Global Pulse

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  • The Indian activist jailed after taking on a luxury hotel plan

    The Indian activist jailed after taking on a luxury hotel plan

    In the northeastern Indian state of Assam, a long-serving community rights activist centered on the Kaziranga National Park region remains behind bars, after state authorities blocked his court-ordered release and invoked a controversial sweeping security law to detain him indefinitely without trial. The case has thrown a spotlight on a simmering conflict between conservation, development, and indigenous land rights around one of the world’s most celebrated wildlife protected areas.

    Forty-year-old Pranab Doley, a well-known local activist who has spent decades advocating for communities living on the edge of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, was arrested in late June, just weeks after he joined a public demonstration against a proposed five-star luxury hotel project on park-adjacent land. On July 29, a local court granted bail to Doley and four other co-accused protesters. When Doley’s father and legal counsel arrived at the prison on July 30 to escort him home, they were turned away: the Assam state government had triggered the National Security Act (NSA), a decades-old legislation that permits authorities to hold individuals for extended periods without formal trial, to block his release.

    Official detention orders reviewed by the BBC justify Doley’s ongoing detention by referencing 13 criminal cases filed against the activist dating back to 2017, citing a pattern of alleged unlawful assembly, intimidation, public obstruction, and even violence. The order also raises questions about the source of funding for Doley’s international travel and alleges suspicious cross-border financial transactions. But Doley’s legal team and supporters reject these claims, arguing that most of the decades-old cases have already been resolved, with only two remaining open at the time of his latest arrest – both of which Doley openly disclosed in his official affidavit when he ran as an independent candidate in Assam’s 2024 state legislative assembly elections, an election he ultimately lost.

    “He is an activist who fights for people’s rights,” Doley’s lawyer Mrityunjoy Pegu told the BBC. “That is why the police had registered some cases against him.” Critics of the detention argue the state has deployed a draconian law to silence opposition to a high-profile development project, sparking widespread anger across regional human rights circles.

    The proposed hotel project, first announced in 2023 as a public-private partnership between the Assam government and the Saraf Group, is being developed by Juniper Hotels with backing from Hyatt, the U.S.-based global hospitality brand. State officials frame the 10-acre development as an economic boon for the region, arguing it will attract high-spending international tourists, generate local employment, and bring much-needed infrastructure investment to the Kaziranga area, which is globally renowned as a conservation success story for the endangered one-horned rhinoceros.

    But dozens of local farming families say the project will displace them from land their families have cultivated for generations. While the Assam district administration claims the full project site is government-owned land, protesting residents push back against this narrative, noting that state officials have collected land revenue from their families for decades. Geeta Gwala, one of the residents who has challenged the land acquisition in court, says her family has held formal tax receipts for their 2.81-acre plot dating all the way back to 1956. A court-ordered land boundary demarcation to resolve the ownership dispute had been scheduled for June 24, but has yet to be completed, according to Gwala.

    Deputy Commissioner Biswajit Phukan, the top local district official, clarified that the government has not seized land already formally registered to protesting families, and that while some residents may have informally cultivated portions of the project site, the land was never legally allocated to them. He added that the administration has offered financial compensation, alternative land to eligible residents, and job skills training to support local people affected by the project. Phukan declined to comment directly on Doley’s detention, noting that the administration does not wish to prejudice ongoing legal proceedings, and said the government remains “extremely sensitive” to local community concerns.

    For Doley, the debate over the hotel project is not an abstract policy dispute – it is rooted in decades of personal experience with the complex tensions between conservation, flooding, and land rights along the Brahmaputra River floodplains where Kaziranga is located. Growing up in a small farming family near the park, Doley saw his own village displaced multiple times by recurring river erosion and annual flooding, a common issue in the region where shifting riverbanks render official land records outdated far faster than bureaucratic systems can update them. Even today, Doley’s own parents do not hold formal legal title to the land they live on.

    He also witnessed first-hand the conflict between wildlife conservation and local communities: when annual monsoons flood Kaziranga, rhinos, tigers, and elephants flee to higher ground on adjacent farmland, destroying crops and sometimes triggering deadly encounters between people and animals. These experiences shaped Doley’s core belief: that conservation of Kaziranga’s unique ecosystem cannot be separated from protecting the land rights of the communities that have lived alongside the park for generations.

    Doley first rose to prominence as an activist challenging alleged extrajudicial killings of suspected poachers within Kaziranga, before expanding his work to address forced evictions, unfair land acquisition, and inadequate compensation for displaced local families. Last year, he brought these demands to the global stage, speaking at the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights in Geneva to urge governments and corporations to prioritize indigenous community rights when pursuing development projects.

    The tensions over the hotel project boiled over on June 28, when Doley joined a peaceful protest at the construction site. Police allege that protesters entered the project area, damaged construction equipment, and attacked law enforcement officers, naming Doley as the crowd’s primary instigator. Doley’s organization, the Greater Kaziranga Land and Human Rights Protection Committee, denies these claims, arguing that police initiated violence against peaceful demonstrators and that Doley was never involved in any confrontation.

