Global Pulse

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  • Former member of German militant group jailed for armed robberies after decades on the run

    Former member of German militant group jailed for armed robberies after decades on the run

    After more than three decades evading law enforcement and a high-profile trial, a one-time leading member of Germany’s infamous militant Red Army Faction (RAF) has received a 13-year prison sentence for orchestrating and carrying out a series of violent armed robberies spanning 17 years.

    Sixty-seven-year-old Daniela Klette, who spent over 30 years as a fugitive following the disbandment of the RAF, was only apprehended in February 2024 during a raid on a quiet residential apartment in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district. Found living under a false identity using a foreign passport, Klette was quickly transferred to Lower Saxony – the region where the majority of her criminal offenses took place – to face trial later that same year.

    The Red Army Faction, also widely known by its alternate name the Baader-Meinhof Gang, carried out a decades-long campaign of politically motivated violence across West Germany from the early 1970s through the early 1990s, which included bombings, assassinations, and kidnappings. The group formally disbanded in the early 1990s, but Klette and two other former faction members remained at large, turning to a string of armed robberies to fund their life off the grid.

    In a verdict delivered Wednesday at the Verden regional court in Lower Saxony, judges found Klette guilty on multiple charges: aggravated robbery, violations of Germany’s strict weapons laws, and several other related criminal offenses connected to eight separate raids carried out between 1999 and 2016. Klette’s defense team had pushed for a full acquittal during the proceedings, but the prosecution’s evidence linking her to the crime spree proved overwhelming.

    Court documents confirm Klette carried out each robbery alongside two other former RAF affiliates: Burkhard Garweg and Ernst-Volker Staub, both of whom remain at large as of the verdict. The crime spree began in July 1999 in the western German city of Duisburg, when masked attackers rammed an armored cash transport van, threatened security guards with firearms and a grenade launcher, and escaped with an undisclosed large sum of cash. The final recorded robbery took place near Braunschweig in June 2016, when the gang stole nearly €1.4 million (approximately £1.2 million) from another armored van.

    Notably, prosecutors noted during the trial that despite decades on the run, Klette made no deliberate effort to conceal her true identity from acquaintances in her Berlin neighborhood, allowing investigators to eventually track her down after years of cold leads.

  • Philippine bishop and ex-ICC judge lead new inquiry into thousands of Duterte-era killings

    Philippine bishop and ex-ICC judge lead new inquiry into thousands of Duterte-era killings

    MANILA, Philippines — Nearly three years after Rodrigo Duterte stepped down from his six-year presidential term, a new independent fact-finding initiative led by one of the country’s top Roman Catholic leaders is breaking the long-standing silence surrounding the former president’s controversial and deadly anti-narcotics crackdown. On Wednesday, the coalition launched the non-governmental EJK Truth Commission, an independent body tasked with documenting witness testimonies, compiling physical evidence, and formalizing a public record of the thousands of extrajudicial killings tied to the drug war — work that will be made available to domestic and international prosecutors pursuing accountability.

    The crackdown, which Duterte oversaw from 2016 to 2022, left an estimated thousands of mostly low-income suspected drug users and dealers dead, according to human rights monitoring groups. The campaign drew global condemnation from Western governments and human rights organizations over the scale of unlawful killings. Last year, Duterte was taken into custody to face charges of crimes against humanity before the International Criminal Court (ICC) based in The Hague, Netherlands. Ronald dela Rosa, Duterte’s staunch political ally and the former national police chief who first implemented the anti-drug crackdown, is named as a co-perpetrator in the ICC case and has an active arrest warrant against him. Philippine authorities have pledged to execute the warrant and transfer dela Rosa to the global court, but the senator has evaded capture and remains in hiding. Both Duterte and dela Rosa have repeatedly denied authorizing extrajudicial killings, though Duterte openly issued public death threats against drug suspects throughout his presidency.

