A tragic construction accident in downtown Seoul on Tuesday has left three people dead and three more hospitalized with injuries after a section of a decades-old overpass mid-demolition gave way unexpectedly, South Korean fire authorities confirmed. According to Lee Jong-woon, a representative from Seoul’s Seodaemun District Fire Station, the incident unfolded after on-site crews first paused demolition work when they spotted unusual sinking in a portion of the structure amid ongoing concrete slab cutting operations. Crews had moved to conduct a routine safety check following this discovery when the collapse occurred, leaving victims trapped under falling concrete and steel debris. All fatalities were caused by blunt trauma from falling wreckage after the bridge deck section fractured and collapsed, fire officials added. In the wake of the incident, law enforcement and emergency response teams quickly cordoned off the entire area surrounding the collapse site, where mangled steel girders and broken concrete chunks now dangle dangerously from the remaining overpass structure. A portion of falling debris also landed on an adjacent railway corridor serving major routes into Seoul, prompting state-owned Korea Railroad Corp. to immediately suspend a portion of incoming and outgoing services bound for Seoul Station, disrupting commuter and long-distance travel across the region. First constructed in 1966, the aging infrastructure project had been marked for demolition for years due to longstanding public safety concerns. Demolition work on the overpass first launched in August of the previous year, and crews had been working methodically to take down the structure incrementally before Tuesday’s deadly incident. Emergency teams have not yet released further details on the identities of the victims or the exact timeline of resumed work at the site, as investigations into the cause of the collapse are still in their early stages.
作者： admin
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‘A distraction’: Anti-corruption commissioner Paul Brereton defiant as exit looms
The sudden resignation of Paul Brereton, the inaugural head of Australia’s National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), has sparked intense political debate, with the outgoing commissioner defending his record and framing his exit as a necessary step to end distractions for the integrity watchdog.
Brereton formally stepped down from his post on Monday, and just one day later, he appeared before a Senate estimates hearing to lay out his reasoning for the unexpected departure. The former Major-General told attendees that ongoing public and parliamentary scrutiny of his longstanding ties to the Australian Defence Force (ADF) had become an unmanageable distraction for the nascent anti-corruption body. Brereton has retained an unpaid role with the Inspector-General of the Australian Defence Force (IGADF), where he assists with an ongoing investigation into alleged misconduct by Australian special forces personnel in Afghanistan.
“Every time the NACC’s chief executive officer appears before this committee, he is forced to answer questions about me,” Brereton told the hearing. “All press focus is drawn to me and my overlapping roles, and that has become a distraction. That is why I decided removing that distraction is in the best interest of the organization.”
The resignation comes in the wake of an inquiry by NACC Inspector Gail Furness, which probed Brereton’s handling of a declared conflict of interest connected to the commission’s decision not to probe referrals from the Robodebt royal commission. The inquiry’s draft findings labeled Brereton’s actions as meeting the technical definition of “officer misconduct” — a classification Brereton has warned has created a culture of fear among NACC staff.
“Given the incredibly broad definition that counts any error of fact or any error of law as officer misconduct, we now have a commission where staff are terrified of making any mistake, because they fear they will face a misconduct finding,” he said.
Brereton pushed back against claims of intentional wrongdoing, noting that his early involvement in the Robodebt probe was conducted entirely in good faith. While he acknowledged that with hindsight, he should have recused himself from the process from the start and apologized for the resulting delays, he rejected arguments that his actions were the core cause of the harm suffered by Robodebt victims. “To suggest that that is the main cause of the appalling tragedy that the Robodebt aged victims have suffered is overstating the case entirely,” he said. In a formal statement, Brereton reiterated that he would continue to reject any claims of improper conduct.
The commissioner confirmed he received Furness’ draft investigation report back in March, a standard step in the inquiry process, but declined to comment on specific findings, noting that procedural fairness processes are still ongoing. Brereton also emphasized that he had proactively disclosed all his ADF ties to all relevant statutory officers, arguing that his limited unpaid work for IGADF — totaling less than 30 hours over three years, mostly outside of work hours — did not require further detailed disclosure to NACC leadership. He compared the demand for full details of his ADF work to asking for personal information about his religious attendance or recreational sports participation.
