Global Pulse

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  • Untamed wildfires force over 160,000 to flee in France, Spain

    Untamed wildfires force over 160,000 to flee in France, Spain

    In a devastating outbreak of climate-fueled wildfires that has become one of the most extreme weather emergencies Western Europe has faced in modern history, more than 160,000 people have been displaced across France and Spain, with emergency crews stretched to breaking point and military forces deployed to battle the raging infernos.

    The crisis unfolded over three days of relentless burning, with large blazes breaking out simultaneously near Bordeaux in southwestern France and on the outskirts of Madrid, Spain. By Saturday, the scale of displacement had reached staggering levels: 141,000 residents and tourists were evacuated from fire zones in France, while 25,000 more fled the Madrid region, with an additional 39,000 people ordered to shelter in place to avoid toxic smoke. The smoke from the Madrid wildfires drifted as far as the city’s center by early Saturday, a stark reminder of how close the disaster has come to one of Europe’s major capital cities.

    The fires have been amplified by exceptionally dry conditions, created by a string of record-breaking heatwaves that have parched forests across the Iberian Peninsula and southern France since May. Climate scientists have repeatedly warned that rising global temperatures are increasing the frequency and severity of droughts and extreme weather events, creating the tinder-dry conditions that allow wildfires to grow rapidly out of control.

    In France, officials have described the Bordeaux-region blaze as the largest wildfire the nation has ever recorded. French President Emmanuel Macron ordered military intervention on Friday, and Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu later announced that 1,000 military personnel would be deployed to support overstretched firefighters who have been working around the clock to contain the flames. To date, the fire has destroyed more than 22,000 hectares of land – an area roughly twice the size of the city of Paris. Authorities also arranged for 1.5 million protective face masks to be delivered to the Gironde department to protect first responders and local residents from toxic smoke inhalation.

    The blaze near Bordeaux poses an additional high-stakes risk: it is advancing toward the broader Bordeaux wine region, which is home to many of the world’s most famous and prestigious wineries. Among the hardest-hit evacuation zones is the upscale Cap Ferret peninsula, where 44,000 people fled, hundreds of them escaping by boat as flames closed in on coastal roads. So far, 40 firefighters have been injured battling the Cap Ferret blaze, part of a rising toll that has seen three firefighters killed in wildfires across France and Italy this week alone.

    Tens of thousands of evacuees are now sheltering in emergency facilities set up in local schools, gymnasiums, and large public hangars, many unsure if their homes will still stand when they are allowed to return. Ninety-year-old Maria Lalanne, who evacuated from Lege Cap Ferret to a gym in Andernos, told reporters she had left her glasses and hearing aid behind in the rush to escape. Living with pre-existing heart disease and high blood pressure, she said she had no information about the fate of her home. “I don’t know how long all this will last. I don’t know how my house is, whether it has burnt,” she said.

    Forty-nine-year-old Caroline Larrode, who fled her home in Saumos with her three cats, said she had nowhere else to go and ended up in a large Bordeaux hangar housing evacuees from the Arcachon Basin. “We had no one to put us up,” she explained.

    In Spain, the situation remains equally critical. Two of the three large wildfires burning west of Madrid have already merged into a single massive blaze, which is just kilometers from merging into an even larger inferno on the capital’s doorstep. Carlos Novillo, the Madrid regional government’s environment chief, warned Friday that the fire was “at its peak and… currently beyond the capacity of firefighters to contain” the blaze. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez planned to visit the fire-ravaged region on Saturday to attend an emergency response meeting in the fire-stricken village of Cenicientos, followed by a press briefing to update the public on the response effort.

    Luis, an audiovisual technician who grew up in a suburban town near the fire zone, had spent an afternoon helping evacuate residents from Pelayos de la Presa when he received his own evacuation order. “I cried at first because it’s where I grew up. But now, it’s more a feeling of anger and resignation, because there’s nothing we can do as long as we’re not allowed to go back and see what we’ll find there,” he told Agence France-Presse.

