Global Pulse

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  • CIA chief met Russian intelligence services but not Putin, Kremlin says

    CIA chief met Russian intelligence services but not Putin, Kremlin says

    In a highly unusual, off-the-schedule stop that has drawn international attention, CIA Director John Ratcliffe has held direct contacts with Russian intelligence service representatives during a secret visit to Moscow, the Kremlin has officially confirmed. The top U.S. intelligence leader arrived in the Russian capital on Tuesday for what remains one of the highest-profile trips by a senior American official to Russia since the start of Donald Trump’s second presidential term.

    Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov shared limited details with reporters during his regular daily press briefing, confirming that while Ratcliffe held talks with Russian intelligence counterparts, no meeting was scheduled or held with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “Naturally, President Putin is briefed immediately about everything,” Peskov added, responding to questions from Russian state outlet Rossiyskaya Gazeta regarding the level of the talks and Putin’s awareness of the meeting. When pressed by BBC Russia Editor Steve Rosenberg for details on the agenda of the closed-door discussions, Peskov declined to share further information.

    Peskov noted that it remains far too early to assess what long-term influence this high-level contact will have on the process of mending U.S.-Russia relations, which have been mired in a deep crisis since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Even so, he characterized ongoing dialogue between the two countries’ intelligence agencies as a constructive development. “Contacts between intelligence agencies are a positive phenomenon, a positive process,” he said, adding that such backchannel talks often continue “even during the most difficult moments” in bilateral ties.

    This visit marks a rare instance of in-person high-level dialogue between American and Russian officials in recent years. The last time a sitting CIA director traveled to Moscow was November 2021, when then-director William Burns delivered a direct warning to Russian leadership against launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Just weeks after that meeting, the Kremlin moved forward with its military operation, prompting sweeping international sanctions against Russia and a complete breakdown in U.S.-Russia relations.

    The most recent high-level diplomatic encounter between the U.S. and Russian leadership came last year, when Trump and Putin held a long-awaited summit in Alaska. However, that meeting failed to produce any major breakthrough in bilateral ties or de-escalate the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Subsequent U.S.-brokered peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow have since stalled, leaving little progress toward a negotiated ceasefire.

    A senior Ukrainian official told CBS that U.S. authorities notified Kyiv ahead of Ratcliffe’s trip that a senior American delegation would be traveling to Moscow, and formally requested that Ukraine suspend cross-border strikes targeting Russian positions until the delegation had safely exited Russian territory. The request itself underscores the sensitivity of the unannounced visit, analysts say.

    John Foreman, who served as British military attaché to Moscow between 2019 and 2022, told BBC Radio 4’s PM programme that the unannounced, short-notice nature of the trip signals that the U.S. is addressing a matter of significant urgency. “The Americans don’t normally send such a high ranking official to Moscow unannounced at short notice unless something is up,” Foreman said.

    As of Wednesday, BBC News has reached out to the CIA, the White House, and the Pentagon for comment on the visit and the details of the talks, with no formal response issued as of publication.

  • Ex-head of Rwanda’s presidential guard dies in jail 12 years after his arrest

    Ex-head of Rwanda’s presidential guard dies in jail 12 years after his arrest

    Tom Byabagamba, the 59-year-old former commander of Rwanda’s presidential guard and one-time personal bodyguard to President Paul Kagame, has died while serving a 15-year prison sentence, a development that has reignited longstanding concerns from global human rights organizations about the Rwandan government’s treatment of political dissent.

    Byabagamba was first taken into custody in 2014 alongside Frank Rusagara, a retired brigadier-general and former defense ministry secretary-general who was also his brother-in-law. The pair were charged with two widely criticized offenses: spreading unsubstantiated rumors and damaging the reputation of Rwanda and its ruling government. From the opening of his legal proceedings through the conclusion of his appeals process, Byabagamba consistently rejected all allegations against him, maintaining that the charges had been manufactured as a political weapon to silence him.

    In 2016, a Rwandan military court found both men guilty and handed down harsh sentences: Byabagamba was originally sentenced to 21 years behind bars, a term that was later cut to 15 years following an appeal. Rusagara received a 20-year prison term. In a tragic parallel to Byabagamba’s death, Rusagara died in custody in March 2023, becoming the second member of the pair to die behind bars after almost a decade of detention.

    Details surrounding Byabagamba’s death remain unclear, according to his brother David Himbara. Himbara told the BBC’s Great Lakes service that the family has been given no official information on the cause of death, noting that no family member has been permitted to visit Byabagamba at any point during his decade in detention. This mirrors the circumstances of Rusagara’s death: at the time of his passing, Human Rights Watch (HRW) described it as the “lonely death of a general,” highlighting that Rusagara’s family had not had any contact with him since just days before his 2014 arrest. Authorities only notified his relatives that he had been suffering from terminal cancer after his death, the organization confirmed.

