Global Pulse

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  • Burnham and European leaders arrive in Kyiv as Ukraine marks Independence Day

    Burnham and European leaders arrive in Kyiv as Ukraine marks Independence Day

    On Monday, a landmark day that marks Ukraine’s 35th anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union, United Kingdom Prime Minister Andy Burnham touched down in Kyiv for his first foreign visit since assuming office. The high-profile trip brings him together with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for key bilateral talks, and he will co-lead a gathering of the global coalition backing Ukraine alongside a cohort of other top international leaders.

    Burnham is not arriving empty-handed. According to statements from his official office, the British premier is set to announce a critical policy shift: the UK government has given approval for defense manufacturer MBDA to declassify technical details of British-built components integrated into the SCALP long-range cruise missile. This regulatory and security move clears a major bureaucratic hurdle that has blocked progress on a joint plan between France and Ukraine to manufacture the SCALP weapon domestically on Ukrainian soil.

    A string of other senior European leaders also made their way to the Ukrainian capital to join the commemorations and talks. Among those in attendance are European Council President Antonio Costa, Moldovan President Maia Sandu, Luxembourg Prime Minister Luc Frieden, and Estonian President Alar Karis, a showing that underscores the continued unified European support for Kyiv amid its ongoing conflict.

    For context, the SCALP missile, developed and produced by France, shares deep technological roots with the UK’s own Storm Shadow long-range missile. Both weapons rely on shared technology developed jointly by French and British defense industries, making the declassification of UK-built components a critical step for any domestic production effort in Ukraine.

    Beyond the missile announcement, Burnham’s schedule includes taking part in official Independence Day remembrance events and leading discussions at the coalition of the willing meeting, where participating leaders will debate the future of ongoing international military, economic and political support for Ukraine as the war with Russia continues.

  • Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ ball sells for £2.5m

    Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ ball sells for £2.5m

    One of the most controversial and recognizable pieces of football memorabilia in history — the match ball Diego Maradona used to score his infamous ‘Hand of God’ goal during the 1986 FIFA World Cup — has found a new buyer at auction, closing at a final price of £2.5 million ($3.3 million).

    The moment that cemented the ball’s place in global sports lore came during Argentina’s tense World Cup quarter-final clash against England in 1986. With the match tied at 1-1, Maradona extended his left arm to punch the ball past England goalkeeper Peter Shilton, a handball that went unnoticed by referee Ali Bin Nasser. After Argentina secured a 2-1 victory, Maradona famously quipped to reporters that the goal had been scored “a little with the head of Maradona and a little with the hand of God” — a quote that turned an already controversial moment into a permanent part of football folklore. Later in the same match, Maradona scored what is still widely referred to as the ‘Goal of the Century’, weaving past five England outfield players in a 60-yard mazy run before beating Shilton again to secure Argentina’s place in the next round of the tournament.

    The Adidas Azteca match ball was brought to auction by its current owner at Heritage Auctions’ sports memorabilia event held in the United States on Saturday. While auction specialists had initially projected the one-of-a-kind item could sell for as much as $10 million (£7.3 million), the final winning bid fell far short of those expectations.

    Ahead of the auction, Mike Provenzale, a senior specialist auctioneer at Heritage, described the piece as an unparalleled artifact for football fans. “It’s a true one-of-one item,” Provenzale told Reuters. “Arguably the most significant soccer item that exists.”

    The ball has a decades-long ownership history tied directly to the 1986 match. It was collected by Bin Nasser, the Tunisian referee who officiated the quarter-final, right after the final whistle blew. Bin Nasser kept the ball in his personal collection for more than 30 years before selling it at auction for the first time in 2022, when it fetched $2.37 million (£1.74 million). After the 2022 sale, the ball’s new owner put it back up for auction in 2022, but the lot failed to sell as incoming bids did not meet the reserve price set by the owner. In 2023, authentication of the ball was solidified when Bin Nasser issued a signed formal letter confirming it was the actual match ball used throughout the entire 1986 quarter-final, a finding that was later independently verified by third-party experts.

