Global Pulse

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  • India raises fuel prices as global energy crisis adds pressure on economy

    India raises fuel prices as global energy crisis adds pressure on economy

    NEW DELHI – In a long-awaited policy shift triggered by spiking global crude costs, India implemented a 3-rupee ($0.03) per liter increase in retail fuel prices on Friday, marking the first major pass-through of global energy market volatility to domestic consumers in one of the world’s largest emerging economies.

    Following the adjustment, retail gasoline in New Delhi now costs 97.77 rupees ($1.17) per liter, while diesel, the fuel that powers most of India’s commercial and freight sectors, has climbed to 90.67 rupees ($1.09) per liter.

    As a nation that relies on imports for roughly 90% of its total crude oil demand, India has faced extreme pressure on its energy budget and foreign exchange reserves amid ongoing supply disruptions tied to the Iran war and repeated closures of the critical Strait of Hormuz chokepoint. Until Friday, New Delhi had kept retail fuel prices frozen despite months of skyrocketing global energy costs, making it the last major global economy to avoid passing crude price increases on to end consumers.

    The price adjustment comes just days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a national call for voluntary energy austerity, framing fuel conservation and foreign exchange savings as an act of national patriotism. In his address Sunday, Modi urged Indian citizens to work from home wherever feasible, cut back on non-essential international travel, reduce gold purchases, and expand adoption of public transit and carpooling. He also called for reduced fertilizer use across the agricultural sector to further cut import costs.

    Opposition political leaders have been quick to criticize the timing of both the fuel price hike and Modi’s austerity appeal, noting that retail prices were kept artificially frozen through the entirety of a key round of state elections, only moving upward once voting concluded.

    The fuel price increase is just the latest in a series of policy moves to shore up India’s strained foreign exchange reserves, which have come under heavy pressure as the Indian rupee has slid to repeated record lows in recent weeks. Earlier this week, New Delhi raised import duties on gold and silver to 15% to dampen consumer demand for the precious metals, which are one of the country’s largest import categories after crude oil.

    India’s national capital has already become the first subnational government to roll out formal austerity measures to cut fuel consumption. On Thursday, New Delhi’s local government announced a 90-day fuel-saving campaign that includes mandatory two-day work-from-home arrangements for all government employees whose roles can be completed remotely. Private sector companies are being encouraged to adopt the same policy voluntarily. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the initiative is designed to cut official fuel consumption and encourage residents to shift from private cars to public transit.

    To reduce long-term dependence on imported crude, India has also accelerated its national program to blend ethanol into gasoline. Most fuel retail outlets across the country now offer E20 gasoline, which contains 20% ethanol, and the federal government has proposed expanding access to higher-blend fuels including E85 (85% ethanol) and even pure E100 ethanol for compatible vehicles.

    Energy analysts have cautioned that while expanded biofuel blending can reduce India’s exposure to global energy market shocks, it carries significant trade-offs. Increased ethanol production, which is largely sourced from food crops including sugarcane in India, could put additional pressure on already overexploited groundwater reserves, divert agricultural land away from food production, and cause damage to the engines of older vehicles not designed to run on high-ethanol blends.

    AP journalist Sibi Arasu in Bengaluru contributed reporting to this article.

  • 6 passengers from hantavirus-hit ship arrive in Australia for 3-week quarantine

    6 passengers from hantavirus-hit ship arrive in Australia for 3-week quarantine

    In the wake of a deadly hantavirus outbreak that has claimed three lives aboard an Antarctic cruise ship, six passengers with potential exposure to the virus touched down in Australia on Friday to start a mandatory quarantine set to last a minimum of 21 days. The long-range Gulfstream business jet that transported the group from the Netherlands landed at RAAF Base Pearce, a military airfield located just outside Perth, the capital of Western Australia. Following their arrival, all passengers and the jet’s crew were transported to a purpose-built quarantine facility in the nearby town of Bullsbrook, according to Australian health officials.

    Australian Health Minister Mark Butler confirmed last Thursday that national authorities have put in place what he described as one of the strictest and most robust quarantine protocols anywhere in the world to address this public health event. Of the six passengers entering quarantine, five hold Australian citizenship and one is a citizen of New Zealand. The Bullsbrook facility they are occupying was originally constructed in 2022 as part of Australia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but has stood almost entirely unused since its completion, until this hantavirus response.
    Butler noted that officials have not yet finalized what additional precautionary measures will be put in place after the initial three-week quarantine period ends. The World Health Organization has stated that hantavirus can have an incubation window of up to 42 days, meaning potential infection could remain undetected beyond the initial 21-day isolation period. Other passengers from the affected cruise ship, the MV Hondius, who returned to their home countries in the United States and the United Kingdom, are completing their quarantine periods at their personal residences, Butler added.
    All six passengers tested negative for hantavirus prior to departing the Netherlands, and none have shown any clinical symptoms of the virus as of their arrival in Australia, according to Butler. The outbreak, which was detected mid-voyage, has resulted in 11 confirmed cases among people aboard the MV Hondius, three of whom have died from complications linked to the infection.
    The MV Hondius was operating an expedition cruise that departed Argentina for Antarctica, before continuing on to visit a number of remote isolated islands across the South Atlantic when the outbreak was first identified. After the evacuation of all passengers and most of the ship’s crew was completed, the vessel set sail back to the Netherlands, where it will undergo a comprehensive professional cleaning and full disinfection process before returning to service.