    International rights and advocacy groups have long documented what they describe as a consistent pattern of repression targeting political opponents and government critics under President Kagame’s administration. Both Byabagamba and Rusagara’s trials were deeply flawed according to HRW, with credible claims of torture and widespread witness tampering marring the legal process. Washington D.C.-based campaign group Freedom Now has also repeatedly criticized the men’s detention as arbitrary, saying it violated fundamental international human rights law standards. Both groups have renewed their calls for transparency following Byabagamba’s death.

    Byabagamba is survived by his wife and two sons.

  • Trump 2.0 and the unraveling global order

    Trump 2.0 and the unraveling global order

    For generations, one unspoken assumption shaped the architecture of global politics: despite its flaws, U.S. power would remain the steady anchor holding the international system together. Even when Washington’s unilateral moves frustrated allied capitals, nations ultimately stayed aligned with the United States, convinced that a world without this anchor would carry far greater risk. Today, that decades-old foundation is being tested under the pressure of Donald Trump’s second term, and mounting evidence suggests the old consensus may not survive.
    Three interconnected recent developments lay bare the accelerating global shift: a sweeping new round of U.S. tariffs imposed on most of the world, a landmark Pew Research Center survey showing China surpassing the U.S. in global public favorability, and the European Union caught between competing pressure from Washington’s trade agenda and Beijing’s economic clout. Taken together, these events reveal far more than routine diplomatic friction. They signal a fundamental, likely irreversible realignment of global power.
    ### The New Tariff Shock, A Consistent Pattern of Unpredictability
    On July 24, the Trump administration rolled out new tariffs ranging from 10% to 12.5% on imports from 60 global trading partners, covering approximately 99% of all goods entering the U.S. The White House framed the measure as an enforcement action targeting nations that failed to block imports produced with forced labor, justifying the move under Section 301 of the 1974 U.S. Trade Act. This new regime replaces a temporary 10% global tariff implemented earlier in February, which the U.S. Supreme Court struck down, ruling Trump had overstepped his authority by imposing unilateral tariffs under a declared national emergency.
    For global trade partners, the specific legal technicality matters far less than the pattern it reinforces: this is already the second sweeping tariff regime of Trump’s second term, implemented just months after the first was invalidated by the nation’s highest court. For trading partners ranging from Canada and India to the European Union, the message is clear: the United States can no longer be counted on as a predictable economic partner. A government that reimposes broad trade barriers under a new legal rationale every time the previous one fails in court is one whose long-term commitments cannot form the basis of stable planning for foreign nations.
    ### Pew Data Confirms a Flipping of Global Public Confidence
    This growing unpredictability has directly shifted global public opinion, according to new research. A Pew Research Center report published July 15, 2026, drawn from surveys of more than 42,000 adults across 36 nations conducted between February and May 2026, finds that a majority of surveyed countries now hold more favorable views of China than of the United States. Global confidence in Chinese President Xi Jinping has also overtaken confidence in Trump, the survey confirms.
    What makes this finding most notable is its geographic breadth: the shift is not limited to the Global South or nations with longstanding grievances against U.S. foreign policy. Pew data shows that even Canada and Mexico, the United States’ closest geographic neighbors, now view China more positively than the U.S. Across seven major European nations — Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom — Xi’s global approval rating outpaces Trump’s by double-digit margins.
    This reversal is a recent development, driven by parallel trends: stagnant or slightly improving views of China paired with a sharp collapse in U.S. favorability since the start of Trump’s second term. Just 12 months ago, most surveyed countries still favored the United States; that is no longer the case.
    As Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, notes: “China now outranks the United States in global favorability for the first time in nearly two decades, but the real story isn’t a Chinese soft-power surge — it’s American decline. China’s median favorability rating has barely shifted over the past 10 years; the crossover happened almost entirely because U.S. ratings plummeted.”
    Scholar Maria Repnikova echoes this analysis, observing: “China is passively gaining global stature from America’s soft-power retreat, and is now seen by many as the more accessible and reliable great power partner. Beijing has not yet converted this relative advantage into a decisive shift of global public loyalty or a clear, coherent alternative global order.”
    The Pew report also finds that populations in middle-income countries across Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia are now more likely to describe China as a reliable partner, and less likely to view it as prone to unwanted foreign interference, compared to the United States. This marks a complete inversion of the roles the two powers have held in global public opinion for most of the post-Cold War era.
    ### South Korea: A U.S. Treaty Ally Pursues Strategic Hedging
