Global Pulse

作者： admin

  • Dread and denial at heart of deadly DR Congo Ebola outbreak

    Dread and denial at heart of deadly DR Congo Ebola outbreak

    Deep in the mineral-rich hills of Ituri province in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, the town of Mongbwalu sits at the epicenter of a devastating Ebola outbreak that has already crossed international borders and triggered a global public health emergency. For many residents here, fear of the deadly virus is tangled up in decades of deep-seated distrust of the distant, corruption-plagued central government in Kinshasa, leaving communities split between open denial of the disease’s existence and angry criticism of an inadequate official response.

    Unlike many of her neighbors, 26-year-old Laureine Sakiya does not doubt Ebola is real—she has watched the virus kill people living near her home. Located just 100 kilometers from the Ugandan border and 200 kilometers from the unstable South Sudanese frontier, Mongbwalu is a bustling transit hub for gold miners, itinerant street vendors, and motorbike travelers navigating the region’s rutted, muddy roads, making disease surveillance and containment far more challenging.

    Within weeks of the first recorded case, the outbreak has spread to multiple neighboring provinces and reached Ugandan territory, prompting the World Health Organization to declare the epidemic a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Official data counts 322 suspected infections in Mongbwalu alone, with 86 confirmed deaths, and a national toll of more than 200 fatalities across the DRC’s 17th recorded Ebola outbreak. A critical gap in response remains: there are currently no approved vaccines or targeted treatments for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola driving this current epidemic, leaving medics scrambling to contain transmission with limited tools.

    At Mongbwalu’s modest local hospital, tucked into a hillside surrounded by tall grass and trees, healthcare workers in full head-to-toe hazard suits, goggles and face masks scrub down floors and walls with chlorine solution, the only standard decontamination measure available. Even basic infection control infrastructure is lacking: workers rely on plastic buckets for handwashing, a stark indicator of how under-resourced the response remains. Medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has stepped in to provide isolation tents for suspected cases, alongside local aid groups operating on the ground.

    “This epidemic is out of the ordinary,” explained Florent Uzzeni, MSF’s coordinator based in the regional capital of Bunia. Uzzeni warned that official caseload and death tolls are almost certainly significant undercounts, as testing capacity across the outbreak zone remains extremely limited.

    Previous Ebola outbreaks in the DRC’s remote regions have been fueled by community resistance, and this event is no exception. Many locals reject the existence of Ebola entirely, with some framing the outbreak as a “mystical malady” rooted in local spiritual beliefs. Early on, the spread was worsened by a misinformation chain that became known locally as the “coffin affair.”

    The first suspected case emerged in Bunia, Ituri’s provincial capital. After the patient died, his family transported his body 80 kilometers back to Mongbwalu for burial. The region’s notoriously rough, potholed roads damaged the casket during the trip, exposing the Ebola-contaminated corpse to the people transporting it. Initial tests conducted at a provincial laboratory failed to confirm Ebola as the cause of death, allowing the virus to spread silently through the community while panic grew unchecked. It was only when samples were flown 1,800 kilometers to the national biomedical research laboratory in Kinshasa that the outbreak was officially confirmed—by which point transmission was already widespread.

    Even traditional leaders and faith healers, who hold enormous sway in remote communities like Mongbwalu, have grown alarmed by the level of denial. “I worry about those who say that this disease is invented,” said Adam Hussein, 35, a representative for local traditional faith healers, who has urged all residents to follow public health precautions to slow transmission.

    As the outbreak continues to expand across borders, public health officials warn that deep community distrust and systemic gaps in the government’s response capacity could turn this into one of the worst Ebola outbreaks in recorded history.

  • China launches Shenzhou 23 spacecraft with 1 of 3 astronauts set for yearlong stay

    China launches Shenzhou 23 spacecraft with 1 of 3 astronauts set for yearlong stay

    In a landmark step forward for China’s ambitious space exploration program, the Shenzhou 23 crewed spacecraft lifted off Sunday night from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center located in China’s remote northwestern Gobi Desert. The three-member crew is bound for China’s fully operational Tiangong Space Station, carrying a mission that blends groundbreaking scientific research, crew rotation, and major progress toward China’s goal of landing the first Chinese astronauts on the moon by 2030.

