Global Pulse

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  • Houthi missile attacks kill 58 Saudi-backed Yemeni govt forces: source

    Houthi missile attacks kill 58 Saudi-backed Yemeni govt forces: source

    A devastating wave of missile and drone strikes carried out by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen has claimed the lives of at least 58 troops aligned with the Saudi-backed internationally recognized government, marking one of the deadliest single days of conflict in the country’s civil war in four years, a senior military source confirmed Thursday.

    The lethal assault comes as Yemen is increasingly drawn into the expanding regional conflict centered on escalating tensions between the US-Israeli bloc and Iran, with Houthi forces ramping up attacks on both Yemeni government positions and neighboring Saudi Arabia, a key American ally and primary backer of Yemen’s official administration.

    Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree stated that the strikes targeted government military outposts in retaliation for what the rebels claim is a Saudi-backed military buildup by government forces in contested regions. Initial casualty reports from medical sources had put the death toll at 38, but an updated figure from an anonymous military source confirmed 58 troops killed, with dozens more wounded.

    A senior military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, noted that Thursday’s coordinated attacks on multiple military camps represent the worst single loss of life for government forces since 2022. Yemen’s defense ministry issued a brief statement following the strikes, affirming that the country’s armed forces would respond to the assault “at the appropriate place and time.”

    The escalation of violence spilled across Yemen’s northern border into Saudi Arabia on Thursday, with Saudi officials confirming that Houthi cross-border attacks wounded 11 civilians in the southern Saudi region of Najran. Coalition spokesperson Major General Turki al-Malki told the official Saudi Press Agency that the wounded casualties included seven Saudi citizens, one Yemeni, two Egyptians, and one Pakistani national.

    Saudi Arabia has led a regional military coalition supporting Yemen’s government against Houthi forces since the conflict escalated in 2015. Al-Malki condemned the rebels for carrying out “indiscriminate shelling against civilian objects” and reaffirmed that coalition forces would continue all necessary measures to protect civilian populations on both sides of the border.

    Houthi forces have significantly increased provocations against Saudi Arabia over the past month, amplifying regional chaos that followed the eruption of open US-Iran hostilities in late February. The coordinated strikes Thursday hit three key government positions: a major military camp in the al-Ruwaik district of Yemen’s central Marib province, and two additional camps in the Al-Abr and Al-Wadiah areas of Hadramawt governorate, located near the Saudi border.

    One of the deadliest single strikes hit troops during their morning formation at the Marib province camp, leaving “at least 45 personnel killed and wounded,” according to a military source who requested anonymity for security reasons. Saree confirmed Al-Ruwaik, al-Thaniyah, and al-Abr as targeted locations, and warned that Houthi forces remain “prepared to confront any escalation” from government and coalition forces.

    Yemen has been mired in full-scale conflict for more than a decade, after Houthi forces seized the capital Sanaa and much of the country’s populous northern region in 2014, forcing the internationally recognized government into exile and later into control of most of southern Yemen. The conflict, which has already killed hundreds of thousands of people through direct fighting and humanitarian crisis, created what the United Nations has long called the world’s worst humanitarian disaster.

    A UN-negotiated truce brokered in 2022 largely froze frontline fighting, and the truce agreement broadly held even after its official expiration. That fragile calm collapsed last month, however, as Houthi forces allowed an Iranian plane to land directly in Sanaa in a move that violated truce terms, triggering escalating tit-for-tat strikes. The rebels later announced a self-declared maritime blockade of Saudi ports and began attacking Saudi commercial tankers. Just last month, Houthi strikes killed 16 government-aligned troops south of the strategic port city of Hodeidah, two medical officials confirmed to AFP.

  • South Africa coach Erasmus wary of struggling Argentina

    South Africa coach Erasmus wary of struggling Argentina

    As world rugby champions South Africa prepare to face Argentina in a one-off Test in Buenos Aires this Saturday, Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus has warned his squad against underestimating their opponents, dismissing the idea that the match is a mere warm-up ahead of their upcoming series against New Zealand.

    Erasmus, the mastermind behind South Africa’s back-to-back Rugby World Cup titles in 2019 and 2023, stressed that the Pumas, despite their inconsistent results in the recent Nations Championship, will pose a bruising, high-stakes test for his side in the iconic Estadio Jose Amalfitani. “Argentina are a quality outfit and we are preparing for a physical and gruelling battle,” Erasmus told reporters ahead of the clash. “They are a well coached team who have tested us in the last few years, so it will be a good challenge for us. They gave us one of the biggest hidings we have suffered since I became involved with the Springboks in 2018.”

