Global Pulse

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  • More schools close in Indonesia due to worsening haze from forest fires

    More schools close in Indonesia due to worsening haze from forest fires

    A growing environmental emergency is unfolding across Indonesia as intensifying forest and peatland wildfires, supercharged by an extreme El Nino pattern and an extended dry season, have pushed dangerous air pollution across the country and spilled into neighboring Southeast Asian nations. This crisis has forced widespread school closures and a shift to remote learning, disrupting the education of more than 1.4 million Indonesian children, with authorities scrambling to contain the spreading blazes.

    On Wednesday, the capital of South Sumatra province, Palembang, became the latest region to enact emergency education measures, ordering all schools from kindergarten through junior high to transition to fully online instruction. The move impacts more than 250,000 students across 1,030 local institutions, with city officials citing the severe health risks that thick toxic haze poses to young people, including elevated rates of acute respiratory infections. “Students’ health and safety remained the government’s priority,” Palembang Mayor Ratu Dewa told reporters, noting that the policy will be reassessed continuously and in-person learning will resume as soon as air quality improves. He also added that teachers have been instructed to avoid assigning excessive schoolwork during the remote learning period to prevent unnecessary student burden.

    Decades of recurring annual fire seasons have plagued Indonesia, but 2024’s crisis has been among the most severe on record, driven by climate-fueled extreme weather. The dry, hot conditions have allowed blazes to spread rapidly across peatlands and old-growth forests, releasing massive plumes of toxic smoke that have drifted hundreds of kilometers beyond Indonesia’s borders. As of this week, haze has reached as far north as the Philippines, more than 800 kilometers from the fire hot spots, and pushed air pollution in parts of Malaysia past emergency thresholds. Last week, Malaysian authorities declared a state of emergency in a Sarawak state town on Borneo Island, marking a major escalation of what is now a regional public health crisis.

    Government data shows that the disaster is concentrated largely on Indonesia’s half of Borneo (called Kalimantan) and the island of Sumatra, with thousands of hectares of land burned across both regions. Satellite data released Wednesday by Indonesia’s Environment Ministry mapped 2,459 active fire hot spots in Central Kalimantan, the country’s worst-affected area. South Sumatra followed with 1,445 detected hot spots, the second-highest total nationwide, while West Kalimantan recorded 928 hot spots to rank third. In total, more than 202,000 hectares of land have burned across Indonesia between January and July — an area nearly three times the entire size of Singapore. Across Sumatra and Borneo alone, roughly 12,800 schools remain closed due to unsafe air quality, according to official counts.

    International child welfare organization Save the Children has warned that the crisis goes far beyond environmental and public health, framing it as a violation of children’s basic rights. “The Earth, our home, is on fire, and children, including here in Asia, are being left to bear the consequences,” said Arshad Malik, Save the Children’s Asia regional director. The organization confirmed that more than 1.4 million students across affected Indonesian regions have been pushed into remote learning due to the haze.

    Indonesian authorities have ramped up large-scale firefighting operations across multiple affected provinces, drawing on international support to contain the blazes. Multiple countries across Southeast Asia and beyond have dispatched aircraft to assist with water bombing and containment efforts, including Japan, the United States, Russia, Australia, Canada and Ukraine.

  • Asia’s Strait of Hormuz oil cushion is running out

    Asia’s Strait of Hormuz oil cushion is running out

    For months, Asian economies have weathered growing turbulence in the Strait of Hormuz, drawing on accumulated policy buffers and fiscal reserves to shield consumers from runaway energy costs. That long-held resilience is now running out, analysts and policymakers warn, as a once-manageable supply risk threatens to turn into a full-blown economic shock that the region has little capacity left to absorb.

    Policymakers across the region, from Tokyo to Jakarta, are monitoring crude oil’s steady march back toward the $100 per barrel threshold, with investment bank Goldman Sachs flagging the risk of prices spiking as high as $120 if attacks on commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea continue to intensify. Daan Struyven, a Goldman Sachs economist, noted that supply chain disruptions linked to the conflict are not only spreading but growing more severe, amplifying upside pressure on energy costs.

    Not all analysts see the recent escalation of tensions between the U.S. and Iran as a permanent turning point, however. Jorge León, an energy analyst at Rystad Energy, has cast doubt on claims that either side is pursuing meaningful escalation, arguing that market conditions have not shifted materially over the past two weeks.

    Even so, the conflict that former U.S. President Donald Trump once predicted would end in mere weeks is now approaching its seventh month, and persistently tight global oil supplies pose an existential threat to Asia’s import-dependent growth models. Compounding this risk is the fact that the region’s policy toolkit for absorbing another Middle East oil shock is far more depleted than it was during previous crises.

    Through most of 2026, Asian governments and market participants bet the Iran war would be short-lived, with widespread expectations that diplomatic de-escalation would cool tensions between Washington and Tehran. Those hopes have yet to materialize.

    For Trump, who faces a November congressional election as the war drags into what many observers see as a quagmire, pressure to find an exit is mounting rapidly. The president’s approval ratings have slumped into the low 30s, with even Republican voters growing increasingly uneasy about the protracted conflict and shaky domestic economic conditions. The slump marks a striking reversal for Trump, who campaigned on a promise to withdraw the U.S. from endless foreign conflicts, only to launch a war that many analysts now agree the U.S. cannot win.

    As oil prices climb back toward triple-digit territory, Asian governments are already grappling with subsidy budgets stretched thin by the first phase of the crisis. Major emerging economies including India, Indonesia, and the Philippines spent heavily over the past six months to defend their currencies and protect consumers from fuel price spikes. Bangladesh is already facing severe nationwide power shortages, and across the region, there is simply no remaining fiscal space to absorb another major oil shock — especially if shipping disruptions worsen with no end to the conflict in sight.

