Global Pulse

作者： admin

  • Man City signs Argentina international Rulli as back-up goalkeeper to Donnarumma

    Man City signs Argentina international Rulli as back-up goalkeeper to Donnarumma

    English Premier League powerhouse Manchester City has bolstered its goalkeeping ranks with the signing of 34-year-old Argentine international Gerónimo Rulli, who joins the club on a two-year contract from French side Olympique de Marseille. Rulli will step into the role of backup to starting goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, filling the vacancy created last week when former second-choice keeper James Trafford departed City to sign with Leeds United.

    A member of Argentina’s triumphant 2022 FIFA World Cup squad, Rulli brings a wealth of experience both internationally and across top European leagues to the Etihad Stadium. He has earned eight senior caps for the Argentine national team throughout his career, and has previously plied his trade at clubs across the continent: stints at Spain’s Real Sociedad and Villarreal, France’s Montpellier, and the Netherlands’ Ajax preceded his most recent spell at Marseille, which he joined in 2024. This transfer marks Rulli’s return to Manchester City, after he spent a short stint with the club during the 2016-17 campaign more than seven years ago.

    In an official statement following the completion of the deal, Manchester City’s Director of Football Hugo Viana expressed confidence in the new signing, praising Rulli’s commitment and professionalism. Viana noted that the coaching staff were impressed by Rulli’s evident strong desire to join the club during negotiations, and emphasized that the club is adding not only a talented shot-stopper but an exceptional professional to its squad.

  • What it’s like flying with Trump on Air Force One

    What it’s like flying with Trump on Air Force One

    For most people, Air Force One – the iconic flying fortress that serves as the mobile office and residence of the sitting United States president – remains a mythic symbol of American executive power, rarely glimpsed up close by the general public. But for a small pool of journalists assigned to cover the commander-in-chief’s travel, stepping on board the modified Boeing 747 is a rare behind-the-scenes look at how a president operates on the move. In a firsthand exploration of this exclusive experience, BBC chief correspondent Tom Bateman has pulled back the curtain on what life is really like for reporters traveling alongside former President Donald Trump aboard the famous aircraft.

    Unlike the carefully choreographed public appearances that shape most voters’ perception of presidential campaigns and official travel, life on Air Force One offers a uniquely unfiltered vantage point, Bateman explains. The press corps is typically confined to a designated section of the plane, separated from the president’s private quarters and senior staff offices by locked bulkheads, but the close proximity of the aircraft creates unexpected opportunities for off-the-cuff interactions that never happen on the ground. During Trump’s tenure, reporters often found the former president willing to stop and answer unscripted questions as he walked through the press cabin, leaning in to make his case on everything from policy disputes to personal feuds, creating a far more informal dynamic than many observers expect.

    Bateman details the rhythms of life on board: the constant hum of jet engines that drowns out casual conversation, the unlimited servings of free food and soda that become a running joke among the traveling press, the nonstop work of filing reports and updating stories while bouncing through turbulence at 35,000 feet. What stands out most, he notes, is the distinct culture that shaped Trump’s travels. Unlike previous administrations that often maintained a more formal distance between the president and the press pool, Trump regularly used access to Air Force One as a tool to shape media narratives, inviting reporters into his office for one-on-one interviews or holding impromptu press conferences mid-flight that generated headlines around the world.

    Even for experienced political correspondents who have covered multiple presidents, Bateman says traveling on Air Force One with Trump remains a one-of-a-kind experience, offering a raw, unvarnished look at how the 45th president operated away from the carefully staged rallies and scripted speeches that defined his public persona. For the press corps, it is both a professional perk and a relentless work environment, where every offhand comment can become a breaking news story, and the close quarters create a unique shared experience between the president and the journalists who cover him.

  • Ex-Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji, architect of growth, dies of illness at 97

    Ex-Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji, architect of growth, dies of illness at 97

    BEIJING – Zhu Rongji, the fiercely determined, plain-spoken former Chinese Premier whose sweeping economic reforms laid the groundwork for China’s emergence as a global economic powerhouse, has passed away at the age of 97. According to China’s official Xinhua News Agency, Zhu died of illness in Beijing at approximately 11 a.m. on Wednesday.