    The ‘Hand of God’ ball is not the only piece of memorabilia from that iconic match to break sales records in recent years. The match shirt Maradona wore during the 1986 quarter-final sold at auction for £7.1 million back in 2022, setting a new benchmark for match-worn football apparel at the time.

  • The health of Norway’s King Harald deteriorates over the weekend

    The health of Norway’s King Harald deteriorates over the weekend

    OSLO, Norway — The Norwegian Royal House has issued an update confirming that 89-year-old King Harald V’s health declined over the weekend, days after he was admitted to Oslo’s National University Hospital for ongoing chronic health complications. The aged monarch, who has ruled the Scandinavian nation since 1991, had already been on medical leave for several weeks ahead of his hospital admission one week prior to the latest update.

    Late Sunday, palace representatives announced that the king is currently undergoing antibiotic treatment to target a newly diagnosed bacterial blood infection, and that he has shown positive preliminary responses to the therapeutic course. As of the latest update, his condition is classified as stable.

    Last week, palace officials clarified the root of the king’s current hospital stay: King Harald lives with hemolytic anemia, a chronic blood condition that has required long-term management with cortisone medication. Ongoing cortisone treatment triggered a dangerous accumulation of fluid in his body, which necessitated urgent inpatient medical intervention.

    In the king’s absence during his medical leave, his son and heir apparent, Crown Prince Haakon, has stepped into the role of regent, carrying out the formal constitutional duties of the monarchy on a temporary basis.

    The 89-year-old king has faced growing health challenges in recent years, with multiple hospital admissions for routine and urgent care as his chronic conditions progress.

  • New Zealand’s prime minister proposes banning children from using social media

    New Zealand’s prime minister proposes banning children from using social media

    WELLINGTON, New Zealand — Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has introduced a landmark draft law that would bar all children under the age of 16 from accessing major social media platforms, framing the proposal as an urgent response to what he described as widespread, generational harm to New Zealand’s young people. Announced on Monday, the policy joins a growing global wave of age-based restrictions on big tech, but faces immediate gridlock within Luxon’s own ruling coalition, leaving its path to passage deeply uncertain.

    The proposed legislation targets leading platforms including Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and Facebook, requiring these companies to implement verifiable age-checking measures to exclude underage users. Acceptable verification methods outlined in the policy document from Luxon’s center-right National Party include existing user account data, facial age estimation technology, digital identity services, and formal government-issued identification. Critical carve-outs exclude one-on-one messaging services such as WhatsApp, user-generated online gaming platforms like Roblox, and productivity-focused artificial intelligence tools including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot.

    Notably, the draft law imposes no penalties on children or parents who access platforms in violation of the ban. Instead, enforcement falls entirely on tech companies, which could face fines of up to 10 percent of their annual global revenue for failing to meet their compliance obligations. The bill also mandates that platforms with significant child user bases must conduct regular public risk assessments and publish reports detailing potential harms to young users on their networks.

    Luxon framed the policy as a necessary intervention based on local data, noting that 2025 research found one-third of New Zealand teenagers spend at least five hours per day on social media. “Social media is exposing them to harmful content, addictive technology and pressures they are not equipped to deal with and it’s affecting their family life, mental health, sleep, and education,” he told reporters on Monday.

    Luxon’s push for the ban follows Australia’s implementation of a world-first under-16 social media ban that took effect in December 2025. Since Australia’s ban came into force, Canada, Brazil, and Indonesia have also enacted similar age restrictions, while dozens of other nations are currently drafting or evaluating their own rules. Early results from Australia show that just one month after the ban took effect, major platforms reported revoking access to roughly 4.7 million accounts confirmed to belong to underage users. The policy has divided global stakeholders: child safety advocates and many parents have praised the measures as a long-overdue protection for young people, while digital privacy organizations argue age-verification rules are easily circumvented and create unacceptable risks to users’ personal data.

