Global Pulse

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  • Law changes and innovations to look out for at the World Cup

    Law changes and innovations to look out for at the World Cup

    For decades, the FIFA World Cup has served as a testing ground for transformative changes to international football’s rulebook, from the 1970 introduction of yellow and red disciplinary cards to the 2018 debut of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) system, and the extended stoppage time framework rolled out at the 2022 Qatar tournament. As the 2026 edition – the first World Cup co-hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico – draws near, a new suite of law adjustments and procedural innovations is set to reshape how the game is played and officiated.

    The most surprising shift comes in the form of universal mandatory hydration breaks, a measure never before enforced for every match in World Cup history. While brief pauses for players to rehydrate have been used in past tournaments for matches played in extreme heat, 2026 will see three-minute breaks held at the midpoint of both the first and second halves, no matter the weather conditions inside the stadium. Even matches played in cool climates or under closed retractable roofs will include the scheduled stoppages.

    FIFA’s official rationale frames the rule as a commitment to prioritizing player welfare, ensuring all competing sides operate under equal match conditions regardless of their fixture’s scheduling or venue. Critics, however, have pointed out that splitting the 90-minute regulation into four distinct segments aligns World Cup match structure with popular North American professional sports, creating natural advertising windows that benefit U.S.-based broadcast partners.

    A second major expansion of existing technology comes to the VAR system, which was originally introduced only to review clear and obvious errors surrounding goals, penalty decisions, straight red cards, and cases of mistaken player identity. The International Football Association Board (IFAB), the global body responsible for setting football’s laws, has approved expanding VAR’s remit to cover two previously excluded scenarios for the 2026 tournament: second yellow card dismissals and corner kick awards.

    Going forward, VAR will now be able to review decisions to send a player off for a second bookable offense, alongside the existing scope for reviewing straight red card calls. For corner kicks, VAR can overturn what the IFAB defines as a clearly incorrectly awarded corner, as long as the review can be completed immediately without delaying the restart of play.

    To crack down on pervasive time-wasting tactics that have dragged out match durations in recent top-level competitions, new timed countdown rules will be enforced for restarts and substitutions. Following the introduction of an eight-second time limit for goalkeepers releasing the ball from hand – which results in an opposition corner if breached – 2026 will extend this framework to goal kicks, throw-ins, and substitution procedures.

    If a match official determines a team is deliberately delaying a goal kick or throw-in, a five-second visual countdown will be displayed for all spectators and officials to see. Should the restart not be completed before the countdown expires, possession will be switched to the opposing team: a delayed goal kick becomes an opposition corner, while a delayed throw-in is handed to the other side. For substitutions, players being substituted off have 10 seconds to exit the pitch after their number is displayed on the substitution board. If they fail to leave within the window, they must still exit immediately, but their replacement cannot enter the game until the next stoppage of play, at least one minute after the original substitution was called. Injured players who require play to be stopped for treatment must also leave the pitch for a minimum of one minute before they are permitted to return to action.

    The final high-profile new rule targets unsportsmanlike and disruptive behavior that has sparked controversy in recent club and continental competitions. Last month, FIFA announced that players who cover their mouths during confrontations with opponents will now be eligible for a straight red card. The rule change follows a 2024 UEFA Champions League incident where Benfica’s Gianluca Prestianni covered his mouth while speaking to Real Madrid’s Vinicius Junior, resulting in a six-match ban for discriminatory homophobic conduct. The new rule is designed to deter players from hiding abusive language from match officials and microphone systems.

    FIFA has also added new penalties for match protests, introducing red cards for any player who leaves the pitch in protest of a refereeing decision, with the same punishment applying to any team official who incites players to abandon play. In the most serious cases, FIFA states that any team that causes a match to be abandoned through protest will in principle forfeit the fixture. This clarification comes after the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations final, where Senegal players walked off the pitch in protest of a penalty awarded to Morocco. While Senegal went on to win the match after returning, the Confederation of African Football eventually stripped them of the title for violating tournament regulations by walking off.

  • US pins hopes on mediator Pakistan in push to end Iran war

    US pins hopes on mediator Pakistan in push to end Iran war

    Nearly three months after the United States and Israel launched large-scale military strikes on Iran that opened a full-scale conflict reshaping the Middle East, Washington is pinning its latest hopes on Pakistani mediation to break a months-long negotiation deadlock and reach a lasting peace agreement.

    The conflict, which began on February 28, triggered widespread regional instability, sent global energy and commodity prices soaring, and pushed the international economy to the edge of new turmoil. A ceasefire agreed on April 8 paused large-scale open fighting, but repeated rounds of talks have failed to produce a permanent deal that can fully end the crisis. On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that Washington expected new diplomatic momentum from Pakistani mediators, who were set to travel to Tehran the same day to advance talks.

    Pakistan has already emerged as a key third-party broker in the conflict, hosting the only direct face-to-face negotiations between U.S. and Iranian officials last month that were facilitated by Pakistan’s powerful Army Chief Asim Munir. Those high-stakes talks ultimately collapsed after Iran rejected what it called Washington’s “excessive demands.” In a sign of continued diplomatic push, Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi — a figure widely seen as close to Munir — made his second visit to Tehran in as many weeks on Wednesday. Iranian state media has cited anonymous sources suggesting Munir could travel to the Iranian capital as soon as Thursday, though Pakistani officials have so far offered no confirmation of the army chief’s travel plans.

