Global Pulse

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  • Tennis Australia hires NRL CEO Andrew Abdo to replace Craig Tiley

    Tennis Australia hires NRL CEO Andrew Abdo to replace Craig Tiley

    In a widely anticipated leadership shakeup for Australian tennis, Andrew Abdo, a long-time executive with Australia’s National Rugby League (NRL), has been tapped to take over as chief executive officer of Tennis Australia, filling the vacancy left by outgoing chief Craig Tiley. Both the NRL and Tennis Australia formally confirmed the senior leadership appointment in official media statements released on Monday.

    Tiley, a South African-born sports administrator, first announced his planned departure back in February. After nearly two decades at the helm of Australian tennis, he will step down from his dual roles as Tennis Australia CEO and Australian Open Tournament Director to take up a senior position with the United States Tennis Association, the governing body that oversees the annual U.S. Open Grand Slam.

    Tiley’s tenure with Tennis Australia stands as one of the most transformative periods in the organization’s history. He first took on the Australian Open tournament director role back in 2006, and over his 18 years in charge, he oversaw the event’s dramatic expansion, most notably extending it from a 14-day to a 15-day competition. Under his leadership, the tournament repeatedly smashed both attendance and revenue records, cementing its status as one of the most prestigious and commercially successful stops on the global tennis tour. He added the title of Tennis Australia CEO to his portfolio in 2013.

    Like Tiley, Abdo is also a South African-born leader, and brings nearly 11 years of senior executive experience in Australia’s professional sports industry to his new role. He joined the NRL in 2013, starting out as the league’s chief commercial officer before being promoted to CEO in 2020. Throughout his time at the NRL, Abdo earned widespread praise for his steady leadership, particularly during the unprecedented disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, when he guided the league through complex public health restrictions to keep competition running. He also played a central role in driving the NRL’s expansion and long-term commercial growth during his tenure as CEO.

    In his first public comment following the appointment, Abdo emphasized the unique standing of tennis and the Australian Open in the global sports landscape. “Tennis Australia has a unique role in Australian sport. The Australian Open is already one of the leading sporting events in the world,” Abdo said. “The opportunity is to keep evolving it – as a global event, as a fan experience, and as a platform that brings more people into the sport.”

    Tennis Australia’s board conducted a global recruitment search for the new CEO role, which drew more than 150 expressions of interest from candidates across the world. The organization highlighted that Abdo’s proven track record of leading a high-profile, large-scale national sports league made him the clear standout candidate for the role.

    In a farewell statement, Tiley offered an optimistic assessment of Australian tennis’s current position and future trajectory. “Tennis is one of the nation’s most popular sports, and participation is growing,” Tiley said. “We have a great group of players performing at the highest level and a world-class team developing the next generation of talented players and coaches.”

    As the first of the four Grand Slam tournaments on the annual global tennis calendar, the Australian Open holds a unique place in the sport, opening the season each year before the tour moves on to the French Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open. The leadership transition comes as the tournament continues to solidify its status as a cornerstone of the international tennis circuit.

  • Anger grows after China’s deadliest coal mining disaster in years

    Anger grows after China’s deadliest coal mining disaster in years

    A massive explosion at the Liushenyu coal mine in northern China’s Shanxi Province, the core of the country’s massive coal mining sector, has left at least 82 people dead and more than 120 injured, marking the deadliest mining disaster China has seen since 2009. What makes this tragedy particularly jarring for the Chinese public is that it harks back to the deadly epidemic of mining disasters that plagued China’s coal sector in the 2000s — a dark chapter that many believed had been permanently closed through years of regulatory reform.

  • Record 50m freestyle time at controversial Enhanced Games

    Record 50m freestyle time at controversial Enhanced Games

    The first ever Enhanced Games, a controversial Las Vegas-based competition that openly permits competitors to use performance-enhancing substances banned from mainstream elite sport, concluded with only one athlete beating a recognized global world record — a result that falls far short of organizers’ earlier optimistic predictions.

    Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev, a 32-year-old who has gone podium-less across four consecutive Olympic appearances, clocked 20.81 seconds in the men’s 50m freestyle event. That time beat the previous official world record of 20.88 seconds set by Australian Cameron McEvoy earlier this year. However, Gkolomeev’s new mark will never be formally recognized by global sporting authorities, due to the event’s permissive stance on banned substances. Gkolomeev also wore a polyurethane swimsuit, a design that is outlawed in all official international swimming competitions for the performance advantage it provides.