    The lead-up to the match has been marked by mixed results for Argentina in the inaugural Nations Championship. The Pumas secured a solid win over Wales but fell to Scotland and England in a controversial, ill-tempered closing clash. In that match, Argentina thought they had scored a late game-tying try, only for referee Angus Gardner to disallow the score following a lengthy VAR review. The call sparked an angry reaction from Pumas fly-half Tomas Albornoz, who had to be restrained by teammates and staff while confronting the official. Albornoz has since received a four-match suspension, ruling him out of Saturday’s clash against the Springboks.

    Even with the absence of their star playmaker and primary goal-kicker, Erasmus said he has not eased off preparation for the match, rejecting growing narratives that the game is a warm-up for South Africa’s four-Test home series against New Zealand, set to kick off on August 22. “This match was not planned with that reason in mind — it was always about honouring our relationship with Argentina,” he insisted. This year, the annual Rugby Championship, which traditionally includes two regular matchups between the Springboks and Pumas, has been canceled to accommodate the All Blacks tour schedule.

    South Africa has named an experimental starting XV for the Test, with only five players penciled in as probable starters for the opening New Zealand clash. The match marks the long-awaited return of several key stars from injury, including fly-half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, locks Eben Etzebeth and Lood de Jager, and captain and flanker Siya Kolisi. Only two players from the Springboks’ dominant 43-0 win over Wales in Durban retain their starting spots: full-back Aphelele Fassi and scrum-half Cobus Reinach.

    For Argentina, head coach Felipe Contepomi has handed a starting Test debut to tighthead prop Francisco Moreno. Three other players — hooker Leonel Oviedo, and back-rowers Juan Penoucos and Juan Martin Scelzo — are in line to earn their first international caps if they come off the substitutes bench on Saturday. English referee Christophe Ridley has been named to officiate the cross-hemisphere clash.

  • Meta ordered to pay US state $567 mn to abate ‘public nuisance’ and child harm

    Meta ordered to pay US state $567 mn to abate ‘public nuisance’ and child harm

    In a landmark ruling that adds to growing legal pressure on social media platforms over youth safety, a New Mexico judge has ordered tech giant Meta to pay $567 million in penalties and remediation funds to resolve claims that the company created a public nuisance and inflicted widespread harm on children across the state. The decision marks a major escalation of a legal battle that first reached a jury verdict earlier this year, and it sets a clear precedent for dozens of similar pending cases against the company across the United States.

    The case dates back to 2023, when New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez filed a lawsuit against Meta, the parent company of major platforms Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, accusing the firm of systemic failures to protect minor users from a range of online dangers. In March 2025, a jury already found Meta liable for endangering children, including leaving young users vulnerable to predation, and awarded $375 million in damages to the state. Thursday’s ruling finalizes additional penalties and outlines required changes to Meta’s platform operations in the state.

    Prosecutors argued during the trial that Meta’s recommendation algorithms actively steered adult users toward content posted by teenage users, while the company intentionally suppressed internal research that documented significant mental health and safety risks that its platforms posed to young people. The jury ultimately agreed that Meta violated New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act by misleading consumers about the child safety standards of its products.

    Under the terms of the new ruling, roughly three-quarters of the $567 million payment will be allocated to fund long-term mental health treatment for children harmed by Meta’s platforms, with the full amount paid out over a five-year period. The remaining quarter of the fund will be distributed across targeted programs: public awareness and harm prevention, youth mental health screening and assessment, care referral and coordination, and ongoing compliance implementation and evaluation.

    Beyond financial penalties, the judge imposed sweeping operational changes on Meta for its New Mexico user base. The company is required to strengthen efforts to block users under the age of 13 from accessing Facebook and Instagram, a mandate that aligns with growing global regulatory momentum for age verification on social platforms, even as implementation of such policies remains technically and logistically complex.

    In his written ruling, Judge Bryan Biedscheid emphasized that adolescent brains are uniquely susceptible to the addictive platform features designed to maximize user engagement, including infinite scrolling, autoplay video, public like counts, push notifications and algorithmic content recommendations. While the ruling acknowledged that many of these design choices represent industry-wide practices that intersect with complex free speech debates, it ordered Meta to implement targeted restrictions for users under 18 in New Mexico: limiting monthly platform usage to 90 hours (an average of three hours per day), capping push notifications, and hiding public like counts from minor user accounts. Meta will also be required to submit bi-annual compliance updates to the court to ensure the changes are being implemented.