    Beyond Pakistan’s mediation, China — another actor that has participated in regional efforts to end the war — announced Saturday that Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will visit Beijing for discussions linked to the diplomatic process.

    The current standoff remains razor-thin, with U.S. President Donald Trump confirming Wednesday that negotiations are balanced on a “borderline” between a final deal and a resumption of full-scale attacks. “If we don’t get the right answers, it goes very quickly. We’re all ready to go,” Trump told reporters, adding that a deal could be reached “very quickly” or within days, but insisted Iran must provide “100 percent good answers” to U.S. demands to avoid renewed hostilities.

    Trump’s fresh pressure on Iran comes as the president faces growing domestic political pressure to resolve the conflict, as U.S. consumers face soaring energy costs tied to the ongoing regional disruption. Rubio also publicly criticized U.S. NATO allies this week for declining to back the U.S.-led campaign against Iran, saying “We were very upset about that” after allies refused to take even non-military action in support of the effort.

    For its part, Iran has remained firm in its own demands and warned it will respond aggressively if hostilities resume. Iranian chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Wednesday that “The enemy’s movements, both overt and clandestine, show that despite economic and political pressure, it has not abandoned its military objectives and is seeking to start a new war,” adding that Iran would launch a “forceful response” to any new attack. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei confirmed Tehran is still reviewing latest proposals from Washington, but repeated Iran’s core demands: the full release of billions of dollars in Iranian assets frozen abroad and an end to the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian territory.

    The most critical unresolved sticking point remains the ongoing blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic global waterway that carries roughly one-fifth of the world’s daily oil and liquefied natural gas supplies, and one-third of global fertilizer shipments. While the April ceasefire paused open fighting, it did not reopen the strait, which Iran closed as a retaliatory measure after the war began. Only a tiny volume of shipping has been allowed through in recent weeks under a new Iranian toll system, and Iran’s new regulatory body for the strait has claimed territorial control extending into Emirati waters — a move that drew an immediate sharp rebuke from Abu Dhabi. Tensions between Iran and the United Arab Emirates have remained severely strained since the war began, after Iran launched missile and drone strikes on Gulf states in retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli offensive.

    As global pre-war oil stockpiles continue to deplete, fears are growing that the prolonged closure will trigger further increases in energy and food prices, worsening existing strains on the world economy. In addition to the core Iran-U.S. standoff, conflict continues to simmer on a second front in Lebanon. Lebanese state media reported Thursday that an Israeli strike damaged a hospital in southern Lebanon, where Israeli forces have continued to carry out operations, demolitions and evacuation orders even after an April 17 truce. Israel says its strikes target Hezbollah, which has continued to launch its own attacks on Israeli territory in turn.

    Hezbollah entered the war after the killing of Iran’s supreme leader in U.S.-Israeli strikes, launching retaliatory rocket fire that dragged Lebanon into the broader regional conflict. Lebanon’s health ministry says Israeli attacks have killed at least 3,089 people in the country since March 2. On Thursday, the U.S. announced new sanctions targeting nine individuals with alleged links to Hezbollah, accusing them of “obstructing the peace process in Lebanon.”

  • ‘Dread’: coral scientists fear bleaching El Nino could bring

    ‘Dread’: coral scientists fear bleaching El Nino could bring

    As climate change continues to push ocean temperatures to record highs, leading coral researchers around the globe are sounding the alarm: a potentially powerful El Nino weather pattern forecast for this year could deliver a fatal blow to reef ecosystems already reeling from repeated mass bleaching.

    Meteorological forecasters have grown increasingly confident that the cyclical climate phenomenon, which emerges every two to seven years, will return in 2025 with unusual strength. El Nino disrupts established global weather patterns, triggering severe drought in some regions and catastrophic flooding in others. For coral reefs, the most dangerous impacts stem from El Nino’s tie to elevated ocean temperatures and reduced cloud cover across many tropical basins—two conditions that directly trigger mass bleaching.

    “Every single global coral bleaching event in recorded history has coincided with an El Nino year,” noted Clint Oakley, a coral biologist at Victoria University of Wellington. He shared that he feels “dread, though not surprise” at the prospect of a strong event, which he says could prove “serious and devastating for reef systems across the world.”

    To understand why warm water poses such an existential threat to corals requires looking at their symbiotic biological relationship: corals rely on tiny algae called zooxanthellae that live within their calcium carbonate structures. The algae use photosynthesis to produce nutrient-rich food for their coral hosts, and in exchange gain a stable habitat and access to the sunlight needed for photosynthesis. The algae are also responsible for the vivid, distinctive colors that make reefs so iconic. When ocean temperatures rise too far above historical averages, however, this delicate partnership breaks down. Researchers have not yet pinpointed the exact biological mechanism that triggers this collapse, but the outcome is consistent: the algae either leave the coral tissue voluntarily or are expelled by the coral itself. Without their algae symbionts, corals are left stark white, a state called bleaching, and slowly starve because they no longer receive the nutrients the algae provide.

    If ocean temperatures drop back to safe levels quickly enough, corals can survive on stored energy reserves until the algae return. Even then, surviving bleaching leaves corals weakened, malnourished, far more susceptible to disease, and unable to allocate enough energy to reproduce. If heat stress persists or reaches extreme levels, the coral will starve to death before temperatures cool, explained Jen Matthews, a coral scientist at the University of Technology Sydney.