    The judge who granted bail to Doley and four other co-defendants largely backed the activists’ account, finding that available video footage contradicted many of the prosecution’s key claims. While the footage showed minor pushing and shoving between protesters and police, it showed no evidence of a direct attack on officers or any attempt to set construction machinery on fire, as police had alleged. The judge’s ruling noted that Doley was captured on camera speaking with officials to seek a negotiated resolution to the dispute, and acknowledged that while some officers were injured, the protest stemmed from legitimate concerns about environmental harm and community impacts. The ruling concluded: “True public order is achieved not by silencing the affected, but by listening to them.”

    Despite the court’s bail order, Doley remains in detention under the National Security Act, as his legal team works to challenge the government’s action. For supporters, his detention has become a flashpoint for the broader fight over who gets to benefit from development and conservation around one of India’s most iconic protected areas – and Doley now waits for the justice he spent years fighting for on behalf of others.

  • Meta hooked children on Facebook and Instagram, US court hears

    Meta hooked children on Facebook and Instagram, US court hears

    One of the most consequential legal battles in the history of social media got underway this week in Oakland, California, where 29 US states are bringing sweeping claims against Meta Platforms, accusing the tech giant of intentionally addicting underage users and covering up well-documented harms to adolescent mental health. Over the next six weeks, a jury will weigh competing narratives from state prosecutors and Meta’s defense team, unpacking millions of internal company documents that lie at the heart of the case.

    The lawsuit, first filed in 2023, alleges widespread violations of state and federal child privacy laws, and asks the court to order billions of dollars in damages and sweeping changes to Meta’s flagship products, Facebook and Instagram—including the elimination of public like counts and the infinite scroll feature that keeps users scrolling for hours on end.

    In her fiery opening statement on Tuesday, lead California attorney Megan O’Neill built her case around internal Meta research, employee communications, and executive chat logs that reach all the way to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. O’Neill argued that for years, Meta’s own data confirmed its platforms pose severe risks to young users, yet the company prioritized profit over child safety while deliberately misleading the public about its products’ dangers. Citing one internal study, O’Neill noted that Meta itself acknowledged “teens have an addict’s narrative about use” of Instagram. Another internal assessment, she told the jury, found that product features built to maximize user screen time were “inherently at odds with well-being” and eroded users’ ability to engage in meaningful, value-add activities.

    O’Neill pulled back the curtain on what she called Meta’s core business model: “Hook the users; hold them for as long as they can; harvest their data; hide the truth from the public when making public statements.” She emphasized that the company’s public assurances that it prioritizes safety over profit directly contradict its internal decision-making, where growth and revenue have repeatedly won out over public health protections. The prosecution also claims Meta was fully aware that millions of children as young as 11 and 12 were active on Instagram, yet took minimal action to block their access, a violation of age restrictions designed to protect minors.

    Meta’s lead defense attorney Paul Schmidt pushed back forcefully against every one of the states’ claims, framing the prosecution’s argument as an oversimplified distortion of the full picture of Meta’s research and policy. Addressing the widely cited internal statistic that one in five teens report Instagram worsens their mental health, Schmidt reminded the jury of the full findings: 41% of teen users reported the platform made them feel better, while an additional 41% said it had no negative impact on their well-being.

    Schmidt also disputed the claim that Meta intentionally allowed under-13 users onto its platform, arguing that the very privacy laws the company is accused of violating bar Meta from collecting and storing the detailed user data needed to accurately verify every user’s age. Most notably, Schmidt repeated a stance Meta has already advanced in other 2024 litigation: that clinical social media addiction does not exist as a diagnosable condition.

    He acknowledged that some users struggle to regulate their social media use, noting Meta has rolled out a suite of tools to help people manage their screen time. He also pushed back on the claim that Meta designs its platforms to be addictive, citing public statements from both Zuckerberg and Instagram head Adam Mosseri that the company never built its products with the goal of hooking young users, and adding that no conclusive research supports the existence of a diagnosable social media addiction. On the question of how many under-13 users are active on Instagram, Schmidt countered the prosecution’s “millions” claim, putting the actual number at just over 100,000.

    As the trial unfolds over the coming weeks, the jury will be tasked with sorting through conflicting evidence to decide whether Meta’s business practices have harmed a generation of young users—and what changes the company will be forced to make if found liable. A ruling against Meta could reshape the design and regulation of social media platforms across the industry, setting a new precedent for how tech companies must address underage use and adolescent mental health.

  • Nonprofit sues US as it pushes to auction massive tracks of water around American Samoa

    Nonprofit sues US as it pushes to auction massive tracks of water around American Samoa

    In a legal challenge that has put a spotlight on the growing global clash between critical mineral development and marine conservation, a prominent U.S. environmental nonprofit launched a federal lawsuit Tuesday to block the Trump administration’s plan to auction off 33 million acres of seabed off the coast of American Samoa for commercial deep-sea mining.

    Earthjustice filed the suit in federal court against the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, acting on behalf of two Pacific conservation organizations: Fa‘asao Amerika Samoa and the Conservation Council for Hawai‘i. The legal complaint asks a federal judge to immediately halt all progress on the leasing plan and force NMFS to comply fully with the Endangered Species Act and other core federal environmental protection laws.