    Leading the Shenzhou 23 expedition is commander Zhu Yangzhu, joined by crewmates Zhang Zhiyuan and Lai Ka-ying, who is also known by the Mandarin transliteration Li Jiaying. Lai’s presence on the mission marks a historic first for Hong Kong: born and raised in the special administrative region, she holds a doctoral degree in computer forensics, becoming the first Hong Kong native ever selected to fly on a Chinese human spaceflight mission. Her selection underscores the expanding scope of China’s space program, drawing talent from across the entire country.

    Once they dock at Tiangong, the Shenzhou 23 crew will complete a standard in-orbit handover with the incumbent Shenzhou 21 team, which has been living and working on the orbiting outpost for more than 200 days. Over the course of their mission, the new crew will carry out dozens of experiments spanning multiple scientific and applied technology fields, according to Chinese state media. One crew member will make global spaceflight history with a planned 12-month stay aboard Tiangong, a duration that ranks among the longest single continuous human stays in low Earth orbit ever attempted. The extended mission is designed specifically to study how the human body adapts to long-term exposure to the space environment, helping researchers map the limits of human performance during deep space expeditions that will be required for future lunar and Martian exploration.

    The Shenzhou 23 launch comes amid a period of rapid expansion for China’s independent space program, which accelerated after the country was barred from participating in the International Space Station due to national security objections raised by the United States. Instead of halting progress, the exclusion pushed China to develop its own permanent orbiting outpost, Tiangong — whose name translates to “Heavenly Palace” — which hosted its first resident crew in 2021 and has now supported a continuous human presence in orbit for multiple crew rotations. The program has overcome high-stakes challenges in recent years: in 2024, the Shenzhou program executed a rare emergency rescue mission that successfully returned a crew stranded on Tiangong after their return spacecraft suffered unexpected damage.

    Today, China and the United States stand as the world’s two leading competitors in 21st century space exploration. While China targets its first crewed lunar landing by 2030, NASA is currently working toward its own return of astronauts to the lunar surface under the Artemis program, with a current target landing date of 2028. This latest successful launch of Shenzhou 23 demonstrates that China remains firmly on track to meet its aggressive space exploration targets, while opening new opportunities for scientific discovery that benefit the global research community.

  • Trump tempers expectations of a Middle East deal with Iran

    Trump tempers expectations of a Middle East deal with Iran

    Hours after top U.S. diplomat Marco Rubio suggested a historic deal between the United States and Iran to de-escalate regional conflict could be reached as soon as Sunday, President Donald Trump has cooled widespread optimism, saying he has instructed his negotiation team to avoid rushing a final agreement. “Time is on our side,” Trump wrote in a social media post, adding that the current U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports would remain fully in place until any accord is fully finalized, certified, and signed by all parties. This tempered announcement came just days after Trump himself indicated the bulk of the agreement had already been negotiated, with only final touches left to resolve between Washington, Tehran, and other participating mediator nations.

    A fragile bilateral ceasefire between the United States and Iran has been in effect since April 8, as international mediators work to lock in a permanent negotiated settlement. Despite the ceasefire, tensions remain high: Iran has implemented new shipping controls in the Gulf region, while the U.S. has maintained its strict port blockade of Iranian territory. Speaking to reporters during an official visit to India on Sunday, Rubio struck an optimistic note, saying “I do think perhaps there is the possibility that in the next few hours the world will get some good news.” He added that any final agreement would launch a process that fulfills the Trump administration’s core goal: eliminating the global threat posed by an Iranian nuclear weapon.

    Israeli leadership has echoed the U.S. commitment to full nuclear dismantlement. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed Sunday that he and Trump have aligned on non-negotiable terms for any final deal: it must completely eliminate the Iranian nuclear threat. A senior anonymous Israeli official told Agence France-Presse that Trump has made clear he will not back down from his longstanding demand that Iran fully dismantle its nuclear program and remove all enriched uranium from its territory, and no agreement will be signed without meeting these conditions.

    European leaders, who have pushed for a reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to lower volatile global energy prices, were quick to welcome early signs of progress Sunday. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen publicly praised “progress towards an agreement,” while British Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged to work closely with international partners to “seize this moment” for peace.