    A resurgently strong U.S. dollar is adding further strain to the region, as its appreciation amplifies inflation risks across Asia by pulling down the value of local currencies. The entire region is now bracing for the release of U.S. consumer price index (CPI) data, which is widely expected to clear the way for a Federal Reserve interest rate hike at the central bank’s upcoming policy meeting.

    “A hotter-than-expected CPI print would all but lock in a September rate hike and push the U.S. dollar even higher,” explained Elias Haddad, global head of markets strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman. “A cooler inflation reading would strengthen the case for holding rates steady, leaving the dollar vulnerable to a dovish repricing by markets.” For now, both markets and governments across Asia are preparing for the more hawkish, hotter outcome.

    The regional economic picture is more nuanced than a simple oil shock narrative, however. Until recently, China’s unexpected economic resilience has masked underlying weakness across other Asian economies. China’s exports surged 25% year-over-year in August alone, marking a fifth consecutive month of growth in U.S.-bound shipments even amid ongoing tariffs, which have reached an annualized 6.1% for 2026 to date.

    “We expect this trade resilience to persist, supporting our above-consensus forecast for regional export growth this year and next,” said Sheana Yue, an economist at Oxford Economics.

    Even so, China’s K-shaped recovery — defined by booming export activity paired with persistently weak domestic demand — leaves its role as Asia’s primary growth engine far more fragile than headline indicators suggest. Trump’s latest round of tariffs, which now extend to Canada as well as China, combined with surging oil prices, could dampen global demand for Chinese goods and put new strain on China’s $20 trillion economy. If overseas appetite for China’s technology and AI-related exports fades, the ripple effects would slow growth across virtually every Asian economy.

    Rising global bond yields, particularly in Japan and the U.S., add a further layer of systemic risk. In Tokyo, volatile movements in the Japanese yen have put markets on edge ahead of next week’s Bank of Japan policy meeting, with the currency strengthening on expectations of a September 18 rate hike and speculation that the Ministry of Finance could intervene to support the currency before the meeting.

    The more consequential shift, however, is playing out in Japan’s government bond market, where 10-year yields have hit three-decade highs near 3%. With the highest debt-to-GDP ratio of any major advanced economy — roughly 260% — paired with a rapidly shrinking population, Japan is ill-equipped to navigate today’s higher-inflation environment. Add Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s plans for expanded government spending and broad tax cuts, and investors have ample reason to offload Japanese government bonds (JGBs).

    “Higher JGB yields have been driven by a combination of growing fiscal sustainability concerns tied to the government’s growth-focused spending plans and inflationary pressures imported from the Middle East energy shock,” explained Koichi Sugisaki, an economist at Morgan Stanley MUFG. He warned that rising long-term interest rates will push up Japan’s government debt-servicing costs, creating a negative feedback loop that further erodes confidence in the country’s fiscal position. Sugisaki added that the Takaichi administration is now increasingly focused on containing upward pressure on long-term yields, particularly to curb inflation driven by a weakening yen.

    Global markets are acutely aware of how sharp yen volatility can spill over into global asset markets, a dynamic that explains why U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently coordinated a joint yen-supporting intervention with Japanese authorities — the first such coordinated action since 1998. The intervention was designed to discourage Japan from selling off its large holdings of U.S. Treasuries to fund yen defense, a move that would roil global bond markets.

    Stabilizing the $32 trillion U.S. Treasury market may prove far more difficult, however. With U.S. national debt now topping $40 trillion and Trump pursuing efforts to curb the Federal Reserve’s institutional independence, growing fears of a run on Treasuries have already prompted Bessent to launch a large-scale Treasury buyback program designed to cap rising yields.

    The largest systemic risks, analysts agree, stem directly from policy choices coming out of the White House. Trump’s protracted war in Iran, his expanding global tariffs, and his efforts to exert political control over Fed policy are eroding long-standing market trust in the U.S. dollar and U.S. government debt, and this week’s oil price surge could be the most destabilizing factor to date.

    Asia’s largest oil importers — Japan, South Korea, India, and most ASEAN member states — are all heavily dependent on crude transported through the Strait of Hormuz, and now face overlapping exposure to multiple risks at once. These include soaring maritime insurance costs for ships transiting the region, higher input costs for domestic refiners even before crude prices climb further, and widespread downward growth downgrades across the region.

    While developing Asia is not facing an imminent 1997-style financial crisis, analysts agree the region is far more exposed to these overlapping shocks than current market pricing suggests. If supply disruptions deepen, the next hit to Asian growth will be far harder to absorb than the first.

    China’s ability to prevent Gulf shipping disruptions from pushing crude prices to $150 or even $200 a barrel is also fading, analysts warn. Earlier this year, a sharp pullback in Chinese crude imports surprised markets and helped keep global prices in check. Société Générale analyst Mike Haigh explained that the pullback was driven by strategic inventory releases, growing renewable energy adoption, and rising output from Brazil and Venezuela — factors that together averted a repeat of the 1970s-style oil crisis.

    “That combination represented one of the largest offsets to the Middle East supply shock, second only to Saudi Arabia’s adjusted flow routing and larger than coordinated strategic petroleum reserve releases from the U.S., Europe, and Japan,” Haigh noted.

    The International Monetary Fund has warned that another major shock would hit China — and by extension the entire Asian region — from multiple directions. “The region entered 2026 on solid footing, but the war in the Middle East and the ensuing energy supply shock are raising inflation, weakening external balances, and narrowing policy options, underscoring the region’s deep dependence on imported oil and gas,” said IMF economist Andrea Pescatori. He added that these combined headwinds “will test Asia’s resilience to the limit.”

    The core problem is that the Trump administration’s war shows little sign of reaching a negotiated end any time soon. Former U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta argues the White House is in denial about the endless war it has created, telling The Guardian that the U.S. and Iran are locked in a stalemate with few viable paths to resolution — a stalemate that could drag on for another six months at minimum.