    “The United States has never opened its waters to deep-sea mining. Until now,” the lawsuit states. The administration’s plan would sell mineral extraction leases for a vast stretch of seabed rich in nickel, cobalt and manganese – minerals critical to manufacturing batteries, consumer electronics and a range of modern industrial products. The complaint argues that NMFS’ recent conclusion that mining leasing would not harm critical habitats or endangered and threatened species is “a wholly arbitrary and capricious determination” that ignores well-documented ecological risks.

    For the Indigenous communities of American Samoa, a healthy ocean ecosystem is not just an environmental asset but a foundation of daily life and cultural identity. The ecosystem supplies food for local households, buffers shorelines from storm damage, and has shaped cultural practices that have persisted for more than 1,000 years. Many native marine species found in American Samoan waters, including endangered sea turtles considered sacred (called *i‘a sa* by local communities), migrate between American Samoa and Hawaiian waters. American Samoa already enforces strict protections for sacred marine species including whales, sharks and giant manta rays, banning any capture or harm to these animals.

    The waters around American Samoa support an extraordinarily diverse array of rare marine life, including shallow and mesophotic coral reefs, deep-sea invertebrates, hundreds of fish and coral species, and multiple protected populations. The proposed mining lease area hosts five endangered sea turtle populations, four endangered whale species, five threatened coral species and four threatened marine animals including the giant manta ray. It sits just 57 miles from the protected Rose Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, one of the region’s most ecologically important intact marine ecosystems.

    The Trump administration’s push to expedite deep-sea mining permits runs directly counter to a growing global movement to restrict the untested practice. Dozens of countries have already called for a global moratorium or full ban on commercial deep-sea mining, citing major unresolved risks including underwater noise pollution, light disruption, and suffocating sediment plumes that can wipe out deep-sea ecosystems that have taken millennia to develop. Notably, no commercial deep-sea mining operation is currently operating anywhere in the world. The International Seabed Authority, the U.N. body that regulates mining in international waters, has only issued exploration licenses to date and has not approved any commercial extraction projects.

    Because the United States has not ratified the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, domestic deep-sea mineral activity is regulated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). When contacted by the Associated Press on Tuesday, a NMFS spokesperson declined to comment on ongoing litigation, and the U.S. Department of Commerce did not immediately issue a response to requests for comment.

    The American Samoa leasing plan is not the administration’s only recent move to expand domestic deep-sea mining. Just one day before the lawsuit was filed, the federal government published a proposed leasing notice for 69 million acres of federal waters surrounding the Northern Mariana Islands, marking a massive expansion of the administration’s push for domestic seabed mineral development.

    In a statement supporting the expansion, Matt Giacona, acting director of the Marine Minerals Administration, framed the policy as a matter of national and economic security. “Critical minerals are essential to America’s national security, economic strength and resource sovereignty,” Giacona said. “The United States cannot afford to depend on foreign nations for the resources that power our economy and support our defense industrial base.”

    The administration’s moves have drawn sharp condemnation from the scientific and environmental communities. “It’s disgraceful that the Trump administration is bulldozing ahead with plans to allow deep-sea mining while the people who live closest to the proposed project are rightfully demanding that it be stopped,” said Nick Katkevich, oceans campaigner at the Center for Biological Diversity. “These massive mining projects are just too experimental and dangerous for marine life to allow them to go forward.”

  • Why has Russia threatened the UK and what happens next?

    Why has Russia threatened the UK and what happens next?

    In recent weeks, rising geopolitical tensions between Russia and the United Kingdom have put global attention on the escalating confrontation over the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. After UK leadership reaffirmed London’s full commitment to backing Kyiv, questions have emerged about what led Russia to issue direct threats against the British state, and what potential ramifications this standoff could have for European and global security moving forward.

    Against the backdrop of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine that began in early 2022, the United Kingdom has consistently stood as one of Kyiv’s most vocal and material backers. From providing advanced military hardware — including long-range strike capabilities, air defense systems, and armored vehicles — to imposing sweeping economic sanctions on Russian elites and key sectors of Moscow’s economy, the UK has positioned itself at the forefront of Western support for Ukraine’s sovereignty. It is this consistent, unapologetic support that has drawn repeated pushback from the Kremlin, which has framed Western involvement in the conflict as a direct provocation against Russian national interests.

    Most recently, Downing Street reaffirmed this long-held stance, with the UK Prime Minister stating publicly that London will maintain 100 percent support for Ukraine in its fight against Russian occupation. This clear reiteration of policy has been met with a new round of threats from Moscow, which has sought to warn the UK away from continued backing of Kyiv by raising the prospect of direct retaliation, ranging from increased cyberattacks on British critical infrastructure to heightened military activity near European NATO borders.