Brereton stressed that the constant need to defend himself against allegations had eaten into an undue amount of his time, and more importantly, had diverted the NACC from its core anti-corruption work. “Regardless of the particular nature of the allegations, this distraction is preventing both of us from doing our work,” he said.
The outgoing commissioner faced sharp criticism from crossbench senators during the hearing. Greens Senator and Canberra representative David Pocock attacked Brereton for refusing to take ownership of missteps during the NACC’s early establishment. “It seems to me, in your final appearance, there’s just absolutely no ownership of any of the stumbles and things that have happened in the establishment of the NACC, and I find that very disappointing from a leader of your stature,” Pocock said. Brereton responded simply that Pocock was entitled to his opinion.
Brereton also confirmed he had not received any indication from the federal government that it had lost confidence in his leadership. “I accept that I have in some way contributed to this outcome, but I do not accept that my standards have in any way fallen below an appropriate standard,” he said. Earlier, he declined to immediately release a copy of his resignation letter to the Governor-General, saying he needed to first check for personal information that should remain private.
Brereton’s tenure as the NACC’s inaugural commissioner was marked by persistent controversy from the start. As early as September 2025, he announced he would recuse himself from all defence-related referrals to the NACC specifically to avoid the distraction that now led to his resignation. In total, the hearing confirmed that NACC Inspector Gail Furness has received nearly 90 conflict of interest complaints against Brereton in less than six months, covering issues including the procurement of counsel assisting the commission. Brereton told the hearing on Tuesday that 40 of those complaints were filed during a 48-hour period following a coordinated social media campaign against him.
In a statement released Monday, Attorney-General Michelle Rowland thanked Brereton for his work standing up the new national integrity body. “Commissioner Brereton has made an invaluable contribution to the establishment of the NACC as its inaugural commissioner,” she said. The federal government will now launch a merit-based selection process to appoint Brereton’s replacement as head of the anti-corruption commission.
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Search continues for 7 villagers trapped in a flooded Laos cave
The multi-national search and rescue mission for seven local villagers trapped inside a flooded cave in central Laos has entered its seventh day on Tuesday, with rescuers battling harsh terrain and volatile weather to reach the stranded group whose current status remains unclear.
According to Lao and Thai rescue teams deployed to the operation, the seven entered the cave in Xaisomboun Province on May 19, only for an intense downpour to trigger sudden flash flooding that sealed off their only exit path.
The Lao non-profit Rescue Volunteer for People, which has been collaborating closely with local government authorities on the operation, announced its Tuesday operational priorities via a Facebook post: search teams planned to explore natural air shafts above the cave system to identify alternative access points and pinpoint the location of the trapped group. Rescue personnel from neighboring Thailand arrived at the remote site over the weekend to reinforce the effort.
Difficult conditions have consistently slowed progress from the start of the operation. To date, rescue divers have only managed to navigate roughly 100 meters into the narrow, waterlogged cave system, and estimates place the trapped group around 30 meters beyond the farthest point rescuers have currently reached. Crews are currently working around the clock to pump floodwater out of the cave to open new passage for search teams.
The cave is located in a remote, mountainous area of Longcheng district, Xaisomboun Province, approximately 120 kilometers north of the Lao capital Vientiane. Rescuers have documented on social media how steep terrain and ongoing heavy rainfall have severely hampered movement and operations. Footage shared by Thai rescue teams shows that reaching the cave entrance alone requires a 4-kilometer steep, arduous hike over uneven ground. The entrance itself is rocky, sharply sloped, and only wide enough to allow one person to climb through at a time. Once inside, teams must navigate mud-choked corridors, fully flooded chambers, and tight tunnels that force rescuers to crawl slowly forward.
While no official confirmation of the group’s purpose inside the cave has been released by authorities, participating rescuers confirmed the villagers entered the site to search for untapped gold deposits. Bounkham Luanglath, a representative of the Lao rescue organization, told the Associated Press that local residents had long visited the cave to prospect for gold, despite repeated official warnings about the site’s significant safety risks.
