Global Pulse

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  • US, Iran agree deal framework but need Trump sign-off: sources

    US, Iran agree deal framework but need Trump sign-off: sources

    Just days after the most intense exchange of fire between the United States and Iran since an April truce took effect, negotiators from both sides have reached a preliminary framework for a 60-day extension of the ceasefire, multiple anonymous U.S. sources confirmed to Agence France-Presse on Thursday. The deal, which also paves the way for formal negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, still requires final sign-off from U.S. President Donald Trump to move forward.

    The breakthrough comes amid heightened tensions that have put wider diplomatic efforts to end the three-month conflict to the test. The war began in late February when U.S. and Israeli forces launched joint strikes on Iranian targets, and the April truce had largely held until this week’s flare-up.

    On Wednesday, the U.S. carried out airstrikes on the southern Iranian port city of Bandar Abbas. In response, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced it had targeted the U.S. airbase that launched the attack, though it did not specify the base’s location. Kuwait, which hosts U.S. military personnel on its territory, said its air defense systems intercepted incoming projectiles, drawing the U.S. ally directly into the clash. Kuwait’s foreign ministry quickly condemned what it called “criminal Iranian attacks” on its territory, labeling the incident a dangerous escalation.

    U.S. Central Command denounced Iran’s response as an “egregious violation” of the existing ceasefire. Separately, Iranian state media reported Thursday that Iranian forces had opened fire on four commercial ships that attempted to transit the Strait of Hormuz without authorization. Iran has blocked all commercial traffic through the strategic waterway, a critical chokepoint for global energy supplies, since the start of the war. U.S. forces confirmed they intercepted five attack drones in and around the strait, and disabled a sixth drone before it could launch from a ground control station near Bandar Abbas.

    For its part, Iran has pushed back against U.S. accusations of truce violations. Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Iran would “take all necessary measures to defend its national sovereignty,” and called the U.S. airstrikes themselves a clear breach of the truce. A senior U.S. official countered that American actions were “measured” and carried out with the goal of preserving the existing ceasefire agreement. The IRGC issued a fresh threat Thursday, promising a “firm response” if the U.S. carries out any new attacks against Iranian territory.

    Beyond the immediate ceasefire extension, a core sticking point in the proposed deal is the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz. The closure has disrupted global oil and gas supplies, roiling international energy markets. On Thursday, oil prices rose sharply following news of the fresh clashes, erasing most of the gains from the previous day’s drop driven by growing optimism over a potential diplomatic breakthrough.

    The Trump administration has taken a hard line on any arrangement that would keep the strait restricted. When asked about a proposal that would let Oman and Iran jointly manage transit through the waterway, Trump issued an explicit threat to the U.S. ally, saying “No, the strait is going to be open to everybody. It’s international waters and Oman will behave just like everybody else or we’ll have to blow them up.” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent echoed the threat, saying the U.S. would “aggressively target” Oman if it moved forward with plans to implement a tolling system for ships transiting the strait. Oman, which previously mediated U.S.-Iran talks in Geneva before the war broke out, has already come under attack from Tehran. Pakistan has since taken over the lead mediation role in ongoing peace efforts. Baqaei called the U.S. threats against Oman “a worrying sign of the normalisation of anarchy and intimidation in international relations.”

    The conflict also remains unresolved in neighboring Lebanon, where a separate ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah has failed to stop escalating violence. Iran has insisted that any comprehensive deal to end the wider war must include a cessation of hostilities in Lebanon. On Thursday, the Israeli military carried out a targeted strike in southern Beirut, a known Hezbollah stronghold, hitting a residential apartment. Lebanese authorities reported that 14 people, including three children and one soldier, were killed in Israeli attacks across southern Lebanon on Thursday. A day earlier, Israel declared most of southern Lebanon a combat zone and ordered all civilian residents to evacuate. As of Wednesday, Lebanon’s health ministry reported that 3,269 people have been killed since fighting escalated in the country. On the Israeli side, one soldier was killed in a Hezbollah drone attack near the Lebanese border Wednesday, bringing the total Israeli death toll to 23 troops and one civilian contractor since the fighting began.

    For ordinary Iranians, uncertainty over the future remains a constant, even amid hopes for a ceasefire deal. “I feel like nothing is certain yet,” said Amir, a 27-year-old software developer based in Tehran. “The daily question is: Will there be missile strikes tonight?”