    To date, human rights groups note that the vast majority of police officers directly implicated in the killings have never faced formal investigation, with only a tiny number ever convicted on charges related to the crackdown. For many victim families, systemic delays and institutional cover-ups have prevented them from accessing justice for years. “This is long overdue,” Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David, the commission’s founder, told reporters during a Manila news conference. David emphasized that the new body is not focused solely on prosecution: it aims to provide closure for victims’ families, offer a pathway to accountability for repentant law enforcement officers, and support national healing. “This is an opportunity for a catharsis … so we can recover our dignity as a country,” David said. “Ultimately, what we aspire for is healing not only for the victims but also our institutions.”

    Heading the commission’s fact-finding work is Raul Pangalangan, a highly respected Philippine legal scholar and former ICC judge. Pangalangan explained that the body’s core mission is to ensure the experiences of victims, survivors and bereaved families are not erased: “It was created to ensure that the stories of victims, survivors and families are heard, verified and preserved.” The commission plans to hold public hearings across the country to collect testimonies, breaking what Pangalangan called a years-long “conspiracy of silence” that allowed the killings to continue without accountability. “These things happened because everybody looked the other way,” he added.

    The commission will share its verified findings with domestic and international justice and human rights bodies, enabling prosecuting authorities to use the evidence to advance cases against implicated officials and law enforcers. David has called on civil society organizations, academic institutions, religious groups and other stakeholders to support the initiative, noting that a large German charitable foundation has already committed funding to support the commission’s work.

    Still, commission members acknowledge the work will face significant barriers, years after most of the killings took place. Raquel Fortun, a forensic pathologist at the state-run University of the Philippines and a commission member, told the Associated Press that many implicated law enforcement officials have actively taken steps to cover up evidence of unlawful killings. She gave the example of 13 exhumed remains of drug suspects, whose original death certificates issued during Duterte’s term listed natural causes such as heart attack and pneumonia as their cause of death. “When I examined the remains, I found that they were hit by gunfire,” Fortun confirmed. That pattern of falsified records, she added, underscores how difficult it will be to reconstruct an accurate account of the drug war’s death toll and responsibility for the killings.

  • Iran says ‘low’ possibility of return to war with US

    Iran says ‘low’ possibility of return to war with US

    Tensions across the Middle East remain at a fever pitch this week, even as a senior Iranian military official has downplayed the risk of a return to open war between Tehran and Washington. The cautious assessment comes just days after fresh cross-border hostilities violated the fragile ceasefire that has held between the two sides since April, raising new fears of a wider regional escalation.

    Mohammad Akbarzadeh, deputy political chief of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy, told state-owned Tasnim News Agency on Wednesday that the possibility of full-scale conflict with the United States remains low, citing what he described as growing weakness among American forces. “The possibility of war is low because of the enemy’s weakness, the armed forces are lying in wait with full magazines,” Akbarzadeh said. He issued a stark warning to any potential aggressors, adding: “Do not doubt that we will turn the area from Chabahar to Mahshahr into a graveyard for aggressors,” referencing the two coastal cities that bookend Iran’s 1,000-mile southern coastline along the Gulf of Oman and Persian Gulf.

    Akbarzadeh’s comments came one day after Iranian officials accused the U.S. of multiple deliberate violations of the April ceasefire, following the downing of an American drone that entered Iranian airspace near the key Strait of Hormuz and anti-aircraft fire directed at a U.S. F-35 fighter jet. Hours before those Iranian defensive actions, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) spokesperson Captain Tim Hawkins confirmed that American forces had carried out new self-defense strikes against targets in southern Iran. “US forces conducted self-defence strikes in southern Iran today to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces,” Hawkins said, confirming that the strikes targeted Iranian missile launch sites and boats suspected of attempting to lay naval mines, offering few additional details.