Laos has one of the lowest average per capita incomes in Southeast Asia, ranging between $2,000 and $2,500 annually, with rural, underdeveloped regions seeing even lower average earnings. Though the country is not classified as a major global gold producer, its mining sector makes up a substantial share of its developing national economy, driven by foreign direct investment primarily from neighboring China and Thailand. While copper remains the country’s top mineral export, mining for rare earth elements — critical components for nearly all modern electronics and clean energy technologies — has expanded rapidly across Laos in recent years. As of Tuesday, the Lao Foreign Ministry stated it had no official information to release to media outlets. The one-party communist state maintains strict controls over information sharing, with no formal organized opposition permitted.
The high-profile rescue operation has drawn major attention in neighboring Thailand, where it evokes sharp comparisons to the viral 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue, when 12 youth soccer players and their coach were trapped for more than two weeks before a daring international operation pulled them out alive. That mission claimed one life: a former Thai Navy SEAL diver who died during the search phase. Just earlier this month, another high-profile cave tragedy claimed six lives: five Italian divers who died after going missing during a cave dive in the Maldives, plus a Maldivian military diver who was killed during the high-risk body recovery operation.
Cave rescue experts note that trapped cave explorers face a cascade of life-threatening hazards even in the best conditions. Extended exposure to cold cave temperatures can quickly lead to hypothermia. While the human body can survive for multiple weeks without food, access to clean drinking water is critical to avoid fatal dehydration, and contaminated water can trigger diarrhea that accelerates fluid loss. Falling oxygen levels and carbon dioxide buildup also pose severe risks: low oxygen causes symptoms similar to altitude sickness that can damage lungs and other organs over time, while excess carbon dioxide buildup leads to fatigue and eventual unconsciousness. Constant darkness also disrupts the body’s circadian rhythms and sense of time, and can leave victims with extreme light sensitivity once they are extracted.
This report includes contributions from Associated Press journalists Grant Peck, Anton L. Delgado and Haruka Nuga.
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ASX 200 slips as US attacks on Iran spook traders and send oil prices soaring
A three-day consecutive gain for Australia’s domestic sharemarket came to an abrupt end on Tuesday, as renewed geopolitical tensions in the Middle East upended market forecasts and sent global crude oil prices surging by 2.3% in a single trading session. The sudden shift in sentiment followed conflicting developments in US-Iran diplomacy that left global investors scrambling to adjust their risk positioning.
The benchmark ASX 200 closed the session down 34.20 points, a 0.39% drop that pushed the index to 8657.80. The downturn began immediately after the opening bell, when news broke of new US military strikes targeting Iranian assets, injecting fresh uncertainty into a region already roiled by ongoing conflict. The broader All Ordinaries index followed a similar trajectory, falling 32.80 points, or 0.37%, to settle at 8882.60. Against this backdrop, the Australian dollar edged slightly higher against the US dollar, hitting 71.67 US cents by market close.
Oil emerged as the defining volatility driver of the session. Just hours before Australian markets opened, crude prices had fallen overnight after both US and Iranian officials announced a tentative, in-principle peace deal that would reopen the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint through which roughly 20% of global oil supplies pass daily. That optimistic shift was completely erased, however, following reports of explosions near Bandar Abbas, Iran’s key coastal hub for access to the strait.
IG market analyst Tony Sycamore explained that the blasts shattered growing market confidence that a breakthrough in US-Iran tensions was finally at hand. “These doubts have emerged just as markets were growing increasingly confident that a breakthrough was imminent, seemingly ignoring the fact that five previous attempts had fallen apart at the eleventh hour,” he noted. By the close of trading, Brent Crude had jumped 2.3% to settle at $US98.34, equal to around $A137.21, erasing all prior losses from the overnight session.
Nearly all market sectors felt the downward pull of the uncertainty: 10 of the ASX’s 11 core sectors closed the session in negative territory, led by utilities, consumer staples, and Australia’s big four banks. Even the energy sector, which typically rises alongside crude prices, ended the day lower, dragged down by coal producers that reversed the strong gains they posted a day earlier, which had followed a deadly explosion at a major Chinese coal mine that disrupted global supply.
