milestone, framing it as growing official Israeli recognition of Jewish claims to the contested site. Segal acknowledged that some potential recruits had raised concerns about joining a police force that currently enforces the long-standing status quo ban on Jewish prayer at the compound, but noted that a large number of movement activists have still opted to enlist.

    This recruitment drive is the latest in a string of escalating actions that Palestinian officials characterize as a deliberate campaign to reduce Palestinian presence at Al-Aqsa while entrenching unilateral Israeli control over the site. The Jerusalem Governorate of the Palestinian Authority has condemned the move as a “dangerous development” that forms part of a broader project to erase the mosque’s centuries-old Islamic identity.

    In an official statement released Thursday, the governorate explained that the initiative aims to embed activists from extremist Temple Mount groups and adherents of the religious Zionist movement directly into the institutional structure Israel uses to enforce its control over the holy compound. The statement emphasized that the plan marks a new, more open phase of collaboration between official Israeli state bodies and radical Temple Mount organizations.

    “This issue extends beyond the recruitment campaign itself,” the statement read. “Israel is seeking to transfer effective authority over Al-Aqsa from the Islamic Waqf, which holds legal and historical custodianship of the site, to Israeli police and other state bodies.”

    The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound holds profound religious significance across multiple faiths: it is the third-holiest site in Islam, while for Jewish communities it is known as the Temple Mount, revered as the location of two ancient Jewish temples that once stood on the land. For decades, the site has operated under a fragile internationally recognized status quo arrangement, which preserves its identity as an Islamic place of worship and formalizes the custodianship role of the Jordan-backed Islamic Waqf. Under this agreement, only Muslim worshippers are permitted to pray at the site, while non-Muslim visitors may enter under terms set by the Waqf, which retains full authority over all administrative, maintenance, and religious matters related to the compound.

    Since Israel occupied East Jerusalem in 1967, however, the Israeli government has steadily eroded this status quo, imposing growing restrictions on Palestinian and Muslim access to the site while steadily expanding Jewish presence and administrative control. Violations of the long-standing arrangement have accelerated dramatically since October 2023, with senior Israeli officials and sitting lawmakers openly calling for the imposition of full Israeli sovereignty over the entire Al-Aqsa compound.

  • Liverpool appoint Spaniard Iraola as new boss

    Liverpool appoint Spaniard Iraola as new boss

    English Premier League giant Liverpool has confirmed the appointment of Spanish manager Andoni Iraola as its new first-team head coach, ending a week of speculation following the shock dismissal of predecessor Arne Slot after a catastrophic failed title defence. The 43-year-old Basque-born coach steps into the role having just wrapped up a historic spell at Bournemouth, where he guided the south coast club to its first ever European qualification with a surprise sixth-place finish this season. While Liverpool has not officially confirmed the length of Iraola’s contract, reports from mainstream British football media indicate the new boss has put pen to paper on a two-year deal at Anfield.

    Speaking to Liverpool’s official club website following his appointment, Iraola expressed his overwhelming excitement at taking charge of one of the world’s most iconic football institutions. “Really excited, really excited, because obviously you know about Liverpool, you know that it’s a big club, a massive club, one of the biggest in the world,” he said. “But feeling inside and understanding a little bit more of this club, I always thought it’s a special club. You don’t need a lot of things to get attracted by Liverpool. Liverpool is Liverpool.”

    Iraola’s appointment comes as Liverpool’s fanbase and squad have openly called for a return to the energetic, front-foot football that defined Jurgen Klopp’s legendary nine-year tenure at the club, which ended with the German lifting the Premier League and Champions League before stepping down in 2024. Slot, the former Feyenoord manager, delivered a stunning debut season in 2024/25, guiding the Reds to a joint-record 20th English top-flight title with star forward Mohamed Salah notching 29 goals. But his second season crumbled into disappointment, marked by flat, underwhelming performances that left the club trophyless and 25 points adrift of 2025/26 champions Arsenal in a limp fifth-place finish.

    Multiple factors contributed to Slot’s downfall: the tragic death of key forward Diogo Jota in a car crash last July left an irreplaceable void in the squad, a £450 million ($605 million) spending spree on new transfers failed to deliver on expectations, relationships between Slot and Salah deteriorated sharply, and fans grew increasingly frustrated with the team’s lifeless on-pitch displays. Even before the end of the season, Salah publicly called for a return to Klopp’s famous “heavy metal football”, piling additional pressure on the already beleaguered manager, who was sacked a week after the final league match.

    Iraola, by contrast, has built a reputation for the high-intensity, pressing and attack-focused style of play that Liverpool supporters are eager to see return, in direct contrast to Slot’s more methodical, controlled tactical approach. After joining Bournemouth from La Liga side Rayo Vallecano in 2023, he oversaw steady, year-on-year improvement at the club: the Cherries finished 12th in his first season, ninth the next, and hit a new historic high of sixth this term to secure a spot in next season’s UEFA Europa League. Beyond results, Iraola also won widespread acclaim for his sharp tactical acumen and his success in nurturing young talent, including rising stars Eli Junior Kroupi and Alex Scott. Before his move to Bournemouth, he held managerial roles at Mirandes in Spain and Cypriot side AEK Larnaca, cutting his teeth in the professional game after a decorated playing career.

