Global Pulse

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  • Vollering wins Tour de France Femmes after war of nerves

    Vollering wins Tour de France Femmes after war of nerves

    The 2026 Tour de France Femmes concluded in dramatic fashion on Sunday, as Dutch cycling star Demi Vollering secured her second overall general classification title with a stunning solo victory on the hilly final stage outside Nice. The 29-year-old, who also won the race in 2023, cemented her legacy as one of the event’s greatest competitors by executing a perfectly timed nine-day campaign, capped by back-to-back solo stage wins on the weekend’s final two routes.

    Vollering’s path to the yellow jersey was anything but straightforward. After 2024 winner Kasia Niewiadoma of Poland seized the overall lead with a dominant victory on the iconic Mont Ventoux climb on Friday, the race was set for a tense, high-stakes showdown. Vollering clawed back into the top spot on Saturday, launching a late attack on a short climb to take an eight-second advantage over Niewiadoma heading into the final stage. The day’s racing was marred by minor controversy, however: Niewiadoma publicly accused one of Vollering’s teammates of blocking her at a critical moment in the stage, though race officials took no disciplinary action. Following the Sunday finish, Vollering revealed that her teammate Celia Gery, who was identified as the rider in question, had received death threats on social media in the 24 hours after the incident. Calling the experience a devastating one for Gery, Vollering noted that such tight-quarters incidents are an unavoidable part of mass cycling races, adding that her entire team approached the event with honesty and humility.

    The final stage, featuring four grueling ascents of Col d’Eze on the outskirts of Nice, set the stage for a dramatic conclusion. With the general classification still within Niewiadoma’s reach, Vollering bided her time through the first three climbs before striking near the summit of the fourth ascent. She quickly opened up a 20-second gap on the chasing pack and held her advantage all the way down the descent to the Nice finish line, securing both the stage win and the overall title.

    Niewiadoma held on to second place overall after the tense final battle, while Italy’s Elisa Longo Borghini moved up to third after Swiss rider Marlen Reusser crashed on a downhill descent and lost a two-minute buffer that had secured her place on the provisional podium. Additional classification honors went to Dutch riders across the board: sprinter Lorena Wiebes claimed the green points jersey, thanks to back-to-back wins on the opening two stages held in Switzerland, while Puck Pieterse secured the polka dot jersey for best climber ahead of the final stage. Germany’s Antonia Niedermaier took home the best young rider jersey and finished fourth overall in the general classification.

    Vollering, who has now finished on the Tour de France Femmes podium five times since the event was relaunched in 2022—including three second-place finishes—expressed overwhelming gratitude for the win at the finish line. “It’s a dream to live this life,” she told reporters after lifting her bike overhead in celebration. “I knew my level and even when Kasia won on Mont Ventoux I was still confident.”

    Her team, FDJ-United Suez, made history as the first French-registered squad to win the overall title at the modern Tour de France Femmes, drawing high praise from team principal Stephen Delcourt. Delcourt described Vollering as a transformative figure for the sport, highlighting her off-the-bike impact as much as her race results. “Through her high standards, sensitivity, authenticity, and the way she brings others along with her, she is redefining what it means to be a modern leader,” he said. “She inspires her teammates, she inspires the fans, she inspires an entire generation … She doesn’t just win races; she shows the way forward.”

