Global Pulse

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  • US airport security weighs major changes 25 years after 9/11

    US airport security weighs major changes 25 years after 9/11

    Twenty-five years after the 9/11 terror attacks triggered sweeping overhauls of American airport security protocols, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is rolling back some of the most restrictive long-standing travel rules, enabled by advances in screening technology that have redefined what air travel safety can look like.

    The first major change comes to gate access: for the first time in decades, non-ticketed individuals will be allowed to pass through TSA security checkpoints to accompany ticketed passengers to their departure gates or greet arriving loved ones. This new pilot program, tied to the TSA PreCheck trusted traveler network, will initially launch at 13 U.S. airports. Eligible participants — individuals who already hold TSA PreCheck approval or a known traveler number — can submit an online application 1 to 3 days ahead of their planned visit to gain access.

    In a statement posted to its official website, TSA framed the policy as a step toward restoring small, meaningful moments that defined air travel for generations: “This new program makes it easier to return to the gate for welcomes and send-offs, meet friends during a layover, and enjoy dining and shopping along the way, bringing back the moments that once defined air travel.”

    A second landmark policy shift is also under consideration, multiple U.S. media outlets have reported: the TSA is reviewing whether to reverse the 17-year ban on full water bottles passing through security checkpoints for PreCheck travelers. That restriction was implemented immediately after British authorities foiled a 2006 terror plot that planned to hide liquid explosive mixtures in disposable drink bottles. The BBC requested official confirmation of the proposed change, but the TSA has not yet issued a response.

    Aviation security experts emphasize these changes are not a rollback of safety standards, but a response to dramatic improvements in screening technology. Jeff Price, an aviation security professor at Metro State University Denver, explained that post-9/11 restrictions on non-ticketed gate access were originally designed to reduce the volume of people requiring screening, allowing officers to focus their attention on ticketed passengers. Today, updated technology has eliminated the need for that trade-off.

    “Newer security machines that TSA is installing to replace traditional X-ray machines have computed tomography capabilities, which can do a much better job of detecting liquid-based explosives,” Price told the BBC. These updates follow a 2025 TSA change that ended the 20-year requirement for all passengers to remove their shoes during screening, a policy that was widely unpopular with travelers for decades.

    Public reaction to the announced changes has been split along generational lines on social media. Older travelers who remember air travel before the post-9/11 restrictions have praised the move as a return to normalcy and the personal connections that air travel once enabled. But many younger travelers, who have never known air travel without these strict security rules, have raised questions about whether the shifts could weaken overall safety.

    Price pushed back on concerns about declining security, noting that the policy changes rely on upgraded technology and are limited to pre-vetted trusted travelers, so core safety standards remain intact. “People have a nostalgia for a pre 9/11, it’s a calling back to a normal world, and I can see that part of it. I can see people wanting to get back to something that they feel more comfortable with, which was a pre 9/11 world,” he said. “I don’t want to compromise valid security measures simply for a nostalgic feeling before 9/11. I don’t think we should make those types of decisions so that we feel better. We can make those types of decisions as long as the security measures are not compromised, and that’s always what I look for in these situations.”

  • Israel uses Lebanese civilians as bargaining chips

    Israel uses Lebanese civilians as bargaining chips

    Before the first light of dawn broke over southern Lebanon on September 3, Saleh, a local farmer who has refused to abandon his land and home despite escalating cross-border tensions, stepped outside to begin harvesting his fig crop in the border village of Halta. It took only a moment for him to recognize the danger: bright lights illuminated the yard of a neighboring home, a property that had been empty since the most recent round of open conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

    The lights belonged to an Israeli infantry unit conducting house-to-house searches across the small village, which sits just kilometers from the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights. The soldiers contacted three Halta residents by mobile phone, ordering them to exit their homes and surrender immediately. After hours of on-site interrogation, the unit detained all three men, among them Hatem Abdel-Aal, a sitting member of Halta’s municipal council. Abdel-Aal was eventually released and returned to the village around midnight, following instructions from soldiers to walk to the designated handover point without any vehicle.

    “He couldn’t refuse. They told him exactly what to do, and he followed,” Saleh, whose name has been changed for personal security, told Middle East Eye in an on-site interview. During the entire raid, military loudspeakers blared warnings ordering all other villagers to remain locked inside their homes, while Israeli artillery repeatedly fired on the forested hills rising above Halta. “This is their standard practice everywhere they operate here,” Saleh explained. “They fire artillery to warn locals not to approach, to keep us locked in our homes. I’ve stayed here through every round of fighting because if I leave, I know I’ll lose everything I’ve built – my home, my land. We’ve learned to live with these patterns.”

    Halta, a small Sunni community of roughly 350 people located on the outskirts of Kfarchouba, has escaped the total widespread destruction that gutted most majority-Shia border towns caught in the crossfire of the 2023-2024 Israel-Hezbollah war. But the village has been no stranger to repeated Israeli cross-border incursions and enforced detentions of local civilians.