    Over his five-year tenure as premier from 1998 to 2003, China’s top economic policy post, Zhu pushed through a wave of transformative changes that built on the early market-oriented reforms launched by former leader Deng Xiaoping in 1979. A figure unafraid to push back against entrenched interests, Zhu clashed with Communist Party conservatives and state-owned industry leaders as he pushed unwieldy state enterprises to restructure for efficiency and profitability. The restructuring process resulted in millions of layoffs, but it cleared the way for decades of rapid expansion that ultimately saw China overtake Japan to become the world’s second-largest economy, trailing only the United States, by 2010.

    One of Zhu’s most historic legacies is steering China to membership in the World Trade Organization, a milestone that capped nearly 20 years of marathon negotiations. The effort nearly collapsed during a 1999 trip to Washington, where the Clinton administration rejected Zhu’s initial market-opening concessions as insufficient, while domestic political opponents attacked him for conceding too much. Zhu persevered, and China formally joined the WTO in December 2001, locking in national commitments to free trade that allowed him to pressure local officials to end protectionist policies for favored domestic companies. The entry into the global trading system ultimately helped transform China into the world’s largest exporter, and supported annual economic growth that averaged above 8% between 2000 and 2010, peaking at 14.2% in 2007.

    Beyond trade and state industry reform, Zhu launched China’s modern homeownership boom in 1998 with an initiative to sell off state-owned enterprise housing to urban families. Within a decade, the majority of urban housing in China was privately owned, reshaping the daily lives of hundreds of millions of people. He also famously tamed double-digit inflation in the early 1990s while serving as deputy premier, implementing strict price controls and cutting off lending to unprofitable state firms, pushing back against fierce resistance from local leaders. Another key policy achievement was restructuring China’s tax system to increase central government revenue from local authorities, a reform Zhu once joked made him worthy of a Nobel Prize in economics.

    Unlike many authoritarian leaders, Zhu rejected the narrative of ruling party infallibility, openly admitting fault and taking responsibility when government policies failed. After devastating 1998 summer floods that killed more than 4,000 people, he condemned shoddily built flood dikes embezzled by corrupt officials as “no stronger than bean curd.” In 2001, he issued a public national television apology after a southern China schoolhouse explosion killed at least 42 people, most of them children, for his cabinet’s failure to prevent the tragedy. His blunt, demanding style and zero-tolerance approach to corruption earned him the nicknames “Boss” and “Zhu Fengzi” — or “Madman Zhu” — and he famously declared in 1998: “I have prepared 100 coffins here — 99 for corrupt officials and one for myself.”

    Zhu’s path to power was marked by decades of hardship for his willingness to speak his mind. Born in October 1928 in Hunan Province, the home province of Mao Zedong, Zhu was labeled a “rightist” in 1957 just a few years into his career as an economic planner for praising reform efforts in Hungary and Yugoslavia. He spent 22 years on the political margins, and was exiled to the countryside to perform manual labor during the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution. He was formally rehabilitated in 1979 following Deng’s rise to power, and rose quickly through the ranks: he became deputy party secretary of Shanghai in 1987, and mayor a year later, where he earned a reputation for moderating tensions with pro-democracy protesters and avoided military intervention that could have escalated violence, according to contemporary diplomatic accounts.

    After Jiang Zemin was elevated to top party leader in Beijing, Zhu was brought to the capital as deputy premier in 1991, and joined the party’s ruling Politburo Standing Committee in 1993. When he was appointed premier in 1998 at age 69, he ranked third in the country’s party hierarchy, behind President Jiang Zemin and ceremonial legislature chairman Li Peng. Though he lacked his own independent political power base — a limitation he once complained let lower officials ignore his orders — Zhu leveraged his position as top economic policymaker to advance his transformative agenda.

    Not a radical advocate for full privatization, Zhu was a skilled pragmatic bureaucrat who carried out the party’s mandate to modernize China’s state-dominated economy. He oversaw the restructuring of major state-owned assets including banks, airlines, and oil companies into profit-focused corporations, while retaining majority government ownership of the firms.

    Widely popular among the Chinese public for his crackdown on corruption and willingness to speak plainly, Zhu stepped down from the premiership in 2003 and rarely made public appearances in the years that followed. A correction to an earlier version of this report clarifies Zhu was 97 at the time of his death, not 98 as initially reported.