    Iranian officials have confirmed that a draft agreement exists, but clarified a key sticking point has been pushed back: negotiations over the U.S. demand to end all Iranian uranium enrichment will be deferred for 60 days after the initial ceasefire deal takes effect. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told state television that Tehran remains “prepared to assure the world that we are not seeking nuclear weapons,” though it remains unclear whether this assurance will be codified in the final text of the agreement.

    According to Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency, the draft text includes major reciprocal concessions from Washington: the U.S. has agreed to release a portion of billions of dollars in Iranian funds frozen abroad under international sanctions, and end its naval blockade of commercial ships traveling to and from Iranian ports. In exchange, the draft outlines that shipping traffic through the strategic Strait of Hormuz will return to pre-conflict levels under Iranian management, and sanctions on Iranian oil, gas, petrochemicals, and related products will be temporarily lifted during the extended negotiation period to allow Iran to sell its exports freely on global markets.

    Prominent Iranian-American academic Vali Nasr has offered a cautious take on the current draft, noting that the terms on the table appear to favor Iran, but that excessive U.S. concessions have sparked deep suspicion among Tehran’s leadership. “The deal in play looks like a win for Iran. But Tehran is not convinced that it is not a dress rehearsal for war now or in 30 days,” Nasr wrote on social media. He added, “In fact, the more generous the terms for Iran the more the suspicion that the US is not serious about peace and wants to distract Iran ahead of another attack. Iran will be focused on evidence of US military backdown.”

    On Saturday, a broad coalition of regional leaders joined a call with Trump to discuss the ongoing negotiation efforts, including the heads of state of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, and Bahrain, plus senior representatives from Turkey and Pakistan. Pakistan, which mediated the landmark first face-to-face talks between U.S. and Iranian delegations in April, is already positioning to host the next round of negotiations “very soon,” according to Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Sharif added that Pakistan’s Army Chief Asim Munir, who just completed a two-day visit to Tehran last week, participated in Saturday’s call, which provided a “useful opportunity… to move the ongoing peace efforts forward to bring lasting peace in the region.”

    Even as diplomacy moves forward, hardline Iranian military leadership has struck a defiant posture. In a rare public appearance at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla mosque covered by state media, Ali Abdollahi, head of Iran’s central military command, reaffirmed that the country’s armed forces remain on high alert. “We are on a war footing and all our armed forces are fully ready, with all their resources and equipment, to confront any enemy,” he said. The warning comes as simultaneous Israeli strikes targeting southern Lebanon sent smoke billowing over the village of al-Mahmoudiye on May 23, underscoring the persistent volatility across the Middle East even as major power talks progress.

  • Turkish police storm opposition offices after leaders ousted

    Turkish police storm opposition offices after leaders ousted

    On a tense Sunday in Ankara, Turkish riot police launched a forcible entry into the headquarters of Turkey’s largest opposition bloc, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), just days after an appellate court invalidated the leadership of current party head Özgür Özel. The operation ignited chaotic clashes between security forces and CHP supporters, who had assembled a makeshift barricade at the building’s entrance to block police access. Thick plumes of tear gas filled the air outside the CHP compound as officers pushed through the defensive line. On-site footage captured CHP members inside the building shouting in protest, hurling objects toward the entryway, and dousing advancing officers with water hoses in a last-ditch attempt to hold the building.

    The conflict traces back to a Thursday ruling from Turkey’s appeal court, which annulled the 2025 CHP leadership primary that saw Özel oust 77-year-old former party leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. Kılıçdaroğlu, who lost the 2023 Turkish presidential election to incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has been ordered to retake the leadership position per the court’s decision. The ruling also mandates a full replacement of CHP’s current executive committee, and effectively strips all recent party decisions of legal recognition. The lower court had previously thrown out claims of vote-buying surrounding the 2025 primary, a ruling the appeal court explicitly overturned in its new decision.

    Hours before the police operation, the CHP had publicly pledged to defy the controversial court order, a move widely interpreted as a further escalation of political tensions that have consolidated Erdoğan’s authority over Turkey nearly 23 years after he first took office as prime minister. As police moved into the building, Özel released an urgent video statement to social platform X declaring “We are under attack.” Following the completion of the police intervention, Özel exited the CHP headquarters and led a procession of supporters toward the Turkish parliament, where he doubled down on his opposition to the government’s actions. “From now we will be on the streets or in the squares, marching towards power,” Özel told supporters after the incursion.