    Occasional localised bleaching is a natural part of reef ecosystem dynamics, and can even help cull weaker corals to make space for hardier individuals. The modern crisis stems from repeated mass global bleaching events, which have become the new normal as climate change drives steady long-term ocean warming. When reefs are hit by bleaching before they have fully recovered and had time to produce new juvenile corals to replace lost individuals, the ecosystem enters an irreversible downward spiral, Oakley said.

    The most recent global mass bleaching event was officially declared in 2024, and its impacts have already been devastating. In the Caribbean, multiple key coral species are now classified as functionally extinct, meaning they can no longer reproduce enough to sustain stable populations. Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest reef system and the only living structure visible from space, has already lost between 15 and 40 percent of its total coral cover across different regions since 2024.

    A powerful “super El Nino” this year would add new heat stress to ocean temperatures that are already far above the safe threshold for most corals. Oakley pointed out that average global ocean temperatures over the past five years are already equal to the peak temperatures recorded during the 1998 global bleaching event, the first major mass bleaching event in modern history.

    While a small subset of coral species and individual colonies have shown natural resilience to warm water, these hardier corals are not abundant enough to replace the massive losses caused by repeated bleaching. Scientists have pursued a range of experimental interventions to protect vulnerable reefs, from nutrient gels that feed starved corals to solar shading that cools reefs during heatwaves, and even genetic engineering to breed more heat-tolerant coral strains. These innovative strategies are important, Matthews said, but ultimately they only “buy time” for reefs rather than solving the core crisis.

    Researchers emphasize that key details about this year’s El Nino remain uncertain: while an event is very likely, its exact strength and duration are still unpredictable, said Kimberley Reid, an atmospheric science research fellow at the University of Melbourne. El Nino is just one factor shaping regional ocean conditions, she added, with local ocean temperature anomalies and regional wind patterns also playing major roles in how much heat stress reefs will face.

    Even if an unusually strong El Nino does not materialise this year, the long-term outlook for global coral reefs remains grim. Roughly half of the world’s total coral cover has already been lost over the past few decades. These ecosystems are not just tourist attractions: they provide critical spawning and nursery habitat for commercial fish species that feed billions of people around the world, and act as natural sea walls that absorb storm energy and protect coastal communities from flooding and erosion.

    Matthews called the current trajectory a sobering reality. “If we don’t get our act together on climate change, then all we’re doing is buying time until our reefs, as we know them, disappear.”

  • Gibraltar monkeys eat soil in junk food detox: study

    Gibraltar monkeys eat soil in junk food detox: study

    Gibraltar’s famous colony of Barbary macaques, a top draw for international visitors to this British overseas territory on southern Spain’s border, have developed an unexpected adaptive behavior: they deliberately eat soil to counteract gastrointestinal distress caused by consuming large amounts of human junk food, according to groundbreaking new research published by an international team of biologists.

    Originating from North Africa, the population of roughly 230 macaques holds a unique status as the only free-ranging colony of wild monkeys in all of Europe, per data from the Gibraltar Ornithological and Natural History Society. For millions of tourists who flock to the territory’s iconic Rock of Gibraltar each year, seeing these charismatic primates is often the highlight of their trip. “We came here specifically for the monkeys, because this is the only place in Europe you can see wild populations of them,” 29-year-old Danish visitor Elish told Agence France-Presse. But the tourist attention comes with a hidden cost: despite repeated warnings, many visitors either feed the macaques directly or leave food waste accessible, and the animals regularly raid snacks from unaware guests.

    Local authorities have long enforced a ban on feeding the macaques, with posted warning signs across the territory and fines for violations reaching as high as £4,000 ($5,350). But enforcement remains a major challenge: thousands of tourists visit the Rock daily, and the macaques, which can grow up to 15 kilograms, are bold, independent, and skilled at snatching ice cream, cakes, crisps, chocolate and other processed treats from unguarded bags, picnic baskets and public waste bins. Over time, this steady access to unhealthy human food has drastically altered the macaques’ natural diet, which originally consists of wild fruits, leafy vegetables, seeds and native vegetation.

    The new study, conducted by researchers from the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Paris-Sorbonne and Gibraltar’s local environment department between August 2022 and April 2024, documents this soil-eating behavior — formally called geophagy — for the first time in this Gibraltar macaque population. The research team found that geophagy occurs at far higher rates among this colony than it does among other macaque populations around the world, and that the behavior spikes in summer, when tourist numbers to Gibraltar reach their annual peak. Critically, the behavior was not observed at all in a separate group of Gibraltar macaques that have no regular contact with tourists and do not access human junk food.

    “That is a strong argument for the direct association between soil-eating and the consumption of human food,” explained Sylvain Lemoine, co-author of the study and assistant professor of biological anthropology at the University of Cambridge. Lemoine noted that the processed junk food the macaques consume is extremely high in sugar, salt and dairy — ingredients that the primates’ digestive systems are not evolved to process properly, leading to frequent stomach discomfort and disrupted gut microbiomes.

    The research team classifies the behavior as an early form of self-medication. They hypothesize that the soil the macaques consume carries beneficial microfungi and natural microorganisms that help rebalance the disordered gut microbiome after a junk food binge, in addition to absorbing toxins to reduce gastrointestinal distress. Bethany Maxwell, technical officer at the Gibraltar Botanic Gardens, pointed out that while primate geophagy is already well-documented in scientific literature, the link to excess junk food consumption from human tourism is an entirely new finding. “We already know primates eat soil mostly to detoxify or to supplement missing nutrients, but this study shows that this behavior is also being driven here by eating too much unhealthy human food — that’s something quite novel,” Maxwell said.

