Global Pulse

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  • Myanmar’s Min Aung Hlaing heads to Russia to deepen strategic ties with Moscow

    Myanmar’s Min Aung Hlaing heads to Russia to deepen strategic ties with Moscow

    BANGKOK – The leader of Myanmar’s military-installed government has launched an official visit to the Russian Federation, with a scheduled meeting with President Vladimir Putin focused on expanding bilateral connections and strategic collaboration between the two nations, Myanmar state media has confirmed.

    Min Aung Hlaing, who was inaugurated as Myanmar’s president in April, left the country’s capital Naypyitaw on Monday morning alongside a delegation of cabinet members. According to the state-run Myanmar Radio and Television (MRTV), the delegation will hold discussions with Putin and other senior Russian leadership across a wide range of areas, including diplomatic relations, economic cooperation, security collaboration, and social policy coordination.

    Moscow, alongside Beijing, stands as one of the most prominent international backers and primary arms suppliers to Myanmar’s junta. Media and conflict monitors have documented that Russian-manufactured fighter jets have been deployed in strikes against territory controlled by Myanmar’s ethnic minority armed groups, many of which align with pro-democracy resistance movements fighting the military government.

    This trip is not the first meeting between the two leaders: Min Aung Hlaing previously held discussions with Putin on the sidelines of Moscow’s World Atomic Week Forum last September. To date, Putin has not conducted an official visit to Myanmar.

    The Russian trip marks the seventh visit Min Aung Hlaing has made to Russia since the military, which he commanded at the time, seized control of the country from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021. It is also the latest stop in a string of foreign visits that have already taken him to regional neighbors including China, India, Laos, and Thailand. These trips are part of a broader push by the junta leader to secure greater international recognition and rebuild Myanmar’s diplomatic standing after the 2021 coup.

    Despite this outreach, Min Aung Hlaing’s government remains widely sidelined in the global community. Western nations have imposed sweeping economic and political sanctions on the military leadership in response to the coup and its violent crackdown on opposition, which has killed thousands of civilians and sparked an ongoing nationwide civil conflict.

    In addition to his high-level diplomatic talks, MRTV confirmed that Min Aung Hlaing will also take part in a bilateral Myanmar-Russia Business Forum during his visit, a move intended to boost cross-border commercial ties between the two countries.

    The two nations have already built out a range of collaborative agreements beyond arms sales. They have conducted joint military exercises, signed a deal to develop nuclear energy infrastructure in Myanmar, and established cooperation on human spaceflight initiatives, including plans to select and train Myanmar’s first ever cosmonaut. On the global stage, Russia has repeatedly defended Myanmar’s military government in multilateral international forums, while the junta has consistently aligned itself with Moscow’s foreign policy priorities.

  • Ukrainian strikes kill six in Russia, acting governor says

    Ukrainian strikes kill six in Russia, acting governor says

    A fresh wave of reciprocal deadly strikes between Russia and Ukraine has left at least 13 people dead across both territories, escalating a rapid intensification of cross-border attacks that has marked the latest phase of the full-scale war now in its fourth year.

    Acting governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, a border area that has faced frequent attacks amid the conflict, Alexander Shuvaev, confirmed via a Telegram post Monday that six people were killed and four more injured in overnight Ukrainian missile strikes on the region. Among the wounded was a 14-year-old child, who was transported to a hospital for treatment, while two additional injured people received on-site medical care. The attack damaged a local building and set fire to a vehicle in the village of Koloskovo, located in Valuysky district just kilometers from the Russia-Ukraine border.

    This latest strike came just 24 hours after Russian officials described what they called the largest-scale Ukrainian attack on Russian territory so far this year. That assault, launched Saturday night, saw Ukraine deploy a total of 822 drones across multiple Russian regions, with more than 600 of those unmanned vehicles targeting Moscow alone. Russian regional authorities called the assault on the capital one of the most massive drone strikes it has faced in recent years.

