In a dramatic development that has sent shockwaves through Spanish politics, law enforcement agencies have executed a raid on the Madrid headquarters of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s governing Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), seizing confidential documents linked to an ongoing probe into alleged obstruction of judicial proceedings. The operation marks the latest escalation in a cascade of corruption scandals that have plagued Sánchez’s administration in recent months, putting intense political pressure on the embattled prime minister.
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Man found with AI-generated child pornographic material fined €400
In a landmark legal milestone for the Republic of Ireland, a 47-year-old man has become the first person in the nation to receive a conviction for offenses linked to AI-generated child sexual exploitation material. Stephen Buckley, who appeared before Tralee District Court in County Kerry, accepted full responsibility for possession of four illicit images created entirely or in part using artificial intelligence technology.
The investigation into Buckley’s activities traces back two years, when the United States’ National Center for Missing & Exploited Children flagged suspicious activity linked to his devices and issued an alert to the Garda’s Dublin-based Online Exploitation Unit. Following the initial tip, detectives in Tralee moved to secure a search warrant in February 2024, entering Buckley’s home to carry out the court-ordered search. During the operation, officers seized multiple mobile devices from the property and conducted an official interview with Buckley, according to reporting from Irish public broadcaster RTÉ.
Forensic analysis of the seized devices uncovered the prohibited content: one digitally altered image of a young girl created using an AI-powered editing application, alongside three animated, cartoon-style videos depicting underage teenagers. Buckley was subsequently taken into custody and formally charged with possession of AI-generated child pornography.
In court proceedings, Buckley’s defense solicitor Pat Mann noted that his client had no prior criminal history on record. Mann emphasized that the case had already taken a severe toll on Buckley’s personal life, and argued that a recorded criminal conviction was unnecessary, pointing to Buckley’s full cooperation with investigators and his completion of more than 30 professional counselling sessions to address his harmful behavior.
However, Judge David Waters rejected the request to avoid a recorded conviction, stressing that the offense carries serious implications for child protection. The judge noted that the downloading of the material demonstrated clear premeditation and intentional action, pushing back against claims that the presence of the content on Buckley’s phone was accidental. In his final ruling, Judge Waters officially convicted Buckley and ordered him to pay a €400 fine, marking the first conviction of its kind in the Republic of Ireland.
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What critical infrastructure is Russia ‘relentlessly targeting’?
In a recent high-stakes announcement that has sent ripples through global security circles, the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) has pulled back the curtain on what intelligence officials describe as a sustained, aggressive campaign of targeting by Russia against critical international infrastructure. Speaking after the release of GCHQ’s alert, the BBC’s long-serving security correspondent Frank Gardner has broken down the full scope of the threat, unpacking the details of what infrastructure is in Moscow’s crosshairs and what the targeting means for nations around the world.
According to the intelligence laid out in GCHQ’s statement, Russian intelligence operatives and cyber units have been relentlessly focused on two broad categories of critical infrastructure that underpin daily life and national security across Western nations and allied states: energy networks and maritime transportation systems. These are not random targets; intelligence assessments show Russian actors have been conducting prolonged reconnaissance operations, mapping out network vulnerabilities, and positioning malware that could be activated to disrupt operations at a moment’s notice.
Gardner’s analysis notes that the campaign aligns with broader patterns of Russian aggressive intelligence activity in the wake of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. GCHQ’s assessment stresses that while much of the activity so far has been pre-positioning rather than active disruption, the level of risk remains elevated, as the Russian state has shown a willingness to use cyber tools to create widespread disruption to civilian infrastructure during periods of heightened geopolitical tension.
The GCHQ announcement also calls on private operators and national security agencies across affected countries to boost defensive measures, patch critical vulnerabilities, and increase monitoring for suspicious activity on their networks. Gardner points out that the public disclosure of this intelligence is unusual for GCHQ, a signal that the agency considers the threat severe enough to warrant public warning rather than quiet behind-the-scenes mitigation.