    Francisco Martín, the Spanish central government’s delegate in Madrid, said a forecast dip in temperatures on Saturday offered a small window of opportunity for firefighters. “There is a real opportunity now to tackle this fire with some guarantee of success,” he said, though he warned that the day would still be challenging, with erratic, rising wind gusts expected through the morning.

    Spain’s largest active wildfire, burning in Guadalajara province roughly 100 kilometers north of Madrid, has already scorched more than 32,000 hectares of land. Both France and Spain have formally requested assistance from the European Union to support their overwhelmed emergency response teams, as hundreds of firefighters on both sides of the border work to the point of exhaustion to contain the blazes.

  • Wildfire leads to evacuations in some suburbs of the French city of Bordeaux

    Wildfire leads to evacuations in some suburbs of the French city of Bordeaux

    In the summer of an escalating climate crisis, two of Western Europe’s most popular destinations are grappling with out-of-control wildfires that have forced more than 200,000 people to flee their homes, with flames now pushing toward the iconic French wine hub of Bordeaux.

    The emergency unfolded rapidly across southwestern France and central Spain this week, with record-high temperatures and prolonged drought amplified by climate change turning vast forested areas into tinder that fueled fires of unprecedented ferocity. Officials in both nations have acknowledged they were caught off guard by the speed and intensity of the advancing flames, which have overwhelmed initial firefighting deployments.

    In France, the blaze that began Wednesday near the Atlantic coastal vacation spot of Cap Ferret — just 37 miles southwest of Bordeaux — has swelled in size driven by strong westerly winds. By Friday, Gironde region prefect Sophie Brocas confirmed the fire had reached an “unprecedented magnitude” and was steadily advancing on the Bordeaux metropolitan area. Overnight Saturday, authorities issued mandatory evacuation orders for portions of three western suburbs of Bordeaux, including the city’s airport, plus additional communities further west beyond the immediate metro area.

    “As the fire continues to spread, and despite the significant resources deployed by firefighters, the evacuation of residents from the affected areas is required to ensure their safety,” the prefecture’s official statement read. Targeted residents received emergency alert notifications directly to their mobile devices with clear evacuation instructions, and authorities have prioritized moving all at-risk people to safe shelter as quickly as possible.

    To date, the French Interior Ministry reports roughly 141,000 people across the Gironde and Landes departments have been forced to leave their homes, with many coastal tourist residents fleeing by boat to escape the fast-moving flames. Dozens of French firefighters have been injured while battling the blazes, though no fatalities have been recorded across either France or Spain. For locals, the scale of the disaster is unprecedented: “An evacuation on this scale has never happened before. All we really hope is that the firefighters can quickly get it under control,” said Laurent Moretti, a resident of the French town of Arès.

    Across the border in central Spain, roughly 60,000 people living west of Madrid have similarly been displaced by raging wildfires that burned out of control Friday. Spanish firefighters have acknowledged the blazes move too quickly and violently to be confronted directly, leaving crews focused on evacuation and containment rather than aggressive frontline attacks. On Saturday, regional officials reported a slight reprieve: cooler temperatures and calmer winds overnight reduced fire intensity, creating a small window to reinforce containment lines.

    The European Union has mobilized a cross-national response to the emergency, with water-dumping firefighting aircraft already deployed from the Netherlands and Portugal to assist Spanish crews. Four additional aircraft — two from Italy and two from Greece — were expected to arrive in Spain Saturday to boost response efforts.

    French officials are also ramping up their response, announcing substantial national reinforcements that include additional firefighters, military personnel, medical workers, and wildfire experts to expand the team tackling the blaze. French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez described the France fire as “a large, self-sustaining fire that is extremely difficult to bring under control,” a assessment echoed by frontline crews and residents alike. As plumes of dark smoke have darkened skies across both regions and panicked residents flee by car, with authorities going door-to-door to clear at-risk neighborhoods, the disaster underscores the growing threat extreme heat and wildfires pose to populated European areas amid accelerating climate change.