    Saturday’s attack left seven people dead across Russia: five in the southwestern Rostov region, one woman killed when a civilian bus in Belgorod was hit, and an 83-year-old man who died in a drone strike in the Moscow region. A major logistics warehouse belonging to Wildberries, Russia’s largest e-commerce retailer often dubbed the country’s equivalent to Amazon, was also damaged. Ukraine’s defense ministry confirmed Sunday that it has repeatedly targeted Wildberries facilities since July, and that the latest strikes have disabled seven out of the company’s 10 largest logistics hubs.

    Russia responded immediately to the Ukrainian drone offensive with its own intensified wave of missile and bomb strikes across Ukraine over the weekend, which left seven Ukrainians dead and more than 39 others injured. In Zaporizhzhia, one man and one woman were killed when a guided aerial bomb struck a private residence, with five additional fatalities recorded in attacks across other Ukrainian regions. On Monday, Ukrainian national energy company Naftogaz announced that Russian forces had targeted its energy infrastructure facilities 13 times across the country over the preceding seven days.

    One of the Russian strikes on Kyiv Saturday night hit an open-air book market in the city’s Pochayna district, leaving charred books scattered across the ground in images released to media. Russia stated that its strikes on the capital targeted two military-related facilities: a FirePoint production site manufacturing parts for Ukrainian Flamingo missiles, and a factory producing components for Ukrainian unmanned combat drones.

    Speaking this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky noted that Russian attacks have hit 13 of the country’s regions over the past seven days, with Russian forces launching over 1,550 attack drones, nearly 1,560 guided aerial bombs, and 62 missiles against targets inside Ukraine. Both Moscow and Kyiv have repeatedly denied intentionally targeting civilian infrastructure and civilian populations, and each accuses the other of attacking non-military sites as a tactic of war.

    Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and currently maintains control of roughly 20 percent of Ukraine’s internationally recognized territory. Over recent weeks, Kyiv has dramatically stepped up the frequency and scale of drone strikes deep inside Russian territory, targeting infrastructure and military sites hundreds of kilometers from the front line.

  • Perth mum Saoirse Wynne, 33, charged over fatal crash that killed four-year-old daughter Layna Leavy

    Perth mum Saoirse Wynne, 33, charged over fatal crash that killed four-year-old daughter Layna Leavy

    A devastating car collision in Perth’s southeastern suburb of Canning Vale has ended in criminal charges for a local mother, after the crash claimed the life of her 4-year-old daughter and left her 8-year-old son seriously injured. The incident, which unfolded just after 3 p.m. on June 3, has sparked an outpouring of public grief from both Australian and Irish communities, after the family recently relocated to Perth to build a new life.

    Major Crash investigators from Western Australia Police confirmed this week that 33-year-old Saoirse Wynne, a resident of Southern River, faces four separate criminal charges in connection with the crash. Official accident reports outline that Wynne was operating a grey Holden Astra traveling east along Boardman Road when her vehicle collided with an orange Ford Mustang heading north on Garden Street, the main intersecting roadway at the site. All three occupants of the Astra — Wynne and her two young children — were extracted from the wreckage and rushed immediately to nearby hospitals for emergency care. Despite rapid medical intervention, 4-year-old Layna Leavy succumbed to her injuries in hospital care.

    The charges brought against Wynne go beyond the core dangerous driving count, revealing multiple regulatory failures on the day of the crash. Investigators confirmed the charges include: careless driving causing death, careless driving causing grievous bodily harm, failure to secure a child passenger aged between 4 and 7 in an approved child safety restraint, and driving without a valid license — as Wynne never obtained a driving authorization in Australia. Wynne is scheduled to make her first court appearance at Armadale Magistrates Court on September 29.

    In the wake of Layna’s death, community members launched a GoFundMe campaign to support the grieving family, covering funeral expenses and lost income while Wynne and her relatives take time off work to mourn. As of the latest update, the campaign has raised more than $100,000 in donations from hundreds of supporters.

    A family member shared a tribute on the fundraising page, noting the family had relocated from Ireland to Perth earlier in 2024, chasing a fresh start in Australia. “In less than four short years, Layna had already woven herself into the hearts of so many, here in Australia, and across the community they had left behind in Ireland,” the statement read. “The flowers, teddy bears, and dolls placed at the crash site by friends and strangers demonstrate the mark this little girl made on the world in just four short years. The outpouring of love from the local Perth community and from Ireland is a testament of the impact this little girl had on so many lives and a reminder that Layna was, and always will be, deeply loved.”