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Biden sues US justice department to block release of recordings
The long-simmering debate over Joe Biden’s cognitive fitness has reignited in a dramatic legal clash, as the former US president has filed a lawsuit against the federal government to stop the planned release of private interview recordings he conducted with his memoir’s ghostwriter. The materials, which have already sparked fierce political controversy over the past two years, have been at the center of a battle between the Biden legal team, the new Trump-era Department of Justice, and congressional Republicans seeking to shed light on what they claim is evidence of significant mental decline.
The interviews in question date back to 2016, when Biden worked with co-writer Mark Zwonitzer to draft his 2017 memoir *Promise Me, Dad*, a reflective work centered on the 2015 death of his elder son Beau Biden. The recordings and transcripts of these conversations were obtained by Special Counsel Robert Hur during his 2023-2024 investigation into Biden’s improper retention of classified documents after he left the vice presidency.
Hur’s final 2024 report, while declining to recommend criminal charges against Biden, included damning observations about the former president’s memory that upended American politics. Citing the ghostwriter interviews, Hur wrote that the exchanges were “painfully slow, with Mr Biden struggling to remember events and straining at times to read and relay his own notebook entries.” The report also noted that Biden referenced personal vice-presidential notes during the interviews, some of which contained classified material, and explicitly pointed to “significant limitations” in Biden’s recollection. The findings triggered a nationwide conversation about Biden’s age and health, intensified after a poor performance in a 2024 general election debate eroded confidence from his own Democratic Party. Ultimately, Biden withdrew his bid for re-election that year.
In the months following the release of Hur’s report, House Republicans leading three congressional impeachment investigations into Biden submitted requests to obtain the full interview records. The Heritage Foundation, a prominent conservative Washington think tank, also launched a parallel legal battle to force the materials into the public domain.
The trajectory of the release shifted dramatically after Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election and took office. The Department of Justice, which previously blocked disclosure of the interviews on privacy grounds during Biden’s presidency, reversed its position and announced plans to release all records by June 15.
In an official statement defending the reversal, Justice Department spokesperson Natalie Baldassarre directly attacked the prior Biden administration’s handling of the materials. “Joe Biden’s Justice Department tried to hide audio recordings that clearly demonstrate a significant decline in his cognitive abilities as far back as 2016,” Baldassarre said. “We will fight to ensure the American people can hear these recordings and draw their own conclusions about the former President’s mental acuity before he sought the presidency.”
Biden’s legal team has pushed back hard against the planned release in their federal lawsuit, arguing that the private conversations between the former president and his ghostwriter are protected under the US Privacy Act. They also accuse the current Justice Department of violating the Administrative Procedure Act, the federal law that sets binding rules for government agency conduct. The lawsuit claims the DOJ is relying on a false legal justification to disclose the sensitive materials, with the explicit improper goal of public exposure of Biden’s private conversations for political gain.
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A warmer world creates bigger and more damaging hailstones, study says
As human-caused climate change continues to reshape extreme weather patterns across the globe, a groundbreaking new study published in the journal *Nature* has uncovered a worrying consequence of rising global temperatures: a dramatic increase in the frequency of large, destructive hailstorms by the end of the 21st century.
Led by a research team with lead authors based in China, the study uses advanced three-dimensional modeling of hail formation – a method that fills key gaps in previous hail research, which mostly focused on the United States and only examined changes in storm frequency rather than hail size – to project how shifting atmospheric conditions will alter hail activity worldwide.
The core link between a warming planet and larger hail lies in two key atmospheric changes driven by greenhouse gas emissions from burning coal, oil, and natural gas. Warmer air holds more water vapor: roughly 4% more moisture for every one degree Fahrenheit increase in temperature, or 7% per degree Celsius. This extra moisture injects more energy into storm systems, generating stronger updrafts – the upward currents of air required to form and sustain hail. At the same time, higher atmospheric temperatures mean smaller hailstones are more likely to melt before reaching the ground, while larger, heavier stones survive the descent. “We’ve seen record hailstones in recent years. I find this extremely concerning because we’re not really building our environment to be resilient to hail,” said study co-author John Allen, a meteorology professor at Central Michigan University, in an interview from Guymon, Oklahoma, where he was joining field researchers who penetrate active hailstorms to study their inner mechanics.