    Perhaps the clearest example of this shifting alignment among formal U.S. allies is playing out in Seoul, in a development that defies longstanding expectations. On August 16, Trump announced he had spoken with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and asked if South Korea would lend the U.S. “a little hand” with tensions surrounding Iran. When Lee declined, Trump ordered the Pentagon to “substantially reduce” the scope of the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield joint military exercises, which launched August 17 and run through August 27.
    Lee’s progressive government has centered its foreign policy on what it calls “pragmatic diplomacy,” prioritizing greater strategic autonomy and national economic interest over rigid ideological alignment with Washington. The shift has been sharp enough that South Korea’s conservative opposition has accused the Lee administration of abandoning the U.S. alliance, a critique echoed by American conservative commentators in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed cited by multiple regional outlets.
    The specifics of South Korea’s domestic political debate carry broader meaning. Even a treaty ally that hosts tens of thousands of U.S. troops on its territory is now recalibrating how closely it will tie its foreign policy to Washington. This recalibration is being led by a government that campaigned on hard-nosed pragmatic engagement, rather than automatic alignment with either great power — a telling indicator of how the center of gravity in South Korean politics has shifted.
    ### Europe Caught In a Two-Front Bind
    South Korea is far from alone in this new balancing act. No region faces greater tension from competing great power pressure than Europe, which now finds itself squeezed between two competing economic forces at once.
    European policymakers have grown increasingly alarmed by Chinese industrial overcapacity, particularly in the electric vehicle sector, which has contributed to an estimated 10,000 industrial job losses per month in Germany alone. This anxiety has generated loud rhetoric from Brussels and Berlin about the need to “de-risk” European supply chains from overreliance on China.
    Yet as analyst James Curran recently outlined in the *East Asia Forum*, this tough rhetoric has yet to translate into a coherent, unified policy. The EU wants to raise the economic cost of overreliance on China without inflicting major damage on its own economy, and it has so far failed to build internal consensus on how to achieve that goal.
    Compounding this policy paralysis is the simultaneous pressure of the new U.S. tariffs, which apply to the EU alongside 59 other global economies. European officials are now fighting a two-front economic battle: managing exposure to Chinese industrial overcapacity while absorbing new protectionist trade barriers from the United States. For now, the result is stalemate, rather than a clear pivot toward either power. But pressure on Europe is not easing, and the bloc’s eventual compromise is likely to look far less like close alignment with Washington than it would have a decade ago.
    ### The Data Catches Up To Shifting Rhetoric
    Early this year, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney publicly articulated what new data now confirms. In a January 20, 2026 address to the World Economic Forum in Davos, delivered one day before Trump was set to speak at the event, Carney declared the world is experiencing “a rupture, not a transition.”
    He argued that the rules-based international order underwritten by U.S. power — which guaranteed open sea lanes, global financial stability, and multilateral dispute resolution — will not return, and that middle powers like Canada must prioritize building their own strategic autonomy rather than waiting for the old system to be restored. Carney has repeated this framing repeatedly, including in remarks ahead of the June 2026 G7 summit. What began as one leader’s assessment is now backed by hard empirical data, and points toward a global order that is reconfiguring itself independent of any single U.S. election cycle.
    Individually, none of these developments — new tariffs, shifting public opinion, South Korean hedging, European policy paralysis — is enough to trigger a permanent global realignment. Together, they describe an international system where broken trust and eroded credibility take years to rebuild, if they can be rebuilt at all. A global consensus around U.S. leadership built over a generation has eroded in just a few years. U.S. allies are quietly building alternative hedging strategies rather than waiting for U.S. policy to stabilize.
    Global trading partners now treat U.S. commitments as transactional, rather than binding. Even if U.S. policy shifts again in the future, under this administration or a later one, the bilateral and multilateral relationships that have already been recalibrated across the world may not simply snap back to the old status quo. That is what makes this moment more than a temporary rough patch for U.S. foreign policy: it is a structural shift in how the rest of the world positions itself relative to American power.

  • Butter me up: Paris gets its first boutique devoted to France’s favorite fat

    Butter me up: Paris gets its first boutique devoted to France’s favorite fat

    A one-of-a-kind retail concept has touched down in central Paris, just steps from the iconic Eiffel Tower: Le Butter Shop, the French capital’s first boutique exclusively dedicated to all things butter, opened its doors to the public last month. Founded by 34-year-old entrepreneur Erwan Leo, who also operates a local wine-tasting business, the small shop curates 30 distinct butter varieties sourced entirely from small, family-owned dairy producers across Brittany, the Loire Valley and northern France’s prime dairy regions.