    For Southeast Asia, which sources roughly half of its total crude imports from the Middle East, fiscal policy alone cannot offset the coming fallout, according to Ambiyah Abdullah, senior economist at the ASEAN Centre for Energy. Rising oil import costs will widen regional trade deficits, put additional downward pressure on local exchange rates, and force central banks to push interest rates higher. Left unaddressed, these risks could lead to long-term currency depreciation across the bloc. Abdullah argues that exchange rate management is the most critical priority for ASEAN monetary policy, given its direct impact on trade balances, inflation, and regional financial markets, and says further monetary tightening will be needed to offset the latest inflation shock.

    With no clear end to shipping disruptions in sight, Abdullah concludes that the region urgently needs “a coordinated and flexible mix of fiscal and monetary policies,” ranging from near-term inflation management to long-term redirection of investment toward energy transition, cross-border power grid interconnection, and greater energy supply diversification.

    Implementing that coordinated policy agenda is far easier said than done, particularly because the core uncertainty — the future trajectory of the Middle East conflict — remains completely unresolved. In the meantime, oil markets will continue to swing sharply with every new development from the region, leaving Asian economies hostage to ongoing uncertainty over how long vital energy supplies will remain constrained.

  • Tycoon to pay ex-wife $1.87bn in record South Korea divorce settlement

    Tycoon to pay ex-wife $1.87bn in record South Korea divorce settlement

    A South Korean court has delivered a landmark ruling in a high-profile divorce case, ordering Smilegate founder Kwon Hyuk-bin — one of the nation’s wealthiest business magnates — to transfer over 2.55 trillion won ($1.87 billion) in assets to his ex-wife Lee Hwa-jin, setting a new record for the largest divorce settlement in the country’s history.

    Kwon, who built South Korea’s third-largest video game developer from the ground up, had held full ownership of Smilegate until Wednesday’s court decision. The ruling requires Kwon to transfer a 35% stake in the gaming firm, valued at roughly 2.5 trillion won, to Lee, alongside an additional 65 billion won in cash compensation. Bloomberg estimates Kwon’s total current net worth at approximately $3 billion.

    The massive settlement more than doubles the previous national record of 944 billion won, which was set earlier this year when SK Group chairman Chey Tae-won was ordered to pay his ex-wife. That ruling has since been sent back for lower court review by South Korea’s Supreme Court, which flagged an error in asset valuation that incorrectly inflated the couple’s combined assets.

    The legal battle between Kwon and Lee stems from conflicting claims over Lee’s contributions to the gaming company’s early growth. The pair married in 2001, just 12 months before Kwon launched Smilegate, the studio behind global hit titles including the first-person shooter *CrossFire* and action role-playing game *Lost Ark*.

    Lee originally sought a 50% stake in Smilegate as part of the divorce settlement. According to reporting from Bloomberg, her legal team argued she provided critical financial support to help Kwon launch the company during its founding phase. She also emphasized that she dedicated more than two decades to raising the couple’s children and managing their household, contributions she says enabled Kwon to focus on growing his business.

    Kwon has repeatedly disputed these claims, maintaining that Lee never invested in the company nor contributed to its operations. Earlier this year, Smilegate released an official statement asserting all initial startup capital came from Kwon personally. A company spokesperson declined to elaborate on the personal legal matters of its major shareholder following the ruling, telling South Korea’s *The Chosun Daily* that the business would continue normal operations as usual.

    Both sides retain the right to appeal the court’s latest ruling, meaning the legal process may not yet be final.

  • Gunman shoots and kills a teacher at a kindergarten in eastern Thailand

    Gunman shoots and kills a teacher at a kindergarten in eastern Thailand

    BANGKOK – A fatal shooting at a public kindergarten in eastern Thailand has left one female educator dead, prompting renewed public and policy scrutiny of the country’s persistent gun violence crisis just months after a deadly mass shooting at a secondary school. The attack unfolded shortly before 11 a.m. local time Wednesday at Nongplalai Municipal Kindergarten, located in Chonburi province roughly 93 miles southeast of Thailand’s capital, Bangkok.

    Local law enforcement and provincial authorities confirmed that all 44 children enrolled at the facility and three other members of the teaching staff escaped the incident unharmed, and were immediately evacuated from the school grounds to safe locations following the shooting.

    Investigative sources told reporters the suspected gunman is the ex-husband of the slain teacher, who fled the premises immediately after carrying out the attack. As of Wednesday afternoon, security forces had established a cordon around the suspect’s residential address as they prepare to take him into custody.

    In response to the incident, Chonburi provincial governor Narit Niramaiwong issued an official order closing the kindergarten indefinitely to allow the investigation to proceed and to give students and staff time to process the trauma. His office also confirmed that licensed mental health counselors have been deployed to provide free counseling support for anyone affected by the shooting.

    Wednesday’s attack is the latest in a string of school-related gun incidents that have put Thailand’s lax enforcement of existing gun laws under growing national pressure. Back in August, a 14-year-old student carried out a mass shooting at his high school and family home, leaving eight people dead and more than 20 others wounded before dying by suicide. Earlier this month, another 14-year-old student was taken into police custody after firing multiple rounds from a gun on a school campus in Kamphaeng Phet province, roughly 200 kilometers north of Bangkok; no injuries were reported in that incident.

    These consecutive events have amplified long-simmering public calls for stricter national gun regulation. In response, Thailand’s federal government has initiated a comprehensive review of the country’s existing gun laws, including a temporary suspension on the approval of new firearm purchase permits and a full audit of all currently active permits.

    Data on gun ownership puts Thailand among the Asian countries with the highest rates of civilian gun ownership, a stark contrast to the country’s nominally restrictive written gun laws. While large-scale mass shootings remain relatively uncommon, the country has recorded a clear increase in high-profile, public gun attacks over the past decade.

