A rare public split between a senior U.S. diplomatic representative and existing White House policy has emerged after Tom Barrack, the current U.S. ambassador to Turkey, openly labeled Israel’s long-standing control of Syria’s Golan Heights as an unlawful occupation that directly violates United Nations resolutions and global international law.\n\nBarrack’s comments mark a stark departure from the official stance of the U.S. government under former President Donald Trump, who formally recognized Israeli sovereignty over the contested strategic plateau in 2019 — a move that was immediately rejected by most of the international community.\n\nLocated at the intersection of Israel, Syria, and southern Lebanon, the Golan Heights is a strategically critical highland region that Israel first seized from Syrian control during the 1967 Six-Day Middle East War. Israel unilaterally annexed the territory shortly after its capture, but this territorial claim has never received formal recognition from the broader global community. Binding UN Security Council Resolution 242, adopted shortly after the 1967 conflict, explicitly requires Israel to withdraw from all territories captured during the war, including the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank. Today, the Golan is home to approximately 20,000 Israeli settlers and 26,000 original Syrian inhabitants, most of whom are members of the Druze ethnic community who retain their Syrian national identity.\n\nBarrack made the contentious remarks during a wide-ranging interview with broadcaster Mario Nawfal, where he also discussed regional tensions over potential Israeli plans to annex additional Lebanese territory. On that topic, he argued that Israeli leaders recognize the international community would never allow such a move, noting that U.S. public and political support for Israel is gradually softening. ‘Even young Democrats are coming against them,’ he stated, adding that even former President Trump sought to carve out a moderate approach to the conflict. He added that upcoming Israeli national elections will likely reshape the country’s political and policy landscape, making any large-scale territorial annexation of Lebanese land even less feasible.\n\nReturning to the question of the Golan Heights, Barrack reaffirmed his assessment: ‘Now saying that, in the Golan with Syria, they still occupy the Golan against the UN resolutions, against all of the international order, which has said the Golan is Syria’s.’\n\nThe ambassador also addressed rising regional tensions following a recent Israeli air strike on Syria’s Abu al-Duhur air base, noting that the operation carried a significant risk of direct military confrontation between Israel and Turkey. He outlined multiple competing theories to explain what prompted the strike, which he described as ‘serious and worrying.’\n\nThe first theory he cited was unconfirmed Israeli intelligence that Turkish military assets were preparing to deploy to the base, a claim that has not been verified by subsequent checks. A second possibility is that Israeli forces detected unusual troop movements that other regional actors failed to pick up. Barrack called a third explanation the ‘probably most likely’ scenario: Israeli intelligence intercepted conversations indicating Turkey planned to expand its military training operations at the Abu al-Duhur base.\n\nHe also raised a more provocative possibility: that Israel deliberately baited Turkey by launching the strike without any prior notification to Ankara, as a test of Turkey’s response to Israeli military activity in the area. A final theory centers on internal coordination failure within Israel’s security establishment, suggesting the Israel Defense Forces, Mossad, and the prime minister’s office may have operated on conflicting intelligence assessments that led to the unplanned strike.\n\nBarrack warned that the risk of accidental escalation in the already volatile region carries severe consequences. ‘The unintended consequence of a mistake could be really consequential,’ he said, noting that Turkish forces could scramble fighter jets in response to an unannounced incursion with no advance knowledge of Israeli intentions, raising the risk of open conflict between the two military powers.\n\nBarrack also noted that reaching a diplomatic de-escalation of ongoing Israeli incursions into Lebanon remains challenging, as key decision-making power in the region is held by Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, with no ongoing negotiations between all relevant parties.
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‘He was in hospital’: Bulldogs remain in finals hunt after Covid and injuries rock their team
The lingering impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt professional rugby league, with the Canterbury Bulldogs emerging as the latest club grappling with a wave of virus cases and injury setbacks ahead of a critical late-season clash. What initially looked like a lackluster, underperforming display against South Sydney Rabbitohs last week now has clear context: Bulldogs head coach Cameron Ciraldo has revealed five first-team players were silently battling active COVID-19 during that match, a revelation that explains the squad’s flat energy in a game with major finals implications.