    Local residents have continued to leave small tributes at the intersection where the crash occurred, with many describing the 4-year-old’s death as a heartbreaking tragedy for the newly relocated family.

  • Post-mortems to take place after five boys killed in crash on wrong side of motorway

    Post-mortems to take place after five boys killed in crash on wrong side of motorway

    A devastating early-morning wrong-way collision on a major Irish motorway has left five teenage boys dead and multiple other people, including a child, with critical injuries, sending shockwaves across the local community of County Kildare.

    The crash unfolded at approximately 3 a.m. local time on Sunday, between Junction 3 and Junction 4 of the M9 motorway near Moone, along the northbound carriageway. According to official confirmation from Gardaí, Ireland’s national police service, the vehicle carrying the five teenagers was traveling against the flow of traffic, moving southbound along the northbound lanes, when it struck an oncoming car head-on.

    Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly confirmed in the wake of the incident that no police pursuit of the teenagers’ vehicle was underway before the collision took place. Forensic investigation teams have already wrapped up their on-site evidence collection, and post-mortem examinations are scheduled to be conducted on the bodies of the five deceased boys in the coming days.

    The occupants of the second vehicle hit in the collision included three women — two in their 30s and one in her 20s — and a young child. All four were rushed to nearby hospitals with serious, life-altering injuries. Local councillor Ivan Keatley of Fine Gael told media that preliminary information suggests the family was en route to an airport to begin a planned holiday when the tragedy occurred.

    Commissioner Kelly labeled the crash an unthinkable, horrific incident rooted in reckless, irresponsible, and dangerous driving. In stark comments addressing a growing trend of dangerous road behavior, he noted that some wrong-way driving incidents are carried out intentionally to garner social media engagement, putting countless innocent lives at risk for online likes. “What makes this reckless behaviour even more appalling is that in some cases it is being done for social media likes regardless of the potentially devastating impact it might have on innocent people and themselves,” Kelly said. He added that Gardaí operate under immense pressure when responding to such incidents, balancing the need to stop dangerous vehicles while protecting the safety of all other road users.

    Local officials described the immediate aftermath of the crash as profoundly disturbing. Keatley explained that a passing motorist stumbled on the scene first and raised the alarm, with emergency services arriving at the site almost instantly. The wreckage of the two vehicles was visible from a nearby motorway bridge, and the extent of the damage made the severity of the incident immediately clear. “Horrific is the only way that could describe the condition that the two cars were left in,” Keatley told BBC NI’s *Good Morning Ulster*. He added that the local community has moved from initial shock and disbelief to widespread anger that such a preventable tragedy could occur. “Obviously our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims and we are all hoping that the other injured parties can pull through,” he said.

    Shónagh Ní Raghallaigh, a Sinn Féin TD for Kildare South, echoed those sentiments, describing the crash as an absolutely catastrophic event. “This loss of life is colossal and the effect those losses will have on their friends and families is incalculable,” she said.

    In a public appeal, Gardaí have asked any drivers who were traveling on that stretch of the M9 around the time of the collision, or any witnesses who saw the incident or the wrong-way vehicle before the crash, to contact investigators with any information that could aid the inquiry.

  • Carlton appoints interim boss Josh Fraser as permanent head coach

    Carlton appoints interim boss Josh Fraser as permanent head coach

    In a move that ends weeks of swirling speculation, AFL side Carlton has formally confirmed that interim coach Josh Fraser will step into the full-time senior coaching role for 2027 and beyond, capping off a dramatic underdog run that has propelled the club to an unexpected wildcard spot in the finals series.

    Fraser’s rise to the top job comes after a nearly perfect stint as the club’s temporary leader, a performance that turned Carlton’s grim season around entirely. When the Blues parted ways with former senior coach Michael Voss in round 9, the club sat at just one win from nine opening matches, with little hope of securing a place in the finals. Poached from Collingwood earlier in 2026, where he served as head of player development, the former ruckman stepped into the interim role and immediately delivered results.