    This is not an isolated incident. Over the past three years, Israeli forces have repeatedly abducted Lebanese civilian residents during cross-border military operations, with the Israeli government framing the detentions as legal captures of enemy combatants. While no official government tally of detained Lebanese exists from the two most recent conflicts between the two states, a local committee tracking detainee cases has compiled a public list of 35 people held by Israel – including at least 12 members of Hezbollah and 16 confirmed civilians.

    Just hours after the Halta raid, the Israeli government announced it would release five detainees, two of whom were Syrian nationals, after concluding the group had no links to Hezbollah. The fate of Lebanese citizens held in Israeli detention has long been a core sticking point in US-mediated negotiations between Israel and Lebanon, but little to no progress has been made on the issue, as larger disputes remain deadlocked. Most notably, Israel has yet to withdraw its forces from the contested “pilot zones” established under a 2024 framework agreement that was meant to allow the Lebanese army to fully take control of the southern border area.

    Earlier the same week, US Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa traveled to Tel Aviv to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a push to break the months-long negotiation impasse and address key Lebanese demands. The subsequent small-scale release of detainees was quickly praised by Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam as a tangible success from Issa’s diplomatic outreach. But the Halta raid, which resulted in new detentions just as the release was being announced, has undercut that narrative.

    The incident echoes a similar abduction in May, when Israeli soldiers seized three farmers from the Atiyyeh family as they worked their land near Kfarchouba. More than four months later, the fate of the three men remains unknown. Local municipal officials have repeatedly attempted to secure information on their whereabouts through the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), but all requests have gone unanswered.

    “They have no connections to any armed group, no political affiliations at all. They are just working laborers, trying to earn a living to feed their families,” explained Lubna Salha, a member of Kfarchouba’s municipal council.

    Regional analysts argue that Israel’s recent partial release of detainees is little more than a symbolic gesture, crafted to ease domestic pressure on the Lebanese government, which has faced widespread public criticism for failing to deliver meaningful results from the US-brokered talks. “Israel gave a little with one hand, and took more with the other,” explained Johny Mounayer, a Beirut-based political analyst. “They abducted new civilians from areas like Halta, while also asserting operational control over the Ali al-Taher ridge. In practical terms, they have given Lebanon nothing of substance.”

    The Ali al-Taher ridge, a strategic high point that overlooks the major southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh on the edge of Israel’s self-declared border buffer zone, has been one of the most active flashpoints for cross-border clashes in recent months. Israel claims Hezbollah has built a command center and a network of attack tunnels under the ridge, claims Hezbollah has disputed.

    Michael Young, senior editor at the Carnegie Middle East Center, added that the detainee release also serves as a diplomatic goodwill gesture to Washington, which has struggled to keep the faltering Israeli-Lebanese negotiations on track. “There are clear signs this move was done as a favor to the Americans,” Young noted. “A lot of Israeli actions in this process aren’t aimed at Lebanon at all – they’re aimed at the mediator.”

    Late last week, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun released a public statement expressing gratitude to the Trump administration for its role in facilitating the detainee release. Local Lebanese media outlets have reported that the next round of formal negotiations between Israeli and Lebanese delegations is scheduled to take place on September 15 and 16. But for residents of border villages like Halta, every additional day of deadlock brings new uncertainty and danger.

    From his home in Halta, Saleh describes a daily reality of occupation: “We sit locked in our houses, and Israeli flags fly on the hills and surrounding villages all around us. We are surrounded on every side.”

  • 2030 Winter Olympics boss departs amid turmoil

    2030 Winter Olympics boss departs amid turmoil

    Just 18 months after accepting the top leadership role for the 2030 French Alps Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, two-time Olympic medalist and three-time world champion freestyle skier Edgar Grospiron has officially stepped down from his position as president of the event’s organising committee. His departure was formally confirmed during a scheduled meeting of the committee’s executive board on Thursday, and it marks the latest in a string of high-profile setbacks that have plagued the event’s troubled planning and governance process.

    In an official statement released following the meeting, the organising committee framed Grospiron’s exit as a pre-planned transition aligned with the best interests of the project. “His decision to leave the presidency is part of a deliberate, organised and fully assumed transition, taken in the interests of the project and its governance,” the statement read. “It reflects a shared desire with stakeholders to enable the organisation to quickly enter this new operational phase.”

    Grospiron himself confirmed the news in a public post to professional networking platform LinkedIn, where he openly acknowledged that his decision came after an extended period of internal friction. “I draw the conclusion that the conditions are not met for me to continue this,” he wrote.