    In an immediate response to the ruling, Meta reiterated its intent to challenge the decision, saying, “We disagree with the ruling and will appeal.” The company added that it “works hard to keep people safe on our platforms and have been transparent about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors and harmful content,” noting that it remains “confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts.”

    For New Mexico officials, however, the ruling represents a long-awaited win for families. “This case has always been about protecting children, standing up for families, and making sure that one of the world’s largest technology companies cannot profit from practices that endanger young people without consequence,” Torrez said in a statement Thursday. “Today’s decision is a victory for every parent who has worried about what social media is doing to their child and every child who deserves to grow up safer online.”

    The New Mexico ruling is part of a much broader wave of legal action against social media companies across the U.S. Thousands of individual and state-level lawsuits have been filed holding platforms liable for alleged youth mental health harms, with more than 30 states bringing similar cases against Meta. The next major bellwether trial is scheduled to begin in August in Oakland, California, which will set a key framework for resolving thousands of remaining pending claims across the country. Recent prior bellwether proceedings have produced mixed outcomes: a July 2025 trial against Meta ended when the teenage plaintiff dropped the case days before opening arguments, after reaching confidential settlements with other major platforms including TikTok, YouTube and Snap. The first bellwether trial concluded in March 2025, when a Los Angeles jury ordered Meta and Google to pay $6 million in damages to a 20-year-old woman who alleged social media addiction caused her lasting harm. In May, Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube reached confidential settlements with a Kentucky school district that had sued over youth social media harms.

  • Greens’ plea for $4bn for homelessness as women’s ministers meet

    Greens’ plea for $4bn for homelessness as women’s ministers meet

    As Australia’s federal, state and territory women’s ministers gather for the national Women’s Safety Ministers Council, the Australian Greens have issued a stark warning: a $4 billion-plus funding gap is putting thousands of women and children fleeing domestic violence at grave risk of returning to abusive situations due to a critical shortage of accessible, affordable housing.

    New data from the 2024-25 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) underscores the severity of the crisis. Women and children escaping family and domestic violence make up the single largest group of people seeking support from specialist homelessness services across the country, with more than 100,000 survivors reaching out for help annually. Despite this overwhelming demand, the system is failing to deliver: nearly 12,000 women and children are turned away from life-saving short-term accommodation each year, and roughly 60% of survivor-victims leave crisis housing without securing stable long-term housing. For many of these people, the only available option is to return to live with their abusive perpetrator.

    Greens leader Larissa Waters emphasized that the national housing and homelessness crisis is not just an economic issue—it is a core women’s safety issue. “When politicians ask ‘why didn’t she just leave?’ they’re ignoring that unaffordable housing, skyrocketing rents, and widespread shortages of crisis and transitional housing leave women and children with nowhere to go,” Waters said in a statement released ahead of the council meeting.

    Waters noted that soaring housing costs have pushed more survivors to seek help from crisis accommodation and frontline support services, but the overstretched sector is on the brink of collapse. “The sector is breaking at the time it is needed most, forcing services to turn away women and children every day,” she said. “This is something that the government can, and must, fix by investing in public housing and frontline services.”

    Speaking directly to the ministers gathering for Friday’s summit, Waters called on national and state leaders to step up and address the unmet need. She pointed out that the $4.6 billion the Greens say is needed to close the housing gap amounts to less than a quarter of the annual revenue that would be raised by a tax on gas exports, and a tiny fraction of the billions the Australian government has committed to the AUKUS nuclear submarine program, a project Waters argued wastes public funds on defense assets that may never be delivered.

    Waters also criticized the ruling Labor government for dragging its feet on responding to the crisis. “Labor knows there is massive unmet need, but even their pilot project to collect data on that need is years overdue and just got another extension,” she said. “The sector, and the women and children who rely on it, cannot wait any longer. Labor must start prioritising people over corporate profit and investing in the things that people need to survive and live a good life.”

    To date, government commitments have fallen far short of what is required. The Albanese Labor government has allocated $100 million for new crisis, transitional and youth housing as part of its $1 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, launched in 2023. The fund’s stated goal is to deliver 55,000 new social and affordable homes by mid-2029, but the broader program has faced ongoing implementation delays and challenges, and independent analysis suggests it is unlikely to hit its target.

