Global Pulse

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  • US, China escalate quantum race with rival investment drives

    US, China escalate quantum race with rival investment drives

    The global quantum technology sector has entered a new phase of accelerated state-backed competition after the U.S. Commerce Department announced a $2.013 billion strategic funding package for nine domestic quantum computing firms on May 21, triggering sharp stock rallies in both U.S. and Chinese quantum companies and underscoring rising stakes in the race for global quantum supremacy.

    Under the terms of the CHIPS and Science Act, the U.S. government will take minority non-controlling equity stakes in all funding recipients, marking a historic shift from traditional research grant models to direct government investment in private quantum firms. The bulk of the funding, $1.375 billion, is allocated to domestic quantum foundry development: GlobalFoundries receives $375 million to build a multi-modal quantum chip foundry, while IBM gets $1 billion to launch a new subsidiary focused on manufacturing quantum-grade superconducting wafers. The remaining $538 million is distributed across seven specialized quantum computing companies, with major recipients including D-Wave, Infleqtion, Rigetti, and PsiQuantum, each receiving up to $100 million to solve long-standing engineering challenges across different quantum technology modalities, and smaller player Diraq receiving up to $38 million for silicon spin qubit development.

    “With today’s CHIPS Research and Development investments in quantum computing, the Trump administration is leading the world into a new era of American innovation,” U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in the announcement. “These strategic quantum technology investments will build on our domestic industry, creating thousands of high-paying American jobs while advancing American quantum capabilities.” The equity stake structure is designed to generate potential returns for U.S. taxpayers, and the CHIPS Research and Development Office noted it will continue accepting new proposals for microelectronics and quantum advancement projects.

    The funding announcement immediately sent shockwaves through global capital markets. Over the following two trading days, leading U.S. quantum stocks posted double-digit gains: Infleqtion surged more than 30%, Rigetti Computing jumped 63%, D-Wave rose 53%, and IBM gained around 13%. The rally spilled over to Chinese markets, where key domestic quantum companies recorded similar gains: Quantum CTEK climbed 19% to 641.08 yuan, GuoChuang Software gained nearly 18% to 40.24 yuan, and Koal Software rose 9.5% to 20.97 yuan. Investors are betting that the expanded U.S. government push will prompt China to accelerate its own state-backed investment in the sector to maintain its competitive position.

    China has already laid significant groundwork in quantum technology, with a flurry of major breakthroughs announced just weeks before the U.S. funding reveal. On May 9, domestic firm Origin Quantum launched Origin Wukong-180, its fourth-generation 180-qubit superconducting quantum computer, which is now open to global users for cloud-based quantum computing tasks. Two days earlier on May 7, the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Cold Atom Technology (CASCA) unveiled the Hanyuan-2, billed as the world’s first dual-core neutral-atom quantum computer with 200 total qubits, marking a global breakthrough in multi-core quantum processor architecture. On May 13, the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) published results for its Jiuzhang 4.0 photonic quantum computer in *Nature*, showing the system solves a core benchmark problem 10^54 times faster than the world’s most powerful conventional supercomputer, while scaling up from 255 to 3,050 manipulated photons from its previous generation.

    Industry analysts and commentators note that these recent developments, paired with the U.S. funding push, are expected to speed up Beijing’s timeline for expanded state investment in quantum technology. China already designated quantum technology as the top priority among six core future industries in its 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030), outlined in 2025. The other five prioritized sectors are biomedical technology, hydrogen and nuclear fusion energy, brain-computer interfaces, embodied artificial intelligence, and 6G telecommunications.

    Industry observers widely frame quantum technology as a defining strategic battleground for major global powers, for three core reasons. First, quantum computing and communications will reshape national defense and information security architectures. Second, the unprecedented processing power of quantum systems can dramatically accelerate breakthroughs in drug development and advanced materials design. Third, early technological leadership will grant countries major influence over global industry standards for the next generation of computing.

    “The U.S. move represents the first time a national government has directly taken equity stakes in quantum technology companies, marking a formal escalation from a laboratory race to a state-level industrial war,” a technology analyst based in Anhui, China’s central quantum research hub, noted. He added that nearly 70% of U.S. strategic investment is concentrated in quantum wafer manufacturing, mirroring the policy blueprint used to build up the U.S. domestic semiconductor industry and laying the foundational manufacturing infrastructure for next-generation computing power.

    China remains one of the only nations capable of competing head-to-head with the U.S. across quantum technology, with a maturing domestic industrial chain. It holds three distinct core competitive advantages: it maintains a global lead in quantum communications, with Quantum CTEK’s quantum cryptography technology already deployed for commercial use nationwide; Origin Quantum operates China’s only 6-inch quantum chip production line, with a daily capacity of over 100 wafers, a 92% yield rate, and its 180-qubit system already available as a cloud service; and quantum technology sits at the top of Beijing’s national priority list for the next five-year development cycle.

    However, China also faces key gaps that the U.S. is explicitly targeting with its latest funding push. “China’s core weaknesses lie in dedicated quantum wafer fabrication and high-end control and measurement equipment, precisely the areas Washington is targeting with its latest funding push,” the Anhui-based analyst said. “Domestic quantum chips still partly rely on conventional foundries for production, while purpose-built quantum wafer facilities remain under construction.”

