Global Pulse

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  • Journalists run for cover as they report possible gunfire near White House

    Journalists run for cover as they report possible gunfire near White House

    A developing security incident has sent the White House press corps scrambling for cover Wednesday, after multiple journalists on site reported hearing what sounded like gunfire erupt near the presidential compound.

    Video captured by ABC News senior correspondent Selina Wang shows the journalist taking shelter amid a rapid series of loud bangs that echoed across the White House North Lawn. In a post on X following the incident, Wang confirmed that reporting teams were ordered to run immediately to the White House press briefing room, where they remained sheltered as authorities assessed the situation.

    As of the latest update, law enforcement officials have not confirmed the source of the reported gunshots, nor have they verified whether an active threat to the White House or those inside remains. The United States Secret Service, which is the federal agency tasked with protecting the president and the White House complex, confirmed in an official statement to CBS News — the U.S. partner of the BBC — that agents were responding to reports of shots fired at the intersection of 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, a block adjacent to the White House grounds.

    Spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi stated the agency was working alongside on-site personnel to cross-verify details of the reports. Visual footage from the scene captured by Agence France-Presse via Getty Images shows uniformed police officers sprinting across the area near the White House as the response unfolded. The BBC confirmed it had reached out to the Secret Service, White House officials, and local Washington D.C. police for additional comment and further details on the incident.

    This is an active breaking news story that is being updated in real time as new information becomes available from law enforcement and on-site correspondents. Readers can access instant updates on the incident via the BBC News mobile app for smartphones and tablets, or by following the official @BBCBreaking account on X for real-time alerts.

  • Venezuela’s Machado vows another run for presidency and eyes a return from exile by end of 2026

    Venezuela’s Machado vows another run for presidency and eyes a return from exile by end of 2026

    PANAMA CITY — In a meeting with fellow Venezuelan opposition figures held in Panama on Saturday, María Corina Machado, the exiled Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize recipient, made a major political declaration: she will once again seek the Venezuelan presidency, and plans to return to her home country before the close of 2026.

    Machado’s announcement arrives more than four months after a surprising policy shift from the White House, which set aside its previous backing for Machado to instead align with a loyalist from Venezuela’s ruling party following the U.S. military’s capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The opposition figure has lived outside Venezuela since last December, when she left 11 months of hiding within the country to travel to Norway to accept her Nobel Peace Prize.

    Speaking to reporters after the closed-door gathering, Machado emphasized that she and the assembled opposition leaders remain unified in their push for a peaceful democratic transition in Venezuela, a goal she said can only be achieved through “free and fair presidential elections, where all Venezuelans inside and outside the country vote.”

    Despite the opposition’s clear call for open elections, the timeline for a constitutional presidential vote remains murky. Under Venezuela’s constitution, a new election must be held within 30 days of a sitting president becoming permanently unable to serve. But the Trump administration has downplayed and delayed discussions of holding an immediate vote, as it has thrown its support behind Maduro’s successor, acting President Delcy Rodríguez.

    Rodríguez has drawn praise from U.S. President Donald Trump and top White House officials by opening Venezuela’s massive oil sector to expanded American investment at a moment when global oil prices are soaring, driven by ongoing conflict in Iran.

    Machado laid out a clear timeline for organizing a legitimate democratic vote, explaining that a properly run election with full democratic safeguards would require seven to nine months of preparatory work. Key preconditions she outlined include the installation of nonpartisan electoral oversight bodies, updates to national voter registration rolls, and guarantees that all opposition candidates can campaign and appear on the ballot without interference from the ruling government.

    Machado rose to prominence as Maduro’s most formidable political challenger in recent years. Ahead of Venezuela’s 2024 presidential election, Maduro’s government issued a ban barring Machado from running for office. In response, she tapped retired ambassador Edmundo González Urrutia to stand in as the opposition’s unity candidate.

    On election night, ruling party officials quickly declared Maduro the winner just hours after polls closed, a move that drew widespread international skepticism. But Machado’s well-coordinated campaign network collected and published independent vote tally evidence showing González had defeated Maduro by a more than 2-to-1 margin.

    On Saturday, Machado reaffirmed her commitment to open competition, saying she would face any other presidential candidate in what she called an “impeccable election.” “I will be a candidate, but there may be others, of course,” she told reporters. “I would love to compete with everyone, with anyone who wants to be a candidate.”

  • Job-creating businesses punished by CGT ‘productivity tax’, Professor Richard Holden says

    Job-creating businesses punished by CGT ‘productivity tax’, Professor Richard Holden says

    Australia’s upcoming changes to the capital gains tax (CGT) regime will disproportionately penalize high-growth, job-creating small businesses while rewarding stagnant, low-productivity firms, a leading Australian economist has warned. Richard Holden, a respected professor of economics at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), has slammed the reforms as a “productivity tax” implemented at the worst possible time, as the nation grapples with a prolonged national productivity crisis. “This is the worst possible plan for a country desperate for more jobs and faster economic growth,” Holden said in his analysis, released publicly on Sunday. “It’s a productivity tax dropped right in the middle of a productivity crisis. The perverse logic of this policy is that it punishes high-productivity businesses for succeeding, scaling up, and creating new work for Australians.”

