Global Pulse

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  • Team calls Chinese race organizers ‘grossly negligent’ in conduct around fiery crash

    Team calls Chinese race organizers ‘grossly negligent’ in conduct around fiery crash

    A dramatic high-speed crash at Shanghai International Circuit has sparked major controversy in global GT racing, after a competing driver risked his own life to rescue an injured British racer trapped in a burning vehicle — leading the injured driver’s team to withdraw from all future Chinese events over what it calls gross safety negligence from event organizers. The incident unfolded Saturday during a competitive GT race, when British driver Ollie Millroy’s car caught fire immediately following a heavy collision. With no track safety marshals or professional fire response teams visible at the crash site, Dutch driver Loek Hartog made the split-second decision to pull off the track, grab a fire extinguisher, and pull Millroy from the engulfed wreckage before emergency crews arrived.

    In a candid post to his Instagram following the crash, Millroy made clear that his survival depended entirely on Hartog’s quick, selfless action. “I am still alive tonight, entirely thanks to one man,” Millroy wrote. “Loek Hartog stopped instantly with no flag marshals or fire crews in sight and risked his own life to get me out of the car. I don’t remember anything between 30 seconds before the crash and 1 hour after it, but I will remember his incredible act of bravery for the rest of my life.” Hartog downplayed his heroism in a response to the widespread praise he has received, framing his action as a basic human instinct rather than an extraordinary act. “You have nothing to thank me for,” he said. “I wish to live in a world where this would not be considered as bravery — but as the instinct of others, too. I am so grateful to have been at the place I needed to be.”

    Millroy suffered severe, life-altering injuries in the crash, according to his social media: six broken ribs, a fractured collarbone, a broken hand, and a punctured lung. He underwent a four-hour emergency surgical procedure at a Shanghai hospital, where medical teams inserted metal plates and screws to stabilize his broken bones, and placed an abdominal drain to remove leaked fluid and gas from his injured lung. He is currently recovering after the operation.

    Millroy’s team, Taiwan-based AAI Motorsports, released a scathing public statement criticizing the Chinese event organizers, accusing them of systemic failure in their emergency response protocols that nearly turned the crash into a fatal tragedy. “The event organizer was grossly negligent in its emergency response and safety rescue arrangements, with serious deficiencies in the rescue response that nearly resulted in a tragedy,” the team said. It also called out organizers for an incorrect early report during the live race broadcast that falsely claimed Millroy had exited his vehicle on his own, when in fact Hartog had pulled him from the burning car against all odds. AAI Motorsports has demanded a full, independent, public investigation into the incident, track safety protocols, and the botched emergency response. The team announced it is withdrawing from all future GT racing events held in China until its demands for a transparent probe are met, stating: “We will not return until the event organizing committee conducts a comprehensive, independent and transparent investigation into every aspect of the incident, including the failures in the rescue response, and provides our team with an official response.”

    Event organizers have issued a formal apology to Millroy for the incident and the distress it caused, offering sincere sympathy for the driver’s injuries, while pushing back against claims of major systemic negligence. In their public statement, organizers said an initial internal review found that the event’s overall staffing and resource levels met national motorsport safety standards, though they acknowledged that “there remains room for improvement in detailed operational management.” They have committed to conducting a full follow-up investigation into the crash, and pledged to develop updated, more robust protocols to address gaps in race organization, support services, emergency response, rescue operations and medical care for future events.

  • Rescuers search for 5 Indonesian photojournalists missing near Anak Krakatau volcano

    Rescuers search for 5 Indonesian photojournalists missing near Anak Krakatau volcano

    JAKARTA, Indonesia – Indonesian search and rescue teams have launched an urgent operation to locate eight people missing at sea after their vessel failed to return from a reporting trip to the erupting Anak Krakatau volcano, regional disaster officials confirmed Wednesday.

    Al Amrad, head of Banten province’s Search and Rescue Office, told reporters the missing group includes five photojournalists, two boat crew members, and one local route guide. The team departed Carita, a coastal town in Banten, on Monday aboard a speedboat bound for the volcanic island, which sits in the busy Sunda Strait separating Indonesia’s main islands of Java and Sumatra.

    The final communication from the expedition came at 6:13 p.m. Monday, when a journalist on board sent a message to a relative confirming the group had reached the waters surrounding Anak Krakatau. No contact has been established with the team since that transmission. Their last known position was roughly 18.5 kilometers, or 11.5 miles, from the mainland coast. Search operations were formally launched Tuesday, but as of Wednesday, rescuers have not been able to locate the vessel or determine its fate, Amrad added.

