Global Pulse

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  • Hungary drained its waters for generations. Now drought is exposing the cost

    Hungary drained its waters for generations. Now drought is exposing the cost

    GÁRDONY, Hungary — Last week, 58-year-old fisherman Árpád Selmeci pulled his small vessel onto the shore of Lake Velence, Hungary’s third-largest lake, navigating a dock ramp that has grown dangerously steep as water levels recede to historic lows. Today, the lake sits at roughly 20 centimeters (8 inches) deep — a stark drop from the 150-centimeter (5-foot) depth that is typical for August. Once-popular tourist swimming beaches along the lake’s shoreline have already been forced to close, and even launching a small fishing craft has become a major challenge.

    “I’ve lived alongside Lake Velence since I was a child, and I have never seen the water this low,” Selmeci told reporters. “It’s devastating. My heart hurts every time I look at it.”

    Selmeci’s experience is just one visible symptom of a cascading national water crisis that has been amplified by human-caused climate change, amplified by centuries of harmful water management policies that have left Hungary extraordinarily vulnerable to worsening droughts. Across Europe, this summer has brought record-breaking heatwaves and destructive wildfires that have scorched landscapes from the United Kingdom to Greece. In Hungary, the ongoing drought has slashed crop yields, triggered regional drinking water shortages, and even put the country’s only nuclear power plant at risk of a forced shutdown.

    While record-low rainfall driven by climate change is a core driver of the crisis, experts emphasize that long-standing human practices have turned a regional dry spell into an emergency. Hungary’s national meteorological service currently reports that 99% of the country’s total land area is experiencing severe or extreme drought, and desertification — the process where high heat and low rainfall kill off native vegetation — threatens large swathes of the ecologically and economically important Great Hungarian Plain.

    Historically, more than a quarter of Hungary’s low-lying terrain naturally trapped rainwater, and an extensive network of rivers and streams left the country rich in freshwater reserves. But a 2023 study published in the journal *Nature* estimates that Hungary has lost more than 80% of its original natural wetlands over the past two centuries. The largest driver of this loss is a massive network of drainage canals spanning more than 40,000 kilometers (25,000 miles) — longer than the Earth’s circumference — built to drain precipitation from wetlands and low-lying fields to clear space for agricultural development.

    Zsuzsanna Ujj, a biodiversity policy specialist and project coordinator for Friends of the Earth Hungary, says the country has failed to properly steward its water resources over the past 200 years. This persistent focus on draining water rather than letting natural flood cycles replenish groundwater reserves has caused a steady drop in the regional water table, drying out wetlands and topsoil across the country. As less water is available to evaporate into the atmosphere, local air grows drier, reducing the likelihood of localized summer rain — creating a dangerous feedback loop that worsens drought conditions.

    The OECD ranks Hungary as the 16th most drought-exposed country in the world, and one of the most vulnerable in Europe. Ujj argues that the country must fundamentally shift its approach to water governance. “We need to realign our water management practices, moving away from a drainage-first model to one centered on retaining water in the landscape,” she explained.

    The crisis is not limited to Lake Velence. Lake Garancsi, a small recreational body of water located just 20 kilometers (12 miles) northwest of Budapest, has existed since the Middle Ages and was even the filming location for the beloved 2001 Hungarian cult comedy *Glass Tiger*. For generations, it was a popular spot for local residents to fish, swim, and ice skate in the winter. But in recent years, the lake has shrunk so dramatically that all recreational activities have been banned, and most of its former bed is now exposed, cracked, dry earth. What little water remains is shallow and overwarm, killing off all native fish and most local wildlife. Local authorities predict the lake will dry up completely by the end of summer.

    Zoltán Mettner, who operates the Glass Tiger bar on the lake’s former shore, says conditions have worsened steadily year after year. “Looking at it now is terrible — there’s no other way to say it,” Mettner said. “It’s devastating that we let things get this far, that we didn’t take gradual action to stop this lake from being completely destroyed.”

    Hungary’s new government has now promised to course-correct. In late June, on the same day the country hit an all-time high temperature record of 42°C (107.6°F), Prime Minister Péter Magyar told lawmakers his administration would place water management on a “new footing” and launch a sweeping national water conservation program to mitigate the impacts of ongoing drought.

    “Year after year, many experts have warned that water scarcity would become one of Hungary’s most pressing challenges, one of our most critical strategic issues to solve,” Magyar said. “They were right.”

    In addition to fixing the country’s long-standing failure to retain water, Magyar noted that aging drinking water infrastructure leads to 20% to 25% of the country’s clean drinking water leaking out through cracked, outdated pipes — costing an estimated 17 billion forints ($54.4 million USD) in lost water every year. “For years, the very existence of this problem was denied and downplayed,” Magyar said. “Going forward, water retention will be the core principle of Hungarian water management.”

    But implementing these sweeping changes will take years and massive investment, while the current crisis is already threatening the country’s energy security. The Danube River, the longest river in the European Union that runs from Germany to the Black Sea, has hit successive record-low water levels this summer. That has put the Paks Nuclear Power Plant, Hungary’s only nuclear facility which relies on Danube water to cool its reactors, at risk of a forced shutdown for the first time in its 44-year history.

    The government has already launched emergency interventions to raise water levels at the plant, including sinking two 80-meter (262-foot) barges upriver and installing a temporary riverbed sill to redirect more water to the plant’s intake pumps.