    To illustrate the inequity of the new framework, Holden modeled the tax outcome for two hypothetical small cleaning businesses launched by a husband-and-wife pair, each started with the couple’s combined $450,000 life savings, and both sold after five years of operation. The first business follows a low-growth trajectory, expanding just 3% annually and adding no new employees beyond the four founding staff over its five years. When sold, the new CGT regime imposes an effective tax rate of 26.6% on the capital gain from the sale. The second business, by contrast, grows 15% each year, scales to six employees, and delivers far stronger output and profit. When sold at the same four-times-fifth-year-profit multiple as the slower-growing business, the effective CGT rate jumps to 41.2% — more than 55% higher than the tax paid by the low-growth enterprise.

    The reforms, passed as part of the federal government’s May 12 budget, will ax the 50% CGT discount introduced in 1999, replacing it with an inflation indexation model applied to all asset classes starting July 1, 2027. The change will apply to investment properties, shares, and privately held small businesses alike. Originally, the Albanese government planned to limit CGT reform solely to residential housing to address a well-documented generational divide in Australian home ownership, a gap that has been confirmed by multiple independent inquiries including a March Senate inquiry report. But just four weeks before budget day, the Department of the Treasury advised the government to extend the changes to all asset classes, a last-minute shift that has triggered sharp criticism from Holden.

    While the CGT changes are the most controversial element of the government’s broader “productivity package”, the budget included a suite of pro-business measures alongside the tax overhaul. Officials made the $20,000 small business instant asset write-off permanent, cut redundant data requests from financial regulators, streamlined national retail tenancy rules, and eliminated Australian Standards access fees for construction, occupational health and safety, and product safety businesses, a change expected to save eligible firms up to $1,600 annually. The budget also expanded tax incentives for venture capital investment and introduced a new loss refundability provision for businesses amending prior year tax returns. In total, the government projects the full productivity package will cut business costs by $10.2 billion per year across the country.

    Many independent analysts have acknowledged the positive elements of the broader package, even as they push back on the scale and impact of the CGT changes. Analysts from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia noted in their post-budget assessment that the red tape cutting and pro-productivity small business measures are welcome changes. Still, they warned that the full suite of reforms is not large enough to materially lift Australia’s long-term economic growth ceiling or resolve the capacity constraints that are currently contributing to persistent domestic inflation.

    Holden called the skewed incentives of the new CGT regime a “profound oversight” that runs directly counter to the government’s stated goal of boosting national productivity, which has averaged just 0.8% annual growth across the last two decades. “Two identical businesses, delivering the exact same service — one highly productive, the other unproductive — will now face vastly different effective capital gains tax rates,” he explained. “Both took a risk, built a business, employed people, and paid taxes, and both sold for the same multiple of annual profit. The only difference is that one business was more productive, and in return, its owners get punished with a tax rate 55% higher than their less productive competitors. Put simply, this new system punishes the businesses most likely to create jobs and grow the economy, and rewards those that are more likely to cut positions and stagnate.”

    Treasurer Jim Chalmers has defended the full package, arguing that the reforms deliver progress on 13 of the 17 priority productivity reform areas identified by the independent Productivity Commission. Making the instant asset write-off permanent will save small businesses 376,000 hours of unnecessary tax compliance work annually, Chalmers said, while cutting duplicative regulatory data requests will save businesses a combined $181 million per year.