  • Putin threatens retaliation for Western seizures of Russian commercial vessels

    Putin threatens retaliation for Western seizures of Russian commercial vessels

    Amid escalating tensions over sanctions enforcement on Russian maritime trade, Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued a sharp warning of reciprocal retaliation against Western powers that have seized Moscow-linked commercial ships, labeling the detentions as outright state-sponsored piracy. Speaking Wednesday during an inspection tour of a Russian warship participating in large-scale Pacific Ocean naval exercises, Putin slammed the Western seizures as a clear violation of long-standing international maritime law, emphasizing that Moscow would not leave the actions unchallenged.

    “This is nothing less than piracy and open robbery,” Putin told naval personnel on site. “When these illegal acts are carried out against our vessels, we will be forced to respond in kind.” The Russian leader further clarified that retaliatory measures would not be limited to the specific maritime regions where Russian ships have been detained, stressing that Moscow reserves the right to act “in any area where we deem it necessary and appropriate” — including the Pacific Ocean, where Russia’s large naval exercise is currently underway.

    Shortly after Putin’s remarks, Admiral Viktor Liina, commander of Russia’s Pacific Fleet, formally reported to the president that the Russian navy is fully prepared to begin inspections of commercial vessels operated by so-called “unfriendly nations” that have imposed sanctions on Russia. Liina pointed out that many commercial ships owned by British, French and other European shipping companies avoid direct sanctions by operating under third-party flags, making up what he called a European “shadow fleet” similar to the one Russia uses to evade oil and trade sanctions.

    “We have sufficient naval and maritime resources to carry out inspections and detain vessels from unfriendly nations and their shadow fleets,” Liina stated. “We are ready to begin executing this mission immediately.”

    Background to the current escalation dates back to February 2022, when Western powers imposed sweeping economic and trade sanctions on Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. To bypass these restrictions, Russia has built a large “shadow fleet” of hundreds of oil tankers and cargo vessels that operate under third-party flags to avoid detection and seizure. In recent months, France, the United Kingdom and other European nations have moved to detain multiple tankers linked to Russia’s shadow fleet that were suspected of violating sanctions on Russian oil exports. The European Union has also added hundreds of these shadow fleet vessels to its sanctions blacklist. In response, Russia has already begun deploying military warships to escort its commercial cargo vessels operating in international waters.

    Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president from 2008 to 2012 and current deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, expanded on Putin’s warning in remarks that underscored the scope of potential Russian action. Medvedev noted that European shipping firms already use the same “flags of convenience” loophole that Russia relies on for its shadow fleet, creating a legal opening for symmetrical retaliation.

    “Applying a symmetrical and completely fair approach means Russia has the right to stop and search any merchant vessel belonging to hostile states, whether in our territorial waters or neutral international waters, as long as there are reasonable grounds to suspect it is carrying cargo for an enemy’s benefit,” Medvedev said. “This rule applies to any type of cargo. There are a great many such vessels operating globally, and our military has the capability to dramatically expand these operations far beyond the boundaries of the Black Sea basin.”

    The latest exchange of threats has raised international concerns about growing risks to civilian commercial shipping in global waterways, particularly as the conflict in Ukraine continues to spill over into maritime domains that carry a large share of global trade.

  • Wisconsin result halts winning streak for Democratic Party’s left wing

    Wisconsin result halts winning streak for Democratic Party’s left wing

    In an upset that has shaken expectations across the U.S. Democratic Party, centrist candidate David Crowley has claimed a narrow victory in Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, ending a months-long winning streak for progressive and left-wing candidates across the nation.

    With nearly all ballots counted in the Midwestern U.S. state, early Wednesday projections from CBS News – the BBC’s data partner – confirm Crowley, the Milwaukee County chief executive officer, edged out democratic socialist challenger Francesca Hong, a sitting Wisconsin state assemblywoman. The result defied widespread expert predictions: political pundits across the country had widely expected Hong to extend the left’s undefeated primary run, which had already left national Democratic leadership in Washington scrambling to adjust to a shifting party base.

    Crowley’s path to the nomination was anything but conventional. Just one month before the primary, he briefly dropped out of the crowded race to endorse a rival candidate, only to re-enter the contest shortly after with the public backing of incumbent Democratic Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers. In a post-election statement shared on X Wednesday morning, Crowley struck an optimistic, unifying tone, saying, “It’s time to get to work for the people of Wisconsin.” He outlined his core policy priorities as bringing down cost of living for working families, strengthening public K-12 and higher education institutions, creating accessible high-wage jobs, and expanding economic opportunity to every region of the state, from rural communities to urban centers.