  • Japan’s monkey sensation Punch gets thousands of birthday messages as he turns 1 on Sunday

    Japan’s monkey sensation Punch gets thousands of birthday messages as he turns 1 on Sunday

    At Ichikawa City Zoological and Botanical Garden, located east of Tokyo, a once-orphaned baby macaque that captured global attention for his endearing attachment to an orangutan stuffed toy is celebrating a major milestone: his first birthday. One year to the day after he was abandoned by his exhausted mother shortly after birth, Punch is marking the occasion with a flood of warm birthday wishes from fans across the world — a far cry from his lonely early days when the plush toy was his only constant companion.

    When Punch was first rejected by his mother, zoo caregivers stepped in to raise him by hand. To help the newborn macaque build the natural gripping skill that all infant macaques rely on to cling to their mothers and survive, staff gave him the soft orangutan plushie as a substitute. For months, the tiny baby depended on both the toy and the round-the-clock care of his two dedicated keepers, who worked tirelessly to nurture him through the unusually hot summer of his birth.

    Six months of specialized care later, in mid-January, Punch made his big transition: zookeepers introduced him to the zoo’s main macaque enclosure, where he would join a troop of roughly 50 other monkeys. The adjustment was not easy. When older members of the group chased the tiny newcomer away, Punch would retreat back to his trusted plush toy, clinging to it for comfort. In February, the zoo shared photos of Punch hugging his toy on social media, and the images immediately went viral. The hashtag #HangInTherePunch quickly spread across platforms, turning the little monkey into a global sensation.

    Today, Punch is unrecognizable from the tiny orphan that once depended on a stuffed toy. He has fully integrated into the macaque troop, playing and socializing with the other monkeys so seamlessly that he blends right in with the group. But his fame has not faded — he still draws massive crowds of admirers to the zoo, and for his first birthday, the facility has hosted a special indoor exhibit celebrating his first year of life. The exhibit’s walls are lined with roughly 2,500 birthday cards sent by fans from Japan and across the globe, alongside a video timeline chronicling Punch’s journey from a vulnerable newborn to a thriving young macaque.

    Zoo director Takashi Yasunaga reflected on the past year, noting that the extreme heat of the summer when Punch was born remains a vivid memory for staff, who all pulled together to support the baby monkey and his two primary keepers. He added that after the viral social media posts, the zoo saw a surge of tens of thousands of new visitors, half of whom traveled from overseas to catch a glimpse of Punch.

    For many fans, Punch’s story resonated far beyond his cuteness. His quiet struggle to win acceptance from the troop and reliance on his comfort toy struck a chord with people facing their own challenges. Kumi Ishizawa, a resident of Kobe who visited the birthday exhibit, said she first found Punch on social media earlier this year while she was battling an illness. At the time, recovering enough to travel to see Punch in person became her personal goal. Now fully recovered, she made the trip after a business trip, saying “I kept on telling myself that I’m going to get well and come visit to see Punch… And here I am, I made it. I’m very happy I could finally see him in person.”

    Yeye Lights, a long-time Ichikawa resident who had never visited the zoo before becoming a Punch fan, now holds an annual pass. She first learned about the monkey from her daughter living in the Philippines, and joined other local fans to celebrate Punch’s birthday with a custom cake. Using the affectionate Japanese honorific “-kun” for young boys, she thanked the zookeepers for their gentle care of the little celebrity macaque.

    This report was compiled from contributions by Yamaguchi, who reported from Tokyo.

  • Watch: Inside the room as Trump reattempts press dinner

    Watch: Inside the room as Trump reattempts press dinner

    When the first scheduled press dinner featuring former President Donald Trump was cut short by a shocking gunman incident, organizers were forced to postpone the event, sending shockwaves through the political and media communities. Weeks later, the gathering was rearranged, and BBC News reporter Bernd Debusmann Jr was on the ground, granted exclusive access inside the venue to document the rescheduled evening.

