Global Pulse

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  • Search for victims continues as death toll rises in Washington chemical explosion

    Search for victims continues as death toll rises in Washington chemical explosion

    A catastrophic chemical tank rupture at a Longview, Washington paper mill has left two workers dead, seven other people injured, and nine crew members unaccounted for, in what state officials have called the deadliest industrial accident in modern Washington state history. The incident unfolded Tuesday at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging facility, located roughly 130 miles south of Seattle, when a tank storing white liquor — a highly corrosive alkaline chemical used in paper manufacturing — suffered a catastrophic failure.

    By Wednesday, emergency officials confirmed two fatalities, after one injured worker initially hospitalized following the blast succumbed to injuries. Seven employees and one responding firefighter were among those hurt in the incident, and rescue crews have not given up the slow, painstaking work of locating the nine still missing. However, officials have cautioned that they do not expect to find any additional survivors, given the force of the blast and the extreme hazards at the site.

    First responders have faced extraordinary challenges throughout the recovery operation. The accident site remains an active, extremely hazardous zone, with persistent slow leaks of corrosive chemical from the damaged tank. While hundreds of thousands of gallons of white liquor have already spilled, an estimated 25,000 gallons remain trapped inside the compromised structure, and ongoing concerns about the tank’s structural integrity have forced repeated delays to search efforts. Recovery operations were halted entirely overnight Tuesday due to the combined risks of darkness and unstable conditions, resuming at dawn Wednesday.

    Search crews are outfitted in specialized chemical protective gear, but Longview Fire Department Battalion Chief Matt Amos noted that even top-tier equipment cannot eliminate all industrial hazards present at the site. “Operations will be slow, methodical and deliberate… while treating every victim with the greatest dignity, care and respect as possible,” Amos told reporters at a Wednesday news conference. As any remains are recovered, they will first go through mandatory decontamination before being transferred to the Cowlitz County Coroner’s Office for formal identification and family notification. One of the two confirmed victims has been publicly identified by his family as Gilbert Bernal, a grandfather and long-time employee who was set to celebrate his 32nd wedding anniversary just weeks after the blast. Bernal’s daughter Geovana remembered him as a hardworking, selfless man who deeply loved his family. The second victim’s identity has not yet been released.

    A large volume of chemical contaminants from the spill have entered the nearby Columbia River, but state and local officials have confirmed that local drinking water supplies and regional air quality remain unaffected by the release. Cowlitz Fire and Rescue Chief Scott Goldstein told reporters that authorities still do not know the exact location of all nine missing workers, as large portions of the facility remain too dangerous to access for search teams.

    The Nippon Dynawave Packaging facility, which employs roughly 1,000 workers and produces a range of paper goods including tissues, printer paper, disposable food packaging and cardboard cartons, has a prior record of industrial incidents: in July 2023, a large multi-day fire broke out at the site, burning piles of stored wood for several days. In response to the blast, Washington Governor Bob Ferguson has deployed the state National Guard to assist with recovery and cleanup efforts. As operations continue, local community members have gathered near the site to support first responders and the families of the missing and deceased.

  • Jill Biden says she thought husband was ‘having a stroke’ during 2024 debate

    Jill Biden says she thought husband was ‘having a stroke’ during 2024 debate

    The 2024 U.S. presidential election, one of the most turbulent in modern American political history, has yielded new behind-the-scenes revelations from former first lady Jill Biden, who opened up about her panic during Joe Biden’s disastrous first debate against Republican nominee Donald Trump. In a forthcoming interview with CBS News Sunday Morning, set to air this weekend, Jill Biden shared for the first time her immediate visceral reaction to her husband’s faltering performance that upended the entire election cycle.

    “I was frightened, because I had never ever seen Joe like that before or since. Never,” she told CBS correspondent Rita Braver, as confirmed by the BBC, CBS’s partner for U.S. political coverage. “I don’t know what happened,” she added. “As I watched it, I thought, ‘Oh, my God, he’s having a stroke.’ And it scared me to death.”

    That June 2024 debate, held just five months before the November general election, was supposed to be a critical moment for incumbent President Joe Biden to make his case for a second term against his predecessor Trump. The two candidates clashed on defining national issues, from immigration policy and post-pandemic economic recovery to abortion rights, but any policy arguments Biden made were quickly overshadowed by his shaky on-stage demeanor. Then-Vice President Kamala Harris later described the performance as a “slow start”; Biden spoke with a raspy, strained voice (his team attributed this to a lingering illness) and at one point lost his train of thought mid-answer, leaving viewers and party leaders stunned.