    International observers have already raised alarms over the escalating crackdown on Turkey’s main opposition. On Saturday, Human Rights Watch issued a statement warning that Erdoğan’s administration is eroding Turkish democratic norms through what it described as “abusive tactics” targeting the CHP. Özel has repeatedly accused Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of waging a deliberate campaign to eliminate all political opposition. Erdoğan, 72, currently faces constitutional limits on his presidential term, which is set to end in 2028. He can only run for re-election ahead of that deadline if the government calls early elections or successfully amends the country’s constitution to remove term limits.

    Turkey’s Justice Minister Akin Gürlek defended the court’s ruling earlier this week, framing the decision as a win for democratic governance. “[The ruling] reinforces our citizens’ trust in democracy,” Gürlek said. The incursion into CHP headquarters marks one of the most significant direct confrontations between the Erdoğan administration and the Turkish opposition in recent years, deepening divisions within the country’s already polarized political landscape.

  • Attacks on Ebola treatment centers are one of several problems affecting Congo’s outbreak response

    Attacks on Ebola treatment centers are one of several problems affecting Congo’s outbreak response

    The declaration of the ongoing Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo as a global public health emergency has laid bare the cascading, interconnected crises that are crippling authorities’ and aid groups’ efforts to contain the spread of the virus. Most vividly highlighted by recent arson attacks on two Ebola treatment centers in Ituri Province — the core of the current outbreak — these overlapping challenges range from long-running violent conflict to systemic underfunding and deep-rooted community distrust, turning what should be a coordinated public health response into one of the world’s most intractable humanitarian emergencies.

    Decades of persistent instability have left eastern Congo mired in chronic insecurity, with dozens of separate rebel factions operating across the region, many with alleged foreign backing or ties to extremist groups like the Islamic State. While Ituri Province, where the outbreak was first detected, remains nominally under Congolese government control, that authority is extremely fragile. The Ugandan Islamist Allied Democratic Forces, a faction linked to IS, has carried out consistent attacks on civilian targets across the province, and worsening insecurity in the years leading up to the outbreak already forced hundreds of medical workers to flee their posts. A pre-outbreak assessment from Doctors Without Borders described overwhelmed local health facilities and “catastrophic” living conditions across large swathes of Ituri, setting the stage for a rapid, unchallenged spread of the virus.

    The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that nearly 1 million Ituri residents have been displaced from their homes by ongoing conflict, meaning the Ebola outbreak is unfolding in a region already shattered by displacement and broken public infrastructure. Public health experts have flagged particularly high risk of explosive spread in large overcrowded displacement camps surrounding Bunia, the provincial capital where the first confirmed Ebola cases were recorded.

    As of the latest updates, Congolese authorities have recorded more than 700 suspected cases and over 170 suspected deaths, the vast majority in Ituri. The outbreak has already spilled beyond the province’s borders: cases have been confirmed in North Kivu and South Kivu, eastern provinces partially controlled by the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group, and across the international border into neighboring Uganda. This fragmented territory — with some areas under government control, others under rebel authority, and a patchwork of independent aid groups operating across all regions — has made unified, consistent outbreak response nearly impossible.

    Compounding the security and infrastructure challenges is a devastating wave of international aid cuts implemented last year by the United States and other wealthy donor nations. Public health experts say these cuts gutted local health systems’ already limited capacity to detect and respond to new infectious disease outbreaks, a critical gap in a region that has weathered more than a dozen previous Ebola outbreaks on its soil.

    Aid groups working on the ground in the outbreak zone report they lack almost all the essential supplies needed to mount an effective response: personal protective equipment for frontline health workers, diagnostic testing kits, and even body bags required for the safe burial of contagious Ebola victims. Julienne Lusenge, president of local aid organization Women’s Solidarity for Inclusive Peace and Development, which runs a small hospital near Bunia, said the group has pleaded for additional support from international partners with little result. “We only have hand sanitizer and a few masks for the nurses,” Lusenge said. Complicating matters further, this outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which no widely approved vaccine or targeted treatment currently exists.