  • France bans Ben Gvir after flotilla activists abuse video

    France bans Ben Gvir after flotilla activists abuse video

    A diplomatic storm has erupted across Europe after a widely circulated video exposed Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir overseeing the mistreatment of detained activists from a Gaza-bound humanitarian flotilla, prompting France to issue an entry ban on the senior official and throw its support behind EU-level sanctions.\n\nFrench Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot announced the measure Saturday in a post on X, framing the entry ban as a direct response to Ben Gvir’s “unacceptable conduct towards French and European citizens” during last week’s Israeli raid on the aid flotilla, which took place in international waters. Barrot clarified that while Paris does not endorse the activists’ mission to deliver humanitarian aid to blockaded Gaza, the harsh treatment the detainees received crosses a fundamental line. “We cannot tolerate French nationals being threatened, intimidated or subjected to violence in this way, especially by a public official,” he wrote. He added that Ben Gvir’s actions during the raid are only the latest in “a long series of shocking statements and actions, as well as incitement to hatred and violence against Palestinians.” Barrot also confirmed France backs an Italian call for the European Union to impose formal sanctions on the minister.\n\nThe incident that triggered the international backlash stems from last week’s Israeli naval intercept of the flotilla, which was carrying hundreds of activists attempting to deliver much-needed humanitarian aid to Gaza. Ben Gvir personally released a video of his presence during the detention of the activists, a move that made the incident unavoidable on the global diplomatic stage. The footage shows Ben Gvir waving an Israeli flag and taunting the detainees while Israeli security forces force hundreds of handcuffed activists to kneel with their faces to the ground.\n\nThe video has sparked widespread global condemnation, with multiple European governments summoning Israeli ambassadors to protest the treatment of their citizens. British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper called the captured scenes “totally disgraceful,” while Turkish officials accused Israel of demonstrating a “violent and barbaric mindset.”\n\nIn the aftermath of the raid, Israeli authorities detained more than 430 activists before deporting nearly all of them by Thursday, with only one Israeli citizen held. Multiple released activists have since come forward with detailed allegations of severe abuse, including torture and sexual assault, while in Israeli custody.\n\nItalian journalist Alessandro Mantovani, one of the deported activists, described his experience to reporters at Rome’s Fiumicino Airport: “We were taken to Ben Gurion airport in handcuffs and with chains on our feet and put on a flight to Athens.” He added that Israeli soldiers “beat us up… They kicked us and punched us and shouted ‘Welcome to Israel’.”\n\nMiriam Azem, a representative of the Israeli human rights organization Adalah, reported that one detainee “was forced to strip naked and run while guards were laughing.” Another female activist described being bound so tightly with handcuffs that she lost feeling in her hands, and recalled that Israeli soldiers “laughed all the time. Super sadistic. They took off my shirt, took pictures. Mistreated us all night long.”\n\nDr. Margaret Connolly, sister of Irish President Catherine Connolly and one of the detained activists, drew a sharp parallel while speaking to Ireland’s RTE Radio, saying the experience gave activists “a feeling of what the Jews felt like during the Second World War,” and that Israel was “now acting like a Nazi state.”

  • Peru’s Catholic Church holds a symbolic ceremony in apology for Indigenous land dispossession

    Peru’s Catholic Church holds a symbolic ceremony in apology for Indigenous land dispossession

    LIMA, Peru – Decades of unaddressed harm and land disputes came to a pivotal moment Saturday, when top Catholic leaders in Peru gathered with Indigenous Tallán people in the northern community of Catacaos to offer a formal, long-delayed apology for land dispossession carried out by the now-disbanded Sodalitium Christianae Vitae.

    Founded in 1971 as a conservative counter-movement to the left-leaning liberation theology that spread across Latin America in the 1960s, Sodalitium grew to become one of Peru’s most influential religious societies, boasting roughly 20,000 members across South America and the United States at its peak. But the organization’s reputation collapsed after decades of hidden misconduct came to light, leading to its full dissolution by the late Pope Francis in 2025. A sweeping Vatican investigation uncovered a pattern of severe abuses, including sexual exploitation by the group’s founder Luis Figari, systemic financial mismanagement by senior leadership, and widespread spiritual abuse against members.

    Calls for accountability first emerged in 2011, when former Sodalitium members submitted formal abuse allegations against Figari to the Archdiocese of Lima. For years, however, neither local church authorities nor the Holy See took meaningful action. It was not until 2015, when a survivor and an independent journalist published a book detailing the group’s wrongdoings, that pressure for a full investigation became impossible to ignore. After an unsuccessful internal reform attempt, Pope Francis dispatched two of his most trusted investigators – Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, who led Saturday’s ceremony, and Archbishop Charles Scicluna – to probe the claims. Their final report exposed a troubling culture of “sadistic,” sect-like abuse of power, misappropriation of church funds, and coordinated harassment of whistleblowers and critics.

    Saturday’s ceremony marked a long-overdue step toward repairing harm that extends far beyond internal religious abuse, to the displacement of Indigenous and rural communities in Catacaos. Land disputes between the Tallán people and Sodalitium-linked entities stretch back more than 10 years, after companies tied to the group launched legal eviction proceedings to seize thousands of hectares of land held by local farmers, through a series of property transfers that the community has never legally recognized. Dozens of local farmers were charged with criminal usurpation in the wake of the claims, and two community land rights leaders were shot and killed during violent clashes over the eviction efforts.

    Addressing a packed congregation of community members and church leaders, Bertomeu, the apostolic commissioner who oversaw Sodalitium’s dissolution, offered an unflinching acknowledgment of the church’s decades-long failure to act. “We are here to ask for your forgiveness in the name of the Church,” he said. “We are late. We should have come 20 years ago, and we are truly sorry. Forgive us, offer us your forgiveness, because we too need it.” Bertomeu also shared a message of solidarity the late Pope Francis sent to the Catacaos community in 2024, which read: “Fight for your lands, I am with you.”