    The Iranian foreign ministry issued a formal condemnation of the strikes, noting that the “US terrorist army, continuing its illegal and unjustified actions since the ceasefire… has, in the past 48 hours, committed a gross violation of the ceasefire in the Hormozgan region.” The statement added that Tehran “will not leave any evil unanswered and will not hesitate to defend the Iranian nation,” without specifying what form retaliation would take.

    Peace talks between Washington and Tehran have been ongoing for weeks, with Pakistan leading third-party mediation efforts to end the regional war that erupted in late February, when U.S. and Israeli forces launched opening strikes against Iranian targets across the Middle East. The conflict quickly spread across multiple fronts, upended global energy markets, and pushed the region to the brink of a catastrophic regional war. As of this week, both sides remain deadlocked on core sticking points, including control of the Strait of Hormuz – the world’s most critical chokepoint for global oil and liquified natural gas shipments – and the future of Iran’s nuclear program. Neither side has shown willingness to compromise on these core issues, despite the fact that the conflict has failed to produce a clear winner for either camp. After Iran blockaded the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for the opening strikes, the U.S. responded with its own counter-blockade of major Iranian export ports. Tehran has also announced plans to impose new “navigational fees” on commercial shipping passing through the waterway, a move that has already rattled energy markets.

    U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio maintained on Tuesday that a final peace deal remains achievable, repeating Washington’s demand that the Strait of Hormuz must be reopened to full commercial navigation “one way or the other.” Iranian officials confirmed this week that they are working to finalize a 14-point framework for a peace agreement, and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told Qatari ruler Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in a Tuesday phone call that Tehran remains “ready to reach a respectful framework to end the war,” according to Iranian state broadcaster IRIB. A top Iranian negotiating delegation returned from a two-day exploratory visit to Qatar on Tuesday, signaling continued behind-the-scenes progress toward a potential agreement.

    In a written statement marking the start of the Eid al-Adha holiday, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei argued that U.S. influence across the Middle East is steadily eroding. He warned regional countries against hosting American military bases that can be used to launch attacks on Iranian targets, saying: “the United States, in addition to no longer having any safe haven in the region for aggression and the establishment of military bases, is moving further and further away from its former position with each passing day.”

    The spillover of the wider conflict has continued to escalate in southern Lebanon, where a separate ceasefire between Israel and Iran-aligned militant group Hezbollah has failed to stop regular deadly violence. On Tuesday, Israeli air and ground strikes killed 31 people across southern Lebanon, including at least four children, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Monday to “crush” Hezbollah, and a senior Israeli military official confirmed to AFP on Wednesday that Israeli forces are expanding ground operations deeper into Lebanese territory, far from the shared border. Iran has made it a core demand of any U.S.-Iran peace deal that any final accord must also cover the Lebanese front, a condition Israel has so far rejected.

    Global financial markets reacted with cautious optimism to ongoing diplomatic efforts this week, with major stock indexes ending the trading day mixed amid hopes that a final agreement can be reached to de-escalate the crisis.

  • Australian police plan to form a heavily armed team in response to Bondi Beach massacre

    Australian police plan to form a heavily armed team in response to Bondi Beach massacre

    Less than three months after a fatal mass shooting at a Hanukkah gathering in Sydney left 15 people dead and three officers injured, a senior Australian law enforcement official has confirmed that state police are moving quickly to establish a specialized heavily armed rapid response unit, after an official inquiry exposed a critical gap in first responder firepower.

    New South Wales Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson laid out the timeline of policy and operational changes during testimony Wednesday before the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, a government panel tasked with investigating rising antisemitic sentiment across Australia. The inquiry was called in response to the December 14 attack at Bondi Beach, where father-son pair Sajid and Naveed Akram allegedly opened fire on hundreds of holiday revelers gathered in a coastal park using two shotguns and a hunting rifle.