    Long before the debate, voters had already raised widespread concerns about Biden’s age and mental acuity — he was 81 years old at the time, the oldest person ever to serve as sitting president — and that poor performance amplified those anxieties exponentially. Within hours, Democratic Party leaders began privately and publicly pressuring Biden to drop out of the race, warning that his candidacy would put not just the presidency but down-ballot congressional and gubernatorial seats at risk. Major U.S. media analysts echoed those concerns, arguing that Biden’s standing against Trump had deteriorated to a point that threatened the party’s chances of holding the White House.

    At first, Biden’s campaign pushed back hard against calls for him to exit, insisting the president would remain the Democratic nominee and would participate in a second scheduled debate against Trump. Political analysts also widely noted that replacing an incumbent nominee just months before a general election would require a chaotic, divisive process that could split the party and derail its campaign entirely. But a series of subsequent missteps, including awkward gaffes at a NATO summit in the weeks after the debate and a visibly frail appearance following a COVID-19 diagnosis, convinced Biden that he could not continue. He ultimately announced he would end his re-election bid and endorsed Harris, his vice president, to take his place as the party’s nominee.

    Jill Biden, who has been a constant presence alongside her husband through his 50-plus-year political career — from his early days as a U.S. Senator from Delaware to his four years in the White House — was widely recognized as one of Joe Biden’s most trusted and influential advisers during his presidency, and multiple reports have confirmed she was among those who encouraged him to step away from the 2024 race.

    Three months before the general election, Harris officially secured the Democratic nomination, but she ultimately failed to overcome the late start and lost the general election to Trump. In the aftermath of her defeat, Harris offered a scathing rebuke of Biden’s decision to run for a second term in her memoir, calling the choice an act of recklessness. “‘It’s Joe and Jill’s decision.’ We all said that, like a mantra, as if we’d all been hypnotized,” Harris wrote. “Was it grace, or was it recklessness? In retrospect, I think it was recklessness.”

    Jill Biden’s new comments offer the most intimate look yet at the moment that changed the trajectory of the 2024 election, laying bare the fear that gripped even Biden’s closest inner circle in the aftermath of the debate.

  • Canada signs landmark LNG energy deal with Germany

    Canada signs landmark LNG energy deal with Germany

    On a Wednesday announcement held in Vancouver, Canadian officials unveiled a historic long-term energy agreement that will open a new transatlantic energy corridor, shipping 1 million tons of Canadian liquified natural gas (LNG) to Germany every year for up to two decades. The deal, struck between the proposed Ksi Lisims LNG project on British Columbia’s northwest Pacific coast and Germany’s state-owned energy utility Securing Energy for Europe (SEFE), marks the first permanent LNG export route from Canada to Europe, addressing dual strategic priorities for both nations.

    For European partners, the agreement comes amid a years-long push to replace unreliable fossil fuel supplies following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as the continent continues to shore up diversified, stable energy sources amid ongoing global geopolitical volatility including the Middle East conflict. For Canada, the deal delivers a long-sought win for trade diversification: 2024 data from Canada’s national energy regulator shows nearly 100 percent of the country’s current LNG exports are delivered exclusively to the United States, making this new route a significant shift away from overreliance on a single trading partner.

    Canadian Energy Minister Tim Hodgson framed the pact as a defining milestone for the country’s global energy role during the announcement. “This is an exciting and important milestone that proves the world trusts Canada,” Hodgson said, noting the country’s standing as a stable democratic nation with abundant untapped natural resource reserves that can fill critical gaps in global energy markets. He added that the binding export commitment is expected to unlock the final investment decision for the Ksi Lisims project within months, with construction set to begin shortly after funding is secured. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who prioritized the project during a 2025 trade mission to Berlin with his cabinet, has designated Ksi Lisims as a project of national importance, qualifying it for a fast-track regulatory review process.

    Despite the federal government’s celebration of the deal, the Ksi Lisims LNG project faces substantial headwinds on multiple fronts. More than 15 Indigenous and environmental organizations have pledged to block the development, arguing the project carries unacceptable environmental risks and faces unresolved legal challenges. “Ksi Lisims is not a future Canadian export success story,” explained Alex Walker, a campaigner with Environmental Defence, one of the leading opposition groups. “This is a high-risk, legally contested fossil fuel project that has failed to attract private capital for decades.” While the Nisga’a Nation, on whose traditional territory the export terminal would be built, supports the project, multiple other First Nations groups have already launched formal legal challenges to stop its development.

    Domestic political friction is also growing within Carney’s own government over climate policy. Just last week, 14 Liberal Party Members of Parliament signed an open letter to the prime minister expressing “deep concern” over what they characterize as a rollback of the federal government’s stated climate and environmental commitments. On the same day the LNG deal was announced, former Canadian Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault — a prominent Greenpeace activist before entering electoral politics — confirmed he will resign from the Liberal caucus this summer to focus on climate advocacy outside of government. “These seven years, intense, demanding and deeply meaningful have been among the most formative of my life,” Guilbeault told reporters from Parliament. “It is time now for me to find new ways to pursue my life’s work.” Responding to Guilbeault’s departure, Hodgson framed the Liberal Party as a “big tent” that accommodates a range of ideological perspectives, saying “At the end of the day we come together, form a collective view and execute on that.”