    The Enhanced Games’ founding premise rejects mainstream anti-doping rules, arguing that performance enhancement is already widespread in elite sport but practiced in secret, and that open, regulated access to enhancement would create a safer, fairer playing field. All performance-enhancing substances used by athletes at the event are required to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and include testosterone, growth hormone, anabolic steroids and peptides — all substances strictly banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

    Of the 42 athletes competing across swimming, athletics and weightlifting, the majority admitted to using performance-enhancing substances, with organizers confirming 13 competitors set new personal bests. The invite-only event was held in front of a curated audience of roughly 2,500 guests, with no tickets made available to the general public.

    Other high-profile competitors saw mixed results. American former 100m world champion Fred Kerley, one of the few athletes who competed clean, won the men’s 100m with a time of 9.97 seconds, far off his personal best of 9.76 seconds. British swimmer Ben Proud, 2024 Paris Olympic silver medalist in the 50m freestyle, took gold in the 50m butterfly with a time of 22.32 seconds, just 0.05 seconds off Andrii Govorov’s existing world record, a margin that left him disappointed. Fellow British Olympic swimmer Emily Barclay won the women’s 50m freestyle in 24.09 seconds, roughly half a second slower than the current world record. Hafthor Bjornsson, the former Game of Thrones actor best known for playing The Mountain and a former professional weightlifter, also competed but failed to beat his own existing deadlift world record of 510kg.

    For his world record swim, Gkolomeev took home $250,000 in prize money for the win plus an additional $1 million bonus for the unofficial record. The Greek athlete called the windfall life-changing, saying: “It’s not bad at all. This is going to change my life to the good, for sure. It’s a big help for me and my family. And yeah, I’m going to continue next year. Maybe I’ll break it again.”

    The event has faced fierce condemnation from global sporting governing bodies since its announcement. World Aquatics, the global governing body for swimming, labeled the Enhanced Games a “circus, built on short-cuts”. The IOC and WADA have described the concept as “immoral”, “dangerous” and “irresponsible”, while World Athletics president Lord Coe called any athlete choosing to compete “moronic”. Multiple national governing bodies have issued formal rebukes to participating athletes, and some have issued formal bans for competing.

    Founded in 2023 by entrepreneurs Aron D’Souza and Maximilian Martin, the project has secured high-profile backing from Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel and Donald Trump Jr. Prior to the event, Martin predicted that athletes would break “quite a few” world records, a projection that fell far short of the single record set at the 2025 inaugural competition.

  • ‘You are not alone’: Prince Harry issues powerful fatherhood message while backing Movember mental health report

    ‘You are not alone’: Prince Harry issues powerful fatherhood message while backing Movember mental health report

    During a recent official visit to Australia, the Duke of Sussex has delivered a raw, personal address on the ups and downs of modern fatherhood, throwing his support behind a landmark new study that will soon spark parliamentary debate over systemic gaps in support for first-time fathers. Prince Harry, the youngest son of Britain’s King Charles III, helped launch the Movember Foundation’s new report titled *More than a Provider* — an in-depth study of new fatherhood experiences from the global men’s mental health charity. The report pulls back the curtain on widespread neglect of paternal mental health that has long flown under the public and policy radar.

    Opening up about his own journey into parenthood, Prince Harry shared a vulnerable, reassuring message for any new father grappling with the seismic life shift of welcoming a child: “You are not alone.” He warned against the dangerous cultural expectation that men should suppress their struggles, explaining that bottling up emotions does not make them disappear — instead, stress and uncertainty snowball over time, leaving fathers in a place where they cannot show up for their families, a position no one wants to reach. “To simply be seen, acknowledged and asked how you’re doing as a dad — that can be transformational,” he said. “Too many men go through this period without anyone checking in, even though it is such a big moment in their lives.”

    Reflecting on his own transition to fatherhood, the Duke noted that the emotional and practical shift of becoming a parent begins the moment a pregnancy is announced, not nine months later when the child arrives. He emphasized that self-doubt and turbulence during this transition are normal: “It is messy, it’s a rollercoaster, and there are moments where you question yourself. We shouldn’t judge ourselves for that.”