    France’s long and complicated relationship with butter has long presented a curious paradox to outside observers. Official data from France’s agriculture ministry puts national annual per capita butter consumption at roughly 8 kilograms, or 18 pounds — one of the highest rates in the world. Yet despite this enthusiasm for the rich dairy staple, France’s obesity rate sits at just 14%, well below the 19% average for developed member nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Leo says the answer to this contradiction is simple, and rooted in Parisian cultural tradition: moderate consumption paired with an active, walk-centric lifestyle. “We don’t go beyond four tartines a day,” he notes, explaining that mastering the use of butter, rather than overindulging in it, is the core of French culinary culture. “The Italians choose olive oil, we choose butter. We learn how to master it.”

    Unlike the limited selection of plain sweet, lightly salted and fully salted butter found at most neighborhood French supermarkets, Le Butter Shop reimagines butter as a versatile, flavor-forward tasting experience. Customers sample spoonfuls of each variety before purchasing any amount, from a 10-gram tasting pat to a full 2.2-pound block. Beyond classic plain butter varieties, the boutique offers infused flavors ranging from savory options including shallot, cracked pepper, seaweed, wild garlic, fine herbs and lemon-green pepper to sweet variations such as vanilla, raspberry, strawberry and chocolate. Leo frames the tasting experience similar to wine appreciation: “You have to grab your spoon, you put it on your palate, on your tongue, it has to melt a little bit, and then the flavors are going to start coming one by one. The goal isn’t to overconsume — it’s to make the whole meal better, just like wine does.” Most first-time customers are shocked by the range of flavors, he says: “Most people don’t expect to like a raspberry butter or to like chocolate butter. And when they try it, this is where they’re just like, ‘Oh wow, OK.’”

    The shop’s unique premise has quickly drawn attention from both locals and international visitors, many of whom plan their trips around a stop at the boutique. Two tourists from Dublin, a country famous for its own rich golden butter, traveled to the shop specifically after seeing it featured in social media videos back home. “We came here just to taste the butter,” explained Salman Bin Ehsan, who visited alongside fellow traveler Mehreen Himayat. A local Parisian resident, Alexandra Incolano, visited the boutique with a very specific celebratory goal: she is getting married at the end of the week and planned to add curated Le Butter Shop selections as a surprise accompaniment to her wedding’s cheese centerpiece for guests. Even professional food industry workers have made a point to visit: Estonian chef Aleksandr Balaban, who works in Norway where salted butter is a local favorite, stopped by to sample renowned French butter firsthand and bring back a selection for a friend.

    Butter has deep cultural and historical roots across northern and western France, particularly in Brittany. Before modern refrigeration, salt was used to preserve butter, and Brittany’s historic exemption from the gabelle — France’s centuries-old salt tax — allowed the region to keep its traditional salted butter recipe intact even as much of the rest of the country shifted to unsalted varieties. That culinary legacy endures today in iconic Breton dishes including crêpes, salted caramel and kouign-amann, the buttery layered cake whose name translates directly to “butter cake” in the local Breton language.

    All of the butters sold at Le Butter Shop are churned from higher-fat milk sourced from selected dairy herds, with Leo noting that an extra 2 to 3 percentage points of milk fat makes a dramatic difference in richness and flavor. Fueled by viral social media attention, the tiny boutique has drawn large crowds since opening its doors, with Leo hiring four additional staff to keep up with demand. “From day one, it’s been crazy,” he said. “Most people come in with wanting to try one or two butters, they end up trying 25 butters because they’re just so curious.” Looking ahead, Leo plans to expand the shop’s flavor lineup, with a croissant-infused butter already in development and violet-flavored butter under consideration. For the founder, the possibilities for specialty butter are endless: “This is limitless,” he said.

  • German airport worker dies of malaria after ‘mosquito arrives on plane’

    German airport worker dies of malaria after ‘mosquito arrives on plane’

    A rare local malaria outbreak at Germany’s busiest travel hub, Frankfurt Airport, has claimed the life of one employee and left five others infected with the mosquito-borne disease, public health and airport authorities have confirmed.

    German public health officials trace the origin of the disease-carrying mosquitoes to incoming air travel, saying the insects likely hitched a ride on commercial aircraft arriving from malaria-endemic regions. Fraport, the public company that operates Frankfurt Airport, announced Tuesday that the five remaining infected staff members are currently receiving targeted medical care for their infections.

    In a statement shared with the BBC, a Fraport spokesperson confirmed the fatality: “Sadly, we must confirm that one employee has died as a result of the infection.” The operator has since rolled out broad awareness campaigns for all on-site workers, advising anyone who develops malaria symptoms to seek immediate medical attention from a licensed provider. To contain the spread and identify the exact origin and species of the mosquitoes, authorities have deployed dozens of insect traps across airport grounds, with captured specimens set for laboratory analysis.