    This November, Crowley will go head-to-head against Republican nominee Tom Tiffany, a sitting U.S. Congressman who cruised to an easy primary victory earlier this week and holds the public endorsement of former President Donald Trump. Like Crowley, Tiffany has centered his campaign on affordability issues, running on a conservative platform that includes across-the-board tax cuts, expanded support for Wisconsin’s agricultural sector, and targeted reforms to the U.S. healthcare system. The Wisconsin gubernatorial race is widely expected to be one of the most competitive contests on the ballot this fall, as part of national midterm elections that will determine control of the entire U.S. House of Representatives and one-third of the U.S. Senate, shaping the trajectory of national policy for the next two years.

    Hong, a former chef and single mother who was positioned to become the first democratic socialist to lead Wisconsin, entered election day as the perceived frontrunner in the crowded Democratic primary field. But her campaign faced sustained scrutiny over past controversial remarks, including comments on police department funding and the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, portions of which she later retracted. Notably, two of the nation’s most high-profile progressive leaders – Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – declined to endorse Hong, breaking their pattern of backing insurgent left-wing candidates in crowded primaries. By early Wednesday, AP News confirmed Hong had formally conceded the race to Crowley, with her campaign manager releasing a statement saying she remained “proud of the race we ran.”

    The upset win for Crowley brings a halt to what had become a consistent winning streak for left-wing and democratic socialist-aligned candidates in Democratic primaries across the country this election cycle. Backed by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), these candidates have run on dual platforms: opposing the core policy goals of the Republican Party, while also challenging the centrist status quo that has dominated national Democratic leadership in Washington in recent years. Many have also centered their campaigns on calls to cut or eliminate U.S. military funding for Israel amid its ongoing military operation in Gaza, a position that has resonated with a growing share of Democratic primary voters.

    Just one week before the Wisconsin primary, Abdul El-Sayed, a prominent progressive, scored an upset win over centrist incumbent Congresswoman Haley Stevens in Michigan’s Democratic U.S. Senate primary. In June, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a progressive Democrat, endorsed three progressive challengers for U.S. House seats in the state, all three of whom won their primaries. Those wins included unseating two sitting Democratic lawmakers and defeating the hand-picked successor of a retiring centrist congresswoman.

    In addition to the Wisconsin gubernatorial primary, contests were held across Wisconsin and neighboring Minnesota on Tuesday. In a separate development out of South Carolina, Darline Graham Nordone advanced to a late-August Republican primary runoff for a special U.S. Senate election, called following the recent death of her brother, longtime incumbent Senator Lindsey Graham. Nordone will face Democratic candidate Annie Andrews in the general election to fill the remaining term of the vacant seat.

  • An overnight Ukrainian blitz damages Russia’s Black Sea naval stronghold, Zelenskyy says

    An overnight Ukrainian blitz damages Russia’s Black Sea naval stronghold, Zelenskyy says

    In a sweeping nighttime assault that marks a significant escalation in maritime attacks in the Black Sea theater, Ukraine carried out a coordinated large-scale strike using anti-ship missiles and domestically developed drones against Novorossiysk, Russia’s last remaining major Black Sea naval stronghold, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed Wednesday.

    This operation is the latest in a years-long campaign of drone strikes targeting Russian maritime assets in the Black Sea, a strategy Kyiv has built up since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. The locally produced air and sea drones developed by Ukraine over the course of the conflict have already reshaped power dynamics in the Black Sea, repeatedly striking Russian warships, commercial oil tankers and other vessels, and successfully restricting the operational freedom of Russia’s once unchallenged Black Sea Fleet. Ukrainian officials frame this maritime campaign as one of their country’s most notable military achievements of the entire war.

    According to Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of Russia’s Krasnodar region where Novorossiysk is located, hundreds of Ukrainian drones targeted multiple sites across the region overnight, including Novorossiysk, Anapa, Gelendzhik and the Temryuk district. The attack left three people dead — including an 8-year-old child — wounded 24 more, damaged dozens of residential structures, and sent downed drone debris crashing onto the grounds of four industrial facilities. Zelenskyy stated that the strike damaged Russian air defense systems, piers and other critical port infrastructure at the Novorossiysk base, while Russian business daily Vedomosti reported that two out of the city’s three grain terminals suffered damage, forcing one to suspend operations. Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed its air defense systems intercepted and downed more than 500 Ukrainian drones during the assault.