    In his on-the-ground reporting, Debusmann captured the subtle but noticeable shifts in atmosphere that set this second attempt apart from the originally planned event. What was meant to be a routine, if high-profile, networking and speech event between political figures and members of the White House press corps had been recontextualized by the violent disruption that preceded it. Guests entered the venue with heightened security protocols, and conversations often circled back to the earlier incident that forced the dinner’s cancellation in the first place.

    Debusmann’s on-site reporting offers audiences a rare, first-hand look at how the event unfolded after the disruption, from the opening remarks to the off-the-record interactions between Trump and attending journalists. The rescheduled dinner carried significant political weight, coming as Trump continues his active political engagement ahead of a high-stakes election cycle, making the inside perspective all the more valuable for observers tracking the former president’s interactions with the national press.

  • Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp among new additions to join UNESCO’s World Heritage List

    Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp among new additions to join UNESCO’s World Heritage List

    At the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Committee session hosted in Busan, South Korea, seven culturally and ecologically significant sites across five continents received formal inclusion to the coveted World Heritage List on Saturday. The annual meeting, which will run through next Wednesday, is still evaluating dozens of additional high-profile nominations from around the globe, including France’s Normandy D-Day landing beaches, Greece’s legendary Mount Olympus, and the ancient Asuka-Fujiwara imperial capitals of Japan.

    The first of the newly inscribed natural sites, Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp, stands as one of the largest intact freshwater wetland ecosystems on the planet. The sprawling interconnected network of marshes and forests supports an extraordinary level of biodiversity and feeds two major regional water systems. According to UNESCO’s official assessment, the swamp’s largely undisturbed peat layers preserve an unbroken 5,000-year timeline of climatic and environmental shift, making it both a critical habitat for rare species and an invaluable scientific archive for studying long-term ecological change. The designation places the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge alongside America’s most iconic protected landmarks, including the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone. Still, the listing has faced local opposition, with some residents raising unfounded concerns that it would grant UNESCO excessive regulatory control over site management. Despite this pushback, conservation leaders have embraced the designation as a lasting promise to protect the swamp. “We accept this inscription not as a finish line, but as a commitment to keep the Okefenokee wild, resilient, and thriving for generations to come,” said Kim Bednarek, executive director of the nonprofit Okefenokee Swamp Park, which collaborated with the U.S. federal government to develop the successful nomination.

    Across Southeast Asia, southern Thailand’s 13th-century Buddhist sanctuary Wat Phra Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan also joined the list, marking Thailand’s ninth entry to the World Heritage register. The temple, famous for its 255-foot central stupa and one-of-a-kind fusion of architectural traditions, was recognized as an exceptional example of living Theravada Buddhist heritage. It remains an active center of worship that has preserved centuries-old religious practices that draw hundreds of thousands of devotees for annual gatherings. First nominated to UNESCO back in 2012, the site underwent more than a decade of upgrades and preparation to meet the body’s strict preservation standards. City officials expect the World Heritage designation to drive a sharp increase in tourist footfall, but say they are fully prepared to manage the growth. “We have prepared our infrastructure, buffer zoning and evacuation plan to fit all the requirements of UNESCO,” Kanop Ketchart, mayor of Nakhon Si Thammarat City, told the Associated Press. “More importantly, the people are getting used to all this process for almost 10 years. So they are very much looking forward to (it).”

    Three additional cultural sites rounded out the new Asian inscriptions. India’s ancient Buddhist pilgrimage site of Sarnath, located adjacent to the holy city of Varanasi, was added for its unique spiritual and historical significance: it is recognized globally as the site where the Buddha delivered his first sermon after achieving enlightenment. Despite cycles of decline and rediscovery over millennia, the site’s remaining archaeological and architectural remains retain outstanding universal cultural value, per UNESCO’s assessment. In eastern China, the historic porcelain production hub of Jingdezhen earned inclusion for its centuries-long legacy of handcrafted ceramic innovation. The inscribed sites document the evolution of Chinese porcelain manufacturing from the 10th to 19th centuries, showcasing the technical breakthroughs that turned Jingdezhen into the global center of fine porcelain production. The city’s iconic blue-and-white porcelain remains a worldwide symbol of Chinese artisanal craftsmanship centuries after it first entered global trade routes. South Korea also saw an expansion of its existing tidal flats, or getbol, World Heritage site, with four additional coastal wetlands in the country’s western Seosan, Goheung, Muan and Yeoju regions added to the designation. UNESCO first recognized four South Korean tidal flats in 2021 for their extraordinary biodiversity and critical role as a refueling stop for migratory birds along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. The South Korean Foreign Ministry noted that the expanded designation “reaffirms the importance of international cooperation for the conservation of the Yellow Sea ecosystem and the East Asian-Australasian Flyway,” a major migratory route stretching from the Arctic to Australia and New Zealand.