    The five missing journalists hold assignments for a range of domestic and international media outlets, including Indonesia’s national state news agency Antara, Turkey’s global news service Anadolu Agency, and multiple other local and foreign organizations.

    Anak Krakatau’s most recent active phase began with a major initial eruption that concluded Sunday, though the volcano has continued to produce intermittent blasts that hurl lava, thick ash, and superheated volcanic rock from its open crater. The initial eruption event triggered widespread disruption across western Indonesia, forcing temporary closures of regional airports Sunday and Monday. The closures upended travel plans for more than 341,000 passengers, with disruptions recorded for nearly 2,961 total flights, 622 of which were international services. In response to falling volcanic ash, national education authorities also permitted affected schools to switch temporarily to remote online learning to protect students from respiratory hazards.

    Geologically, Anak Krakatau – meaning “Child of Krakatau” – formed from the volcanic remnants of the original Krakatau volcano, whose catastrophic 1883 eruption destroyed most of the original landmass and sent enough ash into the stratosphere to trigger temporary global cooling. In 2018, another major eruption of Anak Krakatau triggered a devastating tsunami that swept across coastal areas of Sumatra and Java, killing at least 430 people. The volcano has been classified at Indonesia’s second-highest volcanic alert level since July, with official warnings barring residents, visitors, and commercial fishing vessels from entering a 3-kilometer (1.9-mile) exclusion zone around the active crater.

    Indonesia sits along the Pacific Ocean’s seismic “Ring of Fire,” the horseshoe-shaped belt of tectonic faults that accounts for the vast majority of the world’s earthquake and volcanic activity. The country is home to more than 120 active volcanoes, making volcanic eruptions a recurring natural hazard for communities across the archipelago.

    This report included contributions from Associated Press journalists Fadlan Syam in Jakarta and Edna Tarigan in Surabaya.

  • Street acrobats entertain motorists stuck in Kenyan capital’s notorious traffic

    Street acrobats entertain motorists stuck in Kenyan capital’s notorious traffic

    At a congested crossroads in downtown Nairobi, the glow of the red stop light signals not just a pause for traffic, but the opening curtain for a unique street performance. A young performer in a hand-dyed leopard print costume steps off the curb and launches into a series of flips and somersaults, quickly joined by five fellow acrobats who pull off a tightly choreographed sequence of gravity-defying stunts. While the team keeps the routine moving, one member weaves between idling vehicles, juggling woven hats before holding one out to drivers in a quiet plea for tips. As soon as the light flicks back to green, the group melts back to the curb, clearing the road for the rush of moving cars, waiting for the next red light to start their act again.

    This informal street performance scene has become a common sight across Nairobi’s busy corridors, a livelihood born out of the economic upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic. The city’s traffic acrobats first emerged in 2020, when widespread lockdowns and job losses pushed thousands of young Kenyans to seek new ways to earn an income. Today, they have turned the capital’s notorious permanent gridlock into a stage, trading their acrobatic skills for small cash donations from motorists.

    For 22-year-old Mohammed Nyale, this street routine is more than just a way to get by—it is the first step toward a lifelong dream. Nyale began practicing acrobatics when he was just 15 years old, and fell in love with the craft immediately. He and his troupe left their coastal hometowns, lured to Nairobi with ambitions of performing in packed theater venues and landing professional on-stage careers. So far, the streets have been the only stage they can access, but they have not abandoned their goals.

    Each day follows the same rhythm for Nyale and his group. They gather before dawn in an overgrown abandoned field in Kawangware, one of Nairobi’s most underprivileged informal settlements, to run through their routines and sharpen their stunts. As morning rush hour clogs the city’s main roads, they move to their chosen intersection. Before putting on their performance costumes, they gather for a group prayer for a good day of earnings. They perform in shifts until noon, with one member collecting tips while the rest of the troupe puts on the show.

    Most tips are small, rarely more than 50 Kenyan shillings, equal to roughly 40 U.S. cents. To adapt to Kenya’s nearly cashless mobile payment culture, the acrobats hand out small slips of paper printed with their mobile wallet phone numbers, allowing drivers to send donations digitally. On a strong day, each performer can walk away with around $6—enough to cover rent, food, and other basic needs, and on rare occasions, they earn even more.

    That daily rate matches the average income of casual laborers working in Kenya’s construction and agriculture sectors, a benchmark that matters in a country struggling with widespread youth unemployment. Official 2024 data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics places the youth jobless rate between 4.9% and 9.9%, a figure that understates the number of young people struggling to find stable formal work. For Nyale, this street hustle is the only thing that makes life in Nairobi possible. “Earning money from street performances is what enables us to live in Nairobi because we moved here from quite far and no one is helping us to pay rent,” he explained.