  • Asian stocks are lower after South Korea’s Kospi hits records, as Trump wraps up Beijing trip

    Asian stocks are lower after South Korea’s Kospi hits records, as Trump wraps up Beijing trip

    HONG KONG – Global financial markets swung between caution and volatility on Friday, as investors tracked two high-stakes developments: ongoing tensions tied to the ongoing conflict in Iran and the final day of former U.S. President Donald Trump’s summit in Beijing with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The day’s trading saw most major Asian equity indexes pull back after early gains, even as U.S. markets had just closed out a second consecutive day of record highs.

    Tokyo’s Nikkei 225, which had climbed in early morning trading, ended the session down 1.2% at 61,880.04. South Korea’s benchmark Kospi turned in the day’s steepest loss: after crossing the 8,000 threshold for the first time in history to hit an all-time peak of 8,046.78, fueled in large part by investor enthusiasm for the global artificial intelligence boom, the index erased all its gains to close 3.2% lower at 7,727.34. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropped 0.9% to 26,145.66, while mainland China’s Shanghai Composite bucked the downward trend to notch a modest 0.1% gain, settling at 4,183.05. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 dipped 0.1% to 8,629.70, Taiwan’s Taiex slid 0.5%, and India’s Sensex edged 0.1% higher. U.S. stock futures also ticked downward in early Asian trading, following the previous day’s record closes on Wall Street.

    Friday marked the conclusion of Trump’s visit to China, where his meetings with Xi covered a range of topics from bilateral trade and expanded economic cooperation to the Taiwan issue. Investors are closely watching for updates on potential trade agreements covering key U.S. exports including soybeans, beef, and commercial aircraft. While broader market sentiment holds moderate optimism for improved U.S.-China relations, leading economic analysts are urging caution around any announced deals.

    In a research note published Friday, Capital Economics China economists Leahy Fahy and Julian Evans-Pritchard noted that many of the headline projects and investment commitments announced during Trump’s 2017 visit to China never came to fruition, after bilateral tensions spiked dramatically in the years following that trip. Trump also recently noted in an interview that China could resume purchases of U.S. crude oil, more than a year after Beijing halted imports in response to hefty trade tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.

    Energy markets also moved higher on Friday, as oil prices climbed in response to stalled negotiations between Washington and Tehran to end the ongoing Iran conflict, alongside fresh security incidents involving commercial shipping in the Persian Gulf region. A ship anchored off the United Arab Emirates was seized, and another cargo vessel was attacked near Oman, adding to existing supply concerns. International benchmark Brent crude rose 1.3% to trade at $107.06 per barrel, a sharp jump from the roughly $70 per barrel price point seen before the Iran conflict began in late February. U.S. benchmark crude climbed 1.4% to $102.56 per barrel.

    Global energy supplies remain tight after the Strait of Hormuz — a critical chokepoint for 20% of global oil and gas trade — remains largely closed, and the U.S. has enforced a sea blockade on Iranian ports that began last month. Following Thursday’s bilateral meeting between Trump and Xi, the White House announced that both leaders had agreed the Strait of Hormuz must be kept open for international commerce.

    On Thursday, U.S. equities extended their winning streak to record territory. The benchmark S&P 500 gained 0.8% to close at 7,501.24, notching an all-time high for the second straight day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose more than 0.7% to settle at 50,063.46, marking the first time the index closed above 50,000 since the outbreak of the Iran conflict. The technology-focused Nasdaq Composite added 0.9% to close at 26,635.22.

    Tech stocks led much of the gains on Wall Street: Cisco Systems shares jumped 13.4% after the networking giant reported better-than-expected quarterly results and announced plans to cut fewer than 4,000 jobs. AI chip leader Nvidia gained 4.4%, as investor optimism grew around potential updates on sales of its advanced H200 AI chips to Chinese clients, amid CEO Jensen Huang’s visit to Beijing alongside Trump.

    In currency markets, the U.S. dollar edged slightly higher against the Japanese yen, rising to 158.50 yen from 158.37 yen in the previous trading session. The euro slipped modestly to $1.1651, down from $1.1669. AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed reporting to this article.

  • Albert Thorn loses court bid to overturn conviction for vigilante killing of Bradley Lyons

    Albert Thorn loses court bid to overturn conviction for vigilante killing of Bradley Lyons

    A self-appointed vigilante who killed a man based on unproven child abuse rumors has lost his legal bid to overturn his murder conviction and life sentence, after Victoria’s Court of Appeal rejected every ground of his challenge late last week.