    Over his first 13 matches at the helm, Fraser claimed an impressive 10 victories. That turnaround peaked on Sunday, when a hard-fought draw against the Western Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium locked in Carlton’s place for wildcard weekend, a result few pundits predicted at the midpoint of the season. It also cemented Fraser’s status as the overwhelming favorite for the permanent role, beating out a field of high-profile candidates that included Corey Enright of St Kilda, Jaymie Graham from Fremantle, and Geelong’s James Kelly.

    The Carlton board held deliberations on Monday to finalize the appointment, following Sunday’s season-defining draw. Sources close to the club confirm Fraser is set to put pen to paper on a multi-year contract, with an official public announcement scheduled to drop later this week. Now, the club turns its attention to the final round of the home-and-away season, where Carlton will host Fremantle at Marvel Stadium this weekend to wrap up their regular season campaign before the wildcard match.

  • Axe hangs over Australian batters after Darwin ‘disaster’

    Axe hangs over Australian batters after Darwin ‘disaster’

    Cricket’s world number one Test side Australia is reeling from one of the most shocking upsets in modern international cricket, after an understrength Bangladesh side claimed a dominant nine-wicket victory in the series opener in Darwin that has left the hosts facing urgent calls for batting lineup changes. Openers Jake Weatherald and middle-order batter Marnus Labuschagne have emerged as the two players most at risk of being dropped ahead of the second Test, which kicks off this Saturday in Mackay.

    Heading into the first match, the result was widely predicted to be a one-sided Australian win. Bangladesh had collapsed to an innings defeat in their only warm-up fixture, and arrived in Darwin without their injured pace spearhead Nahid Rana. But Bangladesh defied all pre-series expectations to dominate all four days of the Test, securing a historic victory that left the Australian camp shell-shocked and facing widespread internal and external recrimination.

    This is not Australia’s first surprise home Test defeat in recent years — the side fell to an eight-run loss to the West Indies at the Gabba in 2024 — but the comprehensiveness of the Darwin loss has drawn unprecedented criticism. Australian media labeled the result a “national disaster” and the most embarrassing performance in the country’s modern Test cricket history on Monday.

    Leading Australian cricket figures have joined the calls for immediate change, including legendary former captain Ricky Ponting, who argues the time has come for selectors to make tough decisions to kickstart long-overdue team regeneration. “I’m the last one to want to make change,” Ponting told Channel Seven as the Test neared its conclusion. “As a captain or as a player I wanted to keep a group together, so it has to get to a bad point before I start saying you’ve got to leave somebody out. But there’s been enough evidence coming here to suggest they weren’t going to lose anything, or much at all, by starting that regeneration, bringing in another opener, bringing in someone at three. I think that has to happen.”

    Critics have pointed to Australia’s underwhelming batting performance as the core of the problem. With only Steve Smith, who scored 71 in the first innings and 44 in the second, and Cameron Green, who hit a match-saving century in the second innings, posting meaningful scores, the rest of the batting order collapsed through a string of soft, unforced dismissals. Since the start of the 2025 Ashes series against England, both Weatherald and Labuschagne have held batting averages below 27, leaving both running out of opportunities to prove their form.

    Former Australian opener Matthew Hayden echoed Ponting’s concerns, noting that consistent early wickets put unnecessary pressure on Australia’s middle order. “The 1-2-3, as Ricky and I will tell you, are absolutely fundamental to the set-up of a batting team,” Hayden told Channel Seven. “When they are constantly putting that middle order under pressure, Steve Smith arriving way earlier than he ever needs to be, then you’ve got to start to answer those questions.”

    Australian captain Pat Cummins has acknowledged that persistent batting failure has become a worrying trend, confirming selectors are willing to look beyond the existing 13-man squad for replacements. The most widely predicted change is veteran batter Matt Renshaw coming into the side to replace Weatherald at opener, but there is also growing momentum to hand opportunities to young, emerging players who have impressed in domestic cricket. Prospects including Sam Konstas, Campbell Kellaway, Ollie Peake and Cooper Connolly are all waiting in the wings for a first Test call-up.