Against all odds, the injury and virus-stricken side turned in a complete 180-degree performance just seven days later, notching a dominant 44-point victory over the St. George Illawarra Dragons — the highest single-game point total the Bulldogs have put up all season. The dramatic turnaround has kept Canterbury’s faint finals hopes alive heading into the final two weeks of the National Rugby League (NRL) regular season, even as the squad navigated a cascade of off-field and on-field challenges that would have derailed most teams.
Winger Jacob Kiraz, who turned in a shaky performance against the Rabbitohs with multiple uncharacteristic handling errors, returned to his best against the Dragons after playing through a painful calf tear for three straight weeks without a full training block. “We didn’t tell anyone, but he had a calf tear again and played for the last three weeks without training. So it’s not ideal, but it just shows the toughness of the guy,” Ciraldo told reporters post-match, adding that Kiraz’s first full week of preparation in weeks clearly showed in his performance. Utility Kurt Mann also left the Dragons clash with a groin injury, adding another name to the club’s growing treatment room list.
Young forward Jacob Preston, who dominated headlines all week after reports emerged that he had rejected a three-year, $1.9 million contract extension from the club, put all off-field speculation aside to turn in a standout performance, scoring one try and setting up a second. What many fans did not know is that Preston spent days in hospital leading up to the match receiving intravenous treatment for an infected elbow, missing the final two full training sessions before game day. Ciraldo joked after the win, “He was in hospital with an infection, so he was on a drip over the last couple of days. Maybe we might have to do that next week as well because he played pretty well.”
Halfback Lachlan Galvin, who set up Preston’s first-half try with a perfectly weighted short pass, brushed off questions about the contract saga and praised his teammate’s mental toughness. “He’s a gun. I love playing with Presto,” Galvin said. “That (the contract) is his business. I don’t really ask him much about that, but I love playing alongside him. He makes me look good, so that always helps.”
Preston was far from the only Canterbury player battling illness through the week: team captain Stephen Crichton was among the five players who tested positive for COVID-19, marking the latest virus outbreak to hit an NRL club in the final stretch of the season. Ciraldo noted that mid-season disruptions like this are common across the league, but rarely make headlines, adding that he regretted being harsh on his squad after the poor Rabbitohs performance before learning about the virus cases. “These things happen in a footy season, every team goes through them, but a lot of them you don’t hear about,” Ciraldo said. “I was a bit harsh on the boys last week, and then you rock up Monday and about five of them have tested positive for Covid so no wonder they were a bit flat.”
The challenges did not end there: playmaker Matt Burton rushed to his hometown of Dubbo mid-week following the death of his grandmother, but returned in time to take the field against the Dragons, shifting to the right edge to turn in one of his best performances of the year with two tries and multiple game-changing defensive stops.
Canterbury still faces an uphill battle to qualify for the 2024 finals, needing a string of favorable results in the final two weeks to secure a spot. But Ciraldo and his players say the win over the Dragons proves the squad will not make excuses for their challenges, regardless of how severe they are. Galvin echoed that mindset after the match, joking that the sick players may have just earned a few extra rest days, and credited the club’s structured game plan for keeping the team competitive even when key players miss training. “I think we rocked up and a few of the boys were sick, but the way they played tonight, you wouldn’t know. I think a few of them just wanted a few days off training!” Galvin said. “When players come up and train with us in the NRL team, we’ve got a system in place that everyone knows what they’re kind of doing. So I don’t think it was that disruptive. I thought we all trained really well this week and were lucky enough to come out and show it in our performance.”
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Joao Pedro signs new deal at Chelsea and takes on club’s ‘cursed’ No. 9 shirt
LONDON – In a move that cements his long-term future at one of England’s most iconic Premier League clubs, Brazilian striker Joao Pedro has agreed to an upgraded contract extension with Chelsea that will keep him at Stamford Bridge until 2034, the club announced Saturday. The forward has also inherited the Blues’ famed – and notoriously cursed – No. 9 shirt, a jersey that has foiled 13 consecutive attackers since the position was last successfully filled in the early 2000s.