    Ujj notes that intact wetlands along the Danube would normally act as a natural reservoir, releasing stored water during dry periods to maintain river levels. She explained that both the record-low Danube levels and the increasing frequency of extreme floods are consequences of human-caused climate change, impacts that could be partially offset through restoring wetlands and natural water retention habitats.

    “We absolutely should expect more extreme water level fluctuations, and more extreme precipitation patterns with drier summers in the future,” Ujj said. “But restoring wetlands and increasing evaporation in targeted regions could help boost local precipitation during the summer months, softening the worst impacts of drought.”

  • Train to nowhere? South Korea’s lonely push for peace with the North

    Train to nowhere? South Korea’s lonely push for peace with the North

    Nestled in the border town of Cheorwon, just steps from the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that has split the Korean Peninsula for nearly 70 years, the weathered platforms of Woljeong-ri Station carry a quiet, unfulfilled hope. Once a key stop on a cross-peninsula rail line connecting Seoul to the North Korean port of Wonsan, the original structure was reduced to rubble during the 1950–1953 Korean War. Rebuilt at its current site in 1988, the abandoned terminal has been reborn in recent years as a powerful symbol of the South Korean government’s ongoing push for reconciliation with Pyongyang – yet its half-finished connection to the national rail network mirrors the stalled state of inter-Korean diplomacy today.

    The Lee Jae Myung administration, which took office last year on a dovish platform of open dialogue with the North, has prioritized reviving cross-border infrastructure projects like the Woljeong-ri rail link. The long-term goal is clear: reconnecting severed transportation networks across the DMZ as a foundation for eventual political and economic integration. Lee has even offered unconditional talks with Pyongyang, including negotiations to formally end the Korean War, which has technically remained in a state of armistice for seven decades. Earlier this year, Seoul adjusted its policy approach, shifting from a strict focus on full North Korean denuclearization to prioritizing curbing further expansion of Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal – a compromise designed to open the door for dialogue. But the overture has fallen on deaf ears in the North Korean capital.

    Recent diplomatic shifts have left South Korea increasingly sidelined in regional negotiations over the Korean Peninsula, leaving the Woljeong-ri project as one of the only tangible steps Seoul can take unilaterally to advance its peace agenda. The latest turbulence began when U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly scaled back annual joint military drills with South Korea, labeling the exercises “inappropriate and hostile” to the nuclear-armed North. Trump also publicly criticized Seoul for failing to back his administration’s campaign against Iran, while announcing plans to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for a new round of talks this year – a move widely interpreted as a push for a high-profile foreign policy win ahead of U.S. midterm elections, when voter discontent over Middle East intervention has weighed on incumbent support.

    Pyongyang quickly responded to the shifting geopolitical landscape with a show of force: it test-fired roughly 10 short-range ballistic missiles just days after Trump’s announcement, while Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister ridiculed South Korea for what she called a “master-servant” unequal relationship with Washington. North Korean leadership has repeatedly cemented its position as an “irreversible” nuclear power, and in recent years has reclassified Seoul as its “most hostile” enemy, emboldened by sustained military and diplomatic support from traditional backers China and Russia (the latter of which has gained Pyongyang’s backing for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine).

    For South Korea, the new dynamic has left the government in a precarious position. Lee has publicly voiced respect for Trump’s diplomatic gambit and pledged to do “his utmost” to support U.S. peacemaking efforts, leaving Seoul with little room to advance its own outreach. “South Korea is reasonably afraid that it gets sidelined – China, Russia and now America are all engaged with Pyongyang in different ways, while Seoul is not,” explained Vladimir Tikhonov, a Korean Studies professor at the University of Oslo, in an interview with Agence France-Presse. “So, Seoul is desperate to get some opening with North Korea. But it can do very little, so far.”

    The troubled history of the Woljeong-ri project underscores just how vulnerable inter-Korean reconciliation efforts are to shifting geopolitical tides. Initial construction work on reconnecting the station to the southern rail network began in 2015, but was halted just 12 months later after North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test. Today, the planned section of track between Woljeong-ri and the southern Baengmagoji Station sits overgrown, with dense vegetation creeping across the rails and swallowing a nearby stone wall. A hand-painted sign at the site still reads: “The iron horse wants to run,” alongside the English phrase “We want to be back on track.”

    Many local residents and experts remain deeply skeptical that the project will ever lead to meaningful cross-border connection, even as the government frames it as a proactive preparation for future reconciliation. “It seems like they keep trying to reconcile with North Korea through the railway project, but from our point of view, it isn’t really practical,” said 70-year-old Cheorwon resident Moon Jae-yong. Kyungnam University professor Lim Eul-chul notes that building out South Korean infrastructure now could cut down on construction timelines if inter-Korean ties ever improve, but acknowledges the current reality: “But realistically, it is virtually impossible under the current circumstances, and everyone knows that. With few options on North Korea, Seoul has turned to projects it can pursue unilaterally.”

    Beyond its symbolic value, the project also aims to boost local tourism in a border region that has long faced economic stagnation and persistent security risks. During the administration of Lee’s hawkish predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol, Pyongyang launched repeated provocations along the border, sending trash-filled balloons across the divide and broadcasting unsettling, disruptive noises into South Korean border towns. “It was like scraping cement, or even ghost-like noises. It was really frightening,” recalled 70-year-old local resident Kim Sun-hee.