  • Alberta to hold referendum on whether to remain in Canada

    Alberta to hold referendum on whether to remain in Canada

    Canada’s national unity faces its most significant test in nearly 30 years after Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced plans for an October referendum on the province’s future within the Canadian federation, capping months of growing public pressure from separatist activists and long-simmering regional grievances against the federal government in Ottawa.

    The vote, scheduled for October 19, will ask Albertans a straightforward, constitutionally framed question: whether the province should remain part of Canada, or whether the provincial government should launch the formal legal process required under Canada’s constitution to hold a subsequent binding referendum on full separation. The announcement comes after two competing citizen-led petitions gathered massive grassroots support earlier this year: a pro-separation petition collected more than 300,000 signatures, while a counter-petition advocating for Alberta to stay in Canada drew more than 400,000 signatures.

    The independence movement in Alberta, Canada’s oil-rich western province, has gained steady traction over the past decade rooted in a widespread, long-held belief among many residents that the province’s economic interests and political priorities are consistently sidelined by federal policymakers in Ottawa. Grievances center on federal climate policies that many Albertans argue have obstructed growth of the province’s critical oil and gas sector, as well as a persistent perception that Alberta contributes more to national federal revenue than it receives in public spending and infrastructure investments.

    In a surprising twist, Premier Smith confirmed in her nationally televised announcement that she personally will vote to keep Alberta within Canada, a position shared by her governing United Conservative Party caucus and provincial cabinet. “That is how I would vote on separation in a provincial referendum,” Smith said. “It is also the position of my government and my caucus.”

    Smith justified the referendum by pointing to a recent court ruling that threw the citizen petition process into legal limbo. After Indigenous First Nations groups argued they had not been properly consulted on the pro-separation petition — a failure that they said infringed on their constitutionally protected rights — an Alberta judge dismissed the petition, halting signature verification and leaving the initiative dead in the water. Smith argued that allowing that ruling to stand would silence the voices of hundreds of thousands of engaged Albertans, a move incompatible with Canadian democratic values.

    “As Premier, I will not have a legal mistake by a single judge silence the voices of hundreds of thousands of Albertans,” Smith said Thursday. “Alberta’s future will be decided by Albertans, not the courts. Kicking the can down the road only prolongs a very emotional and important debate, and muzzling the voices of hundreds of thousands of Albertans wanting to be heard is unjustifiable in a free and democratic society.”

    The premier has faced intense pressure from separatist leaders for months, with Jeffrey Rath, a separatist lawyer, warning earlier this week that Smith’s choice on the referendum would amount to an existential decision for her premiership. Despite the growing momentum behind the separation movement, recent public opinion polling consistently shows a majority of Albertans oppose splitting from Canada.

    This referendum marks the most serious challenge to Canadian unity since two independence referendums in Quebec, the last of which in 1995 ended with a razor-thin 50.58% to 49.42% majority voting to remain in Canada. In the wake of that near-miss, the federal government passed the Clarity Act, a law that sets binding ground rules for any future provincial separation efforts. Prime Minister Mark Carney reaffirmed earlier this month that any Alberta separation process would have to comply with the law, which requires a clear referendum question approved by the federal House of Commons and a “clear majority” of voter support before federal government would enter separation negotiations.

    Even if the pro-independence side prevails in the planned final binding referendum, the path to full separation would be long, fraught with uncertainty, and marked by tense negotiations with the federal government over issues including national debt division, resource rights, border arrangements, and Indigenous land claims.

    Smith also used Thursday’s announcement to echo widespread regional frustration with federal overreach, arguing that the Liberal government in Ottawa has pushed to centralize power at the expense of provincial jurisdiction, echoing a core grievance shared by many Alberta politicians regardless of their stance on separation. “I categorically reject Ottawa’s attempts to move towards a more centralised American-style system and infringe on provincial jurisdiction,” Smith said. “I call on all provincial leaders and MPs to undo the extensive damage that centralisation of power in Ottawa has done to our country economically and with respect to national unity.”

    Federal political leaders across party lines have pushed back in favor of preserving national unity. Dominic Leblanc, Canada’s Minister of Internal Trade and a senior Liberal cabinet member, said in a social media statement that the government “strongly believes that the interests of Albertans and all Canadians are best served when we work together.”

    “As we take note of Premier Smith’s address this evening, we remain focused on building a stronger Canada for all, in full partnership with Alberta and to the benefit of all Albertans and all Canadians,” he added. Pierre Poilievre, leader of the federal Conservative Party and an Alberta native, confirmed Thursday that he supports a united Canada and will campaign across the country to unify Canadians around a shared vision of hope.

  • ‘There’s a narrative’: Daniel Atkinson rubbishes halfback theory as he welcomes Luke Metcalf’s 2027 arrival

    ‘There’s a narrative’: Daniel Atkinson rubbishes halfback theory as he welcomes Luke Metcalf’s 2027 arrival

    The currently winless St. George Illawarra Dragons of the National Rugby League (NRL) have secured one of the biggest off-season recruitment coups of 2027, locking in dynamic playmaker Luke Metcalf on a three-year contract from the New Zealand Warriors. But the high-profile addition of the 2025 standout, whose season was cut short by a career-threatening knee injury, has ignited fresh discussion over who will fill the starting halves spots when Metcalf makes his debut for the Red V.