    Sixty-year-old Albert Thorn was originally handed a mandatory life sentence in 2023 for the 2018 kidnapping, torture and execution-style murder of 30-year-old Bradley Lyons, a beloved young father and stepfather. The fatal violence grew out of baseless gossip that spread through the tight-knit coastal community of Lakes Entrance in regional Victoria, claiming Lyons had sexually abused local children.

    Lyons disappeared from his home on December 2, 2018, sparking a three-month manhunt that ended when police discovered his bound body, shot once in the back of the head, buried in a shallow unmarked grave in remote bushland. In total, seven people have been jailed for their roles in the coordinated vigilante plot that led to Lyons’ death, but Thorn was the only defendant to face a murder charge.

    Court documents detail the brutal hours-long abuse Lyons endured before his death: he was dragged from his home by a group of men including Thorn, stuffed into the boot of a Toyota Corolla and driven to Thorn’s rural property in Nyerimilang. For hours, he was held either trapped in the car boot or strapped to a massage table, where he was tortured in an attempt to force a false confession to the child abuse claims. Roughly 10 hours after he was abducted, Lyons was driven to isolated bushland near the town of Bruthen, executed, and buried.

    At his original trial, Thorn pleaded guilty to charges of kidnapping, causing intentional injury and false imprisonment, but repeatedly denied carrying out the murder. He claimed he was only involved in the abduction, and that Lyons left his property alive with two other co-accused, Jordan Bottom and Rikki Smith. The jury rejected this account, finding him guilty of murder. Bottom and Smith were acquitted of murder but convicted of assault and false imprisonment, for which they also received custodial sentences.

    When handing down Thorn’s original life sentence, Justice Andrew Tinny delivered a scathing rebuke of his actions, noting that Thorn had attempted to frame himself as a heroic citizen protecting vulnerable children after the killing, when his behavior actually exposed a complete lack of basic human decency. “Throughout the many hours of the terrifying ordeal leading up to his shocking death, (Mr Lyons) was treated by you with violence and disdain, reflecting the hatred you felt for him because of your belief that he was a pedophile,” Tinney said. “When speaking most dishonestly to the police in the aftermath of your crimes, you portrayed yourself as a benevolent citizen coming to the assistance of young children in need when, in reality, yours was conduct which showed a want of common human decency.”

    Thorn launched his appeal against the conviction and sentence in 2024, arguing two key legal errors had led to a substantial miscarriage of justice. First, he claimed the trial judge erred in allowing the jury to hear testimony from his own daughter, who told the court Thorn had admitted to her that he “killed somebody” the night of the murder. Second, he argued the decision to hold a joint trial for him, Bottom and Smith created unfair prejudice against him, as both co-accused had shifted blame for the murder onto him.

    Thorn also separately challenged his life sentence, arguing it was “crushing and manifestly excessive”, particularly given he would not be eligible for parole until he reaches 85 years of age.

    In an 88-page judgment published on Friday, Justices Karin Emerton, Kevin Lyons and Peter Kidd unanimously rejected all of Thorn’s grounds of appeal, upholding both the murder conviction and the original life sentence. The judges ruled that Thorn’s daughter’s testimony was legally admissible under evidence rules, and that while the joint trial created some level of prejudice for Thorn, it did not compromise the overall fairness of the proceeding.

    The judgment noted that the overlapping accusations of blame between the three co-defendants created a powerful public interest in holding a single joint trial: all three had pointed fingers at one another for the assault and murder, and a joint trial allowed the same jury to weigh all conflicting accounts and avoid the risk of inconsistent, contradictory verdicts across separate proceedings. “Bottom and Smith blamed the applicant for the assault on the deceased on the massage table in the shed and for the murder of the deceased. The applicant laid the blame upon Bottom and Smith,” the judges wrote. “There was therefore a direct conflict between the applicant on the one hand and Bottom and Smith on the other … there was thus a powerful public interest that their differences should be resolved by the same jury at the same trial so as to avoid the risk of inconsistent verdicts.”

    The appeal court’s ruling closes the first round of legal challenges to Thorn’s conviction, cementing the life sentence that will see him remain behind bars well into his 80s before he can even apply for parole.

  • Animal welfare group finds systemic neglect at public dog shelters in Romania

    Animal welfare group finds systemic neglect at public dog shelters in Romania

    Across a network of publicly funded stray dog shelters scattered across Romania, an undercover investigation has pulled back the curtain on widespread abuse, neglect, and systemic failure that has left tens of thousands of animals suffering in life-threatening conditions. The probe, conducted between January 8 and 18 by Four Paws — the global animal welfare organization also known by its original name Vier Pfoten — sent hidden-camera investigators to nine shelters in different regions of the country, uncovering grim conditions that leaders of the investigation describe as a national crisis.