    The *More than a Provider* report draws on survey responses from 1,216 Australian first-time fathers to build its evidence base. While the vast majority of respondents — 84 percent — agreed that becoming a father gave their life deeper meaning, the study also laid bare critical shortcomings in the mental health and practical support available to new dads. The most staggering finding: three out of five new fathers reported that no one ever asked about their mental health, either during their partner’s pregnancy or in the first 12 months after their child’s birth. One in four respondents rated their overall physical and mental health as poor or fair in their first year of fatherhood, and 20 percent said they had experienced increased isolation and loneliness since welcoming their child.

    Zac Seidler, global research director at Movember, explained that investing in paternal support during the transition to fatherhood benefits entire families: “Dads want to be present, involved and healthy for their families. The opportunity now is to keep building practical support around them, including routine check-ins, confident health workers and community programs that help dads stay connected.” Seidler added that fatherhood is one of the rare moments when men actively engage with the health system and reflect on their own well-being — yet systemic gaps leave this window of opportunity untapped, as few providers or loved ones think to ask how fathers are actually coping.

    Moving forward, the report will be formally tabled in the Australian Parliament by a cross-party group of lawmakers, led by Dan Repacholi, Australia’s special envoy for men’s health. Repacholi echoed the report’s call for greater action, noting: “Becoming a dad is one of the proudest moments in a bloke’s life, but it can also be one of the hardest. This report shows that Aussie dads are stepping up for their kids and families in ways that are really positive. It also shows there is a real opportunity to make it easier for dads to talk about their health, get support early and stay connected during one of the biggest transitions of their lives.”

  • Australian sharemarket soars, oil prices sink after Trump’s Iran post.

    Australian sharemarket soars, oil prices sink after Trump’s Iran post.

    Financial markets around the Asia-Pacific region swung sharply on Monday after a social media post from former US President Donald Trump hinted at progress in ongoing negotiations for a new nuclear and energy deal with Iran, triggering a sharp drop in global crude prices and lifting Australia’s benchmark share index to its highest level in two weeks.

    Trump took to his Truth Social platform to share an unexpected update on the stalled talks, writing that a potential agreement was “largely negotiated”, with only final details remaining to be ironed out before an official announcement. The former president stressed that any deal his team reaches would be far stronger than the 2015 Obama-era agreement, which he criticized for granting Iran access to large cash reserves and an unimpeded path to develop nuclear weapons. “If I make a deal with Iran, it will be a good and proper one… Our deal is the exact opposite,” he wrote, while adding that negotiations are not yet fully finalized to temper overblown market expectations.

    Global markets quickly priced in the prospect of a breakthrough that could reopen the critical Strait of Hormuz — the chokepoint through which roughly 20% of the world’s daily oil supplies pass — easing geopolitical supply risks that have propped up crude prices in recent months. By the close of Australian trading, benchmark Brent crude had tumbled 5.6% to settle at $US97.77 a barrel, marking its first dip below the $100 threshold in weeks.

    The decline in energy prices flowed through directly to Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200, which climbed 35 points, or 0.4%, to close at 8692 — a fresh two-week high. The broader All Ordinaries index followed suit, gaining 38.20 points, or 0.43%, to end the session at 8915.40. The Australian dollar also strengthened against the US dollar, rising to 71.65 US cents by market close.

    Six of the ASX’s 11 industry sectors closed in positive territory, led by mining and technology stocks. Major mining names led the rally: BHP added 0.62% to close at $60.12, Rio Tinto climbed 1.62% to $187.81, and Fortescue Metals Group jumped 1.67% to $21.86. In the technology sector, accounting software firm Xero gained 0.99% to $76.59, logistics tech provider WiseTech Global rose 0.75% to $37.37, and communications technology firm Codan added 1.15% to $40.42.

    Australia’s big four banks recorded mixed performance: Commonwealth Bank of Australia fell 0.65% to $164.60, Westpac gained 0.60% to $36.77, National Australia Bank climbed 1.14% to $38.28, and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group closed up 0.76% at $35.77.

    Energy stocks, as expected, retreated sharply on the back of falling crude prices. Top Australian energy producer Woodside Energy fell 4.24% to $30.74, Santos dropped 3.64% to $7.94, and fuel retailer Ampol gave up 4.20% to $33.95.