    The historic ceremony comes months after the Peruvian Episcopal Conference confirmed that Pope Leo XIV is considering a visit to the South American nation before the end of the year. Tania Pariona, secretary of Peru’s National Human Rights Commission, framed the event as a groundbreaking step for accountability in the country. She noted that the church’s gesture puts it far ahead of Peru’s national government, which she said has repeatedly failed to uphold the land rights of rural and Indigenous communities. Describing Catacaos as a community still “fearful and broken” after decades of conflict, Bertomeu’s apology opens a new chapter in reckoning with the harm caused by one of Latin America’s most influential fallen Catholic organizations.

  • How the ‘Netflix effect’ is hampering a generation’s Australian dream

    How the ‘Netflix effect’ is hampering a generation’s Australian dream

    For generations, the Great Australian Dream – owning a fully paid-off home by retirement – stood as a defining life goal for working people across the country. Once widely achievable for most households, this long-held ambition has grown increasingly out of reach for younger generations today, driven by a toxic mix of skyrocketing property values and a shifting cultural attitude toward consumption and instant access that financial experts have dubbed the “Netflix effect.”

    Unlike the structural economic pressure of housing costs that have outstripped real wage growth for decades, the Netflix effect describes a broader cultural shift away from delayed gratification, a core value that allowed previous generations to slowly build wealth and save for a down payment on a home. Today’s young people, raised in an on-demand economy defined by streaming services like Netflix, ride-hailing apps such as Uber, and constant instant digital access, have grown accustomed to getting what they want immediately – a mindset that financial industry leaders argue is spilling over into long-term financial planning.

    Adelaide-based mortgage expert Marissa Schulze, founder of High Rise Financial Solutions, explains that the generational gap in expectation traces directly to this cultural shift. “When older generations were growing up, they had to wait for things – whether that was waiting until next week for the next episode of their favourite sitcom. They come to learn that good things come to those who wait,” Schulze said. “But nowadays, people are so much more use to having things now and at their convenience, through things like Uber and Netflix.”

    This constant access to instant satisfaction, she added, has eroded young people’s intuitive understanding of the value of long-term saving, making it far harder for many to set aside the funds needed for a property down payment. Even so, Schulze stressed that the Australian dream is not dead – just harder to reach than it was for previous generations. “It certainly is a lot harder for young people to save for a deposit, that is the big part, but it is still possible,” she noted. “I think maybe young people as a result of changing ideas and values do perhaps have less realistic expectations for what they want in a first home and so are less prepared to have a home as a first step then trade up. But I do also think there is a greater need to be more disciplined about saving, and lots of young people are.”

    That assessment is echoed by Sean Lee, director of Finance Quarter, who argues that the “want it now” mindset that defines modern culture comes with a tangible long-term cost. Lee points to social media as a key amplifier of this attitude, encouraging young people to take on debt for discretionary purchases ranging from new cars to international vacations just because they can qualify for borrowing. Small recurring costs, from multiple streaming subscriptions to monthly gym memberships, also add up over time, eating into funds that could otherwise go toward a housing deposit.

    “Social media in particular has created a culture where we want things now – so people may borrow for a new car or a holiday just because they can,” Lee explained. “This type of lifestyle makes it far more difficult to save up for a deposit. Things like subscription services and gym memberships do not sound a lot, but it does all add up. We have a ‘want it now’ society, but that does come at a price.”

    Like Schulze, Lee confirms that the dream remains achievable, but it looks different today than it did for older generations. It requires far more intentional financial planning, and is particularly challenging for single buyers, he said, adding that improved financial literacy education would go a long way to helping young people reach their goals. He also acknowledged that structural economic factors play a major role: in many parts of Australia, property prices have jumped 50% to 100% over just the past five years, a surge that average wage growth has nowhere near kept up with.

    Veteran financial advisor Peter White of the Financial Brokers Association of Australia, who has worked with first-time home buyers for 47 years, said saving for a deposit has always been challenging, even for previous generations. The biggest difference today, he argues, is the soaring cost of everyday living that leaves less disposable income for saving. To make the dream work, modern first-time buyers must be willing to compromise on location and size, he said.

    “It may be that you have to come to terms with not being able to buy in the same area as your mum and dad – you may have to move to a different suburb or something smaller,” White said. “Saving in the modern world is quite different to what it once was and it is a lot harder to do – and there’s always something that makes it harder. I do think we’ve become a bit more relaxed and prefer to have things the easy way than the hard.”

    His top advice for aspiring homeowners? Set realistic expectations, start saving immediately, and be prepared to make short-term sacrifices, such as taking on extra work to build up funds. He also reminds buyers to account for extra closing costs that can add up to roughly 5% of a home’s purchase price on top of the down payment.

