Global Pulse

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  • Meta shares fall as frustration grows over AI spending plans

    Meta shares fall as frustration grows over AI spending plans

    In a move that has sent shockwaves through global tech stock markets, Meta Platforms, the parent company of major social media platforms Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has seen its shares drop by 11% in Wednesday trading. The sell-off came directly after the firm released its second-quarter financial results, which laid out a sharp increase in planned artificial intelligence (AI) capital expenditure alongside declining quarterly profits.

    The April-to-June results showed Meta delivered 28% year-over-year revenue growth, hitting $61 billion (£45.6 billion). However, net profits for the quarter fell 14% year-over-year to $6 billion, a decline that caught many market analysts off guard. Most notably, the company revised its full-year 2024 capital expenditure guidance upward to a range of $130 billion to $145 billion, a $5 billion increase from the forecast it released just three months prior. The vast majority of this expanded budget will be directed toward AI research, infrastructure, and product development, cementing Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s position as one of the biggest corporate spenders on AI globally.

    Zuckerberg has framed the aggressive spending push as a high-stakes, long-term bet that will pay off for the company and its investors over time. “I get that this is a big bet across the industry,” Zuckerberg told analysts during a post-results earnings call. “My personal bet is that the people who invest in this will feel very good and be rewarded over time.” The Meta chief added that existing AI investments are already driving higher user engagement on Facebook and Instagram, while also streamlining ad creation tools for small and medium-sized businesses. Looking ahead, he positioned autonomous AI agents as the next major product wave for the company, noting that soon these tools will be able to work around the clock on behalf of users.

    Beyond consumer-facing products, Meta is preparing to launch a new line of business selling AI technology and infrastructure to other companies. The first step of this rollout will be simplifying integration for Meta’s existing Muse Spark AI model, with additional coding and productivity tools planned for future release. Meta CFO Susan Li told analysts that monetizing these enterprise AI offerings will be key to generating returns on the company’s massive capital outlay. “By 2028, we’ll have turned over a lot of cards,” Li said, referencing the timeline for the new business segment to mature. Zuckerberg added that while building an enterprise AI business requires new capabilities the company has not historically prioritized, the market opportunity is too large to ignore. “It’s not just about selling compute; it’s the API services and the productivity services and I think there is a very, very large opportunity there and we’re quite focused on that,” he said.

    Despite the leadership’s optimistic long-term outlook, investors have reacted with immediate concern to the rising spending and shrinking near-term profitability. Meta’s quarterly free cash flow – the capital the company retains after covering operating expenses – fell to just $784 million, the lowest reading the firm has posted in at least five years, according to its official financial filings. Meta is not alone in this trend: Alphabet, Google’s parent company, posted its own record-low free cash flow last week, which also triggered a notable drop in its share price. For the moment, Zuckerberg’s big AI bet has split market sentiment: while the CEO and his team insist the investments will unlock massive value down the line, investors have made clear they are uneasy about the short-term hit to earnings and the unproven nature of Meta’s upcoming enterprise AI business.

  • Trump says US to hit Iran hard

    Trump says US to hit Iran hard

    A fragile lull in Middle East hostilities has collapsed, sparking fears of a broader regional conflict after Iran launched missile strikes against U.S. bases in Jordan, prompting a harsh warning of massive retaliation from U.S. President Donald Trump. The resumption of cross-front attacks has sent global energy markets into turmoil, with oil prices surging 5% in a single day as investors braced for potential disruptions to critical global energy supply chains.

    The latest wave of violence ended a brief ceasefire that had raised cautious hopes for renewed diplomatic negotiations to de-escalate the years-long regional standoff. On Wednesday alone, multiple fronts flared up simultaneously: Saudi Arabia and the United States carried out joint air strikes on militant positions across Iraq, while Israel accused Iran-backed Hezbollah of breaking an existing truce along the Lebanon-Israel border.

    For two consecutive days, Saudi Arabia — the world’s largest crude oil exporter — has suffered drone attacks on its critical crude production infrastructure, which Riyadh has blamed on Tehran-aligned Iraqi armed groups. In response to the Jordan strike, Trump made his stance clear in an interview with Fox News, saying: “We’ll be hitting them hard…We are going to beat the ‘effing s’ out of them.”