    Looking ahead, the trajectory of this confrontation depends on multiple interconnected factors. Analysts broadly agree that the UK is unlikely to reverse its course on Ukraine support, given widespread cross-party political consensus in London that backing Kyiv is critical to preventing wider Russian aggression across Europe. At the same time, NATO as a whole has moved to bolster its eastern flank in response to increased Russian rhetoric, reducing the risk of direct military escalation between Russia and the alliance. While the threat of asymmetric action — including disinformation campaigns, cyber interference, and hybrid attacks — remains elevated, most assessments suggest that Russia is unlikely to take steps that would trigger direct Article 5 collective defense action from the full 31-member alliance.

    This latest exchange underscores the growing rift between Russia and the West over Ukraine, a divide that shows few signs of narrowing in the near term. For the UK, the commitment to Ukraine remains a core pillar of its foreign policy, even as it faces growing Russian threats that demand increased vigilance from British security and intelligence services.

  • Israel’s starvation of Gaza leaves children stunted

    Israel’s starvation of Gaza leaves children stunted

    Deep in Gaza City’s Sabra neighborhood, six-year-old Amira Rashid lies motionless on a thin mattress, her small hands marked by dark blue bruises from the ongoing intravenous drips that have become a constant in her young life. Instead of picking out a first-grade school uniform and packing a new backpack ahead of the upcoming term, as any child her age would do under ordinary conditions, Amira is trapped by severe acute malnutrition – a condition that developed after months of catastrophic food scarcity during Israel’s 2023–2025 military campaign and siege on Gaza.

    Her mother Aya Rashid spoke with Middle East Eye about the stolen future she grieves for her daughter. “I was hoping to enrol Amira in school, buy her a uniform, a backpack and stationery like the other children,” she said. “But her health prevents her from leaving the house or interacting with her peers.” Amira is one of tens of thousands of Palestinian children in Gaza who have developed life-altering malnutrition since the siege began in October 2023, and her family is among the hundreds of thousands that remained in northern Gaza through the entirety of the conflict.

    In August 2025, the United Nations-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) officially declared famine across Gaza City, the region where the Rashid family has lived for generations. For Aya, the reality of that famine has been unrelenting. “We suffered immensely from hunger and severe food shortages. We ran out of flour, and there was none in the markets. With no food aid available, I could only manage to bake barley bread.”

    Amira’s health began its sharp decline months before the famine was officially declared. In January 2025, after the young girl began complaining of persistent chest pain, Aya brought her to Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital, one of the few remaining functional pediatric facilities in northern Gaza. When doctors measured Amira’s height and weight, they were stunned to find that both fell drastically below the standard range for a healthy six-year-old. “When a doctor saw her, he was taken aback,” Aya recalled. “He said she needed comprehensive testing immediately; she was in a terrible condition.”

    Testing confirmed a diagnosis of severe acute malnutrition, which had already caused permanent stunting. Even after Amira was admitted to the hospital, the chaos of the ongoing war blocked access to the specialized care she needed, and her condition never improved. Today, the six-year-old weighs just 12.5 kilograms and stands one meter tall – doctors say her bone age matches that of a healthy two-year-old. “It’s crushing. I’ve spent so much time in hospitals and with doctors, but they say the malnutrition she endured has severely and permanently damaged her body,” Aya said.

    A ceasefire agreement signed in October 2025 raised faint hope for Aya that increased access to food and medical care would help her daughter recover, but those hopes have been dashed. “I thought her condition would improve once the truce began and food came in. I never imagined it had reached the point of a clinical illness.” Without underlying allergies or nutrient absorption disorders, Amira still fails to respond to the limited treatment available in Gaza. “I have lost all hope of her recovering inside Gaza after exhausting every available treatment. Even the doctors are now saying her condition requires travelling abroad.”

    Beyond the permanent physical damage, Amira has also experienced severe regression in her cognitive development, now only able to interact comfortably with children two to three years her junior. She has still not learned to read or write, a milestone she was supposed to reach this school year. “Amira doesn’t know how to read or write, and everyone she interacts with in her surroundings are young children,” Aya said. When asked what she wishes for now, she answered simply: “To find a pair of trousers that actually fits my little girl’s waist, to stop seeing her ribcage protruding, and to watch her join her peers in a classroom.”

    Amira’s story is far from unique. The IPC’s August 2025 projection estimates that at least 132,000 children under the age of five will suffer from acute malnutrition through June 2026, alongside nearly 55,500 acutely malnourished pregnant and breastfeeding women who require urgent life-saving support. The crisis does not only affect children already born – it has left unborn children facing lifelong health complications before they even take their first breath.

    Ten-month-old Amna Abu al-Hasani is one of these children. Her mother Youssef suffered severe malnutrition throughout her pregnancy, leading to an emergency premature caesarean delivery at eight months. Amna weighed just 1.2 kilograms at birth, and just two months later, doctors diagnosed her with an enlarged heart caused by weakened muscle tissue as well as severe stunting. “My daughter’s malnutrition began in the womb,” the 29-year-old mother told Middle East Eye.

    At 10 months old, Amna weighs barely 5.5 kilograms and has now been diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition, with life-threatening complications affecting her heart, kidneys, and lungs. “The doctors told us all these issues stem fundamentally from her being born malnourished and underweight,” Youssef said. Even when the family uses sparse, sporadic cash assistance to buy fruit and nutritional supplements, she cannot stop her daughter’s health from declining.