    Despite the prime minister’s support, the bill faces steep procedural and political obstacles. Two of the three parties in Luxon’s ruling coalition — the libertarian ACT Party and populist NZ First — have repeatedly and vehemently opposed the legislation, and confirmed Monday they will vote against it. For the bill to advance, Luxon will need backing from opposition lawmakers, who have not yet committed to supporting the proposal. Chris Hipkins, leader of the center-left Labour Party, the largest opposition bloc, said Monday his caucus has not reached a final decision on how to vote.

    Complicating matters further, Luxon confirmed there is insufficient time to complete the legislative process before Parliament dissolves on October 1, ahead of New Zealand’s general election scheduled for November. Under New Zealand law, all bills must pass three separate rounds of parliamentary voting, a process that typically takes several months, before they can be signed into law. If Luxon’s National Party is reelected to lead the next government, he has pledged to reintroduce and advance the bill to make New Zealand the latest nation to implement strict age limits for social media access.

    This is not the first time Luxon’s government has taken action to limit young New Zealanders’ screen time: in 2024, the administration enacted a nationwide ban on cellphone use during school hours for students of all age groups.

  • Japanese lawmakers visit Beijing seeking to mend ties after fallout from Takaichi’s Taiwan remark

    Japanese lawmakers visit Beijing seeking to mend ties after fallout from Takaichi’s Taiwan remark

    TOKYO — In a bid to reverse a dramatic breakdown in China-Japan relations triggered by a controversial statement on Taiwan from Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi that inflamed Beijing and spilled over to damage economic ties, a multi-party delegation of Japanese legislators departed for Beijing on Monday. The four-day visit, scheduled to run through Thursday, will see the group hold formal talks with officials from the Chinese Communist Party, in what supporters frame as an opening to restart frozen diplomatic communication.

    The cross-party delegation includes Gaku Hashimoto, a former health and welfare vice minister from Takaichi’s own ruling Liberal Democratic Party, one lawmaker from the Komeito opposition, and a representative from the Centrist Reform Alliance (CRA). Shinichi Isa, the CRA spokesperson and a former diplomat posted to the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, spoke to reporters ahead of the delegation’s departure from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, emphasizing the urgency of the mission.

    “Communication has been severed in all areas, and we are already seeing negative impacts ripple across multiple sectors,” Isa told reporters. “Our goal is to find a path forward that can restart constructive dialogue between the two sides.”

    The crisis erupted immediately after Takaichi took office, when she stated that a Chinese military action targeting Taiwan would qualify as a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially justifying the deployment of Japanese military force. The comment crossed a well-established red line for Beijing, which claims the self-governing island of Taiwan as its sovereign territory, and triggered furious pushback from Chinese authorities.

    Weeks later, Isa warned on social media platform X that bilateral relations had fallen to their lowest point since the two countries normalized diplomatic ties in 1972. Unlike previous periods of tension, when low-level official communication remained open to prevent escalation, Isa noted that “now all official channels between government agencies and ministries have been completely cut off.” He added that the ongoing frozen relationship serves no national interest for either China or Japan, and confirmed that Beijing had granted the delegation’s request to open a limited “window for dialogue” between the two sides.

    Earlier last week, China’s Foreign Ministry acknowledged that cross-party “people of insight” from Japan had recognized the severity of the current bilateral standoff and were seeking concrete steps to put relations back on a stable footing. “We urge those running the Japanese government to take these voices seriously … and take concrete actions to create the necessary conditions for normal exchanges between the two countries,” the ministry said in a statement Friday.

    Takaichi has so far refused to retract her original comment on Taiwan. In a small conciliatory gesture amid rising tensions, however, she chose to pray remotely rather than make an in-person visit to Tokyo’s controversial Yasukuni Shrine during the annual Aug. 15 commemoration of Japan’s World War II surrender. The shrine, which honors convicted Japanese war criminals alongside the country’s war dead, is widely viewed by China and South Korea as a symbol of unrepentant Japanese wartime militarism and aggression.