    Grospiron’s tenure, which began with his appointment in February 2025, has been consistently marred by internal organisational turmoil and pressing logistical challenges that have delayed and complicated planning efforts. In February 2026, the committee’s chief executive officer Cyril Linette stepped down, publicly citing “insurmountable disagreements” with Grospiron’s leadership. Linette’s departure was far from an isolated incident; it followed the earlier resignations of multiple other senior leaders, including chief operating officer Anne Murac and communications director Arthur Richer.

    Beyond internal leadership strife, the project has also struggled with significant financial constraints. Just months after Linette’s exit, Grospiron admitted in public comments that planning efforts faced a dual crisis of limited resources and tight timelines, noting that the project had “little time, little money.” Even amid those challenges, Grospiron maintained that he remained optimistic about delivering a successful event, stating he could “deliver a Games that will honour our vision and ambition” if the committee provided the “serenity” and “continuity” he needed to move forward.

    Governance and logistical issues have extended far beyond internal leadership turnover. In May 2026, the organising committee was forced to scrap plans for a central ‘ice sports hub’ in the southern French city of Nice, after local mayor Eric Ciotti refused to approve the conversion of OGC Nice’s Allianz Riviera Stadium into a temporary ice rink for the Games. The sudden cancellation required a last-minute reshuffle of event venues: most ice sports will now be hosted in Lyon, while speed skating events will be moved all the way to Heerenveen in the Netherlands.

    By July 2026, the scale of the ongoing governance issues was acknowledged by senior French Olympic leadership. Following a tense executive board meeting that month, French Olympic Committee president Amelie Oudea-Castera told French outlet La Tribune Dimanche that the organising committee was “once again facing governance problems.”

    Despite Grospiron’s high-profile departure, senior French officials have moved quickly to downplay concerns about the future of the 2030 Games. French sports minister Marina Ferrari told reporters that there is “no concern about what comes next.” “The bid is continuing to move forward,” she said. “Our teams are mobilised and working. We are confident about the future of the Alpes project.”

    The International Olympic Committee (IOC) also released a statement praising Grospiron’s contributions to the early stages of the project, noting he had done “crucial work in laying the foundations for the success” of the 2030 Games. “The IOC will continue working in close collaboration with the organising committee to build on the solid foundations that Mr Grospiron has laid,” the statement added.

  • Four killed and 60 injured in Russian strike on shopping centre, Ukraine says

    Four killed and 60 injured in Russian strike on shopping centre, Ukraine says

    Four and a half years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a new wave of cross-border attacks targeting civilian infrastructure has left multiple civilians dead and dozens injured on both sides, marking a sharp escalation of violence that dims faint hopes for an early breakthrough in recent US-backed peace efforts. The deadliest of the latest strikes hit a crowded shopping mall in the central Ukrainian city of Pavlohrad, located in Dnipropetrovsk region, on Thursday. Ukrainian officials confirmed that four people were killed in the assault, with another 60 people wounded – including a child and two emergency service responders. Ukrainian Interior Minister Ivan Vyhivskyi noted the attack unfolded in broad daylight, when public streets surrounding the mall were already packed with local residents going about their daily routines. The strike left damaged storefronts and smoldering vehicles in its wake, with footage released by Ukraine’s State Emergency Service showing firefighters battling thick plumes of smoke rising from burning cars along the city’s streets. In a statement following the attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy offered heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims, condemning what he called a deliberate strike on ordinary civilians. “The Russians used drones to kill people who were simply standing near shopping centres,” Zelenskyy said. This assault is only the latest in a string of Russian attacks on Ukrainian commercial hubs across the country this week. Just one day prior, a Russian drone strike on a shopping mall in the northern city of Sumy killed two people and wounded 20. A second Russian aerial bombardment on Sumy on Thursday injured eight more people, three of them children. Earlier this week, a Russian strike on a shopping mall in Zaporizhzhia, a southern Ukrainian city partially occupied by Russian forces, nearly destroyed the entire building, according to its owners. The mall was closed at the time of the attack, however, so no casualties were reported. Last month, an even deadlier assault on a Kryvyi Rih shopping center left at least 16 civilians dead and 130 wounded, Ukrainian officials say. Pavlohrad, a key logistics hub located close to the major central city of Dnipro, has already faced repeated Russian targeting; a strike on local storage facilities there just one month ago killed two people. Attacks have not been limited to Ukrainian government-held territory, either. Russian authorities report that Ukrainian drones have struck civilian sites in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, including a shopping mall in the port city of Mariupol this week and another attack in the city of Donetsk last month. The violence has also spilled across Russia’s internationally recognized borders, with Moscow confirming a new wave of Ukrainian attacks this week that have left casualties among Russian civilians. Overnight Wednesday, Russian officials say multiple Ukrainian seaborne drones targeted the popular Black Sea resort city of Sochi, wounding 28 people – two of them children. On Thursday, Russian authorities reported a Ukrainian drone strike on the town of Novy Oskol in Belgorod Region killed one person and injured six more. In Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia region, Russian officials said a Ukrainian attack on a civilian car Wednesday killed a 15-year-old girl and injured a six-year-old child and two adult women, while a separate strike on a civilian truck in the same region left one male driver dead. This latest surge of bloodshed comes just days after a long-awaited peace mission by envoys of US President Donald Trump, who held separate talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and Zelenskyy in Kyiv over the weekend. Early assessments indicate the diplomatic push has produced little to no tangible progress toward ending the conflict, leaving civilian populations on both sides to bear the brunt of continued hostilities.

