Global Pulse

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  • Zelensky rejects rival’s call for vote, says would ‘split’ Ukraine

    Zelensky rejects rival’s call for vote, says would ‘split’ Ukraine

    As senior European leaders gathered in Kyiv for the high-stakes Nordic-Baltic Eight summit over the weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky doubled down on his rejection of holding national elections amid ongoing full-scale conflict with Russia, pushing back against a surprise call from his former defense minister to organize a vote. In comments published Sunday that emerged from a Saturday press briefing with international reporters including Agence France-Presse, Zelensky framed wartime elections as an existential danger to Ukrainian national unity at a moment when the country is united around fending off Moscow’s 2022 invasion.

    “I believe that in a war like this, elections as such are a huge risk,” Zelensky told reporters. “Elections right now are a tsunami for the country that will split Ukraine. If we want to destroy the country, then we can move in the direction of elections during these times of war.”

    The debate over wartime voting comes amid a turbulent summer of domestic political unrest in Ukraine, triggered when Zelensky dismissed popular former defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov, who had built a strong public following as a leading advocate for Ukraine’s dominant drone warfare strategy and a vocal proponent of military reform. Following his ouster, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets to call for his reinstatement, and Fedorov launched scathing public attacks on Ukraine’s top military leadership, a conflict that ultimately forced Zelensky to replace his commander-in-chief.

    Days ago, Fedorov unexpectedly broke his silence to call for urgent progress on organizing a national election. Though he stopped short of explicitly declaring a challenge to Zelensky’s presidency, the move prompted even some of Fedorov’s own long-time supporters to distance themselves from the proposal. Polling data shows the proposal has little traction among the Ukrainian public: only 15 percent of respondents back holding elections before hostilities come to an end, consistent with the broad national support for the continued suspension of elections under existing martial law regulations.

    Political analysts have outlined a cascade of practical and security barriers that would make a free, fair wartime vote all but impossible. Key challenges include facilitating ballot access for millions of Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines, millions of refugees displaced across Europe, and residents living under Russian occupation in illegally annexed territories, as well as mitigating the constant threat of Russian election interference and targeted Russian missile and drone strikes on voting infrastructure.

    Despite growing pockets of domestic criticism as the war enters its third year, Zelensky remains the most popular political figure in Ukraine. Over the weekend, Fedorov’s team confirmed to AFP that the former minister plans to travel to the United States in the near future, a trip that has already reignited public speculation that he is laying the groundwork for a potential 2025 presidential challenge against the incumbent.

    Alongside navigating domestic political pressure, Zelensky used the weekend’s Nordic-Baltic summit to shore up critical international military support. Following one-on-one talks with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store, Zelensky announced a new bilateral drone agreement that will deepen defense industrial cooperation between Kyiv and Oslo. Store also used the summit to announce that Norway has pledged $9 billion in military and economic support for Ukraine for 2025, one of the largest single-country annual commitments from any European ally to date.

    On Monday, Ukraine’s Independence Day, participating leaders will convene formal working talks focused on building new international pressure on Russia to end its invasion and addressing Ukraine’s increasingly urgent military gaps. The most pressing of these gaps is a critical shortage of interceptor missiles for Ukraine’s U.S.-supplied Patriot air defense systems, which are the primary defense against Russia’s growing campaign of hard-to-intercept ballistic missile strikes across Ukrainian population centers.

    Zelensky confirmed over the weekend that deliveries of these critical Patriot interceptors have dropped by half since 2023. The United States is currently facing its own supply chain shortages of the missiles amid rising tensions with Iran, and has so far declined to approve large-scale new transfers to Kyiv. The intensification of Russian strikes has pushed civilian casualty rates to their highest level since the opening months of the 2022 invasion, according to recently updated verified data from the United Nations.

    Ukraine has responded to the stepped-up Russian attacks by accelerating its own long-range strike campaign targeting Russian energy infrastructure, military logistics hubs, and supply depots deep behind Russian lines. Over the weekend, Ukrainian forces struck a warehouse belonging to major Russian e-commerce company Ozon for the second consecutive day, marking the latest in a series of sustained attacks on Russian commercial and military supply networks.