    At the state level, the New South Wales government committed $130 million last year to expand crisis accommodation beds for people experiencing homelessness, on top of a $6.6 billion state housing program that aims to deliver 8,400 new public homes, with at least half reserved for women and children escaping violence. Even with these investments, Greens and frontline service providers agree that national collective action and far greater public investment are needed to end the preventable crisis putting survivors’ lives at risk.

  • Young activists in the Maldives confront climate threats to their island nation

    Young activists in the Maldives confront climate threats to their island nation

    Scattered across the low-lying Indian Ocean archipelago of the Maldives, a new wave of youth-led environmental activism is pushing back against unregulated development and accelerating ecological damage, as young citizens confront the reality that climate collapse is not a distant future, but an immediate threat to their island homes.

    In Addu City, a southern Maldivian community situated within a protected UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, nonprofit organization Project ThimaaVeshi – whose name translates to “self and surroundings” – has led high-profile direct action against a controversial land reclamation project that is clearing critical mangrove wetlands. In June 2026, a cohort of young activists paddled kayaks to the construction site and spray-painted the word “ECOCIDE” across a section of newly reclaimed land, drawing global attention to the destruction of a habitat that protects coastlines from erosion, supports endangered marine life, and stores carbon at rates far higher than most terrestrial forests.

    What began as a small group of high school friends collaborating with the Addu City council has grown into a registered nonprofit movement. Twenty-one-year-old co-founder Yameen Maumoon recalled that the group started with nothing more than shared passion and collective ambition. Project ThimaaVeshi has since partnered with Veshi Saafu, a group of older local women also active in environmental advocacy, to amplify their campaign during World Environmental Day, documenting how unplanned development is degrading Addu’s wetlands and coral reefs.

    Parallel movements have emerged in the crowded capital city of Male and its neighboring Hulhumale, where youth organizers are tackling the pervasive plastic waste that clogs public spaces, coastlines and nearshore waters. Ripple, a youth group currently pursuing formal registration, began when a circle of friends noticed trash piling up in their favorite gathering spots. Co-founder Mariyam Maasha Waheed recalled that the idea grew from a casual joke while playing Minecraft: the group decided to post cleanup content on TikTok, and their videos quickly went viral, turning a small informal initiative into a sustained movement. Today, Ripple hosts weekly community cleanups, partners with local surfing groups to remove discarded fishing gear and plastic from coral reefs, and runs recycling programs for the waste they collect.

    The newest of these youth-led groups, Barnacles – also working toward official registration – centers its work on climate education and building youth leadership. Co-founder Yania Hussain Ishan first became engaged with environmental issues while researching a school presentation on nature protection. Ishan notes that widespread discourse around the climate emergency has left many young people feeling disempowered, so Barnacles works to frame environmental action as accessible, communal, and meaningful for all participants.

    Across all three groups, a shared unifying belief drives their work: unlike previous generations, young Maldivians see firsthand that sea level rise, coastal erosion, plastic pollution, and development-driven ecosystem damage are not abstract threats – they are daily realities reshaping their country. Climate scientists project that 80% of the Maldives, a nation located south of India and Sri Lanka with an average elevation of just 1.5 meters above sea level, could become uninhabitable within 50 years due to rising ocean waters.

    While the Maldivian government has publicly positioned itself as a global advocate for climate action given the country’s extreme vulnerability to sea level rise, officials have argued that short-term sacrifices are sometimes necessary to support economic development. Activists counter that existing environmental protections are being implemented far too slowly to save the country’s fragile ecosystems.

    The youth activists have faced pushback from establishment figures, including government officials who have dismissed their work as naive and futile, arguing that their youth makes them too emotional to contribute meaningfully to environmental decision-making. Last year, Maldivian Climate Change Minister Ali Shareef publicly claimed at a forum that young people cannot be trusted with governance due to emotional bias.

    Unfazed by the criticism, the activists acknowledge that small-scale cleanups and local protests cannot single-handedly solve the Maldives’ massive climate and development challenges. But they reject the idea that they must wait for large-scale systemic solutions to act, instead focusing on building a culture of environmental stewardship that will carry forward to future generations.

    “We are deciding what kind of ancestors we will be,” Ishan said. “We are defending our home, our heritage and the right of every Maldivian child yet to be born to stand on these shores, look out at the sea and feel the same wonder and security that defines who we are.”