    The two superpowers are competing across four major quantum computing architectures, with domestic leaders on each side: for superconducting quantum computing, China’s Origin Quantum and Quantum CTEK face off against IBM, Google and Rigetti; for photonic quantum computing, USTC’s Jiuzhang series rivals U.S. firm PsiQuantum; for trapped-ion quantum computing, China’s Qudoor competes with Quantinuum and IonQ; and for neutral atom quantum computing, China’s CASCA goes up against U.S. firms Atom Computing and Infleqtion.

    This competition has unfolded against a backdrop of escalating U.S. export controls targeting China’s quantum sector. During the final months of the Biden administration, Washington introduced sweeping export restrictions on quantum computers, critical components and related software in September 2024, followed by a ban on most U.S. investments in Chinese quantum firms that took effect in January 2025. The Trump administration expanded these controls in March 2025, adding roughly 80 companies to its export blacklist, more than 50 of which are Chinese, including six subsidiaries of leading Chinese cloud and AI firm Inspur Group, which were accused of acquiring U.S. technology for military quantum and supercomputing development. Currently, most major Chinese quantum firms and research institutions, including Quantum CTEK, Origin Quantum, and USTC, are named on the U.S. export blacklist.

    Despite these restrictions, Chinese firms have continued to advance their technology, bypassing controls by sourcing key equipment from non-U.S. suppliers and investing in homegrown alternatives that avoid Western-controlled components. For example, in 2023 Chinese state broadcaster CCTV showed Origin Quantum using a mask aligner manufactured by Germany’s SÜSS MicroTec for superconducting quantum chip production, proving U.S. controls have not fully cut off access to critical fabrication equipment. This progress allowed Origin Quantum to launch its third-generation 72-qubit Wukong system in 2024, followed by the 180-qubit fourth-generation model in May 2026.

    Chinese researchers have also worked around controls by developing quantum architectures that do not rely on Western-controlled dilution refrigerators, a critical cooling component for superconducting systems. Photonic and neutral-atom quantum computing, the two areas that saw major Chinese breakthroughs in May 2026, fall into this category.

    Data on overall investment in the sector paints a mixed picture of the current competitive balance. A columnist based in Liaoning cited McKinsey data showing China invested a total of $15 billion in its quantum sector in 2024, more than double the combined $7 billion invested by the U.S. government and private firms. However, independent observers caution that China’s overall investment figure includes large amounts of general infrastructure spending, and a significant share of Chinese R&D funding is allocated to quantum communications rather than quantum computing, where the U.S. still retains a clear technological lead.

  • Inquiry into antisemitism in Australia condemns online hatred and bigotry targeting witnesses

    Inquiry into antisemitism in Australia condemns online hatred and bigotry targeting witnesses

    MELBOURNE, Australia — The leader of Australia’s highest-profile public inquiry into antisemitism has publicly denounced a dangerous wave of online bigotry targeting Jewish community members who have stepped forward to share their experiences, condemning the harassment as an unacceptable attempt to intimidate witnesses. The Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion, a landmark probe granted the nation’s top investigative authority, was established in direct response to one of the worst antisemitic attacks in recent Australian history: a December mass shooting at a Sydney Hanukkah gathering that left 15 people dead. The attack was carried out by two gunmen authorities say were radicalized and inspired by the Islamic State group.

    Since the commission launched its public hearings on May 4, multiple Jewish witnesses who have testified about their personal encounters with antisemitism have been targeted with coordinated online harassment and intimidation, according to the inquiry’s chair, former High Court justice Virginia Bell. In a formal statement released Tuesday, Bell confirmed that the commission has received multiple reports documenting a sharp spike in hate-filled messages directed at witnesses immediately after they gave evidence.

    “I cannot fathom what those spreading this undiluted hatred and bigotry toward members of the Jewish community hope to achieve through these attacks,” Bell said. “This kind of vicious targeting has no place in a public inquiry designed to center the voices of those impacted by antisemitism.”

    The commission is systematically documenting all offensive social media content linked to the harassment, Bell confirmed, adding that one particularly severe case has already been referred to Australian law enforcement for further investigation. The inquiry’s core mandate, she noted, is to comprehensively understand and assess the day-to-day experiences of antisemitism among Australian Jewish communities — acts of intimidation against witnesses directly undermine this foundational goal.

    Over the commission’s first two weeks of public hearings, investigators have focused on mapping the nature and pervasiveness of antisemitism across Australian public institutions and broader society. The inquiry has already faced on-the-ground displays of hate: during the first week of hearings, police confirmed that a 68-year-old man was charged after appearing outside the Sydney commission venue wearing a shirt bearing a prohibited Nazi symbol. The design superimposed a Star of David over a swastika, paired with the slogan: “Antisemitism. Proud to be accused. Speak up!”

    At the time of the incident, the commission released a statement saying it was appalled by the display of explicit antisemitism so close to its proceedings. Officials moved quickly to reassure witnesses that strict safety protocols were already in place around all inquiry venues, reaffirming the commission’s unwavering commitment to its work. “This royal commission is determined to investigate antisemitism in Australia without fear or intimidation,” the commission said in the earlier statement. That resolve has only been reinforced in the wake of the online targeting of witnesses, Bell emphasized Tuesday.