    Saudi security researcher Hesham Alghannam told Agence France-Presse that Iran is leveraging its network of regional proxy groups to maintain strategic pressure on Western and allied Arab states, even as diplomatic channels remain open to absorb international scrutiny. After Iran’s missile attack on Jordan, Jordan’s military confirmed it intercepted five incoming Iranian projectiles, while Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) confirmed it targeted U.S. military bases stationed on Jordanian territory. “As long as the threats against the Islamic Republic of Iran continue…the resistance will continue,” the IRGC statement added.

    Iranian state media later reported a U.S. counter-strike near the border town of Piranshahr adjacent to Iraq, with initial reports indicating the strike hit an unpopulated area and caused no casualties. Along the Lebanon-Israel border, the Israeli military accused Hezbollah of launching a drone attack against an Israeli vehicle overnight inside Lebanese territory, labeling the incident a “blatant violation of the existing ceasefire”. Israel joined U.S. operations against Iranian targets in the early weeks of the current conflict while fighting Hezbollah in Lebanon, but has not yet joined the latest round of strikes against Iran.

    The sudden escalation sent shockwaves through global financial markets on Wednesday. U.S. stock indexes closed sharply lower amid the oil price jump, while yields on 30-year U.S. Treasury bonds hit their highest level since 2007, reflecting growing investor anxiety over inflation risks from higher energy costs.

    The joint U.S.-Saudi air strikes in Iraq targeted logistics and weapons depots belonging to an Iran-aligned militant faction, according to statements from the U.S. military. Iraq’s Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilisation Forces, PMF), an integrated state security alliance originally formed in 2014 to fight extremist jihadist groups, said the strikes killed at least 20 of its members. The PMF denounced the attack as a “dangerous escalation” targeting an official Iraqi security institution. Two senior PMF officials confirmed five Iranian military advisors were among those killed, and AFP correspondents on the ground saw coffins draped in Iranian flags prepared for burial. The PMF includes multiple brigades aligned with Iran that often operate independently of Iraqi central government command.

    The Iraqi government formally condemned the joint strikes, releasing a statement rejecting “all acts of aggression, regardless of the party responsible or the justifications presented”. Iraq’s Ministerial Council for National Security said it would “confront any violation of Iraq’s sovereignty, and prevent any source from using Iraqi territory to threaten neighbouring states”. Despite this condemnation, President Trump told Fox News the strikes were “coordinated with the Iraqi government”. The operation comes amid mounting U.S. pressure on Baghdad to disarm pro-Iran militias operating within its borders; earlier this month, Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi conducted official visits to both Washington and Tehran in an effort to balance competing demands.

    The days-long ceasefire that collapsed this week had been billed by U.S. officials as a window to restart negotiations on multiple flashpoints, most notably the Strait of Hormuz — a critical global energy chokepoint that Iran has blockaded for much of the ongoing conflict. The IRGC recently announced it intercepted and seized three commercial tankers transiting the strait, insisting Iran exercises “full control” over the waterway that was previously open to unrestricted international passage. Tehran has stated it will maintain control of the key energy conduit, and has announced plans to charge transit fees for commercial ships passing through the strait — a policy the U.S. strongly opposes. In response, Washington announced new sanctions targeting entities linked to the IRGC, accusing the Guard of extorting fees from transiting commercial vessels.

    Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has increased the strategic importance of the Red Sea, which Riyadh now uses as its alternative primary export route for crude oil, amplifying existing tensions over security in that critical waterway as well.

  • Inflation data gives Reserve Bank reason to pause looming interest rate hike

    Inflation data gives Reserve Bank reason to pause looming interest rate hike

    Australia’s battle against persistent inflation has hit a small but welcome milestone, with new official data showing headline consumer price growth cooled slightly in June – but top economic analysts warn ordinary households will not feel tangible relief from cost-of-living strains for a full year, and interest rate hikes remain on the table for the country’s central bank.

    New figures published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday put annual headline inflation at 3.8% through the end of June, a modest drop from the 4.0% recorded in May and the 4.2% reading from April. The lower-than-expected result has given some tentative hope to mortgage holders, with economists noting there is no clear trigger in the data to force the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to lift interest rates at its upcoming August policy meeting.