    Gaza’s collapsed healthcare system lacks the specialized equipment and expertise to treat Amna’s complex conditions, and while she has an official referral for life-saving treatment abroad, her application for travel approval has sat unprocessed for months. “All I hope for is that my little girl is given a chance at life, that she gets her right to treatment abroad, and returns to our arms in good health,” Youssef said, her fear for her daughter’s future palpable.

    For the thousands of families affected by childhood malnutrition across Gaza, the few remaining functional hospitals and clinics are the only option for care, even as they operate far beyond capacity. Israel’s ongoing blockade continues to cripple Gaza’s healthcare system and maintains strict restrictions on medical travel for patients needing specialized care outside the territory.

    Dr. Mohammed Abu Rai, head of the nutrition clinic at al-Rantisi Hospital, told Middle East Eye that his facility now sees dozens of new malnourished children every single day, forcing staff to rapidly open overflow wards to accommodate the influx. While a recent IPC report recorded a modest drop in acute malnutrition rates following the ceasefire, the organization warns that more than 74,000 children will still require ongoing treatment for acute malnutrition through April 2027, alongside 24,600 acutely malnourished pregnant and breastfeeding women over the same period.

    Dr. Abu Rai emphasized that even with the ceasefire in place, Israel has failed to meet its obligations to expand the flow of life-saving humanitarian aid into Gaza, prolonging the catastrophic crisis it created. “The entry of food and meat into the Strip is not enough to treat malnutrition among children or even resolve the food crisis for the population post-ceasefire,” he said. “Vegetables and fruits entering Gaza are sold at exorbitant prices that most people simply cannot afford.”

    The destruction of Gaza’s local poultry and livestock farms during the conflict has left the territory almost entirely dependent on imported frozen meat, which has half the nutritional value of fresh product. Repeated extended power outages and poor cold storage infrastructure in Gaza further reduce what little nutritional value the imported meat retains, Dr. Abu Rai added. The World Food Programme has also warned that widespread funding shortfalls are forcing aid organizations to cut already meager food rations across Gaza, a move that threatens to push food security back to catastrophic levels.

    Aid supplies often sit for weeks in unshaded holding areas at border crossings, exposed to Gaza’s scorching desert heat, which degrades the nutritional quality of even basic staple goods. “Even staples like rice and lentils lose their nutritional value, while children’s nutritional supplements arrive in quantities far too small for even a single family,” Dr. Abu Rai said.

    As malnutrition rates remain critically high, the number of children suffering from permanent stunted growth continues to climb. Roughly 18 percent of Dr. Abu Rai’s current patients are already living with stunting caused by prolonged lack of vital nutrients during early childhood, a condition that causes irreversible physical and cognitive harm.

    As Dr. Abu Rai works tirelessly to treat as many young patients as possible within the territory’s limited resources, families like the Rashids and Abu al-Hasanis check their phones constantly, waiting for notification that their children’s travel permits for foreign treatment have been approved. “We miraculously survived certain death multiple times during the war,” Aya Rashid said. “What I fear now is losing my little girl to malnutrition, not to bombs.”

  • Australia’s mushroom murderer appeals conviction

    Australia’s mushroom murderer appeals conviction

    One of Australia’s most high-profile triple murder cases, which shocked communities across the globe when it first emerged, has entered a new legal phase as convicted killer Erin Patterson has launched an official challenge against her 2024 conviction and life sentence.

    The 51-year-old was found guilty by a 12-person jury in July 2024 of poisoning three members of her husband’s family to death in 2023. Prosecutors proved during her original trial that Patterson served a homemade beef Wellington lunch laced with toxic death cap mushrooms at her home in Leongatha, a small rural farming village in the Australian state of Victoria. The victims were her husband Simon’s parents, Don and Gail Patterson, and his 66-year-old aunt, Heather Wilkinson, all of whom died days after the meal. Patterson was also convicted of attempted murder for Heather’s husband Ian Wilkinson, a local small-town pastor who fell critically ill after eating the dish, spent weeks in intensive care, and ultimately survived after extensive medical treatment.

    Following the guilty verdict, the trial judge sentenced Patterson to life imprisonment, with a non-parole period set at 33 years. She is currently being held at the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre, a maximum-security women’s correctional facility located in Melbourne’s western suburbs, and has requested permission to attend her two-day appeal hearing via live video link from prison rather than appearing in person in the courtroom.

    The appeal hearing, which began at 10:15 am local time on Wednesday (0015 GMT) before three senior judges at Melbourne’s Court of Appeal, will consider two separate challenges: Patterson’s bid to have her entire conviction overturned, and the prosecution’s cross-appeal arguing that her original 33-year non-parole sentence is far too lenient.