    Kyle Rodda, senior financial market analyst at global investment platform Capital.com, noted that while speculation of a looming US-Iran deal lifted market sentiment, traders remained cautious after months of inconsistent reports about negotiation progress. “There is healthy scepticism – along with plenty of cynicism – about the prospects of a deal. That’s especially true after months of misleading news and propaganda about a peace deal. Recent reportage suggests negotiators are closing in on an agreement,” Rodda explained.

    In individual company news, property fund manager Charter Hall led gainers with a 6.67% jump to $20.62 after the firm upgraded its 2026 operating earnings guidance and reported $6.5 billion in year-to-date equity inflows. Online beauty retailer Adore Beauty also climbed 6.25% to $0.34 after releasing unaudited interim results showing $193.4 million in revenue over the 47 weeks ending May 24.

    Mexican fast food chain Guzman y Gomez, which recently announced it would exit the US market after six years of sustained losses, saw volatile trading on Monday: the stock surged as high as $21.77 in early morning trading before paring gains to close up just 0.25% at $19.86.

  • Dramatic footage captures moment rescue crews winch rock climber to safety after horror 8m fall from Mount Buffalo in Victoria

    Dramatic footage captures moment rescue crews winch rock climber to safety after horror 8m fall from Mount Buffalo in Victoria

    Footage of a high-stakes mountain rescue operation that unfolded earlier this year has been made public, detailing the nerve-wracking extraction of a rock climber who survived a devastating 8-meter fall after his climbing gear malfunctioned at a popular Victorian alpine destination.

    The incident took place on the Horn, a well-known climbing spot located on Mount Buffalo, roughly 325 kilometers northeast of Melbourne. Standing at 1,723 meters above sea level at its highest plateau, Mount Buffalo draws hundreds of hikers and climbers annually for its challenging rock faces and scenic alpine views. On the day of the accident, a failure in the climber’s protective equipment sent him tumbling off the route he was ascending, leaving him stranded on a narrow, unstable ledge hundreds of meters above the valley floor.

    A spokesperson for Ambulance Victoria confirmed that the climber suffered severe trauma from the fall, including suspected broken ribs. The impact of the fall left him briefly unconscious before emergency responders were called to the remote site. Multiple specialized emergency teams were deployed to the incident: a Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) air crew, paired with ground teams from Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance (MICA) with advanced life support capabilities.

    Before the extraction could begin, the HEMS crew first completed a low-altitude reconnaissance flight over the ledge to evaluate whether a winch rescue could be carried out without putting responders at unacceptable risk. After confirming the operation was feasible, MICA Flight Paramedic Shaun Whitemore was lowered down onto the narrow ledge to treat the injured climber. Working in what emergency officials described as “extremely tight conditions,” Whitemore stabilized the climber’s injuries, administered potent pain relief, and applied splints to fractured ribs to prepare the patient for air extraction.

    Once the climber was stabilized, he was successfully winched back up to the waiting rescue helicopter. He was then flown directly to Royal Melbourne Hospital, a major tertiary trauma center, to receive ongoing specialized medical care. Months after the successful operation, Ambulance Victoria has released on-the-scene footage and photos from the March rescue, shining a light on the extraordinary work of high-altitude emergency responders who carry out these risky missions to save lives.

  • Drone attacks raise fears as Colombians vote to elect a new president

    Drone attacks raise fears as Colombians vote to elect a new president

    JAMUNDI, Colombia — For 70-year-old Potrerito villager Gladys Marín, the route to Colombia’s upcoming presidential polling station is only a short cross-street walk away. Yet even this trivial trip feels like an enormous risk, as growing insecurity has left her questioning whether casting a ballot is worth endangering her life.

    Marín’s southwestern home sits less than 100 meters from the local police station — a site that has become a repeated target for drone-borne explosive attacks carried out by a dissident rebel faction that rejected the 2016 peace accord with the Colombian government. “You have to stay alert every minute, because we live right next to the police station,” Marín explained from her porch, 470 kilometers southwest of the capital Bogotá.

    On May 31, Colombians will head to the polls to elect a new president and vice president, in a contest widely framed as a public referendum on the policies of incumbent President Gustavo Petro. The most debated topic at the heart of the race is Petro’s signature “total peace” initiative, a bold policy designed to end decades of internal conflict by negotiating disarmament with the country’s remaining illegal armed groups.