  • Netanyahu rejects Gaza plan in new break from Trump

    Netanyahu rejects Gaza plan in new break from Trump

    In a move that opens a clear rift between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump, Netanyahu has formally rejected a 15-point U.S.-led Gaza peace plan that had already secured endorsement from Hamas, a decision driven by domestic political pressures ahead of Israel’s upcoming national elections on October 27. The first national election held since the devastating October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that ignited the ongoing Gaza war, the upcoming vote has left Netanyahu fighting to hold his position, with recent polls showing him neck-and-neck or trailing his competitors, and his right-wing political base uniformly opposed to the proposed framework. After more than a week of incremental public criticism of the plan, and even after U.S. negotiators offered assurances that Israel would not be required to begin an immediate military withdrawal from Gaza, Netanyahu bowed to pressure from his far-right coalition allies and announced his outright opposition to the deal during a Sunday cabinet meeting. “Israel rejects the 15-point document,” Netanyahu stated, referencing the proposal Hamas agreed to in late July. He added that the Israeli military “will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed, and will continue to thwart threats against our forces and our citizens.” While Netanyahu was careful to frame Trump, who has praised the deal as a landmark breakthrough for Middle Eastern peace, as “our greatest friend in the White House,” he made clear he had no intention of backing down from his opposition, noting that Israeli officials were formally presenting their objections to Washington. “They have ideas; some of them are acceptable to us and some are not, and we know how to stand our ground on these matters,” he said. The plan, overseen by the U.S.-created Board of Peace, is designed to prevent a repeat of the October 7 attack by establishing a phased process that begins with Hamas fully disarming, followed by an Israeli military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Nickolay Mladenov, the Board’s high representative for Gaza, defended the framework in an interview with Israel’s Channel 12, calling it the only viable path forward to long-term stability. “The option we are offering today is the only way forward that ensures this tragedy does not happen again,” Mladenov said. He added that the current phase of the agreement only binds the United States, Hamas, and the Board of Peace — with Israel not required to take on any obligations until Hamas surrenders all weapons, including small arms like Kalashnikov rifles — though an eventual Israeli pullout is a core requirement of the final deal. Mladenov said he remained hopeful that productive follow-up talks with Israeli officials would yield a positive outcome. The plan won Hamas’ endorsement just days after the group selected Khalil al-Hayya as its new leader, and Hamas officials are now calling on the U.S. to pressure Netanyahu to drop his opposition. “We expect the mediators and the American guarantor to pressure Netanyahu and his government to adhere to the roadmap, and not obstruct the process for internal political and electoral reasons,” Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, told AFP. In an official statement, Hamas reaffirmed its ongoing commitment to the terms of the plan. The rejection marks the latest in a growing series of disagreements between Netanyahu and Trump, who has long positioned himself as the most pro-Israel U.S. president in history, including taking the unprecedented step of moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. The two leaders jointly launched a military campaign against Iran in late February, but their alliance has frayed in recent months: as the conflict dragged on, dragging down Trump’s domestic approval ratings and pushing global oil prices sharply higher, Trump pushed for a ceasefire and a negotiated settlement, a position Netanyahu has resisted. Last week, just as U.S.-mediated ceasefire talks between Israel and Lebanon got underway, Netanyahu ordered new airstrikes on Lebanon in response to what Israel called a ceasefire violation by the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. The Gaza proposal is the next step in a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal announced in October that has reduced the scale of Israeli military operations in Gaza but failed to end them entirely. Even with Netanyahu’s formal rejection, Israeli operations have continued at a reduced pace since the plan was announced. On the same day Netanyahu announced his opposition, Israeli gunfire wounded multiple people in Khan Yunis, including a child who was evacuated to a local hospital, according to Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for Gaza’s civil defense. Since the October ceasefire took effect, Israeli operations in Gaza have killed 1,258 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry — a body administered by Hamas whose casualty figures are considered reliable by the United Nations. Five Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza during the same period, according to Israeli military records. On the broader issue of Iran’s nuclear program, which Netanyahu has long framed as an existential threat to Israel, the prime minister reaffirmed his hardline stance Sunday, telling his cabinet that “with an agreement or without an agreement, as long as I am prime minister, Iran will not have nuclear weapons.”

  • AFL 2026: Ross Lyon describes Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera injury as ‘arrow through the heart’

    AFL 2026: Ross Lyon describes Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera injury as ‘arrow through the heart’

    A devastating hamstring injury to St Kilda AFL star Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera has thrown the club’s wildcard finals hopes into serious jeopardy, coming just eight minutes into a lopsided 44-point defeat to Carlton on Sunday night. For Saints head coach Ross Lyon, the early exit of one of the club’s most talented young players hit harder than any on-field blow.

    Describing the moment the star utility limped off the field, Lyon called the injury an “arrow through the heart” for the entire club. The injury blow capped off a catastrophic night for St Kilda, who entered the clash as a critical fixture in their push to secure a top-10 ladder position and a spot in the expanded wildcard finals series. Compounding their misery, the Saints also lost key forward Mason Wood to a calf injury during the match, while Tom De Koning, Brad Hill and Liam Ryan all played through painful shoulder and knee niggles that limited their on-field impact.

    Lyon, who typically keeps injury details close to his chest in post-match press conferences, openly acknowledged the severity of Wanganeen-Milera’s injury Sunday. Even in the best-case scenario, the 22-year-old star will be sidelined for a minimum of three weeks, ruling him out of any potential wildcard final if St Kilda somehow manages to cling to their spot in the top 10.

    “ I’m not sure what worst case is, but I would think what I saw – and I don’t know much about hamstrings – minimum three weeks,” Lyon told reporters post-game. “At halftime he just gave me a bit of a hug, really, so he’s a positive person, but hopefully it turns out not too significant. It’s weird … it’s not like we worked them (at training), so we’re scratching our heads a little bit on the soft tissue injury.”

    The Saints now face an uphill battle to secure a finals berth, needing to win both of their remaining regular-season matches against Richmond and Gold Coast without their star utility. The club’s current position on the brink of elimination is a particularly bitter disappointment for fans and management, after St Kilda invested a multi-million dollar sum in high-profile recruiting during the 2023 off-season to build a team capable of competing for finals. Lyon took full responsibility for the team’s underperformance this season, saying the failure to deliver on pre-season expectations sits with him.