    Hudson told the commission that responding officers faced a dangerous and lopsided firepower mismatch on the day of the attack. Just four initial officers arrived at the scene first, and all were armed only with short-range 9mm Glock pistols, a weapon ill-suited to counter an active shooter carrying high-power long guns. “On Dec. 14, our police officers were placed at significant risk being in a gunfight armed with 9 mm Glocks against long arms,” Hudson said in his testimony.

    Emergency response records show that 11 additional officers reached the scene within five minutes of the first shots being fired. Three of those responding officers were among the dozens wounded in the massacre. Officers killed Sajid Akram and took his wounded son Naveed into custody less than eight minutes after the attack began, the commission heard during earlier testimony Monday.

    To address the firepower gap exposed by the attack, Hudson confirmed that police have moved forward with plans to launch a new Armed Response Command, a dedicated team that will be equipped with semiautomatic rifles to respond to active shooter and mass casualty events. Previously, access to rifles within the New South Wales Police was almost entirely limited to two specialized paramilitary units, leaving frontline first responders without the firepower needed to stop long-gun attacks quickly.

    In addition to the new rapid response unit, law enforcement has also revived a priority resourced security operation focused on countering antisemitic violence and preventing retaliatory attacks against Muslim community targets. The program, called Operation Shelter, was first launched shortly after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel to de-escalate rising intercommunal tensions across Sydney. At its peak, the operation assigned 200 officers daily to proactive high-visibility patrols, and it had authority to reallocate staff from other units as needed to respond to emerging threats.

    Hudson told the commission that Operation Shelter had been reduced to a nominal “name only” program by the time the Bondi Beach attack occurred. But in the immediate aftermath of the massacre, the program was quickly reactivated and elevated to a fully resourced active policing operation. It will remain in place as a protective security measure until the new Armed Response Command is fully operational, a rollout that is expected to take between 18 months and two years to complete.

  • Teddy magic: NSW Blues overcome 20-point deficit to steal Origin opener with epic late try

    Teddy magic: NSW Blues overcome 20-point deficit to steal Origin opener with epic late try

    In what will go down as one of the most dramatic comeback victories in State of Origin history, NSW’s Blues stole a 22-20 opening round win over Queensland’s Maroons at Sydney’s Accor Stadium on Wednesday, capping a stunning second-half turnaround with a last-minute match-winning try from NSW captain James Tedesco that left the rain-soaked home crowd in delirium.

    Just 20 minutes into the match, the result looked all but decided. The Maroons charged out of the gate to build an insurmountable-looking 20-0 lead, with Blues fans and pundits already voicing fierce criticism of the team’s selection choices and coaching staff. Calls for head coach Laurie Daley’s dismissal were growing louder, critics questioned star halfback Nathan Cleary’s suitability for the Origin arena, and many argued rookie Dylan Edwards should have been selected ahead of Tedesco in the starting side. Even the Blues’ early play supported the skepticism: forward Mitch Barnes knocked a cold drop on the opening set, while established stars Stephen Crichton and Brian To’o posted three uncharacteristic errors apiece, leaving NSW facing what looked like a humiliating home defeat.

    Queensland’s first-half dominance was led by rookie halfback Sam Walker, who stepped into the starting side seamlessly after reigning Wally Lewis Medal winner Tom Dearden withdrew through injury. Walker delivered a masterclass in the opening 40 minutes, setting up the Maroons’ opening try for Robert Toia with a deft grubber kick, then throwing the final pass for Tom Flegler’s emotional try on his return to Origin, following a sharp dummy-half run from hooker Harry Grant. By the 20th minute, Cameron Munster had set up Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow for Queensland’s fourth try, putting the visitors firmly in control of the series opener.

    That all changed in the 57th minute, when Maroons fullback Kalyn Ponga was sent off for a high shoulder charge on Blues winger Tolu Koula, reducing Queensland to 12 men for the final 23 minutes of play. The red card completely flipped the momentum of the match, allowing the Blues’ halves pairing of Cleary and last-minute call-up Ethan Strange to seize control of the field.