  • BTS crowned ‘Artist of the Year’ at American Music Awards

    BTS crowned ‘Artist of the Year’ at American Music Awards

    The 2025 American Music Awards (AMAs) delivered one of the most anticipated wins of the ceremony, as South Korean global K-pop phenomenon BTS claimed the prestigious Artist of the Year award for the second consecutive year, outperforming some of the biggest names in Western popular music to solidify their standing as the world’s most popular musical act. The seven-member group, which includes RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V, and Jung Kook, edged out A-list competitors Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars, Bad Bunny, and Lady Gaga to take home the AMAs’ highest honor, the latest in a string of career milestones following the band’s highly anticipated return from an extended break earlier this year.

    After pausing group activities in 2022 to allow all members to complete South Korea’s mandatory military service, BTS made their full group comeback in March 2025 with the release of their fifth studio album *Arirang*, and quickly launched a $1 billion world tour that has broken venue attendance and revenue records across every stop. Beyond the top Artist of the Year prize, the group also added a second AMA to their 2025 collection, winning Song of the Summer for their *Arirang* lead single “SWIM”. In a testament to the growing global influence of their Korean label, fellow labelmates Katseye took home New Artist of the Year in the same ceremony.

    Other notable winners from this year’s AMAs included “GOLDEN”, the breakout viral single from the hit animated film *K-Pop Demon Hunters*, which claimed the award for Song of the Year, while Sabrina Carpenter won Album of the Year for her project *Man’s Best Friend*. For the Song of the Summer category, BTS also defeated additional high-profile nominees Harry Styles, Tame Impala, and PinkPantheress to secure the win.

    Unlike many major music awards where winners are selected by industry panels, the AMAs structure its voting process entirely around public participation: nominees are shortlisted based on commercial performance metrics like streaming and sales, but the final decision rests entirely on fan votes cast through the official AMAs website and social media platforms. This format makes the awards a de facto test of a star’s global fan base mobilization — and no fandom has a longer or more proven track record of coordinated engagement than BTS’s dedicated fan community, known universally as ARMY, an acronym for Adorable Representative M.C. for Youth.

    With millions of devoted members spread across dozens of countries, the decentralized ARMY network has long been cited as the core engine behind BTS’s unprecedented meteoric rise from a small South Korean hip-hop act to a global cultural phenomenon. ARMY regularly organizes coordinated online campaigns to boost the group’s streaming numbers, flood radio stations with song requests, and sell out stadium tours in minutes, demonstrating a level of dedication unmatched by most other fan communities worldwide.

    Accepting the award on behalf of the group, BTS leader RM, 31, centered his acceptance speech on gratitude to the fandom that delivered the win. “Armys, we did it once again! Since this is a fan-voted award, our biggest thanks and gratitude, as always, go to Armys all over the world,” he told the ceremony audience.

    Critical reception to BTS’s comeback album *Arirang* has been largely positive, with BBC music critics hailing the project as a “genuine return to form” that rekindled the creative fire that drove the group’s earliest global successes. Speaking during the acceptance, member J-Hope, 32, echoed RM’s thanks to fans for embracing the group’s new work. “We’ve had such an overwhelming response to this album. Honestly, thank you for embracing *Arirang* and every single song on this album. We’re so grateful,” he said.

    Member Jimin, 30, also thanked fans for their ongoing support through the group’s world tour, which is currently traveling across North America. “Thank you for following us on tour and showing us so much love in every city. And to all the Armys who always support and love us, thank you. We love you,” he added.

    The record-breaking world tour is scheduled to wrap in June 2025 with a series of homecoming shows in Busan, South Korea, timed to coincide with the 13th anniversary of BTS’s original debut in 2012. For the group, the back-to-back Artist of the Year wins at the AMAs, one of the most watched mainstream music awards in the United States, confirms that their global popularity has only grown stronger in the years since their initial hiatus, cementing their legacy as one of the most successful musical acts of the 21st century.

  • Heat dome over Europe scorches UK, Ireland, France and Spain

    Heat dome over Europe scorches UK, Ireland, France and Spain

    An unseasonal, record-shattering heat dome has settled over Western Europe, bringing sweltering temperatures far above average May norms and triggering public health warnings across the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Spain and Italy this week. The event, which follows decades of climate research linking rising global temperatures to more frequent extreme heat events, has already forced work restrictions, disrupted public activities, and renewed urgent calls for infrastructure adaptation to a warming climate.

    Meteorologists trace the extreme heat to a mass of warm air originating from northern Africa that has become trapped under a stable high-pressure system over Western Europe — a weather pattern commonly referred to as a heat dome. This system, which typically brings such extreme heat only in the peak of summer months of July and August, has pushed temperatures 15 to 18 degrees above typical mid-spring averages across most of the affected region.

    On Monday, the first full day of the heat surge, multiple countries logged all-time May temperature records. The UK’s Met Office confirmed that a high of 34.8C was recorded at London’s Kew Gardens, smashing the previous national May record by a full 2 degrees Celsius. “This heat would be exceptional in the UK even in mid-summer, let alone May,” the agency said in a post on social media platform X. In Ireland, two weather stations in the southwest and south of the country — Killarney and Clonmel, respectively — tied a new national May record of 28.8C. Meteo-France also confirmed that Monday was the hottest May day recorded in the country since national temperature tracking began.