  • More than 24k calls for bird flu in Australia, Agriculture Minister reveals

    More than 24k calls for bird flu in Australia, Agriculture Minister reveals

    As Australia ramps up enforcement against biosecurity breaches amid an ongoing H5N1 bird flu outbreak, new official data has revealed that Australian residents have placed more than 24,000 reports of suspected infection through the national emergency hotline, underscoring the critical role of public participation in protecting the country’s unique ecosystems and agricultural systems.

    The outbreak first emerged in June 2026 on a remote cape in Western Australia, and has since spread to six Australian states, with more than 200 confirmed cases recorded to date. One high-profile casualty of the virus was a little penguin found dead on Victoria’s Phillip Island, prompting urgent conservation action to protect vulnerable native species. In response, federal authorities have launched a targeted vaccination program focused on at-risk wildlife populations, including wild little penguin colonies and animals held in captive conservation facilities across the country.

    Agriculture Minister Julie Collins emphasized that the unprecedented volume of public reports highlights how shared responsibility forms the backbone of Australia’s biosecurity defense. “This outbreak cannot be fully stopped, but community surveillance has been the core of our response from day one,” Collins said. “Every call from an alert Australian helps us contain spread faster and protect our unique way of life.”

    The national government’s biosecurity efforts are supported by billions in new funding and on-the-ground work by trained personnel and specialized detection teams across the country’s borders. Since 2022, the current government has allocated more than $2 billion in additional resources to strengthen biosecurity systems, with officials noting the government will never compromise on border protection standards.

    One notable success story comes from Adelaide, where detector dog Ghost and his handler Jade intercepted illegally imported concealed seeds hidden inside a traveller’s dentures and sewn into custom arm sleeve covers. This is far from an isolated case: between January 1 and July 31 of this year, Australian border officials recorded more than 195,000 interceptions of high-risk biosecurity goods at international airports, with an additional 53,000 illicit items seized at national mail processing centers. More than 70,000 of these detections came via X-ray screenings of passenger baggage and detector dog sweeps, stopping more than 23,000 prohibited items from entering the country.

    Examples of intercepted contraband range from small seeds hidden in pill capsules and chewing gum containers to larger prohibited items: one passenger was stopped after attempting to bring more than 11 kilograms of undeclared meat and fresh produce into the country, while another falsely marked succulent plants as generic “desktop decorations” on their customs declaration. In July, a Victorian man was convicted on multiple biosecurity charges stemming from a year-long scheme to import and attempt to import prohibited exotic animals, including Burmese pythons, ball pythons, albino softshell turtles, iguanas and tarantulas.

    This week, national authorities are marking National Biosecurity Week, a seven-day national campaign designed to raise public awareness of biosecurity risks and reinforce the importance of individual compliance with border protection rules. Officials say the ongoing bird flu outbreak has served as a stark reminder that strong biosecurity relies on collaboration between government agencies, frontline workers, and the general public.