    In a separate announcement made the same day, Carney confirmed Canada will purchase new early-warning aircraft technology from a Swedish defense manufacturer, rejecting bids from competing U.S. contractors. The decision aligns with Carney’s previously stated pledge to reduce Canadian military spending on American-made equipment, telling audiences last April that “the days of our military sending 70 cents of every dollar to the United States are over.”

  • How a Gaza-bound aid convoy unravelled attempting to enter Haftar-controlled eastern Libya

    How a Gaza-bound aid convoy unravelled attempting to enter Haftar-controlled eastern Libya

    Last week, international headlines focused on Israeli forces intercepting a sea-bound pro-Palestinian aid flotilla heading to Gaza. What gained less immediate attention, however, was a parallel disruption 2,000 kilometers to the west, where a land-based wing of the same Global Sumud solidarity movement saw its journey to the besieged enclave collapse into detention and chaos.

    More than 200 activists with the Global Sumud Convoy pushed into the 5+5 security zone outside the Libyan city of Sirte, a buffer zone established under the country’s 2020 ceasefire agreement that has remained a contested flashpoint. The group’s goal was simple: negotiate safe passage through eastern Libya to Egypt’s Rafah crossing, the primary entry point for aid into blockaded Gaza.

    After days of camping in the zone, armed forces arrived at the encampment and broke up the convoy. Most participants were forcibly escorted back to the capital Tripoli under armed guard, but 10 international activists from Spain, Poland, the United States, Argentina, Uruguay, Portugal, Tunisia and Italy were taken into custody and remain held by Libyan authorities.

    Speaking to Middle East Eye from her home in Johannesburg, South Africa, activist Jessica Breakey, who returned after the dismantling, described the group’s reluctance to leave their detained comrades behind. “We just didn’t want to leave without them,” she said. “It was always like we were in this together, like this convoy was moving together – and I think the worst part about the camp being dismantled and us having to go back was that we were going back without them.”

    Libya has been fractured along political and geographic lines since the 2011 NATO-backed overthrow of former ruler Muammar Gaddafi. Eastern Libya is controlled by the Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF) led by commander Khalifa Haftar, backed by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, while a UN-supported unity government governs the western half of the country, including Tripoli.

    The Global Sumud Convoy, launched by North African activists and later joined by hundreds of international participants, set out from Mauritania with a clear mission: deliver tangible, practical aid to Gaza that would go beyond the largely symbolic impact of previous sea-based flotillas. The convoy carried seven ambulances, 10 aid trucks, 20 mobile homes, and a team of medical professionals, engineers, educators and legal observers. Its progress across North Africa was largely uneventful until it reached the Sirte security zone.

    Negotiations for onward passage hit a breaking point on Sunday, when the convoy’s negotiating team was arrested. The following day, security forces arrived at the camp, forced the remaining activists onto buses at gunpoint, and even fired tear gas into a nearby mosque where some activists had taken shelter. It remains unclear which authority the security forces were directly affiliated with.

    Breakey noted that the treatment in Sirte stood in sharp contrast to the warm welcome and widespread public support the convoy received from Libyan civilians on its journey from Tripoli westward. She also criticized the Libyan Red Crescent, which had publicly expressed support for the convoy but failed to attend planned negotiations with Haftar’s representatives, effectively going “missing in action” as the crisis unfolded. “It’s crazy looking back at a time when we actually were very, very hopeful,” she added.

    Shortly after the raid, the eastern Libyan government’s foreign ministry announced new restrictions barring non-Libyan and non-Egyptian travelers from moving onward to Egypt. The ministry defended its actions, saying it handled the situation “within the framework of legal and humanitarian responsibility,” and claimed all detainees “are receiving the necessary care and medical and humanitarian follow-up.” It also reaffirmed Libya’s formal support for the Palestinian cause, but stressed that “respect for national sovereignty and the legal regulations governing the movement of individuals across borders is non-negotiable.”

    Human rights monitors have repeatedly documented widespread abuses in areas controlled by Haftar’s LAAF. Amnesty International reports that the LAAF and its affiliated armed groups severely restrict freedom of expression and association, targeting anyone perceived as a critic or opponent of Haftar. “Libyans, as well as refugees and migrants, detained by LAAF, which exercises government-like functions in areas under its control, risk torture and other ill-treatment, as well as prolonged detention amid flagrant due process violations,” explained Sara Hashash, Amnesty International’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa.

    Despite repeated reassurances from eastern Libyan officials, friends and fellow activists have grown increasingly anxious about the conditions and extended detention of the 10 activists. The coinciding timing of Eid al-Adha has reportedly slowed diplomatic progress and limited contact with detainees.