    Ben Kingsley, managing director of Empower Wealth, echoes the call for adjusted expectations, emphasizing that younger buyers should not expect to purchase their ideal forever home as their first property. Instead, he encourages buyers to get on the property ladder with a more affordable entry-level home, then build equity to trade up to a larger or more desirable property later in life. That first step is particularly challenging for buyers who want to settle in major Australian capital cities, where prices have risen fastest, he noted.

    “Getting that deposit is definitely getting harder and harder,” Kingsley said. “However, if you trade down your expectations, you also trade down the size of the deposit you need and then have your first step. What you are finding is that people are coming into home ownership later in life. A big question is whether there is any sense of delayed gratification nowadays? The truth is, if you want the dream to become a reality, you are going to have to be prepared to buckle down.”

  • ‘I feel like I lost my life’: Gaza amputees fight for mobility amid shortages

    ‘I feel like I lost my life’: Gaza amputees fight for mobility amid shortages

    It was just after 10 p.m. on November 19, 2023, when 24-year-old Rozan Kheira was jolted awake from sleep by the roar of explosions, frantic screams, and widespread panic that tore through her family’s Gaza City home. An Israeli air strike had reduced the building around her to rubble before she could even register what was happening.

    When Kheira tried to scramble out of bed, her legs gave out immediately. She pushed herself up a second time, only to collapse again. Glancing down, she discovered a pool of blood spreading across the floor beneath her; her foot had been severed in the blast, held to her leg only by a thin strip of skin.

    “I had just woken up and couldn’t comprehend what was happening,” Kheira recalled in an interview with Middle East Eye. “At that moment, I forgot we were even at war.” Stuck frozen in shock, she waited helpless until her brother carried her out of the destroyed home. That single night would forever alter the trajectory of her life.

    In the wake of Israel’s military campaign that has destroyed Gaza’s hospitals, killed thousands of medical workers, and enforced a total blockade on fuel and life-saving medicine entering the enclave, injuries that would be easily treatable in any other context have become permanent, life-altering disabilities — and in thousands of cases, fatal. Kheira was rushed to Gaza’s Indonesian Hospital, where after hours of uncontrolled bleeding, surgeons were forced to fully amputate her leg.

    In the two years since the strike, Kheira has lived her life confined to a wheelchair, repeatedly displaced by advancing ground operations and unable to access even the most basic medical care. “I was in excruciating pain, and painkillers were unavailable in northern Gaza because of the Israeli siege,” she said. Even after the October ceasefire, which the international community heralded as a step toward easing humanitarian conditions for Gaza’s 2.2 million residents, little has changed for injured civilians like Kheira.

    Desperate to regain even a measure of independence, Kheira began a months-long search for a properly fitted prosthetic limb. When her family was forced to flee to Khan Younis in southern Gaza last June, she received her first prosthetic — but the device quickly proved unusable. “The prosthetic leg was extremely heavy, weighing five kilograms. It didn’t match my body and made my suffering worse instead of easing it,” she explained. After the ceasefire allowed her to return to Gaza City, the Artificial Limbs and Polio Centre fitted her with a second device, which was also far too heavy for her to use.

    Undeterred, Kheira set out on foot to Hamad Hospital for Rehabilitation and Prosthetics in northern Gaza’s Sudaniya district, a journey of more than six kilometers she completed on a single leg because no transport was available to her. After multiple medical assessments, she finally received a third prosthetic. Still, her struggles are far from over: the device only meets 30 percent of her medical needs, but it is the only option available to her amid Gaza’s catastrophic shortage of medical equipment. Doctors have warned her against walking on the ill-fitted limb, but Kheira has no other choice.

    Even the ongoing rehabilitation and maintenance she requires to use the prosthetic adds to her daily hardship. “I need weekly maintenance at Hamad Hospital, which means long walks on one leg just to get there,” she said. “There are no vehicles, not even donkey carts. Transport is scarce and extremely expensive.” This mobility crisis is not unique to Kheira: ongoing Israeli restrictions on fuel entering Gaza — a direct violation of the ceasefire agreement — combined with the destruction of 70 percent of Gaza’s civilian transport infrastructure, have left the entire enclave unable to move freely, cutting injured civilians off from life-saving care.

    The U.S.-backed October ceasefire was intended to end Israel’s military campaign and blockade, and allow unimpeded access for aid, medicine, and rehabilitation supplies to enter Gaza. But in practice, Israel has largely maintained its total blockade, permitting only a tiny fraction of the required aid into the territory, leaving fuel, food, and medical supplies at critically low levels. Air strikes and artillery shelling have also continued across the enclave, killing more than 800 people since the ceasefire was announced. In total, Israeli forces have killed more than 72,700 Palestinians in Gaza since October 2023, and wounded more than 172,000 others.

    According to data from the World Health Organization, roughly 43,000 Palestinians have sustained permanent, life-altering injuries during the current conflict, including around 10,000 children. While a small fraction of these injured people, like Kheira, have managed to secure basic, ill-fitted prosthetics, thousands more with upper-limb injuries have been left with no access to any assistive device at all.