  • Norwegian King Harald’s health has ‘deteriorated’: palace

    Norwegian King Harald’s health has ‘deteriorated’: palace

    At 89 years old, Norway’s King Harald V — the longest-reigning living monarch in Europe — has seen his health worsen over the weekend while receiving inpatient care at Oslo University Hospital, the Norwegian Royal Palace confirmed in an official public statement released Sunday. The king was first admitted to the facility one week prior after experiencing dangerous fluid retention linked to ongoing cortisone treatment for his chronic blood condition, haemolytic anaemia, and was initially placed on a two-week medical leave from all official duties. Haemolytic anaemia develops when red blood cells break down faster than the body can replace them, triggering persistent fatigue, skin paleness, and difficulty breathing for affected patients. Since admission, the king has also developed a secondary bacterial blood infection, which medical teams are treating with antibiotic therapy. The palace noted in its update that the monarch has shown initial positive responses to this antibiotic regimen, despite the overall decline in his health status. Following the deterioration, the royal household has already scrapped a planned official visit to Norway’s central Trondelag region, scheduled for September 1 and 2 — a trip that was slated to take place after the original two-week leave period was set to end. Multiple senior members of the Norwegian royal family have visited the king at his hospital bedside in recent days. According to local Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang, visitors on Sunday included the king’s wife, 89-year-old Queen Sonja; his son and heir Crown Prince Haakon, who has stepped into the role of regent during the king’s medical leave; Crown Princess Mette-Marit, Haakon’s wife; and the king’s sister. All family members declined to comment on the king’s condition to reporters after leaving the hospital. King Harald has navigated a series of serious health challenges in recent years, which have already forced him to adjust his public role: he previously received a pacemaker to manage a heart condition and has gradually reduced the volume of his official engagements over time. Despite these struggles, the king has repeatedly rejected calls for him to abdicate the throne, noting that he swore a lifelong oath of office to the Norwegian Parliament when he ascended to the throne in 1991. This is not the king’s first unplanned hospitalisation in 2024: in February, he was admitted for treatment of an infection and dehydration while on a private holiday in Tenerife with Queen Sonja, who herself had a brief hospital stay for heart concerns in May. The king’s declining health comes at a period of unprecedented turmoil for the entire Norwegian royal household, which has faced overlapping scandals and personal crises in recent months. Crown Princess Mette-Marit, the next queen consort of Norway, has faced intense public and media scrutiny over her documented past connections to disgraced American financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died in prison in 2019. Court documents released in the United States earlier this year revealed that Mette-Marit maintained regular, at times intimate, correspondence with Epstein between 2011 and 2014 — years after Epstein had already been convicted of a sex offense in Florida. Further adding to the household’s stress, Mette-Marit’s son from her first relationship, Marius Borg Hoiby, was convicted in June on dozens of criminal charges including two counts of rape and multiple counts of violence against a former partner, resulting in a four-year prison sentence. Borg Hoiby has since filed an appeal challenging the conviction. Mette-Marit herself has also faced a major personal health crisis: living with a chronic serious lung condition, she underwent a life-saving lung transplant in July. Despite the string of personal challenges and scandals facing the royal family, the institution remains broadly popular among the Norwegian public. Polling and public sentiment consistently reflect high approval for the monarchy, a trend widely attributed to King Harald’s longstanding reputation as a unifying national figure during his 33-year reign.

  • Thai prime minister meets security chiefs after coordinated attacks in 3 southern provinces

    Thai prime minister meets security chiefs after coordinated attacks in 3 southern provinces

    BANGKOK – Thailand’s political leadership is juggling two overlapping national emergencies this week, as Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul cut short urgent security briefings on Sunday to respond to a separate crisis: catastrophic flooding in the country’s northern provinces. The security emergency unfolded overnight Saturday, when dozens of coordinated attacks targeted civilian and infrastructure sites across three restive southern border provinces that have been the center of a decades-long low-intensity Muslim separatist insurgency.

    Anutin gathered top national security leaders for an emergency meeting within hours of the attacks being confirmed, which took place across Narathiwat, Pattani, and Yala – the three southernmost Thai provinces, where a Muslim majority population has long held separatist sentiment in the predominantly Buddhist nation. In total, local security officials recorded 51 separate violent incidents between Saturday evening and early Sunday morning, marking one of the largest coordinated actions by insurgent groups in recent years.

    Unlike past high-profile attacks that targeted security forces directly, Saturday’s operations avoided direct clashes with military and police personnel. Official updates on Sunday confirmed only three civilian injuries, all of which were non-life-threatening and the victims were reported to be recovering in local medical facilities. Instead of targeting personnel, the attackers focused on property damage, using small improvised explosive devices, arson, and other low-intensity tactics to spread disruption across the region.

    The most widely publicized attack targeted a 7-Eleven convenience store in Pattani. Security camera footage circulated widely across social media platforms shows armed men patrolling the exterior of the store while customers and staff scrambled to escape before the building was set alight. In Narathiwat, an explosive device planted on railway tracks damaged the infrastructure, forcing authorities to suspend both local passenger services and long-haul cross-border routes. As of Sunday, officials had not given a timeline for restoring service, citing ongoing uncertainty about the security situation in the area.

    As is typical for insurgent attacks in Thailand’s deep south, no group immediately claimed public responsibility for the coordinated operation, and no faction was publicly named as a suspect by authorities in the immediate aftermath. However, multiple security analysts and government sources point to the Barisan Revolusi Nasional Melayu Patani (BRN) – the largest and best-organized separatist group active in the region – as the perpetrator. The BRN has been the primary counterpart for the Thai government in intermittent, on-again off-again peace negotiations over recent years, and the group’s stated core goal is to win autonomous self-rule for the three majority-Muslim southern provinces.