    On Thursday, Italy’s consul general in Benghazi confirmed he had visited the two Italian detainees held at a police barracks in eastern Libya. Following the visit, eastern Libyan authorities agreed to minor improvements to detention conditions, allowing access to showers, clean clothes and better accommodation, but have not released any information about possible deportation or release procedures.

    Not all criticism of the incident has come from outside the convoy: some participating activists say the mission suffered from fatal planning flaws from its start. Felipe, a 29-year-old Chilean-Palestinian activist with experience on previous sea-based aid flotillas, argues the convoy’s leadership bore partial responsibility for the outcome.

    During a two-week wait in Tripoli, Felipe said it became clear that organizers had made no contingency plans for detentions or a confrontation with the LAAF. “If we were not able to go through east Libya, we should not have kept pressuring them because we were going to shift the narrative from Israel to Libya,” he said. “We were waiting in the desert for nine days doing nothing.”

    He added that leadership sidelined critical voices ahead of the push into the security zone. “The day before [the raid], when they decided to go to the [eastern Libyan] border, I was not invited to the meeting because I was being critical. Their plan was basically to have a permanent camp or to do a hunger strike on the border,” he explained. Felipe added that the group was camped at an abandoned, bullet-riddled gas station that was once used by the Islamic State group, and many participants did not grasp the severity of their location or the risks. After the arrests, he argued, the convoy should have retreated to the western city of Misrata, as it had no resources or leverage to secure the detainees’ release. The entire experience, he said, left him disillusioned with land-based aid efforts: “Our people risked their lives to end the siege on Gaza… we came here and we risked our lives for nothing.”

    Analysts and rights advocates warn the incident could mark the end of any future land-based aid convoys attempting to cross Libya to reach Gaza. In recent years, Haftar has repeatedly signaled his interest in building diplomatic and economic ties with Israel, including through reported secret visits to meet Israeli officials, though it is unclear whether this influenced the LAAF’s handling of the convoy.

    Estelle Allemann, a legal researcher at the Mena Rights Group, called the new restrictions imposed by eastern Libyan authorities “a deeply troubling attempt to weaponise border control against humanitarian solidarity with Palestinians.” She added, “Restricting the movement of aid convoy activists under the guise of travel policy raises serious concerns about the criminalisation of civilian support for Gaza, and would fit a broader regional pattern of suppressing pro-Palestinian activism.”

    Middle East Eye attempted to contact the eastern Libyan foreign ministry for additional comment, but had not received a response by the time of publication. In a formal statement released Thursday, the Maghreb Sumud Organisation, one of the convoy’s lead organizers, issued a clarification of recent events. It confirmed that all non-detained participants have been instructed to return to their home countries, with only a small team of senior officials remaining in Libya to continue diplomatic and legal efforts to secure the release of the 10 detainees and coordinate the delivery of the planned aid. The group emphasized that the Global Sumud Convoy was never intended as an act of confrontation, but rather an independent, civilian humanitarian initiative to show moral solidarity with Gazans facing ongoing siege, widespread starvation, and total humanitarian collapse.

  • Trump appears to threaten to ‘blow up’ ally Oman

    Trump appears to threaten to ‘blow up’ ally Oman

    In a stunning verbal outburst that has sent shockwaves through diplomatic circles, former US President Donald Trump issued what appears to be an explicit military threat against Oman, a long-standing key American ally in the volatile Middle East, over ongoing negotiations to reopen the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz. The remarks, delivered during a White House cabinet meeting Wednesday, have already reignited questions about the 79-year-old leader’s inconsistent rhetoric and frequent verbal missteps amid rising tensions in the Gulf region.

    When pressed by reporters on whether he would accept a short-term agreement that would let Iran and Oman jointly manage access to the key waterway, Trump delivered a blunt and aggressive response. “No, the strait is going to be open to everybody,” he stated firmly. “It’s international waters and Oman will behave just like everybody else or we’ll have to blow them up. They understand that, they’ll be fine.”

    Immediately following the comments, reporters from Agence France-Presse reached out to the White House to ask whether Trump had misspoken, with widespread speculation that he may have intended to target Iran rather than Oman — a close security partner that has repeatedly attempted to mediate ongoing Middle East conflicts and has even faced direct attacks from Tehran in recent months. To date, the White House has not issued any correction, clarification, or walkback of the president’s remarks. The US State Department even went a step further, publishing an unedited video clip and full transcript of Trump’s comments about Oman to its official channels, with no note indicating a verbal error.