    As a player, Iraola made more than 500 first-team appearances for his boyhood club Athletic Bilbao in Spain’s top flight, before finishing his playing career with a stint at Major League Soccer side New York City, where he shared the dressing room with football legends Frank Lampard and Andrea Pirlo. Now, he arrives on Merseyside at a pivotal crossroads for Liverpool, tasked with rebuilding the squad and restoring the club’s status as England’s dominant football force after a turbulent season that fell well short of expectations. While fifth place was enough to secure Liverpool’s spot in next season’s Champions League, the club and its fanbase are hungry for a return to title-contesting football that matches the glory days of Klopp’s reign, a challenge Iraola has already been framed as the right man to meet.

  • Why is this teen fashion brand closing its fitting rooms?

    Why is this teen fashion brand closing its fitting rooms?

    One-size-fits-all fashion retailer Brandy Melville has moved to permanently close all in-store changing rooms across its entire U.S. footprint, according to confirmations from multiple store employees, a decision that has already ignited fierce pushback from the brand’s core customer base of young women.

    The Italian-founded brand, which was launched in 1980 and primarily targets teenage consumers, has long been mired in controversy over its narrow sizing model that only caters to smaller body types, with critics arguing it promotes harmful, unrealistic body image standards. Most recently, a 2024 HBO documentary titled *Brandy Hellville & The Cult of Fast Fashion* leveled further damning accusations against the company, claiming it fosters environments that normalize eating disorders and sexualizes its young female staff. Brandy Melville has never issued a public response to either the documentary’s claims or longstanding criticisms of its exclusive sizing strategy.

    The BBC reached out to Brandy Melville for official comment on the changing room closure, but the company has not released any formal statement explaining the decision. However, staff at Brandy Melville locations in three major U.S. cities — New York City, Boston and Austin — confirmed to reporters that they received directives this week to shutter the fitting rooms permanently.

    Employees at multiple outlets have cited repeated vandalism tied to a viral TikTok trend as the driving force behind the change. Multiple viral videos circulated on the platform earlier this year showed shoppers using chewing gum to wedge changing room curtains open, after widespread complaints that the curtains would not stay fully closed on their own. One Austin-based employee explained that staff have dealt with ongoing issues of gum being caked onto changing room curtains and walls, a messy and time-consuming problem to resolve. One staff member even posted a TikTok of her scraping dried gum off changing room walls during a shift, writing “If you have ever stuck ur gum onto these walls, we have beef.” Another employee shared footage of the fitting room disassembly process at their U.S. location earlier this week.

    For the brand’s loyal shoppers, many of whom rely on Brandy Melville for affordable, casual cotton basics, the loss of fitting rooms has only deepened longstanding frustrations with the brand’s sizing model. The news went viral across TikTok and other social platforms, with shoppers expressing anger and confusion over the change. One shopper called the announcement “devastating news” in a social post, while another asked, “How am I supposed to know if it’s cute on me???”

    Many shoppers noted that the lack of fitting space is an even bigger problem given the brand’s one-size policy for most styles. “Stuff fits weird sometimes. I would just always try stuff on to see what I wanted, but now I can’t,” one woman explained in a TikTok. Another shopper pointed out the inevitable downstream impact, saying “It’s literally one size per style and you can’t try it on. There’s gonna be like a trillion returns.” The change has left many frequent customers feeling more alienated from the brand than ever before, adding another chapter to the retailer’s decades-long history of dividing public opinion.

  • Qualifier Chwalinska sets up Andreeva French Open final clash

    Qualifier Chwalinska sets up Andreeva French Open final clash

    The 2025 French Open has delivered one of the most stunning underdog stories in Grand Slam history, as Polish world No. 114 Maja Chwalinska etched her name into the Roland Garros record books on Thursday, becoming the first qualifier in the professional Open era to advance to the women’s singles final. Her run sets up a blockbuster title clash against 19-year-old Russian rising star Mirra Andreeva, who booked her own first-ever Grand Slam final spot with a dominant semi-final win earlier the same day.

    Chwalinska claimed her place in Saturday’s decider with a hard-fought 7-6(4), 6-4 victory over 25th seed Diana Shnaider, a result that comes on the back of a grueling nine-match campaign that stretches back to the qualifying rounds three weeks ago. The 24-year-old Pole, who was making her first main draw appearance at Roland Garros, had to win three qualifying matches just to earn her spot in the main draw, and has defied all pre-tournament odds to reach the final stage. A win this weekend would make her only the second women’s qualifier to claim a Grand Slam singles title since the Open Era began, following Emma Raducanu’s fairytale 2021 US Open victory.