    The deepest crisis facing response efforts, however, is widespread backlash and anger from local communities, a resentment that boiled over into the arson attacks on treatment centers in Rwampara and Mongbwalu, the two hardest-hit towns in the outbreak. Colin Thomas-Jensen, impact director at the Aurora Humanitarian Initiative, explained that this anger stems from decades of neglect: local residents have endured years of violence from foreign-linked rebel groups, with little protection from their own government or international peacekeeping forces. A second major flashpoint has been strict Ebola burial protocols, which require authorities to take charge of burials to limit transmission when families would traditionally prepare bodies and host large funeral gatherings.

    Witnesses and police confirm the first arson attack in Rwampara was carried out by a group of local young people seeking to retrieve the body of a friend who had died of Ebola. The crowd accused the international aid group operating the center of covering up the true cause of death and lying about the scope of the outbreak. In response to rising spread and community unrest, Congolese authorities have now banned all funeral wakes and public gatherings of more than 50 people across northeastern Congo, and deployed armed soldiers and police to guard safe burials carried out by aid workers.

    Speaking on the overlapping emergencies derailing the response, the nonprofit Physicians for Human Rights described the situation as a perfect storm of catastrophe. “A devastating set of emergencies are converging,” the group noted, turning a public health crisis into one of the world’s worst ongoing humanitarian disasters.

  • Retirees set to convert super into ‘lifetime income’ with major bank’s new program

    Retirees set to convert super into ‘lifetime income’ with major bank’s new program

    One of Australia’s big four financial institutions, AMP, is set to launch an industry-first initiative on Monday that will allow retirees to convert their superannuation savings into guaranteed lifetime income, addressing widespread uncertainty among older Australians approaching their post-work years.

    The new product, named Lifetime Super Boost, is available to all existing AMP Super members. The program operates by creating a special concessional balance behind the scenes of a member’s account, which is calculated using the federal government’s official deeming rate — currently set at 2.75%. Over time, this concessional balance falls below the member’s actual total superannuation balance.

    When members reach retirement age, they have the option to transfer a portion of their super savings into an AMP Lifetime Retirement Income account. When Centrelink assesses eligibility for the government aged pension, the assessment is based on the lower concessional balance rather than the full value of the investment. This structure can potentially help retirees qualify for a larger government pension payment, while also allowing them to draw additional income from their separate Flexible Retirement Income account, according to AMP’s explanations of the program.

    The launch comes amid new internal data from AMP highlighting severe anxiety among Australians nearing retirement. The firm’s research found that 54% of Australians aged 58 to 60 report frequent stress or overwhelm around their retirement planning, with the same share — 50% — of 61 to 65-year-olds reporting identical negative feelings.

    Julie Slapp, AMP’s Director of Growth and Customer Solutions, noted that too many working Australians approaching retirement remain uncertain about the adequacy of their savings and how long their funds will last through their retirement years. “Australia has built one of the world’s strangest super systems,” Slapp explained. “The unmet challenge is helping members confidently turn their super into income they actually use. This offering provides the confidence of income for life, the potential for higher income, and the guidance members need to make informed decisions.” Slapp added that superannuation was “never meant to be just a balance on a screen”.

    Beyond retirement income products, AMP’s research also shines a new light on widespread concerns over aged care costs across Australia. The survey found that seven in 10 Australians over the age of 65 worry about how they will afford aged care support, as the national system currently faces an average 12-month wait for government-funded aged care services. According to AMP, for retirees eligible for high-level in-home care, the new structure could boost their total annual income by as much as 20% over two years, while helping them navigate the long waiting period for public aged care services.

    The issue of aged care access has become a high-profile political issue in Australia in recent months. Major populous states including New South Wales and Queensland have repeatedly raised alarms over hospital bed blocking, a crisis where public hospital beds are occupied by elderly patients and National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) recipients who cannot access appropriate community or aged care supports after treatment. Earlier this month, NSW Health Minister Ryan Park revealed that as many as 1,200 public hospital beds across the state are taken up by these patients — a number he said equates to the entire capacity of two large, busy Sydney hospitals.

    On the federal level, the Albanese government has made reform of the aged care sector a key policy priority, while also pursuing major cost-cutting changes to the NDIS program to address long-term budget pressures.