    This reporting from the Associated Press is supported by funding from private philanthropic foundations, with AP retaining full editorial independence over all content.

  • Spokane wildfire arson suspect waited for dry, windy day to start blaze, police say

    Spokane wildfire arson suspect waited for dry, windy day to start blaze, police say

    One of the most destructive wildfires in recent Washington state history has taken a shocking turn, with newly unsealed court documents revealing the man accused of starting the blaze deliberately planned it on a hot, dry, windy day to maximize its spread.

    Thirty-seven-year-old Aaron Farinacci, the suspect taken into custody earlier this month, has additionally confessed to setting 25 smaller wildfires across the Spokane area over the preceding 12 months, according to investigators’ sworn affidavits. Farinacci made his second court appearance Thursday, where a Spokane County judge increased his bail to $2 million and ordered a full mental competency evaluation after he declined to enter a plea at this stage of proceedings.

    The Old Trails Fire, the largest of three active blazes burning around Spokane — Washington’s second-most populous city — has already triggered one of the largest evacuation events in the region’s recent memory. More than 60,000 residents, roughly a quarter of Spokane’s total population, were forced to flee their homes as the fire swept through suburban and exurban areas on the city’s outskirts over the weekend. The inferno has destroyed more than 700 structures to date, though officials have not confirmed any fatalities or serious injuries. At present, 14 people remain unreachable via mobile phone, but authorities have not formally classified them as missing.

    Court documents lay out detailed, disturbing claims about the premeditation behind the largest fire. Investigators wrote in the affidavit that Farinacci told police he began planning the Old Trails Fire two weeks before ignition, using a weather app to identify the ideal day with high winds, low humidity, and unseasonably high temperatures. Detectives also uncovered evidence that the suspect studied methods used by a notorious convicted arsonist to build a time-delay ignition device, allowing him to leave the area before the fire started.

    Per the affidavit, Farinacci began experiencing significant personal distress after the birth of his son in May 2025, which led him to develop an unhealthy obsession with wildfire and arson. He started setting small blazes in July 2025, and had set 25 total fires by the time he was arrested in August. In his police interview, he told investigators he viewed fire as “powerful, beautiful,” and believed that landscapes impacted by fire underwent a form of rebirth. He acknowledged he knew the blaze “was gonna get bad” but claimed he never intended for it to grow to the catastrophic size it reached.

    Farinacci was arrested on Monday after witnesses reported seeing him kneeling in dry grass near the ignition point of the Old Trails Fire. When taken into custody, deputies found matches and a lighter in his possession. During Thursday’s court hearing, the suspect appeared visibly distraught: he kept his head lowered and repeatedly rubbed his eyes as the judge set bail and ordered him returned to police custody.

    News of the arrest and Farinacci’s alleged confession has sent shockwaves through the Spokane community, particularly after reports emerged that he was already linked to two separate fire investigations last year. For many residents who lost everything, the revelation that the blaze was intentional has sparked mixed reactions. Some survivors told the BBC they have already expended all their emotional energy on recovery, and lack the capacity to feel anger toward the suspect, choosing instead to focus on processing their own trauma. Others said the confirmation of arson brings a measure of closure, ending speculation that the fire was an unforeseeable accident or naturally caused ignition.

    Matt Kincanon, a resident who lost his home in the Old Trails Fire, summed up the sentiment of many affected residents. “I hope that if it’s proven that he did do this, I hope the punishment will fit the crime,” he said. “Because what he allegedly did turned over the lives of so many people.”

  • Meta fined $567m in largest child safety ruling against social media giant

    Meta fined $567m in largest child safety ruling against social media giant

    In a landmark ruling that marks the largest child safety-related penalty against a major social media platform in U.S. history, a New Mexico state judge has ordered Meta Platforms to pay an additional $567 million in damages, bringing the total penalties against the company in the state’s lawsuit to $942 million. The ruling also for the first time ever classifies a major social media company as a public nuisance over its harms to child wellbeing.

    Presiding Judge Bryan Biedscheid drew a striking parallel between Meta’s operations and polluting industry in his Thursday ruling, framing the company’s algorithmically driven platforms as factories that push harmful content as an unavoidable byproduct of their core advertising business. “Just as noxious pollution produced by the factory can harm the common public right to reasonably clean air, the harmful effects of Meta’s platforms on children do not stay contained by its platforms,” Biedscheid wrote. “Instead, they migrate to the internet as a whole and, perhaps most concerning, to the real world and create a common, societal burden on and harm to the affected children and their families and schools, as well as hospitals and law enforcement.”