    The outbreak was first flagged to the public in July, when four cases were initially reported. Germany’s leading public health research and disease control body, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), later confirmed the four initial cases developed symptoms between July 4 and July 6, reiterating the assessment that infected mosquitoes arrived via aircraft. The institute notes that locally transmitted malaria at a German airport is an extremely rare event: nearly all malaria cases recorded in Germany occur in international travelers who picked up the parasite in high-risk tropical regions.

    In its epidemiological bulletin, the RKI warned that the absence of a recent international travel history among affected workers in this outbreak can lead to critical delays in diagnosis, which in turn raises the risk of severe, life-threatening progression of the disease. The institute also added that the last recorded case of airport-transmitted malaria in Germany occurred in 2023, also at Frankfurt Airport.

    The BBC has reached out to the Frankfurt Public Health Department, which is leading the ongoing investigation into the outbreak, for additional comment on containment efforts and new case tracking.

    According to the World Health Organization (WHO), malaria is a parasitic infection spread exclusively through the bite of specific Anopheles mosquito species, and it is most prevalent in tropical and subtropical climate zones. While the infection is both fully preventable and curable with appropriate medical intervention, it ranges in severity from mild, flu-like symptoms to fatal complications, and cannot spread directly from person to person.

  • Darline Graham wins primary to contest late brother’s US Senate seat

    Darline Graham wins primary to contest late brother’s US Senate seat

    In a high-stakes primary election that has underscored former President Donald Trump’s enduring hold over the U.S. Republican Party, South Carolina voters have tapped Darline Graham — the younger sister of late longtime Senator Lindsey Graham — as the party’s nominee for the November U.S. Senate general election. Graham, who has never before campaigned for public office, was appointed as an interim senator in July to finish out her brother’s term following his unexpected sudden death that month, and her successful bid for the permanent nomination came with robust, high-profile support from Trump, who traveled to the state to rally voters on her behalf.

    With vote counting nearly completed, CBS News — the U.S. partner of the BBC — projects Graham secured 52.5% of the Republican primary vote, beating out a challenge from hardline right-wing incumbent Congressman Ralph Norman. A fellow Trump ally who has supported the majority of the former president’s policy agenda, Norman attempted to frame Graham as a tool of establishment Washington insiders during the campaign. The head-to-head runoff was triggered after the two candidates finished as the top two vote-getters in an earlier crowded primary contest held earlier this month. Norman’s 2024 decision to initially back Nikki Haley, Trump’s rival for the Republican presidential nomination, is widely seen as having undermined his standing with party loyalists, opening a door for Trump’s endorsement to carry Graham to victory.

    Graham’s victory has already been interpreted by political observers as clear proof of Trump’s unbroken influence over the national Republican Party, even as the 2026 midterm elections enter their final stretch. Graham acknowledged her lack of traditional political experience during the primary campaign, a gap that became a central point of discussion after she stumbled while answering a foreign policy question during a televised debate. When pressed to outline the U.S. policy position on Taiwan, Graham admitted openly: “I’m not that informed on national security. National security is not my thing, not my area of expertise, but I do support the military.” Following her win, Graham took to the social platform X to share her reaction, thanking her supporters and Trump, and saying she was “deeply honoured and humbled” by the outcome of the vote.

    Political analysts widely predict Graham will win the November general election, noting that South Carolina has not elected a Democratic candidate to the U.S. Senate in more than 70 years, making the solidly red state unlikely to flip to Democrats this cycle. Beyond South Carolina, Tuesday’s primaries marked a key testing ground for Trump’s political clout in other Republican contests across the country. In Oklahoma, another deep red state, Trump-endorsed former state lawmaker Mike Mazzei faced off against incumbent state Attorney General Gentner Drummond for the Republican gubernatorial nomination; the winner of that contest is all but guaranteed to win the general election in November. For the national political landscape, the 2026 midterm elections as a whole will determine which party holds a majority in both chambers of the U.S. Congress, a balance of power that will shape the entire second half of Trump’s current presidential term.

    South Carolina was not the only state holding special elections on Tuesday to fill seats left vacant by sitting lawmakers’ deaths. In the Atlanta, Georgia area, voters cast ballots to replace Democratic Congressman David Scott, who died in office back in April. Scott’s daughter, Marcye Scott, joined the crowded field of candidates seeking to finish out the final months of his term, which ends in January. However, U.S. media projections show that she was defeated by opponent Everton Blair, who will serve out the remaining months of the term, with a new general election for a full two-year term set for November.