Utilities were hit particularly hard after the national regulator announced an upcoming cut to retail electricity prices. Origin Energy shares dropped 2.30% to $10.64, while competitor AGL fell 2.79% to $8.70. Among consumer staples, major supermarket chains Woolworths and Coles slipped 0.75% and 0.56% respectively, while Treasury Wine Estates saw shares plummet 3.90% to $4.43.
Australia’s four largest national banks all posted losses ahead of the release of key domestic inflation data scheduled for Wednesday. Economists forecast that headline annual inflation will rise to 4.4%, while the Reserve Bank of Australia’s preferred trimmed mean inflation measure is expected to come in at 3.4%. Current market pricing suggests slowing inflation growth, paired with last week’s unexpected jump in national unemployment, will give the RBA room to keep the official cash rate on hold at 4.35%. By close, Commonwealth Bank of Australia fell 0.18% to $164.30, Westpac dropped 0.44% to $36.61, National Australia Bank led the big four losses with a 0.76% drop to $37.99, and ANZ slipped 0.31% to $35.66.
A handful of individual companies posted outsized moves on the day. Market operator ASX Ltd itself suffered its worst single-day performance since 2000, with shares plummeting 13% to an eight-week low of $51.03. Mexican fast food chain Guzman Y Gomez trimmed recent gains, falling 2.22% to $19.42, one day after the company confirmed it would fully exit the US market to focus on its domestic and Asian operations.
Against the broader market downturn, two companies delivered strong positive gains off the back of promising business updates. Online electronics retailer Kogan soared 18.60% to $4.08 after releasing a mid-financial year update showing gross sales grew 18.2% and total revenue jumped 18.1% over the first 10 months of the fiscal year. Medical device manufacturer Fisher & Paykel Healthcare also rallied sharply, with shares jumping 9.2% to $30.05 after reporting a 24% year-on-year rise in full-year net profits that outperformed market expectations.
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Essendon star Zach Merrett on Brad Scott sacking, his future at the club
In a startling revelation that lays bare the messy behind-the-scenes chaos of top-tier Australian rules football, Essendon’s star veteran Zach Merrett has shared that news of head coach Brad Scott’s dismissal reached him via an unexpected source: a random stranger at a neighborhood coffee shop, before the club officially notified its playing group.
Merrett was quietly drafting training notes over a morning brew at a cafe near Essendon’s headquarters this Tuesday when the unknown patron approached him with the bombshell announcement. While club executives formally confirmed Scott’s termination soon after Merrett arrived at the facility, the six-time best and fairest winner says the unorthodox reveal left him stunned.
Scott’s departure from the Bombers came after a dismal 12-month stretch that has left the club languishing at the bottom of the AFL ladder. The coach was let go Monday night, following a run that saw Essendon secure just one victory from 24 matches dating back to the middle of the 2025 season. The 2026 campaign has been equally underwhelming, with the side holding a 1-10 win-loss record halfway through the regular season.
For Merrett, who served as captain for three of Scott’s four years at the helm, the coaching exit is a somber turning point for the club. “It’s always really difficult when you spend four years with someone, anyone, but particularly the head coach,” Merrett explained during an appearance at Sapporo Premium Beer’s 150th birthday celebration at Melbourne’s Rising Festival. “You spend a lot of time together… so it’s a sad moment and I’m more so thinking of him and his family. It’s a pretty stressful role for anyone in that position around the competition, so I hope he’s holding up all right.”
Merrett’s own future at Essendon has been the subject of intense speculation since the end of the 2025 season, when he stepped down from the captaincy after a failed attempt to engineer a trade to Hawthorn. The club blocked the move, holding Merrett to his existing contract, which keeps him tied to Essendon until the end of the 2027 season. When asked whether Scott’s departure would change his plans long-term, Merrett said it was too early in the process to make any definitive calls.
“Yeah, it’s probably all so raw right now, I’ll have a bit of time and space to reflect and think through that in the not-so-distant future,” he said. “But for now, to be honest, it’s about getting through the day… gather your thoughts and then make sure the young boys are focused on the game. There’s a game in five days’ time we want to perform in, I want to perform in, so making sure there’s no distractions. That (decision) will happen in time, for now I just feel like I need to hold my end of the bargain, make sure I am trying to lead these young boys through this weird phase.”