    Australian great Mark Waugh has argued selectors “have to bite the bullet at some stage,” while former star opener David Warner — whose retirement in 2024 left a gaping hole at the top of Australia’s batting order that has yet to be permanently filled — added: “I think we’ve got to start blooding some youngsters.” With Australia set to face a challenging three-Test tour of South Africa in October, giving young prospects match time in Mackay to gain international experience makes strategic sense for the long term.

    For Labuschagne’s number three spot, media reports suggest Kurtis Patterson and Nathan McSweeney are the current frontrunners to replace him, though neither has been in outstanding recent domestic form.

    While the batting unit is facing the most intense scrutiny, there are also questions over Australia’s veteran bowling attack, which has remained unchanged for several years. All four core bowlers — captain Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon — are still favored to retain their spots for now, despite their advanced ages. Hazlewood, returning from injury, silenced critics with a six-wicket haul in Bangladesh’s first innings that cemented his position as Australia’s first-choice fast bowler. The most vulnerable bowler is 38-year-old off-spinner Nathan Lyon, also returning from injury, who was outbowled by Bangladesh’s Mehidy Hasan Miraz. Twenty-five-year-old understudy Todd Murphy is the leading candidate to replace Lyon if selectors opt for change.

  • A temple stampede and a hotel fire in eastern India kill 14 and injure several

    A temple stampede and a hotel fire in eastern India kill 14 and injure several

    Two separate fatal accidents at religious destinations in northern India on Monday have claimed a total of 14 lives, leaving dozens injured and renewing concerns over systemic public safety failures during large-scale religious gatherings in the country.

    The first tragedy unfolded just before dawn in the temple town of Tarapith, located in West Bengal’s Birbhum district. According to local media reports from Press Trust of India, a fire ignited around 4:30 a.m. on the ground floor of a four-story hotel that primarily hosted pilgrims visiting the town’s famous Shiva-focused temple complex. Most guests were asleep when the blaze broke out, leaving little time for organized evacuation.

    Preliminary inquiries from hotel management point to an electrical fault near the hotel’s reception area as the likely origin of the fire. Fire response teams managed to bring the blaze under control quickly, but the casualty toll reached at least seven dead, with multiple others admitted to local hospitals for critical care. Injuries ranged from severe burns to smoke inhalation and asphyxiation, per local reporting. Authorities have launched a full investigation to confirm the exact cause of the fire.

    Only two hours later, a second deadly disaster struck more than 400 kilometers west in Lakhisarai district, Bihar. Thousands of Hindu devotees had gathered near Ashok Dham Temple to mark the third Monday of Shravan, the holiest month in the Hindu religious calendar. Dedicated to the worship of Lord Shiva, the Shravan month — which falls between July and August each year — draws millions of pilgrims to sacred sites across India for prayer, fasting and seasonal religious celebrations.

    Local civil administrator Shailendra Kumar reported that the death toll from the incident stands at seven, with more than a dozen others injured, all of whom have been transferred to a local government-run hospital for treatment. While official investigations into the exact root cause are still ongoing, preliminary findings point to a snapped overhead electric wire outside the temple compound as the trigger for the disaster. The broken wire sparked widespread panic among worshippers, who feared electrocution and began a chaotic rush to escape the area.

    The sudden surge of the crowd overwhelmed temporary crowd-control barricades, causing a section of the barriers to collapse. People stumbled over one another in the chaos, resulting in the fatal crush, Kumar told Press Trust of India.

    Tragic crowd crushes and fire-related deaths at large religious gatherings are not new in India. Every year, millions of worshippers converge on confined temple and religious site locations, with event organizers and local authorities often failing to implement adequate safety protocols, crowd management infrastructure, or emergency evacuation plans.

    Deadly examples of this pattern dot recent history. In January 2023, at least 30 people lost their lives in a crush during the Maha Kumbh festival, the world’s largest religious gathering, when tens of thousands of pilgrims rushed toward the banks of a sacred river for a ritual bathing. A decade earlier, in 2013, a false rumor that a pedestrian bridge was collapsing sparked a panic at a Hindu festival in central India’s Madhya Pradesh state, leaving 115 people dead either from crushing or drowning in the river below the bridge.