    In legal submissions filed last November, Patterson’s legal team has outlined multiple grounds for their challenge, alleging that their client suffered multiple instances of substantial miscarriage of justice during the original trial. They argue that the trial judge made critical errors in ruling on which evidence could be presented to the jury. According to the defense, certain pieces of evidence accepted by the judge—including records of Facebook messages, cell phone tower location data, and posts documenting public sightings of death cap mushrooms shared online by Patterson—were either irrelevant to the case or unfairly prejudicial, improperly swaying the jury against her. The defense also claims that another key piece of evidence, consisting of mushroom images stored on a memory card recovered from Patterson’s home, was wrongfully excluded from trial in a move that harmed their case. Additionally, the legal team alleges a fundamental irregularity occurred while the jury was sequestered during the original proceedings, an incident they say fatally undermined the integrity of the guilty verdicts, though no further details of the irregularity have been released to the public. Patterson’s solicitor has also accused prosecution lawyers of conducting unfair and overly oppressive cross-examination of their client during the trial.

    Before the court can consider the full merits of Patterson’s challenge, the three appeal judges must first rule on whether her legal grounds meet the threshold required to grant her leave to appeal her conviction. On the prosecution’s side, lawyers for the state are arguing that the original 33-year non-parole period is manifestly inadequate. They claim the trial judge made an error when he found there was a substantial likelihood Patterson would be held in long-term solitary confinement for her own safety, and that this incorrect finding improperly influenced his sentencing decision.

    The case, which has been dubbed the “mushroom murder” case by global media, attracted widespread international attention for its unusual details and the gravity of the crimes, making it one of the most talked-about homicide cases in Australia in recent years.

  • Rugby’s fiercest rivalry resumes: Springboks play All Blacks in first 4-test series in 50 years

    Rugby’s fiercest rivalry resumes: Springboks play All Blacks in first 4-test series in 50 years

    Thirty years after their last full bilateral tour, two of rugby union’s most iconic and successful nations, South Africa and New Zealand, are set to kick off a historic four-test series this Saturday at Johannesburg’s Ellis Park, a venue widely revered as one of the sport’s most imposing home fortresses. The long-anticipated showdown arrives with just minor late injury concerns for a handful of players on both sides, as the two global powerhouses finalize their starting lineups for the opening match.

    Bookmakers and analysts broadly favor the two-time defending World Cup champion Springboks, who enter the first four-test series between the sides since 1976 as the top-ranked side in the world, opposite New Zealand’s second-ranked All Blacks. At the helm of South Africa is Rassie Erasmus, who has spent eight years as the Springboks’ head coach and director of rugby, building an impressive 8-6-1 head-to-head record against the All Blacks that buck decades of historical trend. The All Blacks hold an overall all-time lead in the matchup, largely buoyed by the Springboks’ historic struggles to secure wins on New Zealand soil, but Erasmus has completely reshaped the South African program since he took over following a humiliating 57-0 loss to the All Blacks in 2017. Under his leadership, the Springboks have claimed the last two consecutive World Cup titles, including a narrow 12-11 victory over New Zealand in the 2023 World Cup final.

    Widely known for his unconventional approach to selection, Erasmus regularly prioritizes developing young, uncapped talent over fielding his most experienced starting XV every match. But his innovative tactical approach — which introduced the famous “Bomb Squad”, a reserve bench stacked entirely with powerful impact forwards, and popularized the use of hybrid utility players — has earned unwavering trust across the entire Springboks squad. Proving their resilience, South Africa overcame early red cards to secure wins over France and Italy twice during the 2023 World Cup run, and Erasmus currently has at least 15 double World Cup winners in his squad, all of whom are already targeting a third consecutive title at the 2027 World Cup in Australia.

    Erasmus shares a long-standing coaching relationship with his All Blacks counterpart Dave Rennie, whose appointment as New Zealand head coach came only this June, following a successful title run in Japan’s domestic rugby league. The two first crossed paths a decade ago, when Erasmus led Ireland’s Munster against Rennie’s Glasgow Warriors, and met again during Rennie’s tenure as head coach of Australia from 2020 to 2022. Erasmus has praised Rennie’s ability to instill intensity and competitive fire in his squads, noting that “he makes it physical”.

    Despite limited preparation time to build cohesive starting combinations, Rennie has already successfully lifted team morale across the All Blacks camp, leading the side to wins over France, Italy and Ireland in the July Nations Championship. To help his squad get up to match speed ahead of the series, Rennie arranged for his players to gain competitive minutes with South African domestic clubs the Stormers, Sharks and Bulls earlier this month. While Rennie is still working to identify which fringe players can step up into key backup roles, Erasmus faces the far more favorable challenge of cutting established talent from his matchday squad, thanks to the Springboks’ unprecedented depth that is the envy of every other top rugby nation.

    Erasmus has approached the 2024 international window as a sort of pre-World Cup pool stage, making as many as 10 changes to his starting lineup between matches even as the Springboks continued to dominate top competition. Even with disrupted team cohesion from frequent lineup changes, South Africa put up more than 40 points against England, Scotland and Wales in the Nations Championship, and navigated their only tough test of the window with a 17-10 win in Buenos Aires. For Erasmus, this series against the All Blacks is the logical next step: the playoffs for the 2027 World Cup cycle.

    The grueling series structure — four tests on four consecutive Saturdays, split across two countries, with the final test hosted in Baltimore, USA — means injuries are all but guaranteed for both squads. Rennie has warned that the series is likely to see more than 30 players from his 44-man touring squad pick up knocks, and he has already been forced to replace four players, two of whom were capped test starters.