  • Kostyuk dedicates opening Roland Garros win to Ukraine

    Kostyuk dedicates opening Roland Garros win to Ukraine

    Twenty-three-year-old Ukrainian tennis star Marta Kostyuk turned a moment of personal terror into a powerful tribute to her homeland on Sunday, as she claimed a gritty first-round victory at the Roland Garros French Open just hours after a Russian missile landed just 100 meters from her family’s residential property in Kyiv.

    Seeded 15th in the singles draw, Kostyuk delivered a commanding 6-2, 6-3 win over Oksana Selekhmeteva, a former Russian player who recently acquired Spanish citizenship just four days ahead of the tournament, kicking off her Paris campaign with a result that carried far more meaning than a spot in the second round.

    In an on-court interview immediately after the match, Kostyuk opened up about the terrifying morning she endured before stepping onto the Paris clay. “This morning, 100 metres from my parent’s house, a missile fell,” she said. “I’m incredibly proud of myself today, I think it was one of the most difficult matches of my life. All my thoughts and all my heart were with the people of Ukraine today. My biggest example are the Ukrainian people today.”

    Speaking to reporters later, Kostyuk explained the strike was part of a massive, hours-long Russian air bombardment across Kyiv that unfolded overnight and into Sunday morning. While her family emerged unharmed, the experience shook the athlete deeply, even as she acknowledged the persistent uncertainty of life amid the ongoing invasion. “It was half of the night, it was happening throughout, like, four hours. (My family) feel okay. Obviously very scary, but, you know, it’s not the first very difficult night, not the last, so, you know, they are adapting,” she said.

    Kostyuk noted that the initial 2022 Russian invasion was defined by crippling uncertainty, but Sunday’s strike was one of the most harrowing events she has lived through since the war began. “Right now, I think it was just the closest that it has ever been to my house, and this what probably makes it the most emotional,” she said. “There are better days, worse days, but yeah, this one was, I would say top three worst ones, for sure.”

    Despite feeling physically ill with anxiety after receiving the news of the near-miss, Kostyuk said she never considered withdrawing from the tournament. She emphasized that so long as her loved ones remained safe, she felt obligated to compete. “Everyone is healthy, alive… So these things, you know, it’s difficult, but none of my close friends or people I know is injured or dead,” she explained. “I don’t want to think what I would do if something worse happened, but I knew that this is the day to go out and play, and it didn’t cross my mind today that I shouldn’t go out. There were obviously times in the match when I would go back to thinking about it, because most of the morning I felt sick just thinking that if it was 100 metres closer, I probably wouldn’t have a mom and a sister today.”

    Kostyuk has maintained a consistent, public stance against the war since the invasion began, refusing to shake hands with Russian-born players before and after matches. She also criticized the global professional tennis tour for sidelining awareness of the conflict in recent years. “I live it always, and I have also adapted to the fact that the tour forgot about it,” she said. “I’m still trying to do things that I can do and what I can to influence, and I use my platform, I use my speeches or, whenever I have a moment to remind about it, to remind of the horror of, you know, everyday lives of people. People adapt, people forget, people move on. There is a lot of issues in the world, a lot of wars, and things that people want to support or people are thinking about.”

    With her first-round win secured, Kostyuk will next face American player Katie Volynets in the second round, after Volynets defeated France’s home crowd favorite Clara Burel in straight sets.

  • Rescuers search for 20 missing after Philippine building collapse

    Rescuers search for 20 missing after Philippine building collapse

    In the early hours of Sunday, a catastrophic nine-story building still under construction collapsed in Angeles City, located roughly 80 kilometers north of the Philippine capital Manila, leaving one person dead, 20 unaccounted for, and triggering a urgent large-scale rescue operation that stretched into the night.

    Initial official updates confirm that 26 people trapped in the wreckage have been pulled out alive, but two construction workers remain pinned deep beneath the rubble, still conscious as rescuers work frantically to reach them. The only confirmed fatality is 65-year-old Mohd Rezal bin Abdullah, a Malaysian tourist staying at a nearby hotel that suffered collateral damage in the collapse. Acting Philippine fire chief Rico Kwan Tiu told reporters that Abdullah managed to contact rescuers by phone shortly after the structure fell at 3:00 a.m. local time (19:00 GMT Saturday), but his body was recovered without signs of life hours later.