    Graphic footage captured inside one eastern Romanian compound shows a confined space enclosed by steel mesh: one dog struggles to lick ice from a frozen metal water bucket, while another chews apathetically on dried feces scattered across the unforgiving hard packed ground. Across all nine sites, investigators documented overcrowded kennels, dogs with untreated open festering wounds, and packs left exposed to subzero winter temperatures without insulation or heating. The report’s findings detail enclosures constantly caked in waste, overcrowding that sparks violent aggression and inter-dog fighting, and such extreme chronic stress that one dog was observed self-mutilating by biting off sections of its own tail.

    Even at one of the highest-quality facilities visited, a public shelter in western Romania’s Arad County, investigators found only cold concrete floors, no heated bedding, and no enrichment or toys for the hundreds of dogs held there. The organization did note that frontline staff at the facility worked diligently to improve outcomes and boost adoption rates, despite the systemic shortcomings that left them without resources to meet even basic animal welfare standards.

    Romania is home to an estimated 500,000 stray dogs, one of the largest unhoused canine populations in the entire European Union. Public and private shelters across the country hold thousands of these strays, where animals wait for potential adoption — or, in many cases, legal euthanasia. Four Paws’ investigation, however, found that most public shelters act as little more than holding facilities where dogs are confined to wait for death, with no access to the minimum standards of care required by international norms.

    Manuela Rowlings, a stray animal specialist with Four Paws, told the Associated Press that the problematic conditions uncovered are not isolated incidents of mismanagement, but the result of broken national policy that demands full systemic reform. “Public shelters are horrible places in Romania,” Rowlings said. “It’s simply places where dogs are locked up and where they wait to die, and they do not even receive the minimum care or minimum standards.”

    Beyond poor living conditions, the report also criticized most participating shelters for actively blocking adoption efforts, and freedom of information requests submitted by the organization revealed profound a lack of transparency around public funding, stray intake numbers, and official euthanasia statistics. To illustrate the scale of unreported mortality, Four Paws shared data from a northeastern Galati County shelter: of 644 strays admitted in 2024, only 134 were adopted, 28 were legally euthanized, and 412 died from what are listed as “other causes” — largely neglect and untreated illness.

    Worryingly, current Romanian law does not criminalize the poor conditions documented in the investigation, leaving activists with little recourse to hold facility operators accountable. “There is nothing that can be reported to the authorities, because it is not illegal to keep dogs in very, very poor conditions in the shelters,” Rowlings explained.

    The roots of Romania’s stray dog crisis stretch back more than a decade. In 2013, after a four-year-old boy was killed by a pack of strays in the capital city of Bucharest, national lawmakers passed a sweeping law that ordered mass roundups of stray dogs, requiring that any unadopted animal be euthanized 14 days after being taken into custody. But animal welfare advocates have long argued that targeted mass neutering is the only sustainable long-term solution to reduce the stray population humanely.

    So far, large-scale sterilization programs have failed to gain traction nationwide, and some insiders say that is no accident. Hilde Tudora, Director of Animal Protection at Ilfov County Council, told AP that the stray dog industry has become a profitable enterprise for private operators funded by public money, giving stakeholders an incentive to keep the population high rather than solving the crisis.

    “Private companies have swelled up with public money, and then it turned into a business,” Tudora said. “There must be dogs, because if you castrate en masse, there’s no more merchandise … No one really wants to solve the problem.”

    Recent legislative efforts aim to upend this status quo. A bill introduced to parliament in November 2024 would formally recognize animals as “living beings with rights and freedoms” and shift national policy away from mass euthanasia toward expanded sterilization and mandatory microchipping. Andrei Baciu, a National Liberal Party parliamentarian backing the bill, noted that Romania has spent more than 1.3 billion euros ($1.5 billion) on stray dog euthanasia over the past three decades. He pointed out that a single unsterilized pair of dogs can produce more than 67,000 puppies in just six years; capturing and euthanizing that entire resulting litter would cost roughly 13.4 million euros, a sum that could instead fund sterilization for more than 268,000 adult dogs.

    As of Tuesday, Romania’s National Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority, the government body that oversees animal welfare and shelter regulation, had not responded to AP requests for comment on the investigation’s findings.

  • Claim, counter-claim and tech’s seedy side exposed: Five things we learned in the Musk-Altman trial

    Claim, counter-claim and tech’s seedy side exposed: Five things we learned in the Musk-Altman trial

    Two of the technology industry’s most recognizable and influential figures are currently facing off in a landmark legal battle whose outcome could reshape the future of OpenAI—one of the most valuable startups on the planet, creator of the globally used ChatGPT. The case has already put both Elon Musk, one of OpenAI’s original co-founders, and Sam Altman, OpenAI’s current chief executive, on the line professionally and reputationally, with closing arguments now complete and the jury having retired to deliberate. Musk’s core allegation is that Altman betrayed an original agreement to keep OpenAI as a non-profit entity and effectively “stole” the organization, costing him a massive potential fortune, a claim that Altman has repeatedly and categorically denied. Over three weeks of proceedings in a California federal courtroom, journalists from across the globe have packed the benches to follow every development, with evidence ranging from incendiary private text messages to claims of free Tesla vehicles offered as quid pro quo for favorable treatment. Presiding over the proceedings is a firm, no-nonsense judge who will ultimately have final say over the ruling after reviewing the jury’s recommendation. For those unable to follow every twist of the high-profile case, here are five of the most notable insights that have emerged from the trial.