    Metcalf’s arrival marks the latest in a string of promising off-season additions for the rebuilding club, which has also poached Scott Drinkwater, Keaon Koloamatangi and Phil Sami from rival franchises ahead of the 2027 campaign. The roster overhaul signals the Dragons’ clear ambition to climb out of their current on-field slump and re-establish themselves as title contenders in coming seasons.

    However, the signing has thrown up a tricky selection puzzle for the head coach that will replace departing mentor Shane Flanagan ahead of 2027. Current Dragons playmaker Daniel Atkinson, who joined the club from Cronulla Sharks on a three-year deal earlier this year, was initially framed as the franchise’s long-term starting halfback. But after shifting to five-eighth in 2026, he now faces stiff competition for a starting halves spot alongside Metcalf, with young gun Kade Reed and incumbent Kyle Flanagan (son of outgoing coach Shane Flanagan) also in the mix for a role.

    Appearing this week ahead of his Round 12 start at five-eighth – his first game back after sustaining a fractured hand – Atkinson pushed back on the narrative that he joined the Dragons with the sole aim of securing the starting halfback job. The versatile playmaker argued he is solely focused on turning the club’s 2026 season around rather than worrying about selection battles 12 months away.

    “Everyone here’s got to earn the number on their back, but that’s a long time away,” Atkinson told reporters. “There’s a narrative there that I came here to be a halfback. I came here to be in the halves and to play my game, which is running, kicking, and tackling well. So all I’m thinking about is how I can benefit this team at the moment. I’m not thinking (about) 2027. Obviously, it’s very exciting for him coming here, but I’ve got a job to do for this club first in 2026.”

    Having spent the early years of his professional career rotating between the bench, reserve grade and five-eighth, Atkinson said he has embraced the pressure of being a starting playmaker at one of the league’s most high-profile clubs, even amid the team’s current winless drought. Entering Round 12, the Dragons hold the worst attacking record in the NRL, but Atkinson says the playing group is not shying away from the challenge of turning their form around.

    “I love it. It’s what I signed up for,” he said. “Obviously I’m not loving the circumstances we’re in at the moment, but then again, I’ve put myself in this circumstance and I’m going to face it head-on. I want us to be the ones who get us out of here, and I’m not going to shy away from that. I’m not proud of where we are. It’s a very passionate club with passionate fans, and everyone inside those doors are trying their arses off. The coaches, everyone from the top down, the players, we don’t want to be in this circumstance. Nobody does, so you can put money that we’re trying our arses off and we’re trying to turn the tide.”

    On Saturday, Atkinson will partner Kyle Flanagan in the halves, as Flanagan looks to rebuild form following a turbulent month that saw his father Shane step down as head coach and the young playmaker temporarily dropped from the starting side in favour of Reed. Atkinson praised Flanagan’s mental toughness through the upheaval, noting his halves partner’s relentless work ethic and on-field leadership that has remained consistent despite poor team results.

    “We started the season there and played well in Vegas. Obviously, results didn’t go our way after that, but we don’t like where we are at the moment,” Atkinson said. “We obviously want to be winning games, and he’s his own harshest critic. He tries there relentlessly. He’s been training well for a couple weeks now. I think he just knew what his job was and he’s a good defender and a good communicator on the field. His effort is second to none and I think he just focused on his job, his role for the team.”

    Atkinson will be aiming to add to his five try assists from nine opening matches this weekend, as the Dragons chase their first win of the 2026 NRL season.

  • ‘Filter of fantasy’: Japan trials anime therapy to treat depression

    ‘Filter of fantasy’: Japan trials anime therapy to treat depression

    Across the globe, mental health care systems are grappling with persistent barriers to access — from deep-rooted social stigma to widespread discomfort with opening up to human therapists. In Japan, where cultural norms have long kept rates of formal psychological help-seeking far lower than in Western nations, a team of researchers is testing an unconventional solution: turning the world of Japanese anime into a therapeutic tool to reach underserved groups struggling with depression.

    The brainchild of psychiatrist Francesco Panto, a researcher based at Yokohama City University, the experimental approach draws from Panto’s own personal experience with anime as a lifeline during adolescence. Growing up as a queer teen in rural Sicily, Panto faced rigid cultural stereotypes around gender identity and self-expression that left him feeling isolated. It was through popular titles like *Final Fantasy* that he found male protagonists who defied narrow gender norms, resonating with his own identity and offering life-changing emotional support. “They were so masculine and cool, but in their own way,” Panto recalled of the characters that shaped his understanding of self. That experience led him to wonder if anime could do the same for others, particularly those too intimidated to reach out for traditional mental health care.

    Panto’s six-month pilot study of what he calls “character-based counselling” wrapped up in March, testing the core hypothesis that a “filter of fantasy” can ease anxiety for people navigating mental health struggles and help them open up about their challenges. For the trial, his team designed six custom anime avatars based on iconic Japanese manga archetypes, each crafted with a subtle backstory tied to common mental health struggles: one character, Kuroto Nagi, lives with bipolar traits, while others navigate post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and alcohol use disorder. Rather than framing these struggles explicitly upfront, the avatars were designed to feel approachable and fun, allowing participants to connect with them on their own terms. Each participant was able to select the avatar that felt most aligned with their own experience, and counselling sessions were delivered online by a licensed psychologist who appeared to participants as the chosen avatar, with a digitally modified voice to match the character.