    A rusted, bombed-out locomotive left over from the Korean War still sits on display near Woljeong-ri Station, a permanent reminder of the peninsula’s violent division. For visitors like Ahn Seung-hyun, the half-finished dream of the rail project is a devastating reminder of what the two Koreas have lost: it is “heartbreaking to see,” he said. For now, Woljeong-ri Station remains a quiet monument to South Korea’s lonely, unfulfilled push for peace on the Korean Peninsula.

  • In Benin, malnutrition and misinformed views contribute to widespread stunting in children

    In Benin, malnutrition and misinformed views contribute to widespread stunting in children

    In the rural commune of N’dali in northern Benin, smallholder farmer Sabi Bera Zakari holds a common but dangerous misperception about childhood malnutrition. While he occasionally worries that his children do not gain enough weight, he does not see stunted growth — impaired height development from chronic poor nutrition — as a problem to address. His view is not an anomaly in this dry, drought-prone region, where decades of efforts to curb stunting have failed to reverse one of the highest prevalence rates on the African continent.

    Development sociologist Boris Gloni, a former representative for The Hunger Project who has worked on anti-hunger initiatives across Benin for years, quickly identified that two of Zakari’s young daughters show clear signs of stunting. For years, Gloni has worked to shift harmful cultural and knowledge gaps around the condition, which the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) reports affects more than 30% of all children under age 5 in Benin — a startling statistic for a nation rich in natural resources with a widespread tradition of small-scale subsistence farming.

    Stunting, defined as height below the average for a child’s age caused by chronic malnutrition, often hides in plain sight: children who experience it may appear outwardly healthy to untrained parents. But public health experts warn that stunting that occurs during a child’s first 1,000 days — from conception to age two — is almost always irreversible, causing permanent damage to cognitive development and long-term physical health that limits opportunities throughout a person’s life.

    Deep-rooted misinformation and cultural norms are major barriers to progress. Gloni notes that many community members incorrectly believe feeding children protein-rich foods like milk and eggs regularly will make them permanently greedy, pushing them to steal to satisfy their cravings. Most households raise goats and chickens not for family consumption, but as a living emergency fund — animals are sold for cash only when a crisis hits, and even eggs are often sold rather than fed to growing children. “Our perception is wrong,” Gloni said. “People don’t have knowledge.”

    Dietary habits worsen the problem, compounded by worsening climate volatility. Most rural families in northern Benin rely heavily on starchy staples such as yams, cassava and maize, with almost no variation to add protein, vitamins or micronutrients. Many women work long hours in their garden plots from dawn to late afternoon, leaving young children without consistent access to food throughout the day, which further erodes nutrition.

    Northern Benin, a region of dry savannah, faces repeated, sporadic drought that disrupts crop and livestock production. In the most severe dry seasons, entire families survive on foraged wild vegetable soup, with almost no nutrient intake. Benin’s government has set a target to reduce national stunting prevalence to below 30% by 2030, but progress so far has been discouraging.

    Community volunteers like Douro Wonkourou Idrissou, a nutrition support worker in N’dali, travel door-to-door to screen children for malnutrition using color-coded measuring tapes that assess wasting by measuring upper arm circumference. While he cannot conduct formal height screenings for stunting, Idrissou says he feels deep sadness when he sees children falling far short of healthy growth markers. He says parents bear some responsibility for poor nutrition outcomes, but also lack the support and knowledge to make changes.

    Rolland Essou, who coordinates The Hunger Project’s work in northern Benin, says that despite years of intervention, stunting rates in the region have stagnated — and some data even shows national rates rising, not falling. This includes after the launch of the World Bank-funded “1,000 Days” program, a pilot initiative run by Benin’s National Agency for Food and Nutrition that began in 2024. The program provides micronutrient supplements for pregnant people and infants, and has established school canteens serving daily hot meals, but these efforts have not yet moved the needle on overall prevalence.

    Essou explains that systemic barriers will keep stunting a major challenge for years to come. Households most affected by childhood malnutrition tend to be led by young, illiterate parents with multiple children to feed, stretching limited resources even thinner. Zakari, for example, could not immediately name the ages of his children, and had to check his national ID to confirm his own age.

    Zakari’s neighbor Fati Aboubacar, a mother of five, says economic constraints make proper nutrition impossible for many families. Her household can only afford to serve eggs once a week. Even families that own livestock often cannot justify using them for food, Aboudou Salamatou, Zakari’s wife, explained: “When a chicken pecked at the dirt near her feet, she said the bird was one of many kept as money ‘in the bank,’ not for eating. Even the eggs the chickens lay may be sold for cash. “We would like to vary our food, but we don’t have the means,” she said. “When we have a little money, we invest it in the field, in health and in other problems.”

    NGO workers say intervention needs to begin even before birth to be effective. Razak Kotchoni, project manager for CASCADE Benin in Borgou, says the same harmful cultural norms that bar children from regular protein consumption also apply to pregnant people. Pregnant women are often discouraged from eating nutrient-dense cornmeal porridge because of the myth that it will cause excessive, uncontrollable hunger. “These standards are contributing factors to malnutrition,” Kotchoni said.

    His organization deploys community facilitators to lead reflective dialogues with elders, parents and other community members to challenge harmful traditional practices. One successful strategy has been training “model mothers” who demonstrate healthy nutrition practices to spread awareness through peer outreach. While some parents now reach out to volunteers like Idrissou when they notice their children are not growing properly, many others remain indifferent to the risk, he says.