    Grievances that fuel the separatist movement stretch back decades. Muslim residents in the deep south have long alleged systemic discrimination, saying they are treated as second-class citizens by the national Buddhist-majority government. Separatist violence escalated dramatically in 2004, when the central government responded to rising unrest with heavy-handed military crackdowns that further radicalized local populations and deepened public discontent. According to data from Deep South Watch, a leading independent think tank hosted at Prince of Songkla University’s Pattani campus, more than 7,800 people have been killed in insurgency-related violence across the region over the past 22 years.

    The most recent major flare-up of violence occurred in July this year, when roughly 10 assailants attacked a military security checkpoint in Narathiwat with gunfire and pipe bombs. The assault left five paramilitary soldiers dead and six civilians wounded, including a 10-year-old child.

    Independent security analyst Don Pathan, a leading expert on the Thai southern insurgency, explained that the BRN typically carries out large coordinated attacks to gain greater leverage during peace negotiations with the national government. “From the ground, BRN combatants are turned off by the boasting of military officials and wanted to use the spike in violence to demonstrate their capabilities,” Pathan said. He added that while most of the targets in the latest wave of attacks were civilian sites, the group was not focused on causing mass casualties. “Many of the targets in these latest incidents were civilians, but BRN combatants were not after body counts. They want to send a stern message to the Thais of what they are capable of doing.”

    The overlapping emergencies come at a tense time for Anutin’s government, which is already managing resource deployment to support flood response in northern Thailand, where widespread flooding has displaced thousands of residents and caused extensive damage to agricultural land and infrastructure. Anutin departed Bangkok for the flood-hit northern province of Nan immediately after Sunday’s urgent security meeting.

  • Viral ‘Cat in the Hat’ TikTok trend sparks fun fake videos but also real fear

    Viral ‘Cat in the Hat’ TikTok trend sparks fun fake videos but also real fear

    What started as a quirky online post about an aging vintage film costume has exploded into a viral social media phenomenon that has left teenagers across the United Kingdom and Ireland spooked, and pushed law enforcement to step in and calm widespread panic.

    The beloved Dr. Seuss children’s book character The Cat in the Hat, a staple of childhood reading for generations, has been reimagined as a menacing, urban legend-style figure in a wave of AI-generated images and user-posted clips that have flooded TikTok and other social platforms in recent weeks. For millions of young social media users, the once-fictional character now feels like a real threat that could lurk around any dark street corner.

    Sixteen-year-old Skye, one of many teens shaken by the trend, recalled a terrifying sleepover experience that ended with her calling her mother for an emergency pickup. “It was 3 a.m. and everyone was watching these Cat in the Hat videos,” she explained. “When I walked down my friend’s driveway afterward, I was completely convinced he was going to jump out at me. I was too scared to stay.”

    A quick scroll through TikTok confirms how widespread the trend has become: dozens of new accounts created in the past month post regular content of the life-sized character, showing an unblinking figure in the iconic tattered red-and-white striped hat and faded black-and-white fur suit. One of the earliest viral clips, captioned “Help, what do I do?”, has racked up more than 14.6 million views in just three weeks.

    Wild conspiracy theories have flourished in the comment sections of these posts. Some viewers have questioned why the costume looks taxidermied, while others have pushed the outlandish false claim that Mike Myers — who played the character in the 2003 live-action *The Cat in the Hat* film — is actually trapped inside the roaming costume. Other posts go even further, adding geotags and threatening captions such as “Kent, I’m coming — lock your doors” that stoke panic across different regions of the UK.

    Much of the early alarm centered on Ireland’s Limerick and Wexford counties, where shaky, AI-generated clips purporting to show the character wandering after-dark residential streets spread like wildfire. Local Gardaí were quick to debunk the sightings, confirming the images were entirely artificial, but their statements did little to slow the spread of the hoax. Unsubstantiated claims quickly began circulating that the costumed figure was linked to violent assaults, with no evidence to back up the dangerous rumors.