  • Man City complete £86m Bouaddi signing from Lille

    Man City complete £86m Bouaddi signing from Lille

    English Premier League powerhouse Manchester City has kicked off a major midfield overhaul with a blockbuster signing, securing Moroccan international Ayyoub Bouaddi from French Ligue 1 side Lille in an £85.6 million deal that makes the 18-year-old the most expensive teenager in Premier League history.

    Bouaddi has put pen to paper on a five-year contract with the club, with the transfer still waiting on formal international clearance to be finalized. The structure of the agreement sees Manchester City pay an initial £81.4 million upfront, with an additional £4.2 million tied to performance-based add-ons. The move comes just days after City offloaded two key first-team midfielders: fan-favorite Rodri, the 2024 Ballon d’Or winner, moved to Barcelona for £65 million, while Tijjani Reinders completed a £52 million switch to Saudi side Al-Qadsiah, clearing both salary cap space and a spot in the starting lineup for the teenage prospect.

    Bouaddi first caught the eye of top European scouts during this summer’s FIFA World Cup, where he started five of Morocco’s six matches as the North African side advanced to the tournament quarter-finals. Before his breakout international run, he had already cemented his status as a key starter for Lille in Ligue 1, emerging as one of the most promising young midfield talents in European football.

    “This is a very special day for me and my family,” Bouaddi told reporters after completing the move. “Manchester City are, for me, the best club in the world. It’s a dream to be here and be able to call myself a City player. I have spent most of my life working hard to become the best player I can be and reach the top of the game. I’ve watched City for many years, and I love their style of play. City always try and play quality football. And they have shown they are winners – this club feels like it was built to win.”

    The transfer fee for Bouaddi smashes the previous Premier League record for a teenager, which was set just last year when Manchester United signed another Lille young talent, French defender Leny Yoro, for £58.9 million. Bouaddi’s senior career trajectory has been nothing short of rapid: he made his first-team debut for Lille in 2023 at just 16 years old, becoming the youngest senior player in the club’s history when he took the pitch against Faroese side KI in a Europa League fixture. By 2024, he had announced himself to the global football community with a standout performance in Lille’s stunning Champions League victory over Real Madrid. Across two seasons with Lille, he made 96 first-team appearances and helped the club secure a third-place finish in Ligue 1 last season, earning eight international caps for Morocco along the way.

    Bouaddi is not the only new addition to City’s revamped midfield this transfer window. The club already completed a club-record £116 million signing of English international Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest earlier this summer. The two young talents are expected to complement each other perfectly: Bouaddi operates as a deep-lying playmaker who controls the tempo of matches from midfield, while Anderson is a dynamic box-to-box presence who can also fill the number six role for both club and country.

    Manchester City’s midfield rebuild is not yet complete, however. Club sources confirm the side is preparing a formal offer for Chelsea’s Argentine midfielder Enzo Fernandez, who is valued at £120 million by the London club, though it remains unclear whether the two sides can reach an agreement before the close of the transfer deadline on Tuesday.

    Bouaddi’s arrival is just the latest in a string of outgoing and incoming moves for City this week. Brazilian winger Savio (previously known as Savinho) completed a £75 million transfer to Tottenham Hotspur, while Tottenham have also agreed a loan deal for City’s Egyptian forward Omar Marmoush. Spanish midfielder Nico Gonzalez is also set to depart the Etihad Stadium, with Newcastle United having agreed an £85.6 million deal for his services.

    Speaking on the signing, BBC Manchester City reporter Shamoon Hafez noted that Bouaddi has big shoes to fill following Rodri’s departure, with the Spanish midfielder having cemented his status as one of the best holding midfielders in the world during his time at City. Unlike Rodri, who was already a proven elite talent when he joined the club, Bouaddi is signed for his unfulfilled potential, which places considerable pressure on the 18-year-old to adapt quickly to the pace and physicality of the Premier League. With Rodri, Reinders, Bernardo Silva, and soon Gonzalez all departing the City midfield this summer, Enzo Maresca’s side still needs additional depth to compete across all competitions this season. Now, with the 2025-26 Premier League season already underway, Bouaddi, Anderson, and any potential new signings will need to hit the ground running to integrate into City’s title-chasing squad.

  • Radiation link in flight attendant’s breast cancer, French court finds

    Radiation link in flight attendant’s breast cancer, French court finds

    In a groundbreaking legal decision that could reshape occupational health protections for aviation workers globally, a French court in Bayonne has become the first judicial body in the country to formally link cosmic radiation exposure to a flight attendant’s breast cancer, marking a historic turning point for aviation industry occupational safety.