    As Benin works toward its 2030 target, public health workers and community volunteers say closing knowledge gaps and addressing deep systemic poverty will be critical to turning the tide on a preventable public health crisis that robs generations of children of healthy development.

  • ‘Reasonable’ or a ‘hit list’? New Yorkers react to rollout of Mamdani’s tax on second homes

    ‘Reasonable’ or a ‘hit list’? New Yorkers react to rollout of Mamdani’s tax on second homes

    For millions of working and middle-class New Yorkers, achieving homeownership in one of the world’s most expensive urban centers already feels like an unattainable fantasy. Yet for a small, wealthy subset of residents and out-of-state elites, the city is not just a place for one primary residence – it is a location for a second luxury pied-à-terre. To address the city’s crippling housing affordability crisis and fund critical social programs, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani has introduced a groundbreaking annual tax on high-value second homes, but the policy’s botched rollout has sparked fierce public backlash and legal challenges.

    Under the new policy, the tax applies to second homes valued at more than $5 million, as well as condos and co-ops worth over $1 million. As part of the rollout, the city published a public list of nearly one million properties that could be subject to the new levy, releasing the names and addresses of high-profile homeowners including hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin (owner of a $239 million Manhattan penthouse), filmmaker Woody Allen, former Vogue editor Anna Wintour, and actress Cynthia Nixon. Ultimately, the city issued formal tax notices to just 17,000 property owners, but the public disclosure of the broader list became the central flashpoint at a heated City Council oversight hearing held this week to examine concerns over the policy’s implementation.

    While some council members, including Gale Brewer, have voiced support for the core idea of a second home tax, they have acknowledged significant procedural flaws in how the policy was rolled out. Critics on the council have gone much further: Council member Kamillah Hanks slammed the public list as an unfair “hit list of the haves and the have-nots” that stigmatizes property ownership and creates unacceptable public safety risks, arguing that the disclosure frames legitimate homeownership as something to be ashamed of.

    The New York City Department of Finance has defended the release of the information, noting that address and ownership data is already required by law to be made public annually. But critics across the real estate sector and homeowner groups warn the aggregated list creates a dangerous tool for scammers and bad actors, putting wealthy homeowners at heightened risk of fraud, harassment, and even targeted crime. Jason Haber, leader of the American Real Estate Association, notes that the confusion and backlash around the tax has already led some prospective high-end property buyers to pause purchases in the city, a trend he argues could eventually offset the $500 million in annual projected revenue the tax is expected to generate. A group of homeowners has already filed a lawsuit demanding the city remove the nearly one million-name list from public view.

    Supporters of the policy, however, dismiss the backlash as overblown, framing the tax as a long-overdue measure to address New York’s staggering socioeconomic inequality. Dave Backer, a school finance professor, argued that wealthy opponents of the tax are protesting far more than the policy warrants. Beverly Solo, a 44-year New York resident who attended the hearing wearing a “Tax The Rich” shirt, noted that the revenue generated by the levy will fund critical public services that benefit all city residents. “It seems reasonable and fair to ask those who don’t pay full-time income taxes here, but have luxury homes here for pleasure, to contribute to the wellbeing of New York City,” she said, though she conceded the rollout of the policy had been “a mess.”

    Mayor Mamdani has stood firmly behind the policy, framing it as a fair mechanism to generate $500 million in annual revenue that will fund his campaign promises of universal child care, improved and free bus service, and other social programs targeted at New Yorkers struggling with housing and cost of living. Crucially, the policy has won the backing of New York Governor Kathy Hochul, who previously held reservations about raising taxes on state residents. Still, the rollout has faced repeated setbacks: Mamdani’s administration declined to attend this week’s oversight hearing, a decision that angered attendees. A spokesperson for the mayor explained the administration had requested to delay the hearing amid ongoing litigation over the policy, and that city officials are barred from testifying on a matter currently before the courts.

    Similar secondary property and empty home taxes have been implemented across the globe, with mixed results. In Paris, France, secondary properties face a 60% local tax surcharge that has generated billions of euros in public revenue. Vancouver, Canada introduced a 3% empty homes tax in 2017 to improve housing affordability; research found the tax raised nearly $194 million over eight years and reduced housing vacancies by 21%, but had little impact on lowering average rental costs. In 2022, San Francisco voters approved an empty homes tax, but the policy was found unconstitutional by a court following a lawsuit from real estate groups, and remains tied up in appeals.

    Even some prominent supporters of the New York policy acknowledge that the public disclosure of the property list was an unforced error. Morris Pearl, a former BlackRock managing director and chair of Patriotic Millionaires, a group of wealthy Americans who support higher taxes on the rich, noted that “the mayor himself … sort of unnecessarily antagonises people occasionally.” Still, Pearl says he stands firmly behind the policy itself, arguing that claims the tax will drive away wealthy investment are absurd: “Someone who owns a residence that is not their primary residence that’s worth more than $5m has the ability to pay more than most New Yorkers do.” As litigation moves forward, the future of both the controversial tax rollout and the policy itself remains undecided.

  • US, South Korean militaries wrapping up drills early, a day after North Korea’s missile barrage

    US, South Korean militaries wrapping up drills early, a day after North Korea’s missile barrage

    In a surprising conciliatory move aimed at paving the way for renewed diplomacy with North Korea, the United States and South Korea have wrapped up their annual Ulchi Freedom Shield military drills six days ahead of the original schedule this Friday. This scaled-down exercise was first ordered abruptly by former U.S. President Donald Trump just days before the drills kicked off this Monday, when he instructed the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” the scope and duration of the long-planned training.