  • Baby orangutans found in Indian forest spark trafficking inquiry

    Baby orangutans found in Indian forest spark trafficking inquiry

    In a startling discovery that has spotlighted the persistent global crisis of endangered wildlife trafficking, five infant orangutans— a species classified as critically endangered and not indigenous to India—have been found in a sparse casuarina forest in India’s eastern state of Odisha, thousands of kilometers away from their only native range in the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. Local residents first spotted the young apes, which are estimated to be between one and two years old, gathering on the forest floor and feeding on bananas in Ranakata, a proposed reserve forest in Bhogarai block of Balasore district, near Odisha’s border with West Bengal. After locals alerted authorities early Tuesday, forest rescue teams launched an immediate operation to extract the animals, who were given emergency first aid before being transported to Nandankanan Zoological Park in Bhubaneswar, the state capital, where they are currently undergoing mandatory quarantine and round-the-clock health monitoring.

    Officials leading the probe have ruled out any possibility that the orangutans reached Odisha through natural migration, noting that their location just off a major state highway aligns with suspicions that the apes were trafficked into India by an international smuggling ring and abandoned mid-transit. “These animals could never have reached this region on their own,” Pratik Prakash Indalkar, Balasore District Forest Officer, told reporters. “The site is near a highway, which suggests they were transported here by road before being left behind.” An initial search of the surrounding forest area turned up no additional orangutans or direct evidence linking to the smuggling operation, and forest officials estimate the apes had only been in the area for two to three days before their discovery.

    The unusual find has drawn alarm from wildlife conservation experts, who point to the vulnerable age of the rescued orangutans as an indicator of the cruelty of the illegal exotic pet trade. Young orangutans normally stay with their mothers for the first several years of life, learning critical survival skills, and female orangutans only produce offspring once every eight years on average, making every young individual vital to the species’ survival. All three recognized living orangutan species—Bornean, Sumatran, and Tapanuli—are listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), with wild populations plummeting over the past decades due to widespread deforestation, habitat destruction, and poaching.

    International commercial trade of orangutans is completely banned under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the global regulatory agreement for endangered wildlife, and the apes are also fully protected under India’s domestic wildlife protection laws. Even with these strict regulations, demand from private collectors for orangutans as exotic pets continues to drive widespread trafficking networks that operate across Southeast Asia and South Asia. This discovery is not an isolated incident in India: in 2022, two other baby orangutans were found abandoned at a border checkpoint between Assam and Mizoram, with investigators suspecting the apes had been trafficked into the country from neighboring Myanmar.

    To expand the ongoing investigation, the Odisha state government has formally requested support from India’s national Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, with local police, forest department officials, and a special anti-trafficking task force all participating in the probe to trace the smuggling network responsible for the illegal shipment.

  • Super Bowl rematch to open new season – your guide to NFL’s key games

    Super Bowl rematch to open new season – your guide to NFL’s key games

    The 2026 National Football League season is set to kick off this week, and defending Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks are showing no signs of being weighed down by the pressure that comes with wearing the crown.

    In February, the Seahawks dominated the New England Patriots to claim their second Super Bowl title in franchise history, marking a historic milestone for the team and one of their leading coaching staff members. British-born defensive coordinator Aden Durde, who retained his position with the Seahawks entering the new season, made history as the first non-American coach to lift the sport’s biggest prize. Reflecting on that groundbreaking win, Durde shared his thoughts with BBC Sport in an exclusive interview.

    “ That experience was honestly unreal, it’s hard to put into words how it felt,” Durde said. “For me, that run to the Super Bowl really reminded me why I love this job and why I put in the work every single day. What drives me is the constant process of improving, getting better one day at a time. Now we get to do this all again, and that’s what’s so exciting about this season.”

    The Seahawks will get their title defense underway with a highly anticipated rematch of last season’s Super Bowl against the Patriots, with kickoff scheduled for 01:20 BST on Thursday, which is Wednesday local time in the United States. While the Patriots will be the first test for Seattle, the early favorite to claim Super Bowl 61 is the Seahawks’ divisional rival Los Angeles Rams, who have dramatically upgraded an already star-studded roster this off-season. The two teams split two nail-biting regular season matchups last year before Seattle pulled out a dramatic playoff win over the Rams in a game that will go down as an instant classic. When asked about what the storied rivalry will look like this season, Durde remained focused on his own team’s preparation.

    “ No one can predict what this rivalry will look like this year,” Durde added. “That’s what the entire off-season is for: we’ve put in all the work to sharpen our skills, get physically and mentally ready for battle, and now it’s time to go.”

    This season’s schedule brings with it several unprecedented changes, driven by a unique calendar quirk. Since 2004, the defending champion has hosted the NFL’s opening game of the season. Normally, the opening game is held on a Thursday, but the 2026 campaign kicks off one week later than the traditional timeline, which puts it in conflict with long-standing U.S. laws that ban professional football broadcasts on Fridays and Saturdays starting in the second week of September. This scheduling conflict has forced the league to move the Seahawks’ opening game to Wednesday, marking the first time the season opener has been held on a Wednesday since 2012. The Rams’ international game against the San Francisco 49ers, set to be held at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia in front of a sellout crowd of 100,000 fans, will kick off at 10:35 a.m. local time on Friday, which translates to 01:35 BST on Friday, or Thursday evening U.S. time. This will be the first season opener to feature a Super Bowl rematch since 2016.

    Beyond the opening week, the 2026 schedule is packed with historic firsts and key can’t-miss matchups. Next Thursday will see the Buffalo Bills play their first game at their brand new stadium, Highmark Stadium, when they host the Detroit Lions. On October 25, one of the most anticipated matchups of the regular season will take place: last season’s Super Bowl Most Valuable Player Kenneth Walker will make a quick return to Seattle just months after leaving the team to sign with the Kansas City Chiefs. Walker made history last February as the first running back to claim Super Bowl MVP since 1998, and he is the first Super Bowl MVP to move to a new team immediately after winning the award since 2003.