    The case was brought by 59-year-old Sophie Lainault, a former Air France flight attendant who spent three decades in the air before retiring in 2019. Lainault, who is currently in remission from breast cancer, had petitioned the court to recognize her illness as an occupational disease caused by working conditions inherent to her role. The court’s ruling backed her claim, identifying cosmic radiation as one of three confirmed carcinogenic occupational hazards she faced during her career. The other two documented hazards are prolonged night shifts and chronic exposure to secondhand smoke, a common in-flight condition that persisted on Air France flights until smoking was banned on board in 2000.

    Over her 30-year career from 1989 to 2019, Lainault accumulated a total of 12,600 flight hours, with more than half of those logged on overnight routes. Many of her long-haul high-altitude trips out of Paris operated near the North Pole, a region where cosmic radiation exposure is far more intense than at lower latitudes. Unlike most locations on Earth, the North Pole receives weaker protection from the planet’s magnetic field, which normally deflects the energetic particles that make up cosmic radiation originating from the sun and distant stars.

    The implications of this ruling extend far beyond Lainault’s individual case. For the former flight attendant, the decision unlocks critical benefits: she will now be eligible for early retirement, and all future medical costs related to her cancer will be fully covered by France’s public health system. Legal experts note that the ruling also sets a binding precedent that clears the path for hundreds of other current and former aviation crew members to file similar claims seeking occupational disease recognition for radiation-linked cancers.

    Speaking after the decision, Lainault shared her hope that the ruling would empower other aviation workers to come forward. “My dearest wish is that the decision encourages other women who up until now have not had the courage to take this step,” she said.

    Her lawyer Elisabeth Leroux emphasized the uniqueness of the ruling, explaining that while France had previously recognized links between breast cancer and occupational hazards for workers such as nurses, this is the first time the connection has been formalized for a flight attendant.

    The decision aligns with newly published research from Harvard Medical School in the United States, which underscores the elevated cancer risk faced by aviation crews. A study released by the institution this month analyzed mortality data across more than 500 different professions, finding that flight attendants and pilots have the highest proportion of radiation-related cancer deaths among all occupational groups tracked. Researchers found that roughly 6.9% of all deaths among flight attendants and 6.7% of deaths among pilots are attributable to radiation-related cancers — proportions higher even than nuclear technologists, a profession routinely exposed to non-cosmic radiation, which ranked 12th on the list.

    While it has long been understood that high-altitude air travel exposes people to elevated levels of cosmic radiation, public health experts have long held that the cumulative exposure for occasional leisure travelers is too low to pose a statistically significant cancer risk. For crew members who spend hundreds of hours annually at high altitude, however, cumulative exposure adds up to a measurable long-term health hazard.

    In a statement following the ruling, Air France noted that it had not participated in Lainault’s legal proceedings and had not reviewed the full text of the court’s reasoning. The airline reaffirmed its commitment to employee well-being, saying, “The health and security of our staff is an absolute imperative. Every employee has a medical accompaniment that goes well beyond the regulatory minimum.”

  • Hundreds missing and at least 8 killed after avalanche triggers deadly flash floods in Nepal

    Hundreds missing and at least 8 killed after avalanche triggers deadly flash floods in Nepal

    A catastrophic natural disaster has struck northern Nepal, where a combined ice and rock avalanche unleashed devastating flash floods on Wednesday, leaving at least eight people dead, hundreds unaccounted for, and critical local infrastructure in ruins. Among the 384 people reported missing are 291 international tourists hailing from nations including India, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Malaysia, according to official government statements.

    The destructive floodwaters surged along the Bhotekoshi River starting around 9 a.m. local time, wiping out entire riverside villages, key travel routes, and large-scale hydropower projects along its path. In response to the crisis, Nepali authorities issued urgent evacuation and safety warnings to communities across multiple districts, urging residents to immediately relocate to higher ground away from the banks of the Bhotekoshi, Trishuli, and Narayani rivers, all at risk of dangerous surging waters.

    To bolster ongoing search and recovery operations, the Nepali government has formally requested international assistance from neighboring India and China, confirmed Sasmit Pokharel, a spokesperson for the national administration.

    The hardest-hit region, Rasuwa district, faced an almost identical disaster just 14 months prior, in August 2023. On that occasion, outburst flooding from a glacial lake in the adjacent Tibet Autonomous Region of China, driven by record high temperatures in the high Himalayas, killed nine people and destroyed critical cross-border infrastructure, including a key bridge connecting Nepal and China.

    Climate and disaster researchers based at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), a Kathmandu-based leading regional research institution, have pinpointed the cause of Wednesday’s disaster: a sudden avalanche breaking loose from a Nepal-based glacier. Experts explain that the avalanche deposited a massive block of ice and rock into the Lhende Khola River, a major tributary of the Bhotekoshi, temporarily damming the waterway before the accumulated pressure triggered a catastrophic sudden surge downstream that turned into the destructive flash flood. This marks the second major flood event on the Lhende Khola in just over a year, a striking increase in frequency for the region.