    “That sits with me. I’ve got to wear it. I’m fine. I’m a big boy. I’m happy to take what comes,” Lyon said. “Leaders shepherd, protect and nurture and challenge their people under pressure and that’s my job and I’ll continue to do it until I’m either tapped or I tap myself. I hate losing. It’s a winning business … when you’re playing good footy you’ve got to win. When you’re playing good footy and you can get across the line and you don’t because these nights are coming. You’ve got to take your moments.”

    With the team’s poor form on full display against Carlton, Lyon confirmed that the club plans to make significant changes to their starting line-up for their remaining matches, calling up in-form players from the club’s VFL affiliate to add intensity and hunger to the side. “People have been knocking on the door,” Lyon said. “You know what? System is not being delivered on, we’ll bring the hardness and the hunger and the enthusiasm in because if you’re not getting it done, in the end, that’s what we’ve really done over the last few years. The feedback is: you need to develop from within more. We’ve got to set some standards and not accept some stuff, so we’ll look to bring some in.”

    St Kilda’s finals hopes now rely not just on two straight wins to close the season, but also on favorable results from other competing clubs around the league, leaving one of the league’s most improved recent sides on the brink of missing out on September action.

  • Evidence that South African special forces murdered top detective shared with BBC

    Evidence that South African special forces murdered top detective shared with BBC

    Three years after the assassination of respected South African elite detective Lieutenant Colonel Frans Mathipa, a bombshell BBC World Service exclusive investigation has laid bare damning evidence linking military special forces to his killing, while raising grave questions about institutional overreach and the rule of law in one of Africa’s longest-standing democracies.

    Mathipa, a 20-year veteran of policing and father of five, was gunned down in August 2023 while driving home on a Pretoria motorway, just two days after authorities finally granted him access to critical evidence he had spent four months fighting to obtain. Weeks before his death, he told his commanding officer he feared his pursuit of the truth would cost him his life.

    At the time of his killing, Mathipa was investigating a high-stakes, sensitive case: the December 2022 abduction and alleged murder of Abdella Abadigga, an Ethiopian man labeled by the United States government as an Islamic State recruiter and fundraiser with close ties to top Somali IS leader Bilal al-Sudani. Court and police documents obtained exclusively by the BBC trace a clear line of connection between Abadigga’s disappearance and South Africa’s special forces.

    Public records and on-the-record interviews with key investigation sources — including the former head of counter-terrorism for the elite police unit The Hawks, Mathipa’s commanding officer, and his surviving family — build a compelling narrative that the special operation targeting Abadigga was not officially authorized, and that Mathipa was killed to cover up the operation’s details.

    The case dates back to 2008, when Abadigga was granted temporary asylum in South Africa. He was arrested abroad in 2017, before being secretly smuggled back into the country in a joint arrangement between the South African military and the Department of Home Affairs to serve as an intelligence asset, according to former Hawks counter-terrorism chief Colonel Tollie Vreugdenburg. The asset went rogue, he added, extorting business owners in Johannesburg’s Ethiopian community to fund IS operations, a claim backed by US government sanctions imposed on Abadigga in early 2022.

    When Abadigga disappeared alongside his bodyguard Kadir Abotese that December, his brother Ameen filed a missing person report. Local investigators obtained Mall of Africa CCTV footage showing the pair being followed by a man who paid for parking just three seconds after them, with all vehicles linked to the incident registered to Peters Communications Trust (PCT), a documented front company for South African special forces. At the time of Abadigga’s disappearance, PCT’s board included Major General Herbert Mashego, then commanding officer of the 5 Special Forces Regiment.

    When the investigating officer pressed military leadership for answers, he was ordered to lie to Ameen and deny any link between PCT and the military. When Ameen took the case to the Johannesburg High Court, special forces finally admitted their soldiers had been at the mall that day, but claimed they were conducting a training exercise. Under South African law, all domestic military operations require formal authorization from the presidency and national government; multiple requests for comment on the training exercise authorization to President Cyril Ramaphosa and former Defence Minister Thandi Modise went unanswered.

    Mathipa was assigned to the case a month after Abadigga’s disappearance, and immediately subpoenaed special forces to release full details of the exercise and all personnel involved. After three months of stonewalling, access to the documents was finally granted. On the day of his death, Mathipa received a phone call from an anonymous source calling himself Tebogo, who claimed to have new information on the case, arranged a meeting at a Pretoria petrol station, and failed to show up. As Mathipa drove back along the highway, he was ambushed and shot dead with high-velocity weapons matching those issued to special forces.

    Toll gantry footage later confirmed that the vehicle tailing Mathipa moments before the shooting was also registered to PCT, and that special forces Major Sunnybooi Wambi — the same man identified as the follower on the Mall of Africa CCTV footage — was in the car. Wambi had already been tied to the alleged 2022 abduction of Abadigga.