  • China probes use of formaldehyde to keep cabbages fresh

    China probes use of formaldehyde to keep cabbages fresh

    As the world’s leading cabbage producer, accounting for nearly half of the global annual output that exceeds 30 million metric tons, China is now facing a fresh food safety scare that has sparked nationwide attention. Hebei Province, a key growing and distribution hub in the country’s northeast, has confirmed that authorities have launched a full investigation following the emergence of footage showing cabbage handlers dipping heads of the vegetable in a preserving solution before loading them onto transport trucks.

    The controversial footage was first brought to public attention by an independent environmental blogger last week. In China, the use of formaldehyde — a colorless, carcinogenic chemical — for any food preservation purpose is banned under strict national food safety regulations. Most of China’s cabbage output is distributed domestically, with a large share also exported to neighboring Asian markets and Russia, with South Korea and Vietnam counting among the top international buyers.

    State media reports confirm that local police have already initiated legal proceedings against the individuals identified as being involved in the practice. In response to growing public concern, national and local regulators have moved quickly to head off widespread consumer panic and rebuild public trust in the country’s fresh vegetable supply. Authorities are rolling out widespread random spot checks of cabbage stocks at wholesale and retail markets across every region of the country.

    Investigators are also working to determine how widespread the illegal practice of formaldehyde dipping is across the cabbage industry, and have implemented tracing protocols to isolate and remove any affected produce from the supply chain. In an official public statement released Saturday, administrators from Kangbao County, the region at the center of the initial reports, reaffirmed their commitment to upholding food safety standards: “Any illegal or non-compliant practices discovered will be dealt with strictly in accordance with the law to ensure the safety of the vegetable supply.”

    Beijing’s Xinfadi Market, the largest wholesale fresh produce hub serving the Chinese capital, released its own statement confirming that it had completed a full audit of its cabbage supply chains, and that no contaminated produce had entered the market’s distribution network.

    The incident has dominated domestic Chinese media coverage and sparked intense public discussion. In an official editorial, People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, issued a sharp rebuke of the actors involved: “The wholesalers focused solely on their immediate economic interests while completely disregarding the lives and health of consumers. [They] crossed a legal red line and breached the moral bottom line.”

    According to the American Cancer Society, while prolonged exposure to high concentrations of formaldehyde in occupational settings has been definitively linked to multiple forms of human cancer, the long-term health impacts of low-level exposure through food consumption remain understudied and not clearly understood.

  • Asian shares mostly decline as bond market pressure mounts

    Asian shares mostly decline as bond market pressure mounts

    As global markets kicked off a high-stakes trading week Monday, most Asian equity benchmarks retreated and crude oil prices pulled back, with investors across the world holding their breath ahead of the annual gathering of top U.S. economic policymakers at Jackson Hole, Wyoming. U.S. stock futures also ticked downward in early pre-market trading, setting a cautious tone across the Asia-Pacific region.

    Across major regional markets, the downturn was broad-based. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index dropped 0.5% to close at 65,678.45, while South Korea’s Kospi suffered a steeper 3.5% decline to land at 6,664.36. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell 2.1% to 25,465.23, and China’s Shanghai Composite index edged 0.7% lower to 3,877.30. Taiwan’s Taiex also followed the downward trend with a 0.5% loss. Australia bucked the regional slump, however, with its S&P/ASX 200 gaining 0.5% to reach 9,107.40.

    This week’s market calendar holds several make-or-break economic releases and events that could shape near-term global policy. On Wednesday, U.S. officials will release the July reading of the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred metric for tracking inflation. Current forecasts and recent data signal U.S. consumer inflation remains stuck above 3%, well above the Fed’s long-term 2% target.