As a seasoned player who has now experienced five separate coaching changes throughout his tenure at Essendon, Merrett is leaning on that experience to steady the young playing group through the transition. He emphasized that players bear responsibility for their own on-field performance regardless of off-field front office decisions.
“Unfortunately I’ve been through this maybe five times now,” he said. “Not to make excuses, we’re paid to perform as players, we’re not on the board, we’re not there to make those decisions. We need to look after our own backyard so to speak, and perform and play our role. For me, it’s not getting distracted, still training extremely hard, locking in for what you need to do to prepare for a big game on Sunday night. And seeing it as an opportunity to respond and play in a way the fans can hopefully be proud of in the back-end of the year.”
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3 killed after passenger van hits an elephant in a Ugandan national park
A devastating collision between a passenger van and a wild elephant at Murchison Falls National Park in Uganda has left three people dead and four others hospitalized with serious injuries, national police confirmed in an official briefing this week.
The fatal accident unfolded Sunday along a paved roadway that cuts directly through the popular protected wildlife reserve, according to the statement released by police Monday. The vehicle was carrying a group of staff members from the Uganda Revenue Authority, who were en route from a city in northern Uganda back to the country’s capital, Kampala.
Per the police account, after the van made impact with the elephant, the driver was unable to maintain control of the vehicle, leading to additional devastating damage and casualties. In the wake of the crash, law enforcement has issued a public safety advisory urging all motorists to practice heightened vigilance when traveling through national parks and other designated wildlife protection zones, where unexpected animal crossings remain a persistent risk.
Graphic footage captured at the crash site shows traumatized survivors trapped in the wrecked van screaming and calling for emergency assistance, while the injured elephant can be seen frantically attempting to stand up in a thicket of brush a short distance from the road. As of Tuesday, authorities have not released a formal update on whether the elephant survived its injuries from the collision.
While deadly vehicle collisions between passenger vehicles and large wildlife remain uncommon in Uganda’s protected park systems, the incident has brought renewed attention to the growing human-wildlife conflict that conservation organizations have long flagged as a critical challenge. As more infrastructure is built through and around protected habitats to support human travel and economic activity, overlapping spaces for people and wild animals create frequent, often deadly points of conflict that demand targeted policy and safety interventions.
Conservationists note that balancing the expansion of access to park lands for tourism and local transit with protections for both human communities and resident wildlife remains an ongoing priority for Uganda’s environmental management agencies, as the country works to preserve its rich biodiversity while supporting economic development across the region.
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Watch: Light drones fall into water after malfunction in Sydney show
A technical failure disrupted a highly anticipated winter light display over one of Sydney’s most iconic waterfront spots this week, sending scores of unmanned aerial vehicles crashing into the water below. The incident unfolded at Darling Harbour, a central tourist and recreational hub that draws thousands of visitors annually for seasonal cultural events. Organizers had planned the drone display as a centerpiece of the city’s winter light festival, with the craft programmed to create intricate, glowing patterns across the evening sky for attendees gathered along the shore. Unexpected system errors triggered a widespread malfunction that affected nearly 90 of the drones, causing the unmanned devices to lose stability mid-flight and drop into the harbor. No injuries to bystanders or damage to nearby waterfront infrastructure have been reported in the wake of the incident, local event officials confirmed. Organizers have launched an investigation into the root cause of the malfunction, reviewing pre-flight system checks and in-air operational data to determine what led to the mass failure. The incident has sparked informal discussion among event technologists about safety protocols for large-scale drone light displays, which have grown in popularity as an innovative alternative to traditional fireworks across major cities in recent years.
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Australia confirms first diphtheria death amid worst outbreak in decades
Australia is confronting its most severe diphtheria outbreak in more than three decades, and health authorities have now confirmed the nation’s first fatality from the vaccine-preventable illness since 2018. The unprecedented spread of the disease, which is concentrated largely in remote Indigenous communities across the country’s north and west, has triggered a national public health response aimed at ramping up vaccination coverage and containing transmission.