  • Watch: Is the Bayeux Tapestry exhibition worth the hype?

    Watch: Is the Bayeux Tapestry exhibition worth the hype?

    Almost a millennium after its creation, one of Europe’s most iconic medieval artworks is drawing unprecedented crowds to one of London’s most famous cultural institutions. The Bayeux Tapestry, the 70-meter-long embroidered masterpiece chronicling the 1066 Norman Conquest of England, has not been publicly exhibited in the United Kingdom since it was stitched nearly 1,000 years ago – making this landmark showing a once-in-a-generation cultural event.

    Since opening to the public, visitor numbers have surged at the British Museum, with daily queues stretching around the museum’s Bloomsbury complex as history enthusiasts, casual tourists, and art lovers alike rush to secure a glimpse of the one-of-a-kind artifact. For centuries, the tapestry has been housed in the French town of Bayeux, with only rare outings outside its permanent home, making this UK debut a historic moment that has captured the imagination of cultural audiences across the country.

    The long-awaited display has sparked widespread public debate, with many asking whether the massive hype surrounding the exhibition matches the experience of seeing the tapestry in person. As crowds continue to turn out in record numbers, the event has underscored the enduring public fascination with medieval history and iconic cultural artifacts that bridge centuries of shared British and European history.

  • Kosovo needed international law to survive. Now it’s helping Israel bypass it in Gaza

    Kosovo needed international law to survive. Now it’s helping Israel bypass it in Gaza

    On Monday, following Israel’s formal approval, Kosovo officially became the latest member of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s divisive Board of Peace and its accompanying International Stabilisation Force (ISF) for Gaza, a move that has ignited sharp debate over geopolitics, human rights, and legal accountability. The signing ceremony, which saw ISF commander Major General Jasper Jeffers and Kosovo Security Force chief Lieutenant General Bashkim Jashari formalize the accession on September 7, 2026, was framed by the Board of Peace as a historic milestone. In a public statement posted to X, the organization emphasized the move demonstrates Kosovo’s unwavering commitment to the ISF mission and alignment with the core strategic goals laid out in Trump’s 20-Point Peace Plan.

    The Board of Peace also revealed that Kosovo deployed military personnel to the region as early as this past spring, months before the official signing, a deployment that was never disclosed to the public ahead of the announcement. According to the statement, Kosovar troops have already taken on leading roles in logistics planning and civil affairs coordination, in addition to carrying out unexploded ordnance clearance operations on the ground in Gaza.

    The decision has proven deeply divisive within Kosovo, a majority-Muslim nation where widespread public sympathy for Palestinians amid the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza has already spurred large-scale pro-Palestine protests across the country. Despite this widespread public opposition, Kosovo’s ruling political leadership has aligned itself with the Trump administration’s pro-Israel demands, a choice that analysts attribute to a mix of ideological alignment and geopolitical pressure.

    In comments made back in March, Kosovo’s left-leaning Prime Minister Albin Kurti defended his government’s participation, drawing a parallel to the 1999 NATO intervention in Kosovo. “We are ready to participate and help the people of Gaza, because we ourselves have been and are beneficiaries of international forces since 1999,” Kurti said. That 1999 intervention, led by U.S. forces, involved two and a half months of airstrikes against Serbia to halt the ethnic cleansing campaign targeting Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian population. While Kurti’s framing is designed to win over a domestic audience that broadly condemns the violence in Gaza, conflict experts say the comparison is deeply flawed.

    Brunilda Pali, assistant professor of conflict dynamics and resolution at the University of Amsterdam’s Department of Political Science, called the parallel fundamentally unconvincing in an interview with Middle East Eye. “The international intervention in Kosovo followed a genocidal war in which the international community had identified a grave humanitarian catastrophe,” Pali explained. “Gaza presents a fundamentally different problem,” she added, noting that “as a main supporter of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the U.S. is not at all credible as a peacekeeper.”

    This contrast is underscored by ongoing international legal proceedings against Israel: much like Serbia faced global scrutiny for its actions in Kosovo, Israel is currently facing a genocide case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over its military campaign in Gaza. In 2024, the ICJ — a judicial body Kosovo has repeatedly relied on to solidify its own claims to sovereignty — ruled that Israel’s longstanding occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem violates international law. The International Criminal Court has also gone further, issuing arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza.