  • US reinstates sanctions on UN’s Albanese after appeals court pauses ruling

    US reinstates sanctions on UN’s Albanese after appeals court pauses ruling

    A weeks-long pause on punitive measures against the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Palestine Francesca Albanese has come to an abrupt end, after a federal appeals court granted the US government’s request to temporarily suspend a lower court ruling that had blocked the sanctions on First Amendment grounds. The restoration of the sanctions was formally confirmed in an official notice published to the US Treasury Department’s website this Wednesday.

    The origins of the dispute stretch back to July 2024, when the Donald Trump administration first placed Albanese on the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list. The designation came just weeks after the independent UN expert released a sharply critical report that documented more than 60 companies—including major U.S.-based technology giants Google, Amazon and Microsoft—it accused of contributing to what Albanese framed as the shift of Israel’s occupation economy into a system enabling genocide in Palestinian territories. The report called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) and national judicial bodies around the world to open investigations and pursue criminal prosecutions against implicated company executives and corporate entities, a recommendation that directly prompted the Trump administration’s sanction action.

    Since the designation was first imposed, Albanese has faced sweeping restrictions: she is barred from entering the United States, all of her assets located within U.S. jurisdiction are frozen, and she has been cut off from the global financial system, unable to carry out even routine daily transactions, she told Middle East Eye in an earlier interview.

    In February 2025, Albanese’s family launched a legal challenge to the sanctions after the UN declined to waive her official diplomatic immunity, which prevented her from filing suit in her own name. The plaintiffs were her husband Massimiliano Cali, a senior World Bank economist, and the couple’s U.S.-born daughter, a U.S. citizen. They argued that the penalties were a direct punishment for Albanese’s public criticism of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, and that the measures had unnecessarily disrupted the family’s ability to access basic financial services. On May 13, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon sided with the family, issuing a broad temporary injunction that blocked enforcement of the entire sanction designation.

    Leon ruled that the sanctions were highly likely to violate the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as they explicitly targeted Albanese for the content of her protected speech. “Protecting the freedom of speech is always in the public interest,” Leon wrote in his opinion. He further noted that Albanese’s recommendations to the ICC carried no legally binding weight, and amounted to nothing more than the expression of an expert opinion, not actionable conduct that would justify punitive measures. Rejecting the federal government’s request to narrow the ruling to only apply to Albanese’s family members, Leon ordered the full designation set aside, opening a brief window where the sanctions were not in effect. Following that ruling, the State Department confirmed it had complied with the order by temporarily removing Albanese from the SDN list, but stressed the move did not represent a shift in policy, and that it would pursue an appeal to restore the designation.

    Last Friday, that appeal yielded an early victory for the government: a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted a temporary administrative stay of Leon’s injunction, clearing the way for the sanctions to be put back in place immediately. The appeals court emphasized that its procedural order was not a judgment on the underlying merits of the government’s appeal, but merely intended to preserve the status quo while the panel considers the broader request to keep the lower court ruling on hold throughout the duration of the appeals process. The court has not yet announced a timeline for ruling on the government’s full motion for a stay pending appeal.

    As a result of the stay, Albanese has been formally returned to the Treasury Department’s SDN list. The designation once again bars any U.S. person or entity from engaging in financial transactions with her, restores her exclusion from the global financial system, and extends a travel ban that bars Albanese and her immediate family members from entering the United States.

    In its appeal arguments, the Department of Justice has argued that as an Italian citizen who has not resided in the United States for roughly a decade, and whose critical speech took place outside U.S. borders, Albanese falls outside the protections of the U.S. Constitution. The government’s legal motion describes Leon’s injunction as “legally indefensible and grossly overbroad,” warning that if the ruling is allowed to stand, it will cause lasting damage to core U.S. national security and foreign policy interests.

    Albanese is not the only prominent figure to face U.S. sanctions over work investigating alleged international crimes in occupied Palestinian territories. Since the start of 2025, the Trump administration has already sanctioned ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, his deputy prosecutors, and eight ICC judges over the court’s investigations into war crimes committed in occupied Palestine and Afghanistan. Three Palestinian non-governmental organizations that have collaborated with the ICC to submit evidence of alleged crimes by Israeli officials have also been placed under U.S. sanctions.