    Erasmus, however, enters the opener brimming with confidence, rooted in the Springboks’ last dominant showing against the All Blacks in Wellington last September. After a narrow loss at New Zealand’s unbeatable Eden Park fortress earlier in the tour, Erasmus made seven changes to his starting XV, was forced to substitute four players due to injury in the first half, and still watched his relatively young side secure a historic 43-10 victory over the All Blacks. That win launched the Springboks into an uninterrupted 12-test winning streak, their longest run of victories in 18 years.

    In a notable tactical shift for 2024, South Africa has evolved its traditional playing style, long defined by a physically punishing forward pack and kick-first halfback play, to adopt a more dynamic attacking strategy. This shift has been driven by the hiring of former All Black Tony Brown as attack coach, who has helped the Springboks increase their counterattacking frequency and score tries from fewer phases. Brown’s work has been so impressive that the All Blacks have already signed him to join their coaching staff starting in 2028.

    For their part, the All Blacks have historically offset their smaller average player size compared to the Springboks with faster play and sharper tactical decision-making. Former All Black captain and current assistant coach Tana Umaga described facing the Springboks as “a relentless wave of a big bang coming at you”.

    The history of the All Blacks’ success in South Africa has always been built on forward play: New Zealand’s only ever series win on South African soil, achieved in 1996, came behind one of the greatest forward packs in rugby history, led by icons Sean Fitzpatrick, Olo Brown, Michael Jones and Zinzan Brooke. Former South African head coach Heyneke argues that the current All Blacks’ scrum and set-piece play does not reach that standard, and predicts that this weakness will be their downfall in the series.

    “If you don’t have a good set-piece you’re in trouble. And we’ve got an unbelievable set-piece,” Meyer told the *Behind the Ruck* podcast. “So, it will be close, but at home you have to back the Springboks.”

  • Archaeologists unveil skeletal remains believed to be ritual offering in Lima

    Archaeologists unveil skeletal remains believed to be ritual offering in Lima

    LIMA, Peru – Archaeological teams in Peru announced a significant new discovery this Tuesday, unveiling the well-preserved skeletal remains of an adult individual unearthed at the foot of Huaca Pucllana, a massive centuries-old adobe pyramid located in the heart of Peru’s capital city Lima. Leading researchers believe the set of bones belongs to an adult male who was likely sacrificed as a ritual offering during a ceremony that marked the permanent closure of a water canal connected to a sacred ceremonial pool.

    Gladys Paz, the lead archaeologist heading the excavation project at the site, explained that the unusual positioning of the remains offers critical new clues about the ceremonial practices of the ancient Lima culture. The body was interred directly within the canal, laid on its left side with its skull oriented both toward the Huaca Pucllana pyramid and the distant Pacific Ocean – a deliberate placement that experts say carries deep ritual meaning.

    Paz emphasized that this new find will fill major gaps in scholarly understanding of Lima culture ceremonial traditions, allowing researchers to reconstruct details of religious rituals practiced more than a millennium and a half ago on Peru’s central coast.

    The Lima culture, which rose to prominence along Peru’s dry central coastline between the 1st and 7th centuries CE, flourished roughly 700 years before the Inca Empire emerged as the dominant power in the Andean region. Huaca Pucllana stood as one of the Lima culture’s most vital centers for both religious ceremony and administrative governance, and the culture itself had vanished from the region centuries before Spanish conquistadors established the modern city of Lima in 1535.

    In a striking contrast between ancient history and modern urban life, the pre-Columbian pyramid today sits nestled between tree-lined public parks, busy residential streets, and luxury apartment complexes in Lima’s upscale Miraflores and San Isidro neighborhoods. The archaeological site is open as a popular tourist attraction, and even hosts an on-site restaurant that serves iconic Peruvian dishes ranging from ceviche to lomo saltado and roasted alpaca.

    According to statistics from Peru’s national government, the greater Lima metropolitan area is home to more than 400 distinct registered archaeological sites, scattered throughout the expanding urban landscape. Pieter Van Dalen, a professor of archaeology at Peru’s National University of San Marcos who was not part of the current excavation team, noted that discoveries of ancient tombs, mummified remains, and burial artifacts are relatively common along Peru’s Pacific coast. Many such finds are even made accidentally during modern construction projects, including excavations for new utility infrastructure like natural gas pipelines.

    This discovery marks the latest in a series of archaeological insights into pre-Inca Andean cultures, continuing to reshape academic understandings of the complex civilizations that thrived in the region long before the arrival of European colonizers.

  • ZZ Top drummer Frank Beard dies aged 77

    ZZ Top drummer Frank Beard dies aged 77

    The iconic blues-rock band ZZ Top has announced the passing of its longtime drummer, founding member Frank Beard, at the age of 77. According to an official statement posted to the band’s official website, Beard died on Monday while receiving hospice care at his personal ranch in Richmond, Texas, surrounded by his close family members. No details regarding his specific cause of death have been released to the public.