    Nyale’s group is far from the only troupe working the city’s intersections. Competing groups of acrobats have sprung up across every corner of Nairobi, each staking claim to a particularly congested intersection to call their own. On the opposite side of the city, 28-year-old Jackson Okoth leads his own troupe entertaining stopped motorists along Lang’ata Road. Okoth echoes what many of his fellow performers say: with no formal job openings available, street acrobatics keeps young people occupied and out of trouble. “There are no opportunities for us that we can go to, so we like it when we are here because it keeps us busy and it keeps us fit also,” he said. “Instead of staying at home and doing reckless things, we decided to come here and perform for motorists and pedestrians.”

    Like Nyale, Okoth holds tight to a big dream: one day, he hopes to join a professional circus and tour the world, bringing his skills to audiences across Europe. “I am still on my way, I am still trying, I am still working hard so that one day things might go well, and I may find myself in Europe performing in a circus show,” he said.

    Reactions from Nairobi’s motorists are split. Some drivers see the acrobats as an annoying nuisance that slows their commute and creates unnecessary chaos at busy intersections. But many others welcome the unexpected break from the frustration of sitting in traffic. Geoffrey Kioi, a local entrepreneur who regularly tips the performers, says he sees the acrobats as a welcome diversion. “They are a source of entertainment here on the road. They entertain us and we feel good,” Kioi said. “They are young people. They need to hustle. They are like my sons.”

  • Trump administration sanctions all Iranian airlines in aviation crackdown

    Trump administration sanctions all Iranian airlines in aviation crackdown

    On a Tuesday announcement, the Trump administration rolled out a new round of punitive measures targeting 27 Iranian air carriers, part of a broader campaign to block the Tehran government from moving weapons, military personnel and undeclared illicit cargo, according to an official statement released by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

    This new action forms the core of Operation Economic Outcast, an expanded sanctions initiative that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says is designed to cut off Iran’s access to the interconnected global economy. The United States first imposed sanctions on a major Iranian commercial airline, Mahan Air, back in 2011, marking the start of this targeted pressure campaign on Iran’s aviation sector.

    “Let this be a warning to anyone doing business with Iran’s remaining airlines, all of which we sanctioned today: You are at risk of being cut off from the global financial system,” Bessent stated during Tuesday’s press briefing. Among the newly sanctioned carriers are prominent Iranian aviation operators including Ava Airlines, Fly Persia, and Mehr Airways.

    In total, the Treasury added 36 distinct entities and individuals to its blacklist. Beyond the air carriers, the designation also covers what the department describes as covert front companies, foreign-based intermediaries, and deceptive transshipment networks that Iran leverages to acquire U.S.-manufactured aircraft and sensitive aviation technology. Notable non-Iranian entities named include the United Arab Emirates-based ECT Aviation Support LLC, its Egyptian chief executive Ibrahim Ali Mohamed Mohamed Mahran, and Turkey-based logistics firm Sky Phoenix.

    To back up the new sanctions, the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued a global advisory calling on financial institutions worldwide to flag transactions linked to procurement networks that support Iran’s aviation industry. Meanwhile, the department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control moved to suspend existing authorizations that previously allowed non-U.S. airlines to operate routes or use U.S.-built aircraft that eventually enter Iranian airspace. The change is expected to complicate travel for Iranian Americans with family based in Iran and cuts off the Tehran government from collecting critical overflight fees from international carriers.

    The Treasury emphasized its broad enforcement scope: “Any person that assists Iran’s aviation sector, from the provision of general sales agent services through to support to Iran’s covert aircraft procurement schemes, will be held accountable.” All sanctioned individuals and entities will have any U.S.-based assets frozen, lose access to the U.S.-dominated global banking system, and face prohibitions on any transactions with U.S. persons and permanent residents.

    This latest round of sanctions builds on an initiative Bessent launched just one month prior, when he announced a new sweeping pressure campaign targeting Iran and its international partners, aimed at what he called the “asphyxiation of this regime” amid rising tensions over the Strait of Hormuz. Speaking to reporters in Washington, D.C., Bessent framed the pressure as a stark choice for Iranian leadership: “Iran now faces a very clear choice, with only two paths before them: complete global isolation and a subsistence economy, or a path back to normalcy with an opportunity to rejoin the global economy.”

    To date, the Trump administration has consistently tightened sanctions on Iran since its first term starting in 2017, and no concrete details have been released on how “a path to normalcy” would be structured or what concessions would be required from Tehran. Bessent made clear the goal of the new operation is to eliminate all alternatives for the Iranian regime: “We are launching Operation Economic Outcast to foreclose every other option available to the Iranian regime. America is no longer managing the Iranian threat. We are ending it.”