Pedro originally joined Chelsea from Brighton & Hove Albion just one year ago, on an initial deal that was scheduled to run through 2032 with an optional extra year. The new extension not only adds two additional years to his commitment but also brings improved financial terms, a reward for his standout debut season with the West London side, where he notched 20 goals across all competitions in his first campaign.
Speaking on the new deal, Pedro expressed his commitment to the club’s ambitions, saying: “I always dreamed of playing for a big club, and it means a lot to me to give my long-term commitment to this club. Chelsea has a long tradition of winning and it has big ambitions for the future.”
The 24-year-old’s strong form last season came despite a high-profile snub this summer, when he was left out of Brazil’s squad for the 2026 FIFA World Cup – a decision that surprised many football analysts given his consistent goalscoring output.
Pedro is poised to lead the line as first-choice striker for newly appointed manager Xabi Alonso when Chelsea kicks off its new Premier League campaign away at Fulham on Monday. To clear space for Pedro in the first team, fellow forwards Liam Delap and Nicolas Jackson have been placed on the transfer market, while recent July signing Danny Welbeck, also lured from Brighton, is in contention for a spot in the matchday squad.
The No. 9 jersey Pedro now wears was vacated by Delap when the latter was put up for transfer. The shirt has gained a reputation for being jinxed over the past two decades: since Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink delivered prolific, title-winning performances in the number back in the early 2000s, 13 subsequent wearers have failed to make a sustained positive impact in the role.
The curse even carries the name of one of its most famous victims: Dutch defender Khalid Boulahrouz, who was infamously given the No. 9 shirt despite being a natural center back. Other high-profile flops include former club-record signing Fernando Torres, one of three record-breaking attacking recruits to struggle in the shirt. The “curse of Khalid Boulahrouz” remains a widely discussed quirk of Chelsea’s modern history, one that Pedro will now look to break.
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Near-total lunar eclipse is coming up with the Americas in prime position
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Just two weeks after a total solar eclipse drew crowds across Europe, a rare, deep partial lunar eclipse is set to take center stage in the night sky, offering the best views to observers across the Americas. On Thursday night through early Friday, Earth’s shadow will cover 96% of the lunar surface, marking one of the most striking partial eclipses of recent years. This celestial event falls at a time of renewed global interest in lunar exploration, following NASA’s successful April Artemis II mission that carried astronauts on a record-breaking lunar flyby – the first step in the agency’s long-term plan to land humans on the moon and establish a permanent, crewed base staffed by both people and robotic explorers.
From his vantage point aboard the International Space Station, NASA astronaut Jack Hathaway emphasized the momentum of modern space exploration in an interview with The Associated Press last week. “This is a great time to be part of the space program, right? We’re not slowing down,” Hathaway said.
Astronomical events like this follow a consistent pattern: solar and lunar eclipses always occur in pairs, triggered when the sun, moon and Earth align with extraordinary precision. A remarkable cosmic coincidence makes these alignments even more dramatic from Earth’s surface: the moon is 400 times smaller than the sun, and also sits 400 times closer to our planet, leaving the two celestial bodies appearing nearly identical in size to observers on the ground.
Unlike the recent total solar eclipse, which was only visible along a narrow path across Greenland, Iceland and Spain, this upcoming lunar eclipse will unfold slowly over several hours, and reach a far larger global audience. If skies remain clear, the partially eclipsed moon will be visible to billions of people across North and South America, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Even the 10 people currently living in orbit – seven crew members on the International Space Station and three aboard China’s Tiangong space station – may get a chance to view the event from their unique orbital perspective.
ISS commander Jessica Meir noted that space offers an unparalleled view of cosmic phenomena ranging from eclipses to auroras. For this lunar eclipse, Earth will pass directly between the sun and the moon, casting a warm reddish-orange shadow across most of the lunar surface. Because the alignment is not perfectly centered, it will be a partial eclipse rather than a full total eclipse, meaning it will not produce a full “blood moon” effect. The full duration of the eclipse, from the moment the full moon touches the faint outermost edge of Earth’s shadow to when it exits completely, will stretch 5.5 hours, with the partial phase lasting more than three hours. Peak coverage will occur just after midnight Eastern Daylight Time.