    National Australia Bank (NAB) chief economist Sally Auld framed the latest inflation update as a small win in what remains a difficult fight to bring price growth back to the RBA’s 2-3% target range. “Whether you look at monthly, quarterly or annual readings, or core versus headline metrics, most measures came in a touch softer than anticipated,” Auld told NewsWire in an interview. “There’s no smoking gun in this data for the RBA to act in August, but we’re certainly not out of the woods yet.”

    Auld pointed to growing global headwinds that continue to threaten Australia’s inflation outlook, specifically the recent escalation of tensions in the Middle East that has already driven up global fuel prices. Those price gains will keep upward pressure on the RBA’s inflation forecasts, she said, making it far too early for the central bank to declare victory over persistent price growth. Even with the June improvement, Auld noted the RBA will remain firmly cautious, and any talk of cutting interest rates remains distant. “It’s a long way away from declaring victory on the inflation challenge or opening up the possibility of lower rates,” she added.

    Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers echoed that cautious optimism, describing the lower inflation reading as “encouraging” while stressing the government still has more work to do to tame price pressures. “We don’t get too carried away by one set of data, one set of numbers from day to day or from week to week,” Chalmers said. “But obviously it’s a positive development that these numbers have come in lower than expected by the market, by the Treasury and by the Reserve Bank.” He also confirmed that ongoing geopolitical tensions between the United States and Iran will continue to put upward pressure on domestic inflation and the broader Australian economy.

    While headline inflation showed clear improvement, economists remain divided over the RBA’s preferred inflation metric: the trimmed mean rate, which excludes the most volatile 15% of price changes on both the upper and lower end to filter out temporary swings like sharp petrol price shifts. That core measure held steady at 3.6% in June, unchanged from previous readings and still well above the central bank’s target.

    KPMG chief economist Brendan Rynne argued that the sticky core inflation reading keeps another interest rate hike on the table for August, saying the RBA is stuck between competing priorities. “The economy is not in great shape and uncertainty driven by global and domestic factors is elevated, yet it seems inevitable that further rate rises may be necessary to bring inflation back inside the RBA’s target range within a reasonable time frame,” Rynne explained, noting the current 4.1% cash rate is still likely not high enough to bring price growth under control quickly.

    Even with the modest drop in headline inflation, cost-of-living pressures remain the top burden for most Australian households, and that strain is unlikely to ease meaningfully until mid-2025, Auld said. “Generally speaking the cost-of-living issue is still a dominant one for many bank customers and I don’t think that has changed materially in the last little while,” she said. “That is probably going to linger as we move into next year, and it probably won’t be until this time next year until households get some relief on that.”

    The pressure has also spread to business customers, who have so far absorbed higher input costs by accepting lower profit margins rather than passing all price increases onto consumers, Auld added. Over the next six to 12 months, the Australian economy can expect slower growth, a continued correction in the overheated housing market, and a modest drift higher in the national unemployment rate, she predicted.

    Still, there is a small silver lining on the horizon: if the economy weathers that period of slower growth, the RBA should be able to confirm inflation is under control and begin to normalize interest rates with modest cuts by this time next year, Auld said. “This is the nature of inflation challenges, they are not costless in the sense that we have to go through a period of below trend growth in order to get inflation back under control,” she noted.