    Bessent added that the Treasury has taken what he calls a “zero-leakage approach” to mapping Iranian sanctions evasion networks, saying officials have mapped every node, facilitator, and network Iran has used to smuggle oil and bypass existing international restrictions. He also confirmed that President Donald Trump has already held phone calls with global heads of state, issuing specific requests for those countries to end all commercial and diplomatic interactions with the Iranian regime, though he declined to name the countries involved.

    When pressed by reporters on why the sanctions are not being enforced with immediate effect globally, Bessent pushed back on the idea of immediate universal implementation, asking: “Why would I want to blow up the global financial system?” He explained that all countries have been given a clear timeline to wind down the activities identified by U.S. officials, and added: “If they do not take action, we will do so unilaterally through Treasury authorities.”

    This report was originally prepared by independent outlet Middle East Eye, which specializes in original coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa, and broader global affairs related to the region.

  • Singaporean man pleads guilty in US to massive crypto heist

    Singaporean man pleads guilty in US to massive crypto heist

    In a landmark cybercrime case that exposes the growing global threat of digital asset theft, a 22-year-old Singaporean national named Malone Lam has entered a guilty plea to a racketeering conspiracy charge in a U.S. federal court. The charge stems from Lam’s role as the ringleader of one of the largest cryptocurrency heists in recent history, which saw the group steal roughly $245 million worth of bitcoin from hundreds of victims across the globe.

    According to official documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the transnational criminal conspiracy operated from no later than October 2023 through at least May 2025. Lam assembled a network of co-conspirators spread across four U.S. states — California, Connecticut, New York, and Florida — as well as multiple countries outside the United States, with the group first connecting through popular online gaming platforms. Operating under multiple aliases including Anne Hathaway, $$$, and King Greavy, Lam structured the enterprise, targeted potential victims, and assigned specialized roles to each member of the ring, prosecutors confirmed.

    The criminal group used a mix of sophisticated cyber deception and physical burglary to steal digital assets, the DOJ says. Conspirators tricked victims into handing over sensitive account credentials through phishing and social engineering schemes, and in some cases carried out residential break-ins to steal private keys required to access cryptocurrency wallets. Once they gained control, the group drained the wallets and transferred the stolen bitcoin to accounts they controlled.

    Over the course of the conspiracy, Lam and his associates laundered the stolen funds and spent the proceeds on an extravagant lifestyle of luxury. Court records and evidence released by U.S. authorities show the group spent as much as $500,000 per outing on high-end nightclub trips, where they threw tens of thousands of dollars worth of Hermes Birkin handbags into crowds of partygoers. They also purchased a collection of high-performance supercars, with individual vehicle values ranging from $100,000 to $3.8 million, alongside luxury watches priced as high as $500,000, designer clothing, and long-term luxury home rentals in elite U.S. destinations including Los Angeles, the Hamptons, and Miami. The group also splurged on private jet travel and hired a dedicated team of private security to protect their operation. U.S. law enforcement has released public photos showing Lam partying with large stacks of cash at a Miami nightclub in September 2024, alongside images of the exotic car fleet purchased with stolen funds.

    Following his guilty plea entered on Tuesday, Lam now faces a maximum possible prison sentence of 20 years behind bars. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has not yet scheduled a formal sentencing hearing for the defendant. In a statement following the plea, U.S. Attorney Pirro emphasized that the DOJ’s commitment to combating transnational cybercrime remains unwavering. “If you build a cybercrime empire, we will find you, dismantle your operation, and hold you accountable,” Pirro said. She added that Lam “led an international network that preyed on victims through deception, invaded their privacy, and stole hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency.”

    The case marks one of the highest-profile cryptocurrency theft prosecutions in recent years, highlighting how cross-border criminal networks are increasingly targeting unregulated digital assets, and the challenges international law enforcement faces in tracking and apprehending the perpetrators of these digital crimes.

  • Records reveal Cuny investments in weapons firms supplying Israel

    Records reveal Cuny investments in weapons firms supplying Israel

    After a years-long campaign by pro-Palestinian student and faculty organizers, newly released financial records from the City University of New York (CUNY) have confirmed the public university system holds more than $715,000 in investments in major weapons manufacturers that supply military equipment and technology to the Israeli military. The disclosures, which came via a court-ordered settlement following a freedom of information lawsuit, mark a rare instance of a U.S. university publicly confirming such holdings, a detail most higher education institutions have long kept hidden from public view.