    Local impacts of the unexpected heat have already been severe. In the French capital of Paris, a 10-kilometer running race over the weekend left one participant dead and 10 others hospitalized in critical condition. At the ongoing Roland-Garros tennis open in Paris, spectators fainted and struggled with the sweltering conditions on open courts. A grass fire broke out near Edinburgh’s iconic Arthur’s Seat, sending thick plumes of smoke across the Scottish capital, where temperatures hit an unseasonal 25C. Beaches in southwestern France have filled with heat-seeking visitors weeks earlier than the typical summer tourist season, while farmers across the region reported that crop harvests are progressing far ahead of schedule due to the early heat.

    In response to the dangerous conditions, authorities have implemented emergency restrictions. Italy’s Lazio region, which is home to the capital Rome, approved early implementation of seasonal rules banning outdoor work in direct sunlight between 12:30 pm and 4:00 pm, putting the rule in effect more than two weeks earlier than the 2022 start date. The restrictions apply to construction sites, agricultural work, and logistics operations, and will remain in place through mid-September. Spanish meteorological agency Aemet warned that extraordinarily high temperatures would persist across most of the country (excluding the offshore Canary Islands) through the end of the week, with widespread tropical nights — when temperatures remain above 20C overnight — forecast for southwestern Spain starting Wednesday, and peak temperatures between 36C and 38C from Wednesday through Friday. French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has called an emergency meeting with top cabinet ministers Thursday to coordinate the national government’s heatwave response preparations.

    Climate scientists and weather experts have repeatedly emphasized that this extreme early heat event is directly tied to human-caused climate change, noting that Europe is warming faster than the global average, making extreme heat events more frequent, more severe, and more likely to occur outside the traditional summer peak. “This is a good indication of climate change in action,” UK Met Office meteorologist Greg Dewhurst told reporters from Agence France-Presse, adding that such out-of-season extreme heat events are likely to become the new normal in coming years.

    Last week, leading UK climate advisers issued a stark warning to the national government, noting that much of the country’s core public infrastructure — including schools, hospitals, and transport networks — was designed for a climate that no longer exists, and urged urgent upgrades to adapt to rising average temperatures and more frequent extreme heat events. The UK already made global headlines in 2022 when it recorded its first ever temperature above 40C, a milestone that many climate scientists said was a clear warning sign of accelerating climate change impacts.

    For many residents and visitors across Western Europe, the unexpected early heat has been a jarring experience. “The weather here, it’s like a mini version of hell. It’s boiling. It’s like really hot,” 10-year-old visitor Liza Nizki told reporters in London, where average May temperatures typically hover between 17C and 18C. Long-term London resident Lindy Brand-Daloze, a 66-year-old Australian who has lived in the UK for 12 years, framed the extreme heat as a new reality the public must adapt to. “It’s warm, but it’s climate change, isn’t it? So you know, we have probably got to get used to this.” Forecasters with the UK Met Office do expect temperatures to cool off later this week as the heat dome shifts eastward, but experts warn more extreme early heat events can be expected in coming years as global temperatures continue to rise.

  • Jazz legend Sonny Rollins dies aged 95

    Jazz legend Sonny Rollins dies aged 95

    The global jazz community is mourning the loss of one of its most transformative figures on Monday, as iconic saxophonist Sonny Rollins – widely nicknamed the ‘Saxophone Colossus’ – passed away at his home in Woodstock, New York, at the age of 95. No official cause of death has been released to the public, per a statement from his publicist, who remembered Rollins as one of the most decorated and impactful artists in the history of American music.

    Rollins’ legendary seven-decade career took root in the late 1940s, when he emerged on the vibrant New York jazz scene and quickly caught the attention of the genre’s biggest names. Gifted with an unparalleled intuitive talent for improvisation, he was taken under the wing of legendary pianist Thelonious Monk early in his career, and went on to collaborate with a who’s who of 20th century jazz greats, including Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Art Blakey, and Bud Powell. Over the course of his career, he released more than 60 full-length albums as a bandleader and claimed two Grammy Awards for his work, before a respiratory illness forced him to step away from performance and retire in 2014.

    Rollins’ connection to his signature instrument began far earlier than his professional debut, as he recalled in a past interview with *Jazz Times*. When he was just seven years old, his mother gave him his first alto saxophone, and the young musician felt an immediate, lifelong bond. ‘I got the saxophone and I went into the bedroom and I started playing – that was it. I was in seventh heaven… I could have been there forever,’ he said.

    One of his most iconic career milestones came in 1956, when he released his sixth studio album, *Saxophone Colossus* – the record that cemented his reputation as a revolutionary force in jazz and gave him his enduring nickname. As his star grew in the early 1960s, Rollins developed a daily routine of practicing for hours on end on New York City’s Williamsburg Bridge, a quiet escape from the bustle of the city that inspired his beloved 1962 album *The Bridge*. In the years since, that connection has spurred repeated public calls to rename the bridge in his honor.

    Famously known for his sprawling, dynamic solos, Rollins is widely regarded as one of the greatest improvisers in jazz history. He once told PBS that he approached every performance with no pre-planned material, stepping on stage with a blank mind and only a loose grasp of the core structure of his pieces. ‘Improvising on it, that I leave completely to the forces,’ he explained. ‘Sometimes I’m surprised by what comes out.’