    Pali warned that Kosovo’s participation in the ISF carries tangible risks for both the Balkan nation’s government and its deployed troops. Unlike the 1999 intervention in Kosovo, Israel holds full veto power over all entry into Gaza and all participation in the ISF. “Participation could expose both Kosovar soldiers and the Kosovo government to significant legal and reputational risks, particularly if the international deployment were to facilitate forced displacement, consolidate Israeli control over Gaza, or otherwise contribute to internationally wrongful conduct,” Pali said. She also pointed out that Kosovar political leaders have largely ignored explicit public plans from Israeli officials to ethnically cleanse Gaza of its Palestinian population and replace it with Jewish-only settlements.

    While Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian population welcomed international forces in 1999 as protectors from violence, experts emphasize the U.S.- and Israeli-backed ISF serves an entirely different purpose in Gaza. “By participating in the ISF, Kosovo is effectively asking Palestinians to accept an international security architecture in which one of the principal parties responsible for the genocide in Gaza, which is the U.S., retains substantial influence over the security environment, while the Palestinian population has limited control over the institution determining its political future,” Pali explained.

    The Board of Peace itself has already been widely condemned by global and Palestinian rights bodies. Eight independent United Nations experts have labeled the initiative an “illegal and illegitimate manoeuvre by powerful states driven by nostalgia and avarice.” The experts argue the board directly violates the Palestinian people’s fundamental right to self-determination and amounts to a modern colonial administration. Leading Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq has echoed that criticism, describing the Board of Peace and the ISF as a “blueprint for the indefinite alien occupation and de facto annexation of large parts of Gaza.”

    Shpend Kursani, a lecturer in international relations at the University of Tartu’s Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies in Estonia, noted that Kosovo, alongside Albania and Morocco, was deliberately selected for the initiative as a handpicked group of majority-Muslim nations that had already secured full Israeli approval. The inclusion of these countries, Kursani explained, is intended to “sugarcoat” the deployment, framing it to Gaza’s population as a helping hand from fellow Muslim-majority states. Crucially, Kursani emphasized that the entire initiative is a private project with no legitimate international standing. “This is Trump’s private initiative. The Board of Peace has no international standing whatsoever,” Kursani said. “It is viewed as Trump’s private initiative, actually almost like a parallel initiative to the United Nations efforts and its main mission of peacekeeping.”

    For Kosovo, which has still not secured full United Nations membership due to longstanding opposition from China and Russia, the geopolitical pressures of aligning with the second Trump presidency have left the small Balkan nation with limited room to maneuver. With no other major regional allies to rely on, and a large U.S. military base — Camp Bondsteel, the largest U.S. base in the Balkans, currently hosting around 1,000 U.S. troops — hosted on its soil, Kosovo’s leaders see alignment with U.S. policy as the only way to protect their own hard-won sovereignty against Serb revanchism. The U.S. force is widely viewed as the only meaningful bulwark against attempts by Serbia to reclaim control over the territory.

    Sidita Kushi, assistant professor of politics at U.S.-based Mount Holyoke College, explained that Kosovo’s leadership is prioritizing its alliance with Washington in hopes of shoring up its own security and sovereign status by backing Trump administration foreign policy priorities. But Kushi also noted that even full alignment offers no long-term guarantee of favorable treatment from the Trump White House, pointing to Trump’s erratic approach to global relations, including threats to invade Greenland and revisit the United Kingdom’s claim to the Falklands. Trump has already threatened to upend European security by withdrawing U.S. troops from Germany over Berlin’s reluctance to back the U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran.

    “With few other natural allies in the region, both Kosovo and Albania are stuck between a rock and a hard place, and their political elites are choosing to follow perceived geopolitical interests and the status quo over undeniable human rights considerations,” Kushi added. For Kosovo, the cost of that choice may yet prove steep, as experts warn of growing legal and reputational damage from its involvement in a widely condemned initiative.

  • Trump promises to send $500 to nearly 1 million Americans for Obamacare ‘overcharges’

    Trump promises to send $500 to nearly 1 million Americans for Obamacare ‘overcharges’

    More than three years after his first failed attempt to overturn the Affordable Care Act (ACA), widely known as Obamacare, former and returning U.S. President Donald Trump has unveiled a new direct policy move targeting the landmark 2010 health care law: one-time $500 rebate checks totaling close to $500 million to nearly 1 million Americans who purchase unsubsidized health plans through the federal ACA insurance marketplace. The Trump administration says the payments represent refunds for what it labels as excessive “overcharges” levied during Joe Biden’s prior presidential term, with mailed checks set to begin reaching eligible households starting this October.