    Strange’s Origin debut will go down in folklore: the Canberra Raiders star was only promoted to the starting five-eighth role 24 hours before kickoff, after regular starter Mitch Moses pulled out with a hamstring injury. From the moment play restarted after Ponga’s send-off, Strange was unstoppable: he forced Queensland’s first error of the night with a bone-rattling tackle on Cameron Munster, had an earlier try disallowed for obstruction, then backed up a break from Stephen Crichton to cross for the Blues’ first try of the night, kickstarting the comeback. Cleary followed with a try of his own and nailed a crucial 40/20 kick, mirroring the clutch play he delivered to lift Penrith to the 2023 NRL Grand Final title. The pair dragged the Blues back into contention, cutting Queensland’s lead to just two points with 10 minutes left on the clock.

    The Blues wasted multiple chances to take the lead in the final stages, including a glaring overlap that ended with a dropped pass from Haumole Olakau’atu after a slightly off-target throw from Tedesco. But with just 60 seconds left on the clock, Cleary launched a towering bomb toward the Queensland try line, and Tedesco – recalled to the starting side for his first Origin appearance in two years – soared above the Maroons’ defensive line to claim the ball one-handed, juggling it before securing the hold and grounding it for the match-winning try.

    The stunning result mirrors the come-from-behind wins the Maroons have built their decades-long Origin legacy on, delivering the Blues one of the unlikeliest victories in the history of the interstate rivalry. For Queensland, the loss means they must now win game two in Melbourne to level the series, and force a decider at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium on July 8 to keep their hopes of an Origin crown alive.

  • Woman, 21, described as ‘perfect in every way’ after Australia crash death

    Woman, 21, described as ‘perfect in every way’ after Australia crash death

    A devastating car crash outside Perth, Australia, has claimed the life of 21-year-old Annie Evans-Lewis, a Welsh expat who had just moved to the country to build a future with her long-term partner, leaving loved ones across the globe heartbroken and searching for answers.

    Originally from the small village of Llanybri in Carmarthenshire, Wales, Evans-Lewis had relocated to East Pingelly, southeast of Perth, in September 2025 to join her boyfriend Cai James, 22, who had secured a three-year agricultural sponsorship in the country. The couple, who first met four years earlier when Evans-Lewis was driving a tractor with a friend, had already built years of shared memories across continents, with James cutting short an early harvest work trip to New Zealand because he could not bear to be apart from her.

    The tragedy unfolded on Saturday afternoon, shortly after the pair had enjoyed a rare day off together following six consecutive 100-hour workweeks of seeding. After sharing a lunch and shopping trip, James dropped Evans-Lewis off at a nearby farm to retrieve her own car, before stepping away briefly to get petrol for his chainsaw. When he resumed his drive, he spotted a crashed vehicle off the side of the road — and quickly realized it was Evans-Lewis’s car.

    According to local law enforcement, Evans-Lewis’s vehicle left the roadway around 3:30 p.m. AWST and collided head-on with a tree, leaving her with catastrophic, life-threatening injuries. She was airlifted immediately to Royal Perth Hospital, where every available on-duty medical team worked to save her. James was by her side, holding her hand through her final moments.

    In an emotional tribute, James described Evans-Lewis as the most beautiful person he had ever known, perfect in every way. “Without Annie it’s like I’m missing one leg or one arm,” he said. The couple had dreamed of growing old together in Australia, building a life and one day watching their grandchildren grow up. “She was everything and with her gone, I don’t know what to do with myself,” James added.

    Evans-Lewis’s mother Angharad Evans echoed the profound grief of losing her daughter, calling Annie her whole life and her amazing princess. A childhood leukemia survivor, Evans described her daughter as an incredibly strong, brave, energetic, and kind young woman who filled every room with laughter. “The fun and laughter we had will always live with me for the rest of my life,” she said. “We were more like best friends. I will never be the same without you in my life my Annie, my angel.”