    Beard’s death has forced the band to cancel two scheduled tour stops this week in the western United States: a Monday performance in Salt Lake City, Utah, and a Wednesday show in Colorado Springs, Colorado. However, the group confirmed that it plans to pick up its ongoing *The Big One! Tour* this coming weekend, with two scheduled sets at the Austin City Limits venue in Austin, Texas — a spot the band says counted among Beard’s favorite performance spaces, in a city he considered a second home.

    A foundational member of ZZ Top, Beard was part of the band’s original lineup when the group was formed in Houston, Texas, in 1969. Alongside lead vocalist and guitarist Billy Gibbons and bassist Dusty Hill, Beard made up the iconic trio that played its first public live show in 1970. Over the course of his six-decade tenure with the band, Beard contributed to 15 full-length studio albums and four live albums, helping craft the group’s signature blues-rock sound that catapulted them to global fame. The band’s discography includes countless chart-topping hit singles such as *Gimme All Your Lovin’*, *Sleeping Bag*, and their well-known cover of *Viva Las Vegas*.

    The band underwent a major shift in 2021 when original bassist Dusty Hill passed away, after which the group chose to continue touring with new bassist Elwood Francis stepping into Hill’s role. Following Beard’s death, Gibbons shared a heartfelt tribute to his bandmate and collaborator of more than 50 years.

    “Today, Elwood and I lost a great friend and collaborator, and the world lost one of the most naturally innovative drummers and a great and true son of Texas,” Gibbons said in the statement. He added that Beard’s instantly recognizable, steady backbeat was the critical backbone that kept ZZ Top at the top of the rock scene for decades. Staying true to Beard’s own wishes, Gibbons confirmed that the band will continue performing moving forward.

    ZZ Top, one of the longest-running active rock bands in American history, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, in recognition of its massive influence on blues and rock music. Over the course of their career, the band has toured extensively across North America, Europe, and South America, building a loyal global fanbase that spans multiple generations.

  • Saudi Arabia tightens rules on financial transfers to UAE

    Saudi Arabia tightens rules on financial transfers to UAE

    Growing diplomatic and economic tensions between the two Gulf powerhouse neighbors Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have spilled into the financial sector, with Riyadh quietly implementing enhanced regulatory scrutiny on cross-border money transfers to the UAE, multiple sources with direct knowledge of the situation have confirmed. Per reporting from international news outlets including Reuters and The Financial Times, these unpublicized new measures place the UAE on Saudi Arabia’s list of high-risk jurisdictions for financial crime — a designation normally reserved for nations linked to elevated risks of illicit money flows. At present, this list counts more than half a dozen regional states. Multiple business operators told Reuters they have already encountered significant disruptions to their transactions: cross-border transfers denominated in a range of currencies have been held for extended delays or flat-out rejected by Saudi financial institutions, with no official reasoning provided for the actions. Both Saudi and Emirati authorities have pushed back against reports of targeted restrictions. When contacted for comment by Reuters, the Saudi Central Bank stated there are “no direct restrictions on specific countries.” A UAE government spokesperson also noted the nation’s economy ministry has not received any formal complaints from private sector entities about unusual delays or barriers to inter-country bank transfers. The current financial friction is the latest escalation of a years-long rift marked by increasingly divergent national priorities that has grown sharper in recent months. Tensions first flared into open view late last year, when Saudi aircraft carried out an airstrike on a shipment of UAE military supplies bound for the Southern Transitional Council, a separatist Yemeni faction that Abu Dhabi backs politically and militarily. Following the strike, the public rift deepened: prominent Saudi and Emirati social media influencers, political pundits, and state-aligned media outlets engaged in a series of heated public feuds, and by March, the UAE moved to block the X account of Saudi-owned major news network Al Arabiya. Disagreements have since widened across three core policy areas: the Yemen conflict, the 2024 Israel-Iran war, and global oil policy. On the Iran front, the two states have adopted starkly opposing stances: the UAE has emerged as a far more hawkish actor, carrying out dozens of unacknowledged air strikes against Iranian targets — a level of direct participation in the conflict that was not made public until recently. Saudi Arabia, by contrast, has pursued a more balanced hedging strategy: it has condemned Iranian attacks on Gulf allies and granted the U.S. military access to the King Fahd Air Base in Taif, while simultaneously working through Islamabad to open diplomatic channels for negotiations with Tehran. In the energy sector, the rift boiled over in May when the UAE announced its withdrawal from OPEC, the Riyadh-led oil producers’ cartel it had been a member of for nearly 60 years. Shortly after exiting the group, the UAE moved to sharply ramp up its crude oil production, a move that directly conflicts with Saudi Arabia’s ongoing strategy of production cuts to support global oil prices. Following reports of delayed and blocked money transfers as early as May, multiple international outlets confirmed the pattern of financial disruptions. A Western executive working for a Dubai-based healthcare firm told the Financial Times that starting in mid-May, Saudi banks had rejected and returned multiple payments from a long-standing Saudi client of the company. By July, independent regional outlet Middle East Eye framed the ongoing standoff as the two neighbors “embroiled in an economic war of attrition,” with business leaders across both nations already drafting contingency plans to prepare for further escalation of the bilateral feud.