    In the wake of Mathipa’s murder, police documents show special forces delivered a menacing threat to The Hawks: “You can appoint 10 investigating officers; we will kill all of them.” To date, eight military personnel — seven special forces soldiers and one military police officer — have been formally charged with Mathipa’s murder, with four additional soldiers charged in connection with the abduction and murder of Abadigga and Abotese. All accused have pleaded not guilty to all charges, ranging from murder to fraud and obstruction of justice.

    What has amplified public outrage and concern over institutional overreach is the fact that three years after Mathipa’s killing, no trial date has ever been scheduled. Six of the accused had their bail revoked by a court order, and were ordered to turn themselves in to custody; three of those six, including Wambi, who face murder charges for Mathipa’s death, have refused to comply. All three remain active-duty special forces personnel, and Wambi has even been promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel since his initial charging. The military has repeatedly refused to detain and hand over the fugitive accused to civilian authorities, with their legal team most recently claiming the men are receiving mental health treatment to justify their absence.

    Multiple requests for comment from the South African military, Department of Home Affairs, President Ramaphosa and the Pentagon went unanswered by the time of publication. For the family of the fallen detective, the delay only deepens their grief. “We need justice. I’m never going to see my dad anymore… Why my dad? Because he was doing his job,” said Mathipa’s daughter Basetsana. Vreugdenburg, the former counter-terrorism chief, says Mathipa knew exactly what he was up against when he took the case: “He was barking up the right tree. He was taking on the right lion.”

    Abadigga’s body has never been recovered, and questions remain unaddressed about the timing of his disappearance: just weeks after he was abducted, al-Sudani was killed in a US special forces raid in Somalia, leading to unconfirmed speculation that Abadigga’s phone intelligence was used to locate the IS leader. President Ramaphosa declined to comment on whether the abduction was carried out at the request of US intelligence.

  • ‘Not afraid to stay’: The Canadians taking fighting wildfires into their own hands

    ‘Not afraid to stay’: The Canadians taking fighting wildfires into their own hands

    Amid one of the most active wildfire seasons in Canada’s modern history, a growing divide has emerged over how to protect remote, fire-prone communities — as longer, more intense blazes driven by climate change stretch national firefighting resources dangerously thin. As of August 2026, more than 750 active wildfires are burning across the country, following 2023’s record-breaking season that destroyed an expanse of boreal forest roughly equivalent to the entire nation of Syria. The smoke from these blazes has drifted as far south as the U.S. Midwest, choking urban airspace and even drawing a hostile tariff threat from former U.S. President Donald Trump, who attacked Canada for allowing “filthy, polluted” air to cross the border.

    For Hubert Wigwas, a 58-year-old councillor with Gull Bay First Nation in northern Ontario, the choice to stay when a wildfire approached his community in mid-2026 was not an act of defiance for defiance’s sake — it was a decision to protect the life he spent decades building. As regional officials ordered all residents to evacuate and deployed firefighting resources to higher-priority populated areas, Wigwas stayed behind. He installed sprinklers on his roof to douse falling embers, checked on isolated elders who also refused to leave, and fueled four docked boats to have a quick escape route ready if the blaze advanced. Now, he faces a C$800 fine for violating the evacuation order, a penalty he plans to fight in court. “This is everything I’ve built in my 58 years,” Wigwas told reporters. “I’m just not going to run away and let it burn.”

    Wigwas’s experience laid bare a gaping flaw in Canada’s national wildfire response strategy, he argued: remote First Nations communities, which sit adjacent to vast swathes of flammable boreal forest, are often left waiting for outside support that never arrives in time. That realization has pushed him to call for a new model: self-organized, community-led wildfire response teams trained to protect homes and elders before provincial crews can reach remote areas. “Everybody talks about climate change, but nobody is doing something to unite the (First Nations) reserves and have a system like that set up,” he said.

    Provincial officials say their resource allocation follows strict protocols based on fire activity, weather conditions and risk to populated areas, and that they maintain constant communication with First Nations leadership. But thousands of kilometers away in northeast British Columbia, long Canada’s wildfire response front line, that community-led model Wigwas envisions is already a reality.

    Over the past three years, wildfire researcher Sonja Leverkus has trained more than 400 local residents — most of them Indigenous — through her volunteer group, the Northeast BC Rural Incident Management Team. Leverkus launched the initiative after concluding that Canada’s traditional response system cannot keep up with the growing frequency and intensity of blazes driven by climate change. “There are not enough human beings in Canada, with the appropriate training, to fight the fires that we have currently, especially over the last five years,” she explained.