    The panic has even spilled into Scotland, where one 14-year-old teen named Lily received a fake invitation to a “meet and greet” with the Cat in the Hat in remote woodland near the small border town of Galashiels. Her mother quickly shut down the idea, horrified at the risk of her child venturing into an isolated area to meet a stranger.

    Law enforcement across the UK has been forced to issue repeated statements to debunk the growing hoax. South Yorkshire Police was among the forces forced to respond after false posts claiming a “killer Cat in the Hat” was on the loose gained hundreds of thousands of views. One fake post even impersonated a non-existent “Yorkshire Police” force to claim officers were taking the alleged sighting seriously.

    In a playful but firm statement, a South Yorkshire Police spokesperson urged social media users to verify the source of any policing updates they see online: “If you do see posts online providing policing updates and advice, please check that they are from an official policing account. The cat is not out of the bag on this one… Please don’t believe everything you read on social media.”

    The origins of the current viral trend trace back to an August 8 post from pop culture outlet DiscussingFilm, which shared news that the original 2003 *Cat in the Hat* film costume was going up for auction through entertainment memorabilia retailer Propstore. That post alone has gained 10 million views, with hundreds of commenters describing the aged, dilapidated costume as “nightmare fuel” and “genuinely haunting.”

    The tattered, worn costume is set to go up for auction alongside 1,399 other film and TV memorabilia lots this Wednesday, with an estimated selling price between $12,000 and $24,000 (£17,500). The aged condition of the original costume, which shows clear signs of decades of disrepair, gave internet users the eerie starting point for the hoax.

    While many social media users have joined the trend for lighthearted fun — with creators posting comedic clips of police chasing Cat in the Hat impersonators, dancers in costume performing to Beyoncé, and even jokes poking fun at the panic — the trend has left many teens genuinely scared. “I was already afraid of him when I was little,” shared 16-year-old Ellie from the Scottish Borders. “Now it feels like he’s actually come to life to haunt me.”

    Observers have drawn parallels between the Cat in the Hat hoax and the 2018 “Momo Challenge”, a widespread digital urban legend that caused widespread panic among parents and young people, even as fact-checkers found no evidence of the trend causing actual harm. Scottish mother Emily warned that the trend creates unnecessary risk beyond the immediate fear: “I’m not worried about my own daughters, but there could be people with bad intentions who might take advantage of this trend to manipulate teenagers.”

    As of now, all evidence confirms that there is no real roaming Cat in the Hat: the trend is a rapidly evolving online story built from an auctioned vintage costume, amateur costume wearers, AI-generated content, and unsubstantiated social media posts. Whether the trend began as a harmless joke or a deliberate attempt to frighten audiences, police across the UK and Ireland are echoing consistent safety advice for social media users: always pause before sharing viral content, verify claims against official sources, never accept invitations to meet strangers in isolated, late-night locations, and treat unsourced online rumors with caution.

    The viral Cat in the Hat panic serves as a fresh reminder of how quickly online viral fear can cross over into the real world, impacting daily life and prompting official intervention across two countries.

  • Man City snatch late win in Maresca debut, Iraola’s Liverpool rescue dramatic draw

    Man City snatch late win in Maresca debut, Iraola’s Liverpool rescue dramatic draw

    The new Premier League season got off to a thrilling start, with two of English football’s most iconic clubs launching their post-departure eras in dramatic fashion on opening weekend. Enzo Maresca, stepping into the huge shoes left by Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, secured a heart-stopping 2-1 victory over Bournemouth in his first match in charge, while new Liverpool manager Andoni Iraola grabbed a last-minute 2-2 draw against Newcastle United that saved him from a disappointing debut defeat.

    Guardiola, who delivered 20 major trophies including six Premier League titles across a trophy-laden 10-year tenure at the Etihad Stadium, set the bar for his successor incredibly high. In a neat parallel, Guardiola’s own reign at City began with a tight late victory over Sunderland back in 2016, and Maresca will be hoping his opening narrow win signals the start of an equally dominant stint at the club.