Nearly 1 billion people across the United States, Canada, Central America and South America will have unobstructed views of the entire event. In total, more than 3 billion people – around 44% of the global population – will be able to observe at least part of the eclipse. For skywatchers in Europe, Africa and the Middle East, the eclipsed moon will set before the event concludes, cutting viewing time short. In Hawaii, the northwestern U.S. and western Canada, the moon will rise later, meaning observers will only see the latter stages of the eclipse.
This event is the second lunar eclipse of 2024, and the fourth total eclipse of any kind this year. The year opened with a total lunar eclipse over the Americas, Australia and East Asia in March. For skywatchers hoping to see a full total lunar eclipse across North and South America, the wait will stretch several years: the next full total lunar eclipse will not grace the skies of the hemisphere until 2029. The next complete lunar blackout anywhere in the world will occur on New Year’s Eve 2028, with the best views reserved for observers in Asia and Australia.
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Victim of sword attack at a Swedish school was a 17-year-old girl
STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Swedish law enforcement has released new details of a horrific fatal assault that shook a small central Swedish community this week, confirming the killed victim of a Friday sword attack at a local secondary school is a 17-year-old girl. The violent incident, which unfolded during active school hours at Brinell School in Fagersta, a town roughly 100 miles northwest of the capital Stockholm, left one person dead and three others wounded, with two of the victims suffering life-threatening injuries.
Authorities confirmed that the alleged perpetrator, an 18-year-old man, was taken into police custody immediately following the attack. The case is currently being probed on charges of murder and attempted murder, and investigators have found no evidence to suggest additional suspects were involved in the attack, according to official statements released Saturday.
Local Swedish news agency TT reported further details on the injured victims: the two boys with severe wounds are 12 and 17 years old respectively, while a third victim, also a minor, suffered only minor injuries and has been released from medical care. By Saturday morning, community members had begun to process the tragedy: roughly 70 local residents gathered at a memorial space set up by the Fagersta municipality, bringing flowers and lighting candles to honor the victim and stand with those affected.
As of Saturday, official investigators have not announced any confirmed motive for the attack. Sweden’s national police force confirmed that investigators have already completed two court-authorized searches of properties connected to the suspect, and they are planning to interview dozens of witnesses over the coming days to piece together details of the assault and potential motivations. The Vastmanland regional government declared a temporary state of emergency immediately after the attack on Friday, but the emergency order was lifted by Saturday as the immediate threat passed.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson addressed the tragedy in an early post on the social platform X, expressing shock at the outbreak of violence just as students returned to school following the summer break. “We do not yet know what lies behind the act, but we know that the police are working very intensively,” Kristersson wrote. “Our thoughts are with all those affected.”
This attack is the latest in a string of high-profile violent assaults targeting school communities in Sweden over the past decade. In 2015, a 21-year-old man carried out a racist hate attack at a secondary school in Trollhättan, stabbing three people to death before he was shot and killed by responding police. Authorities confirmed the attacker intentionally targeted dark-skinned students at Kronan School, where the majority of the student body is made up of children of foreign-born parents. In 2022, an 18-year-old man killed two female teachers in a knife and axe attack at a secondary school in the southern city of Malmö. Most recently, in 2023, 11 people including the gunman were killed in a mass shooting at an adult education center in Örebro, central Sweden. That attack, the deadliest mass shooting in modern Swedish history, pushed the national government to introduce stricter national gun control legislation.
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US rapper BigXthaPlug arrested on drug and gun charges
Rising American hip-hop artist BigXthaPlug, best known for his viral Southern trap and country-rap hits, has been taken into custody in Texas on multiple charges including driving while intoxicated, marijuana possession, and unlawful firearm possession. Law enforcement officials with the Allen County Police Department confirmed to BBC Newsbeat that the 28-year-old artist, whose legal name is Xavier Landum, was pulled over during a routine stop on Friday and has since been detained at the Collin County Jail.
The arrest marks the third time the rapper has faced similar legal trouble in recent years. Just one year prior, he was arrested on matching charges of unlawful weapon possession and possession of a small quantity of marijuana, a case that remains open and unresolved as of this reporting. He was still out on bail from the 2025 arrest when he was taken into custody this week. Records also show he faced related charges back in 2022.