    Remote communities in British Columbia are often deprioritized for provincial firefighting crews when major blazes threaten heavily populated areas, Leverkus noted, with the nearest backup support sometimes hundreds of kilometers away. Her team has addressed this gap by carrying out controlled prescribed burns to reduce excess fuel that can turn small blazes into catastrophic infernos, and has even purchased its own fire wagons through community fundraising and grants to extinguish small fires before they spread, often arriving ahead of provincial crews. During the 2024 Fort Nelson wildfire, Leverkus and 40 team members stayed behind and were contracted by the provincial government to clear flammable vegetation and support large-scale fire suppression efforts. She has also organized structural protection training to teach locals how to shield buildings from flying embers, the leading cause of home destruction during wildfire events.

    Leverkus’s model has drawn support from local residents like 70-year-old former helicopter pilot Cam Allen, who took her training course to learn ground-based fire suppression after seeing the viral story of John Carr, a California man who saved his home from the 2025 Palisades Fire by defending it with a garden hose after most residents evacuated. “It makes you wonder, if 100 people had stayed or 1,000 people had stayed behind and actually did what he did, how much more could have been saved?” Allen asked.

    But the push for community-led wildfire defense has sparked fierce debate among emergency management experts and government officials, who warn that allowing residents to defy evacuation orders puts both civilians and first responders at unnecessary risk. Last month, British Columbia wildfire crews were forced to stage a dangerous rescue operation after a man who refused to evacuate became trapped by flames surrounding his home in Clinton. British Columbia Emergency Management Minister Kelly Greene reiterated this month that all residents under evacuation orders must leave, noting that evacuation orders are only issued as a last resort to protect public safety, and that emergency teams may not be able to reach residents who stay behind if conditions worsen.

    Paul Kovacs, director of the Catastrophic Loss Institute at the University of Western Ontario, explained that Canada’s low wildfire fatality rate is directly tied to its strict evacuation-first policy, a stance that contrasts with approaches in other fire-prone nations like Australia that allow for “stay and defend” strategies. “In the hierarchy of what is it that you do to manage a wildfire, preservation of life is first,” Kovacs said. While he agreed that local communities can play a critical role in fireproofing homes and structures ahead of fire season, he argued that that work should never take place while an active blaze is approaching.

    Provincial officials note that British Columbia has expanded its full-time wildfire staff by 56% in recent years to match growing fire risk, and that self-organized rural groups can be temporarily contracted during major blazes when no provincial crews are available. But Leverkus’s group still lacks official government recognition, leaving trained volunteers at risk of penalties for staying behind to defend their communities. Leverkus is currently working to change that, emphasizing that her training program prioritizes safety above all else: all trainees learn to map multiple escape routes, read fire behavior, and follow orders from trained commanders who will order an evacuation if conditions become too dangerous. Not all trainees choose to stay and defend during active blazes, she added — only those who understand the risks are selected to remain.

    “If people want to stay and defend, they need to understand what that means for themselves, what that means for their family,” Leverkus said. Her long-term goal is to turn her program into a national blueprint that can be adopted by remote and rural communities across Canada, creating a network of trained local teams that can fill gaps left by strained provincial response resources. For Wigwas, the fight is just beginning: as he prepares to contest his C$800 fine in court, he says he has no regrets about his choice to stay and protect his community.

  • Kurdish PKK criticises Turkey bill on fate of its fighters

    Kurdish PKK criticises Turkey bill on fate of its fighters

    A day before Turkey’s parliament is set to debate a landmark piece of legislation aimed at winding down 40 years of armed conflict with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the outlawed Kurdish group has issued sharp criticism of the bill, warning it will fail to deliver lasting peace without the release of its imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan.

    The proposed bill, which enjoys cross-party backing from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the pro-Kurdish DEM party, forms the cornerstone of Turkey’s latest push to end decades of deadly fighting that has claimed at least 50,000 lives since the conflict began. The legislation does not offer a full blanket amnesty for PKK fighters. Instead, it pauses prosecutions and prison sentences for some offenses for a period between five and 10 years. If individuals covered by the law do not reoffend within that window, all active investigations are dropped and sentences are counted as completed. Serious violent offenses, including intentional homicide, are excluded from the protections of the bill, a carveout that pro-government media argue should bar Ocalan, who has served a life sentence since 1999, from any early release.

    In an official statement published Sunday by the PKK-aligned ANF news agency, the group’s leadership condemned the legislation as fundamentally flawed. The statement argued that key proposals aimed at advancing democratic reform and a comprehensive solution to the long-running Kurdish political issue were completely ignored by lawmakers crafting the bill. The PKK also pointed out that the legislation frames the process solely around disarmament, but never explicitly references the “Kurdish issue” – a choice that the group says proves the proposal fails to address the root of the conflict at its core. Beyond demanding Ocalan’s release, the PKK also called for binding legal guarantees that former fighters who lay down their arms will be able to participate freely in Turkish political life without the threat of imprisonment for their political beliefs.