    Trump cited two core justifications for the last-minute change: his self-described positive personal rapport with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and South Korea’s refusal to back U.S. policy amid heightened tensions over the war in Iran. However, the goodwill gesture failed to win over Pyongyang, with Kim Yo Jong — the powerful and influential sister of Kim Jong Un — rejecting the overture just two days before the early conclusion of the drills. In her public statement, Kim Yo Jong argued that merely trimming the length and size of the exercises does nothing to alter their fundamental “provocative, aggressive nature,” which North Korea has long framed as a rehearsal for an invasion of its territory.

    Following through on its pre-stated threat to respond to the drills, North Korea launched a volley of roughly 10 short-range ballistic missiles into the sea the day after Kim Yo Jong’s statement. The U.S. Pacific Command quickly assessed that the missile launches did not present an immediate threat to U.S. territory or its regional allies, while reaffirming Washington’s unwavering commitment to defending the American homeland and its partnership with South Korea.

    The rejection of the U.S. overture has dimmed prospects for an early resumption of nuclear diplomacy between Washington and Pyongyang, which collapsed in 2019 after earlier high-profile talks failed to deliver breakthroughs. Since the diplomatic stalemate began, Kim Jong Un has moved to strengthen his negotiating position by upgrading North Korea’s nuclear and missile arsenals, and deepening his alignment with Russia amid its ongoing war in Ukraine. Pyongyang has repeatedly made clear it will not return to talks until the U.S. abandons its demand that North Korea commit to denuclearization as a precondition for any diplomatic negotiations.

    Observers note that despite the hardline stance, Kim Yo Jong’s public remarks struck a relatively measured tone, avoiding the fiery, hostile rhetoric that often characterizes North Korean statements. She also referenced what she described as an “excellent” relationship between Kim Jong Un and Trump, a signal that Pyongyang has not completely closed the door to future dialogue. Analysts say the approach suggests North Korea is holding out for larger concessions from Washington, including international recognition as a legitimate nuclear weapons state and widespread relief from harsh international economic sanctions.

    North Korea’s deepening military and economic cooperation with Russia — where Pyongyang has supplied ammunition and troops to support Moscow’s war effort in exchange for much-needed economic and military assistance — has also strengthened Pyongyang’s hand. This closer alignment with Russia has further allowed North Korea to gain more leverage with China, its largest trading partner, opening the door to additional support from Beijing.

    “After this strategic play has run its course, Kim may seek further economic and reputational benefits from Washington,” explained Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha University in Seoul. Easley added that such a move would likely come after the U.S. midterm elections, when then-President Trump was expected to face a weaker domestic political position and be more inclined to pursue high-profile foreign policy wins to boost his standing.

    Kim Dong-yub, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, offered a different interpretation of Kim Yo Jong’s statement. He argued that her remarks made clear North Korea’s position that the personal rapport between Kim Jong Un and Trump cannot singlehandedly move the needle on the long-stalled bilateral relationship. Kim Dong-yub added that Kim Yo Jong likely sought to pre-empt speculation that Trump’s scaled-back drills could restart diplomacy, so North Korea would not bear full blame if the diplomatic process fails to materialize.

    In a notable contradiction, Kim Yo Jong also denied Trump’s earlier claim that Kim Jong Un had responded to his request for new talks. When reporters asked Trump earlier that week if he planned to meet Kim Jong Un before the end of the year, Trump had replied, “Yeah, I will be.”

    The Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises are one of the largest annual joint military training events between the U.S. and South Korea, designed to sharpen their collective defense capabilities against potential North Korean aggression. The decision to downsize the drills has already sparked concerns among defense analysts about a potential erosion of joint operational readiness between the two allies.

  • Japan executes a man convicted of setting fire that killed 5 at a pachinko parlor in Osaka

    Japan executes a man convicted of setting fire that killed 5 at a pachinko parlor in Osaka

    TOKYO – In a move that reignites long-simmering debate over capital punishment in Japan, the country executed a 58-year-old man convicted of a deadly 2009 arson attack on an Osaka pachinko parlor on Friday. This hanging marks the first execution carried out by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s newly formed government, coming at a time when international condemnation and domestic demands for transparency and abolition of the death penalty are rising rapidly.

    According to Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi, the condemned man, Sunao Takami, was put to death by hanging earlier the same day. Hiraguchi detailed the horrific circumstances of Takami’s crime at a post-execution press conference: in 2009, Takami spread gasoline throughout the crowded gaming facility before igniting it with a lit match. The resulting inferno engulfed the entire building, leaving five people dead and 10 others with injuries that have left permanent physical and psychological scars. “This attack caused extremely severe harm and spread profound shock and fear across Japanese society,” Hiraguchi stated. “The victims who lost their lives must have endured unimaginable pain and terror in their final moments, and the survivors are forced to live with the long-term consequences of their injuries to this day.” After what he described as careful and exhaustive deliberation, Hiraguchi said he approved the execution order.

    Takami’s legal journey had concluded nearly a decade before his execution: the Osaka District Court convicted him of murder, attempted murder, and arson, and sentenced him to death in 2011. All subsequent appeals, including his final appeal to Japan’s highest court, were rejected in 2006 when the Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s death sentence. Following Friday’s execution, Hiraguchi confirmed that 100 inmates currently remain on Japan’s death row, 43 of whom are pursuing retrials for their convictions.