    This latest verbal gaffe fits a broader pattern of mixed-up names and locations for the president. Earlier this term, Trump confused Iran and Venezuela, incorrectly claiming that the South American nation — whose leader Nicolas Maduro was toppled by US military intervention in January — “no longer has a navy, no longer has an air force.” This aggressive phrasing of destroying a target’s military capabilities is one Trump has repeatedly deployed when referring to Iran, which was jointly attacked by US and Israeli forces on February 28.

    The current standoff centers on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that normally carries roughly one-fifth of the world’s daily oil trade. In recent weeks, Iran has pushed to establish a new status quo at the strait, proposing a plan to charge transit tolls on passing commercial vessels and split the generated revenue with Oman. Negotiations to end the ongoing Middle East war and reopen the strait to full unimpeded transit have stalled once again, a development that has deepened Trump’s public frustration — just days after he confidently claimed a final deal was within reach.

    Diplomatic observers have noted that the uncorrected threat against Oman marks an unprecedented break with longstanding US diplomatic norms, raising concerns about the stability of American alliances in a region already roiled by months of open conflict.

  • Brazil to invest $75 million in highway through Amazon and unveils environmental protection plan

    Brazil to invest $75 million in highway through Amazon and unveils environmental protection plan

    On a Wednesday ceremony held in Iranduba, a small Amazonas city roughly 37 kilometers from the Amazon basin’s largest urban center Manaus, Brazil’s federal government unveiled a $75 million investment plan to pave the long-unfinished BR-319 highway, a major infrastructure project cutting through the heart of the world’s most biodiverse and climate-critical rainforest. The 1976-originated highway remains largely unpaved to this day, connecting the northern Amazonian states of Amazonas and Rondonia to the rest of Brazil and ending in Manaus, a city home to more than 2 million residents. Running parallel to the Madeira River, a key tributary of the Amazon that has been repeatedly crippled by severe droughts disrupting regional cargo transport, the project is framed by the administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva as a critical step for regional connectivity while promising rigorous environmental safeguards that would set a global benchmark.

    “From an environmental standpoint, it will be the most modern road in the world,” Lula told attendees at the event, which was also attended by Environment Minister João Paulo Capobianco and a cohort of local politicians widely expected to back Lula’s campaign for a fourth non-consecutive presidential term in October’s national election. “Any foreigner who comes here to weigh in on the climate issue, we will show what we’ve done here,” the president added. Alongside the highway funding announcement, the government revealed additional planned local investments led by state-run energy giant Petrobras and its pipeline subsidiary Transpetro.

    To address widespread environmental concerns over the project, the Lula administration unveiled a parallel environmental protection plan that it says will mitigate the highway’s potential impact on the rainforest. The plan includes continuous satellite and on-the-ground environmental monitoring across a 31-mile-wide buffer zone stretching along the entire length of the highway, new inspection checkpoints, permanent bases for environmental enforcement agencies, and the creation of new protected conservation units. Officials noted that the highway corridor cuts through one of the Amazon’s most ecologically sensitive regions, requiring a stronger permanent state presence to prevent unauthorized incursion. A private contractor will be hired in 2028 to support ongoing enforcement efforts, according to the government’s plan. A day before the formal announcement, Lula visited an active work section of the dirt highway, posing for photos with construction crews and machinery to signal the administration’s commitment to moving the project forward.

    Despite the government’s promises of robust protection, environmental organizations have fiercely opposed the project and challenged it in Brazil’s courts. Leading climate advocacy group Climate Observatory filed a lawsuit in 2024 to overturn the project’s 2022 preliminary paving license, arguing that regulators ignored formal technical warnings from Brazil’s national environmental agency and failed to complete required pre-construction steps, including meaningful consultation with Indigenous communities and independent climate impact assessments. A subsequent legal challenge briefly paused a related bidding process for construction contracts back in April, though a higher Brazilian court quickly overturned the suspension. Federal Minister George Santoro confirmed Wednesday that the entire highway will be contracted out and construction will be underway across the full route by the end of June.

    Ecologists and environmental policy experts have long linked the construction of paved roads in the Amazon to accelerated deforestation, a trend that threatens both the rainforest’s ability to regulate the global climate and the sovereignty of Indigenous communities that call the region home. The BR-319 corridor cuts through one of the Amazon biome’s last remaining well-preserved intact forest landscapes, which hosts dozens of established protected areas and Indigenous territorial reserves. Peer-reviewed scientific research has repeatedly confirmed that opening new official roads in the Amazon creates pathways for illegal logging, land grabbing, and the construction of unauthorized side roads that expand deforestation deep into intact forest. A 2014 study published in *Biological Conservation* found that 95% of all Amazon deforestation occurs within 3.4 miles of constructed roads, and for every one kilometer of official paved road built, an average of 1.9 kilometers of informal illegal side roads are carved into the forest.