    Questions had already been swirling around City’s title credentials this season after a flat 3-0 defeat to Arsenal in the Community Shield the previous weekend, and those concerns looked set to be validated for most of their opening fixture. Bournemouth drew first blood through Marcus Tavernier’s first-half strike, and City struggled for attacking invention and defensive cohesion for long stretches of the 90 minutes. But a substitutions masterstroke from Maresca turned the game on its head: French attacking midfielder Rayan Cherki, brought off the bench, provided assists for both of City’s late goals. Center-back Marc Guehi nodded home the equalizer with just six minutes left to play, before Josko Gvardiol slotted home the winning goal in stoppage time to hand Maresca a dream debut.

    Speaking after the match, Maresca heaped praise on Cherki’s match-changing impact, noting: “The impact was unbelievable, he is that kind of player. I like Rayan, I told him also after the game, but sometimes when you plan a game and you already have four out of 11 players who arrived late (from holidays), if you go with one more maybe the difference is too big.”

    Over at St James’ Park, Iraola’s first game in charge of Liverpool also ended in stopp-time drama, though the result was far less decisive. The Spanish manager took over the Reds after Arne Slot’s off-season sacking, with the club undergoing a major overhaul this summer: star forward Mohamed Salah departed for Trabzonspor, and a new ownership consortium fronted by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos has injected significant investment to rebuild the squad.

    Liverpool’s new era got off to a rocky start, as Newcastle exposed the same defensive vulnerabilities that cost Slot his job last season. Anthony Elanga put the Magpies ahead in the first half, and though Cody Gakpo leveled the score shortly after halftime, Joe Willock – netting his first Premier League goal since 2024 – restored Newcastle’s lead late on. But with the last kick of the game, after Newcastle’s Lewis Hall fouled Liverpool substitute Victor Munoz in the box, Dominik Szoboszlai kept his cool to convert the stoppage-time penalty, securing a dramatic point for Iraola’s side. While the Reds can take encouragement from their never-say-die attitude to rescue the draw, the unconvincing performance will leave new manager with plenty of areas to address.

    Elsewhere on opening weekend, Brighton & Hove Albion ran riot against a depleted Aston Villa side, running out 4-0 winners at the Amex Stadium. Unai Emery’s Villa have seen a mass exodus of key players this off-season, and the side was missing star striker Ollie Watkins and first-choice goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez – both linked with imminent exits, following already confirmed departures of Ezri Konsa, Youri Tielemans, Lucas Digne and Morgan Rogers. Left without a single recognized senior striker in the matchday squad, Villa were outclassed from the first whistle.

    A calamitous own goal from Manchester United loanee Victor Lindelof got the Seagulls off to a flying start, followed by a close-range finish from Maxim De Cuyper that put Brighton 2-0 up inside the opening half-hour. Brighton’s Jack Hinshelwood put the result beyond any doubt with two goals in the space of just two minutes before halftime, and Villa’s miserable afternoon got even worse when new midfield signing Joao Gomes was sent off on his league debut just before the break, leaving Emery’s side to play more than 45 minutes with 10 men.

  • 49ers take star TE George Kittle off PUP list 10 days before leaving for Australia

    49ers take star TE George Kittle off PUP list 10 days before leaving for Australia

    SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Ten days before the San Francisco 49ers travel to Australia for their highly anticipated 2025 NFL season opener against the Los Angeles Rams on September 11, the franchise has received a wave of encouraging injury updates for three of its most critical offensive and defensive stars.

    The biggest headline centers on star tight end George Kittle, who was officially removed from the team’s physically unable to perform (PUP) list on Sunday. The move reignites widespread optimism that the five-time Pro Bowler and two-time All-Pro could make a shockingly early return from a ruptured right Achilles tendon injury in time for the Week 1 matchup.

    Kittle suffered the season-ending Achilles tear back on January 11 during the 49ers’ playoff victory over the Philadelphia Eagles. In a remarkable recovery timeline, he has worked his way back to team practice in less than eight months, beating the typical 9-12 month recovery window for this type of injury.

    As a foundational piece of San Francisco’s offensive scheme, Kittle brings unmatched value as both a dynamic receiving threat and a physical run-blocker. Last season, he recorded 57 receptions for 628 yards and seven touchdowns, cementing his status as one of the league’s top players at his position. Kittle had previously stated he needed to complete padded practice reps before the team’s September 2 departure for Australia to confirm his fitness for the trip and potential Week 1 participation.