    The 2026 season also brings expanded football action during the U.S. holiday season, a period that has become synonymous with the sport. This year, the NFL will host its first ever game on Thanksgiving Eve, with the Rams – who will appear in a league-leading seven primetime games this season – hosting the Green Bay Packers on November 25. That will be followed by a traditional triple-header of games on Thanksgiving Day, November 26. The holiday slate opens with two divisional rivalry games: the Detroit Lions host the Chicago Bears at 18:00 GMT, followed by the Dallas Cowboys welcoming the Philadelphia Eagles at 21:25 GMT. If star Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes recovers fully from his off-season injury, fans will get to see his legendary rivalry with Buffalo’s Josh Allen renewed when the Chiefs visit the Bills at 01:20 GMT on Friday. For the fourth consecutive year, the Thanksgiving schedule will conclude with a Black Friday matchup on November 27, when the Pittsburgh Steelers host the Denver Broncos.

    Streaming platforms will also carry a growing number of games this season. 17 regular season games will be streamed exclusively on Amazon Prime, including a Christmas Eve matchup between the Houston Texans and Philadelphia Eagles, and a New Year’s Eve clash between the Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals. Netflix will stream five games this season, including two of the three Christmas Day matchups: the Chicago Bears host the Green Bay Packers at 18:00 GMT, followed by the Denver Broncos hosting the Buffalo Bills at 21:30 GMT. The Christmas Day triple-header will wrap up with a rematch of last season’s dramatic NFC Championship game, when the Seahawks host the Rams at 01:15 GMT on December 26.

    The NFL continues its aggressive global expansion this season, with a record nine international regular season games on the schedule, up from seven last year. For the first time in league history, Australia and France will host regular season games. In total, regular season games will be held across four continents and seven countries: the NFL will return to Mexico after a four-year hiatus, while Brazil, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom will all retain their spots on the international schedule.

    The 17-week regular season will conclude on Sunday, January 10, 2027, with the playoffs set to get underway six days later on January 16. The season will culminate with Super Bowl 61, scheduled for Sunday, February 14, 2027 – marking the first time the NFL’s championship game has ever been held on Valentine’s Day. Coincidentally, the following day is Presidents’ Day, a federal public holiday in the United States, giving fans an extra day to recover from the big game. Super Bowl 61 will be held at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, the most expensive stadium ever built at $5.5 billion. Opened in 2020, SoFi Stadium is shared by the Rams and the Los Angeles Chargers, and this will be the ninth Super Bowl held in the greater Los Angeles area. The Rams previously won a Super Bowl on their home field in 2022, after the team built a star-studded roster ahead of that season and the gamble paid off with a 23-20 win over the Cincinnati Bengals in front of 70,048 fans. The Rams are looking to replicate that magic this season, trading for elite defensive stars Myles Garrett and Trent McDuffie during the off-season, and convincing 35-year-old three-time Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald to come out of retirement on a one-year deal to chase another title.

  • ‘You’re not alone in the darkness’: Gambia president urges calm after violent blackout protests

    ‘You’re not alone in the darkness’: Gambia president urges calm after violent blackout protests

    Widespread public anger over weeks of crippling, extended electricity outages boiled over into street demonstrations across The Gambia this week, forcing police to deploy tear gas to disperse crowds of hundreds of frustrated protesters just months ahead of a highly contested presidential election.

    The unrest, which unfolded Monday night across the capital Banjul and its surrounding suburban areas, was sparked by persistent blackouts that local residents report can stretch for up to 48 consecutive hours. The outages have grown increasingly severe since June, exacerbated by record high temperatures during the region’s hot season that have sent residential demand for electricity surging for cooling and daily use.

    In the Westfield district, crowds advanced on the headquarters of the National Water and Electricity Company (Nawec), The Gambia’s state-run power utility, chanting calls for incumbent President Adama Barrow to step down. Additional demonstrators gathered outside the vice president’s official residence in Farato, where signage at a local office of Barrow’s ruling National People’s Party was damaged during the unrest. Protesters reportedly burned tires and blocked major roadways to voice their discontent.

    In a national televised address delivered Tuesday evening, Barrow acknowledged the severe hardship the outages have imposed on ordinary Gambian households, admitting that systemic failures in government planning, power generation infrastructure, and maintenance routines have created what he called a “national security” emergency. He called on citizens to exercise patience, noting that the current electricity crisis is not unique to The Gambia, and has impacted multiple nations across West Africa.

    “When you lie down in the heat and the dark, believe that you are not alone in that darkness,” Barrow said in his address. He detailed tangible steps the government is taking to resolve the crisis, promising that a 24-megawatt new generating unit being installed at the Brikama power station will be fully operational by the end of October, and that additional new generators will be delivered to the country by the end of the current week. A contract for a 50-megawatt utility-scale solar power plant in Soma has also been finalized, though a completion timeline for that project has not yet been announced.

    Barrow warned demonstrators against damaging public infrastructure, arguing that destruction of public assets would only prolong service disruptions by diverting limited public funds away from system upgrades and into repairs. “Let us not destroy in a moment of anger what we suffered so long to gain,” he added. “I know that the fans have stopped turning, children work in the dark, mothers throw away stale food, and the heat is unbearable by day and by night.”

    Nawec Chief Executive Gallo Saidy echoed Barrow’s call for patience, explaining that the shortages have been compounded by reduced imported electricity from the regional power grid. Lower than average rainfall across the region this year cut into hydropower generation available through cross-border transmission lines, which The Gambia relies on to supplement its domestic output—most of which currently comes from imports from neighboring Senegal and Guinea.

    The unrest comes as The Gambia prepares for a presidential election scheduled for December, where Barrow is seeking a controversial third term in office. Opposition figures and critics have challenged the legality of his third-term bid, adding heightened political tension to a moment of already strained public frustration over basic service delivery.