    Beyond its military role as a naval stronghold, Novorossiysk is a pivotal energy hub, hosting the Grushovaya oil terminal, one of southern Russia’s largest international export points for petroleum products. As of Wednesday, no reports have emerged confirming damage to the terminal, which also serves as the export endpoint for the Caspian Pipeline Consortium that carries crude oil from major Kazakh oil fields. In February 2024, U.S. officials publicly voiced disapproval of prior Ukrainian strikes on Novorossiysk, noting the attacks threatened the energy interests of American oil giants Chevron and ExxonMobil, which hold major stakes in those Kazakh fields.

    Simultaneously to the Novorossiysk attack, Russia launched its own massive wave of overnight strikes across Ukraine. Ukraine’s air force reported that Russia deployed 138 long-range drones alongside an unspecified number of missiles, causing damage at 16 locations across the country. In southern Ukraine’s Kherson region, the assault killed two people and wounded two more, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin confirmed, while a shopping mall was destroyed in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia. On the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula, Russian-installed Sevastopol city head Mikhail Razvozhayev stated that air defenses downed 115 Ukrainian drones overnight, damaging 10 apartment buildings and 25 private homes.

    Beyond the immediate military clashes, the strike comes amid heightened tensions over reported Russian plans for a new mass mobilization. Citing intelligence from Ukrainian agencies, Zelenskyy claimed Tuesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to mobilize hundreds of thousands of additional Russian troops by the end of 2024. Zelenskyy added that recent intelligence also shows Russia is ramping up production of ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones — two weapons systems that have proven particularly difficult for Ukrainian air defenses to intercept. Ukrainian officials argue Putin remains determined to press forward with the invasion, despite the Russian military’s slow, high-cost battlefield gains and ongoing American diplomatic efforts to broker a negotiated end to the conflict.

    Russian officials have dismissed the mobilization claims as disinformation. Neither Putin nor any senior Russian official has publicly hinted at a planned large-scale new call-up of troops, with some Kremlin-aligned figures accusing Kyiv of spreading rumors to sow unrest among the Russian public. “It is the enemy deliberately spreading rumors about mobilization in order to destabilize the situation inside Russia,” pro-Kremlin lawmaker Andrei Gurulyov told pro-Kremlin outlet Tsargrad Monday. Russia’s 2022 partial mobilization of 300,000 troops was deeply unpopular with the Russian public, and since that time Moscow has relied on high bounties to recruit volunteer soldiers. The original 2022 mobilization decree remains technically open-ended, however, leaving authorities the legal option to resume conscription if they choose.

    The strike also coincides with a sharp escalation in tensions over Western enforcement of oil sanctions against Russia. As European military vessels increasingly board and detain sanctioned Russian oil tankers at sea — a move that has cut into Russian export revenue and piled additional economic pressure on Moscow — Putin threatened retaliation Wednesday for what he labeled “piracy.” Speaking during a visit to a Russian warship participating in Pacific naval exercises, Putin argued that Western powers are violating international maritime law by seizing vessels belonging to Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” of oil tankers used to evade international price caps and sanctions. “It’s nothing but piracy and robbery,” Putin said. “If this is done, we will be forced to respond in kind.”

    In response to Russia’s expanding military production and planned mobilization, Ukraine is working to scale up its own domestic weapons manufacturing through bilateral and multilateral agreements with its international partner nations.

  • Tata Group Chairman N Chandrasekaran to step down in February

    Tata Group Chairman N Chandrasekaran to step down in February

    One of India’s most iconic industrial conglomerates, Tata Group, is facing unprecedented uncertainty after its chairman N Chandrasekaran announced he will step down when his current term concludes in February, ending months of speculation over behind-the-scenes boardroom tensions.

    The 63-year-old industry leader, who has spent nearly four decades with Tata Group, revealed that his decision to exit stems from an ongoing deadlock on the Tata Sons board over a proposed five-year extension of his leadership. The proposal, which was first raised months ago, has failed to earn the unanimous approval required to move forward. Chandrasekaran noted that when the extension was initially tabled in February, at least one board member withheld support. When no consensus had emerged half a year later, he opted to step down rather than leave a leadership vacuum.