    Fresh off her upset win over world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the quarter-finals, Shnaider pushed Chwalinska to the limit in a contest that lasted two hours and 10 minutes. After a tightly contested first set that went to a tiebreak, the second set remained on serve until Shnaider called a medical time-out for a back massage at 3-4. When play resumed, Chwalinska found another gear, winning three straight games to close out the match and secure her place in history. Speaking to the crowd after the match on Court Philippe Chatrier, an emotional Chwalinska described her run as nothing short of a dream. “I don’t know what’s going on, I just, I dunno what to say. I’m sorry, I’m just very happy,” she told the raucous crowd, admitting that after nine matches of high-stakes tennis, her physical condition was far from ideal. But she brushed off any complaints, adding: “It’s so challenging to play against the best players in the world day by day, but it’s a Grand Slam so you just have to give your best day by day. But I’m not complaining at all!”

    Chwalinska’s historic run has been marked by a string of stunning upsets that began in the very first round of the main draw, where she knocked out Olympic medalist Zheng Qinwen. She went on to upset 23rd seed Elise Mertens, former world No. 3 Maria Sakkari, French hometown favorite Diane Parry, and 22nd seed Anna Kalinskaya to reach the semi-finals. Before this tournament, Chwalinska had only ever won one Grand Slam main draw match (at the 2022 Wimbledon Championships) and just two tour-level matches on clay in her entire career. Regardless of the result in the final, her standout performance is projected to lift her to at least a new career-high ranking of No. 21 in the world when the new rankings are released next week. For her part, Shnaider praised Chwalinska after the match, acknowledging she had produced a level of play that was unbeatable on the day. “Very proud of myself, what I achieved here,” Shnaider said of her own career-best Grand Slam run. “(Chwalinska) played unreal, and she definitely deserved this win today and to be in the final.”

    Earlier in the day, Andreeva delivered a dominant performance of her own to dispatch Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk 6-1, 6-3 and book her spot in her first major final. The 19-year-old 15th seed, who had lost twice to Kostyuk already this season including in the Madrid Open final, completed her lopsided revenge win in just 76 minutes, saying her focus was so sharp that she could make out individual hairs on the ball during rallies. “I’m super happy with the way I played and then that I got revenge for Madrid final and I’m happy that I’m in my first-ever Grand Slam final,” Andreeva said after the match.

    Kostyuk came into the semi-final riding a 17-match winning streak on clay, fresh off her own massive upset win over four-time defending French Open champion Iga Swiatek in the quarter-finals. But the 23-year-old Ukrainian, who was also playing in her first Grand Slam semi-final, struggled with unforced errors all afternoon, finishing the match with 34 unforced errors that derailed her run. “Obviously not the greatest match from me today,” she admitted after the match. Despite the loss, Kostyuk can take pride in a breakout clay-court season that includes titles in Rouen and her first WTA 1000 title in Madrid. For Andreeva, the win extended her 2025 tour-leading win total to 35 match victories for the season, cementing her status as one of the most in-form players on the tour this year. Saturday’s final will now pit two of the tour’s most surprising breakout stars against each other, with one set to claim the most prestigious clay-court title in the sport.

  • Dutch police investigate suspected drugging and sexual assault of multiple women

    Dutch police investigate suspected drugging and sexual assault of multiple women

    Dutch national law enforcement has opened a sweeping criminal investigation into a suspected coordinated ring that drugged dozens of women and recorded sexual assaults, resulting in four arrests so far with more expected to come. The probe was triggered after police received critical tip-offs from law enforcement agencies in both England and Germany, which pointed to a pattern of abuse committed by people in the immediate social circles of targeted victims.

    Investigators confirmed that the four arrested men, all part of a network first uncovered through secret private social media groups, regularly shared tactics for drugging potential targets and circulated explicit, non-consensual images of their assaults among group members. In late May, police executed search warrants at eight properties across the country, targeting male suspects ranging in age from 21 to 51 who were identified through their activity in these online groups. Four of the eight suspects were taken into custody immediately following the raids.

    Alongside digital devices including laptops, mobile phones, SD cards and USB storage drives seized for forensic analysis, law enforcement also recovered illegal drugs and weapons at multiple searched locations. The charges facing the suspects cover a range of criminal activity, from participating in the abusive private online groups, creating and distributing non-consensual sexual content, to aggravated assault by drugging, and charges of both completed and attempted rape.

    Milou van der Kolk, a lead investigator with Rotterdam’s specialized sexual crimes unit, noted that the full scope of the abuse remains unknown, as victims are often left unable to recall the events due to being drugged and unconscious during the attacks. “This is a case with an enormous impact,” van der Kolk explained. “As a victim, you may not know what happened to you, because you may have been drugged and were unconscious. The news that your partner or an acquaintance may have drugged you and perhaps even raped you or attempted to do so can turn your life completely upside down.”

    Local Dutch media outlets have drawn public comparisons between this alleged ring and the high-profile Gisèle Pelicot case in France, where a man drugged his own wife for decades and invited dozens of outside men to rape her at their home. Dutch police have cautioned that the investigation remains active, and additional arrests are likely as forensic teams continue to process the large volume of digital evidence recovered in the raids. Support services for survivors of sexual abuse and violence are being coordinated through international and local support lines, including the BBC Action Line.