    First, the vast majority of high-profile witnesses have contradicted Musk’s core claim. Musk’s entire lawsuit hinges on the assertion that Altman deceived him by abandoning the original commitment to keep OpenAI a non-profit. What has become clear over the trial, however, is that this is far from a simple he-said-she-said dispute between two billionaires. A long roster of witnesses—many of whom are among the biggest names in global tech—have testified that they never saw or heard any evidence confirming the binding non-profit commitment Musk alleges. These witnesses include OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, former OpenAI board member Tasha McCauley, and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, whose company invested billions of dollars in OpenAI after completing extensive due diligence. Nadella and Microsoft are named as co-defendants in the case, accused of aiding Altman’s alleged scheme, making the uniform pushback against Musk’s claims from the stand all the more notable.

    Second, questions about Sam Altman’s personal trustworthiness have remained a central point of scrutiny throughout the proceedings, even with his army of high-profile supporters. In the lead-up to the trial, a bombshell investigative profile in The New Yorker by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Ronan Farrow painted Altman as a compulsive liar, focusing heavily on his turbulent career including his dramatic temporary ousting from OpenAI in 2023. Musk’s legal team leaned heavily into this narrative during cross-examination, opening their questioning of Altman with a blunt query: “Are you completely trustworthy?” After Altman initially responded “I believe so,” his cross-examiner pressed him on the ambiguous answer, forcing Altman to revise his response to a direct yes. Even with that correction, Altman’s character remained under intense scrutiny for the entirety of the trial. Former OpenAI board members and executives shared first-hand accounts of alleged lack of candor from Altman, and the court also learned of extensive hidden private investments Altman holds in startups that have struck commercial deals with OpenAI. One particularly controversial example is a power purchase agreement with Helion Energy, a nuclear fusion startup that has yet to deliver any operational power to the grid; Altman until recently served as Helion’s board chairman and holds a stake in the company valued at more than $1.5 billion.

    Third, the trial has been defined by memorable, out-of-the-spotlight personalities that have shaped its day-to-day drama. Presiding Judge Gonzalez Rogers has emerged as a clear commanding presence in the courtroom, enforcing a strict daily schedule with just two 20-minute breaks and no lunch break to keep all participants focused. She has repeatedly and publicly called out anyone who violates court rules, from spectators who attempt to photograph the high-profile defendants to lawyers who push questioning into topics she has already ruled off-limits. Despite her strict approach, she has shown moments of dry wit: when the court experienced early technical audio issues, she joked to the room, “What can I tell you? We are funded by the federal government.” Since cameras and live streaming were not permitted in the courtroom, the public’s understanding of the trial’s atmosphere has come largely from the work of courtroom sketch artist Vicki Behringer, who has carefully captured each day’s proceedings in vivid watercolor.

    Fourth, the trial has laid bare the deeply personal decay of what was once a close, admiring relationship between Musk and Altman, as well as unusual personal ties to OpenAI’s board. Musk was once Altman’s professional hero, but the relationship between the two men has deteriorated dramatically, a rift that was put on full display during testimony. When Musk took the stand as the first witness, he was largely confident and combative, but became visibly flustered when questioned about his relationship with Shivon Zilis, a Neuralink executive and former OpenAI board member. Musk confirmed to the court that Zilis is the mother of four of his children, and the pair live together. Zilis testified that Musk offered her his sperm when she expressed a desire to have children, an unusual interaction that she did not disclose to her OpenAI colleagues until a media report was imminent. Zilis left the OpenAI board shortly after Musk launched xAI, his own artificial intelligence startup competing directly with OpenAI, writing in a private text, “When the father of your babies starts a competitive effort and will recruit out of OpenAI, there is nothing to be done.”

    Fifth and finally, the trial has pulled back the curtain on how power and influence operate behind closed doors in Silicon Valley, exposing unseemly backroom deals and personal power struggles that rarely see the light of day. The proceedings have revealed alleged practices that have long been rumored but never confirmed in a public court: Musk is accused of offering free Teslas to co-founders as a way to lowball their equity stakes, while Altman stands accused of making off-the-books side payments to secure key strategic loyalty. Musk’s legal team has attempted to frame Altman as a leader who leveraged his early connection to Musk to build his own personal power and influence, while Altman has countered that Musk once suggested OpenAI should eventually be controlled by Musk’s children. Private text messages introduced as evidence have laid bare the raw chaos of internal power struggles, including Altman’s frantic response to his 2023 ousting, where he asked a former colleague “still don’t want me?” The colleague responded in a text dismissing the interim CEO Altman was replaced with, Twitch co-founder Emmett Shear, as a “rando Twitch guy.” These casual, unguarded messages and the everyday sight of these billionaire icons grabbing lattes outside the courtroom have made these larger-than-life figures feel surprisingly ordinary—yet it is critical to remember that the two men still control artificial intelligence technology that shapes the daily lives of billions of people around the globe, and the dispute at hand is worth billions of dollars. Now, the decision moves first to the jury, before ultimately landing back with Judge Gonzalez Rogers to determine the final outcome.