    Scientists warn that this disaster is far from an isolated event, and is directly tied to accelerating human-caused climate change heating the Hindu Kush Himalaya region far faster than the global average. This rapid warming has made the entire mountain range exponentially more vulnerable to extreme events including avalanches, outburst floods, landslides, and glacial melt events. Earlier research published by ICIMOD this year confirmed that glacial ice loss across the entire Hindu Kush Himalaya region has doubled since 2000, with rising global temperatures identified as the primary driver of the accelerating melt.

    “In a warming Himalaya, functional early warning systems are the first line of adaptation for at-risk communities,” said Saswata Sanyal, a disaster risk reduction specialist at ICIMOD, emphasizing the urgent need for improved preparedness as extreme weather events grow more frequent.

    This reporting is part of the Associated Press’ global climate and environmental coverage, which receives philanthropic funding from multiple private foundations, with the AP retaining full editorial control over all independent content.

  • Nepal floods at China border kill 8, cause ‘major casualties’ in Tibet

    Nepal floods at China border kill 8, cause ‘major casualties’ in Tibet

    A catastrophic flash flood and subsequent mudslide event along the shared Nepal-China border has left at least eight people dead in Nepal and caused “major casualties” on the Chinese side of the boundary, authorities confirmed Wednesday. The disaster, which unfolded in the Himalayan border region, has destroyed infrastructure, swept away homes and vehicles, and disrupted critical services across both sides of the frontier.

    Eyewitness accounts and visual evidence captured the devastating scale of the flood. Images released by Nepal Police show muddy floodwaters surging through river valleys, with only the top floors of submerged homes visible above the silt. Social media videos shared by law enforcement and local residents document torrents of brown water crashing through mountain valleys in Nuwakot, the Nepali district that forms the border with China’s Tibet Autonomous Region.

    “I witnessed the flood sweep away eight or nine trucks, along with houses and people,” 34-year-old local teacher Suman Chalise told AFP from Nuwakot. “It was absolutely heart-wrenching. I had not witnessed such devastation before.”

    As of Wednesday evening, Nepali police had recovered eight bodies, with search and rescue operations still ongoing across the affected zone. “So far, eight bodies have been found. Rescue operations are underway,” Nepal police spokesman Abi Narayan Kafle told AFP. Early in the response, authorities had already issued evacuation orders for communities located along the region’s riverbanks, as officials initially worked to assess the full extent of the damage.

    The Nepal Army has deployed helicopters and specialized disaster response teams to the hard-hit area to support search and recovery efforts. Critical energy infrastructure has also been heavily impacted: the Nepal Electricity Authority announced that approximately 430 megawatts of power generation capacity from hydropower and solar facilities was damaged by the flood. Floodwaters damaged generation stations, transmission lines and distribution networks, cutting electricity service to large parts of the affected region.

    Preliminary geoscientific assessments point to a natural geological trigger for the disaster originating on Nepali territory. Sarthak Shrestha, a remote sensing and geo-information analyst at the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), said initial surveys found no unusual activity on the Chinese side of the border. “We believe a rock-ice avalanche occurred in Nepal, blocking the Lhende river and causing the cascading flood event,” Shrestha explained.

    On the Chinese side of the border, the disaster triggered a major mudslide at Gyirong Port, a key trade hub connecting Tibet and Nepal. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported Wednesday that the mudslide originating on the Nepali side caused major casualties and multiple missing people at the port. AFP has not yet been able to independently verify the footage released by CCTV, which shows floodwaters carrying debris and tree branches across a submerged road.

    Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered full-scale rescue operations in the affected area of Tibet, according to Chinese state media. “The most urgent task is doing everything possible to search for and rescue the missing people… quickly treat injured people and minimise casualties to the greatest extent possible,” Xi stated, per CCTV. No official figures for deaths or injuries on the Chinese side have been released as of Wednesday. Local traffic authorities in Tibet’s Shigatse City have warned that roads in the area remain at high risk of additional mudslides and are unsafe for travel. This is not the first deadly disaster to strike the region: last July, 17 people went missing following a mudslide near Gyirong Port, according to official Chinese reports.

    The disaster comes amid annual monsoon season that spans from June to September across South Asia, a period that regularly brings deadly floods and landslides to the Himalayan region. Climate scientists have warned that human-caused climate change is increasing both the frequency and intensity of these extreme weather events across the Hindu Kush Himalaya region.

    Authorities are already warning of a second imminent flood threat. A blocked river channel remains upstream along the border river, and Qianggong Zhang, head of climate and environmental risks at ICIMOD, told AFP that a secondary flood event could occur in the coming days as response efforts continue.