    The records, obtained by two campus advocacy groups — CUNY4Palestine and CUNY Law Students for Justice in Palestine (CUNY Law SJP) — reveal CUNY’s investment portfolio includes stakes in six major defense and military technology firms: Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Palantir, Elbit Systems, and General Dynamics. All six firms openly maintain active supply contracts with the Israeli army. A breakdown of 2025 holdings shows CUNY holds more than $319,000 in Boeing stock, roughly $65,300 in Lockheed Martin stock, $141,200 in Raytheon stock, and nearly $189,350 in Palantir stock — figures that activists say exceeded their initial expectations.

    Pro-Palestinian organizers have long flagged the specific role each firm plays in Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, which launched after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on southern Israel. To date, the conflict has left more than 250,000 Palestinians in Gaza killed or injured and reduced much of the enclave to rubble. Activists note Boeing produces F-15 fighter jets, AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, and bunker-buster bombs that have been used in strikes across Gaza, Lebanon, and other regional conflict zones; Lockheed Martin and Raytheon manufacture the missiles and munitions deployed by Israeli ground and air forces; and Palantir provides surveillance and data management technology that the Israeli military relies on for targeting operations.

    In a joint statement released this week, the two advocacy groups argued CUNY’s financial ties to these firms make the university directly complicit in what they call the ongoing genocide of Palestinian people in Gaza. A CUNY faculty organizer, speaking through the groups, extended that criticism further, saying the investments also make CUNY complicit in broader imperialist violence across West Asia and the Global South, as well as in what they describe as fascist border enforcement carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

    The release of the records follows years of organizing and transparency demands from pro-Palestinian groups on CUNY’s campuses. CUNY was one of the first U.S. universities to join the wave of Gaza solidarity encampments that spread across higher education institutions in April 2024, starting at Columbia University, where protesters demanded administrations disclose and divest from companies supplying Israel. Though ties between U.S. academia and the defense sector have long been an open secret, most universities have refused to release detailed breakdowns of their investment holdings to the public.

    In 2024, after the escalation of conflict in Gaza, CUNY4Palestine and CUNY Law SJP filed a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request to force CUNY leadership to release full details of its defense industry investments. When university administrators refused to turn over the records, activists and a student plaintiff filed a lawsuit — Sarah Southey v. City University of New York — to compel disclosure. The case reached a settlement in mid-August that required CUNY to release all investment records dating back to July 2023.

    Veronica Salama, senior staff attorney at the New York Civil Liberties Union, which supported the lawsuit, noted that while the disclosure marks a win for transparency, it is unacceptable that legal action was required to get public information from a taxpayer-funded institution. “While we’re grateful that the largest, urban public university in the country will finally disclose its investment records, it is outrageous that our client had to file this lawsuit in the first place,” Salama said in a statement.

    On Wednesday afternoon, campaigners planned a press conference outside New York City Hall to lay out the full details of the disclosures to the public. Activists say the released records are only the first part of a larger body of investment data, framing the $715,000 figure as “just the tip of the iceberg.” They have vowed to continue their campaign until CUNY divests all holdings from arms firms and redirects that funding toward institutional and community programs that serve public good. “As we declared during CUNY’s Gaza Solidarity Encampment: we will not stop, we will not rest until our tax and tuition dollars are divested from death and destruction and reinvested in life-sustaining institutions and practices! We demand CUNY live up to its name as a ‘People’s University!’” the groups’ statement read.

    The disclosures are also drawing new scrutiny to CUNY leadership and the crackdown on pro-Palestinian protests on its campuses. While high-profile encampments at Ivy League institutions like Harvard and Princeton drew widespread national and international media attention, CUNY’s protest movement has received far less coverage. Organizers and analysts argue that makes the new revelations even more significant: as the nation’s largest urban public university serving a working-class, majority minority student body across New York City, CUNY’s investment decisions carry unique public weight.

    Critics are also pointing to the political ties of CUNY’s top investment leadership. William C. Thompson, who currently chairs CUNY’s board executive committee and investment subcommittee — a post he has held since 2016 — was reappointed to a six-year term in June 2023 by New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a well-known staunch supporter of Israel. CUNY has not yet responded to requests for comment from media outlets including Middle East Eye, which first reported on the disclosures.

  • Hong Kong’s first post-colonial leader dies aged 89

    Hong Kong’s first post-colonial leader dies aged 89

    Tung Chee-hwa, the trailblazing first chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region after the 1997 handover that ended over 150 years of British colonial rule, has passed away at the age of 89. According to local Hong Kong media reports, he died on Tuesday night with his family at his side.