Depending on the volume of future heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions, the study projects that global occurrences of hail larger than 1.2 inches (30 millimeters) – roughly the size of a U.S. half-dollar coin, between a large marble and a golf ball – will jump by between 38% and 47% by 2100. By contrast, storms producing smaller hail will decline by 4% to 8% globally.
Geographically, the most pronounced increases in large hail are expected to hit Argentina, Western Europe, Canada, and the U.S. Northern Plains. Meanwhile, many tropical regions will see an overall reduction in hail as smaller stones melt more frequently in warmer upper-atmosphere temperatures.
Unlike many other extreme weather events, hail rarely causes direct human fatalities, but its economic toll is already staggering. The study estimates annual hail damage costs hit roughly $10 billion in the U.S. and $80 billion globally – figures that already outpace average annual damage from tornadoes, and rival the cost of multiple hurricane events each year. Larger hailstones deliver exponentially more destructive force: they weigh more, fall faster, and hit with far greater impact than smaller stones. While small hail mostly harms crops, hailstones measuring 2 inches (5 centimeters) or larger can punch through vehicle bodies, destroy roofs, damage solar energy infrastructure, and cripple other built assets, explained Andreas Prein, a climate scientist at ETH Zurich who was not involved in the research. Where a single large hailstone may only leave a repairable hole in a roof, a full hailstorm of large stones typically requires a complete, costly roof replacement, Allen noted.
Outside experts emphasized that while climate change is increasing the risk of more large hail, total future damage will not be shaped by weather patterns alone. “This is a meaningful climate signal,” said Walker Ashley, a meteorology professor at Northern Illinois University who did not participate in the study. “But disaster losses are not driven by the peril alone.” As population and development expand into hail-prone regions – including the rapid construction of residential properties and utility-scale solar farms in high-risk areas – total risk will rise even faster. “Climate change may be increasing the potential for larger, more damaging hail in some regions, but the future loss signal will also depend heavily on where people build, what they build, how resilient those structures are, and how land use changes,” Ashley added.
The Associated Press received financial support from private foundations for its climate and environmental coverage, and retains full editorial control over all content. Full details on AP’s standards for philanthropic partnerships, a list of supporters, and coverage areas are available on AP.org.
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Trump administration to send Americans exposed to Ebola to a new facility in Kenya
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A senior anonymous administration official confirmed Wednesday that the Trump administration has advanced a new plan to route U.S. citizens exposed to the Ebola virus through a purpose-built regional facility in Kenya, rather than evacuating them directly back to the United States for care.
Developed jointly by the U.S. Departments of Defense, State, and Health and Human Services, the new quarantine and treatment center is intended specifically to serve Ebola patients requiring urgent evacuation out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where a rapidly spreading Ebola outbreak has outpaced local containment efforts. According to the official, the regional model cuts out the need for lengthy, hours-long medical evacuation flights across continents to U.S. medical facilities, streamlining access to care for people impacted by the outbreak.
Details of the plan remain incomplete as of Wednesday: the administration has not disclosed the exact location of the facility within Kenya, nor has it confirmed whether Kenyan national authorities have formally approved the proposal. The official noted that the center will be equipped to manage all stages of Ebola infection, a pathogen infamous for its high fatality rate even among rare, severe viral illnesses. However, the plan also includes provisions to transfer patients to alternative facilities with more specialized capabilities if advanced care is required, the official added.
The Ebola outbreak at the center of this planning effort has already posed severe challenges to Congolese and global health authorities. After the rare Bundibugyo strain of Ebola was identified in the region, public health teams revealed that confirmation of the pathogen was delayed for weeks, as initial testing only targeted the more common Ebola variant. The World Health Organization has already warned that case growth is outpacing containment efforts, a assessment backed by the latest official data from the DRC.