    Outside of her life with James, Evans-Lewis quickly settled into her new Australian home: she held a role with leading grain-growing company CBH, and during the agricultural off-season, she also worked alongside her partner’s boss’s wife on a local farm, helping with cooking, cleaning, and caring for farm staff and family. She was known to love animals and outdoor work, traits that drew her to life in rural Australia.

    Australian police have launched an official investigation into the circumstances of the crash, and are asking any members of the public who witnessed the incident or have relevant information to come forward to assist with their inquiries.

    To help cover the costs of repatriating Evans-Lewis’s remains back to Wales for burial, along with funeral expenses, Evans-Lewis’s cousin Emily Davies set up a public online fundraising page on behalf of the family. As of current reports, the campaign has raised more than £32,000 from more than 1,000 individual donors hailing from countries across the world, a testament to how many lives Evans-Lewis touched in her 21 years.

  • Berlin police arrest man suspected of being an accomplice to Holocaust Memorial stabbing

    Berlin police arrest man suspected of being an accomplice to Holocaust Memorial stabbing

    BERLIN – German law enforcement officials have taken a suspected accomplice in a 2025 terror-related stabbing attack at Berlin’s iconic Holocaust Memorial into custody, more than a year after the violent incident left a Spanish tourist seriously injured. Federal public prosecutors announced Wednesday that the suspect, a Syrian national identified only as Khalaf A. in compliance with Germany’s strict personal privacy regulations, faces formal charges of accessory to attempted murder and aggravated bodily harm.

    According to the prosecution’s official statement, evidence indicates Khalaf A. spent the full afternoon of February 20, 2025 — the day ahead of the stabbing attack — with the perpetrator of the violence, Wassim Al M., also a Syrian citizen who was convicted of his role in the attack earlier this year. During that meeting, prosecutors confirm Khalaf A. actively encouraged Wassim Al M. to move forward with his planned attack.

    Wassim Al M. was found guilty by the Berlin District Court in March on a multi-count indictment that included attempted murder and attempted membership in a proscribed foreign terrorist organization. He was sentenced to a 13-year prison term, the maximum penalty available under the convictions. Court documents from the trial confirm Wassim Al M. traveled from his residence in Leipzig to central Berlin specifically to carry out an attack on behalf of the Islamic State terror group.

    Presiding judge Doris Husch explained during the sentencing proceedings that the perpetrator deliberately selected the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe as his target because “he believed he would find people of Jewish faith there.” After carrying out the throat stabbing of the Spanish tourist, witnesses confirm he shouted “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great,” as he claimed the attack for the terror organization.

    The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, one of Germany’s most prominent sites of national memory, sits just steps from the Brandenburg Gate in central Berlin. The sprawling memorial consists of 2,700 uneven gray concrete slabs, erected to honor the 6 million Jewish people murdered by the Nazi regime during the Holocaust.

    The 2025 attack took place just 48 hours before a critical German federal parliamentary election, a contest where migration policy had emerged as the defining campaign issue. The debate over immigration had been intensified by a string of deadly attacks carried out by recent immigrant arrivals in the months leading up to the vote.

  • ‘Very confused’: Australia’s Human rights boss grilled over trans pregnancy protection law

    ‘Very confused’: Australia’s Human rights boss grilled over trans pregnancy protection law

    A tense Senate Estimates hearing in Canberra has reignited fierce debate over Australia’s Sex Discrimination Act, after the country’s top human rights official defended existing protections that shield transgender women from workplace discrimination based on assumptions of potential pregnancy.

    Australian Human Rights Commissioner Anna Cody faced sustained grilling from conservative Senator Michaelia Cash over the scope of the anti-discrimination provision, which Cody confirmed applies to trans women rejected for roles because employers assume they may become pregnant. Cody emphasized that the core of the regulation targets unlawful employer conduct, rather than biological capacity: any unfair treatment rooted in assumptions of pregnancy or potential pregnancy, regardless of the individual’s actual ability to conceive, qualifies as unlawful discrimination under the current framework.