    Angeles City Mayor Carmelo Lazatin noted that the timing of the disaster amplified its human toll: almost everyone inside the under-construction building was asleep when the collapse occurred, catching many off guard. Footage posted to the regional fire service’s Facebook page captures the intensity of ongoing rescue efforts: one clip shows a firefighter using a power cutting tool to reach a moaning worker in a blue shirt, trapped under a tangled mass of steel scaffolding and plywood, with the rescuer calmly urging the victim to stay calm. Other footage shows teams of rescuers in orange safety gear squeezing through narrow gaps in the debris to search for signs of other trapped people.

    Eyewitness accounts paint a chaotic picture of the moments after the collapse. Thirty-year-old delivery rider James Bernardo told AFP he had just finished dropping off a food order on the same street when disaster struck. “A few seconds later, there was suddenly a loud noise in the area, and when I looked, I realised that (the building) had already collapsed,” Bernardo recalled, adding that at first witnesses assumed the shaking and noise was an earthquake. A video he captured, verified by AFP, shows the entire street blocked by a massive pile of twisted steel, fractured concrete slabs and downed power infrastructure, as bystanders documented the scene on their mobile phones.

    City information officer Jay Pelayo explained the unique challenges rescuers are facing: the building’s outer walls and supporting scaffolding buckled inward during the collapse, piling massive concrete chunks on top of anyone trapped. “There are big chunks of concrete and we need heavy equipment to lift them up. That is what’s challenging for the rescue right now,” Pelayo said. AFP journalists on site also confirmed that rescue teams lack powerful floodlights to illuminate the rubble field as operations continue overnight, forcing crews to rely on small handheld lights to search for signs of life.

    In response to the crisis, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority has dispatched additional support to the site, including heavy rescue equipment, police search dogs, life detection monitors, listening devices, and hydraulic spreaders to cut and lift heavy debris. Investigations into the root cause of the collapse are still in their early stages, and no official conclusions have been released about what triggered the structural failure.

  • GP bulk billing surges across Australia as Anthony Albanese bets big on health

    GP bulk billing surges across Australia as Anthony Albanese bets big on health

    Fresh official data released by Australia’s Department of Health has delivered promising results for the Albanese government’s ambitious Medicare overhaul, showing a national surge in general practitioner bulk billing rates across the first quarter of 2026, though one jurisdiction continues to trail behind the rest of the country.

    Between January and March 2026, the national average bulk billing rate for GP services climbed 4.6 percentage points to hit 81.9%, according to the official statistics. The Northern Territory recorded the most dramatic growth, with a 13.7 percentage point jump that pushed its total bulk billing rate to 89.8%, the highest of any Australian state or territory. New South Wales and Victoria saw moderate gains of between 4 and 5.5 percentage points, bringing their final rates to 83.7% and 85.6% respectively. Queensland’s rate rose 4.0 points to 79.5%, South Australia added 5.9 points to reach 80.4%, Western Australia gained 4.6 points to hit 74%, and Tasmania grew 5.7 points to 78%. The only outlier is the Australian Capital Territory, where growth stalled at just 1.4 percentage points, leaving the jurisdiction with a bulk billing rate of just over 54% — the lowest in the nation by a significant margin.

    Federal Health Minister Mark Butler framed the new data as clear proof that the government’s targeted investments to strengthen Medicare are delivering tangible results for Australian families. “This proves unequivocally that our policies are working,” Butler said. “We are transforming frontline primary care and helping households keep their health costs down — that benefits both public health and household budgets.” He added that the government has not only halted the steady decline of Medicare that occurred under the previous administration, but reversed that trajectory entirely, strengthening the public health scheme dramatically.

    A key driver of the growth, Butler noted, has been the rollout of Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, which have now hit a major milestone of three million total visits for non-life threatening urgent care cases. Currently, more than 3,800 bulk billing clinics operate across Australia, more than 1,400 of which converted from mixed billing models to full bulk billing under the government’s incentives. As a result, roughly 97% of all Australians now live within a 20-minute drive of a bulk billing clinic, expanding access dramatically for people across the country. Even for non-concessional patients, who typically face higher out-of-pocket costs, bulk billing rates have climbed 8.5 percentage points year-on-year to reach 72.5% in the first quarter of 2026.