BigXthaPlug first rose to mainstream fame through a string of viral hit singles, including fan favorites *Texas*, *The Largest*, and *Mmhmm*, which cemented his reputation as one of the most exciting new voices in the modern Southern rap scene. He made his major UK festival debut in 2025, performing at London’s iconic Wireless Festival just weeks ahead of dropping his last full-length project. He had been gearing up for a high-profile new chapter in his career in recent days, teasing an upcoming new album release via his official Instagram and was scheduled to hit the stage this past Friday at the Country Rising festival.
Following news of his arrest, Country Rising festival organizers announced via their own Instagram page that the artist would no longer appear on the lineup, citing an unforeseen personal emergency as the reason for the last-minute cancellation. As of Monday, legal representatives for BigXthaPlug have not yet released a public statement regarding his latest arrest.
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UK MP urges government to ban goods produced in West Bank settlements
Growing tensions over Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank have triggered renewed pressure on the British government from senior UK lawmakers, who are demanding concrete action to oppose developments that threaten the viability of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Emily Thornberry, chair of the UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, has reiterated her longstanding call for a full ban on imports of goods produced in Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian land. Speaking in an interview with Sky News, Thornberry pointed out that it has been one full year since her committee first formally recommended ending the legal sale of settlement-produced goods in the UK, yet the British government has failed to implement any policy change to meet this demand.
Thornberry has long backed a two-state solution, which would see an independent Palestinian state exist alongside Israel in mutually recognized borders. She noted that the international community has reached near-unanimous agreement that the entire West Bank is designated as the territory for a future Palestinian state under this framework. However, she argued, Israel’s current far-right leadership is actively working to eliminate any path to Palestinian statehood by rapidly expanding settlements across the West Bank. The most recent high-stakes plan, known as the E1 project, would effectively bisect the entire West Bank, cutting off geographic connectivity that is essential for a functional independent Palestinian state. Beyond settlement construction, Thornberry added that levels of violence carried out by Israeli settlers against Palestinian communities have reached the highest point ever recorded.
Thornberry’s comments came just as the UK government formally announced this week that it would introduce punitive measures against Israel over the advancement of the E1 settlement scheme, which is located east of Jerusalem. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband issued a clear warning that the new construction project, for which development tenders were opened this week, represents an existential threat to the two-state solution framework that has guided international policy on the conflict for decades.
Miliband confirmed that he had directly communicated to Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar that the Israeli government must immediately halt all E1 planning, withdraw the recently issued construction tender, and end all expansion of illegal settlements across the West Bank. In a formal statement, Miliband emphasized that the ongoing wave of settler violence against Palestinian communities has had a catastrophic humanitarian impact, adding that settlement expansion and deliberate efforts to create irreversible geographic divisions on the ground undermine regional peace, security, and the entire prospect of a sovereign, viable Palestinian state.
On Tuesday, Israeli authorities formally issued a tender for the construction of 1,234 new residential units in the southern section of the E1 project, marking a major turning point for one of the most controversial settlement schemes in decades. After years of sitting in planning and approval phases, the project is now moving into active land marketing and on-the-ground implementation. The tender covers seven interconnected settlement complexes spanning roughly 12,000 dunams (approximately 3,000 acres) of land between Jerusalem and the large existing settlement of Ma’ale Adumim. The full development plan includes integrated residential zones, industrial areas, tourism sites, and new connecting roads and infrastructure that will permanently link the new settlements to existing Israeli settlement blocs.
Miliband stressed that the United Kingdom will not remain passive while the two-state solution is effectively destroyed. He confirmed that the UK government will lay out a full package of punitive measures in the coming weeks, including targeted sanctions against individuals and entities directly involved in advancing illegal settlement expansion. Minister of State for the Middle East Stephen Doughty joined Miliband in condemning the E1 tender, describing the move as a deliberate, destructive action explicitly designed to kill any hope of a two-state resolution to the conflict.