    Critics point out that deforestation in the BR-319 region spiked almost immediately after the project was first announced under former President Jair Bolsonaro, long before any paving began. Marina Silva, a former environment minister in Lula’s current administration who stepped down in April to run for a seat in Congress, told a Senate hearing last year that clearing had already surged after the initial announcement. Marcio Astrini, executive director of the Climate Observatory, argues that the Lula administration is cutting corners on environmental due process by rolling out protection plans at the same time construction proceeds, rather than finalizing and implementing safeguards before paving work begins.

    “Just the simple announcement under (former President Jair) Bolsonaro’s government that the road would be rebuilt nearly doubled land grabbing and deforestation in the area. Laying asphalt there creates another incentive,” Astrini said. “If there are no protection measures in place, it just becomes yet another driver of deforestation.”

  • AI chiefs walk back job apocalypse warnings

    AI chiefs walk back job apocalypse warnings

    In a sharp reversal of earlier doomsday predictions, the most high-profile leaders of the global artificial intelligence industry are walking back their dire claims that the technology would trigger widespread mass job elimination. The shift in rhetoric comes as the sector faces rising public backlash over fears of workplace disruption, particularly in the United States where polling shows growing public unease about AI-driven change.

    Two of the biggest names in AI – Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman – have both publicly acknowledged that earlier catastrophic warnings were overstated, and in some cases, intentionally misleading. Both executives have previously stoked widespread public anxiety about AI’s potential to upend the global workforce.

    Speaking with Channel News Asia on Monday, Huang directly criticized fellow tech chief executives who have publicly pinned recent corporate layoffs on AI adoption. “The narrative that connects AI to job loss, for many of the CEOs that are doing it — it is just too lazy,” Huang said. He pushed back on the timeline that links AI to recent layoffs, noting “AI has just arrived. How is it possible they’re already losing jobs?”

    Huang has long maintained that AI will create as many roles as it eliminates, and argued that recent waves of corporate downsizing have no connection to AI integration. “How is it possible that AI became productive and useful only six months ago, and they were somehow laying people off two years ago because of AI? It doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “It was just a way for them to sound smart, and I really hate that. I think we’re scaring people and that’s irresponsible.”

    Recent high-profile corporate announcements have stoked public fears, however. Last week, British multinational bank Standard Chartered revealed plans to cut thousands of roles by 2030, framing the restructuring as a direct result of AI replacing workers across a range of administrative positions. Last month, Snapchat parent company Snap cut 1,000 jobs, justifying the layoffs by noting AI is boosting operational efficiency as the company works toward consistent profitability.

    For his part, Altman issued a public mea culpa for his own earlier overblown predictions during an appearance at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s Accelerate AI Conference in Sydney this week. Speaking Tuesday, he confirmed that rapid AI advancement would not bring about the “jobs apocalypse that some of the companies in our space advocate or talk about” – a category that includes his own past commentary.

    “I thought there would have been more impact on entry-level white-collar jobs being eliminated by now than has actually happened,” Altman told the conference, according to reporting from *The Australian*. “I think I understand more about why that wasn’t done — obviously gratefully — but that is an area where my intuitions were just off.”

    Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, another longstanding AI doomer who has faced criticism from industry peers for his catastrophic predictions, has also softened his tone in recent comments. Amodei now argues that even if 90 percent of global jobs are eventually automated, the remaining 10 percent of roles held by human workers would see massive productivity gains that offset losses. Huang publicly disagreed with nearly all of Amodei’s past claims just one year ago.

    The rhetorical shift from top AI leaders comes at a key moment for the industry: both OpenAI and Anthropic are reportedly preparing for high-profile initial public offerings (IPOs), which will require widespread support from global investors to succeed. Earlier doom-laden statements have already become a liability for the sector, as polling shows significant public discontent over the projected workplace disruption that industry and political leaders have repeatedly warned about.

    Mainstream economic institutions back up the new, more measured claims from AI leaders. The European Central Bank, the most recent major economic body to weigh in, confirmed earlier this year that AI has only had a minimal impact on overall employment levels to date.

  • Strikes rock Gaza on Eid al-Adha as Israeli ceasefire violations top 3,000

    Strikes rock Gaza on Eid al-Adha as Israeli ceasefire violations top 3,000

    Even as Palestinian residents of the blockaded Gaza Strip gathered to mark the holy Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha, Israeli military operations did not pause, with local authorities documenting thousands of breaches of a months-old nominal truce.

    The most high-profile strike of the holiday period hit a multi-story residential building in Gaza City’s al-Rimal neighborhood, carried out overnight Tuesday into Wednesday. Al Jazeera reports that as of initial casualty counts, six people have been confirmed dead in the attack.

    Israeli military officials have confirmed the strike targeted Mohammed Odeh, the recently appointed leader of Hamas’s armed wing, who stepped into the role in mid-May following the death of his predecessor Izz al-Din al-Haddad. The killing of Odeh has not received official confirmation from Hamas as of Wednesday, but an anonymous Hamas source speaking to Agence France-Presse confirmed that Odeh’s wife and two children were also killed in the air raid, and that a formal funeral procession would be held Wednesday afternoon in central Gaza City.