    Per White House guidance released Thursday, the rebates will only go to consumers in 30 states that rely on the federal government to operate their ACA insurance marketplaces, and exclude any buyers who receive income-based premium subsidies to lower their monthly plan costs. Eligible recipients are consumers who pay 100% of their own plan premiums, which can often climb to several hundred dollars per month for unsubsidized coverage. The administration argues that a so-called “user fee” added to monthly marketplace premiums was over-collected under the Biden administration, amassing a surplus far larger than what is actually required to cover operating costs for the federal exchange.

    Notably, the administration’s public fact sheet does not disclose the total size of the alleged surplus, nor does it lay out any concrete plans to permanently lower user fees or overall premium costs for marketplace consumers moving forward. This new rebate promise comes on top of an earlier Trump pledge to send $5,000 one-time payments to Americans if the Republican Party secures majority control of both chambers of Congress in the upcoming November legislative elections.

    First enacted in 2010 under the Obama administration, the ACA expanded health insurance access to millions of previously uninsured Americans by creating standardized public insurance marketplaces where private health plans can be purchased, and introduced new federal rules requiring minimum coverage standards for most individual market plans. The law also made available income-based tax subsidies that cut monthly premium costs for the majority of marketplace enrollees, and expanded the Medicaid public insurance program for low-income households. State-by-state operation of marketplaces varies, with some running their own state-level exchanges and others opting to let the federal government manage plan enrollment and pricing.

    Most Democratic lawmakers have not yet issued public responses to Trump’s rebate announcement, but the party has long defended the ACA as a critical pillar of affordable health coverage for U.S. households. Trump first made a full repeal of the law a top priority during his first presidential term, coming within one vote of passing repeal legislation in 2017 before the effort collapsed. Since returning to office for his second term, Trump has continued to push for structural changes to the ACA and repeatedly called for a full replacement of the law, though he has yet to release a detailed alternative health care proposal to replace it. This rebate plan marks the most direct, concrete action the Trump administration has taken on the ACA since returning to the White House.

    Official enrollment data shows that total ACA marketplace and Medicaid enrollment tied to the law has dropped by roughly 8 million people since Trump’s return to office. The administration’s broader changes to the ACA, included as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBA), have not yet gone into full effect, with the full implementation timeline expected to stretch over multiple years. Eligible rebate recipients are concentrated in key 2026 swing states including Florida, Texas, North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin, all of which rely on the federal ACA exchange.

  • Bayeux Tapestry unveiled to UK public for first time at British Museum

    Bayeux Tapestry unveiled to UK public for first time at British Museum

    Nearly a millennium after it was stitched by hand, the iconic Bayeux Tapestry has opened to the public in the United Kingdom for the first time in its history, marking a landmark cultural exchange between France and Britain that has been nearly a century in the making.

    Believed to have been originally embroidered in England shortly after the 1066 Norman Conquest, the 70-meter 11th-century artwork has resided in Normandy, France, for centuries. It chronicles the lead-up to the Battle of Hastings and William of Normandy’s decisive invasion of England, breaking down the narrative into 58 vivid sequential scenes. This unprecedented loan comes as Bayeux’s permanent museum undergoes critical renovation work, creating a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for UK audiences to view the treasure in person.

    The British Museum opened its exhibition doors at 10:00 BST on opening day, where costumed re-enactors bearing shields, dressed in period-accurate 1066 garments, greeted thousands of early arriving history lovers who queued for hours for their chance to see the tapestry. When the priceless artifact made its overnight cross-channel journey from Normandy to London this July—echoing William the Conqueror’s original crossing—it was transported in a custom-built protective case under cover of darkness, a carefully planned operation designed to avoid vibration and damage from poor road conditions.

    For many first-time visitors, the experience exceeded all expectations. Adrian Harris, one of the first members of the public to view the exhibition, called the opportunity a “real privilege.” “I’m not a very emotive or expressive person but I was absolutely blown away by it,” he said, describing the shock of seeing the full tapestry stretch out before him at the start of the exhibition gallery. Serena Smith, an enthusiastic tapestry fan, secured her ticket after landing 4,000th in the online queue—despite clicking the booking link moments after the British Museum’s alert went out—and arrived with 24 pages of detailed notes to spot historical details, from the Normans’ distinctive round haircuts to the invasion boats that carried the army across the Channel.

    Italian visitors Cecilia and Fabio Zanini said the scale and detail of the tapestry left them stunned. “I was amazed by the vibrancy of the colours. The detail of the characters,” Cecilia said. “It gave both of us goosebumps.” Fabio praised the embroidery’s dynamic energy, noting: “It feels like you’re in the battlefield. It really allowed you to go back to 1066.” BBC Culture Editor Katie Razzall, who spent months preparing to cover the exhibition, echoed that reaction: after studying texts and photos for months, and even witnessing the careful unfurling of the tapestry after its arrival, nothing prepared her for the impact of seeing the full work stretch the entire length of the British Museum gallery.