  • EU envoy seeks more vessels to secure Hormuz navigation once the war in Iran ends

    EU envoy seeks more vessels to secure Hormuz navigation once the war in Iran ends

    During a gathering of European Union foreign ministers held in Limassol, Cyprus on Thursday, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas outlined a key priority for the bloc’s maritime security strategy: securing unimpeded freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz once the ongoing Iran war concludes. To meet this goal, Kallas said, the existing EU Red Sea naval mission will need a significant boost in resources, most notably a larger fleet of European vessels, alongside expanded operational scope.

    Currently, the EU maritime operation known as Aspides — a name drawn from the Greek word for “shield” — is tasked with defending commercial shipping against repeated attacks from Yemen’s Houthi rebel group. Operating with just three dedicated vessels at present, the mission is centered on Red Sea security, but the Strait of Hormuz, which sits at the southern outlet of the Red Sea, has emerged as a new critical priority for the bloc. Before the outbreak of the Iran war, the strait carried roughly 20 percent of the world’s total oil and gas supplies, making it one of the most vital global chokepoints for energy trade.

    Kallas confirmed that the bloc is weighing amendments to Aspides’ operational plans to accommodate new requirements, including the need for specialized ships capable of clearing naval mines from the waterway. When asked about the most critical need for the expanded mission, Kallas emphasized, “But it mostly needs more ships.” She also confirmed that one additional vessel will soon join the Aspides operation, though she declined to share further details on the ship’s origin or capabilities.

    This discussion comes months after the EU extended Aspides’ operating mandate until the end of February 2027, and approved an extra 15 million euros (equivalent to $17.5 million) in dedicated funding for the mission.

    Parallel to EU planning, France and the United Kingdom are also exploring the creation of their own independent naval task force to escort commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz after hostilities end. A senior EU official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on discussing private negotiations, confirmed that the bloc has held early discussions about potentially merging the expanded Aspides mission with the proposed Franco-British force. However, the official noted that core logistics, particularly the question of which authority would command a combined task force, remain unresolved and require further negotiation.

    The disruption to Red Sea and Strait of Hormuz shipping triggered by the Iran war, which began on February 28, has already had significant economic impacts. Skyrocketing insurance premiums for transiting the waterway have pushed shipping costs sharply higher, to the point that it is currently cheaper for most commercial vessels to reroute around the southern tip of Africa rather than take the shorter Red Sea route. The EU official added that even after the Iran war ends, shipping costs are unlikely to return to pre-war levels for at least 12 more months. As a potential mitigation measure, EU officials are currently evaluating the option of offering state-backed insurance guarantees to shipping companies, which would help lower the elevated insurance premiums that have pushed costs so high.

    This report includes contributed reporting from Associated Press correspondent Sam McNeil in Brussels.

  • Drag queen Pattie Gonia fights trademark lawsuit by Patagonia

    Drag queen Pattie Gonia fights trademark lawsuit by Patagonia

    A high-stakes legal conflict between iconic outdoor apparel giant Patagonia and prominent queer climate activist and drag performer Pattie Gonia has entered the public spotlight, after the artist broke her months-long silence on the trademark dispute initiated by the company earlier this year.

    Wyn Wiley, the creator behind the viral drag persona Pattie Gonia, has issued a public plea demanding Patagonia abandon its federal lawsuit, which claims her stage name causes irreparable harm to the outdoor brand’s reputation and trademark. For Wiley, the legal action is far more than a corporate trademark dispute: it threatens the very existence of her advocacy platform, her connection to the LGBTQ+ community, and the livelihood of everyone who works to support her climate and queer justice work.

    “If Patagonia wants to celebrate Pride Month this year by taking a queer climate activist to federal court, then I’m here to fight for myself,” Wiley said in a public statement marking her first comments on the January 2025 suit filed in Los Angeles, California. In an open letter addressed to Patagonia’s executive leadership, Wiley highlighted that her work as Pattie Gonia has raised a total of $3.7 million for environmental nonprofits around the world. The drag performer, who has built a following of millions across social media platforms through attention-grabbing charity initiatives including a 160-kilometer cross-country hike done entirely in drag, said the lawsuit amounts to top executives including CEO Ryan Gellert effectively declaring “I must cease to exist.”

    Patagonia, for its part, has defended its legal action, noting that the company did not seek out this public conflict with a figure that shares its core commitment to environmental protection. “The last thing we wanted was a legal fight with someone who shares our values,” a company representative told the BBC, adding that the suit was a necessary step to protect the business and its workforce.