As of Tuesday, Congolese health ministry data puts the total number of suspected Ebola cases in eastern DRC at nearly 1,000, with at least 220 suspected deaths attributed to the outbreak. So far, 101 cases have received formal laboratory confirmation, and contact tracers are monitoring more than 3,000 people who may have been exposed to infected individuals. Beyond the pathogen itself, response teams face layered structural barriers: active conflict from armed groups in eastern DRC, a large population of internally displaced people who lack regular access to healthcare, and crumbling basic infrastructure all complicate large-scale outbreak control.
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Pope Leo inspects Ferrari’s first fully electric vehicle
In a landmark moment marking the Italian luxury automaker’s historic shift toward electrification, iconic sports car brand Ferrari has pulled back the curtain on its first ever fully electric model, the Luce. The high-profile launch, which drew global attention to the brand’s long-awaited entry into the zero-emission luxury market, included a rare inspection of the new vehicle by Pope Leo. Priced at $640,000 – equivalent to approximately £474,320 – the Luce represents Ferrari’s bet that high-end performance car enthusiasts will embrace electric technology without sacrificing the luxury, speed, and exclusivity the brand has built its reputation on over seven decades. The launch comes as nearly all major global automakers race to transition their lineups away from internal combustion engines to meet tightening global emissions regulations and growing consumer demand for sustainable luxury vehicles, putting Ferrari alongside elite brands that have begun navigating the new landscape of the global automotive industry.
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Ghana begins repatriating citizens from South Africa due to anti-immigration tensions
On Wednesday, the first contingent of roughly 300 Ghanaian nationals departed Johannesburg for their home country, marking the launch of a voluntary repatriation program organized by Ghana’s government in response to escalating anti-immigration tensions across South Africa.
At Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport, traveling Ghanaians and their families gathered with packed luggage, as Ghanaian consular staff and South African law enforcement worked in tandem to coordinate check-in and departure procedures. This repatriation effort comes on the heels of renewed demonstrations targeting illegal immigration in multiple regions of South Africa, where deep-seated public frustration over persistently high unemployment, rising violent crime, and unequal access to basic public services has stoked resentment toward foreign-born residents.
Benjamin Quashie, Ghana’s High Commissioner to South Africa, confirmed to reporters on-site that more people seeking evacuation arrived at the airport than had pre-registered for the first flight. He added that these additional applicants would have their registration processed in time for the next scheduled repatriation flight, set to depart for Ghana this coming Sunday.
Diplomatic friction between the two African nations began when Ghana summoned South Africa’s ambassador to Accra to protest reported targeted attacks on Ghanaian citizens living in South Africa, shortly before the evacuation initiative was formally announced.
According to Loren Landau, a migration scholar and political analyst at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, the repatriation program carries more symbolic weight than it does practical protection for the small number of citizens being evacuated. He explained that the move is fundamentally a diplomatic signal from Ghana to South Africa that the current wave of anti-immigrant hostility is politically unacceptable, rather than a large-scale emergency rescue effort.
Some of the Ghanaian citizens on Wednesday’s flight had previously been held at South Africa’s Lindela Repatriation Centre for immigration violations. In total, more than 800 Ghanaians have registered with the Ghana High Commission in Pretoria to take part in the evacuation program, after weeks of anti-immigrant protests left many foreign-born residents feeling increasingly unsafe.
Ghanaian authorities have emphasized that the entire repatriation operation is being conducted in close coordination with South African government officials, launched out of urgent concerns for the personal safety and well-being of Ghanaian migrants in the country. For its part, the South African government has formally condemned all acts of violence against foreign nationals, while simultaneously acknowledging that public anxiety over unregulated illegal immigration is a legitimate domestic concern.
The unrest has also drawn pushback from other African nations: Nigeria has publicly criticized the treatment of its own citizens residing in South Africa, and confirmed it is evaluating its own potential evacuation program for Nigerian nationals.