    Michael Lewis, one of the four curators organizing the landmark exhibition, framed the cross-Channel loan as a major gesture of international diplomacy. “1066 is, of course, one of the most important events in English history, and the tapestry is the ultimate reflection of that in terms of a visual narrative,” he explained. “Some people see it as akin to a graphic novel or a cartoon or something like that, it’s immediately recognisable.”

    Not all feedback about the event has been positive, however. Some UK residents outside of London have criticized the exhibition as inaccessible to working-class and northern British families, noting that combined costs of entry tickets, train travel, and on-site food put the experience out of reach for many. “London-only cultural events alienate many families north of Watford,” said Angie, a resident of Leeds, who called the historic occasion “out of reach for many, many families in the north.” Other visitors complained of overcrowding and extreme wait times, with one visitor comparing the flow through the exhibition to being moved along a conveyor belt.

    Despite the criticism, public demand for tickets remains overwhelming: all advance tickets for the exhibition are sold out until the next release on 21 October. The tapestry will remain on display at the British Museum until 11 July 2027, giving audiences a limited window to see the historic artwork before it returns to its permanent home in France. Even with the early public debate around accessibility, the exhibition stands as a singular cultural moment, bringing one of the most famous artifacts of medieval European history back to the country where it was first created, nearly 1,000 years later.

  • ‘We never recovered him’: Quest to identify remains from Ground Zero continues

    ‘We never recovered him’: Quest to identify remains from Ground Zero continues

    On the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people at the World Trade Center, a new forensic technology is slowly bringing long-awaited answers to hundreds of families who have spent decades waiting for confirmation of their loved ones’ fates.

    For Juliette Scauso, that wait has carried on since she was 4 years old, the youngest of four children growing up on Long Island without her father, Dennis Scauso, a 12-year veteran of the New York City Fire Department’s hazmat unit. Dennis was not scheduled to work on September 11, 2001, but he swapped shifts to pick up extra overtime pay. When the South Tower collapsed, he was inside, and only his dented, damaged firefighter helmet, emblazoned with his badge number, was recovered months after the attack.

    A quarter of a century later, Dennis Scauso remains one of more than 1,000 unidentified 9/11 victims from New York, according to the city’s Office of Chief Medical Examiner (OCME). For decades, identifying fragmented remains recovered from Ground Zero has stood as one of the most complex forensic challenges in modern history. The jet-fueled fires that burned at the World Trade Center site destroyed most genetic material, leaving only small, fragmented portions of remains for testing. Complications were amplified by shift changes that left many first responders wearing borrowed gear marked with other firefighters’ names, and the sheer scale of the tragedy, which dwarfed the other 9/11 attack sites. While all 40 victims on United Airlines Flight 93 were identified, and only five remains from the Pentagon attack remain unaccounted for, more than a third of the 2,753 World Trade Center victims are still without formal identification.

    But last month, OCME announced a breakthrough: using Forensic Investigative Genetic Genealogy (FIGG), investigators have identified a previously unknown victim, marking the 1,654th confirmed identification from the attacks. This new technology, which leverages whole genome sequencing to map a victim’s full genetic code, allows investigators to match partial DNA profiles to more distant relatives of victims than older DNA testing methods permitted. Once a distant match is found in genetic genealogy databases, the New York Police Department works to track down closer family members to confirm the match.

    OCME has preserved all unidentified remains in sealed, temperature-controlled packaging for decades, allowing teams to retest samples as new technology emerges. Early identifications relied on fingerprints and dental records, before DNA testing became the standard, and successive generations of DNA technology have allowed teams to extract usable genetic material from samples that were untestable years earlier. This continuous re-evaluation is why new identifications are still being made 25 years after the attacks. Last year alone, three more victims were identified through advanced DNA testing: 26-year-old currency trader Ryan Fitzgerald, 72-year-old Barbara Keating who was aboard American Airlines Flight 11, and a third victim whose family chose to keep their identity private.

    Angela Soler, director of forensic anthropology at OCME, says FIGG opens a new frontier of hope for families still waiting for answers. “There is real promise in using this approach,” she said. “There’s hope for more families to receive answers, and hopefully we’ll be able to test more remains in the future using this technology as well.” The work is deeply personal for Soler and many of her colleagues, who responded to Ground Zero in the immediate aftermath of the attacks. While they acknowledge it is unlikely every victim will ever be identified — in some cases, no recoverable remains exist at all — they have no plans to end their efforts. “As long as there’s families looking for answers, we’ll continue searching for them,” Soler said.

    For families, the news of an identification brings a complex mix of emotions. For many, formal identification closes a lingering, unspoken question that has lingered for decades, bringing a sense of closure that allows them to lay their loved one to rest, either in a private burial or in the repository built into the bedrock of the World Trade Center memorial, where many families choose to leave remains close to where their loved ones died. But for others, the news reopens wounds that have taken decades to heal.