    The trial recruited 20 participants aged 18 to 29 who were already experiencing symptoms of depression. Researchers tracked participants’ physiological markers including heart rate and sleep patterns to measure changes in their mental health over the course of the program, with the primary goal of this first phase being to test whether the approach is feasible for larger-scale trials. Already, early anecdotal feedback from participants suggests the model strikes a chord with many who avoid traditional therapy. One 24-year-old anime fan and game developer, who joined the study after connecting with an avatar described as “searching for true strength,” noted that the concept immediately felt relevant to their own unaddressed struggles: “That made me feel like it might help me get closer to the answer to my own problems,” they said. For many anime fans, the medium has already offered life-changing emotional support: the participant added that anime has long given them the “will to live, seeing characters who are full of life as they work hard toward their dreams.”

    This trial is just one of dozens of emerging interventions targeting Japan’s growing unmet mental health needs, particularly for people experiencing ikizurasa — a Japanese term describing the profound struggle of feeling unable to cope with societal expectations and survive in everyday life. As assistant professor Mio Ishii, who co-leads the project, explained, large swathes of young people in Japan are unable to attend school or maintain employment due to untreated mental health struggles, and stigma around seeking care remains a crippling barrier. Data from 2022 cited by the World Economic Forum illustrates the scale of this gap: just 6% of people in Japan have ever accessed psychological counselling for mental health concerns, compared to far higher rates in the United States and Western Europe.

    Panto and his team are already exploring future expansions of the model, including the possibility of delivering anime-based therapy entirely through artificial intelligence, eliminating the need for a human psychologist to mediate sessions and making the tool far more accessible at scale. Outside experts not affiliated with the trial have praised the approach for addressing key gaps in traditional care. Jesus Maya, a family therapy specialist at the University of Seville, noted that integrating pop culture mediums like anime into treatment can remove significant barriers to emotional expression: “It can facilitate the expression of emotions… (and) identification and communication between the patient and the therapist,” he said.

    For the research team, the potential impact extends far beyond Japan. Ishii says she hopes the model will one day provide an accessible low-stigma option for people of all ages across the globe, wherever cultural barriers keep people from seeking the help they need. “Because usually people have stigmas and psychological barriers to ask for help about their mental health,” she said. “But anime or technology can decrease them.” The team is currently analyzing pilot trial data, with results expected to guide future larger-scale studies on the effectiveness of anime therapy for reducing depression symptoms.

  • ‘We are resilient’: As San Diego’s Muslim community reels from mosque shooting, it refuses to be intimidated

    ‘We are resilient’: As San Diego’s Muslim community reels from mosque shooting, it refuses to be intimidated

    On a Monday morning in mid-May 2026, a quiet residential neighborhood in San Diego’s Clairemont area was shattered by an act of ideological violence that would ripple across the entire United States. Two teenage gunmen opened fire at the Islamic Center of San Diego – a sprawling community hub that houses the region’s second-largest mosque and a thriving primary school – leaving three people dead and sending shockwaves of grief through California’s Muslim community.

    The attack unfolded just before noon local time, when parents across the area received urgent WhatsApp alerts notifying them of an active shooter on campus. For Nawal Al-Nouri, whose seven-year-old daughter was in class at the center’s school, the news felt impossible to process. “It completely didn’t hit me that it was an active shooter the way they had described it. I was definitely in a state of shock, and pretty frozen at home,” she recalled to the BBC. Her husband Omar, a vascular surgeon based in nearby La Jolla, raced to the center after getting the same alert, where he was met by a massive, coordinated law enforcement response that left him both overwhelmed and reassured.

    When police closed in on the suspects’ vehicle in the residential neighborhood, the violence reached its horrific conclusion: one teen shot his accomplice before turning the gun on himself. The three victims were identified as Amin Abdullah, the center’s security guard; Nadir Awad, a beloved local shopkeeper who called 911 during the attack; and Mansour Kaziha, husband of a teacher at the on-site school. Investigators later confirmed the attack was premeditated, driven by what officials describe as “broad hatred” that radicalized the 17- and 18-year-old suspects online. A manifesto recovered from the pair contained virulently Islamophobic, anti-semitic and misogynistic rhetoric, and law enforcement seized 30 guns and a crossbow from three local residences linked to the teens. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria confirmed the attack is being formally investigated as a white-supremacist hate crime.

    Against the devastating loss, a wave of solidarity emerged from across the state and nation. Just four days after the shooting, thousands of people of all faiths and backgrounds traveled to San Diego to attend a public funeral prayer, gathering to stand in solidarity with the Muslim community and honor the lives of the three slain men. Separate burial services were held on May 21 at La Vista Memorial Park in National City, following a community vigil the night before that drew hundreds of mourners to a nearby neighborhood park.

    For many parents who survived the attack, the trauma remains raw. Omar Al-Nouri, who was reunited with his daughter Maya five hours after the shooting, says he cannot shake the terrifying image of what could have happened. “I just had a vision in my mind of the shooters going into the school and encountering my child or another child, I just can’t get that vision out of my head,” he said. Dr. Muhammad Rahman, a local resident whose two children were on the playground during the shooting, called the moment devastating but credited God’s mercy with sparing the school’s students. Emergency protocols, trained staff and coordinated first responder response are credited with saving the 140 children and staff on campus during the attack.