    Inflation has reaccelerated after a brief cooling period in early 2025, driven by two key global shocks: broad-based U.S. tariffs imposed on trading partners worldwide, and output disruptions caused by the ongoing Iran conflict, which has cut oil shipments through the critical Strait of Hormuz and pushed energy prices sharply higher starting in early 2026.

    Persistent inflation pressures have already sent bond yields surging in recent weeks, creating cascading volatility across financial markets. Last week, spiking long-term yields forced an unusual intervention from the U.S. Treasury Department, led by Secretary Scott Bessent. To calm markets, Bessent announced the government would double its buyback program for longer-term bonds, a move designed to push down 10-year Treasury yields and ease pressure on mortgage rates. The relief was short-lived, however: by Friday, the 10-year yield climbed back to 4.73%, matching a multi-year high, and held near that level at 4.71% in early Monday trading. The 30-year Treasury yield, another key target of the buyback program, also rose to levels not seen since 2007.

    The unexpected failure of the Treasury’s intervention has amplified investor concerns. Higher sustained yields raise government borrowing costs, which in turn weigh on consumer spending—the core engine of U.S. economic growth. Many market participants are also growing increasingly wary of the risks posed by continuous large-scale government borrowing, a trend that has put persistent upward pressure on yields. The bond market remains highly volatile, and all eyes are now turning to the Jackson Hole summit, where Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh is set to deliver a key speech that could signal upcoming shifts in interest rate policy.

    U.S. equities closed last week on a fragile positive note: the S&P 500 gained 0.4% on Friday, notching only its second gain in six trading days after hitting an all-time high earlier the previous week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 1% and the Nasdaq composite edged up 0.4%, supported by better-than-expected spring corporate profits that have helped drive major U.S. indexes to record levels in recent weeks.

    Geopolitical uncertainty continues to cloud the outlook, however. On Sunday, the new head of Iran’s top security body warned that Tehran would view any country’s support for new U.S. economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic as an act of war, even as Iran’s president defended a recent memorandum of understanding with the U.S. as the best path forward to de-escalate the stalled conflict. Persistent doubts about when oil tankers will be able to safely resume full transit through the Persian Gulf have kept energy markets volatile. Early Monday, crude prices pulled back from recent highs: Brent crude fell 1.4% to $93.10 per barrel, while U.S. benchmark crude dropped 1.6% to $85.63 per barrel.

    One unusual bright spot amid the market volatility has been cryptocurrency. Bitcoin, which tends to rally when interest rate expectations fall and liquidity increases in global financial markets, has benefited from expectations that the Treasury’s intervention will push long-term yields lower. Additional tailwinds have come from growing hopes for pro-crypto industry legislation working its way through Washington. Early Monday, bitcoin traded near $77,000, according to data from CoinDesk.

    In currency markets, the U.S. dollar edged slightly lower against the Japanese yen, falling to 158.89 yen from 158.94 yen at Friday’s close. The euro held steady, remaining unchanged at $1.1678 against the greenback.

  • Australian shark attack victim grateful for ‘second chance at life’

    Australian shark attack victim grateful for ‘second chance at life’

    A 34-year-old Australian mother who survived a brutal shark mauling at one of Sydney’s most popular public beaches says she is ready to embrace the new lease on life she has been given, after months of grueling recovery that included emergency surgery and the amputation of one arm.

    Leah Stewart was attacked by the predator during an early morning swim at Coogee Beach back in June, suffering multiple laceration bites across her arms and legs. The incident was one of a string of deadly shark encounters recorded across Australia throughout 2026, which have claimed multiple lives already this year.

    Following the attack, Stewart was placed in an induced coma by emergency medical teams to stabilize her condition, and underwent multiple urgent surgical procedures to save her life – one of which required the amputation of one of her arms.

    In her first public statement since the attack, shared via social media on Monday, Stewart opened up about her challenging recovery journey, and expressed profound gratitude to the thousands of supporters who have rallied around her. An online community fundraiser organized on her behalf has now raised more than AU$550,000, equal to roughly US$394,000, to cover her ongoing medical and living costs.