  • Hotel owners expected a World Cup boom – so far it hasn’t happened

    Hotel owners expected a World Cup boom – so far it hasn’t happened

    As the 2026 FIFA World Cup draws near, visible preparations are popping up across host cities across the United States – from towering highway billboards to tournament-themed decor in downtown bars and shops stocked with branded merchandise. But behind the public fanfare, one key sector of the hospitality industry is sounding the alarm: traditional hoteliers across host cities are reporting far lower booking volumes than initially projected, leaving many independent and chain property owners underwhelmed years after they were promised a once-in-a-generation economic boom.

    Deidre Mathis, owner of Houston’s Wanderstay Boutique Hotel, sits just one mile from the city’s official fan zone and a short drive from the stadium that will host World Cup matches. For the tournament period, her property is only 45% booked, compared to 70% capacity during the same window last year. She told the BBC that the industry spent years being sold on the idea that the World Cup would drive unprecedented demand, leaving hoteliers confused when bookings failed to materialize months ahead of kickoff. “We were sold this expectation the World Cup would be a big phenomenon, people have been talking about it for years,” Mathis said. “So when we looked at our calendar and saw in February, March and April that we still weren’t sold out for the tournament – and it is not just us in Houston, but it’s all over – we were left sitting here just very confused.”

    Mathis points to a confluence of factors dragging down demand, starting with a tense political climate marked by increased immigration enforcement by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the second Trump administration, which she says has deterred international fans from planning trips. She also cites soaring cost of living pressures spurred by regional conflict tied to the US-Israel standoff in Iran, plus exorbitant match ticket prices that have put the tournament out of reach for many fans. Even former president and vocal World Cup supporter Donald Trump has acknowledged the sticker shock, saying he “wouldn’t pay it either” when asked about current pricing. Official tickets for the World Cup final at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium top out at $32,970, with some resale listings exceeding $2 million. Mathis has called on FIFA to slash ticket prices and urged the US government to speed up visa processing for international fans to reverse the trend. “But it is just so unfortunate, and I am hoping that in the next four weeks, things can be turned around,” she said.

    Data from the American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA), which represents more than 100,000 properties ranging from global chains to small independent bed and breakfasts, backs up these on-the-ground reports. The trade group found that 80% of hotels in host cities are seeing lower demand than expected, with the tournament failing to translate into the projected booking boom. In the organization’s survey, many hoteliers even described the tournament as a “non-event” so far, with a majority reporting bookings are running below typical summer season levels. AHLA CEO Rosanna Maietta told the BBC that regional conflict in Iran is a contributing factor, but noted that some fans may be delaying accommodation bookings until their national teams confirm their fixture locations and advancement in the tournament.

    In contrast to the hotel industry’s slow start, home-sharing platform Airbnb has positioned the 2026 World Cup as the “biggest hosting event” in its company history, suggesting fans are shifting to alternative accommodation options to cut costs.

    For traveling international fans, sticker shock for tickets remains the top complaint. Hamish Husband, a representative of the Association of Tartan Army Clubs who is traveling from the UK to watch Scotland compete, says he expects to spend upwards of £10,000 on his trip, even with cost cutting. He notes that despite Scotland’s rare qualification for the tournament, which has motivated diehard fans to make the trip regardless of cost, exorbitant ticket pricing remains a major point of contention. “the outrageous ticket pricing Fifa has enforced on fans,” he said. “There is no fairness in football anymore, but $1,000 for Scotland v Haiti tickets – that is scandalous.” Husband added that low- and middle-income locals in co-host Mexico would be unable to afford tickets at current prices, and praised Canadian regulators for cracking down on predatory resale pricing.

    Many hoteliers are still holding out hope for a last-minute booking surge ahead of kickoff. Stephen Jenkins, general manager of Kansas City’s Fontaine Hotel, says his property’s booking numbers are roughly on par with last year, but still far lower than the boom his team anticipated when the city was selected as a host. “We are not seeing the pick-up we had anticipated,” Jenkins said, noting that his team has launched a range of World Cup-themed initiatives, including a “Culinary Cup” that serves country-specific menus matching the teams playing in Kansas City. Jenkins saw a small uptick in bookings after the official fixture list was released, and is expecting demand to spike closer to the tournament. He even compared the expected boom to Taylor Swift’s 2023 Eras Tour stop in the city, which completely sold out all hotel accommodation across Kansas City – though he acknowledged the comparison is not perfect, given the World Cup’s weeks-long schedule. So far, however, even soccer superstar Lionel Messi, who is scheduled to play in Kansas City with Argentina, has not driven the same booking surge that Swift did.