    The PKK warned that every provision included in the bill would amount to nothing more than a “dead letter” if 77-year-old Ocalan, the group’s founding and longtime leader, is not granted release from prison. Ocalan’s path to release remains unclear: last year, he called on the PKK to disarm and disband in response to a new peace initiative launched by Turkish authorities in late 2024, but no official decision has been made on his future. The PKK formally announced its disarmament and disbandment plan last year in line with Ocalan’s call.

    Not all Kurdish political figures have rejected the bill, however. Prominent former Kurdish opposition leader Selahattin Demirtas, who has been imprisoned in Turkey since 2016, threw his support behind the legislation Sunday. Demirtas, who previously served as co-chair of Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish party, described the bill as a crucial moment for the country, saying he hopes the parliamentary debate will mark another critical step forward in this historic peace effort. If implemented successfully, Demirtas argued, the law will fundamentally and permanently transform the future of Turkey and its Kurdish region, bringing an end to more than 40 years of violence that has reshaped the lives of millions of people across the country. For decades, Kurds across Turkey and the wider region have held regular demonstrations calling for Ocalan’s release from prison.

  • African quartet secure Women’s World Cup places

    African quartet secure Women’s World Cup places

    The road to the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil has reached a pivotal milestone, with four African teams securing their places at the global tournament after dramatic quarterfinal matches at the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon), hosted in Morocco.

    This edition of Wafcon doubles as the African qualifying competition for next summer’s World Cup, with a straightforward rule: any side that advances to the tournament’s semi-finals automatically claims a spot at the 32-nation global showpiece. The four quarterfinal winners that earned their qualification this week brought no shortage of surprise, skill, and historic firsts to the table.

    Algeria made history by booking its first-ever berth at the Women’s World Cup, pulling off a come-from-behind 2-1 victory over 10-player Ivory Coast. The match turned on its head when Ivorian player N’Sira Oudraogo was sent off while her side held a 1-0 lead. Algeria capitalized on the numerical advantage, with goals from Ines Khiri and Amira Ould Braham pushing the team across the line and into the Wafcon last four.

    Morocco, which reached the 2023 Women’s World Cup knockout stage before falling to France, secured its second consecutive World Cup qualification with a 2-1 win over 2022 Wafcon champions South Africa. Sakina Ouzraoui Diki and Hanane Ait El Haj notched the goals that secured Morocco’s place in the semi-finals and World Cup.

    Cameroon claimed its spot with a 1-0 upset over powerhouse Nigeria, settled by a stunning 30-yard free-kick from 19-year-old rising star Myriam Nyadjou that proved enough to separate the two sides. The biggest upset of the quarterfinal round came from Malawi, the world’s 153rd-ranked team, who fought back from a one-goal deficit to beat Ghana 2-1. Goals from Temwa Chawinga and Rose Kadzere sealed the historic result, booking Malawi’s first ever Women’s World Cup spot.

    The Wafcon semi-finals are scheduled for Wednesday, with Morocco set to face Cameroon in the first matchup, followed by a clash between Algeria and Malawi. While the four quarterfinal losers — Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and South Africa — did not secure automatic qualification, they still have a path to the World Cup. On Thursday, Ivory Coast will face Ghana, and Nigeria will take on South Africa. The two winners of those matches will advance to the 10-team intercontinental play-off tournament scheduled for November and December, where three additional World Cup spots will be awarded.

    The 2027 Women’s World Cup will run from June 24 to July 25 in Brazil. To date, 18 of the 32 participating nations have already secured their qualification. Beyond the four African qualifiers, the confirmed lineup includes Asian sides Australia, China, Japan, North Korea, the Philippines, and South Korea; European powerhouses Denmark, France, Germany, and Spain; Oceania’s New Zealand; and South American teams Argentina, host nation Brazil, and Colombia. Four home nations — England, the Republic of Ireland, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland — are still in contention for World Cup spots through the European play-off round, which will run from October to December, requiring each side to win two two-legged ties to advance.

  • How Kinahan’s hearing unfolded inside the courtroom in Dublin

    How Kinahan’s hearing unfolded inside the courtroom in Dublin

    The long-awaited first court appearance of alleged transnational criminal network leader Daniel Kinahan unfolded this week in a Dublin courtroom, closing a major chapter in a years-long international manhunt following his extradition from the United Arab Emirates. Kinahan, who has long been linked to organized drug trafficking, money laundering, and violent gang rivalries across Europe, was transferred into Irish law enforcement custody after authorities in Dubai approved the extradition request put forward by Irish judicial officials. Once inside the Dublin courtroom, prosecutors formally presented a single core charge: directing the activities of a designated criminal organization, an offense that carries severe legal penalties under Irish organized crime legislation. Kinahan stood before the judge as the charge was read aloud, with security details surrounding the high-profile defendant to maintain order throughout the brief hearing. The appearance marks a significant milestone in international law enforcement cooperation against transnational organized crime, ending years of Kinahan operating outside the reach of Irish justice systems. Legal proceedings are set to advance in the coming months as both the prosecution and defense prepare their cases for trial.