  • World shares are mixed and oil prices slip after worries over stagflation pull US stocks lower

    World shares are mixed and oil prices slip after worries over stagflation pull US stocks lower

    BANGKOK – Global equity markets delivered a fragmented performance across Europe and Asia on Monday, one trading session after U.S. stocks retreated from their recent all-time peak, dragged down by a worse-than-anticipated reading on the world’s largest economy. Energy prices also edged lower amid ongoing geopolitical uncertainty affecting global supply chains.

    In early trading hours across European exchanges, benchmark indexes showed minimal movement overall. Germany’s DAX held almost entirely steady, posting near-zero change to close the early session at 26,429.59. France’s CAC 40 dipped by a modest 0.1% to land at 8,630.45, while the United Kingdom’s FTSE 100 notched a small 0.2% gain to reach 10,773.91. Looking to futures contracts tied to major U.S. indexes, the S&P 500 future ticked up 0.1% ahead of the opening bell, while futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1%.

    Across Asian markets, the picture was similarly split. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 climbed 0.7% to hit 69,220.25, buoyed by upwardly revised GDP data from the Japanese government. The report showed the country’s economy expanded slightly faster than projected in the April-June quarter, recording a 1.1% annualized growth rate, even though private consumption and capital investment held flat and export expansion decelerated. On a quarterly basis, Japan’s GDP grew 0.3% over the first three months of the year.

    In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index advanced 1.6% to 25,517.88, and mainland China’s Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.4% to close at 3,982.65. South Korean markets remained closed for a national holiday. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 retreated 0.5% to 9,073.20, while Taiwan’s Taiex gained 0.1% and India’s Sensex slipped 0.3%.

    The uneven global trading follows a pullback on Wall Street this past Friday, when the S&P 500 fell 0.2% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average also dipped 0.2%, after government data showed U.S. retail sales declined last month. While soft consumer spending could pave the way for the U.S. Federal Reserve to hold interest rates at lower levels – a dynamic that generally boosts asset valuations for investors – the weaker reading also signals potential economic slowing at a time when inflation remains elevated above the central bank’s target. The Nasdaq composite shed 0.3% in Friday’s session.

    Market participants are turning their focus to this week’s packed earnings calendar, which will feature quarterly reports from some of the U.S.’s largest retail chains. Home Depot is set to release its results on Tuesday, followed by Target and Lowe’s on Wednesday, and Walmart on Thursday. These reports are expected to offer investors granular insight into how both businesses and consumers are navigating persistently high inflation that has eroded purchasing power across much of the economy. In addition to earnings, the Federal Reserve will publish the meeting minutes from its July policy gathering this Wednesday, giving analysts more context into the central bank’s thinking on future interest rate moves.

    Stagflation, defined as a period of stalled economic growth paired with persistent high inflation, remains a worst-case scenario for markets because the Fed has no policy tools that can effectively address both problems at once. Tightening policy to curb inflation can worsen growth slowdowns, while cutting rates to stimulate growth can push already high inflation even higher.

    In energy markets on Monday, benchmark crude prices fell. Brent crude, the global pricing standard, declined 0.3% to $88.24 per barrel, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude slipped 0.9% to $81.65 per barrel. Oil market sentiment remains jittery amid unclear prospects for a diplomatic resolution to tensions around Iran, with the critical Strait of Hormuz – a key shipping chokepoint for Middle Eastern oil and gas exports – facing disruptions that threaten global supply stability.

    In currency markets, the U.S. dollar weakened against the Japanese yen, falling to 158.88 yen from 159.32 yen in previous trading. The euro ticked higher against the dollar, rising to $1.1611 from $1.1588.

  • Instagram and Facebook could change forever if Meta loses child privacy trial

    Instagram and Facebook could change forever if Meta loses child privacy trial

    A high-stakes jury trial that could reshape the future of social media regulation in the United States is set to kick off Tuesday, pitting 30 U.S. states against tech giant Meta Platforms over allegations that the company intentionally designed its platforms to harm and exploit young users. The case, filed in 2023 by states including California and New York, accuses Meta of widespread violations of federal and state child privacy laws, marking the most significant legal challenge the company has faced to date amid a growing string of court losses over its youth-focused product design.