The outbreak first began to emerge in late 2025, with case counts climbing steadily through the start of 2026 before surging sharply in February. By March, Northern Territory (NT) officials formally declared a public health outbreak, with additional cases soon detected in Western Australia (WA), South Australia, and Queensland. As of mid-2026, total confirmed cases across the country have reached 245 – making this the largest national outbreak recorded since 1991.
On Tuesday, NT Health Minister Steve Edgington announced that autopsy analysis conducted by an overseas laboratory confirmed diphtheria as the cause of a man’s death in April at Royal Darwin Hospital. This marks the first recorded diphtheria death in Australia in eight years, per national public health records.
Breaking down the geographic distribution of cases, 60% of all 2026 infections have been recorded in the Northern Territory, with Western Australia accounting for another 36% of cases. Just a small handful of additional infections have been confirmed in South Australia and Queensland. Between January 2025 and May 2026, the NT alone documented 163 cases: 48 of the more dangerous respiratory diphtheria strain, and 115 cases of cutaneous diphtheria, which spreads through direct contact with infected skin lesions.
Notably, WA’s confirmation of two respiratory diphtheria cases in March marked the first time the state has recorded such cases in more than 50 years, underscoring the unusual scope of the current outbreak.
Diphtheria presents in two distinct forms, both of which are fully vaccine-preventable. Respiratory diphtheria, the deadlier strain, initially causes symptoms including fever, chills, and sore throat, and can progress to life-threatening breathing and swallowing complications. Cutaneous diphtheria, by contrast, typically causes slow-healing sores or ulcers on exposed skin and rarely results in severe illness.
Australia’s standard national immunization schedule includes five doses of diphtheria vaccine for children between the ages of two months and four years, followed by a booster shot for adolescents between 12 and 13 years. Public health authorities are now urgently urging people in affected communities to ensure their vaccinations are up to date, particularly teenagers and adults who may be due for a booster dose.
In recent weeks, Australian officials have scaled up emergency vaccination efforts in high-risk regions, and data as of Tuesday shows new case numbers have begun to decline. Since March 30, more than 10,400 vaccine doses have been administered in the NT alone, with pop-up vaccination clinics set up in Darwin, Katherine, and Alice Springs to expand access and raise public awareness of the outbreak.
“Our government has taken this situation very seriously, and we are working hard to understand the causes and working to contain the situation,” Edgington said in Tuesday’s announcement. NT Health officials emphasized that vaccination remains “the most important measure for preventing, protecting and reducing transmission” of the disease.
Last week, national Chief Medical Officer Professor Michael Kidd formally designated the diphtheria outbreak a communicable disease incident of national significance, triggering a coordinated federal response. The federal government has also committed AU$7.2 million in emergency funding to expand vaccination capacity and boost public health resources in affected communities across the country.
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‘Give a damn’: Albanese government lashed as anti-racism framework languishes
A fiery partisan clash has erupted in Australian federal parliament over the Albanese government’s prolonged delay in allocating implementation funding for the country’s landmark National Anti-Racism Framework, with a senior Greens senator accusing the ruling Labor government of callous disregard for the daily harms experienced by communities of color across the nation.
Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi delivered the scathing critique during Tuesday afternoon’s Senate estimates hearing, calling out the government for failing to earmark any funding for the framework’s rollout in the 2026-27 federal budget, more than 19 months after the policy document was formally released. The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) first unveiled the comprehensive framework in November 2024, which outlines 63 targeted actionable recommendations to counter systemic and interpersonal racism across four critical Australian sectors: law, education, healthcare, and media.
Faruqi emphasized that even the nation’s top racial justice official has repeatedly pushed the federal government for urgent progress. “The Race Discrimination Commissioner has written to the Attorney-General on multiple occasions literally pleading for action on the National Anti-Racism Framework, and yet the only response that even the Race Discrimination Commissioner gets is it is being carefully considered,” Faruqi told the hearing. “But, while you are carefully considering people are being harmed every single day in this country.”
She directly addressed Labor Senator Nita Green during the heated exchange, stating, “it just seems to me, Minister, that the government really does not give a damn about what people of colour are facing in the community every single day.”
Green pushed back firmly against Faruqi’s accusations, rejecting the claim that the government is neglecting anti-racism action. She countered that the federal government already provided AHRC with funding to develop the framework in the first place, and is currently taking a deliberate, all-encompassing approach to evaluating the 63 recommendations.