    Abdullah, the center’s security guard, has already been hailed as a hero by community members: he confronted the gunmen and initiated lockdown procedures that many believe prevented far greater loss of life. His daughter Hawaa Abdullah, speaking to reporters surrounded by her seven siblings, said her father would want the community to remain united. “He wants all of us to be better, regardless of who we are, what we identify as,” she said. “He wants us to be better, and that’s exactly what I, my family, and I hope every single other person here strives to do every single day – make this world a better place.”

    Community leaders say while they are horrified by the attack, they cannot claim it came as a complete surprise. Abdullah Tahiri, president of the Muslim Leadership Council of San Diego, blamed the attack on a years-long pattern of normalized anti-Muslim rhetoric in mainstream American politics. “When figures in the highest halls of the government dehumanise Muslims, paint our institutions as threats, and treat our community with suspicion, they lay the groundwork for real-world violence we witnessed,” he told reporters. Imam Taha Hassane, director of the Islamic Center of San Diego, added that while the center had long received low-level hate messages and harassment from passersby, the scale of violence was still unimaginable. “I know what’s going on in the world. I have seen shootings taking place in houses of worship, schools, malls. But happening here? It never came through my mind,” he said.

    Despite the trauma, community members across San Diego say they will not be intimidated by the hate attack. The mosque reopened for daily prayers just two days after the shooting, and leaders emphasize the center will continue its work serving people of all backgrounds across the region. “We will mourn, we will heal, and we will continue to stand strong, rooted in justice, dignity and an unwavering support and faith in our religious traditions,” Tahiri said. Dr. Saad Eldegewi, another imam at the center, added: “Hate speech leads to hate crimes. Hate speech leads to terrorism, extremism and we are here to fight all that in all legal ways. In all peaceful ways.”

    Today, the center’s school semester – which was nearly complete when the attack happened – has ended early, and the administration building, playgrounds and other sections of the complex remain closed to the public as investigations continue. A makeshift memorial lined with flowers from local neighbors lines the sidewalk outside the center’s gates, and uniformed police continue to patrol the surrounding neighborhood. As the community mourns its three lost members, many are calling for national change to address the root causes of gun violence and hate-fueled extremism, clinging to solidarity as a source of strength in the wake of unthinkable tragedy.

  • Record 274 climbers scale Everest via Nepal in one day

    Record 274 climbers scale Everest via Nepal in one day

    Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak at 8,849 meters above sea level, has hit an unprecedented milestone in Nepal’s 2025 spring climbing season: on May 21 (local time), 274 climbers successfully summited the mountain via its southern Nepali route in a single day. This single-day summit count shatters the previous 2019 record of 223 ascents from the southern side, capping off a season that has seen overall interest in climbing the iconic peak surge despite Nepal’s first permit fee increase in nearly a decade. The 2025 season got off to an unusually slow start, after a massive detached ice block blocked the standard climbing route, delaying summit attempts for days. Once the path cleared, however, climbers rushed to take advantage of a narrow window of stable, clear weather. According to Khimlal Gautam, an official with Nepal’s Department of Tourism, the summit push began at 3:00 a.m. local time and stretched across 11 consecutive hours of steady climbing. This year, Nepal issued a record-breaking 500 permits to international climbers aiming for the peak – a figure that does not include the mandatory Nepali guide that nearly every climber hires, meaning the total number of people attempting the ascent this season is far higher. China, which manages Everest’s northern route through Tibet, has closed the path to foreign climbers this season, directing all international summit attempts to Nepal’s southern corridor. Photographs circulating widely on social media this week have laid bare the growing problem of overcrowding, showing long snaking lines of mountaineers packed along the slopes of Everest’s infamous “death zone” – the section of the mountain above 8,000 meters where oxygen levels are barely sufficient to sustain human life. Even with supplemental oxygen, which nearly all climbers rely on at this altitude, mountaineering safety experts warn that extended time in the death zone raises the risk of fatal altitude sickness, frostbite, and accidents. A longer wait in a queue of climbers translates directly to more time exposed to these lethal hazards. What makes this record season even more notable is that it comes even after Nepal raised Everest permit fees by more than 36% last September. For the first time in nine years, the government increased the permit cost from a longstanding $11,000 per climber to $15,000. The fee hike was designed in part to curb excessive overcrowding and generate more revenue for mountain safety infrastructure, but it has done little to dampen global demand for summiting the world’s highest peak. Expedition organizers argue that the risks of congestion can be mitigated with proper preparation. Lukas Furtenbach, founder of Austria-based expedition outfitter Furtenbach Adventures, told reporters that as long as teams carry enough supplemental oxygen for unexpected delays, overcrowding does not have to be a catastrophic problem. He noted that popular alpine peaks in the Alps regularly see thousands of climbers summiting in a single day, and that 274 climbers on a mountain 10 times the size of those peaks is a manageable number. Beyond the overall summit record, this season has already seen a series of historic individual achievements. On May 18, 56-year-old legendary Nepali guide Kami Rita Sherpa extended his own world record for the most Everest summits, reaching the top for the 32nd time. That same day, 52-year-old Lhakpa Sherpa, widely known as the “Mountain Queen,” broke her own record for the most Everest summits by a female climber with her 11th ascent. On May 22, 34-year-old Russian double leg amputee Rustam Nabiev made history by reaching the summit without using prosthetic legs. For all the milestones, however, the 2025 season has already brought tragedy, with three confirmed deaths linked to climbing attempts on Everest. The most high-profile casualty was 35-year-old Bijay Ghimere, the first climber from Nepal’s marginalized Dalit community to reach the Everest summit, who died after developing severe altitude sickness. On May 19, 21-year-old guide Phura Gyaljen Sherpa fell into a deep crevasse near Camp 3 after slipping on ice. The first fatality of the season came on May 3, when 51-year-old veteran guide Lakpa Dendi Sherpa died while traveling to Everest Base Camp. As the spring climbing season progresses, the record numbers have reignited long-running debates about balancing Nepal’s lucrative Everest tourism industry – which generates hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenue for the country – with growing safety risks from unchecked overcrowding.