    At the core of the states’ argument is the claim that Meta has deliberately built addictive, harmful features specifically designed to keep children and teenagers engaged on its platforms for as long as possible, prioritizing user growth and revenue over young people’s mental and emotional well-being. The plaintiffs are seeking more than $1 trillion in damages, alongside sweeping mandatory changes to core functionality across Meta’s two largest platforms, Instagram and Facebook. These reforms include eliminating public like counts and infinite scrolling, mandating parental verification for all teenage accounts, overhauling what the states describe as “dopamine-manipulating recommendation algorithms”, removing body-altering photo filters, ending automatic video playback, banning the creation of multiple accounts, and discontinuing ephemeral content such as Instagram Stories.

    The states also allege that Meta actively discourages reduced usage among young users, relying on frequent, targeted push notifications to lure minors back to the apps. “Meta chose to exploit” children to grow its user base and expand its bottom line, the lawsuit argues, at a time when the company boasts a total market capitalization of roughly $1.5 trillion. Meta has vigorously denied all allegations, with a company spokesperson stating in a formal response: “We strongly disagree with these allegations and are confident the evidence will show our longstanding commitment to supporting young people.”

    The trial will be overseen by Chief U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, a California-based jurist with nearly 20 years of experience on the bench, who previously presided over the high-profile Elon Musk v. Sam Altman dispute and is widely known for her incisive, straightforward judicial approach. The upcoming case follows a recent landmark ruling against Meta in New Mexico, where Judge Bryan Biedscheid imposed a $942 million fine on the company and ordered nearly identical reforms to those sought by the 30 states. In that ruling, Judge Biedscheid made history by labeling Meta’s platform operations a “public nuisance”, comparing the firm’s harmful impact on communities to a polluting factory that inflicts widespread damage on public health. That ruling mandated that Meta eliminate public like counts for users under 18, ban the exchange of nude content between teenagers, and restrict push notifications to limited daytime hours in New Mexico. Meta has announced it will appeal the decision.

    While the New Mexico ruling only applies within the state’s borders, a ruling in favor of the 30 states would require nationwide changes to Meta’s platforms, as the plaintiffs represent approximately two-thirds of the U.S. population. A defeat for Meta would force fundamental, industry-altering changes to how millions of young people interact with social media across the country.

    The debate around features like public like counts underscores the growing body of evidence linking core Meta platform design to youth mental health harm. Likes have been a central feature of Meta’s platforms since the company’s early days as Facebook, and remain the primary mechanism for user engagement across nearly all social networks. But research conducted over the past decade, including Meta’s own internal research, has tied engagement metrics like like counts to rising rates of depression, body dysmorphia, and loneliness among young users. Meta’s internal documents, more than 2 million of which have been turned over to legal teams for the 30 states, show the company has long known that likes drive “social comparison”—the practice of measuring one’s self-worth against curated, idealized content posted by other users. This effect on Instagram, the company’s own research found, is linked to “increased loneliness, worse body image, and negative mood or affect” among teenage users.

    Testimony from earlier youth-focused cases has further illustrated these harms. Earlier this year, a young plaintiff named Kaley who won a lawsuit against Meta described creating dozens of separate Instagram and YouTube accounts as a nine-year-old to like her own posts, chasing external validation that ultimately left her clinically depressed by age 10. As Judge Biedscheid noted in his landmark ruling, the first to declare a social media company a public nuisance, Meta’s decade-long operating model has contributed directly to the growing youth mental health crisis across the U.S. Now, attorneys for 30 states will argue that Judge Gonzalez Rogers should reach the same conclusion and impose sweeping changes that could redefine social media regulation for the entire country.

  • Is this cave in Turkey where Homer wrote ‘The Odyssey’?

    Is this cave in Turkey where Homer wrote ‘The Odyssey’?