  • ‘Stolen valor’: Trump’s 9/11 story draws scorn as fabrication

    ‘Stolen valor’: Trump’s 9/11 story draws scorn as fabrication

    As the United States prepares for annual September 11 remembrance events, two overlapping political controversies have erupted, centered on conflicting reactions to two figures’ involvement in this week’s memorial activities. While Republican leaders have rushed to condemn New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s planned attendance at 9/11 commemorations solely on the basis of his Muslim faith, former U.S. President Donald Trump has ignited widespread public fury after repeating a deeply dubious, seemingly invented account of personal heroism during the 2001 terrorist attack aftermath.

    Trump shared the elaborate tale during an appearance Tuesday before an audience that included more than 100 first responders. He claimed that shortly after the attack, he traveled to Ground Zero and brought a crew of his own construction workers to assist in recovery efforts. According to Trump’s account, he found himself in danger when the U.S. Steel Building (now renamed One Liberty Plaza), which was widely feared at the time could collapse, began to creak heavily. He recalled that two large firefighters, convinced the structure was about to fall, grabbed him under the arms, lifted him off the ground, and carried him to safety, despite his protest that he could run on his own. “This is not easy to do. I’m big,” Trump added of the anecdote.

    This is not the first time Trump has shared variations of this story; he first told a version of the claim during his 2016 presidential campaign, and has repeatedly asserted he was on site at Ground Zero in the immediate hours after the attack. But nearly every detail of the new account contradicts public records and testimony from first responders who actually led recovery operations at Ground Zero.

    Trump’s own words from the day of the attack undermine his current claims. On September 11, 2001, he told WWOR-TV he was watching the attack unfold from his Trump Tower office, located four miles from the World Trade Center, and infamously and incorrectly boasted that he now owned the tallest building in lower Manhattan after the twin towers collapsed. While documentation confirms he was a few blocks from Ground Zero on September 13, 2001, his long-running claims that he deployed 100 construction workers to the site and personally assisted in recovery efforts have been repeatedly debunked.

    In 2019, Richard Alles, a New York City Fire Department battalion chief who arrived on scene just 20 minutes after the second tower collapsed and spent months working on recovery, told fact-checking outlet PolitiFact he had never heard of any Trump construction crew assisting at Ground Zero. “I was there for several months—I have no knowledge of his being down there,” Alles said. He added that all recovery work was directly overseen by police, fire, and emergency command, and a crew of 100 workers would have left a clear paper and on-site record. No record of such a deployment has ever emerged.

    Neither of the two firefighters who supposedly carried Trump to safety has ever publicly confirmed the incident, which Trump also never mentioned in any interviews in the weeks and years immediately after the attack. Outlets including The Associated Press and The Washington Post have repeatedly requested evidence to back up Trump’s 9/11 claims, and have never received a response.

    This fabricated anecdote is far from Trump’s first false claim related to the 9/11 attacks. He has previously falsely claimed he saw thousands of Muslim residents in Jersey City cheering as the towers fell, and that he personally predicted the attack in one of his books. He also misled the public about his charitable giving to 9/11 victims: he publicly pledged $10,000 to a 2001 recovery fund that the New York City comptroller later confirmed was never donated, and only gave $100,000 to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum more than 15 years after the attack. A 2016 New York Daily News investigation also found that Trump’s business empire received $150,000 in post-9/11 disaster relief meant for affected businesses, claiming the funds for lost rent, cleanup, and repairs despite his later assertion the money was compensation for letting victims shelter in his 40 Wall Street property.

    Journalist Ron Filipkowski, who first highlighted the latest false anecdote, framed the story as a new instance of what he calls Trump’s “stolen valor,” noting he was stunned by the level of detail in the invented tale. “I know he’s lied about his non-role in 9/11 rescue and recovery before, but never this level of detail,” Filipkowski said. “Trump could have made the ceremony with 9/11 first responders today about the many heroes who died attempting to rescue people and others who risked their lives and long-term health. But instead, he created a fictitious event featuring himself, who did nothing, as the hero of 9/11.”

    Critics have also highlighted a glaring double standard at play among Republican leaders, who have expressed public outrage over Mamdani’s planned attendance at Friday’s memorial events. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is among the top Republicans criticizing Mamdani’s participation, solely because of the mayor’s Muslim faith. Observers have pointed out that the same figures who claim offense at Mamdani’s involvement have remained silent on Trump’s fabricated story.

    “The people mad about the Mayor of New York attending the 9/11 event must be ENRAGED that Trump just lied about being at ground zero on 9/11,” Tim Fullerton, a former digital strategist for the Obama administration, wrote on X. “This is all about honoring the victims and not just to score points. Right???”

    The controversy comes as Mamdani this week released roughly 170,000 pages of public records showing that Giuliani’s mayoral administration deliberately misled New Yorkers about the severity of toxic air quality near Ground Zero in the aftermath of the attack, a decision that exposed thousands of first responders and recovery workers to dangerous long-term health risks.

  • Where do PSG rank among Europe’s greatest dynasties?

    Where do PSG rank among Europe’s greatest dynasties?

    Dynasties in sport are rare: while many clubs claim a single season of continental glory, only a select handful cement sustained dominance that is remembered for decades. As Paris Saint-Germain prepares to kick off its 2026-27 Champions League campaign aiming for an unprecedented third consecutive European Cup title, BBC Sport senior journalist Alex Bysouth has compiled a definitive ranking of the most dominant eras in the history of European football’s top club competition, excluding pre-1955 champions to keep the focus on the modern tournament’s core lineage.

    10. Paris Saint-Germain (2024–Present)
    Already two-time defending champions, PSG earns a spot on this list as a dynasty in the making. The French club has been the dominant force in Ligue 1 since Qatari Sports Investments took ownership 15 years ago, but it took a strategic shift from the club’s high-spending “bling-bling” era to deliver continental success. After club president Nasser Al-Khelaifi announced the end of lavish spending on superstar names, manager Luis Enrique arrived in 2023 to build a cohesive, young squad molded to his tactical philosophy. The result? back-to-back Champions League titles, capped by a 5-0 thrashing of Inter in the 2025 final. Though PSG has made a typically slow start to its domestic season, few would count out Enrique’s side from chasing a historic three-peat.