    Born in Shanghai in 1937, Tung built a diverse life trajectory spanning global business and historic public service. After earning a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom, he relocated to the United States, where he spent nearly a decade working for industrial giant General Electric. He returned to Asia and settled in Hong Kong in 1969 to join his family’s prominent shipping enterprise, Orient Overseas, and assumed leadership of the conglomerate in 1979 following his father’s passing.

    Tung’s entry into formal politics came in 1992, when he was appointed to the executive council of Chris Patten, the final British governor of Hong Kong. Despite limited prior electoral political experience, Tung was widely identified as Beijing’s preferred candidate to lead the newly returned Hong Kong, a signal cemented by a high-profile 1996 handshake with then-Chinese President Jiang Zemin at a Beijing reception that was captured by global photographers. This backing came amid longstanding ties to the mainland: in the mid-1980s, Chinese state-owned banks stepped in to rescue Tung’s family shipping business during a global industry downturn, cementing his reputation as a loyal ally of Beijing.

    When the handover was finalized in July 1997, Tung officially took office, succeeding Patten to become the first leader of Hong Kong under Chinese sovereignty. His tenure was immediately tested by cascading crises that shaped his administration. Just months after taking office, the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis sent Hong Kong’s property market into a steep nosedive, straining household finances and public confidence. His administration later faced two major public health emergencies: a multi-year bird flu outbreak between 1997 and 2002, followed by the 2003 SARS epidemic that killed hundreds in the city and brought daily life to a standstill.

    The most significant political challenge of Tung’s tenure came in July 2003, during his second term, when an estimated half a million Hong Kong residents marched in mass protests against a proposed local national security law that opponents warned would erode civil liberties and the city’s promised high degree of autonomy. In response to widespread public outcry, Tung’s administration shelved the draft legislation. The unrest, combined with other pressures, contributed to Tung’s early departure from office in March 2005. While Tung cited declining personal health as the reason for his resignation, many outside observers have long speculated that he was pressured to step down by Beijing authorities. A national security law for Hong Kong was ultimately imposed directly by Beijing in 2020; the measure has been defended by Chinese and Hong Kong authorities as critical to upholding national security and social stability, but decried by critics as a move that has dismantled Hong Kong’s civil freedoms and created a pervasive climate of political fear.

    After leaving office, Tung remained out of the public eye for most of his later years. His last confirmed public appearance was in July 2021, at an event marking the 100th founding anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party. Just months after that event, Tung underwent heart surgery, according to local reporting.

    In an official statement following his death, Tung’s office remembered him as a leader deeply devoted to the country and its people. “His noble character and integrity will live on forever in our hearts,” the statement read. He is survived by his wife and three children.

  • ‘Emotional rollercoaster’ – Lindsay Clancy jurors speak out on what led to mistrial

    ‘Emotional rollercoaster’ – Lindsay Clancy jurors speak out on what led to mistrial

    In the wake of a high-profile mistrial that left the Lindsay Clancy case hanging in legal limbo, three members of the 12-person jury have stepped forward to share unprecedented details of the tense, emotionally fraught deliberations that ended with no verdict. The three women, one of whom served as the jury’s foreperson, opened up about their experience in an exclusive interview with NBC, speaking publicly for the first time since Judge William Sullivan formally declared a mistrial late last week.

    Clancy, a Massachusetts woman charged with the murder of her three young children, has never denied taking their lives in the basement of the family home. Her defense team has centered its entire case on the argument that she was suffering from severe, untreated postpartum psychosis at the time of the killings, and thus lacked the criminal responsibility to be found guilty. Prosecutors, by contrast, have pushed the narrative that the killings were a premeditated, calculated act, calling more than a dozen expert witnesses including multiple medical professionals to bolster their claim. After nearly 40 hours of deliberations spread across seven days, marked by repeated notifications to the court that the jury was deadlocked, Sullivan officially called a mistrial.

    The three female jurors confirmed what court observers had speculated: the panel was just one vote away from a unanimous verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity. The foreperson, a retired fifth-grade grade teacher who acts as the official representative for the jury in U.S. judicial proceedings, described the days of deliberation as an unrelenting emotional roller coaster that left many jurors in tears. “We had lots of crying, lots of tears, and then hugging each other to get through it,” she shared. “I was so sad we couldn’t reach a verdict for Lindsay. It was absolutely heartbreaking. It’s just awful that it ended this way.”

    She detailed a moment of false hope that quickly turned to disappointment: the lone male holdout had already admitted he held reasonable doubt about Clancy’s criminal responsibility, a standard that under Massachusetts law requires a not guilty verdict. As the foreperson began filling out the official verdict forms, excited that the process was wrapping up, the holdout reversed course. He told the panel he still would not vote to acquit on the grounds of insanity, despite acknowledging he could not find beyond a reasonable doubt that Clancy was criminally culpable. The holdout has not come forward publicly to respond to the jurors’ claims.