    Across the country, rising violence linked to these armed factions has intensified under Petro’s administration, creating fear and uncertainty that extend directly to the electoral process. Colombia’s Electoral Observation Mission estimates that 386 municipalities — roughly one-third of the country’s total local jurisdictions — face high risk of interference and harm from illegal armed groups. Independent analysis from the Bogotá-based think tank Ideas for Peace Foundation adds that approximately 27,000 combatants remain active under arms across the nation.

    In recent years, the proliferation of modified drones carrying explosives has fundamentally reshaped the landscape of conflict in Colombia, creating new risks for both security forces and civilian populations. This tactical shift is particularly visible in Jamundi, where neighboring Robles town has blocked all streets leading to the local police station with makeshift barricades. Officers stand watch in sandbag-reinforced sentry posts draped in black fabric, constantly scanning the sky for incoming hostile drones.

    Eucaris Zamora, a Robles resident who was forced to abandon her home after a cylinder bomb from a drone destroyed half the building last October, says constant dread has become part of daily life. “You pass the police station always looking up, dreading that you’ll run into a nasty surprise,” she said.

    Guillermo Londoño, security secretary for the Valle del Cauca department where Jamundi is located, notes that armed groups have evolved their drone tactics to increase casualties and chaos. Instead of launching single drone attacks followed by reloading, groups now carry out coordinated “swarm-style” simultaneous strikes that overwhelm defensive positions.

    Colombia’s Defense Ministry data underscores how rapidly this threat has grown: 333 drone attacks were recorded across the country in 2025, a more than fivefold increase from just 61 incidents in 2024. As of early 2025, the Colombian army has documented 107 drone strikes that have already killed two soldiers, with the highest concentrations of attacks along the Venezuelan border, northern Bolívar province and southwestern coastal regions.

    Local officials frame the rising violence in Valle del Cauca as a direct failure of Petro’s “total peace” strategy, which was designed to end one of the world’s longest-running internal armed conflicts. Petro has publicly acknowledged that the initiative has failed to deliver the rapid disarmament of illegal networks he initially promised, and has recently hardened his approach: negotiations with several non-compliant groups have been frozen, while dialogue continues with other factions that have adhered to ceasefire commitments.

    The election has exposed a sharp ideological divide among presidential candidates over how to address the country’s security crisis. On one side, candidates aligned with Petro’s administration, including ruling movement Sen. Iván Cepeda, advocate for continuing negotiated dialogue to end the conflict. On the opposition side, candidates like Sen. Paloma Valencia of the right-wing Democratic Center and Abelardo de la Espriella — an open admirer of Salvadoran hard-line President Nayib Bukele — have pledged to abandon negotiations entirely and prioritize full-scale military pressure to dismantle illegal groups.

    International crisis analysts warn that escalating military pressure could backfire and lead to even more bloodshed. “Right-wing candidates propose a hard-line response that could exacerbate violence, because armed groups will respond to state military pressure with terror attacks against civilian and security targets,” explained Elizabeth Dickinson, senior analyst for the International Crisis Group. “They lack the capacity to fight a conventional symmetric war against the army, so they will turn to asymmetric attacks to sow fear.”

    Even in communities that have born the brunt of rising violence, many residents still hold out hope for a peaceful future. Last December, a large-scale gun assault on the police station in the small southern town of Buenos Aires left multiple officers injured, destroyed a local bank and reduced dozens of nearby homes to rubble. Among the wrecked properties was the home of 89-year-old Celimo Enrique Aguilar. When asked if he still believed Colombia could achieve lasting peace, Aguilar said: “I haven’t lost faith that someday, we’ll all be able to live without fear.”