  • Enhanced Games: the ‘Steroid Olympics’ hit Las Vegas

    Enhanced Games: the ‘Steroid Olympics’ hit Las Vegas

    The first iteration of one of the most controversial sporting events in modern history, the Enhanced Games — widely nicknamed the “Steroid Olympics” — is set to launch this Sunday at Las Vegas’ Resorts World arena. The unconventional competition brings together 42 elite sprinters, swimmers, and weightlifters who are permitted to use performance-enhancing substances banned from traditional international sport, with athletes vying to break existing world records for unprecedented cash payouts.

    Opinions on the event are deeply divided: supporters frame it as a groundbreaking experiment pushing the boundaries of human physical potential and technological integration in sport, while critics dismiss it as an irresponsible publicity stunt designed to market unregulated biohacking products to mainstream audiences. Long before the first starter pistol fires, the Enhanced Games has sparked heated global debate across the sporting and medical communities.

    Backed by high-profile deep-pocketed investors including Donald Trump Jr., Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, and Middle Eastern financiers, the competition has drawn decorated Olympic athletes away from traditional clean sport with life-changing prize incentives. Any athlete who breaks an existing world record will claim a $1 million bonus, while individual event winners take home $250,000 each — sums far outstripping what most elite competitors earn in years of traditional Olympic competition.

    Among the athletes lured by the payouts is former Irish Olympic swimmer Max McCusker, who retired from competitive swimming after the 2024 Paris Games. McCusker told AFP he was shocked to learn the top prize at the Enhanced Games is 25 times the total $10,000 he earned over his entire professional clean swimming career. Over the past four months, he has trained in Abu Dhabi under medical supervision, where he has taken anabolic steroids, testosterone, and human growth hormone, with clinicians closely tracking his body’s response via regular biomarker testing. McCusker says the results have been extraordinary: his body fat has dropped by nearly half to 6.4%, and he is posting faster swim times than he achieved at the peak of his Olympic career. He is confident multiple world records will fall during the Las Vegas event.

    Not all competitors are using enhanced substances: a small handful are competing clean, and organizers have not publicly disclosed the exact drug regimen for each athlete. Event organizers stress that all substances administered are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the entire process is overseen by an independent medical board. They also note athletes will receive long-term health monitoring to track any adverse effects.

    However, the event has faced fierce condemnation from global sporting and anti-doping bodies. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has called the competition dangerous and demanded it be called off entirely. World Aquatics has issued a permanent ban from all its sanctioned events for any athlete participating in the Enhanced Games, while World Athletics president Sebastian Coe famously dismissed the entire project as reckless and unethical. Medical experts also warn of severe unaddressed health risks.

    Ian Boardley, a professor of sport science at the University of Birmingham, explained that while biomarker tracking can reduce the risk of immediate acute harm, the long-term health impacts of sustained performance-enhancing drug use remain largely unstudied in this context. Even anabolic steroids alone, he noted, carry well-documented risks of life-shortening conditions including heart disease, liver and kidney failure, and permanent cognitive decline. Testosterone use can trigger dependency and clinical depression, while many of the peptides used in athletes’ regimens are an unregulated “Wild West” with even less data on long-term outcomes.

    Athletes like McCusker acknowledge the risks but argue they are taking all possible precautions to mitigate harm, drawing a comparison to the well-documented risks of common lifestyle choices like excessive caffeine consumption. Many participating athletes also share McCusker’s skepticism that traditional Olympic sport remains entirely clean, arguing the Enhanced Games simply brings open transparency to a practice they claim is already widespread behind closed doors.

    Beyond the on-field competition, the Enhanced Games is tied to the growing global biohacking movement, which has gained particular traction among Silicon Valley circles seeking experimental treatments for improved physical performance and longevity. The event’s official website already sells a range of supplements including peptides and testosterone directly to consumers, allowing members of the public to pursue their own “enhancement” alongside competing athletes. Organizers do not depend on a traditional lucrative television broadcast deal to turn a profit, instead leaning into direct-to-consumer product sales and online streaming. The competition will be available to view globally for free via streaming platforms including YouTube and Roku, with no major traditional broadcaster attached to the inaugural event.

    Medical experts warn that the event’s mainstream visibility is sending a dangerous message to the public that unregulated performance-enhancing treatments can be used safely, a claim they strongly reject. For proponents like McCusker, however, the Enhanced Games represents a shift in what modern audiences want from sport. “We’re living in a different age,” he said. “People want to see more excitement. People want to see faster times. And people want to see people break the world record and have incredible athletic bodies.”