    Off the coast of East Africa, the Indian Ocean island nation of Comoros secured its very first World Heritage listing, with six 11th-century historic towns inscribed. The towns grew to become the primary urban centers of Comoros’ pre-colonial sultanates, and their preserved built environments reflect centuries of cultural exchange across Indian Ocean trade networks, blending African, Arab, and Islamic cultural influences to create a distinct regional urban tradition.

  • India’s ‘Cockroach’ protests take on Modi with unlikely weapons: Sharp, irreverent humor and memes

    India’s ‘Cockroach’ protests take on Modi with unlikely weapons: Sharp, irreverent humor and memes

    In the bustling streets of New Delhi, thousands of young Indian demonstrators have launched a dual-front movement that is redefining modern political protest: while mass gatherings put direct pressure on authorities off-line, a creative, humor-fueled digital campaign is winning the battle for online narrative, turning the same social media infrastructure that built Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s political brand against his administration. What began as a single-issue outcry over education system corruption has rapidly evolved into a broad youth movement that challenges long-standing taboos around criticizing the image-conscious prime minister, using satire and viral content to sidestep traditional government censorship and crackdowns.

    Rooted in anger over a series of high-profile exam leaks—including the illegal distribution of answers for India’s national medical college entrance exam that has jeopardized the career prospects of millions of aspiring students—the protests first erupted one month ago. Demonstrators initially called for the resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, but public frustration quickly expanded to demand broader government accountability, spreading to major cities across the country.

    The driving force behind the movement’s digital and cultural expansion is the Cockroach Janta Party, a satirical grassroots collective that coined the movement’s identity two months ago. The group has turned humor and meme culture into a powerful tool of resistance, giving Generation Z and young millennial Indians a language that matches their digital-native habits to express widespread discontent. “We find long, formal speeches boring. We’re the summary generation—we consume content in quick, bite-sized chunks, so we use that same format to spread our message,” a 23-year-old student protester explained to The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity over fears of government retaliation.

    This satirical approach has shaped every part of the movement, from online content to on-the-ground demonstrations. Even violent clashes with police have been reframed as viral, shareable content: protesters joke about maintaining their fitness streaks on the tracking app Strava while fleeing baton charges, and edit footage of dodging police barricades to mimic gameplay of the popular endless runner mobile game Subway Surfers. Young female activists have adapted influencer culture for protest, posting “get ready with me” tutorials before marches and “fit check” posts highlighting homemade safety gear like helmets and goggles. Pro-government television anchors, who have repeatedly framed demonstrators as “anti-national” actors backed by foreign conspiracies, have become common targets of parody videos mocking their over-dramatic broadcast styles.

    At the main New Delhi protest site, the influence of digital meme culture is impossible to miss. Demonstrators wear pop culture costumes like Spider-Man and Batman, carrying placards laced with irreverent jokes and references. One sign featuring Education Minister Pradhan quips, “When will AI take his job?” Another sums up the movement’s core ethos: “Every joke is a (tiny) revolution.” While some slogans lean into profane, edgy language that would be unheard of in traditional Indian political protest, activists say it is simply the natural language of their generation.