    The legal filing centers on Wiley’s 2024 application to register “Pattie Gonia” as an official trademark, a step that would allow the performer to expand her work from digital advocacy and public speaking to selling branded merchandise and organizing large-scale public events. Patagonia argues that the Pattie Gonia name, and the similar fonts and design elements Wiley has used, violate a prior informal agreement between the performer and the brand, and that the registered trademark would compete directly with the products and environmental advocacy work that form the foundation of Patagonia’s 52-year-old brand.

    The company stressed that its decision to file suit was not rooted in disagreement with Wiley’s values, noting it would have pursued legal action regardless of the performer’s shared commitment to climate action. Patagonia is only seeking a nominal $1 in damages plus coverage of its legal fees, alongside a court order blocking the registration of the Pattie Gonia trademark.

    Founded in 1973 and named for the remote, ecologically rich cross-border region spanning Argentina and Chile in South America, Patagonia has long cultivated a public image as a purpose-driven brand centered on environmental activism and support for LGBTQ+ inclusion, making the conflict during Pride Month particularly notable for observers of corporate advocacy and queer rights.

  • ‘Terrorist’ knife attack wounds 3 at Swiss train station: official

    ‘Terrorist’ knife attack wounds 3 at Swiss train station: official

    A chilling morning rush-hour stabbing at Switzerland’s Winterthur main railway station left three people injured on Thursday, with regional officials quickly classifying the assault as a confirmed terrorist act. The 31-year-old attacker, identified as Swiss-Turkish national Nesip Dedeler, was taken into custody by police within five minutes of the first emergency call, bringing a swift end to the incident that sparked widespread panic among commuters.

    Witnesses recount the attacker shouting the phrase “Allahu akbar” as he launched his stabbing spree in the busy transit hub, located just 25 kilometers northeast of Zurich in Switzerland’s sixth-largest city. Officials confirmed the attacker had a well-documented history of psychological instability, alongside previous connections to extremist ideology. More than a decade ago, Dedeler faced formal charges for violating Swiss laws banning the spread of Islamic State propaganda. Just two days before the attack, he had been admitted to a local psychiatric hospital after showing up at a nearby police station speaking incoherently. However, psychiatric staff cleared him for discharge on Wednesday, assessing he posed no threat to himself or the public – an assessment now confirmed to be fatally incorrect. “Why that decision was made is beyond our knowledge, but the assessment was obviously wrong,” stated Mario Fehr, the security chief for the canton of Zurich, during an immediate press briefing.

    Fehr made an explicit public designation of the incident as a terrorist attack, a position echoed by regional police commander Marius Weyermann. Weyermann told reporters that “it was clear from the scene that the motive for this act must be sought in the realm of radicalisation and extremism.”

    First responders received the initial emergency call at 8:28 a.m. local time (06:28 GMT), and officers had apprehended Dedeler by 8:33 a.m. All three of the attacker’s victims were men: aged 28, 43, and 52. The oldest victim suffered life-threatening stab wounds to the thigh and required urgent emergency surgery, while the 28-year-old sustained a leg wound and the 43-year-old was stabbed in the neck. Both younger victims have already been released from hospital, Weyermann confirmed.

    Mobile phone footage and witness accounts captured the chaotic scene that unfolded as commuters scattered for safety. The attacker, captured in distant footage wearing a black T-shirt and shorts, ran past a group of young schoolchildren on a group trip without stopping, adding to the shock of the incident. 65-year-old taxi driver Turhan Muslu, one of the first witnesses to the attack, told local Swiss daily Blick that he saw Dedeler rush down a station ramp and attempt to stab a commuter, who fought back aggressively until station security officers arrived to subdue the attacker. “It all happened so fast. If those security guards hadn’t arrived so quickly, I don’t know what would have happened,” Muslu said. Another anonymous witness told the outlet that the attacker shouted “Allahu akbar” five or six times in a visibly agitated state, sending children and bystanders fleeing across the main road in panic. “I still have goosebumps,” the witness added.

    Random targeted attacks on civilian passersby remain extremely rare in Switzerland, a fact that has amplified public shock across the small Alpine nation. Local residents and workers in Winterthur expressed widespread dismay at the violence that upended a routine Thursday morning. “This is not OK. We want peace,” Basharat Iqbal, a taxi driver who arrived at the station shortly after the attack, told AFP. “I was shocked.”