    Japan has long faced sharp criticism from the international community over its retention and use of capital punishment. A large majority of countries around the world have formally abolished the death penalty, and among the Group of Seven leading industrialized economies, only Japan and the United States still carry out executions.

    Domestic pressure for reform has grown significantly since the 2024 acquittal of Iwao Hakamada, who held the distinction of being the world’s longest-serving death row inmate after spending nearly 60 years in prison before his conviction was overturned. Critics have repeatedly called for either full abolition of the death penalty or sweeping reforms to increase transparency around execution procedures.

    Unlike many countries that still use capital punishment, Japan conducts all executions in complete secrecy. Inmates are not notified that their execution will take place until the morning they are hanged, a practice that human rights groups have condemned as cruel and unnecessary. While Japan introduced limited reforms in 2007 that require public disclosure of the names of executed inmates and basic details of their crimes, transparency around the process remains far lower than international human rights standards demand.

    When asked about calls for greater disclosure, Hiraguchi said the government has no plans to revise current practices. He claimed that releasing additional information about death row inmates and upcoming executions would cause unnecessary psychological distress to those awaiting their sentences.

    Friday’s execution was carried out during a parliamentary recess, a timing that critics have denounced as a deliberate tactic to avoid public scrutiny and open debate over the government’s capital punishment policy. Hiraguchi rejected these claims, saying the scheduling was not intentional.

    This execution is the first carried out by Takaichi’s administration. Japan’s most recent prior execution took place in June 2025, when the country put to death the man known as the “Twitter killer”, who was convicted of killing and dismembering nine victims in his suburban Tokyo apartment in 2017.

    While Japan retains one of the lowest overall crime rates in the developed world, it has seen a small number of high-profile mass killing incidents in recent decades that have hardened public support for retaining capital punishment among segments of the population, even as reform movements gain traction.

  • Ater ‘Elia’ Good death: Omar Omar, 20, granted bail after murder charge dropped

    Ater ‘Elia’ Good death: Omar Omar, 20, granted bail after murder charge dropped

    A 20-year-old man linked to an alleged Melbourne youth gang has walked free on bail after prosecutors withdrew a murder charge connected to the fatal New Year period drive-by shooting of a 16-year-old boy, the Victorian Supreme Court has confirmed.

    The fatal incident that sparked the latest court proceedings unfolded shortly after midnight on January 3, when Ater “Eila” Good was gunned down on a street near Fitzroy Police Station, in Melbourne’s inner-northeast. The shooting was alleged by authorities to be a retaliatory attack, coming just days after a New Year’s Eve double machete stabbing in nearby Carlton.

    According to police allegations, the violence is rooted in ongoing tension between two youth groups: the Fitzroy-based 6z gang, which Good was allegedly associated with, and the Heidelberg-based H-Town Boys. Police claim 6z affiliates carried out the Carlton stabbing against two H-Town Boys-linked individuals, leading to the retaliatory killing of Good. In the weeks after Good’s death, four young men alleged to have ties to H-Town Boys were formally charged with his murder.

    On Friday, that case took a sudden turn when Omar Omar, 20, learned his murder charge had been withdrawn the previous day. In its place, prosecutors now accuse Omar of assisting the shooters after the fatal attack took place. Specific allegations against Omar include that he granted access to a car park in his apartment building for the vehicle used in the shooting, and that he has proven communications and photographed connections to other people linked to the alleged gang.

    Crown prosecutor Nadia Kaddeche argued against bail for Omar, telling the court the prosecution could not yet outline the exact details of how Omar is alleged to have aided the killers following the shooting, due to the recent charge adjustment. She centered her opposition to release on Omar’s purported connections to H-Town Boys.

    Presiding Justice Rita Incerti publicly rebuked the Office of Public Prosecutions for the lack of clarity in the case, noting the prosecution had failed to provide even a basic level of detail to let the court assess the strength of its current case. “It’s not satisfactory, what you’re telling this court is we can’t even give an indication,” Incerti said during the hearing.

    Omar’s legal team pushed back strongly against the prosecution’s framing of the case. Felicity Gerry KC, Omar’s barrister, urged the court to treat the labeling of the H-Town Boys as a criminal gang with significant caution. She told the court the group is simply a collection of young people of Somali heritage who live in the Heidelberg area, arguing that labeling it a formal criminal gang is an overreach. “It’s a huge step, in our submission, to suggest he is associated with a gang … there are live questions whether there is a gang at all,” Gerry said. “The whole basis for the Crown’s opposition to bail is certainly speculative and mislabelling the young people of Heidelberg.”

    Gerry added that evidence only shows Omar had casual contact with individuals linked to the alleged group, pointing out that her client has no prior criminal convictions, has a supportive family ready to monitor him, and already has a pending job offer with a local house painting business.

    The judge noted that longstanding tit-for-tat violence between the two groups dates back to the 2022 death of Khalid Mahat, but ruled that at this stage of proceedings, it was impossible to judge whether the prosecution’s current case against Omar is strong or weak. Granting bail, Incerti remarked that she had seen many young people like Omar caught up in damaging circumstances through her decades on the bench, telling Omar: “This is your chance, your opportunity and only you are responsible for what you do.”

    Following the ruling, Omar was seen embracing emotional family members as he left custody Friday afternoon. Three other co-accused – Shakib Abdul Kadir, Abdijalil Warsame and Sella Rabih – still face murder charges over Good’s killing. All four defendants are scheduled to next appear at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court in November, and none have entered pleas to the charges against them.