    “Tata Sons is a very large institution and there are many strategic projects that are under critical stages of execution,” Chandrasekaran said in his official statement. “It is not only necessary to have a leader in place to lead the Group beyond Feb 2027, but also clarity on leadership is important for employees, investors, partners and other stakeholders.”

    The news of Chandrasekaran’s impending exit sent share prices of all publicly traded Tata Group subsidiaries plummeting, as investors reacted to the sudden wave of uncertainty over the future of the $300 billion salt-to-steel conglomerate, whose holdings range from the national carrier Air India to global automaker Jaguar Land Rover and steel giant Tata Steel.

    Chandrasekaran’s announcement, coming just days before Tata Sons’ annual general meeting, brings long-simmering internal tensions into the public eye. A bitter boardroom power struggle has played out between trustees for months, centered on a range of contentious issues including future board nominations, large-scale funding approvals, and the long-debated question of whether to take Tata Sons, the group’s parent holding company, public.

    Tata Group’s unique corporate structure sets it apart from most global conglomerates: Tata Trusts, the group’s charitable arm, holds a 66% controlling stake in Tata Sons. This structure gives Tata significant tax and regulatory benefits, and allows the group to direct a large share of its profits toward wide-ranging philanthropic initiatives across India. However, governance experts have long warned that the overlapping of non-profit charitable objectives and large-scale commercial operations creates inherent structural frictions that can lead to governance gridlock. Currently, Tata Trusts holds three seats on the Tata Sons board, giving it outsized influence over group leadership decisions. The conglomerate has not issued any formal public comment confirming the internal discord reported in local media.

    This is not the first time Tata Group has been rocked by public leadership upheaval. Chandrasekaran was appointed chairman in 2017, replacing Cyrus Mistry, whose abrupt removal from the post triggered a years-long bitter legal battle that dominated headlines across India’s corporate sector. Before taking the top job, Chandrasekaran built his four-decade Tata career at Tata Consultancy Services, the group’s world-leading IT services arm, where he rose to the roles of chief executive officer and managing director. A 2017 press release announcing his appointment described him as a “Tata lifer,” highlighting his deep institutional ties to the group.

    The leadership chaos comes at a particularly challenging time for Tata Group, which is already navigating significant business headwinds across multiple divisions. Most notably, the group is still in the early stages of turning around Air India, the loss-making national carrier it purchased from the Indian government in a 2022 privatization deal.

    Independent market analyst Ambareesh Baliga noted that the negative market reaction to Chandrasekaran’s departure was inevitable given his decades of experience and standing in the industry. However, he added that the group still has a six-month window to identify and confirm a successor, and most industry observers expect the new leader will be promoted from within Tata’s existing executive ranks.

    As stakeholders across the globe wait for clarity on the next chapter of one of Asia’s largest industrial empires, the leadership deadlock has cast a spotlight on the long-term governance challenges embedded in Tata Group’s one-of-a-kind corporate structure.

  • Indian labourers dream of striking it rich after ‘$52,400’ diamond find

    Indian labourers dream of striking it rich after ‘$52,400’ diamond find

    In the impoverished diamond mining region of Panna, central Madhya Pradesh, a remarkable stroke of luck has fallen on seven working-class laborers, who have uncovered a 17.96-carat gem-quality diamond that stands to reshape their financial futures in ways they never thought possible.

    Two years ago, the group — led by Akhilesh Pal — secured a lease for the mining plot in Sarokha village for an extremely low sum. Like most small-scale prospectors in the region, their work had yielded little reward for months on end, forcing them to shutter the old mine a full year ago and shift their efforts to a new adjacent site. It was only during a routine inspection of the area following recent heavy monsoon rains that Pal made the stunning discovery: the large, precious stone sitting exposed on the mine floor.

    Local diamond industry officials have confirmed the stone meets the highest standard of “gem quality”, a classification reserved for the rarest and most valuable natural diamonds. Ravi Patel, a senior Panna diamond official, described the find as exceptionally precious, noting that it will go up for public auction in the first half of October, with registered domestic and international buyers eligible to place bids. Early valuations peg the stone’s minimum market value at 5 million Indian rupees, equivalent to roughly $52,400 or £38,800.