    Nestled on a sunlit hillside overlooking olive-draped slopes outside Turkey’s Aegean coastal city of Izmir, a rugged, rock-choked cave has been venerated for generations by local residents as the very spot where the ancient bard Homer composed his legendary epic *The Odyssey*. As renewed global interest in Homer surges following the release of Christopher Nolan’s hit blockbuster of the same name, scholars, local officials and residents in Bornova’s Homeros Valley are reigniting centuries-old debate over the cave’s legendary connection to one of Western literature’s most iconic figures.

    While no definitive concrete evidence has ever confirmed the cave as Homer’s creative workspace, the link between Homer and the Izmir region — anciently known as Smyrna — stretches back millennia. As far back as the 2nd century CE, Greek geographer and chronicler Pausanias recorded that Smyrna’s residents guarded a grotto along the Meles River where Homer was said to have written his works, cementing a mythic connection that has persisted to the modern day. Though other sites, most notably the Greek island of Chios, also lay claim to Homer’s origins, researchers in Bornova have recently unearthed new clues they argue lend unprecedented weight to their region’s claim.

    Turkish researcher Altan Altin, who has authored a full book on the subject of Homer’s connection to Bornova, argues that a 3rd-century BCE bas-relief frieze depicting Homer’s deification contains exact, matching geographic details that mirror the layout of the Bornova cave — a connection no scholar had previously identified. “This is the first time such a detailed geographical confirmation of the cave has come to light,” Altin explained, noting that ancient Ionia, the historic Greek region that encompassed both Smyrna and Chios on Turkey’s Aegean coast, is Homer’s true geographic home. “For me, there’s no doubt: Homer is from Bornova, and at the very least, he is from these lands.”

    Archaeological evidence from the region further supports this cultural connection, according to local archaeologist Mehmet Akif Erdem. Excavations have uncovered ancient coins minted in Smyrna that bear Homer’s likeness, indicating the city’s ancient residents already claimed the poet as their own centuries after his death. Additionally, the Ionic and Aeolic ancient Greek dialects used in both *The Iliad* and *The Odyssey* align with the language spoken in the Smyrna region during Homer’s purported lifetime, Erdem added.

    Today, Homer’s presence permeates every corner of Bornova: a Neolithic archaeological site on the town’s outskirts hosts a marble bust of the poet inscribed with the words “I compiled *The Iliad* and *The Odyssey* epics on this land. I lived in Bornova.” The town already hosts an annual book fair dedicated to Homer and features a statue of Trojan War hero Hector in its central park, and local leaders are now moving to renovate the cave to open it to international tourists, capitalizing on the new wave of Homeric interest sparked by Nolan’s film.

    “Preserving Homer’s legacy is a duty we owe to humanity. He is one of the founding fathers of literature,” Bornova Mayor Omer Eski told AFP. “The stories he tells are about this land. The question is not whether we should claim Homer or not — his story is also ours.”

    Not all local leaders share this vision, however. In 2024, officials from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AKP party sparked controversy by proposing to rename Homer’s Valley after a Turkish fighter pilot, arguing the culturally significant site should not carry a Greek name. Eski has pushed back forcefully against the proposal, arguing erasing Homer’s name would be an irreversible loss for Bornova’s cultural identity. His goal, he says, is to position the town as a global Homeric heritage destination that draws literary tourists from across the world.

    The release of Nolan’s *The Odyssey* has already had a visible impact on local interest: booksellers across Izmir report a sharp spike in sales of Homer’s epic, and members of the public say the film has helped them connect more deeply with their region’s ancient literary heritage. “I knew Homer was from these lands, but I didn’t know he was specifically from Izmir. We are incredibly lucky,” said Safak Tosun, a local teacher, outside a cinema screening the new film. “I feel proud, honoured and deeply privileged to be his fellow countryman.”

    For Altin, clues within Homer’s own works confirm the poet’s Anatolian roots: *The Iliad* is filled with specific anecdotes and cultural references that only would have been familiar to a resident of the Aegean Anatolian coast, he argues. Most importantly, he adds, the debate over Homer’s national or cultural origin should not fuel rivalry between modern Turkey and Greece. “Homer is 2,800 years old, while the Turkish-Greek border is only a century old,” Altin shrugged. “Homer is Greek. Homer is Anatolian. None of us is older than he is, not even our countries.”