    The second juror, an employee at a government defense contractor, explained that the holdout’s objection centered on questions about the medication Clancy was taking at the time of the killings. Even after the panel, which included multiple practicing nurses, walked through the clear toxicology reports that confirmed the exact dosage of Clancy’s medication, the juror refused to accept the evidence, she said. The third juror, a chef at a local senior center, added that she found the prosecution’s approach unnecessarily harsh, noting that prosecutors never called a single witness to testify that Clancy had been an abusive or unfit mother before the killings.

    As the foreperson clarified, the jury never debated whether Clancy had caused the deaths of her children, as she had already admitted that fact. Their task, under Massachusetts law, was only to determine whether she understood right from wrong at the time of the act — a standard for criminal responsibility that puts the burden of proof on the prosecution, not the defendant, to prove beyond reasonable doubt that she was criminally culpable. The three jurors all said they found the prosecution’s argument unconvincing, saying all available evidence pointed to Clancy having snapped from her postpartum psychosis, unable to understand her actions.

    Deliberations grew so contentious that arguments and shouting could be heard through the jury room walls, the jurors confirmed. At one point, the panel notified the court that the holdout was refusing to follow the judge’s instructions on the legal standard of reasonable doubt, leading Clancy’s defense team to request that the juror be removed from the case. That request was immediately denied by the judge, and the stalemate continued until a mistrial was declared.

    All jury members have remained anonymous per court order, which banned any photography or filming of the panel during the trial to protect their privacy. Under U.S. law, however, jurors are free to speak publicly about their deliberations once a case concludes, a common practice in high-profile cases like this one. The BBC, which had a reporter in the courthouse throughout the trial, has confirmed that the three women who spoke to NBC were indeed seated on the Clancy jury.

    The mistrial has left Clancy’s future and the trajectory of the case completely uncertain. Prosecutors are currently weighing whether to empanel a new jury and hold a second trial. Clancy’s lead defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, has already stated he hopes to negotiate a plea agreement with prosecutors to avoid a second proceeding. The three jurors who spoke to NBC echoed that hope, saying they oppose a new trial — and if one is ultimately held, all three plan to attend in open court to show their support for Clancy.

  • Watch: Archeologists discover ancient tomb in Peru

    Watch: Archeologists discover ancient tomb in Peru

    A remarkable archaeological breakthrough has been announced in Peru, where research teams have unearthed a nearly undisturbed ancient burial site linked to the pre-Incan Chimu civilization, one of the most influential pre-Columbian cultures to emerge along South America’s Pacific coast. The discovery, which was captured on video for documentation and public sharing, offers an unprecedented window into the funerary traditions, social structures, and cultural practices of a society that dominated much of northern Peru for centuries before the rise of the Inca Empire. Unlike many ancient tombs in the region, which have been targeted by looters or damaged by centuries of natural erosion, this site was found in an exceptional state of preservation. Archaeologists note that the intact condition of the burial chamber means that artifacts, human remains, and contextual materials that reveal critical details about Chimu life are still in their original positions. This preservation avoids the common problem of looting that has destroyed countless archaeological sites across Peru, allowing researchers to conduct a full, systematic excavation that is expected to yield new insights into Chimu political organization, religious beliefs, and daily life. Initial assessments suggest the tomb may belong to a high-ranking member of Chimu society, given the care taken in its construction and sealing. The excavation team has already begun careful documentation of the site, with plans to remove artifacts and remains for further laboratory analysis in the coming months before putting key findings on public display to expand public understanding of Peru’s rich pre-Columbian heritage. The Chimu civilization, centered on its capital city of Chan Chan near modern-day Trujillo, flourished from around 900 CE until the Inca conquest in the 15th century, and this new find is already being hailed as one of the most significant Chimu archaeological discoveries of the past decade.

  • Nepal’s flood disaster and the impact of climate change loom large in the icy shadow of Mont Blanc

    Nepal’s flood disaster and the impact of climate change loom large in the icy shadow of Mont Blanc

    For hundreds of years, the mountain communities straddling the French-Italian border at the foot of Western Europe’s tallest peak have lived in the shadow of Mont Blanc — the “White Mountain” — whose seemingly permanent snowfields and glaciers defined both its name and its iconic landscape. Today, that centuries-old landscape is unraveling at a pace that has alarmed scientists, local leaders and long-time residents alike, as accelerating climate warming drives catastrophic change across the Alpine range.