    One of those people is 32-year-old Abdelsalam al-Bardawil, who lost his left hand in an Israeli strike that destroyed his Gaza City home, killing his mother and brother and injuring the rest of his family. “My hand could have been saved, but because hospitals were out of service, it was amputated,” al-Bardawil told Middle East Eye. “I didn’t receive physical therapy, and painkillers weren’t available. I remember jumping from the intense pain.”

    After being displaced to Deir al-Balah in southern Gaza, al-Bardawil traveled to the Jordanian Field Hospital in Khan Younis, where he was fitted with a prosthetic hand. But he was forced to remove it shortly after, because the device was heavy, rigid, and purely cosmetic, completely unable to assist him with daily tasks. He later reached out to the Red Crescent in Deir al-Balah and other humanitarian organizations, but received the same answer every time: no upper-limb prosthetics are available in Gaza.

    Unable to work or provide for himself, al-Bardawil now relies entirely on humanitarian aid to survive. “What saddens me most is my inability to work,” he said. “It forces me to depend on assistance.” He also struggles to access mental health care and pain treatment, with transport shortages making even routine clinic visits nearly impossible. “The problem isn’t just therapy,” he said. “I can’t reach clinics for medication or depression treatment.” The loss of his mother, who he turned to for help without shame, has left even small daily tasks a source of embarrassment and struggle. “The only person I could ask for help without shame was my mother,” he said. “Now I feel embarrassed asking my sister or relatives.”

    Al-Bardawil has received an official referral for life-saving treatment outside of Gaza, but like thousands of other injured Palestinians, he remains trapped on a waiting list, blocked by frequent closures and strict Israeli restrictions at Gaza’s border crossings. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, more than 20,000 patients are currently waiting for approval to leave Gaza for treatment abroad, with access repeatedly delayed or blocked entirely by Israeli officials.

    While Gaza’s local hospitals and rehabilitation centers have attempted to ramp up domestic production of prosthetics to meet the growing need, officials say they are completely overwhelmed by the unprecedented scale of casualties. Hosni Muhanna, media officer at the Gaza Municipality’s Artificial Limbs and Polio Centre, told Middle East Eye that registered amputations have reached roughly 6,000 since the start of the war, per joint data from the Palestinian Ministry of Health and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

    “This unprecedented figure reflects the massive scale of the humanitarian and health catastrophe,” Muhanna said. The centre relies on a small local workshop to produce prosthetics in-house, but a total ban on essential raw materials entering Gaza has crippled production capacity, particularly for upper-limb devices. “The ban on essential supplies since the start of the war has crippled production, particularly for upper-limb prosthetics, as raw materials have not been allowed in,” he explained.

    The blockade has created acute shortages of every type of prosthetic component and assistive device, leaving long waiting lists that grow longer every day as new amputations are recorded amid ongoing attacks. “Fitting a limb requires medical assessment, physiotherapy to prepare the muscles, and a full rehabilitation programme to train patients and restore independence,” Muhanna said. But many patients cannot complete these critical steps due to repeated displacement, transport shortages, and the total destruction of Gaza’s health infrastructure.

    Back at his displacement camp in Deir al-Balah, al-Bardawil continues to wait for a call that will allow him to leave Gaza for the treatment he needs to rebuild his life. “I feel like my life is completely on hold,” he said. “I didn’t just lose my hand. I feel like I lost my life.”

  • Intrigue over Barcelona great Putellas’ next move amid interest from Kang’s club in London

    Intrigue over Barcelona great Putellas’ next move amid interest from Kang’s club in London

    OSLO, Norway – In a moment heavy with unspoken questions about her future, Barcelona’s iconic captain Alexia Putellas walked to collect the Women’s Champions League trophy on Saturday, and a brief, loaded interaction with the owner of title runners-up OL Reign and London City Lionesses Michele Kang has amplified widespread transfer rumors linking the two-time Ballon d’Or winner to a surprise new club.

    As Putellas made her way along the official receiving line toward the silver trophy, she passed Kang, the high-profile American investor who has rapidly emerged as one of the most significant backers of women’s professional soccer across the globe. Multiple reports from football outlets in England and Spain have claimed Kang is on the cusp of adding Putellas to her portfolio of European clubs, with the fast-rising London City Lionesses, the second-tier English side Kang owns, heavily tipped to pull off a transformative blockbuster signing that would shake up women’s football.

    Widely regarded as the greatest women’s player of her generation, Putellas is set to become a free agent when her current 14-year tenure at Barcelona expires next month. Over her career with the Catalan giants, she has lifted four Champions League titles, 10 Spanish league crowns, and claimed two back-to-back Ballons d’Or in recognition of her status as the world’s best player.