  • Suspected crime boss Daniel Kinahan appears in court after extradition

    Suspected crime boss Daniel Kinahan appears in court after extradition

    After months of legal challenges and years of international pursuit, alleged transnational crime boss Daniel Kinahan has finally been extradited from the United Arab Emirates to the Republic of Ireland, landing in Dublin on a government jet Sunday evening and appearing in court hours later to face organized crime charges.

    The 49-year-old, who heads what global law enforcement has labeled one of the world’s most dangerous criminal syndicates, was arrested immediately upon landing at Dublin’s Casement Aerodrome. He was then transported under heavy armed police escort to the Special Criminal Court in Dublin, where a packed courtroom of journalists, prosecution legal teams, court staff and members of the public awaited his first appearance.

    Prosecutors have charged Kinahan with directing the activities of a criminal organization between October 2015 and April 2017. The short, 13-minute non-jury hearing concluded with the judge remanding Kinahan in custody until his next court date, scheduled for October 5. Kinahan attended the hearing without legal representation, telling the court he had not had sufficient time to secure a lawyer following his overnight transfer. When informed he could apply for bail through Ireland’s High Court, Kinahan responded calmly, “I think we all know I won’t be getting bail, but thank you for your time.” He was granted the option to choose between in-person or remote appearance for his next hearing at a later date.

    Kinahan’s extradition marks the culmination of a years-long international manhunt. He fled Ireland more than a decade ago, following a 2016 assassination attempt at a Dublin hotel boxing event that left one man dead. He resided in Spain for several years before relocating to Dubai, where he was arrested by Emirati authorities in April this year. The suspected crime leader launched multiple appeals against his extradition over the past four months, but all legal challenges were ultimately rejected.

    Global law enforcement has linked the Kinahan cartel to widespread international criminal activity: the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) confirms the syndicate has imported tonnes of illicit drugs and illegal firearms across global markets, and has been directly connected to more than 12 gangland killings. The cartel’s violent decade-long feud with a rival Irish gang alone has claimed 18 lives. The U.S. Department of the Treasury has compared the Kinahan organization to notorious global syndicates including Italy’s Camorra, Mexico’s Los Zetas and Japan’s Yakuza, formally labeling it one of the world’s most dangerous transnational criminal networks in 2022, when U.S. authorities imposed sweeping sanctions on Kinahan, his father and his brother, who are named as the cartel’s top leaders. The U.S. government also currently offers a $5 million reward for information that leads to the arrest or conviction of Kinahan and his immediate family members. Former Irish Garda Commissioner Drew Harris estimates the cartel has generated more than €1 billion ($1.08 billion) in illicit profits from its global operations.

    This extradition is not the first high-profile outcome of the bilateral extradition treaty between Ireland and the UAE. Last year, senior Kinahan cartel lieutenant Sean McGovern was extradited under the same agreement, and was sentenced to 24 years in prison in June for directing criminal organization activities. In the UK, three senior cartel members including the group’s UK operations leader Thomas Kavanagh were jailed in 2022 for a combined 60.5 years, convicted over a smuggling operation that brought £29.8 million worth of cocaine and cannabis into the country.

    Irish and UAE justice officials framed Sunday’s extradition as a landmark win for international judicial cooperation. Irish Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan praised the “professionalism, efficiency, and diligence” of Emirati authorities throughout the proceedings, noting that the handover represents a major milestone in cross-border collaboration against organized crime. His UAE counterpart, Abdullah bin Sultan bin Awad Al Nuaimi, added that the extradition underscores both nations’ unwavering commitment to supporting global efforts to dismantle transnational criminal networks.

    Garda Commissioner Justin Kelly highlighted that the successful arrest and extradition demonstrates Irish law enforcement’s unwavering commitment to targeting transnational organized crime, in close partnership with international policing and judicial allies. “This outcome is a direct result of years of coordinated work between our force, UAE judicial and police authorities, and the Irish Department of Justice,” Kelly said.

    Kinahan has long denied all allegations of criminal activity. His legal team previously told BBC Panorama that Kinahan holds no criminal convictions anywhere in the world, and all claims that he leads an international crime syndicate are unsubstantiated and false.

  • India to Israel and back: How a fake IRGC quote on nuclear weapons reached Netanyahu’s speech

    India to Israel and back: How a fake IRGC quote on nuclear weapons reached Netanyahu’s speech

    A joint investigation by leading Israeli outlet Ynet and veteran New York Times journalist Ronen Bergman has exposed how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deployed a fabricated quote attributed to a top Iranian military commander to advance his hardline narrative on Iran’s nuclear program — a false claim that originated from a fringe pro-Israel, Hindu-nationalist social media account in India before spreading across global right-wing media and political circles.