    Juliette Scauso says she has made peace with never having her father’s remains, and has built her life around his memory — remembering him as a handyman with a love of jazz who left only his helmet behind. “I’ve spent essentially my entire life knowing my father died, and learning to live with the fact that we never recovered him,” she said. For her, an identification decades later would not bring her father back, but only reopen a grief she has learned to carry. “At this point, an identification wouldn’t change the reality of his death. It wouldn’t give me back my father, and I don’t necessarily want to reopen something that has become part of the way I’ve learned to live and grieve. Especially 25 years later, it’s going to open up the wounds again.” Even so, she acknowledges the profound importance of the new technology for other families still waiting.

    Soler echoes that complexity, noting that for every family that longs for answers, some choose to opt out of notification, finding the confirmation of their loved one’s death too painful to revisit 25 years on. Still, she says, the work continues: every week, OCME receives calls from family members asking for updates, and investigators will keep testing, matching, and searching, as long as there are questions left to answer.

  • ‘Kahanist’ figure poised to enter Israeli parliament on Ben Gvir’s party list

    ‘Kahanist’ figure poised to enter Israeli parliament on Ben Gvir’s party list

    As Israel prepares for its snap parliamentary elections scheduled for October 27, a radical far-right figure with deep ties to a banned terrorist organization is on the cusp of securing a seat in the Knesset, according to reporting from Israeli outlet Haaretz. Tzachi Eliyahu, an avowed adherent of the Kahanist ideology, has secured the eighth spot on the candidate list of Otzma Yehudit, the far-right party led by current Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

    Eliyahu’s open alignment with the racist Kach movement is impossible to miss: he carries a tattoo of the movement’s logo on his arm. Kach was founded by Meir Kahane, a radical Jewish supremacist rabbi who was assassinated in New York in 1990. The movement was formally outlawed across Israel and classified as a terrorist organization due to its explicitly racist agenda targeting Palestinians, which included open calls for the forced expulsion of all Palestinians from historic Palestine. The ban came into force in 1994, after Kach supporter Baruch Goldstein carried out a mass shooting that killed 29 Palestinian Muslim worshippers at Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque.

    This is not Eliyahu’s first attempt to enter the Knesset. In 2023, when a vacancy opened up following the resignation of Noam party chairman Avi Maoz, Ben Gvir blocked Eliyahu from taking the seat. At the time, Ben Gvir – who has himself been previously convicted on charges of supporting the banned Kach movement – argued that Eliyahu’s visible Kach tattoo would harm the party’s public image, political sources familiar with the decision told Israeli outlet Srugim. A source told Srugim at the time that Eliyahu represented an older, unapologetic strain of Otzma Yehudit’s ideology, describing him as “that kind of Kahanist.”

    Current polling, however, points to a strong performance for Otzma Yehudit, with projections showing the party winning between eight and 10 Knesset seats. If the polls hold, Eliyahu’s eighth place slot on the list will guarantee him a parliamentary seat. After the party formally submitted its full candidate list to Israel’s Central Elections Committee earlier this week, Ben Gvir publicly praised the slate, claiming he was “proud that we have the most diverse list in Israel.” Ben Gvir added that all Otzma Yehudit members carry “a lot of love for the people of Israel in our hearts.”

    Beyond Eliyahu’s Kahanist ties, he has a long record of controversial and extremist actions. He has publicly expressed support for Elor Azaria, a former Israeli soldier convicted of manslaughter for the 2016 extrajudicial killing of an unarmed, wounded Palestinian man lying incapacitated on the ground in Hebron. In a social media post, Eliyahu called Azaria “the child of us all,” and claimed the soldier was right to “eliminate a terrorist at the scene.”

    Eliyahu has also been repeatedly linked to violent clashes with anti-government protesters during Israel’s 2023 mass demonstrations against the Netanyahu government’s controversial judicial overhaul plan, with multiple reports documenting him personally attacking demonstrators. He has also targeted Palestinian journalists: he called for a confrontation with Palestinian Haaretz reporter Hanin Majadli at her home after she expressed support for an Israeli teacher fired for criticizing the Israeli military, writing, “Haaretz won’t fire her, but let’s make sure the police pay her a visit at home.”

    Just months ago, in June 2024, Eliyahu joined other far-right activists to raise Israeli flags at the entrance to Kafr Kanna, a Palestinian-majority town in northern Israel. On social media platform Facebook, he spelled out his core political goal: “Our top mission as a government and as a people is to Judaise the Galilee and ensure the Jewish majority in the Land of Israel.”

    Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit has already placed the so-called “voluntary emigration” of Palestinians from the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip at the top of its election platform, a term widely recognized as a euphemism for forced displacement and mass expulsion of Palestinian people from their land.