    Panna district, which holds the majority of India’s proven diamond reserves, is one of the country’s least developed regions. Decades of underdevelopment have left local residents grappling with systemic poverty, persistent water scarcity, and widespread chronic unemployment. For generations, small-scale prospectors have held out hope for a life-changing diamond find, drawing thousands of amateur diamond hunters to the area each year. But unlike most finds in the region, where daily wage laborers work for wealthy leaseholders who claim all profits from any discoveries, this find will directly benefit the seven men who uncovered it.

    Under Indian mining regulations for small leaseholders, the state government will only deduct a 12% royalty from the final auction proceeds. The remaining 88% of the revenue will be split equally between all seven members of the group. For three of the laborers, who told local media they have long been too poor to afford marriage, the unexpected windfall will finally let them achieve the life milestone they had long been denied. The auction scheduled for October will mark the culmination of years of thankless work, turning a lifetime of hardship into an opportunity for long-term financial stability.

  • Barnaby Joyce defends One Nation as ‘one of the gayest parties’ after former candidate says gay people have ‘mental illness’

    Barnaby Joyce defends One Nation as ‘one of the gayest parties’ after former candidate says gay people have ‘mental illness’

    A new controversy has engulfed Australia’s One Nation party after a resurfaced video showed one of its former electoral candidates making inflammatory and discriminatory claims that homosexuality constitutes a mental illness, prompting senior party figure Barnaby Joyce to mount an unusual defense of the party’s record on LGBTQ+ inclusion.

    The comments came from Parminder Singh, who ran unsuccessfully for One Nation for a seat in Western Australia’s Legislative Council during the 2021 state election. The footage of his remarks was captured in a recorded interview with Perth-based comedian Jasky Singh, who operates online under the persona Mr Sikkant, and was recently circulated widely on social media.

    In the clip, Singh went beyond his core claim that being gay is a mental illness, also arguing that animals are morally superior to humans because they do not engage in same-sex relationships. He additionally asserted that any woman who has experimented with a same-sex relationship never returns to heterosexual partnerships, claiming women leave men because they feel used and find same-sex relationships more fulfilling. When directly asked by the interviewer whether he believed people are born gay, Singh firmly rejected the idea, repeating his assertion that same-sex orientation is a mental health disorder.

    In the wake of the video going public, Barnaby Joyce, One Nation’s senior federal parliamentary representative, stepped forward to defend the party against accusations of systemic homophobia. In an interview with ABC’s Afternoon Briefing, Joyce made the surprising claim that One Nation is “one of the gayest parties in Australia”, arguing the party counts a large share of openly LGBTQ+ members among its ranks.

    Joyce condemned Singh’s remarks as highly offensive, noting that LGBTQ+ members of One Nation, like all people, simply want to be accepted rather than glorified or vilified, and contribute meaningfully to the party’s work. While he stopped short of explicitly confirming that Singh had been formally disendorsed by the party, Joyce confirmed that Singh’s profile had been removed from One Nation’s official website as of Wednesday, adding that removing a former candidate’s profile from the party’s online platform sends a clear signal that his views do not align with the party’s position.

    Joyce further framed the incident as a matter of adhering to Australian social norms, arguing that all public expression must stay within the “guardrails” of modern Australian culture, which he described as inherently tolerant and egalitarian. “That’s one of our key policies, we believe in an Australian culture that is tolerant, egalitarian, and has things that are inside the guardrails,” Joyce said, adding that the party rejects any views that fall outside these widely accepted standards.

    The opposition Labor Party has been quick to condemn both the remarks and One Nation’s response. Patrick Gorman, a federal Labor MP, took to social media to argue that homophobia has no place in Australian public life, calling Singh’s comments “deeply offensive” and rejecting the hate and discrimination the remarks promote. Gorman noted that Western Australia’s Perth electorate has hosted an annual Pride Parade since 1990, an event he has joined multiple times, framing the parade as a celebration of the region’s long-standing culture of kindness and inclusion for LGBTQ+ people.

  • Spain prepares for rare solar eclipse against backdrop of heat and wildfires

    Spain prepares for rare solar eclipse against backdrop of heat and wildfires

    A once-in-a-century celestial event is bringing unprecedented excitement — and significant public safety challenges — to parts of Western Europe this week, as Spain prepares to welcome hundreds of thousands of eclipse chasers while grappling with an ongoing extreme heat and wildfire crisis.