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‘Let his team down’: Kalyn Ponga escapes suspension for send off tackle that has ruled Tolu Koula out of Manly’s next game
Rugby league’s community has erupted in debate after a divisive judiciary decision cleared Queensland Maroons star Kalyn Ponga to play just days after his sending off in a dramatic opening match of the 2026 State of Origin series, where NSW Blues capitalized on their numerical advantage to steal a last-minute victory in Sydney.
The incident unfolded with 23 minutes remaining in the fixture, when referee Ashley Klein issued a red card to Ponga for a grade two shoulder charge on NSW rookie Tolu Koula. The hit left Koula unable to complete his mandatory head injury assessment, forcing the young speedster from the field. Ponga’s dismissal marked the first Origin send-off since Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii’s ejection two years prior for a similar high tackle.
What has made the ruling so contentious is a little-noticed 2022 amendment to the NRL’s judiciary code that changes how penalties are applied in representative matches. While a grade two charge would typically result in a two-match ban for NRL club games, the rule revision means Ponga only faces a financial penalty: with an early guilty plea, he will forfeit just 23 percent of his match fee for the Origin encounter, and remains eligible to play for both his club Newcastle Knights and the Maroons in upcoming fixtures. He is now cleared to take the field for Newcastle this Saturday against the Parramatta Eels.
Queensland coach Billy Slater voiced no opposition to the outcome, noting Ponga feels remorseful over the play but emphasizing the split-second nature of the tackle under wet match conditions. “He obviously feels he’s let his team down, but those things happen in games. They happen really quick. I’ve played that position, I know how hard it is and spur of the moment. It was wet out there, things happen,” Slater said, adding he remained proud of his side’s effort after playing with 12 men for nearly a full half. “I’m heartbroken for them, with the effort that they put in. They played with so much heart in that last 23 minutes… I’m super proud of our footy team.” The cleared availability of Ponga also removes any pressure on Queensland to recall star fullback Reece Walsh for the next fixture.
Reactions from the NSW camp were mixed. Blues captain Isaah Yeo defended the referee’s decision to send Ponga off, even amid reports that Bunker review official Chris Butler questioned whether a red card was warranted. “Your bias says that I think it’s a send-off. I’ve been on that side of it as well before, it was a couple of years ago here as well,” Yeo said. Blues head coach Laurie Daley declined to comment publicly on the tackle itself.
For Koula, the outcome is far less favorable. The Manly Sea Eagles speedster confirmed he is still recovering from the head knock and will miss his club’s upcoming match against the Cronulla Sharks this Friday. Recounting the incident, Koula said the collision happened in the first open space he found all game. “It all just happened so fast. There wasn’t much pain. It was just probably shock. I was out for a little bit, but once I got all my senses back, I was fine,” he said.
The result of the match saw NSW take full advantage of their extra man, with captain James Tedesco crossing for a match-winning try in the final two minutes to secure game one for the Blues. The controversial ruling has now cast a long shadow over the series, with fans and analysts continuing to debate whether the 2022 rule change has created an uneven playing field for representative football.
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Uganda closes its border with Congo as cases of a rare Ebola type surge
KAMPALA, UGANDA – In an unprecedented move that contradicts global public health recommendations, Ugandan health officials announced an immediate full closure of the country’s long border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Wednesday, as cases of a rare, untreatable strain of Ebola skyrocket in Congo and potential exposure clusters emerge within Uganda itself.
The Bundibugyo strain of Ebola at the center of this outbreak has no clinically approved vaccines or antiviral treatments available, a reality that has amplified alarm across East Africa even as both Uganda and Congo have years of prior experience managing past Ebola outbreaks. The closure order was issued by Uganda’s national Ebola response task force following a steady rise in the number of Ugandan healthcare workers exposed to the virus by infected Congolese patients who crossed the border before the outbreak was officially declared on May 15.