  • A look at Trump’s $22bn plans to makeover Dulles Airport near Washington

    A look at Trump’s $22bn plans to makeover Dulles Airport near Washington

    Nestled just outside the U.S. capital, Washington Dulles International Airport has long served as a critical gateway for international and domestic travel, but its aging infrastructure has drawn growing criticism from travelers and industry experts alike. At the center of a newly proposed sweeping upgrade is a $22 billion transformation initiative put forward by former U.S. President Donald Trump, a project that would reshape one of the busiest aviation hubs on the East Coast. The BBC’s Shaimaa Khalil recently explored the airport’s current state, starting her on-site report aboard one of Dulles’ signature people movers – a transit system that has carried passengers between terminals continuously since 1962. That half-century-old transit system stands as a symbol of the airport’s stalled modernization: while other major U.S. hubs have invested billions to update concourses, security checkpoints, baggage systems and passenger amenities, Dulles has retained much of its original mid-century infrastructure that struggles to keep up with growing passenger volumes. Trump’s plan calls for a full gut-and-rebuild of key terminal areas, expansion of runway capacity to accommodate larger aircraft and reduce flight delays, replacement of outdated internal transit systems including the current people movers, and major upgrades to ground transportation connections linking the airport to downtown Washington and surrounding suburbs. Proponents of the plan argue that the overhaul would create thousands of local construction jobs, boost the regional economy by increasing Dulles’ capacity to handle growing air travel demand, and solidify the airport’s role as a key global entry point for the United States. Critics, however, have raised questions about the $22 billion price tag, how the project would be funded, and whether the overhaul aligns with long-term national aviation infrastructure priorities. As discussions around the proposal continue, the 60-year-old people movers still move thousands of passengers daily, a quiet reminder of how long infrastructure upgrades have been pending at this critical national transportation hub.

  • Nigeria dismantles meth lab, but fears of Mexican cartel links linger

    Nigeria dismantles meth lab, but fears of Mexican cartel links linger

    Deep within a dense forest straddling two rural villages in Nigeria’s southwestern Ogun State, an abandoned shed hid a chilling secret: tons of unprocessed chemicals, large cooking cauldrons, and crude filtration equipment, all remnants of an alleged $360 million transnational methamphetamine operation. On Wednesday, Nigeria’s National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) oversaw the full dismantling of the facility, the largest meth production hub ever uncovered in the country, a move that has renewed long-simmering concerns about the expansion of Mexican cartel influence into West Africa.

    The dismantling came one week after an unprecedented on-site court proceeding, held as part of an ongoing trial of three Mexican nationals linked to the facility. An AFP correspondent accompanied NDLEA officers as they brought in local tradespeople to cut apart and remove the lab’s production infrastructure, nearly five months after the operation was first raided. In May, law enforcement teams arrested 10 suspects – seven Nigerians and three foreign nationals – during raids on the forest lab and two high-end residential properties in Lagos’ upscale neighborhoods. When the dust settled, they had seized finished meth and precursor chemicals worth an estimated $360 million on the illegal market. While the trial has moved back to indoor courtrooms in Lagos, a judge ordered the site cleared for urgent environmental reasons, with residual toxic chemicals posing a major risk to local groundwater and air quality. When the AFP visited the site this week, abandoned barrels of chemicals and partially processed meth were still emitting acrid, choking vapors that lingered across the surrounding forest.

    For decades, West Africa has served as a key transit hub for drug trafficking, most commonly for cocaine moving from South America to consumer markets in Europe. But the Ogun State bust marks a significant shift: rather than just moving drugs through the region, transnational criminal networks are now setting up local production operations for highly addictive synthetic drugs like meth. Local security officials say the scale and professional structure of the Nigerian lab is clear evidence of direct involvement by Mexican cartels, which have been exporting their illicit production expertise to West Africa since at least the early 2010s. A 2019 report from the Institute for Security Studies already documented a steady rise in meth seizures and lab raids across Nigeria since 2011, a trend that has continued into 2024: just last June, another Mexican national was arrested during a separate meth bust in Oyo State, central Nigeria.

    Despite the growing threat from transnational cartels, NDLEA officials say they are prepared to contain the crisis. “About our readiness to combat the cartel… yes, we are ready,” James Taalba, the NDLEA’s deputy commander of narcotics, told AFP. “We have people who are capable of curtailing such a situation.”

    For local residents living just kilometers from the lab, the discovery came as a shock. Florence Banjo, a 59-year-old farmer who lives in Abidagba, one of the villages bordering the forest site, said she had noticed a foul stench drifting from the forest for months, but assumed it came from a local pigsty. Like many other area residents, she had heard rumors the cleared forest land was being prepared for a new housing development – a prospect that left her excited, as she hoped the project would bring paved roads to her isolated community. “We heard rumours that they were going to build an estate there, and I was happy that they’d finally pave the road that leads into our village,” Banjo said. “We were disappointed.”