    Joining Kittle in a return to team practice is All-Pro running back Christian McCaffrey, who had missed the previous two weeks of camp with what the team described as general muscle tightness. The 30-year-old running back enters 2025 on the heels of an ironman 2024 season, where he logged 1,010 total offensive snaps across the regular season and playoffs. That mark made him just the ninth running back in the last 20 seasons to top 1,000 snaps in a single campaign, and he also became only the second player in the last decade to record at least 450 combined rushing carries and receptions in one season.

    The minor soft tissue issue that sidelined McCaffrey has raised some historical red flags for the 49ers. In both 2019 (with the Carolina Panthers) and 2023 (with the 49ers), McCaffrey topped 400 total touches in a season, only to suffer significant injuries the following year that forced him to miss 13 games each in 2020 and 2024 after limited playing time.

    While two key offensive stars have returned to action, the 49ers are still monitoring star defensive end Nick Bosa, who remains sidelined from full team practice with soreness and tendinitis in his surgically repaired right knee. Bosa tore his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in Week 3 of last season, and while he opened this year’s training camp on the active roster, he has only participated in individual drills before being held out nearly three weeks ago. Team officials have maintained they remain optimistic Bosa will be fully fit and ready for the September 11 season opener.

    The 49ers are set to depart for Sydney on September 2, where they will face the Rams in the NFL’s latest annual regular season game hosted outside the United States, with all three star players targeting a spot in the historic matchup.

  • Guinea rubbish landfill collapse kills 30

    Guinea rubbish landfill collapse kills 30

    A catastrophic collapse of a massive garbage mound at one of Conakry, Guinea’s largest waste disposal sites, has claimed the lives of at least 30 people and left dozens more injured, government officials confirmed this week. The disaster, which unfolded around 2:00 a.m. local time in the capital’s densely populated Dar-es-Salam neighborhood, followed a night of intense heavy rainfall that destabilized the already precarious waste mound, which slid onto adjacent informal residential homes.

    Beyond the confirmed fatalities, 22 people have been registered as injured, with six of those suffering critical, life-threatening conditions that require urgent medical care. Local media interviews have already captured devastating personal stories of loss: one resident told reporters that all five of her children were killed when the rubbish mound engulfed her home.

    In response to the emergency, the Guinean government announced it has mobilized “significant” human and material resources, including units from the national military, to launch urgent search and rescue operations for survivors still potentially trapped under mounds of shifted debris. Rescue teams have been spotted working around the clock at the site, using heavy excavators to carefully sift through tons of scattered garbage, while anxious local residents gather near the perimeter waiting for updates on missing loved ones.

    Guinea’s Prime Minister Mamadou Oury Bah traveled directly to the disaster site shortly after the collapse to personally assess the scale of the damage and coordinate ongoing search efforts. Early on-scene reports from local neighborhood leader Lancine Sylla to Agence France-Presse had already painted a grim picture, with Sylla warning that the death toll would likely climb before recovery efforts were complete. “We have pulled out 18 bodies that were taken to the morgue,” Sylla told AFP in initial on-the-ground comments.

    This is not the first deadly disaster to strike this same waste site: a previous landslide at the Conakry landfill killed 10 people back in 2017, raising urgent questions about longstanding safety risks at the facility and the vulnerability of informal settlements built in close proximity to the unstable waste mound. Rescue operations are still ongoing as of this report, and aid organizations are preparing to support displaced families who lost their homes in the collapse. Officials have repeatedly warned that the confirmed death toll is expected to rise as recovery teams continue to clear debris and search for people still unaccounted for.

  • Iranian cyber attack shuts down UK power plant for four days, report says

    Iranian cyber attack shuts down UK power plant for four days, report says

    A four-day shutdown of a British power plant carried out by hackers with alleged ties to Iran marks an unprecedented escalation in cyber conflict between Tehran and Western powers, the Sunday Telegraph has reported. Cybersecurity and government analysts note the incident is believed to be the first successful disabling of a United Kingdom energy facility by actors linked to the Iranian government, coming on the heels of a coordinated wave of cyber intrusions targeting American water infrastructure across at least 12 U.S. states last month that triggered urgent security briefings at the White House.