    Alongside his musical legacy, Rollins held deep spiritual beliefs about creativity and life beyond his time on earth. A 2009 quote from Rollins was included alongside the announcement of his passing, reflecting that perspective: ‘I think when the creative person ends, he continues in the next existence. I’m a person who believes this life isn’t the be-all and end-all of everything. A spiritual person doesn’t feel like that.’

  • ‘Life of the party’: Billy Slater hopes time in Maroons camp can help Jai Arrow after devastating MND diagnosis

    ‘Life of the party’: Billy Slater hopes time in Maroons camp can help Jai Arrow after devastating MND diagnosis

    In a moving show of team solidarity just days after Jai Arrow’s forced retirement from professional rugby league following a devastating motor neurone disease (MND) diagnosis, Queensland Maroons head coach Billy Slater has opened up about the decision to welcome the veteran forward into the team’s pre-series camp ahead of the State of Origin opener in Sydney.

    Arrow, a 12-game veteran for the Maroons and respected NRL forward with the South Sydney Rabbitohs, announced his medical retirement last week, shocking the Australian rugby league community. Slater, who shared the field with Arrow during the 2018 Origin series, made it a priority to bring the popular forward into the Maroons’ team environment ahead of the first match, with Arrow joining the entire squad for a team dinner in Parramatta on Monday night.

    “Jai is one of those guys that thrives around his mates, his teammates, and the footy environment. He’s always been the life of the party, and that didn’t change last night,” Slater told reporters. “To see Jai laughing and joking with the boys, it made for such a special environment. We just knew it was really important to have Jai here for Jai. This was also a chance to honor his incredible career. We all understand the journey he’s starting now, and it’s going to be incredibly tough. Every Queenslander, every member of the rugby league community, is right behind him.”

    Slater also paused to pay tribute to Australian AFL legend Neale Daniher, who passed away on Monday after a years-long public battle with MND. Daniher, named 2025 Australian of the Year, raised millions of dollars for critical MND research during his fight, leaving a lasting legacy for those impacted by the disease. Acknowledging the difficult road ahead for Arrow, Slater said the forward’s presence in camp had already left a profound mark on the entire Maroons squad, even though the decision to invite him was rooted purely in support, not inspiration.

    “The thing I admire most about Jai is how reliable he is. He’s a tough, hardworking player, but more than that, he’s a reliable mate and a reliable teammate — that’s what I love about him,” Slater said. “When he gave his interview with Danika Mason, I was so struck by the fact that even now, he wants to inspire other people going through tough times. When someone faces this kind of adversity and still thinks about what they can give to others, that’s an incredible legacy to leave.”

    While Arrow’s speech has started to decline due to the progression of MND, Slater said the forward retained his signature sense of humor and love for Queensland rugby league. “He’s still the same Jai. The boys love having him here, and he’ll remain with the group through game night. He’ll ride on the team bus to the stadium and be right there with the squad on match day,” Slater confirmed.

    Beyond the emotional team news, Slater addressed on-field preparations, downplaying injury concerns around Queensland captain Cameron Munster, who sat out Sunday’s training session. “He just had a bit of muscle tightness. He’s totally fine,” Slater joked. “As players get a little older toward the end of their careers, you need to adjust training loads to make sure you’re at your best on game day. We made the call to give him the session off to freshen up, he’ll train this afternoon, and he’s 100% good to go tomorrow night.”

    Munster will partner rookie half Sam Walker, who makes his State of Origin debut in front of a projected 80,000 fans at the Sydney ground. Both Slater and Munster have encouraged the young playmaker to lean into his unique playing style instead of trying to emulate past Queensland halves.

    “He’s such a one-of-a-kind player, and I’ve been so impressed by his skill level spending this week with him,” Slater said. “We all know how creative he is, and that impression has only gotten stronger this week. He’s a level-headed, quiet kid, and he’s handled his first Origin week really well. I can’t wait to see him get out there and show what he can do — that’s our whole goal for him this game.”

    The entire rugby league community has rallied around Arrow since his diagnosis was announced, with messages of support pouring in from clubs, players and fans across the country ahead of the opening Origin match.

  • Starbucks Korea reveals series of mishaps leading to ‘Tank Day’ campaign

    Starbucks Korea reveals series of mishaps leading to ‘Tank Day’ campaign

    In a highly anticipated public press conference held in Seoul this Tuesday, the South Korean licensee of Starbucks, Shinsegae Group, laid bare a cascade of systemic errors and oversights that led to the widely condemned ‘Tank Day’ promotional campaign, a misstep that has roiled the country and caused severe reputational and financial damage to the coffee giant’s local operations.

    The controversial campaign, which launched a line of insulated ‘tank tumbler’ cups under the ‘Tank Day’ branding, was deliberately scheduled to launch on May 18 — the annual national anniversary of the 1980 Gwangju Pro-Democracy Uprising, where hundreds of unarmed civilians were killed in a violent military crackdown ordered by the then-ruling government. Official records confirm 165 civilians were killed during the crackdown, 65 remain unaccounted for, and 376 more died from injuries sustained in the uprising, though many South Koreans maintain the actual death toll is far higher.

    The promotional name and timing immediately triggered widespread public fury across South Korea, as observers drew a direct parallel between the ‘tank’ branding and the military tanks deployed to crush the pro-democracy movement. What followed was a sharp drop in consumer sales, a nationwide call for a public boycott, and the immediate dismissal of Starbucks Korea’s chief executive, Son Jung-hyun.