    9. Inter Milan (1963–1965)
    When Helenio Herrera arrived at San Siro in 1960 after stints across Spain and Barcelona, he revolutionized Inter with his brand of catenaccio tactics – a system often misremembered as purely defensive, but one that built a ruthless counter-attacking side dubbed “Grande Inter”. After claiming the 1962-63 Scudetto, Herrera’s side became the first to win the European Cup without dropping a single game in 1964, with Sandro Mazzola scoring a brace against Real Madrid in the final. They successfully defended their title a year later, overcoming a first-leg semi-final deficit at Anfield before edging Benfica in the showpiece, cementing their place among European greats.

    8. Benfica (1960–1962)
    When Bela Guttmann took the Benfica job after winning the Portuguese title with Porto, he made a shocking call: he sacked the entire senior squad and promoted a group of promising youth prospects. The risky move paid off immediately: the young side won the domestic league and then shocked Europe by beating Barcelona in the 1961 European Cup final. The following summer, a teenage Eusébio joined the squad, and he steered the Lisbon giants to a second consecutive title, netting two second-half goals in a comeback win over Real Madrid after Ferenc Puskás had scored a first-half hat-trick for the Spanish side. When Guttmann was denied a pay rise after the back-to-back triumphs, he left the club and supposedly placed a 100-year curse on Benfica that they would never win another European trophy. Decades later, that fable holds true: the club has lost eight European finals since, with no additional continental titles to their name.

    7. Bayern Munich (1973–1976)
    Less than a decade after earning promotion to the Bundesliga, Bayern Munich emerged from the fiercely competitive West German top flight to claim a historic three consecutive European Cups. Led by a legendary core – goalkeeper Sepp Maier, sweeper Franz Beckenbauer and striker Gerd Müller – and fresh off West Germany’s 1974 World Cup win, the Bavarians claimed three straight continental crowns even as their domestic form dipped. Beckenbauer famously claimed the side was past its peak after the first win over Atlético Madrid, but experience carried them through big matches, with additional final wins over Leeds United in a controversial 1975 decider and Saint-Étienne in 1976. It would take 25 years for Bayern to claim another European Cup after this dominant run.

    6. Barcelona (2008–2012)
    Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona only claimed two Champions League titles in three years (split by a semi-final defeat to José Mourinho’s Inter), but this dynasty earns its place not just for silverware, but for its lasting legacy. Guardiola’s four-year tenure redefined modern football, with the Catalan side pioneering a tiki-taka style of play built around homegrown La Masia graduates Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, Sergio Busquets and superstar Lionel Messi. More than a decade after Guardiola left Camp Nou, this side’s tactical approach is still studied and copied by teams across the globe, making its impact far outlast its trophy haul.

    5. AC Milan (1988–1995)
    When Silvio Berlusconi saved AC Milan from bankruptcy in 1986, he injected massive investment into the club that built one of the greatest squads in European history. Led first by Arrigo Sacchi then Fabio Capello, and featuring a star core of Dutch attackers Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard paired with iconic Italian defenders Franco Baresi, Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Costacurta, Milan claimed three Champions League titles over seven years: back-to-back crowns in 1989 and 1990, followed by a 4-0 thrashing of Johan Cruyff’s Barcelona “Dream Team” in the 1994 final. The only blemish on this run was a 1991 quarter-final exit against Marseille abandoned due to floodlight failure, which led to a one-year ban from European competition. Even so, Milan remained a dominant force in continental football through the 1995 final, where they fell to a young Ajax side.

    4. Liverpool (1976–1984)
    The 1970s and early 1980s were an era of English dominance in Europe, with English clubs winning seven of eight European Cups between 1977 and 1984 – and Liverpool led the charge with four titles in eight years. The club’s pedigree was built on the iconic “Boot Room” coaching succession, starting with Bill Shankly, who claimed the UEFA Cup in 1973, before passing the reins to his assistant Bob Paisley, who won the UEFA Cup again in 1976. Paisley delivered Liverpool’s first European Cup a year later in Rome, and retained it at Wembley in 1978, with new signing Kenny Dalglish scoring the winner against Club Brugge. Liverpool claimed a third title in 1981, and when Joe Fagan took over from Paisley, he delivered a fourth title in 1984, beating Roma on their own home ground in Rome. This dominant run came to an end after the 1985 Heysel Stadium disaster, which saw Liverpool banned from European competition for years.

    3. Real Madrid (2013–2018)
    Real Madrid had a simple but devastating formula for dominance in this five-year stretch: build a squad of the world’s best players led by Cristiano Ronaldo, and hand the reins to club legend Zinedine Zidane. After agonizing extra-time defeats to Real in the 2014 and 2016 Champions League finals, Atlético Madrid became the first victim of Real’s historic three-peat. After beating Atlético in 2016, Zidane’s side downed Juventus in 2017 and Liverpool in 2018, becoming the first club in the modern Champions League era to win three consecutive European Cups. The 2018 final is still remembered for Gareth Bale’s iconic cameo, Loris Karius’ high-profile mistakes and Sergio Ramos’ controversial clash with Mohamed Salah.

    2. Ajax (1968–1973)
    Much like Guardiola’s Barcelona, Johan Cruyff’s 1970s Ajax side changed football forever, with a legacy that extends far beyond its trophy haul. Rinus Michels took over an Ajax side flirting with relegation and built the revolutionary concept of Total Football, a fluid system that saw players interchange positions and press opposition all over the pitch. After losing the 1969 final to AC Milan, Ajax won their first European Cup in 1971. When Michels left for Barcelona after the triumph, manager Stefan Kovacs retained the title in 1972 and claimed a third consecutive crown in 1973, defeating Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Juventus en route. Though Cruyff followed Michels to Barcelona soon after and the dynasty broke apart, the Total Football philosophy Ajax pioneered influenced generations of managers, including Guardiola at Barcelona and tiki-taka.