    Europe’s sweltering record-breaking heat waves this summer pushed temperatures to unprecedented highs at high altitude, thawing permafrost that has acted as natural cement holding the Alps’ rocky slopes together for millennia. As cold, centuries-old terrain warmed and softened, unstable cliffs fractured, sending massive cascades of rock tumbling down from the heights. Even one of the most notoriously hazardous gullies regularly traversed by climbers aiming for Mont Blanc’s 4,805-meter summit became temporarily impassable, its routes rendered too dangerous to attempt.

    “We weep for our mountain, the way it’s changing. It hits us in the gut,” said Stéphane Bozon, deputy mayor of Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, the French alpine town that sits at the mountain’s base. Since mid-July, Bozon explained, the frequency of rockfalls has climbed steadily. Glacial retreat, rapid snowmelt, widening crevasses and sudden rock collapses have closed off multiple once-accessible areas, making travel across many high-altitude routes far more dangerous than just a generation ago.

    Temperature data from France’s national weather service Meteo France underscores the scale of the warming. On Aiguille du Midi, a 3,842-meter peak in the Mont Blanc massif, the average July temperature has jumped from 1.6°C (33.8°F) in 1994 to 3.3°C (37.4°F) this year — the warmest July ever recorded at the site. “The mountain really dried out, with temperatures unlike any I had ever experienced,” Bozon added.

    The crisis unfolding on Mont Blanc mirrors a growing global pattern of climate-fueled glacial and mountain disasters, highlighted by the devastating August floods that killed dozens of people across Nepal and southern Tibet. That catastrophe was triggered when a combination of glacial ice and bedrock collapsed, sending a surge of debris and water roaring through Himalayan river valleys. Most scientists agree that rising temperatures driven by the burning of fossil fuels created the unstable conditions that led to the disaster, and as global average temperatures continue to climb, the likelihood of similar events will only increase.

    Across the Alps, glaciers long celebrated for their icy grandeur are now viewed with growing apprehension, as shrinking ice and thawing terrain erode their stability. For Bozon, who oversees public safety for Chamonix, the urgent priority is preparing for worst-case scenarios, in which large chunks of glacial ice or unstable mountain rock could break away and crash into populated lowland areas. “We have to move quite quickly because this summer has shaken us and year after year we’re being shaken by the glaciers’ retreat,” he said.

    On the Italian side of the border, researchers are documenting similarly dramatic damage from this year’s record heat. Since 1991, Alpine glaciers in Italy’s Lombardy region have lost more than 40% of their total surface area, according to the region’s official glacier monitoring service. Vanda Bonardo, head of the Italian branch of the International Commission for the Protection of the Alps, noted that once-reliable high-altitude snowfall has increasingly been replaced by rain, further eroding terrain stability. “So we’ve also seen the effects on the stability of the terrain,” she added.

    Ludovic Ravanel, a climate researcher at Savoie Mont Blanc University who specializes in how rising temperatures impact mountain ice, snow and permafrost, explained that permafrost’s role in holding steep rock faces together cannot be overstated. This year’s repeated back-to-back heat waves pushed that ancient ice to a breaking point. “That doesn’t mean that all the rock faces will collapse in the coming years or decades but quite a number of them are on the verge of becoming unstable and remain stable today only because of the presence of that ice. As the ice changes, we have seen a huge, huge number of rock falls and rock collapses this year,” he said.

    Ravanel defines a major collapse as a rock fall involving more than 100 cubic meters of rock — enough to fill a large standard shipping container. He projects that the total number of major collapses across the Mont Blanc massif this year will likely reach roughly 400, a figure that is 10 times higher than the average recorded two decades ago. The last time the region came close to this level of activity was 2022, which was already labeled a “catastrophic year” with nearly 300 major collapses. “This has really been one of the defining features of the summer of 2024,” he said.

    For mountain guides who have built their lives around leading climbs on Mont Blanc, the rapid shift has been both professionally challenging and deeply disheartening. Stuart MacDonald, a Chamonix-based guide, says he is stunned by how quickly and extensively the massif’s hanging glaciers have retreated in just the last decade. When he leads groups up the slopes, he often points out visible markers of the melt: “where the glacier was last year and this is where it was 10 years ago. And that usually has quite an effect.”

    This summer, elevated melt and constant rockfall risk made MacDonald’s job “pretty challenging,” and he was forced to cancel a planned summit ascent just last week. “You hear it before you see it and then you’ll turn round and you’ll just see an enormous cascade of rocks coming down a slope and it can be quite terrifying,” he said. “What’s most scary is that sometimes these rocks are falling on routes that we used to be climbing at this time of year. It can be depressing sometimes when you look at something that you maybe climbed in July or August in the past and you see that it’s absolutely impossible to do it now.”