    “After what has been an incredibly difficult few months, I’m so happy that I’ve progressed enough to build some independence, and I can finally see some light after all of this,” Stewart wrote. “I want you to know that I feel like I’ve been given a second chance at life, and I’m not going to waste it.”

    Stewart said she had been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from her loved ones and even complete strangers from across the globe, adding that the kindness she has received has inspired her to focus on healing rather than resentment. “You’ve inspired me to get better, not bitter,” she wrote.

    She confirmed that the online fundraiser would be officially closed now that the target has been far exceeded. The funds will allow her to complete her recovery in the comfort of her own home, and will also cover the cost of future adaptive medical treatments and prosthetic care.

    “I still have a long way to go, but my recovery has been remarkable, and a huge part of that is because of the absolute army of love, support, prayers and encouragement surrounding my family and I from all over the world,” Stewart added.

    Stewart’s full account of the attack will be broadcast this weekend on Nine Network’s flagship current affairs program *60 Minutes*. In pre-released excerpts from the interview, she described coming face-to-face with the shark before the attack, saying she will never forget the “horrific” sight of the animal. “I’ll never forget its face – it was a monster,” she said.

    Recounting the terrifying moment the shark latched onto her leg, Stewart said her first and only thought was of her young daughter, August. “I just thought, ‘she’s not going to have a mum. She’s gonna grow up without a mum’,” she recalled. Fighting back tears, she added, “I couldn’t handle that, I didn’t want her to not have a mum. I just thought, I’ve got to fight it, do everything I can to be here.”

    The attack on Stewart comes amid a marked rise in shark encounters along Australia’s coastlines this year. In January, four separate shark attacks were recorded across the country in just a 48-hour window, including one that left a 12-year-old boy dead from his injuries. In May, a spearfisher was killed by a shark off the coast of Queensland, and a father of two died after being attacked by a 4-meter great white shark in Western Australia.

  • ‘Blaize knows’: Panthers face selection headache for finals as Ivan Cleary addresses Kangaroos rumour

    ‘Blaize knows’: Panthers face selection headache for finals as Ivan Cleary addresses Kangaroos rumour

    Veteran NRL head coach Ivan Cleary is navigating two major looming storylines simultaneously: a crunch selection dilemma for his in-form Penrith Panthers side amid a tight minor premiership race, and growing speculation linking him to the vacant Australian Kangaroos head coaching job.

    With just two rounds remaining in the 2024 NRL regular season, Penrith finds itself deadlocked with the New Zealand Warriors and Sydney Roosters atop the ladder on 38 competition points. A slightly inferior for-and-against record drops the Panthers to second place, but two wins from their remaining fixtures against Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs and Wests Tigers would lock in a second-place finish, guaranteeing two home finals matches to open the post-season.

    This tight ladder position rules out the approach Penrith took in last year’s corresponding round 26 clash with the Bulldogs, when the side rested nearly all of its starting 17. This week, the Panthers will already be without starting five-eighth Jack Cogger, who accepted a three-match suspension for a high tackle against the Melbourne Storm. Cogger opted to accept the ban rather than contest the charge at the NRL judiciary, where a prior earlier-season offence would have pushed the potential suspension to four matches had he lost his appeal. “Three weeks is bad enough, but four’s worse,” Cleary told reporters. “Super disappointed with it, to be honest. But ultimately, we didn’t think we could win.”

    Cogger’s suspension has thrown a last-minute curveball into Penrith’s finals preparations. Only a few weeks prior, Cogger had reclaimed the starting five-eighth spot from young talent Blaize Talagi over ongoing defensive concerns, and Talagi has since lined up for the club’s reserve grade side. While Talagi offers significant attacking upside, repeated defensive misreads have put his selection in doubt for Friday’s clash. The current frontrunner to partner Nathan Cleary in the halves is Jack Cole, who already stepped into the starting role when Cogger was unavailable in round 23.