    1. Real Madrid (1955–1960)
    No side in European history can match the unprecedented dominance of the early Real Madrid side that won the first five consecutive European Cups after the tournament launched in 1955. While the tournament was in its infancy and carried less global weight than it does today, Real Madrid’s success turned the European Cup into the most prestigious club competition in world football. Led by Argentine superstar Alfredo Di Stéfano and winger Paco Gento (who would go on to win a sixth title in 1966), Real added Hungarian legend Ferenc Puskás in 1958 after he was exiled following the Hungarian Revolution. Puskás scored 35 goals in 39 European Cup games for Real, including four goals in a 7-3 win over Eintracht Frankfurt in the 1960 final at Hampden Park, with Di Stéfano adding the other three to seal their historic five consecutive titles.

  • UK, France, Canada move to ban imports from Israeli settlements

    UK, France, Canada move to ban imports from Israeli settlements

    On Tuesday, three major Western nations — the United Kingdom, France, and Canada — announced coordinated action to ban imports of goods and restrict selected services originating from illegal Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank, where Palestinian communities have faced escalating levels of violence, displacement, and death at the hands of Israeli settlers and military forces under the explicit backing of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government.

    Addressing the House of Commons, UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband framed the move as a rejection of international inaction, stating, “Today, we refuse to be bystanders to further suffering and to the destruction of the two-state solution.” Miliband pointed directly to the Israeli government’s recent greenlighting of new settlement construction projects that would displace entire Palestinian communities, cutting a swathe of settlements between East Jerusalem and the broader West Bank that carves the heart out of any contiguous future Palestinian state.

    Miliband delivered what is being characterized as the UK government’s sharpest rebuke of Israeli policy in the West Bank to date, saying, “Let’s be clear what this means: the creation of a set of facts on the ground to make the two-state solution unviable.” He added, “The British government agrees that there is ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in areas of the West Bank – perpetrated by settler terrorists. And all too often the Israeli government has turned a blind eye to this and worse, members of it have made statements and taken actions to support the forced displacement of Palestinians.”

    Under the new measures, the UK will target entities and individuals that provide key supporting services for settlement expansion, including construction, infrastructure development, financing, and real estate services, with penalties for any actors that fund or enable the growth of illegal settlements. Miliband confirmed the sanctions regime will be fully implemented within six to nine months.

    Miliband emphasized the UK was not acting unilaterally, confirming that France and Canada are joining the initiative to ban settlement goods imports, alongside a growing bloc of European nations that includes the Netherlands, Ireland, Belgium, Spain, and Norway, all of which have either already implemented bans or are in the process of rolling them out.

    French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noël Barrot explained his nation’s decision in a social media post, noting the West Bank is “on the brink of explosion” due to “unchecked expansion of colonization in violation of international law, surge in violence perpetrated by extremist settlers against Palestinians, acts of terror denounced by the Israeli authorities themselves.” Barrot added, “France cannot, through its trade, support a situation that threatens the security of Israelis and Palestinians alike, as well as peace and stability in the region. Europe must uphold the same imperative.”

    The coordinated announcement was backed by a joint statement released Tuesday by the foreign ministers of 12 nations: the UK, France, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden. The statement warned the West Bank is “rapidly deteriorating amid unprecedented levels of settler violence and settlement expansion, including the unacceptable decision to publish tenders for the E1 settlement project” — a highly contentious planned settlement bloc that would further fragment Palestinian territory.

    The 12 ministers confirmed their “intention to introduce national and/or support European restrictions on trade in goods with settlements which are illegal under international law, or that they are actively considering these and other measures, in accordance with their national procedures.” The statement added that the three lead nations welcome prior action taken by Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway, and Belgium, and will move forward with national bans on trade in goods produced in illegal settlements. It also called on the Israeli government to “immediately halt the expansion of settlements and civilian administrative powers, ensure accountability for settler violence, and investigate allegations against Israeli forces.”

    Human rights and pro-Palestinian advocacy groups have broadly welcomed the new measures, though many argue the bans represent only an initial step that must be followed by far broader action to confront Israel’s illegal annexation efforts in the West Bank and alleged crimes against humanity across Palestinian territories, including the besieged and war-ravaged Gaza Strip.

    Nick Dearden, director of UK-based advocacy organization Global Justice Now, noted the announcement followed years of grassroots organizing by campaigners and Palestinian activists. “Today’s announcement is the result of many years of work by campaigners and Palestinians themselves fighting to end severe injustice,” Dearden said. “We know this move will be very popular in Britain. But it must be just the beginning. How can we cooperate with a military guilty of the most serious abuses of international law? How can we trade with a country that stands accused of genocide at the world’s highest court?”

    Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the global Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, characterized the UK’s sanctions as largely symbolic, but acknowledged the move reflects growing public pressure on Western governments to take action. Barghouti noted that under International Court of Justice rulings, the UK is legally required to end all complicity with the State of Israel’s illegal occupation, not just target activities linked to settlements. “While Miliband says, ‘We will not acquiesce in the destruction of the two-state solution,’ he has not said how the UK will stop its active contribution to the Israeli-US led destruction of the international legal system and the drive towards a might-makes-right order,” Barghouti added.

    Israeli and U.S. officials issued furious pushback against the new measures. Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s extremist national security minister, called for the permanent closure of the British consulate in East Jerusalem, while Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich demanded the expulsion of the British ambassador to Israel.

    Mike Huckabee, the conservative U.S. ambassador to Israel, labeled the UK’s trade ban “discrimination against the Jewish people” and suggested individual U.S. states, including Florida, could implement retaliatory trade measures against the UK. Florida Republican Congressman Randy Fine, a hardline pro-Israel lawmaker, echoed that threat, noting Florida is one of the UK’s largest U.S. trading partners and signaling the state could move to boycott British goods in response.