    Manuel Deisen, general manager of the InterContinental Buckhead Atlanta, echoed that sentiment, telling the BBC that “the volume of enquiries and bookings we’re seeing is tracking lower to typical periods. It’s not quite what we had hoped for.” Still, Deisen said his team has observed “incredible enthusiasm” for the tournament among fans, and is also betting on a last-minute rush of bookings as kickoff approaches. The property is also planning a full slate of World Cup watch parties and fan events to draw both traveling and local guests throughout the tournament.

    FIFA has pushed back against criticism of its ticketing strategy, telling the BBC that overall demand for the tournament has been “unprecedented”, with more than five million tickets sold to date. “Excitement continues to build for the largest sporting event on the planet,” a FIFA spokesperson said. The organization also defended its pricing, noting that some tickets are available for as low as $60, and higher price points are intentionally set to reduce predatory profiteering on secondary resale markets.

    To support the tournament, the White House has launched a dedicated World Cup task force to streamline operations, and has waived the $15,000 visa application deposit for fans from 50 countries who can provide proof of valid match tickets, in a move to boost international attendance.

  • Queensland Police senior constable charged with fraud, computer hacking offences

    Queensland Police senior constable charged with fraud, computer hacking offences

    A 45-year-old senior constable with Queensland Police’s Far Northern Region has been formally stood down from active duty after facing two criminal charges: one count of fraud and one count of unauthorized misuse of a restricted computer. Law enforcement officials have confirmed that both alleged offences were committed while the officer was off-duty.

    The veteran officer has been issued a notice to appear before the Cairns Magistrates Court, with his first court hearing scheduled for May 22. In an official public statement released following the charges, a Queensland Police spokesperson emphasized the force’s commitment to upholding strict standards of professional conduct, transparency, and public accountability.

    The spokesperson noted that the service proactively discloses serious misconduct allegations against serving personnel to maintain public trust, while clarifying that the announcement of charges does not equate to a finding of guilt. The charges against the senior constable remain unproven at this stage of the legal process, and the case will proceed through the Queensland court system in line with standard criminal justice procedures.

  • How Eurovision pioneered transnational broadcasting

    How Eurovision pioneered transnational broadcasting

    As millions of music fans across the globe make their final preparations for the 2026 iteration of the Eurovision Song Contest, a brand new exhibition in the United Kingdom is pulling back the curtain on the seven-decade history of technical breakthroughs that transformed this iconic singing competition from a risky broadcast experiment into one of the world’s most watched live annual events.

    The very first Eurovision, held back in 1956 at Switzerland’s Teatro Kursaal in Lugano, was far from a simple production. In an era long before high-speed digital communications, engineers faced the unprecedented challenge of transmitting live video footage across Western Europe, navigating rugged mountain terrain, crossing multiple national borders, and working around incompatible domestic broadcasting systems using nothing more than microwave relay towers and early terrestrial transmission links.

    “It really was groundbreaking, because it was a really early example of a live simultaneous broadcast across Europe,” explained Sarah Rawlins, public programme developer at Bradford’s National Science and Media Museum and curator of the new exhibition. “Everyone in France and West Germany, Italy, they were all watching the same thing at the same time. When you think that was happening in 1956, that is actually remarkable that they had the technology to pull that off.”

    The foundational work for this cross-continental broadcast had already been laid years earlier, when the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II was transmitted across multiple European countries, Rawlins noted. That successful large-scale experiment proved both that there was widespread public appetite for shared pan-European television content and that transnational live broadcasting was technically achievable, clearing the way for the launch of Eurovision.

    Over the 70 years since that first contest, Eurovision has expanded dramatically from its original lineup of just 7 competing nations to the 35 countries that take part today. Alongside this growth, broadcast technology for the event has evolved continuously, adapting to rising global audience demand through shifts from early microwave transmission to satellite broadcasting, and more recently to high-speed digital fibre optic connections. That evolution has cemented Eurovision’s status as one of the world’s largest live broadcast events, with the 2025 contest drawing a global audience of more than 166 million viewers.

    The exhibition, titled *Setting the Stage: 70 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest*, traces this steady technological evolution step by step. Visitors can explore everything from the first satellite-broadcast contest in 1969 to behind-the-scenes time-lapse footage showing the rapid construction of the 2021 contest stage at Rotterdam Ahoy Arena in the Netherlands. The display also highlights Eurovision’s long history of driving industry-wide broadcast innovation: the contest hosted the first widespread color television broadcasts for a pan-European audience, launched the global career of iconic pop group ABBA with its 1974 competition, and pioneered the large-scale public televoting systems that remain a core part of the event today. That 1997 televoting trial also cemented one of Eurovision’s most iconic cultural phrases: “nul points.”