  • Israel ‘added to UN blacklist’ for sexual violence in conflict zones

    Israel ‘added to UN blacklist’ for sexual violence in conflict zones

    In a landmark and deeply controversial decision that has upended Israel-UN relations, the United Nations has placed Israel on its global blacklist for conflict-related sexual violence, Israel’s ambassador to the UN confirmed Thursday. The inclusion, which Israel has furiously condemned as politically motivated and factually baseless, comes after a wave of documented allegations from human rights groups and independent media outlets that Israeli security forces have perpetrated rape and systematic sexual abuse against Palestinian people since the outbreak of the latest Gaza conflict in October 2023.

    The Jerusalem Post, the first Israeli outlet to break news of the listing, confirmed that the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) will formally enter the 2026 iteration of the blacklist, while other Israeli state bodies remain under active review for potential inclusion in future updates. In immediate retaliation for the UN’s action, Israel has frozen all official relations with the office of UN Secretary-General António Guterres, according to the Jerusalem Post report.

    Danny Danon, Israel’s permanent representative to the United Nations, issued a scathing rebuke of the decision, framing it as an unfounded moral attack that equates Israel with notorious terrorist groups. “The UN Secretary-General has put Israel on the same blacklist as Hamas, ISIS, and the most depraved terrorist organizations in the world,” Danon told the outlet. “This is a moral disgrace and a complete collapse of any credibility left to the UN.”

    The blacklist operates as a formal annex to the UN Secretary-General’s annual report on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence (CRSV), a mechanism created to flag state and non-state actors with credible evidence of systematic patterns of rape and other sexual abuses committed during armed conflict. The annual CRSV report is customarily published each August, and entities added to the list typically remain listed for a minimum of one year. The 2025 iteration of the list already included 63 actors drawn from both state and non-state groups, including Palestinian militant group Hamas.

    The allegations against Israeli personnel stretch back months, following the mass detentions of Palestinians in the aftermath of October 2023. Multiple accounts from released detainees, independent human rights investigators, and Israeli advocacy groups have documented a pattern of severe abuses against Palestinian people held in Israeli custody, including sexual violence, torture, deliberate starvation, and cruel, degrading treatment. According to available reporting, at least 100 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli custody since the outbreak of the conflict, with nearly half of those deaths occurring in military detention facilities and the rest in institutions run by the IPS.

    Dozens of released Palestinian detainees have provided on-the-record testimonies detailing the sexual abuse they endured during their detention. In December 2023, two detainees held in separate Israeli facilities told independent outlet Middle East Eye that they had survived violent sexual assault at the hands of Israeli personnel. One detainee recalled being dragged to a secluded room, blindfolded, and assaulted for nearly an hour, during which he was kicked, beaten, and raped with an object. The second detainee reported being raped by trained military dogs.

    These testimonies align with broader findings from official UN investigations: a UN inquiry released last year formally accused Israel of using sexualized torture and rape as a deliberate method of war, designed to “destabilize, dominate, oppress and destroy the Palestinian people.” Prominent Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem has gone further, describing the entire Israeli prison system as a “network of torture camps” where detainees face repeated sexual violence, including organized gang assaults carried out by groups of prison guards and soldiers.

  • Israeli strike near Beirut as Lebanon says raids kill 14

    Israeli strike near Beirut as Lebanon says raids kill 14

    A new wave of Israeli airstrikes targeting areas near Beirut has sent tensions soaring between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement Thursday, marking the second Israeli strike on the Lebanese capital’s vicinity since a shaky April ceasefire that has failed to hold on either side.

    The escalation comes at a particularly sensitive diplomatic moment: military delegations from both Lebanon and Israel are set to meet at the Pentagon Friday for preparatory discussions, ahead of the fourth round of US-brokered negotiations early next week. The diplomatic process was launched after the latest round of full-scale conflict between Israel and Hezbollah erupted on March 2.

    Lebanese security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity to Agence France-Presse (AFP), confirmed that the Thursday strike hit a residential apartment in the Choueifat district, located on the edge of Beirut’s southern suburbs—a longstanding Hezbollah stronghold. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) only confirmed it carried out a “precise strike in Beirut” and declined to publicly name the target. Footage captured by AFPTV showed thick plumes of smoke rising from the strike site, and an AFP on-the-ground correspondent reported extensive damage to the first two floors of the residential building. Local residents were seen hastily loading belongings into vehicles and fleeing the area ahead of potential further strikes.