    Public health experts warn that the rise of local meth production in Nigeria poses an acute threat to the country’s already overstretched healthcare system. Small amounts of contraband that slip past traffickers have already begun to enter domestic drug markets, creating a public health crisis that poorly funded local health services are ill-equipped to address.

  • Photo of Israeli soldiers posing next to blindfolded Palestinian fuels anger online

    Photo of Israeli soldiers posing next to blindfolded Palestinian fuels anger online

    A photograph showing two female Israeli soldiers posing beside a bound, blindfolded Palestinian young man has ignited widespread public fury across social media platforms after it spread virally online last week.

    The image was originally published this Tuesday as part of a photo carousel on the personal Instagram account of Nikol Stelmashvski, an Israeli woman who had just completed her term of mandatory military service. In the photo, the two uniformed soldiers are seen smiling for the camera while standing next to the unidentified Palestinian, who sits on the ground with his head bowed. No clear details have been released about the exact date or location where the photo was captured.

    Stelmashvski’s caption, written in Hebrew, framed the post as a reflection on wrapping up her military service, reading: “Two years and eight months, four wars… Thousands of memories, a million and one experiences. And here came the end of a chapter of my life that I will never forget.”

    By Wednesday, amid a flood of angry and critical comments from users across the globe, the controversial photograph was removed from the Instagram carousel, and the account was switched to private status within a few hours of the backlash beginning. Even after the original post was taken down, hundreds of screengrabs of the image had already been saved and shared across alternative platforms, allowing the photo to continue circulating widely online.

    Palestinian academic and prominent human rights advocate Ramy Abdu condemned the image in a post on X, writing: “Turning his humiliation into a moment of celebration.” Other social media users drew comparisons to the 2004 Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal in Iraq, noting that global audiences were similarly horrified by images of Iraqi detainees being dehumanized by U.S. soldiers. One user, journalist Mohammad Alsaafin, wrote: “IDF revel in depravity and no one is holding Israel to account.” He added that the image required no contextual labels “and everyone will immediately know where it was taken and what country these women are from.”

    This viral incident is not an isolated case, experts and activists note: since the outbreak of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza in October 2023, Israeli soldiers have repeatedly shared graphic content online depicting actions that human rights groups say may constitute war crimes. The range of content shared by active and recently discharged soldiers includes footage of troops celebrating as they destroy civilian infrastructure, including private family homes, community mosques, and university buildings. In one notable earlier incident, a soldier posted a photo that used a blindfolded Palestinian man as a prop to advertise the soldier’s private commercial business. Other images that have circulated show soldiers posing with stacks of cash looted from Palestinian homes in Gaza, and wearing women’s underwear stolen from displaced civilians’ residences.

    Just one month prior to this latest controversy, an Israeli soldier sparked widespread backlash after posting a photo of a blindfolded, partially undressed Palestinian man lying in a stress position on a cot, his hands zip-tied behind his back and bound to a metal rod. The soldier’s caption simply read “Good morning” in Hebrew. That image, which was reposted by Palestinian activists, drew global condemnation and renewed calls for formal accountability for crimes against Palestinian detainees.

    In response to this week’s viral photo, the Israel Defense Forces released a brief statement acknowledging that it had “identified the incident” and launched an internal command investigation. The statement added that “those involved will be dealt with in accordance with the findings that emerge.” However, data from independent war monitoring organization Action on Armed Violence casts doubt on the likelihood of meaningful consequences: an AOAV investigation published last year found that nearly 90 percent of all Israeli military investigations into allegations of soldier abuse against Palestinians launched since October 2023 have either been closed without action or concluded with no actionable findings.

  • Italy’s highest court strengthens citizenship claims by descendants of Italian emigrants

    Italy’s highest court strengthens citizenship claims by descendants of Italian emigrants

    ROME — In a landmark decision that reshapes Italy’s citizenship-by-descent policies for diaspora communities worldwide, Italy’s Court of Cassation — the nation’s highest judicial body — has ruled that children born with Italian citizenship do not automatically forfeit that status when an Italian parent naturalizes as a citizen of another country during the child’s minority. The judgment, finalized Sunday and published publicly Wednesday, comes from the court’s United Sections panel, the top body tasked with resolving conflicting legal interpretations, and reverses a restrictive judicial trend that blocked hundreds of thousands of citizenship claims over recent years.