    The targeted strike is just one of thousands of truce violations that have occurred since a tentative ceasefire agreement first took effect in October, according to data from the Gaza Government Media Office. The office’s official statement released Wednesday pegs total confirmed violations at 3,005, with actions ranging from large-scale aerial bombings and deliberate strikes on civilian infrastructure to widespread home demolitions, repeated ground incursions into residential neighborhoods and ongoing small-arms fire against civilian populations.

    Since the truce was signed, the ongoing Israeli operations have left a devastating toll on Gaza’s civilian population: more than 910 non-combatant Palestinians have been killed, another 2,747 have suffered injuries, and 82 additional people have been detained or abducted by Israeli forces during incursions into the enclave.

    Compounding the humanitarian crisis, Israeli border restrictions have continued to block the vast majority of humanitarian aid from entering Gaza, with more than 64 percent of all scheduled relief shipments denied entry as of this week. The blocked shipments include critical lifesaving supplies: food, clean drinking water, pharmaceutical products, fuel for medical generators and other basic necessities that Gaza’s population already suffers acute shortages of.

    Local media reports, citing sources in Gaza’s overstretched health system, note that more than 12 additional people have been killed across the enclave in Israeli strikes over the 24-hour period ending Wednesday morning. Beyond the al-Rimal strike, Israeli forces launched new operations at dawn Wednesday: airstrikes hit areas east of the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, while artillery shelling was reported in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.

    This reporting is part of independent coverage from Middle East Eye, which specializes in on-the-ground reporting and analysis of the Middle East and North Africa region.

  • Defected Sudanese RSF commander Savannah performs Hajj in Mecca

    Defected Sudanese RSF commander Savannah performs Hajj in Mecca

    Weeks after publicly breaking ranks with Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces — the paramilitary group widely accused of perpetrating genocide in the country’s Darfur region — a top defector has appeared in new footage performing the Islamic Hajj pilgrimage at Mecca’s Grand Mosque, triggering fierce divided debate across Sudanese digital communities.

    Circulated publicly by Al Jazeera on Tuesday, the video shows Ali Rizqallah, better known by his battlefield alias Savannah, standing at the Kaaba, Islam’s holiest site. He presses his palms against the structure’s iconic black kiswa cloth, offering public prayers for his war-ravaged homeland as thousands of fellow pilgrims circle the site behind him. In the audio recording of the clip, Savannah calls on God to grant unity to Sudanese forces, halt ongoing bloodshed, end the two-year civil war, lift the nation’s crippling crisis, and bring judgment against what he terms “every tyrant”.

    Savannah’s defection from the RSF was first announced in a formal video statement on May 11. Just four days after that announcement, he reemerged in Sudan’s capital Khartoum, where he pledged to take up arms alongside the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) against his former comrades in the conflict zones of Kordofan and Darfur. Before his split from the group, Savannah stood among the RSF’s most powerful and high-profile field commanders. He led multiple operations that allowed the paramilitary force to seize key strategic territories across North Darfur and West Kordofan, including the critical town of al-Nahud, and has been linked to the recruitment of foreign fighters from neighboring Chad and Niger.

    A former leader of an independent armed movement, Savannah was first integrated into the SAF with the rank of brigadier general under a 2013 peace deal with the government of longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir. He was stripped of that rank by a military court in 2021, following Bashir’s ouster from power, and only joined the RSF when the current civil war broke out in mid-April 2023. During a May 16 press conference in Khartoum, Savannah framed his initial decision to align with the RSF as one born of coercion, not ideology. He claimed he had no other option amid widespread intimidation and retaliatory campaigns targeting the families of anyone who refused to fight alongside the group, saying “I and my family were among the victims of the militia, like the rest of the Sudanese”. He has also stated he is willing to face legal accountability for any accusations brought against him.

    In that same press briefing, Savannah alleged that dozens of field and tribal commanders are still being forced to fight for the RSF against their will, with the group holding their families hostage to guarantee compliance. He added that the RSF has carried out internal purges, executing several of its own commanders in recent days — naming Abdullah Hussein and senior adviser Hamid Ali as recent casualties, with additional killings documented across West Darfur. He also claimed that senior RSF figures, including operations chief Othman Mohammed Hamid (better known as Othman Amaliyat), have been placed under house arrest by the group’s leadership. Savannah predicted that a wave of large-scale defections will hit the RSF in the near future, and confirmed that he and his allied fighters are fully prepared to work toward dismantling the paramilitary organization entirely. He also noted that large stockpiles of weapons continue to flow into RSF-held territories in Darfur, though he declined to name the supplier. International observers have already documented substantial evidence pointing to the United Arab Emirates as the primary source of weapons, equipment and even Colombian mercenaries supporting the RSF.