    This strike is the second Israeli attack on south Beirut since the April 17 ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah, a truce that was never fully implemented or respected by either faction. Both sides regularly accuse the other of violating the agreement, and frame their own retaliatory strikes as a justified response to opposing truce breaches. Just hours before the Beirut-area strike Thursday, Hezbollah claimed responsibility for multiple rocket and drone attacks targeting Israeli troops deployed in southern Lebanon.

    The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which maintains a peacekeeping presence in the border region, acknowledged that the April truce initially brought a lull in hostilities, but has warned of steady worsening violence in recent weeks. “Last month’s agreement had a positive effect in lessening the violence, but we have seen an escalation in recent weeks, and an intense escalation in recent days,” UNIFIL spokesperson Kandice Ardiel told AFP. The force’s official data confirms that roughly 670 projectiles were fired across the border Wednesday alone—the highest daily volume of fire since the April 17 truce was announced.

    The current escalation began building Wednesday, when the IDF designated all of southern Lebanon south of the Zahrani River—approximately 25 miles from the Israeli border, encompassing the major southern cities of Tyre and Nabatieh—as an official combat zone, ordering all civilian residents to evacuate immediately. Israeli officials reiterated this week that they plan to ramp up military operations across Lebanon and expand ongoing ground incursions into southern Lebanese territory. On Thursday afternoon, the IDF issued a second round of evacuation orders for large swathes of Tyre and its surrounding outskirts.

    Early Thursday, Israeli airstrikes hit both Tyre and the southern Lebanese port city of Sidon, leaving widespread destruction and multiple casualties. In Tyre, one strike hit a building located in the city’s protected archaeological district, with footage capturing a massive fireball erupting before smoke billowed over the historic area. Local resident Ghazouane Halawani told AFP he believes Israeli forces are deliberately targeting the ancient city’s cultural heritage. “Israel wanted to attack the ancient city’s history and its civilisation,” he said. “We’re staying here. This is our country, our land, our life.”

    Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi announced via social platform X that he had launched “intensive diplomatic contacts” after the Tyre strikes hit “its historic old neighbourhoods, churches, mosques, and cultural landmarks that have stood resilient for thousands of years.”

    As of Thursday, Lebanon’s health ministry has confirmed mounting civilian casualties from the recent wave of strikes: a strike in Tyre killed two Syrian nationals, one of them a child; a separate raid on Sidon killed five people including two women; and a targeted strike on a vehicle in the southern Lebanese town of Adloun killed an entire family of six—two children, their parents, and two other relatives. Lebanon’s military confirmed one of its soldiers was killed while driving in the Nabatieh region in another strike, and the state-run National News Agency reported additional Israeli strikes across multiple other locations in southern Lebanon. On the Israeli side, the IDF confirmed one Israeli soldier was killed Wednesday by a Hezbollah drone attack near the shared border.

    The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah is part of the broader regional Middle East war that erupted after Hezbollah opened fire on Israel in response to the killing of Iran’s supreme leader in a joint US-Israeli strike, prompting full-scale Israeli air and ground operations across Lebanon. Tehran has repeatedly insisted that any ceasefire agreement to end the broader regional conflict must include a formal end to hostilities in Lebanon. Tensions between the US and Iran also flared Thursday, with both sides trading accusations of violating their own recent bilateral truce following an exchange of cross-border fire.

  • Brazil star Neymar injured and unlikely to be fit for first game at World Cup

    Brazil star Neymar injured and unlikely to be fit for first game at World Cup

    RIO DE JANEIRO – When Brazil head coach Carlo Ancelotti named injury-prone Neymar to his 26-man preliminary squad for the upcoming FIFA World Cup, the decision immediately raised eyebrows across global football circles. Just 10 days after the squad announcement, those concerns have turned into reality: the 34-year-old star forward has been diagnosed with a grade two calf injury that will almost certainly keep him out of Brazil’s opening group stage fixture against Morocco, the national team’s senior doctor Rodrigo Lasmar confirmed to reporters on Thursday.

    Lasmar shared that Neymar reported to Brazil’s iconic Granja Comary training complex, located just outside Rio de Janeiro, on Wednesday to complete pre-camp medical screenings. Following a full battery of tests, medical staff confirmed the calf strain, with an expected recovery timeline that will keep the attacker sidelined for between two and three weeks. That timeline rules Neymar out of Brazil’s first group match, scheduled for June 13 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Brazil’s group also features Haiti and Scotland, meaning Neymar could still potentially return for later group stage matches if his rehabilitation progresses smoothly.