    While the exhibition’s central focus is the engineering and technology behind Eurovision’s global broadcast, it also dedicates space to the passionate global fan community that has sustained the competition for seven decades. “When you are talking about why it has been going for 70 years, a lot of it is down to the fans,” Rawlins said. “A lot of the time when we speak to fans, they talk a lot about their love of the competition, but also how it brings them together. I have spoken to a lot of people who have essentially made friends for life, and the community around Eurovision is a really big part of what they enjoy.”

    *Setting the Stage: 70 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest* will run at the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford until February 2027. Visitors can access additional related content on BBC Sounds and the BBC’s Look North regional news programme.

  • Takeaways from AP’s report on Jalue Dorje, the US-born teenage Buddhist lama

    Takeaways from AP’s report on Jalue Dorje, the US-born teenage Buddhist lama

    Nestled in the shadow of the Himalayas, thousands of Buddhist pilgrims recently received a blessing from a teenage lama whose life reads like a remarkable study in contrasts. Just six months before standing on the sacred monastery grounds, 19-year-old Jalue Dorje was a typical teenager pulling late-nighter gaming sessions on his Xbox, playing Madden NFL in his family’s Minneapolis suburb. Today, he balances a lifetime of spiritual training with the pop culture touchstones of his American upbringing, forging a unique path as one of the youngest reincarnated lamas of Tibetan Buddhism.

    Recognized as the reincarnation of a revered 17th-century Tibetan Buddhist master just months after his birth, Dorje’s dual identity was shaped from his earliest days. The process of identifying a reincarnated lama is rooted in spiritual signs and visions: when Dorje was only 4 months old, Kyabje Trulshik Rinpoche, one of the faith’s most venerated modern masters, identified him as the eighth Terchen Taksham Rinpoche. The recognition was later confirmed by senior Tibetan Buddhist leaders, and in 2010, when the Dalai Lama traveled to Wisconsin, the global spiritual leader formalized the recognition in a ceremony, cutting a lock of Dorje’s hair and advising his parents to let him grow up in the United States to master English before entering full monastic training.

    For nearly 18 years, Dorje wove two very different worlds into his daily routine. Growing up in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, he balanced sacred scripture memorization with high school football practice, traded spiritual tutoring for rap and Taylor Swift on his car radio after getting his driver’s license, and kept a portrait of the Dalai Lama above his DVD collection of *The Simpsons*, *South Park*, and *Family Guy*, right next to his copy of the graphic novel *Buddha*. To encourage his scripture studies, his father struck a deal: every set of passages he memorized earned him new Pokémon cards, a collection he often snuck into ceremonial robes as a child. On the football field, teammates remembered him for his gentle positivity, always reminding his peers to keep losses in perspective — though he cried after his final senior season game, knowing it would likely be his last as he prepared to leave for monastic life.

    After graduating high school in 2023, Dorje followed the path laid out for him decades earlier, moving 11,500 kilometers to the Mindrolling Monastery on the Himalayan foothills, near the Indian city of Dehradun. For his cross-continental move, he packed light: his headphones, a laptop, a Fantasy Football magazine, and a core text on the Tantric Buddhist master who first brought the tradition to Tibet. His parents accompanied him for his first day of training, fitting him with a larger bed suited to his 6-foot frame left over from his football days, painting his new monastic quarters, and setting up a personal shrine for his daily prayers.

    On a recent trip to Kathmandu, Nepal, where he participated in sacred rituals led by the abbot of Shechen Monastery — one of Tibetan Buddhism’s holiest sites, positioned steps from the 1,500-year-old Boudhanath stupa — the blend of his two lives was on full display. While he traded his signature hoodies and sweatpants for traditional maroon and gold monastic robes, he hid a pair of white Crocs decorated with *The Simpsons* Jibbitz charms beneath them. His daily routine now follows an ancient rhythm: he wakes at dawn for prayers, studies Buddhist philosophy, practices traditional calligraphy and chanting, and adapts to the simple ascetic life of hand-washed clothes and a basic diet of rice and lentils.

    Even thousands of kilometers from home, Dorje stays connected to his American roots. Through WhatsApp and text messages, he keeps in touch with high school friends, and on days off from study, he builds Lego sets, walks to a local arcade to play FIFA, watches Marvel films and NFL and NBA games on his laptop, and eagerly followed this year’s Super Bowl, praising Bad Bunny’s halftime performance as incredible. He gets along easily with fellow monks from across Asia, bonding over shared discussions of spirituality, global pop culture, and sports.

    After years of intensive study and contemplation, Dorje plans to return to Minnesota to lead the local Tibetan Buddhist community, with a clear long-term goal: to become a leader of peace, following in the footsteps of his role models Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, and the Dalai Lama. For the 19-year-old who has spent his whole life balancing two worlds, this new chapter is only just beginning. “This is just the beginning,” he says, ready for the decades-long path that lies ahead.

    This reporting on religion is supported by the Associated Press through a collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP holds sole responsibility for this content.