    During Tuesday’s press briefing, Shinsegae executive Jeon Sang-jin presented the findings of the company’s internal investigation, which uncovered a pattern of reckless prioritization of speed over due diligence that extended from the campaign’s planning through its approval process. Jeon revealed that the marketing team relied entirely on artificial intelligence to generate campaign concepts, and the team members claimed the May 18 anniversary never registered as a problematic date during the ideation phase. ‘Those involved denied any intentional wrongdoing,’ Jeon stated, adding that the team only recognized the harm of the campaign after widespread public backlash erupted.

    The investigation also uncovered extreme negligence during the approval stage: of the seven senior officials required to sign off on the campaign, multiple approved the proposal as a routine administrative task without even opening the email attachment containing the campaign design and full details. Additionally, the mandatory legal team review that had been standard for all previous marketing campaigns was completely skipped for this promotion.

    Three of the five marketing team members working on the campaign have refused to surrender their mobile devices for independent forensic investigation, citing personal privacy rights, leaving open questions about whether the team intentionally moved forward with the AI-generated concept despite any implicit red flags. The internal probe confirmed the company has failed to build sufficient social and historical sensitivity across its teams, a systemic shortcoming that goes far beyond individual employee error.

    South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has already publicly condemned the campaign as ‘inhumane and disgraceful’, and local law enforcement has launched a separate criminal investigation. If investigators find evidence that the campaign was intentionally created to mock or trivialize the Gwangju Uprising, those responsible could face criminal charges in addition to termination from the company.

    Shinsegae Group Chairman Chung Yong-jin opened the press conference with a deep public bow, issuing a direct apology to the bereaved families of Gwangju uprising victims and accepting full accountability for the incident. ‘I will make no excuses. I take full responsibility for this matter,’ Chung said, before declining to take questions from assembled reporters.

  • Sonny Rollins, last jazz ‘colossus,’ dead at 95

    Sonny Rollins, last jazz ‘colossus,’ dead at 95

    The world of jazz has lost its last iconic giant from the genre’s golden age. Sonny Rollins, the trailblazing American tenor saxophonist universally known as the ‘Saxophone Colossus’, passed away at his home in Woodstock, New York, on Monday at the age of 95. The announcement of his death was shared in a heartfelt post on his official social media accounts, which confirmed the news of his peaceful passing.

    A creative visionary who constantly reinvented his art across seven decades, Rollins transformed jazz into a medium for both social commentary and spiritual exploration. His bold, resonant saxophone lines gave voice to the aspirations of Black Americans during the civil rights movement, channeled collective national grief in the wake of the September 11 attacks, and reflected the mystical insights he gained during years of spiritual retreats in Asia. Born in Harlem to parents who migrated from the U.S. Virgin Islands, Rollins rose to join the ranks of the most influential saxophonists in jazz history, alongside legends including Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, and John Coltrane — with whom he shared an affectionate yet complex artistic relationship.

    Unlike many of his contemporaries from jazz’s post-WWII golden era, Rollins lived a remarkably long, disciplined life, continuing to refine and remaster his work well into his 80s, even as chronic respiratory issues gradually limited his public performances. When asked in a 2016 interview with Agence France-Presse about the secret to his longevity, Rollins attributed it to two things: his lifelong practice of yoga, which helped him stay focused and avoid the substance abuse that cut short the lives of many fellow artists, and his unquenchable thirst for creative growth. “I’m still alive because I’m still learning,” he famously said in that interview.

    Rollins’ signature sound was distinct among major saxophonists of his generation: a biting, heavy delivery that often challenged listeners rather than soothing them, paired with an intricate, holistic approach to composition that framed music as a lifelong search for universal truth. His iconic nickname originated from his breakthrough 1956 album *Saxophone Colossus*, a record that redefined the hard bop genre, bringing raw, new power to the tenor sax while stripping jazz of unnecessary structural constraints. One of the album’s most enduring tracks, “St. Thomas”, wove in the Caribbean calypso rhythms Rollins had heard growing up, a nod to his Virgin Islands heritage that remains his most recognizable composition.

    One of the most legendary stories of Rollins’ career came in the early 1960s, when overwhelmed by the pressure of his rising fame, he stepped away from the spotlight to practice daily on New York City’s Williamsburg Bridge, which connects Brooklyn to Manhattan’s Lower East Side. For three years, he played for nearly every waking hour, even through the cold of winter, turning the busy bridge into his private rehearsal space. This self-imposed public sabbatical yielded one of his most acclaimed albums, 1962’s *The Bridge*, and in recent years, proposals have circulated to rename the Williamsburg Bridge in his honor. Rollins also crossed over to mainstream audiences outside of jazz, making a notable guest appearance on The Rolling Stones’ 1981 hit album *Tattoo You*.