    The dispute at the heart of the case, widely known among immigration lawyers and diaspora communities as the “Minor Issue,” has lingered for decades, creating uncertainty for thousands of ancestry-based citizenship applications tied to Italian families that emigrated between the late 19th century and early 20th century. Starting in 2023, a series of lower court rulings adopted a narrow reading of Italian citizenship law, holding that when an Italian parent acquired foreign citizenship while their child was still a minor, the child automatically lost their birthright Italian citizenship. This interpretation broke the line of citizenship transmission for subsequent generations, leading to widespread rejection of applications from descendants of Italian emigrants.

    In its new ruling, the court clarified that under Italy’s longstanding citizenship framework, individuals who gain Italian citizenship at birth via iure sanguinis — the principle of citizenship by bloodline — retain that status indefinitely even if their parent naturalizes abroad. This holding applies specifically to children born in nations that grant birthright citizenship automatically, such as the United States. Because the original citizenship is never lost, the right to pass that status down to future generations of descendants remains intact.

    Marco Mellone, the attorney who represented citizenship applicants in the landmark case, explained that the ruling marks a full reversal of the restrictive policy that derailed thousands of claims, most notably from U.S. citizens of Italian descent. “The Supreme Court of Cassation has completely changed its position and gone back, confirming that all these Italian-American families — and, more generally, families in all countries where this situation existed — regain the right to Italian citizenship by descent,” Mellone told the Associated Press.

    The decision carries sweeping implications for the global Italian diaspora, which numbers in the millions across North and South America, where millions of people trace ancestral roots to 19th and 20th century emigration waves from Italy. Mellone estimates that roughly hundreds of thousands of families had their citizenship claims blocked by the 2023 restrictive interpretation, all of whom now stand to reactivate their applications.

    Legal experts note the ruling will significantly strengthen the position of applicants whose claims were rejected solely due to the Minor Issue dispute, while offering binding authoritative guidance for judges overseeing thousands of pending citizenship cases. It is also expected to shape how Italian administrative agencies and consulates around the world evaluate future applications. While it remains uncertain whether Italy’s Interior Ministry and global consular network will formally update their processing guidelines to align with the new holding, rulings from the United Sections panel carry extraordinary legal weight in Italian law, as the body is specifically convened to settle conflicting legal interpretations. As Mellone put it, there is no judicial body above the panel, which very rarely reverses its own prior precedent.

    The ruling arrives amid growing demand for citizenship-by-descent in Italy, and ongoing legal wrangling over the scope of ancestry-based citizenship rights. In a separate ongoing dispute, a law pushed by Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani that tightens restrictions on citizenship transmission to more distant generations has been referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union, with oral arguments and a ruling expected to unfold in 2025.

  • A Caribbean court rules that a US extradition process against Guyana’s opposition leader can resume

    A Caribbean court rules that a US extradition process against Guyana’s opposition leader can resume

    GEORGETOWN, Guyana — In a landmark legal ruling with far-reaching implications for the oil-rich South American nation, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) has authorized the resumption of U.S. extradition proceedings for Guyana’s top opposition leader and his father, who face federal charges of gold smuggling and money laundering in the United States. The Wednesday decision dismissed a legal challenge filed by Azruddin Mohamed, head of the country’s second-largest parliamentary party, and his father Nazar Mohamed, rejecting the pair’s arguments that the charges against them did not qualify as extraditable offenses under regional agreements.

    Azruddin Mohamed catapulted into Guyanese politics just six months after launching the We Invest in Nationhood Party, securing the position of opposition leader in January 2024. The 50-year-old tycoon is counted among Guyana’s wealthiest individuals, with an extensive business empire spanning gold trade, foreign exchange services, and large-scale real estate holdings across the country. According to U.S. federal prosecutors, the Mohameds built their fortune through a years-long criminal scheme: smuggling more than 10,000 kilograms (22,000 pounds) of gold from Guyana to buyers in Miami and Dubai, while evading over $50 million in U.S. taxes. The U.S. Treasury Department subsequently imposed formal sanctions on the pair in connection with the alleged activity.