    Alongside the positive bulk billing results, Butler has also launched Australia’s first ever national public health campaign focused on menopause and perimenopause, developed in response to findings from the Senate Inquiry into Menopause and Perimenopause. That inquiry uncovered widespread gaps in public knowledge, rampant stigma, and limited access to trusted support for women experiencing menopausal symptoms.

    Federal Women Minister Katy Gallagher explained that the new campaign is designed to address these gaps by delivering accessible, evidence-based information tailored to the diverse experiences of women across the country. “For far too long, silence and stigma have left women in the dark about menopause — it shouldn’t come as a surprise,” Gallagher said. “Every woman experiences perimenopause and menopause differently, so it is critical that this campaign meets diverse needs, makes information accessible, and ensures every woman feels seen and supported.” She added that raising awareness across the broader community, including families and workplaces, is also a core goal of the initiative, to improve outcomes for women’s overall health and wellbeing.

    The multi-channel campaign will run across digital platforms, television, cinema advertising and social media through to December 2026, reaching audiences across the country with evidence-based educational content.

  • Guide Kenton Cool scales Everest for the 20th time and says not ready to quit yet

    Guide Kenton Cool scales Everest for the 20th time and says not ready to quit yet

    Nestled in the Himalayas between Nepal and the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China, the 8,849-meter summit of Mount Everest has long stood as the ultimate pinnacle for mountaineers around the globe. This week, one of the climbing world’s most decorated guides added another chapter to his legendary career on the world’s highest peak.

    Kenton Cool, a 52-year-old mountaineer hailing from southwest England, has successfully reached Everest’s summit for the 20th time, breaking his own existing record for the highest number of ascents by a non-Sherpa guide. Contrary to his 2023 announcement that he would retire from major Everest expeditions after one more climb to focus on smaller peaks, the veteran climber now says he has no plans to step away from the mountain any time soon.

    After flying back to Nepal’s capital Kathmandu following his successful summit push on Sunday, Cool told reporters he is already planning future ascents. “Maybe another two or three more times,” he said of his expected future trips to the peak.

    Cool’s 20th ascent came amid a chaotic 2024 spring climbing season on Nepal’s southern Everest route, marked by unexpected delays and historic crowds. A unstable, dangerously positioned serac along the standard climbing path forced expedition teams to hold their summit pushes for days, leaving only a narrow window of favorable weather for all permitted climbers to attempt the peak. When the window opened, the sector saw unprecedented traffic: on Wednesday alone, 274 climbers successfully summited via the southern route, setting a new single-day record for the Nepali side of the mountain. China closed its northern Everest route for 2024, leaving the southern Nepali path as the only accessible route for climbers this year, amplifying congestion on the mountain.

    Despite the reported overcrowding, Cool said his team encountered no major issues during their attempt, which he completed on Friday. “We had no issues. We had no crowds, we had a great summit,” he noted.

    This year’s surge in summits has reignited long-running debates over crowd management and regulation on Everest. Fellow record-holding Everest veteran Kami Rita Sherpa, a Nepali Sherpa guide who holds the all-time record for most Everest ascents, has called for official caps on the number of annual climbing permits, warning that overcrowding creates unnecessary safety risks for everyone on the mountain. Nepali authorities issued 494 individual climbing permits for this season, with each permitted climber accompanied by one Sherpa guide resulting in nearly 1,000 people attempting the peak from the southern side.

    Cool, however, pushed back on calls for hard permit limits, arguing that the solution lies not in restricting overall numbers but in enforcing higher standards for climber experience. Currently, Nepal’s only core requirement for obtaining an Everest permit is payment of the $15,000 permit fee, with no mandatory check of a climber’s prior high-altitude experience. While Nepali officials have discussed introducing new regulations that would require climbers to demonstrate proven high-altitude mountaineering experience before gaining a permit, those rules have not yet taken effect.

    Cool argued that permit caps are unnecessary, and that climbing companies should take more responsibility to vet the experience of the clients they accept, while adjusting summit push timing to spread out traffic more effectively. “It is the various companies being a little more diligent on who they take, so they are making sure there is the experience of the climbers and then just being a little more careful with when they want to climb,” he explained.