    When pressed by Cash on whether the same protection would extend to a cisgender man applying for a job who indicated he planned to have children, Cody acknowledged the provision does not apply to cisgender men. That admission triggered sharp pushback from the Senator, who argued the inconsistent application of the law exposes its inherent absurdity.

    Cash, who is calling for urgent amendments to the legislation, pointed to basic biological facts to back her criticism, noting that cisgender men cannot biologically become pregnant, making the current carve-out for trans women but not cis men logically inconsistent. She went further, arguing that the current framework is an insult to cisgender women who have faced actual pregnancy discrimination in the workplace, diverting attention from the systemic barriers that still disadvantage cisgender women seeking employment.

    Cody pushed back against the criticism, countering that discrimination occurs when an employer makes an assumption about a candidate’s potential pregnancy and bases their hiring decision on that biased assumption. For trans women, who may be incorrectly perceived as capable of becoming pregnant by employers, that biased hiring decision falls squarely into the category of unlawful conduct the Sex Discrimination Act was designed to prohibit, she said. The exchange is the latest in a series of heated parliamentary debates over gender and anti-discrimination protections in Australia, with lawmakers divided over how to balance inclusive protections for transgender people with consistent, clear legal language.

  • Spanish police search headquarters of PM Sánchez’s ruling Socialist party

    Spanish police search headquarters of PM Sánchez’s ruling Socialist party

    MADRID, Spain — In a significant development for Spain’s embattled governing party, Spain’s Civil Guard confirmed Wednesday that law enforcement officers have executed a search warrant at the central Madrid headquarters of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s ruling Socialist Party, as part of an active judicial investigation into alleged financial and institutional misconduct.

    The court-ordered raid marks the latest in a string of corruption scandals that have piled mounting political pressure on Sánchez and his Socialist administration, which has governed as a minority government since 2018. The operation is tied to a formal investigation being overseen by National Court Judge Santiago Pedraz, which centers on alleged efforts by senior Socialist figures to interfere with independent judicial proceedings. Per a statement from the National Court, Pedraz ordered officers to seize a range of physical documents and electronic records tied to probes of an alleged network working to undermine judicial processes that posed political risks to the ruling party.

    Investigators’ focus currently rests on Leire Díez, a former Socialist Party member whose alleged actions first triggered the case in 2025. That year, Spanish media published leaked audio recordings that appeared to capture Díez discussing plans to discredit a senior officer in the Civil Guard’s own anti-corruption division. Subsequent reporting further tied her to alleged attempts to manipulate the work of state prosecutors. Judge Pedraz is specifically examining whether Díez received formal or informal payments from the Socialist Party to carry out these actions. The party has asserted that any wrongdoing was solely the personal act of Díez, who has already left the party and issued a full denial of all allegations against her.

    Beyond Díez, the probe has expanded to include several other high-profile figures, including former Socialist Party heavyweight Santos Cerdán — who is already facing investigation in a separate, unrelated corruption case. Additional suspects include a former Andalusia regional government official, an active Civil Guard officer, a private business owner, and two practicing lawyers. All six individuals face a range of allegations, including bribery, false testimony, commercial document forgery, influence peddling, and systematic corruption.

    The raid is not an isolated controversy for the Socialists; the party has faced a cascade of judicial investigations in recent months that have shaken Sánchez’s government. Just one week before the Madrid headquarters search, a separate Spanish court confirmed it was probing former Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero over his alleged ties to a controversial state airline bailout program. Zapatero has denied all wrongdoing in that case. Separately, Sánchez’s own wife and brother are currently under investigation over influence peddling allegations, both of which they have also denied.