    The rare total solar eclipse, the first to cross mainland Spain in more than 100 years, will cast a shadow of darkness across a wide stretch of northern and central Spain on Wednesday, with these regions set to offer some of the best viewing positions for the spectacle across mainland Europe. When the sun, moon, and Earth fully align around sunset, portions of the Iberian Peninsula, along with small parts of Greenland and Iceland, will be plunged into temporary darkness, with the period of complete totality — when the moon fully obscures the sun — lasting less than two and a half minutes across most viewing spots. The maximum duration of totality will occur off the west coast of Iceland, before the eclipse finishes its trajectory over the Mediterranean Sea.

    Spanish officials estimate the event will draw at least 500,000 additional visitors to the country’s rural, sparsely populated interior, a region widely known as “Empty Spain.” This influx comes against a grim backdrop: just weeks ago, the most destructive wildfire in modern Spanish history burned through 500 square kilometers of central Spain, forcing tens of thousands of residents to evacuate. Multiple smaller blazes still burn across other parts of the country, and a late-July wildfire in Ávila, west of Madrid, has already underscored how quickly a single spark can escalate into a disaster amid current conditions.

    To balance public enthusiasm for the eclipse with wildfire prevention, Spanish authorities have rolled out an extensive public safety and preparedness campaign. The country’s Interior Ministry confirmed that 350 designated official viewing sites have been established across high-visibility regions, while 123 other popular potential viewing spots have had access restricted or limited entirely due to elevated fire risk or barriers that would slow emergency evacuation if a blaze broke out. More than 33,500 law enforcement officers will be deployed across viewing zones and access points to enforce safety rules and manage crowds.

    Speaking on the need for strict preventive action, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska noted: “High temperatures, the accumulated dryness of vegetation, and the intense pressure on natural areas due to projected travel necessitate extreme preventive measures.” Spain’s national weather agency AEMET has forecast temperatures climbing above 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) across a swathe running from the northwest to the southeast of the country, covering most of the prime eclipse viewing areas, leaving vegetation tinder-dry and highly flammable. Officials have issued urgent warnings to visitors: no open flames, no littering, and no parking vehicles on areas covered by dry vegetation, as even a small spark from a car exhaust can ignite a major wildfire.

    Amid the safety preparations, excitement over the rare event has sparked a nationwide rush for essential viewing equipment. Specialized eclipse glasses, fitted with unique filters that block harmful solar radiation to prevent permanent eye damage, are flying off shelves across the country. Telmo Fernández Castro, director of the Madrid Planetarium, emphasized that proper eye protection is non-negotiable even when only a small portion of the sun remains visible, stating “To look at the sun, you must always use proper protection, and the most suitable protection is eclipse glasses.” For months, retailers including supermarkets, department stores, museums, and planetariums have sold or distributed the glasses, and most pharmacies have already sold out of their stock ahead of Wednesday’s event. By Tuesday evening, eager shoppers who had missed out were queuing for blocks outside a downtown Madrid photo shop that announced it still had supplies, with one happy customer emerging to tell waiting crowds the store still had “boxes and boxes of them.”

    The eclipse frenzy is not limited to Spain. In Iceland, which is hosting its first total solar eclipse since 1954 and the first visible from its capital Reykjavík since 1433, tourism and accommodation prices have hit unprecedented levels. Average room rates in Reykjavík for Wednesday night now exceed $1,000, roughly double typical 2025 peak season prices, according to data from Lighthouse Intelligence. Authorities expect up to 20,000 extra international visitors to descend on the country of just under 400,000 people, adding to crowds during an already busy summer travel period. For hoteliers along the path of totality, demand has been extraordinary: the 70-room Hotel Keflavík in Reykjanesbaer municipality, which offers viewing of roughly one minute 45 seconds of totality (weather permitting), was fully booked more than a year in advance. Hotel owner and manager Steinþór Jónsson said the eclipse surge is the biggest event the property has seen since it opened in 1986, the year of the historic Reagan-Gorbachev Reykjavík summit. “When I opened the hotel, we had Reagan and Gorbachev meeting. It was very hectic here. Besides Reagan and Gorbachev, the eclipse is the biggest,” Jónsson said with a smile. In Spain’s prime viewing zones including the northern cities of A Coruña, Bilbao, and Santiago de Compostela, hotel demand has also soared ahead of the event.