    The latest injury setback adds another chapter to Neymar’s long-running battle with fitness issues in recent years. The four-time World Cup attendee has not featured for the Brazilian senior national side since October 2023, when he suffered a torn cruciate ligament in his left knee during a World Cup qualifying match against Uruguay. Following his recovery, Neymar completed a free transfer from Saudi Pro League side Al-Hilal back to his boyhood club Santos in Brazil earlier this year, but has only appeared in a handful of first-team matches for the club as he works his way back to full match fitness.

    For Ancelotti, there is still a path to replacing Neymar in the squad if the coaching and medical staff decide that is the best course of action. Under FIFA’s official World Cup competition rules, head coaches are permitted to make alterations to their squads up until the June 1 deadline for final squad submissions, or even as late as 24 hours before a team’s opening tournament match if a player suffers a qualifying injury. The Brazilian Football Confederation and Ancelotti’s staff have not yet announced whether they will pursue a replacement, with the focus currently on supporting Neymar through his initial recovery.

  • Joy and tears as brothers complete 33-day marathon challenge and raise £1.5m

    Joy and tears as brothers complete 33-day marathon challenge and raise £1.5m

    Against a backdrop of roaring cheers, warm hugs and tears of joy and triumph, two UK brothers have crossed the final finish line of an extraordinary 33-day, 33-marathon challenge that has already raised £1.5 million for life-saving frontotemporal dementia (FTD) research.

    Jordan and Cian Adams, originally from Redditch in Worcestershire, England, closed out their grueling fundraising journey in Dublin’s Merrion Square on the final leg, where hundreds of local supporters lined the route to cheer them across the line. Joined by close friends and family, including their sister Kennedy Frampton, with their father John and grandfather Glenn watching from the crowd, the pair completed their final 26.2-mile stretch just five hours after setting off from north Dublin that morning.

    The ambitious challenge carries deeply personal meaning for the brothers. Their mother Geraldine passed away at age 52 following an FTD diagnosis, and both siblings inherited the rare genetic mutation that causes the condition, meaning they are statistically likely to develop FTD symptoms in their 40s. Operating under the moniker the “FTD Brothers”, the pair launched their challenge at the London Marathon, where Jordan completed the course with a full-sized refrigerator strapped to his back — a stunt designed to draw public attention and spark curiosity about their cause. The day after the London Marathon, they traveled to Ireland to begin a cross-island odyssey, running one full marathon in each of Ireland’s 32 counties over the following 32 days to hit their total 33-marathon goal.

    In an emotional address to the crowd gathered at the finish line, Jordan reflected on the moment he learned he carried the FTD gene. “I walked out of the hospital that day knowing I wanted to make an impact on the world,” he said. Remembering his mother as “beautiful, vivacious, [and] the coolest mum you could ever ask for”, he added that a devastating diagnosis is not a sentence to defeat. “The hand you get dealt can consume you, or you can walk through a door where you use it as a powerful message to the world. No matter how much time you have here, or what cards you’ve been dealt, you always have a choice in how you play your hand.”

    For the brothers, the cross-Ireland journey carried extra personal significance beyond fundraising. Though they grew up in England, their mother’s family roots stretch across Ireland, where multiple relatives have also been affected by FTD. Cian shared that the month of running allowed the pair to reconnect with their family’s heritage. “Our mum brought us here numerous times as kids, so getting to go back to Longford and Leitrim, to see where our granddad went to school and our nan grew up, it was incredibly special,” he said.

    The feat has drawn widespread praise, including a personal letter of congratulations from the Prince of Wales, who wrote he was “incredibly impressed with your inspiring journey and ambitious challenge to undertake 32 consecutive marathons across Ireland.”

    In the days leading up to the final marathon, both brothers acknowledged the extreme physical toll of the challenge, telling reporters they were already “shattered” after 30 straight days of running. The final route saw limited public participation in the opening miles for safety, with only friends and family allowed to join for the closing 10 kilometers to the finish line.

    Speaking after his sons crossed the finish line, John Adams brushed aside suggestions the brothers were extraordinary, describing them as “just normal working-class boys from a small town in the Midlands.” Their grandfather Glenn Adams, who accompanied the pair on most of their Irish journey while also traveling back to England regularly to care for his own partner who lives with dementia, said the family’s legacy of grit was the real driving force. “It’s hard to put into words how proud I am of them. They are wonderful, and this grit and determination is a family trait that gets passed right down through the generations,” he said. “And I have to say, the people of Ireland were so generous, every person I spoke to was incredibly kind.”