    The $567 million penalty will be placed into a court-supervised fund designed to abate ongoing harms from Meta’s platforms, with the vast majority of the funding — $420 million — earmarked for clinical and behavioral health treatment for children and adolescents who have already experienced harm from the platform. The remaining funds will go toward awareness and prevention training for educators, healthcare providers and other adults who interact with at-risk young people.

    Beyond financial penalties, the ruling imposes sweeping mandatory safeguards on Meta for all underage users on its platforms, which include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads. The new requirements include: prohibiting adults from being matched with underage users via the platform’s recommendation algorithms and blocking unsolicited direct messages from adults to minors; banning minors from sharing or receiving nude or sexually explicit content; implementing a one-strike ban for adult users found engaging in child sexual exploitation; removing public “like” counts for all accounts belonging to users under 18; restricting push notifications for minors to between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. daily, with additional restrictions during school hours on weekdays; and capping total monthly usage for underage users at 90 hours, equal to roughly three hours per day across Meta’s Facebook and Instagram platforms.

    This ruling is the second phase of a 2023 lawsuit brought by New Mexico’s state attorney general, which alleged that Meta intentionally designed its platforms to prioritize engagement over child safety, leading its recommendation algorithms to steer young users toward sexually explicit content, dangerous contact with sexual predators, and other harmful material. In the first phase of the trial, the court already found Meta guilty of repeatedly violating New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act, and ordered an initial $375 million in penalties, which Meta already announced it would appeal.

    Meta has repeatedly pushed back against the ruling, maintaining that it has implemented robust safety measures for teen users and that the claims against the company misrepresent its practices. “We disagree with the ruling and will appeal,” a Meta spokesperson said Thursday. “We work hard to keep people safe on our platforms and have been transparent about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors and harmful content. We remain confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts.”

    The New Mexico ruling is just one of thousands of ongoing child safety lawsuits facing Meta across the United States. Earlier this year, the company already lost a similar child safety trial in Los Angeles, and next week a high-profile trial backed by 36 U.S. states will begin in California, where state attorneys general will argue Meta violated federal child privacy laws through its harmful design choices targeting young users.

  • Two people convicted in relation to death of French streamer

    Two people convicted in relation to death of French streamer

    A French court has delivered guilty verdicts for aggravated violence to two local content creators linked to the August 2025 death of well-known extreme challenge streamer Raphaël Graven, who built a massive online following under the alias Jean Pormanove. The 46-year-old influencer passed away in Contes, a small village located just north of the southern French city of Nice, and his fatal incident was captured live on the controversial streaming platform Kick.

    The two convicted men, Safine Hamadi, 34, and Owen Cenazandotti, 28, have long maintained that all humiliation and physical abuse that appeared in Graven’s content was carried out with his full consent. According to prosecution arguments, prosecutors ultimately dropped manslaughter charges against the pair after forensic evidence pointed to Graven’s pre-existing poor cardiovascular health as the most likely primary cause of death. The court also cleared both defendants of the additional charge of exploiting Graven’s psychological vulnerability, citing prior statements the streamer gave to law enforcement confirming his consent to the risky stunts.

    In the final sentencing, Hamadi received an 18-month suspended prison sentence and a €5,000 fine, while Cenazandotti was handed a two-year suspended prison sentence and a €15,000 fine. Hamadi publicly expressed remorse for his role in the events during the trial proceedings. Beyond custodial and financial penalties, the court has imposed a six-month ban on both men publishing any content to the Kick platform.

    At the time of Graven’s death, the streamer boasted more than one million combined followers across his social media channels, and had cultivated a dedicated fan base specifically on Kick. Patterned content from Graven’s channel regularly featured other creators subjecting him to physical violence and verbal degradation as part of his signature extreme challenge format. Local media reports from the days after his death confirmed that a live broadcast on August 18 showed Graven motionless on a mattress covered by a duvet; the graphic video was quickly removed from Kick after the platform was notified of his death.