Weeks ahead of this official announcement, the independent news outlet Middle East Eye exclusively reported that the UK government was preparing to roll out new policies targeting Israeli settlement activity in September, including the long-debated ban on settlement-produced goods and potential sanctions against individuals, organizations, and even sitting Israeli ministers tied to the Israeli settler movement. The outlet also reported that UK officials are considering additional restrictions on arms sales to Israel, a longstanding point of contention between activist groups and successive UK governments.
Currently, the UK does not maintain a full ban on trade with Israeli settlements, though the government formally advises British businesses against engaging in any economic or financial activity within settlement areas. Under existing UK trade agreements with Israel and the Palestinian Authority, goods produced in settlements already do not qualify for preferential tariff treatment, but they remain legal to import and sell across the UK.
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Dozens of civilians killed, kidnapped as jihadists clash in Nigeria
A deadly attack by a jihadist faction during Friday prayers in Nigeria’s central Niger State has left scores of civilians dead or kidnapped, according to survivor and lawmaker accounts shared with Agence France-Presse on Saturday. The violence unfolded when a clash broke out between two rival militant groups, creating a chaotic window that allowed dozens of captives and survivors to escape.
Nigeria has grappled with a 17-year jihadist insurgency that began with Boko Haram’s 2009 uprising, one of the longest-running and deadliest extremist conflicts in Africa. While the insurgency was originally concentrated in the country’s northeast, where the 2014 mass kidnapping of 276 Chibok schoolgirls drew global outrage, the conflict has splintered and spread in recent years. The attack on Friday took place near Nigeria’s western border with Benin, a region that has seen a sharp spike in militant activity from local armed groups and extremist fighters moving north from the Sahel.
Jibril Ahmad, a survivor of the attack on Dikera village in Borgu Local Government Area, described the sudden assault that came immediately after the community concluded its weekly Friday prayer. “Soon after finishing the normal Friday prayer, the armed group of Lakuwara, in their hundreds, wielding guns, knives and machetes, began to attack us,” Ahmad recalled. He added that the attackers justified the killings by claiming village residents were not following what the group considers “true teachings of Islam.” The neighboring village of Binzi was also targeted in the coordinated assault, both Ahmad and Nigerian federal representative Jafaru Mohammed confirmed to AFP.
Lakurawa, the group that launched the initial attack, is a little-understood extremist faction that regional security researchers have linked to the Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP), a major jihadist organization that controls large swathes of territory in neighboring Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. The violence took an unexpected turn when a second local jihadist group, called Mahmuda, intervened and opened fire on Lakurawa fighters, the witnesses said.
Many civilians were able to flee to safety as the two rival factions fought each other. “Many of us have escaped, while they were busy trying to confront the Mahmuda fighters,” Ahmad explained. Mohammed confirmed that the clash grew out of ideological divisions between the two groups: “some members of the Mahmuda group were against the doctrine of the Lakurawa and when they heard of what the Lakurawa were doing they fought them.” Despite the intervention, Mohammed said the civilian toll remained severe: “But as of now many of our people have been slaughtered and many have been kidnapped and taken into the bushes.”
As of Saturday morning, local authorities had not released a confirmed casualty count. Niger State police confirmed they had received reports of kidnappings in the area, but said they had not been formally notified of any fatalities.
The attack highlights the evolving and increasingly fragmented security crisis facing Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country. Twelve months before the assault, in August 2023, the Nigerian government announced it had “dismantled” the Mahmuda faction and another extremist group Ansaru, arresting their top leaders. While overall jihadist violence has declined from its peak a decade ago, during the height of Boko Haram’s insurgency, Nigerian security forces remain overstretched by multiple overlapping conflicts across the country.
Extremist groups have expanded their foothold in northwest and central Nigeria in recent years, operating alongside large criminal networks of non-ideological bandit gangs that raid villages, steal livestock, and abduct residents for ransom. These bandits routinely impose illegal “taxes” on local farmers and miners to fund their operations, and the combination of criminal and ideological violence has destabilized vast rural areas. Late in 2024, the United States military launched airstrikes against jihadist targets in northwest Nigeria in an effort to curb the spread of extremism, but the campaign has not stopped factional violence.
In the northeast, Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province remain capable of large-scale attacks despite years of military pressure. Beyond the jihadist insurgency, Nigeria also faces persistent intercommunal clashes between farmers and herders over land and water resources in central regions, and a low-intensity separatist insurgency in the country’s southeast that has killed hundreds of people since 2020.