    The father-son duo were arrested in Guyana last year shortly after the U.S. extradition request was filed, and have remained free on bond while challenging the proceedings. As the final court of appeal for multiple Caribbean nations, the CCJ heard the case at its headquarters in Port of Spain, Trinidad, with Wednesday’s hearing broadcast live to the public. During the session, CCJ Justice Winston Anderson noted the procedural complexity of the case, declining to speculate on a timeline for when extradition proceedings will restart. Defense counsel for the Mohameds declined to make public statements during the hearing and did not respond to requests for comment after the ruling.

    Shortly after the decision was issued, Nazar Mohamed told reporters from The Associated Press that the legal team would need time to review the full 256-page judgment before outlining next steps. “It is a 256-page judgement,” he said. “Our lawyers are checking it through. Based on what lawyers say, all is not lost as yet. … We will be fighting all the way.” Azruddin Mohamed was observed in public during the hearing, smiling on camera at points, signaling the pair remains defiant amid the legal setback.

    The case has thrown a spotlight on longstanding allegations of systemic public corruption in Guyana, which has emerged as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies following the discovery of massive offshore oil deposits several years ago. Notably, the legal action against the opposition leaders has not disrupted warm diplomatic ties between the U.S. and the administration of Guyanese President Irfaan Ali. The South American country’s new oil wealth remains the subject of a long-running territorial dispute between Guyana and neighboring Venezuela, which claims the majority of the offshore oil region as its own sovereign territory.

  • ‘Blood everywhere’ – Clancy’s ex-husband testifies in children murder trial

    ‘Blood everywhere’ – Clancy’s ex-husband testifies in children murder trial

    A Massachusetts murder trial that has gripped the nation has seen harrowing firsthand testimony from Patrick Clancy, the ex-husband of Lindsay Clancy, the woman accused of murdering their three young children in January 2023. Patrick Clancy recounted the chilling sequence of events on January 24 that ended in the deaths of 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson, and 8-month-old Callan, describing a quiet and off-kilter atmosphere that immediately set off alarm bells when he returned home with takeout food.

    After checking most rooms of the Duxbury family home, including a quick pass through the basement, Clancy found the second-floor bedroom door locked. When he gained entry, the first thing he saw was blood spread across the space — a sight that confirmed his worst fears. He testified that prosecutors’ photos of the scene correctly showed no blood on the walls or bedding, a small detail that prosecution has emphasized as part of their narrative.

    Rushing from the blood-stained bedroom, Clancy ran outside to find his wife Lindsay on the grass. She had jumped from the second-story window in an apparent suicide attempt, and he found her with deep lacerations across her wrists and a red ligature mark around her neck. After calling 911 emergency services, Clancy told the court Lindsay revealed the children were being held in the basement. Sprinting to the space, he found each child, one by one, each with a fitness band wrapped around their neck, all unresponsive. Clancy described frantically switching between the three young victims, administering CPR until first responders arrived to take over.

    Lindsay Clancy, who faces three counts of first-degree murder, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Her legal team does not dispute she killed the children, but argues she was suffering severe postpartum psychosis at the time of the killings and was not in control of her actions. Patrick Clancy told the court that roughly a week after the tragedy, Lindsay told him she had heard a male voice commanding her to harm the children, adding he had no knowledge of psychosis as a condition prior to this incident.

    Lindsay Clancy, who was left paralyzed from the fall during her suicide attempt, has attended every day of the trial from her wheelchair. She reacted visibly to her ex-husband’s testimony on Wednesday: court footage showed her squeezing her lawyer’s hand, turning her face away from the gallery to wipe away tears. When prosecution played the 911 call Patrick Clancy made the day of the killings and entered the children’s bloodied pajamas as evidence, Lindsay Clancy broke down into audible sobs, forcing the judge to call a recess.

    Prosecutors are building a case that the killings were a premeditated, calculated act, and have cross-examined Patrick Clancy extensively on small details of his account, including the severity of his ex-wife’s cuts when he found her. Clancy confirmed he told first responders he did not believe it was necessary to apply pressure to the wounds, a detail prosecutors have highlighted to support their argument.