    While the criminal proceedings only targeted the two individual creators, the streaming platform Kick itself remains the subject of an ongoing investigation by French law enforcement and regulatory authorities. In a formal statement provided to The New York Times this Thursday, a Kick spokesperson emphasized that the company was not a party in the criminal case against Hamadi and Cenazandotti, and declined to offer further comment on the court’s ruling. “The ruling relates solely to two individual content creators,” the statement added.

  • Trump imposes 15% tariff on key chip and solar panel material

    Trump imposes 15% tariff on key chip and solar panel material

    In a sharp new escalation of trade and tech rivalry between the world’s two largest economies, former U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday introducing sweeping new trade restrictions on imported polysilicon — the critical raw material at the heart of both semiconductor manufacturing and solar energy production.

    The new measures, which will go into effect this coming December, include a 15% across-the-board tariff on polysilicon and its related downstream products, alongside mandatory minimum import pricing for all incoming shipments of the material. The action was framed as a national security response following a months-long investigation into overseas polysilicon production, and comes as the U.S. continues to ramp up efforts to counter growing Chinese dominance in advanced technology supply chains.

    Trump confirmed he approved the recommendations put forward by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who first proposed the combination of tariff and minimum pricing rules. Alongside the import restrictions, the administration also announced it will roll out new financial incentives designed to stimulate domestic polysilicon production, in a bid to reverse decades of declining U.S. market share in the sector.

    In justifying the policy, Trump argued that decades of open trade policies have allowed foreign competitors to erode the position of American polysilicon manufacturers. He noted that U.S. global production share plummeted from 50% in 2005 to less than 2% by 2024, even as the material has grown increasingly critical to both military technology and consumer electronics. Today, China controls nearly the entire global supply of polysilicon, holding a near-monopoly position that the Trump administration argues poses a profound national security and economic risk.

    China currently stands as the world’s top polysilicon producer, with the sector serving as a foundational pillar for both its booming chip manufacturing industry and its fast-growing renewable energy sector. The new restrictions are explicitly designed to shield U.S. domestic manufacturers from intensifying competition from Chinese chip and polysilicon firms, a core point of ongoing friction between Washington and Beijing.

    The policy is expected to deliver immediate benefits to the two major U.S.-based polysilicon producers: Hemlock Semiconductor and German-headquartered Wacker Chemie, which operates large production facilities within the U.S. As global competition for leadership in artificial intelligence intensifies, control over semiconductor supply chains — starting with core materials like polysilicon — has become a central battleground for both the U.S. and China.

    In an official statement following the signing of the order, the Chinese Embassy in Washington condemned the move, accusing the U.S. of abusing state power to target legitimate Chinese businesses. The embassy emphasized that the new restrictions seriously disrupt bilateral trade relations, and warned that Beijing will take all necessary measures to protect the interests of its domestic companies. It also pushed back against the U.S. protectionist approach, noting that trade barriers will do nothing to improve American long-term competitiveness.

    Analysts interviewed by China’s *Global Times* framed the new tariff as the latest step in a steady escalation of U.S. efforts to cut China out of global critical technology supply chains. The move comes on the heels of a series of prior U.S. restrictions targeting Chinese tech imports, including bans and limitations on drones, humanoid robots and a wide range of other advanced technology products originating from China.

  • Sudan’s invisible children – born in war with no legal identity

    Sudan’s invisible children – born in war with no legal identity

    Eight months after holding her newborn son for the first time, 17-year-old Amira – her name changed to protect her from harm – still cannot secure the one document that would guarantee her son a shot at basic rights: a birth certificate. Her story, one of thousands unfolding across war-ravaged Sudan, lays bare the invisible crisis plaguing children born from sexual violence amid the country’s 28-month civil war.

    Sudan’s brutal power struggle between the national military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) erupted in April 2023, turning the Darfur city of el-Fasher into one of the conflict’s bloodiest battlefields. For 18 months, the city held out as the military’s last major stronghold in Darfur, before falling to the RSF and its allied Arab militias in October 2024. For the tens of thousands of civilians trapped through the months-long siege, daily life was a cycle of relentless bombardment, violent street clashes, and crippling hunger. Desperate to survive, Amira and her family joined a wave of displaced residents fleeing the city in early 2025. But their escape turned to horror when three armed RSF fighters abducted Amira as the group snuck along a southwestern road out of el-Fasher.