    Speculation that her time at the club is drawing to a close has been building for months, fueled by a January visit Putellas made to watch a London City Lionesses match in person, and amplified by her emotional exit from the pitch after Saturday’s final. When a Catalunya Radio reporter asked when the world would learn her plans for next season, Putellas offered only a teasing, noncommittal response: “You will all see.”

    The 32-year-old Spanish star remained tight-lipped about her future when speaking to reporters on the confetti-strewn pitch after the win, even as she acknowledged her emotional state. Speaking to Disney+ broadcaster with visible tears in her eyes, Putellas said, “I don’t look it, or people don’t believe it, but I am a sensitive person.” She declined to address any off-field contract talks, emphasizing that the moment was reserved for celebrating her team’s hard-won triumph.

    “Today we have to be present, to savor this moment, because it is so difficult to get here,” she said. “It is a day to be proud of this team and all we have done over the years.” As her teammates celebrated around her, with the trophy at their feet and glittering confetti covering the turf, Putellas joined in a rousing performance of the Barcelona club anthem, calling out the iconic “Barca! Barca! Barca!” crescendo alongside the rest of the squad.

    Barcelona club official Rafa Yuste also declined to comment on Putellas’ future when pressed by reporters immediately after the final. Though Barcelona have two remaining Spanish league matches to play next week, the title is already secured, marking Putellas’ 10th domestic league trophy with the club.

    Before the trophy presentation, Kang, who had just watched her OL Reign side fall 2-0 to Barcelona in the final, was spotted warmly consoling retiring American midfielder Lindsey Heaps, who confirmed she will return to the United States to join the upcoming NWSL expansion side Denver Summit. Kang applauded graciously as the Barcelona team stepped forward to collect their medals and trophy, before leaving the celebratory pitch to Putellas and her champion teammates after the ceremony, with an aide handing her dark sunglasses before she exited the stadium.

    AP writer Joseph Wilson contributed reporting from Barcelona.

  • Quiet Chinese county hit by deadly coal mine disaster

    Quiet Chinese county hit by deadly coal mine disaster

    The quiet rural county of Qinyuan in northern China’s Shanxi province, a region dotted with underground coal mines that have long been the economic backbone of the area, has been shattered by one of the deadliest industrial accidents in the country’s recent history. On the evening of Friday, May 22, 2026, a violent gas explosion ripped through the Liushenyu coal mine at 7:29 pm local time, when 247 miners were working deep below the surface. As of Saturday, official state media reports confirm at least 82 workers have been killed, with two miners still unaccounted for and search and rescue operations ongoing. A total of 128 injured workers have been transported to local hospitals for treatment, making this the deadliest coal mining disaster China has seen in 17 years.

    Preliminary investigations released by state outlets have already flagged severe regulatory violations by the company that operates the mine, raising urgent new questions about workplace safety enforcement in China’s $2 trillion coal industry. For residents of Qinyuan, a quiet county where mining is the primary source of employment for most working-age men, the grief of the disaster is deeply personal.

    Zhang, a local restaurant owner who runs a popular grilled meat skewer shop frequently visited by off-duty miners, especially on payday, told AFP the tragedy has left the tight-knit community reeling. “This is the first time such a big accident has happened here,” she said, speaking on condition of only releasing her surname. Most of the killed miners were the sole breadwinners for their families, she explained, balancing the financial burden of aging parents and young children. “He works in the coal mine, goes down the shaft and never comes back up. How are they supposed to go on living?” Zhang asked.

    When AFP journalists visited the area Saturday, access to the mine site was tightly restricted. Local law enforcement blocked all public roads leading to the Liushenyu facility, with security personnel posted at major road intersections only allowing authorized emergency and official vehicles to pass. Though the lit signage for the mine was visible from a distance, on-site security staff declined to comment on the status of rescue operations, saying they were not authorized to release information. One guard did confirm he had worked through the entire night without sleep, responding to the steady stream of emergency personnel responding to the blast.

    Local business owners near the mine site expressed a mix of grief, resignation, and caution when speaking to reporters. At a nearby gas station, staff declined to comment on the disaster, saying they were not aware of the full details and could not speak on the record. One worker did, however, share his quiet hope that the final death toll would not climb higher. At a neighboring Sichuan restaurant popular with miners, a staff member named Li said he had watched dozens of ambulances rush past his shop in the hours after the blast, and while he was shocked by the scale of the accident, he echoed a common sentiment among locals who have grown up around mining work. “Working in a coal mine, this kind of accident is inevitable,” he said, adding that he still holds out hope the two missing miners will be found alive.

    Hospitals that received injured survivors were also cordoned off with police tape, with multiple law enforcement vehicles stationed around their perimeters to control access. In a grim irony, an electronic display outside one local Qinyuan mine greets entering workers with the slogan: “Go to work happy, go home safely.”