    By his mid-20s, Rollins had already shared stages and recording studios with nearly every jazz legend of the era, including Parker, Miles Davis, and Thelonious Monk, with whom he was particularly close early in his career. He famously cut the classic 1957 album *Brilliant Corners* alongside the pioneering pianist. While many framed Rollins’ relationship with Coltrane as a rivalry — the two both pushed jazz into new creative territory and shared a fascination with Indian spirituality — Rollins offered a warm reflection on their connection later in life. Where Coltrane was known for his graceful, gentle texture, Rollins brought a firmer, more tangible command of musical dynamics, approaching composition with the intentional craft of a classical composer. The pair only recorded together once, on the title track of Rollins’ 1956 album *Tenor Madness*. Looking back on his early career, Rollins acknowledged he had been overly brash with his idols: “I look back on my relationship with Coltrane, and my relationship with Monk — a lot of stupid things I did with those people that I would not have done if I was more mature,” he said, calling Coltrane “a beautiful, beautiful human being.” Rollins was predeceased by his wife and manager of nearly 40 years, Lucille, who died in 2004.

    Following his 1956 breakthrough, Rollins continued to innovate on 1957’s *Way Out West*, where he introduced his signature “strolling” technique: unaccompanied sax solos that flow over only bass and drums, forgoing the traditional piano chords that anchored most jazz ensembles of the era. Rollins often described his improvisational style as rooted in intuition rather than conscious planning. “When I play and I improvise, I don’t think, because music comes from the subconscious, someplace else,” he told news outlet The Root. “I’m just a human, so when I play my horn, I get into a state where the music plays me. I’m just standing up there and fingering my horn and blowing.”

    His commitment to yoga extended far beyond physical health; the breathing techniques and mental discipline it afforded him deepened his fluency on the sax. A decade after his Williamsburg Bridge sabbatical, Rollins stepped away again in 1966, this time to study Zen meditation in Japan before moving to an ashram on the outskirts of Mumbai, India, where he arrived with nothing but a suitcase and his saxophone. Under the guidance of spiritual teacher Swami Chinmayananda, he spent his days studying and discussing sacred Vedic texts, performing rarely, before bringing his spiritual learnings into his music with works like *Patanjali*, named for the ancient founder of yoga. “Jazz artists were trying to find a way to express life through our improvisations. The music has got to mean something,” he later told National Public Radio.

    Beyond his artistic innovations, Rollins was unafraid to use his platform to advance social justice. His 1958 work *Freedom Suite* was an explicit artistic statement in support of the rising civil rights movement. While the 20-minute instrumental piece spoke to artistic freedom on its surface, Rollins made its political purpose unmistakeable in the album’s liner notes — a strikingly bold stance for a Black artist of the era. “America is deeply rooted in Negro culture: its colloquialisms; its humor; its music,” he wrote. “How ironic that the Negro, who more than any other people can claim America’s culture as his own, is being persecuted and repressed; that the Negro, who has exemplified the humanities in his very existence, is being rewarded with inhumanity.” The album was so controversial that a later reissue was released under an alternate title, and Rollins faced pushback when performing the piece in the Jim Crow South. He doubled down on his advocacy for Black pride with *Airegin*, a fast-paced classic whose name is an anagram for Nigeria.

    Late in his life, Rollins once again turned to music to process collective trauma after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Living just six blocks from the World Trade Center, he evacuated his home by walking down 40 flights of stairs and suffered respiratory irritation from the attack’s toxic fumes. Just four days later, he drove to Boston (all commercial flights were grounded nationwide) to perform a memorial concert that was later released as a live tribute album to the attacks’ victims.

    After decades in New York City, Rollins retired to a quiet farm in upstate New York, where he had space to continue his meditation practice. In his final years, he acknowledged a growing pessimism about humanity’s trajectory, noting that he and his fellow mid-century artists once believed music could help bring about world peace. “But then I learned, and I lived a little longer,” he told AFP. “I realized that this world will never change. This world is meant to be a place of war, killing, everything — sickness, illness, death. That’s this world.”

  • AFL 2026: Essendon refuses to rule out James Hird as potential Brad Scott replacement

    AFL 2026: Essendon refuses to rule out James Hird as potential Brad Scott replacement

    The Essendon Bombers have made a high-stakes coaching change, cutting ties with senior coach Brad Scott just weeks into the 2026 Australian Football League season following a brutal slump in on-field performance. The decision comes after the club secured only a single win across Scott’s final 24 matches, a stretch that spans the end of the 2025 campaign and the opening weeks of 2026. Almost immediately after Scott’s dismissal was announced, former Essendon coach and club legend James Hird emerged as a fan-favorite candidate to return to the top job – a position Hird held more than a decade ago before his resignation in the wake of the club’s infamous supplements scandal.

    In comments to reporters on Monday, Essendon president Andrew Welsh, a former teammate of Hird’s, declined to give a definitive answer on whether the club legend would be in the running for the vacant role, stopping short of both confirming and ruling him out entirely. “I haven’t spoken to Hird, no. We’re not ruling anyone in or anyone out of this. I am sure that there will be a lot of people interested in this role,” Welsh told media. The Essendon chief added that the club will first lay out clear criteria for the characteristics and qualifications it wants in its next senior coach, before narrowing down the pool of potential candidates.

    Hird, who was a finalist for the Essendon senior coaching job back in 2022 before the board ultimately selected Brad Scott, has remained active in Australian rules football in recent years, currently serving in a coaching role with Port Melbourne in the Victorian Football League (VFL), the top feeder competition for the AFL.