    Their sister Kennedy Frampton said she remains endlessly inspired by how her brothers have turned devastating personal news into purpose. “I’m so grateful they haven’t let this diagnosis overcome them,” she said. “They actually make every day count, and I couldn’t be prouder.”

  • Villas, cars and cash: Italy seizes dead Mafia mobster’s millions

    Villas, cars and cash: Italy seizes dead Mafia mobster’s millions

    In a major blow to the remnants of Sicily’s infamous Cosa Nostra syndicate, Italian anti-mafia investigators have seized cash, business holdings, and high-value assets totaling more than €200 million (£175 million) tied to the criminal network of the late mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro. All recovered assets are confirmed to be illicit proceeds from more than 40 years of transnational drug trafficking orchestrated by Denaro, who once served as the presumed top leader of Cosa Nostra.

    The operation was announced by law enforcement officials during a press briefing in Sicily on Thursday, alongside the release of dramatic footage showing masked officers — some equipped with full riot gear — storming locked doors, climbing exterior walls, and executing raids across a string of sprawling luxury villas nestled behind palm-lined manicured lawns. The seizure caps a years-long global manhunt and investigation that followed the high-profile arrest and death of Denaro in 2023.

    Denaro evaded law enforcement for 30 years while on the run, ultimately being captured last year as he exited a private medical clinic where he was receiving treatment for late-stage cancer. He died in prison custody just months after his arrest, bringing an end to the decades-long search for one of Italy’s most wanted fugitives.

    Before his capture, Denaro had already been sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia for a litany of brutal crimes, including multiple high-profile murders. Most notoriously, he was convicted of orchestrating the 1992 assassinations of two leading anti-mafia prosecutors in separate bomb attacks carried out just weeks apart. He was also found guilty of the kidnapping and murder of a 12-year-old boy, the son of a mafia associate who turned state witness. After holding the child captive for two years, Denaro ordered the boy to be strangled to death, and his body was dissolved in acid to prevent it ever being recovered — a horrific detail that shocked the Italian public.

    The most recent asset seizure operation was built on a years-long investigation into the Cosa Nostra’s shadowy money trail, which stretched across multiple jurisdictions beyond Italy: investigators tracked illicit funds through Spain, Switzerland, and the Caribbean tax haven of the Cayman Islands. To date, three individuals with direct ties to Denaro’s network have been taken into custody, and eight commercial enterprises — most prominently several real estate firms found to be laundering illicit proceeds — have been identified for seizure and winding down. High-value luxury items confiscated include high-end sports cars such as a Porsche, alongside undeclared cash stashes hidden across the properties.

    Giovanni Melillo, head of Italy’s National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor’s Office, emphasized that the operation carries far more weight than just the value of the recovered assets, calling it “strategically significant” for Italian national security. Speaking to reporters, Melillo explained that the seizure is a critical step to stop the remaining members of Denaro’s network from rebuilding the powerful criminal organization that operated unimpeded for decades. “Seizing this wealth means continuing the disintegration process [of the criminal group] and blocking efforts to re-establish structures capable of projecting the full intimidating power and economic and social influence of the Cosa Nostra on a global scale,” he said.

    Italy’s finance police, the Guardia di Finanza, which led the on-the-ground raiding work, revealed that the investigation was first triggered by a suspicious activity report from Andorran financial authorities, who flagged an Italian woman holding extraordinary unexplained financial resources. Investigators later confirmed the woman was married to a major drug trafficker with close direct ties to both the Cosa Nostra and Denaro personally. That initial lead opened up a web of connections that spread to half a dozen other countries, requiring cross-border coordination between law enforcement agencies.

    In total, more than 150 officers were deployed across the global operation, which utilized cutting-edge investigative tools: drones and thermal imaging scanners were used to locate hidden caches of cash stashed on properties, while specialized digital forensics experts traced illicit funds stored in digital wallets and cryptocurrency accounts.

    While Italian media has dubbed the massive haul “Denaro’s drugs trove,” law enforcement officials have acknowledged that the €200 million recovered represents only a small fraction of the total illicit wealth accumulated by Denaro’s network over four decades. Much of the organization’s fortune has already been laundered and reinvested in legitimate businesses across the globe, meaning investigators will continue pursuing remaining assets for years to come.