“It’s not a requirement that the government would respond in the way that other reports require a response,” Green noted. “But, we’re considering those recommendations, and further to that, we’re certainly committed to a holistic response to address racism.”
Green also pointed to existing government investment in anti-racism initiatives, including funding for AHRC’s Seen and Heard project, and the recent passage of targeted hate speech regulatory reforms, as proof of the government’s ongoing commitment to combating racism. She added that implementation of the framework is not the sole responsibility of the Commonwealth government: the recommendations are designed to be enacted collaboratively by federal authorities, state and territorial governments, and private sector stakeholders.
Federal officials echoed this stance during the hearing, noting that the government is also integrating consideration of the framework’s recommendations with ongoing work from the Special Envoys for Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, to address overlapping racial justice priorities across all levels of government.
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Gisèle Pelicot ‘deeply shocked’ by decision not to jail boys in rape case
A high-profile French rape survivor has spoken out against a controversial UK court decision that spared three teenage boys from custodial sentences for the repeated rape of two underage girls in southern England, calling the outcome a failure of justice for victims of sexual violence.
The attacks unfolded in two separate incidents in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, between November 2024 and January 2025. Two 14-year-old boys carried out rapes against a 14-year-old and a 15-year-old girl, while a third 13-year-old boy was convicted of aiding and abetting the second assault. In a shocking detail that amplified the gravity of the crimes, the perpetrators recorded video of the attacks and shared the footage across social media platforms. The case has already sparked urgent questions about the responsibility of big tech firms in preventing the spread of abusive content.
At Southampton Crown Court, Judge Nicholas Rowland handed down Youth Rehabilitation Orders (YROs) rather than custodial placements, arguing that the offenders’ young ages meant avoiding permanent criminalization was a priority. The two 14-year-olds (now 15) received three-year YROs with 180 days of intensive supervision, along with 10-year restraining orders and three-month curfews. The 13-year-old (now 14) was sentenced to an 18-month YRO for his role in the second attack. Judge Rowland acknowledged the extreme severity of the crimes, noting that the recording of the assaults made them even more abhorrent, but stood by his decision to spare the teens from youth detention.
Following the ruling, the UK Attorney General Lord Richard Hermer announced he would launch a formal review of the sentences, with 28 days to determine if the outcome is unduly lenient and should be referred to the Court of Appeal for reconsideration. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has also publicly labeled the case “appalling” and praised the two victims for their “extraordinary bravery” in coming forward amid such heinous circumstances.
Now, 73-year-old Gisèle Pelicot, a veteran campaigner for sexual assault survivors who became a global symbol of courage after waiving anonymity in France’s largest ever mass rape trial, has spoken out about the UK ruling. In an interview with BBC Breakfast, Pelicot said she was “deeply shocked” that the offenders were allowed to walk free, while their victims carry lifelong trauma that will never fully heal.
Pelicot’s own experience of abuse made headlines around the world: her husband Dominique Pelicot drugged her into unconsciousness for years and invited dozens of stranger to rape her, in a case that rocked France. Dominique Pelicot was ultimately sentenced to 20 years in prison, and Gisèle Pelicot has since dedicated herself to encouraging other survivors to speak out about their experiences.
In the Fordingbridge case, one of the victims, now 16, described the non-custodial sentence as like a “rock straight in my face” and a mere “slap on the wrist” for the crimes committed against her. She told the BBC’s *Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg* that she and her family are pushing for the sentences to be changed, questioning why she endured the trauma of reliving the attack during trial if no significant punishment would be imposed.
Pelicot said she salutes the incredible strength and courage of this victim for choosing to speak publicly about her abuse, adding that she hopes her own high-profile story helped give the young survivor the confidence to come forward. “Rape is a crime and justice has an essential role,” Pelicot said. “It’s there to, in fact, name the crimes, to recognise the suffering of victims, and to remember that in fact they must not remain unpunished.”
She also called on national governments and large technology companies to step up their efforts to protect survivors of sexual violence, particularly amid the growing trend of perpetrators sharing abusive content of their attacks online that causes ongoing harm to victims long after the initial assault.