    The fake quote, falsely credited to Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps chief Ahmad Vahidi, was first posted to X on August 5 by Ritika, an Indian account aligned with Hindu nationalist politics that openly supports Israel. The fabricated statement claimed Vahidi said: “There will be no discussion over enriched uranium or nuclear weapons. As long as the United States and Israel possess nuclear weapons, we will continue working on them for our national security. If they disarm, we will disarm.”

    Within hours of the original post, the false claim went viral. Just four and a half hours after its initial publication, an unofficial X account falsely branding itself “Mossad Commentary” — which has no actual connection to Israel’s official intelligence service and boasts more than 1 million followers — amplified the quote, adding additional commentary claiming Iran’s regime “is not preparing to abandon its nuclear ambitions. It is buying time. There will be no deal.”

    The false attribution was then picked up by Israel’s Channel 14, a media outlet widely recognized as a mouthpiece for Netanyahu and his far-right governing coalition. A 2024 report confirmed the Israeli government has purchased millions of shekels in commercial airtime from the channel in recent years. Channel 14 presented the fake quote as “the first direct admission by an Iranian official that Tehran was developing a nuclear bomb,” and failed to disclose any verifiable primary source for the remarks.

    Shortly after Channel 14 ran the story, Yair Netanyahu — the prime minister’s eldest son and an influential far-right voice within his inner circle, with nearly 300,000 X followers — reposted the content from both the unofficial Mossad account and Channel 14. Multiple independent reports have confirmed Yair Netanyahu, alongside his mother Sara, wields significant influence over the prime minister’s policy decisions, and he has a well-documented history of spreading misinformation and extreme right-wing messaging via his social media platforms. Even senior figures within Netanyahu’s own Likud party regularly seek his approval for political messaging.

    It was at this point that Benjamin Netanyahu himself deployed the fake quote in an official public address to Israeli citizens. According to the investigation’s transcript, Netanyahu told attendees: “Today, we heard the commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Vahidi, explicitly declare Iran’s intention to continue developing nuclear weapons – ‘continue’, as he put it.”

    From there, the disinformation spread beyond Israel’s borders, reaching top political and media figures in the United States. Mike Waltz, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, reposted Channel 14’s report on his own X account before deleting the post hours later after the fabrications were exposed. Prominent conservative U.S. commentator Mark Levin also shared the false claim with his large audience.

    Mainstream U.S. outlet Fox News initially ran a story repeating the claim that Vahidi had admitted Iran would pursue nuclear weapons as long as Israel and the U.S. maintained their own arsenals, linking the remarks to growing concerns that Iran was using Strait of Hormuz negotiations to delay nuclear concessions. Only two days later did Fox News issue a clarification, acknowledging the remarks had been “previously taken out of context and amplified as comments made this week.” Major Indian wire service Asian News International also repeated the false claim, citing unvetted Israeli media reports.

    Even after the source of the fabrication was exposed, the quote continued to circulate in pro-Netanyahu Israeli media. Multiple pro-government journalists, including Yaakov Bardugo and Avishay Ben Haim, repeated Netanyahu’s warning on national television, and Israel’s foreign ministry even amplified Netanyahu’s remarks featuring the fake quote on its official Persian-language X account.

    Investigators say the entire episode fits a clear pattern of deliberate disinformation that serves Netanyahu’s longstanding political goal of blocking any nuclear deal between the U.S. and Iran. Netanyahu has repeatedly stated his opposition to any new agreement, telling Channel 14 in June 2024: “As long as I am prime minister, Iran will not have nuclear weapons,” adding that he had already saved Israel from “annihilation” twice by pushing back against Iranian nuclear progress.

    While Ynet’s investigation could not definitively prove that Netanyahu or his inner circle coordinated the initial spread of the fake quote, it noted the campaign matches “a series of familiar markers of disinformation distribution” that have been tied to Netanyahu in the past. Just months earlier, in September 2024, Netanyahu’s office was accused of supplying false information to UK outlet *The Jewish Chronicle* and German newspaper *Bild* falsely claiming Hamas planned to smuggle Israeli hostages out of Gaza through the Rafah border crossing into Iran. Two senior Netanyahu aides are currently under criminal investigation for leaking classified documents to shape public opinion in favor of the controversial Israeli military offensive in Rafah.

    The investigation also noted that Israeli state-backed influence operations have increasingly targeted audiences outside of Israel — particularly in the U.S. — as the Netanyahu government faces growing bipartisan criticism over its military campaign in Gaza and its hardline stance on Iran. This is not the first time Indian media has been used to spread anti-Iran disinformation either: Last month, Iran’s embassy in New Delhi issued a formal statement accusing Indian outlets of spreading false information about the country, urging media outlets “not to compromise the public trust and its professional credibility by disseminating fake and fabricated news” and asking them to “avoid participating in external propaganda efforts.”