    Savannah is the fourth senior RSF commander to defect to the SAF since October 2024, following high-profile exits by Abu Aqla Keikel, Major-General al-Nour Ahmed Adam (known as al-Qubba), and field commander Bashara al-Huwaira.

    The footage of his Hajj pilgrimage has split public opinion among Sudanese social media users. Some commentators have interpreted the act as a public gesture of repentance for his time with the RSF, while others have rejected any religious act as insufficient to atone for the paramilitary group’s well-documented atrocities. In a direct public message to Savannah, Sudanese journalist Sabah Ahmed wrote that the rights of RSF victims cannot be erased by performing Hajj or touching the Kaaba’s coverings, saying simply “Our rights against you have not been forgiven.”

    The RSF has faced mounting international condemnation and legal consequences over atrocities committed primarily in Darfur, particularly after the group captured the North Darfur capital el-Fasher in October 2025 following a 500-day siege. The UN Security Council has already sanctioned four senior RSF commanders, with UN investigators concluding that the group’s actions carry “the hallmarks of genocide”. The United States formally recognized the RSF’s actions as genocide in January 2025, and imposed sanctions on RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti. The International Criminal Court based in The Hague is currently conducting investigations into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by commanders from both the RSF and SAF since the conflict began. To date, Savannah has not been personally sanctioned by any international body.

    Sudan’s civil war, which has continued unabated since April 2023, has spawned what the United Nations describes as the world’s worst current humanitarian crisis. Clashes between the SAF and RSF have killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced nearly 13 million more, and left more than 40 percent of Sudan’s population facing acute life-threatening food insecurity.

  • Live snakes, dead bears and brain worms: RFK Jr’s wild animal antics

    Live snakes, dead bears and brain worms: RFK Jr’s wild animal antics

    A newly viral video showing U.S. Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. grabbing two writhing black snakes with his bare hands has reignited public discussion of the controversial cabinet member’s long track record of unusual, often bizarre encounters with wild animals.

    Kennedy, who has long drawn backlash for his fringe, conspiracy-tinged views on public health issues including false claims that childhood vaccines are linked to autism and unsubstantiated warnings that fluoride added to public drinking water causes harm, has built a public reputation as an eccentric figure through his many offbeat animal-related antics.

    The most recent incident, shared by Kennedy himself on the social platform X on Tuesday, shows the health secretary dressed in a formal dress shirt and tie, pulling two black racers from the corner of an outdoor patio by their tails and holding the squirming reptiles up for the camera with a smile. At one point in the footage, one of the snakes bites Kennedy, as an off-camera voice—identified in Kennedy’s caption as his wife, actress Cheryl Hines—pleads, “Bobby, Bobby, please.” Kennedy noted in his post that the snakes were removed from the patio of Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which falls under the Department of Health and Human Services that Kennedy leads.

    The National Park Service confirms that black racers are non-venomous and pose no threat to humans if left undisturbed. But snake conservation experts have issued a sharp warning against copying Kennedy’s behavior, noting that untamed snakes will often bite when handled, and misidentification of venomous vs. non-venomous species can lead to life-threatening injury.

    “What I don’t want is people copying him,” Cameron Young of the Center for Snake Conservation told Agence France-Presse. “If a kid picks up a venomous snake because RFK did, then the kid may receive a medically significant bite.”

    This viral snake video is far from the first of Kennedy’s unusual animal adventures to make headlines. In 2024, Kennedy himself admitted in a video that a decade prior, he dragged a dead bear cub killed by a car upstate New York to Central Park in Manhattan, propping it next to a bicycle to stage the appearance that the animal had died in a cycling accident. The bizarre incident baffled New York City law enforcement for years, until Kennedy confessed to the prank.

    Other stories shared by Kennedy and his family add to the eccentric image. According to an account from his daughter, Kennedy once used a chainsaw to sever the head of a dead whale that washed up on the coast of Massachusetts, then strapped the massive body part to the roof of the family minivan to transport it home for study of its skull. In an upcoming 2026 biography, Kennedy also recalled cutting the genitalia off a road-killed raccoon to preserve the specimen for later study.

    In one notable incident that carried actual health risks, The New York Times once reported that a physician discovered a dead parasitic brain worm in Kennedy’s brain after he sought treatment for persistent memory loss. Kennedy has stated he made a full recovery with no long-term health effects from the infection.

    Unlike many public figures who would face embarrassment over such a collection of unusual stories, Kennedy has never expressed shame or regret over his actions. Washington Post columnist Monica Hesse summed up public reaction to his unusual connection to wildlife in a sharp quip: “He has a relationship with animals that most of us only dream of. Nightmares are also dreams.”