    The trial is expected to run for several more weeks, with additional witnesses scheduled to take the stand. If convicted, Lindsay Clancy will face a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

    This story contains discussion of suicide and fatal violence that may be distressing to readers. People experiencing suicidal thoughts or emotional crisis can access support through Befrienders Worldwide at www.befrienders.org, with UK-specific resources listed at bbc.co.uk/actionline.

  • Hundreds of migrants are swimming from Morocco to the Spanish territory of Ceuta

    Hundreds of migrants are swimming from Morocco to the Spanish territory of Ceuta

    CEUTA, Spain — The small Spanish autonomous territory of Ceuta, nestled on Morocco’s northern coast, is grappling with an extraordinary crisis of irregular migration, as hundreds of migrants have taken to swimming across the short strait separating Morocco from the enclave, stretching local border security and reception infrastructure to its breaking point, local government officials confirmed Wednesday.

    While summer months typically bring an uptick in maritime migration attempts due to calm, favorable weather conditions, Ceuta’s leadership says the current volume of people attempting the dangerous swim is far outside normal patterns. Over the past several days alone, more than 1,500 migrants — including both adults and unaccompanied minors — have successfully reached Ceuta’s shores via the crossing, Juan Jesús Vivas, the president of Ceuta’s regional government, told reporters. The territory’s dedicated migrant reception centers are already completely overwhelmed and operating far beyond their designed capacity, he added, with hundreds of new arrivals forced to sleep outside the facility’s walls.

    Vivas also noted the deadly risks inherent in this crossing attempt: over the past year alone, at least 60 bodies of migrants who died attempting the journey have been recovered from the surrounding waters.

    Spain’s national interior ministry, which holds federal oversight of border management and irregular migration tracking, declined to immediately confirm the total number of crossings or successful arrivals, instead directing media requests to the ministry’s upcoming bimonthly migration report, scheduled for public release on August 3. Speaking in an interview with Spanish broadcaster laSexta, Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska acknowledged the crisis qualifies as an “extraordinary, exceptional situation,” but stressed that authorities are responding with all permanent resources already deployed to the enclave. Spain’s Civil Guard, national Maritime Rescue Service, and the Red Cross have all been mobilized to intercept swimmers in open water and transport them to shore for processing.

    Local and migrant rights activists report the vast majority of those attempting the crossing are Moroccan nationals, with a smaller contingent of Algerian migrants who had previously been residing in Morocco while organizing their journey to the European Union.

    To date, there is no clear consensus on what has driven this sudden massive surge in crossings. Vivas pointed to a recent ruling from the Spanish Supreme Court, issued earlier this month, that bars authorities from immediately turning back sea arrivals without first conducting formal due process — a different standard than that applied to migrants who cross the land border by scaling Ceuta’s perimeter fence. But that explanation is disputed by independent migrant rights advocates.

    Omar Naji, president of the Moroccan Association of Human Rights in Eastern Morocco, argues that most migrants planning the crossing would not have been aware of the nuanced legal ruling, making it an unlikely trigger for the surge. Naji instead drew a parallel to the 2021 Ceuta border crisis, when more than 8,000 migrants entered the enclave over just 48 hours. That event came shortly after a high-level diplomatic meeting between Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, mirroring the timing of the current surge.

    The 2021 crisis was widely linked to a diplomatic dispute between Spain and Morocco: at that time, Morocco was accused of intentionally relaxing its border controls to allow mass crossings after Spain allowed Brahim Ghali, leader of the Polisario Front — the pro-independence movement seeking sovereignty for the disputed territory of Western Sahara — to enter Spain for medical treatment. That incident triggered a major diplomatic rift between Madrid and Rabat that lasted for months.

    This week, however, Grande-Marlaska struck a positive note regarding relations with Morocco, saying Moroccan authorities are actively cooperating with Spanish efforts to manage the crisis. “Our relationship with the kingdom is close and based on loyalty,” he told laSexta, adding that “they are also limiting irregular departures” from their coast.

    Reporting from Casablanca, Morocco, contributed by AP journalist Akram Oubachir.