    Zhang, who continues to run her small restaurant as the community grapples with loss, holds the same simple wish for the missing: that they will be brought out alive. Even though mining work pays better than most local jobs, she lamented, miners are essentially “earning money with their lives at risk.” Each life lost leaves a hole across multiple generations, she pointed out: “He is also someone’s son, someone’s father, someone’s husband.” Zhang called on national and local authorities to ramp up safety inspections, enforce existing regulations, and do everything possible to prevent similar tragedies from devastating other mining communities in the future.

  • Pajor, Paralluelo star as Barcelona thrash Lyon to win Women’s Champions League

    Pajor, Paralluelo star as Barcelona thrash Lyon to win Women’s Champions League

    In a display of overwhelming dominance that cemented their status as the new powerhouse of European women’s football, FC Barcelona demolished eight-time champions Olympique Lyonnais 4-0 in Saturday’s UEFA Women’s Champions League final at Oslo’s Ullevaal Stadion, with braces from Polish striker Ewa Pajor and Spanish star Salma Paralluelo delivering a historic fourth continental crown for the Catalan side.

    The first half remained deadlocked, with both sides trading near-misses that kept the capacity crowd of 24,258 on edge. Lyon thought they had snatched an early lead when Lindsey Heaps found the back of the net, but a VAR review ruled out the goal for offside. Minutes later, a defensive miscommunication between Lyon centre-back Wendie Renard and goalkeeper Christiane Endler gave Pajor an early lob opportunity from outside the box, but her effort clipped the side-netting. Barcelona keeper Cata Coll preserved the stalemate right before halftime, pulling off a sharp save to deny Selma Bacha’s well-struck free kick, sending the sides into the break goalless.

    The match flipped entirely just 10 minutes into the second half, when Patri Guijarro carved open Lyon’s defense with a surging run through the midfield and slotted a pass to Pajor, who controlled the ball, steadied herself, and fired home the opening goal to break the deadlock. For Pajor, the goal carried extra weight: she had fallen on the losing side in five previous Champions League finals, four with former club VfL Wolfsburg and one with Barcelona last season’s 1-0 defeat to Arsenal in Lisbon. She doubled her tally and Barcelona’s lead in the 69th minute, when Paralluelo cut a pass back from the byline to leave Pajor with a simple finish, putting the game firmly out of Lyon’s reach.

    As Lyon’s defense collapsed in the final stages, Paralluelo, a World Cup winner with Spain in 2023, put the icing on the cake with two late goals. Her spectacular rising strike in the 90th minute stood as the pick of the night’s finishes, before she added a second in stoppage time to cap the 4-0 rout. The lopsided result laid bare a growing gap between the two most successful clubs in women’s Champions League history, marking a clear shift in the balance of power over the last six seasons.

    Barcelona’s victory marks their fourth Champions League title in the last six seasons, a run that has seen them overtake Lyon as the sport’s current dominant force — only Lyon, with eight total titles, hold more wins in the competition’s history. The triumph also completes a domestic and continental clean sweep for Barcelona, which already claimed all major Spanish domestic honours this season. The Catalans were even able to welcome back reigning Ballon d’Or winner Aitana Bonmati from a broken leg, bringing her on as a second-half substitute to cap her comeback.

    “Finishing the season like this, it’s amazing,” Bonmati said after the match. “I’m so happy because it has been a tough one for me, different for me. I have learned a lot also, but ending the season and having the opportunity to play a little bit and helping the team, for me, I’m so happy.”

    Saturday’s final marked Barcelona’s sixth consecutive Champions League final appearance, and their seventh in eight seasons. They previously beat Lyon 2-0 in the 2024 final, and Saturday’s match was the fourth time the two sides have met in the showpiece. Lyon had taken the title in their two previous final meetings, winning in 2019 during their run of five consecutive titles and again in 2022, but Saturday’s defeat extends their drought to one title in the last six editions of the competition.

    Lyon’s star striker Ada Hegerberg, the competition’s all-time leading scorer and a former Ballon d’Or winner playing in her home country of Norway, failed to recapture her 2019 and 2022 final form that saw her score hat-tricks in both wins, cutting a muted figure all night. A one-on-one chance for Tabitha Chawinga that was saved by Coll summed up Lyon’s underwhelming performance, with former Barcelona defender Ingrid Engen summarizing the night for her side after the final whistle.

    “We really wanted to have the first goal of the game. We didn’t get that, and in the second half, they are so dangerous in the transitions, so when they get the first goal it makes it difficult, because the dynamic changes,” Engen said.

    Barcelona captain Alexia Putellas, a two-time Ballon d’Or winner, wore the armband on Saturday in what many speculate could be her final appearance for the club, with her contract set to expire this summer. For Lyon, the team must quickly reset, as they face a decisive French league title match against Paris FC next weekend, coming off a semi-final upset over defending champions Arsenal that set up Saturday’s final clash.