    “They blindfolded me and took me to the Tabit area south of el-Fasher. I was locked in a room for two months, and every day one of them raped me in turn,” Amira recounts quietly, her trauma still raw. Weeks into her captivity, she discovered she was pregnant and fell severely ill. When her captors chose to abandon her, they dumped her near the site of her abduction, where other fleeing el-Fasher residents found her and arranged for emergency medical care. Months later, she gave birth at an International Medical Corps-run hospital in a humanitarian hub outside RSF control, where local Sudanese aid group Nada Al-Azhar Foundation for Disaster Prevention and Sustainable Development (Nada) stepped in to support her and help track down her displaced family, who had reached a sprawling refugee camp hosting hundreds of thousands of other el-Fasher escapees. The reunion was a moment of profound relief for the whole family, but new, ongoing struggles quickly took its place.

    Under current Sudanese administrative rules, birth registration requires formal identification details for the child’s father – information Amira cannot provide. Even the initial birth notification from her delivery hospital demands this data, locking her son out of official legal recognition before he can even access basic services. “I can’t get him vaccinated, or enrol him in nursery or school,” Amira explains. “I’m afraid for his future because he isn’t registered at all. My economic situation is very difficult, and I can’t afford his treatment or care. I can’t even go to work for fear of being exposed to violence again.”

    Amira’s ordeal is far from unique. Aid workers report this pattern repeats across every conflict zone in Sudan, where widespread sexual violence by armed groups has left hundreds of underage and adult survivors pregnant, with no path to register their children. “Many children are being born in complex circumstances, often without the knowledge of the father – meaning their births cannot be registered,” explains Abu Bakr Yousif Yaqoub, Nada’s director of protection programmes. “Registering a child requires identity information, a national number and a birth certificate. But when the father is absent or unknown, it becomes extremely difficult. The mother is often alone, and sometimes she herself is still a child who needs care, which limits her ability to care for her baby. There are also health challenges related to the lack of follow-up on essential vaccinations, which begin at birth and continue through the child’s early years.”

    Yaqoub warns the impact stretches far beyond early childhood: unregistered children are barred from formal education, blocked from travel, and unable to obtain any official identity documents as adults, leaving them effectively stateless for life.

    Capturing an accurate count of these children is nearly impossible. Deep social stigma attached to sexual assault in Sudan prevents most survivors from coming forward, meaning the true scale of the crisis remains unrecorded. “Women who experience such assaults do not feel comfortable reporting them,” says Shaza Ahmed, Nada’s director general, speaking from the army-held eastern city of Port Sudan. “Unfortunately, most of the mothers of these children are themselves children – girls under the age of 18. Therefore, they cannot make the decision to go officially to court or the police, as they need a guardian to accompany them.” Ahmed adds that 90% of the cases Nada has documented involve families refusing to allow official reporting of the assaults that led to pregnancy, out of fear of social judgment.

    “As a Sudanese woman, my greatest fear and concern for children born as a result of rape is that we are facing a whole generation that will live under stigma, danger and fear,” Ahmed says. “These children will not receive respect from society, their well-being will not be truly protected, and above all, they will not have access to services or their rights. For Ahmed they are not being treated as if they are “fully human”, even though Sudanese law does grant all children the right to obtain an identity.

    On paper, Sudan’s 2010 Child Act already protects the right to birth registration for children born outside of marriage, including those conceived through rape. The law allows for children to be registered under their mother’s name if she files a formal report of assault, which triggers a social services documentation process before the civil registry issues the birth certificate. But the collapse of state institutions across large swathes of Sudan, particularly conflict-ravaged Darfur, has rendered this legal protection meaningless on the ground. Civil registry offices are shuttered, administrative systems are broken, and many survivors lack the access or support to navigate the fragmented remaining bureaucracy.

    “The absence of documents does not just mean the absence of a piece of paper – it means denying the child access to education, healthcare and legal recognition,” explains Sudanese lawyer Majida Idris. She says urgent action is needed: civil registry operations must be reactivated in safe, accessible areas, and expanded legal support must be offered to survivors to help them secure their children’s rights.

    For now, Amira and her son remain stuck in administrative limbo in Darfur, their future uncertain. While Amira’s grandmother says the reunion of the family after Amira’s captivity is a miracle she never expected, the weight of the unregistered child’s future hangs over the entire household. Nada has provided Amira with psychological counseling and practical guidance, a small source of comfort amid ongoing hardship. But without a birth certificate, Amira’s son remains locked out of the basic rights every child is owed – one of hundreds, likely thousands, of Sudanese children growing up invisible in their own country.