  • Australian hiker’s body recovered as officials apologise for misreporting she was alive

    Australian hiker’s body recovered as officials apologise for misreporting she was alive

    A devastating communication error has shaken New South Wales, Australia, after 18-year-old experienced hiker Lily Hooper, who went missing while trekking in the state’s Southern Highlands, was incorrectly reported to have been found alive – a mistake that left her family briefly clinging to false hope before the tragic truth was revealed.

    Hooper, an experienced outdoor explorer, was first reported missing a week prior to the error, sparking one of the state’s largest recent land search operations. Over eight consecutive days, roughly 1,000 emergency personnel, police officers, and community volunteers combed the rugged, remote bushland of Nattai National Park, located southwest of Sydney, to locate the missing teenager.

    On Thursday, the incident took a chaotic turn when NSW Premier Chris Minns told a state parliamentary hearing that search crews had recovered Hooper alive, noting she had only half a bottle of water left after eight days lost in the bush. The news spread rapidly across Australian media outlets, bringing sudden, short-lived relief to Hooper’s loved ones and the community that had rallied to support the search. But within 30 minutes, Minns issued a urgent correction, confirming that what had been found was Hooper’s body, and that she had been deceased.

    By Friday, officials confirmed Hooper’s remains had been airlifted out of the remote national park to allow for official processing. A police spokesperson told media that a post-mortem examination will be carried out in the coming days to formally confirm identification and establish an official cause of death.

    In the wake of the painful error, both Premier Minns and NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon have issued formal public apologies to the Hooper family, with Minns saying he intends to deliver a personal apology directly to the family in a private conversation.

    “The government, myself – we’re profoundly sorry,” Minns said in public remarks Friday.

    Lanyon acknowledged that large-scale search operations in remote, disconnected terrain create significant communication challenges, and said the misclassification of Hooper’s condition should never have happened. “Tragically, her condition was miscommunicated, and for that I apologise,” he stated. He added that NSW Police will launch a full review of existing search communication protocols to update policies and ensure such a painful mistake cannot be repeated in the future, with the goal of creating “foolproof” processes.

    NSW State Emergency Services Commissioner Mike Wassing explained that search teams often use coded language over public radio communications during large operations, to protect sensitive information from being heard by family members, volunteers and other civilians participating in the search. Wassing noted that codes are sometimes linked to seemingly mundane details, such as “bottles of water,” though he stopped short of confirming the exact root cause of the error, which remains the subject of an active administrative investigation.

    The miscommunication created a brief, cruel window where Hooper’s parents believed their daughter was alive, before the correction came through. The mistake has prompted widespread discussion about communication protocols during large emergency searches, and the need to balance operational security with the emotional needs of affected families.

  • Flood of discounted auction homes deepens China’s property slump

    Flood of discounted auction homes deepens China’s property slump

    China’s struggling residential property market extended its downward trajectory through 2026, driven by a flood of steeply discounted court-ordered auction homes seized from defaulting mortgage borrowers. This influx has amplified buyer caution, erasing tentative hopes for a recovery in the world’s second-largest economy.

    New data from leading Chinese real estate research firm China Index Academy reveals that across 355 cities, the number of properties listed for court auction hit 539,000 in the first seven months of 2026, marking a 23.7% year-on-year increase. With courts and asset management firms racing to offload seized assets, average auction prices have dropped 9% compared to the same period last year.

    Industry data shows only roughly one-third of all listed auction properties successfully find buyers, with auctioned homes selling at an average 30% discount to comparable existing homes on the private secondary market. This price gap grows far wider in lower-tier cities: many unsold auction properties in second- and third-tier markets carry discounts of 50% to 60% off secondary market levels, with the majority drawing no bidders at all.

    These deep discounts have reshaped buyer psychology, reinforcing widespread expectations that home prices will continue to fall before hitting a market bottom. Instead of rushing to purchase discounted properties, prospective buyers are now extremely selective, prioritizing assets that offer strong resale value. Demand has become heavily concentrated in well-located units in top-tier cities with reliable transportation access and proximity to high-performing schools, while remote, older, and rural properties sit largely unwanted.

    Shaanxi-based economic commentator Jiang Xiaorong notes that while the total volume of completed court-auction home transactions rose 42.7% year-on-year in the first seven months of 2026, this growth is not a sign of renewed buyer confidence. “This looks more like sellers using deep price cuts to clear a growing backlog of defaulted assets, not buyers suddenly turning bullish on housing again,” Jiang explained.

    For ordinary private homeowners looking to upgrade their properties, the crisis is not just about falling paper values—it is a catastrophic collapse in market liquidity. Jiang shared the example of one upgrading household that needed a 3 million yuan (roughly US$420,000) down payment for their new home. Their existing property, originally valued at 2.5 million yuan, has remained unsold for three months even after two consecutive price cuts that brought its asking price down to 2.2 million yuan, leaving the family unable to meet their purchase deadline.

    Many desperate sellers turn to high-interest consumer loans or dip into long-term savings earmarked for elderly family care or children’s education to raise emergency funds, while others continue slashing prices to force a quick sale. For these households, liquidity matters far more than theoretical property value: court auction data underscores that an asset is only worth what a buyer will pay in cash immediately.