  • How collecting DNA samples in the wild could transform conservation

    How collecting DNA samples in the wild could transform conservation

    Nestled in the mist-shrouded slopes of Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park, conservationists have long faced a daunting challenge: tracking and protecting endangered wildlife, from the iconic mountain gorilla to the vivid golden monkey, across rugged, vegetation-choked terrain that often hides even the largest animals from view. Now, a cutting-edge tool is transforming how experts safeguard biodiversity across the park, part of the transboundary Virunga Mountain range shared by Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The new approach, environmental DNA (eDNA) monitoring, is being rolled out by the African Wildlife Foundation in partnership with the Rwandan government, bringing a technique more commonly used in marine conservation to one of Africa’s most important terrestrial conservation sites.

    eDNA works by collecting and analyzing tiny fragments of genetic material that animals leave behind in their environment—from shed fur and feces to skin cells left in soil or water. For decades, biodiversity monitoring in the region relied on two core approaches: camera traps, which activate when animals cross their sensor path, and direct observations by trained rangers. But both methods have critical limitations in the Virungas: steep ridges, dense fog and thick vegetation make on-the-ground surveys slow and dangerous, while periodic insecurity along the shared Congo-Uganda-Rwanda border restricts ranger access to remote areas. Camera traps also only capture species that pass directly in front of their lenses, leaving gaps in population data.

    Conservation leaders say eDNA addresses many of these gaps, while acting as a complement—not a replacement—for traditional monitoring techniques. “We selected eDNA as a new technology to bring solutions and to complement existing methods used in ecological monitoring,” explained Patrick Nsabimana, country manager for the African Wildlife Foundation in Rwanda. Unlike traditional surveys that focus on a small number of target species, eDNA can identify dozens of species from a single soil or water sample, including mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles. Samples can be collected easily from downstream ponds, which accumulate genetic material from animals ranging across higher slopes, cutting down on the need for researchers to trek into inaccessible, dangerous terrain. The method is also far more cost-effective for large, rugged ecosystems like the Virungas than sustained on-the-ground monitoring.

    A core goal of the current eDNA project is to build a complete inventory of all species living in Rwanda’s protected areas, a critical foundation for protecting biodiversity that faces growing threats from climate change and rapid human population growth around park boundaries. This work comes at a key moment for Rwanda’s conservation sector, as the country expands its national park network by restoring previously cultivated agricultural land to wild habitat. With eDNA monitoring, conservationists can track how endangered and rare species are colonizing these newly restored areas over time, measuring the success of restoration efforts and spotting invasive species before they can spread. The technology also delivers a practical security benefit: by creating more accurate maps of where endangered species live, park managers can better target anti-poaching patrols to high-risk areas.

    Despite its promise, the technology still faces notable challenges, particularly for conservation work in Africa. First, eDNA can confirm a species is present in an area, but it cannot reliably estimate the size of the local population. Genetic material can also linger in the environment for weeks or months after an animal has left the area, meaning positive detections do not always confirm a current population. More structural barriers also remain: early samples collected in the Volcanoes project had to be shipped all the way to Europe for processing, a time-consuming and costly step. Maintaining the cold storage required to preserve eDNA samples before testing is also a major challenge across many parts of the continent, and contamination of samples during collection can skew results.

    The largest gap facing the project is the lack of region-specific genetic reference data. Most existing genetic libraries that researchers use to match eDNA samples to known species were built from specimens collected in Europe and North America, leaving critical gaps for African biodiversity. This makes it much harder to correctly identify less-studied local species from collected samples. To address this, researchers on the project are now working to build the first dedicated regional genetic reference library for the Virunga ecosystem.

    An important part of the initiative is also building local capacity: the project team is currently training local community members and park rangers to collect eDNA samples, expanding monitoring capacity and creating opportunities for local stakeholders to participate in conservation. Combined with traditional monitoring methods, project leaders say eDNA will help fill long-standing gaps in species data, strengthening conservation efforts for the Virungas’ most iconic endangered wildlife for decades to come.

    This reporting was supported by private foundation funding for AP’s climate and environmental coverage, with AP retaining full editorial control over all content.

  • First Hong Kong astronaut launches into space onboard Chinese mission

    First Hong Kong astronaut launches into space onboard Chinese mission

    In a landmark moment for both Hong Kong and China’s expanding space program, history was made Sunday night when 43-year-old Li Jiaying, a Hong Kong police officer and mother of three, lifted off for orbit as the city’s first astronaut to reach space. Li joined two other crew members — 39-year-old space engineer Zhu Yangzhu and 39-year-old former air force pilot Zhang Zhiyuan — aboard China’s Shenzhou-23 spacecraft, which launched atop a Long March 2-F rocket from the Gobi Desert in northwest China at 23:08 local time (15:08 GMT). Thousands of spectators gathered at the launch site, waving Chinese flags to mark the historic departure, and the spacecraft successfully docked with China’s Tiangong space station just a few hours after liftoff.