    To steer the club through the upcoming transition period, Essendon has appointed club great Dean Solomon as interim senior coach. The appointment follows Solomon’s move from the club’s board of directors to an assistant coaching role in the pre-season, a shift that fueled speculation the club was already planning for Scott’s dismissal. Welsh rejected those claims outright in Monday’s press conference.

    The Essendon president also pushed back on narratives that the club was determined to fill the role with a so-called “old Essendon” figure – a person with deep ties to the club’s history, along the lines of Welsh and Solomon himself. While Welsh emphasized that he values the passion and institutional knowledge that former Essendon players bring to the table, he noted that the club is open to any qualified candidate regardless of their past connection to the Bombers.

    That said, Welsh pointed to multiple recent successful examples of former players returning to lead their old AFL clubs, arguing that when the right candidate is a former club great, the arrangement can deliver strong results. “I look at other clubs, respectfully Sam Mitchell has gone back to Hawthorn and doing an amazing job,” Welsh said. “I look at Justin Longmuir over at Fremantle, Josh Carr has gone back to Port Adelaide. I think there’s really good history around players going back to clubs and the right people for those groups going to those clubs. I don’t shy away from Essendon people being great people and I want great people – Essendon people – to continually be involved in the footy club.”

    Essendon’s coaching change marks the second high-profile AFL vacancy in just a matter of weeks, coming after Carlton senior coach Michael Voss stepped down abruptly earlier this month. It also coincides with a search for a new coach for the AFL’s upcoming expansion club in Tasmania. When asked if the timing of those other vacancies factored into Essendon’s decision to move on Scott now, Welsh said the club did not consider that timeline at all when making the call. “That didn’t come into our consideration at all surrounding this decision,” he confirmed.

  • World stocks and oil prices are mixed after the US launches strikes in southern Iran

    World stocks and oil prices are mixed after the US launches strikes in southern Iran

    Global financial markets delivered a mixed performance across European and Asian trading sessions on Tuesday, rocked by conflicting signals: fresh U.S. military strikes inside southern Iran paired with ongoing optimism from former U.S. President Donald Trump about ongoing peace talks to end the regional conflict.

    The U.S. military confirmed Monday that it had launched what it described as proportional self-defense strikes targeting Iranian missile launch facilities and watercraft reportedly used to lay naval mines. The operation was framed as a protective measure for U.S. military personnel facing imminent threats from Iranian forces, with officials noting they exercised restraint out of respect for an existing ceasefire between the two sides. As of Tuesday, Iran had not issued any official response to the strikes, and key details — including the full scope of the alleged threats that prompted the attack and the impact on diplomatic negotiations — remained undisclosed.

    This military escalation comes even as Trump claimed via social media that talks to resolve the conflict are “proceeding nicely,” leaving investors caught between competing signals about the trajectory of regional tensions. Market analysts have highlighted the disconnect between investor pricing and on-the-ground diplomatic progress. “Markets are behaving as though a full Iran breakthrough already exists, even though the hardest parts of the negotiation remain unresolved,” noted Stephen Innes, a strategist at SPI Asset Management, pointing out that while Washington has publicly signaled optimism, Tehran has repeatedly pushed back against claims that a final deal is imminent.

    Early trading in Europe reflected the uncertainty: Germany’s benchmark DAX index shed 0.7% to close at 25,214.08, while France’s CAC 40 dropped 0.9% to 8,187.07. Bucking the regional downward trend, London’s FTSE 100 gained 0.7% to reach 10,540.40. U.S. equity futures pointed to a positive open when Wall Street reopens Tuesday, with S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures both climbing 0.5%, following the Memorial Day holiday that closed U.S. markets Monday.

    Across Asian trading sessions, performance was similarly uneven. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 pulled back 0.3% to 64,996.09, retreating from the all-time closing high above 65,000 it set on Monday. China’s major indexes posted modest losses: the Shanghai Composite Index dipped 0.2% to 4,145.33, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index remained nearly flat at 25,599.45. South Korea’s Kospi led regional gains, jumping 2.6% to 8,047.51 as markets rebounded from a Monday holiday closure. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged down 0.4% to 8,657.80.

    Energy markets also tracked the conflicting developments, with oil prices splitting gains and losses. International benchmark Brent crude climbed $3.03 to settle at $96.45 per barrel on Tuesday, recovering most of the nearly $5 drop it posted Monday, but still holding below the key $100 per barrel threshold. U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude fell $3.67 to $92.97 per barrel.

    Currency trading saw minimal volatility: the U.S. dollar inched up slightly to 159.09 Japanese yen, up from 158.91 yen in the previous session, while the euro weakened marginally to $1.1636, down from $1.1645.

    The current market volatility stems from shifting expectations around a potential peace deal between the U.S. and Iran. Just one day earlier, global markets rallied after regional Middle Eastern officials signaled Washington was close to finalizing an agreement that would end the ongoing conflict, reopen the critical Strait of Hormuz shipping lane, and require Iran to dismantle its stockpile of highly enriched uranium. To date, however, no timeline for finalizing the deal or implementing its key terms has been confirmed.

    A finalized peace agreement would resolve widespread regional security concerns that have roiled energy markets after Iranian missiles and drone strikes targeted key Gulf economic hubs including the United Arab Emirates. It would also clear the way for the resumption of full global shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which carries roughly 20% of the world’s daily oil supplies, and support the reconstruction of damaged energy infrastructure across the region.