    Cleary noted that the squad has already addressed Talagi’s defensive gaps, and that the sudden vacancy is just another routine challenge of a long NRL season. “You’d prefer it if you get a little bit more cohesion there, but all the boys that have played there have sort of played enough. It’s just another challenge that you get throughout the season,” he said. “It’s an important position, a big game with top two spots still up for grabs. The team is the most important thing. Whoever fills the job, we have confidence they’ll do it. Injuries and suspensions have hit every side this year, so you just have to be ready for everything, have different contingencies. It’s not all about one guy who starts, there are plenty of other things that you’ve got to work out as well.”

    In additional injury news, starting hooker Mitch Kenny remains sidelined with a serious lower-leg injury and will not return this week, though he is on track to record game minutes in the final round of the regular season.

    Off the field, Cleary remained tight-lipped when asked about speculation linking him to the Kangaroos head coaching vacancy, which opened after incumbent coach Kevin Walters announced he would step down following the 2024 World Cup to take over at English Super League side St Helens.

    Cleary is currently contracted to Penrith through the end of the 2027 NRL season, and recently stepped down from his role as New South Wales Blues head coach, with the NRL locking in Matt King as his replacement several weeks ago. The four-time premiership-winning coach previously served as an assistant coach for the New Zealand Kiwis at the 2013 World Cup, making him a high-profile candidate for the Kangaroos role, alongside Kangaroos legend Cameron Smith.

    “If I’ve been linked to it, I’d be very honoured, but it’s not something I’m thinking about because I don’t know what I’ll be doing,” Cleary said. “I’m still coaching in the NRL, it’s a big enough job, plenty to be worrying about anything else, so that’s what I’m doing. I don’t know why I’m being considered because I don’t know much to it.”

  • Migrants, rescue ships face threats, harassment at sea: aid group

    Migrants, rescue ships face threats, harassment at sea: aid group

    The central Mediterranean crossing route for African migrants seeking entry to Europe has grown far more dangerous in recent months, with armed Libyan factions increasingly threatening and harassing both vulnerable migrants at sea and civilian humanitarian rescue operations, a leading search-and-rescue aid organization has reported.

    Europe’s enhanced cooperation with Libyan authorities and armed groups to block migrant departures has directly fueled this rising hostility, according to SOS Mediterranee, the NGO that operates the prominent rescue vessel Ocean Viking. The organization documented at least seven separate incidents between June and July where boats linked to Libyan actors approached NGO rescue craft at high speed, shadowed them for hours on end, and even chased the vessels into open international waters.

    Beyond these targeted encounters, the group notes a sharp uptick in unmarked speed boats affiliated with multiple Libyan armed groups operating in the crossing region. These unidentified craft have carried out violent interceptions of migrant vessels in distress, including deliberately ramming overcrowded boats and executing dangerous maneuvers that put all people on board at grave risk of death.

    This pattern of aggression is not a new development. Last year, SOS Mediterranee accused the Libyan coast guard of attacking the Ocean Viking while the ship was operating in international waters, with more than 100 rounds fired at the vessel. At the time of the attack, 87 rescued migrants and the ship’s civilian crew were on board, putting every person in immediate danger. Legal cases related to the attack have been launched in Italy, France, and Germany, but the organization says European Union institutions and national authorities across the bloc have refused to comment on the incident, and no perpetrators have been identified or held accountable to date.

    SOS Mediterranee is now calling for a full, independent international investigation into the escalating violence targeting migrants and rescue operations in the central Mediterranean.

    Data from the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) released earlier this month supports the aid group’s warnings: while stricter European migration deterrence policies have cut the total number of migrants attempting the deadly crossing, the fatality rate for those who do set out has spiked dramatically. Between January and April of this year, the IOM recorded 821 people dead or missing at sea along the route, a 111% increase compared to the same period in 2025. Over the same timeframe, total migrant arrivals to European shores fell 46% to just 8,577 people.