    The most serious allegations to date tie Cerdán and a former cabinet minister under Sánchez to a kickback scheme that allegedly operated during the COVID-19 pandemic, when public health spending was at an all-time high. Both figures have rejected all claims of misconduct. The string of scandals has already forced Sánchez to issue a public apology to the Spanish nation in 2025, and the prime minister has repeatedly described investigations targeting his family as a coordinated political “smear campaign” designed to undermine his government.

    Sánchez, who has gained international attention for his progressive policy agenda that drew public criticism from former U.S. President Donald Trump, has not been directly linked to any of the ongoing corruption investigations. His minority administration remains in power through a coalition agreement with a junior partner, who has so far retained their support for the government despite the ongoing judicial actions.

  • ‘Don’t have a fine-issuing button’: eSafety chief defends lack of fines for social media companies

    ‘Don’t have a fine-issuing button’: eSafety chief defends lack of fines for social media companies

    Six months after Australia’s groundbreaking ban on social media use for children under 16 came into force, the nation’s top online safety regulator has laid out the legal and procedural reasons no penalties have yet been issued to non-compliant platforms.

    During a Senate estimates hearing this week, eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman-Grant pushed back against growing public and political pressure to issue immediate fines, emphasizing that the regulator does not have the authority to unilaterally impose penalties.

    The ban, enacted by the Albanese government, took effect on December 10, 2026, and since that date, eSafety has been conducting in-depth compliance reviews of 10 major global social media platforms, including Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram, as well as Snapchat. Inman-Grant told the committee that the investigations into whether platforms are meeting the legal requirement of taking “reasonable steps” to block under-16 users remain ongoing, describing the process as inherently complex.

    While Inman-Grant confirmed that regulators raised serious concerns about industry compliance in a March 2026 regulatory update, she noted that targeted engagement with platforms has already delivered measurable incremental progress. As of March, data showed a 37% drop in the number of confirmed under-16 accounts across major platforms, and parents have reported more open, constructive discussions with their children about online safety risks and appropriate digital habits.

    Since the March update, Inman-Grant said additional corrective changes have been implemented by platforms. Some services have introduced new age verification checks for accounts that had adjusted their stated birth date to 16+ just before or after the ban took effect, catching additional underage users who slipped through initial checks. Others have removed unnecessary administrative barriers that made it harder for parents to report underage accounts, and several platforms have updated their age ratings in major app stores to align with the new national rules.

    Despite these encouraging early signs, Inman-Grant stressed that regulators have not yet reached a final ruling on whether any platform meets the full legal standard for compliance. Systemic non-compliance can only be punished after regulators build a solid evidence base and pursue formal legal proceedings through the court system, she explained, rejecting the idea that penalties could be handed down quickly. “Unfortunately, we don’t have a fine issuing button,” Inman-Grant told the committee. “Rather, systemic non-compliance needs to be proven in court with solid evidence and complex legal proceedings.”

    To support the ongoing investigation and any future enforcement actions, the regulator has now retained an external independent legal team, Inman-Grant confirmed. When pressed by Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson to name which specific platforms have made changes, eSafety General Manager for Regulatory Operations Heidi Snell said details shared by platforms under statutory compulsory notices cannot be disclosed at this stage. Snell explained that public release of platform-specific information would jeopardize ongoing investigations and any potential future enforcement action, as assessments of the effectiveness of corrective measures are not yet complete.

    Inman-Grant used the occasion to point to a recently concluded three-year enforcement action against X Corp, formerly Twitter, as a case study for how the regulator pursues non-compliance. The company was found non-compliant with a transparency mandate related to child sexual abuse material, ultimately admitted liability, and agreed to pay a AU$650,000 penalty plus covering regulatory court costs. Inman-Grant noted that this action is one of the few successful enforcement outcomes against a global tech platform by any regulator worldwide, proving that methodical, evidence-based enforcement delivers tangible results even against large companies. “Such outcomes are hard won, and they demonstrate that careful, methodical enforcement with a substantial evidence base is results,” she said.