Kidnapping for ransom has grown into a multimillion-dollar criminal industry across Nigeria, carried out by both small local gangs and transnational jihadist groups alike. Despite Nigerian laws that ban the payment of ransoms to kidnappers, both victim families and government officials have been repeatedly accused of making payments to secure the release of captives, a practice that has sustained the growth of the kidnapping economy.
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Robotic horse and rider steal the spotlight at World Robot Conference
Beijing’s cutting-edge World Robot Conference opened this week to a flood of global innovation, drawing more than 300 robotics firms from across the world to unveil their latest technological breakthroughs. The five-day industry gathering has become a hotbed for showcasing next-generation robotics, with hundreds of displays spanning industrial automation, service robots, bionic systems and artificial intelligence-integrated mobility solutions.
While every exhibit at the conference brings new advances to the global robotics landscape, one unexpected star has captured the attention of attendees, media and tech enthusiasts alike: a fully functional bionic robotic horse paired with a synchronized robotic rider. The hyper-realistic system mimics the gait, balance and movement of a real horse and rider, demonstrating unprecedented advances in bionic engineering, multi-axis coordination and dynamic stability control.
Organizers of the conference note that the event serves as a critical global platform for connecting robotics research, commercial development and industry adoption, highlighting how rapidly the sector is evolving to meet demands across manufacturing, healthcare, entertainment and logistics. This year’s gathering underscores China’s growing role as a hub for robotics innovation, while also bringing together international developers to collaborate on the future of automated and intelligent systems.
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Ukraine strikes kill two children after Russia’s deadly mall attack
The ongoing military confrontation between Russia and Ukraine has entered a new phase of escalating civilian harm, with a series of reciprocal drone and missile strikes leaving multiple non-combatants dead across both territories over the past 48 hours. The deadly sequence of attacks began Friday afternoon, when Russian unmanned aerial vehicles struck a crowded shopping mall in Kryvyi Rih, the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Initial casualty reports confirm 16 civilians killed, more than 100 others wounded, and at least nine people still unaccounted for after the strike ignited a massive blaze that gutted the multi-story commercial building.
Just 30 minutes after the initial mall attack, a second Russian drone strike hit the same area, a move Zelensky condemned as a deliberate, cynical and despicable attempt to target first responders who had rushed to the scene to pull survivors from the wreckage. By Saturday, locals had erected a makeshift memorial outside the burned-out structure, laying flowers and handwritten notes for the victims. An AFP correspondent on site observed heavy machinery clearing debris of twisted, charred metal, with fire-blackened supermarket shelves still standing beneath a cratered ceiling and blown-out window frames.
Overnight Friday into Saturday, fresh Russian strikes killed two additional civilians: one in the capital Kyiv and another near the frontline city of Zaporizhzhia, Ukrainian internal officials confirmed.
In response to the Russian attacks, Ukraine launched a wave of counter-drone strikes targeting Russian territory on Saturday. In the Yeysk district of Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, one drone hit a residential home, killing two young children and hospitalizing their injured parents. Krasnodar governor Veniamin Kondratyev called the attack “vile and cynical” in a public statement confirming the casualties. A second, separate Ukrainian drone strike in Russia’s central Samara region left one person dead, according to local regional governor.
Ukrainian forces have also expanded their targeting of Russian e-commerce logistics infrastructure, with a new strike hitting a warehouse owned by major Russian online retailer Ozon. The attack follows a month of repeated strikes on facilities belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest domestic e-commerce platform.
The accelerating cycle of attacks has pushed the 2024 civilian death toll to its highest point since the opening months of the full-scale invasion, according to latest data from the United Nations. As Russian long-range strike operations intensify, Ukrainian military officials report their forces face growing challenges intercepting salvos of Russian ballistic missiles, prompting repeated calls for additional air defense support from Kyiv’s Western allies.
Top leaders from Ukraine’s partner nations are set to hold a virtual summit this coming Monday, which marks Ukraine’s Independence Day, to discuss new packages of military and humanitarian support for the country amid the escalating violence.