    Li will serve as the mission’s payload specialist, leading a suite of planned experiments. One of the core research objectives for the Shenzhou-23 mission is studying how extended exposure to microgravity impacts the human body, research that is critical for preparing future long-duration deep space missions. A key milestone planned for the mission will see one crew member remain in orbit for a full 12 months, a duration that will rank among the longest continuous space stays in human history. Mission officials have not yet announced which crew member will take on the year-long stay, and a final decision will be made at a later date. The 12-month mission will fall just short of the all-time record of 14 months set by Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov in 1995.

    The mission marks a key step forward in China’s ambitious timeline to land the first Chinese astronauts on the moon by 2030, pushing forward the country’s progress in long-duration human spaceflight as it competes in a renewed global space race with the United States, which targets its own crewed lunar landing by 2028. In comments carried by China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency, Li said her journey into space was inspired by Yang Liwei, China’s first astronaut to reach orbit, and that she seized the rare opportunity to push her own limits. “This is a rare chance. Why not try?” she said.

    Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee called Li’s participation in the mission a “historic” milestone for the special administrative region. For China’s human spaceflight program, Shenzhou-23 represents a major advance beyond the standard six-month stays that have become routine for crews visiting the Tiangong space station since regular crew rotations began in 2021. Astrophysicist Richard de Grijs, a professor at Australia’s Macquarie University, explained that extending mission duration to a full year pushes both spacecraft hardware and human endurance into a new operational frontier that previous shorter Shenzhou missions never tested. “This shows how China is building its expertise in long stays in space as well as deep space exploration,” de Grijs told Agence France-Presse.

    The mission comes on the heels of another major Chinese space success in 2024, when the Chang’e-6 probe became the first spacecraft ever to collect and return rock samples from the far side of the moon to Earth. Later this year, China plans to conduct an uncrewed orbital test flight of the Mengzhou spacecraft, the next-generation vehicle designed to carry astronauts to the lunar surface as part of the country’s 2030 crewed landing goal.

  • Messi suffers injury scare before World Cup

    Messi suffers injury scare before World Cup

    Just weeks before the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off across North America, Argentine football icon Lionel Messi has sent shockwaves through the global football community after being forced off the pitch during Inter Miami’s recent Major League Soccer clash against the Philadelphia Union, sparking widespread concern over his fitness for the upcoming tournament.

    The 38-year-old eight-time Ballon d’Or winner, who is widely tipped to make a historic sixth World Cup appearance for defending champions Argentina, signaled discomfort after clutching the back of his left leg in the 73rd minute of Sunday’s fixture. Though he left the pitch walking normally and headed straight for the dressing room, the unexpected substitution immediately prompted questions about whether the issue would impact his World Cup preparations.

    Inter Miami interim head coach Guillermo Hoyos moved quickly to calm fears in post-match comments, framing the substitution as a purely precautionary measure rather than a response to a serious muscle injury. Hoyos explained that persistent wet conditions at the Miami venue left the playing pitch heavy and taxing for players, and that Messi was already showing clear signs of fatigue by the time the substitution was made.

    “As far as I know, we don’t have a [medical] report on that yet, but he really was fatigued,” Hoyos told reporters when asked for an update on the forward’s condition. “He was tired; the pitch was heavy and when in doubt, the standard approach is always to ensure you don’t take any risks.”

    Messi’s fitness has been a closely watched topic throughout his time at Inter Miami, ever since he joined the MLS club in summer 2023. The veteran attacker has carefully managed his playing workload to accommodate his age and recurring physical issues, and has already missed multiple club matches this season due to hamstring problems.

    While Messi has not yet made an official public announcement confirming his participation in the June 11 – July 19 World Cup co-hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico, the global football community universally expects him to be named to Argentina’s squad, which is set to be announced next week. Argentina will open its title defense against Algeria on June 16, just five days after the tournament gets underway. As the highest-paid player in MLS history, Messi’s presence not only drives massive viewership and commercial growth for the North American league, but also remains the biggest centerpiece of Argentina’s bid to retain the World Cup title they won in Qatar 2022.