    As of April 2026, 8 million Chinese borrowers are officially listed as loan defaulters after missing mortgage payments, with 60% of these defaulters under the age of 35, according to a commentator writing under the pen name Property Observer. He shared the case of one buyer who purchased an apartment for 3.48 million yuan with a 2.8 million yuan mortgage. Just a few years later, the property’s market value dropped to 1.2 million yuan, but the buyer remains obligated to continue paying down the full original mortgage. If they stop payments, the home will be auctioned off, and they will still be left responsible for the remaining massive debt.

    The commentator added that roughly 45% of borrowers who default on mortgages did so after losing their jobs, as once-stable sectors including hospitality, real estate, and private education have implemented widespread layoffs in recent years. For most households, giving up a home to auction is not a voluntary choice—it is a last resort.

    Official data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) confirms the uneven, two-speed downturn playing out across China’s secondary housing market. In July 2026, secondary home prices in first-tier cities fell 3.7% year-on-year, with Guangzhou recording the steepest drop among the four major top-tier cities at 4.7%, followed by Beijing at 4.5%, Shenzhen at 3.6%, and Shanghai with the smallest decline at 2%.

    Second-tier cities saw a sharper 5.1% year-on-year drop in secondary home prices, while third-tier cities recorded the most severe declines at 5.8% year-on-year. Chinese market analysts say this gap highlights that liquidity, not just price, is the defining feature of today’s market. Top-tier cities are cooling far more slowly because buyers still recognize limited supply and consistent underlying demand, while smaller cities face years of persistent oversupply that leaves sellers with almost no negotiating power.

    “The secondary market has a shortage of high-quality listings, so newer homes in good school districts or prime locations can still hold their value relatively well,” explained Yan Yuejin, deputy director of the Shanghai-based E-house Real Estate Research Institute. “But overall, sellers in most cities are still cutting prices just to keep transactions moving, and further price adjustments will be needed to draw hesitant buyers back into the market.”

    Auction clearance rates— the share of listed properties that actually sell—mirror this stark divide across city tiers. Nationwide, 89,000 of 245,000 listed residential auction properties sold in the first seven months of 2026, for an overall clearance rate of 36.2%. Clearance rates are far higher in top-tier and economically strong second-tier cities: Ningbo leads the country with an 80.8% clearance rate, followed by Shanghai at 78.5%, Shenzhen at 71.3%, Hangzhou at 70.4%, and Guangzhou at 55.6%.

    Smaller cities fare dramatically worse. In Luoyang, a mid-sized city in central China, only 12.87% of auctioned homes found buyers, meaning fewer than 13 out of every 100 listed properties actually transact.

    Across the country, auctioned homes sold for an average of 73% of their appraised value in 2026, equal to a 27% discount. If a property fails to sell in its first auction round, starting bids for the second round can be cut by as much as 20%.

    Commentator Yang Po describes the situation as particularly devastating in Shijiazhuang, a second-tier city adjacent to Beijing where thousands of homeowners have lost their jobs, their homes, and decades of accumulated savings amid the multi-year property downturn. She shared the story of a local man surnamed Zhang, who purchased a small three-bedroom apartment in 2019 for 1.1 million yuan, putting down 350,000 yuan in savings and taking out a 750,000 yuan mortgage with monthly payments of 4,200 yuan. Zhang lost his full-time job in winter 2024, and even after switching to work as a food delivery driver, he could not cover his monthly expenses. His home was seized and listed for court auction with a starting price of 660,000 yuan, equal to 70% of its appraised value. No bidders stepped forward. In the second auction round, the home sold for just 560,000 yuan, leaving Zhang still owing 190,000 yuan to the bank.

    Yang notes that the low auction sale price dragged down property valuations for the entire surrounding neighborhood, amplifying anxiety for other private homeowners in the area.

    The ongoing downturn has also forced private property developers to scale back activity sharply, with new project development slowing dramatically. NBS data shows that nationwide real estate development investment dropped 19.2% year-on-year to 4.3 trillion yuan in the first seven months of 2026, further weighing on broader economic growth.

  • British rapper Yung Filly to face retrial on rape charges in Australia

    British rapper Yung Filly to face retrial on rape charges in Australia

    British social media personality and rapper Yung Filly, whose legal name is Andres Felipe Valencia Barrientos, will undergo a new trial for three unresolved rape charges in Australia, following a jury verdict that acquitted him on multiple sexual assault counts but failed to reach a unanimous decision on the remaining charges. The 31-year-old creator, who rose to fame through his YouTube content, was first accused of a series of violent sexual offenses against a fan following a 2024 performance at a Perth nightclub. The allegations date back to an incident in the performer’s hotel room, where the accuser, a 20-year-old fan, told the court the pair initially engaged in consensual sexual activity before Barrientos allegedly became violent, continuing sexual contact after she repeatedly asked him to stop. Barrientos has maintained his innocence across all 10 charges brought against him. During his first trial last month, the Perth jury delivered not guilty verdicts on six of the counts: three charges of sexual penetration without consent, one count of common assault, and one count of strangulation. The jury did find Barrientos guilty on two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm. Sentencing for these convictions has been delayed until the conclusion of his upcoming retrial. Barrientos is scheduled to appear before a Western Australian court again on 27 August for a hearing to consider an application to modify his current bail conditions. As of this update, no official date has been set for the new trial. This is an ongoing developing story, with new details expected to be released in the coming days. Readers can access real-time updates through the BBC News mobile application or by following the official @BBCBreaking account on the social platform X for the latest alerts.