Dr. Diana Atwine, permanent secretary of Uganda’s Ministry of Health, confirmed to reporters that only limited cross-border movement will be permitted for emergency purposes, including outbreak response deployments, essential cargo shipments, and security operations. Any individual allowed entry from Congo under these exceptions will be required to complete a 21-day mandatory isolation period, the full incubation window for the Ebola virus.
As of this week, Congolese health authorities report 101 confirmed cases of Ebola, with more than 3,000 at-risk contacts currently under monitoring. The total number of suspected cases across eastern Congo has climbed to nearly 1,000, with at least 220 suspected deaths linked to the current outbreak. Ebola, a severe hemorrhagic fever, spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected or deceased patients, with healthcare workers and family members caring for patients facing the highest risk of transmission. Public health experts universally identify proactive contact tracing and prompt isolation of exposed individuals as the most critical steps to halting community spread.
Last month, the World Health Organization categorized the outbreak as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), the global body’s highest alert level. Even while acknowledging that neighboring nations like Uganda face extremely high risk of imported cases, the WHO has explicitly advised against full border closures. The agency warns that official closures force cross-border movement to shift to unregulated informal footpaths and crossings, which lack any health screening or monitoring – a dynamic that ultimately increases the risk of unobserved disease spread.
Uganda and Congo share a hundreds-mile-long border crisscrossed by dozens of informal foot trails that are impossible to fully seal. Cross-border daily travel for family visits and small-scale trade is a longstanding norm for communities on both sides of the frontier.
Congo’s public health teams have struggled to get the outbreak under control since the Bundibugyo strain was confirmed months ago. Initial diagnostic delays slowed the response: early samples were tested for more common Ebola strains, pushing back confirmation of the outbreak by weeks. The WHO has acknowledged that the spread of the virus is currently outpacing response efforts.
Multiple structural and security challenges have complicated containment work in eastern Congo. The region is plagued by ongoing violence from active armed groups, hosts a large population of displaced people fleeing conflict, and lacks basic transportation and health infrastructure. This week, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus took to social media to call for an immediate ceasefire in the region, emphasizing that attacks on health facilities make contact tracing and case management nearly impossible.
Local response teams have also reported being chronically underresourced: frontline workers lack adequate personal protective equipment like face shields and full-body hazmat suits, testing remains limited, and even basic supplies like body bags for safe burials of Ebola victims are in short supply. Many residents in the conflict-affected region have deep-seated distrust of outside authorities, and response volunteers and health clinics have faced repeated attacks, with locals throwing stones and harassing teams working to educate communities about Ebola risks.
In a related development, the U.S. Trump administration announced Wednesday that it would route any American citizens exposed to Ebola for treatment at a newly constructed isolation facility in Kenya, rather than repatriating them to the United States for care. That announcement came the same week Canada introduced its own entry measures, requiring mandatory self-isolation for all travelers arriving from Congo, Sudan, and Uganda over Ebola concerns.
To date, Uganda has recorded seven confirmed Ebola cases, with the first case – a 59-year-old Congolese man who crossed into Uganda – dying in the capital Kampala on May 14. While confirmed case counts have not yet spiked exponentially in Uganda, the number of Ugandan healthcare workers exposed to the virus through border crossing patients continues to climb. Atwine noted that each exposed worker has their own household contacts, driving a steady expansion of the at-risk population.
The health official also publicly criticized crowds of Ugandan soccer fans who gathered in large groups to celebrate Arsenal’s English Premier League title win, a reminder that pandemic fatigue and low public vigilance remain additional obstacles to containment. Atwine urged all Ugandans to remain alert, adopt basic preventive measures including avoiding handshakes, and regularly using hand sanitizer.
This is the 17th Ebola outbreak recorded in Congo. Global health experts warn that aid cuts to regional response programs implemented by the U.S. and other wealthy donor nations last year have severely undermined preparedness in eastern Congo, a region that has long been classified as high-risk for epidemic spread. Aid organizations currently on the ground fighting the outbreak confirm they are still lacking critical equipment to protect workers and safely manage cases.