    British authorities have declined to publicly identify the specific facility targeted in the attack, citing ongoing national security confidentiality requirements. A spokesperson for the UK Department for Energy Security and Net Zero clarified that the cyber operation only affected a small-scale energy generator, and that no systemic risk to the UK’s broader national energy network was ever posed. The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the agency responsible for defending critical national infrastructure from cyber threats, confirmed that no public power outages occurred as a result of the breach.

    Following the incident, Downing Street has held closed-door security briefings for chief executives of all major UK power companies and distributed formal guidance to private sector critical infrastructure operators outlining enhanced defensive protocols and next steps for threat mitigation.

    Security analysts link the attack to a recent shift in UK foreign policy that granted the United States permission to conduct offensive defensive operations against Iranian targets from UK military bases. In March, Keir Starmer’s new Labour government authorized the U.S. military to use two key British facilities — the Royal Air Force base at Fairford in Gloucestershire, and the joint UK-US facility on Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean — for limited strikes against Iranian missile sites that posed direct threats to British personnel, regional allies, and British sovereign assets. That authorization was later expanded to allow U.S. strikes on active Iranian missile infrastructure targeting commercial shipping lanes in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint through which roughly 20% of the world’s oil supplies pass daily.

    The pattern of Iranian-linked cyber retaliation against Western infrastructure already emerged earlier this year. In June, an Iran-aligned hacker-activist group called Handala claimed responsibility for a cyber intrusion into California water facilities, saying the action was carried out in retaliation for reported U.S. strikes on water infrastructure in southern Iran. The group announced it had exfiltrated large volumes of data from compromised systems, framing the breach as a formal warning to Washington. While Handala claimed it held the capability to disrupt public water supplies across California, the group said it chose not to cut off service to U.S. cities, asserting that it adheres to a different ethical standard than the United States and its allies. To prove the intrusion was successful, Handala published five gigabytes of stolen data from the compromised systems.

    This is not the first high-profile operation carried out by Handala. In April, the group claimed to have stolen more than 19,000 sensitive files after hacking the personal smartphone of Herzi Halevi, the chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces. In a public statement posted to its website at the time, the group boasted that “All your top-secret facilities, crisis rooms, maps, and even the tiniest details of your command centres have long been like an open book to us.” Portions of the stolen files reviewed by independent Middle Eastern news outlet Middle East Eye confirmed the documents included records of secret meetings between Halevi and senior Arab officials, including an undated photograph of Halevi meeting with former U.S. Central Command chief Michael Kurilla in Qatar.

  • Landfill collapse kills 30 in Guinea

    Landfill collapse kills 30 in Guinea

    A catastrophic garbage mound collapse at a landfill site in the outskirts of Guinea’s capital Conakry has left at least 30 people dead, government officials confirmed on Sunday. The disaster struck before dawn at approximately 2:00 a.m. GMT, when accumulated rainfall weakened the structure of the rubbish mound, sending it sliding onto informal residential homes in the Dar-es-salam neighbourhood of Bbessia district. Six additional people were left with severe, life-threatening injuries in the incident.

    Local neighbourhood leader Lancine Sylla was among the first to respond to the emergency, telling AFP earlier that recovery teams had already recovered 18 bodies transferred to the city’s morgue, and warned that the death toll was expected to rise. By Sunday afternoon, official government statements confirmed the final toll of 30 fatalities.

    In a sign of the ongoing response effort, Guinea’s Minister of Territorial Administration Djenabou Toure traveled directly to the accident site to oversee operations. Photographers from AFP on the ground witnessed heavy excavator machinery working through the unstable collapsed waste to search for any additional victims, as hundreds of local onlookers gathered at the perimeter of the disaster zone waiting for updates.

    A troubling detail has emerged in the aftermath of the collapse: government authorities had already ordered evacuation of the residential area and implemented preliminary safety measures around the landfill in recent days, after identifying a high risk of structural failure following sustained heavy rainfall. Despite these pre-emptive warnings, many residents remained in their homes adjacent to the site, leaving them vulnerable when the collapse occurred. Search and rescue operations were still ongoing as of Sunday afternoon, with emergency workers continuing to comb through the rubble for any missing persons.