    For Modi, who has held national office for nearly 13 years and built his political dominance around a carefully curated public image of strength and decisiveness, this humorous grassroots challenge poses an unprecedented dilemma. With nearly half of India’s population under the age of 25, young voters make up one of the country’s largest and most influential electoral blocs. A heavy-handed crackdown on the movement risks alienating this critical demographic, but allowing the mockery to continue unchallenged erodes the carefully cultivated authority Modi has built over his decade in power.

    Most notably, the movement has broken a long-standing unwritten taboo: direct public mockery of the prime minister himself. For years, criticism of Modi was often muted during public protests due to widespread fears of government retaliation against dissent. Today, however, Modi’s own gestures, speech patterns and mannerisms are regularly edited into viral political jokes that circulate widely across social platforms.

    When Modi released a late-night, selfie-style video addressing the protesters last week, promising swift legal action against those responsible for exam leaks, social media users quickly responded with a wave of parody edits. The clips added satirical voice-overs calling out unfulfilled campaign promises from Modi’s past terms. One of the most viral edits cut directly from Modi opening his address by calling protesters “friends” to a clip of three young women staring directly into the camera and responding, “No, we are not.”

    For the protesters, this tactic is not just about comedy—it is about fighting the government on its own turf. “There is no better way to challenge Modi than using the same social media that helped him build his political brand,” a 21-year-old student said. “We’re just answering him in his own language.”

    Beyond the political punchline, young activists say the humor serves a deeper purpose: it is a coping mechanism for a generation that has far less patience for unaddressed injustice than older cohorts. “If our phone data runs out mid-day, we can’t even stand that inconvenience. So of course we’re not going to tolerate this systemic corruption that’s ruining our futures,” a 25-year-old protester explained, noting that the meme-driven movement reflects a core generational shift. Unlike previous generations that were socialized to endure hardship quietly, she said, young Indians today refuse to “simply put up with” a system that they say has failed them. The satirical digital campaign has expanded the movement far beyond its street protest roots, growing its reach and ramping up pressure on an administration that has been careful not to be seen caving to the fast-growing youth movement, even as it struggles to counter the protesters’ narrative.

  • Berlin’s first drag march brings protest, pride and flamboyant celebration to the streets

    Berlin’s first drag march brings protest, pride and flamboyant celebration to the streets

    BERLIN – On a sunny Friday afternoon in late July 2026, Berlin made history with its first ever official drag march, an energetic, glitter-filled opening event that kicked off one of Europe’s largest annual LGBTQ+ Pride celebrations. Organized in part by veteran LGBTQ+ activist and drag queen Sister Daphne OSPI, the march drew hundreds of participants ranging from drag queens and drag kings to allied supporters, building momentum ahead of the main Christopher Street Day parade, which was projected to bring hundreds of thousands of attendees to Berlin’s streets the following Saturday.

    As the march got underway, Sister Daphne – a member of the German chapter of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence (SPI), an international LGBTQ+ advocacy organization – stepped forward to address the crowd. Pushing back her signature pink veil, fluttering her dramatic purple false lashes, and lifting her hands in a playful blessing, she declared, “Every step is a declaration, every kiss an act of revolution, every wig is a war cry.” Her words were met with roaring cheers from the crowd, which immediately fell into step behind the Transophonix brass band, dancing and marching through central Berlin to the beat of live music.

    The procession made its way past iconic Berlin landmarks, starting near the Reichstag parliament building before heading toward the Brandenburg Gate. Along the route, the band played *Das lila Lied* (The Lavender Song), a groundbreaking 1920s anthem that has remained a symbol of the global gay rights movement for a century. Participants turned heads with vibrant, over-the-top looks: towering high heels, sequined and glittering gowns, bold artistic makeup, and creative wigs that embodied the drag community’s ethos of unapologetic self-expression.

    In an interview ahead of the march, Sister Daphne explained the core philosophy driving the event: “We’re combining protest and resistance with joy and celebration. That’s what makes us so unique and that’s also what makes our demonstrations so popular.” Like all Pride events held around the world, Berlin’s annual celebration traces its roots to the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion in New York City, when LGBTQ+ patrons of the Stonewall Inn – a Greenwich Village gay bar located on Christopher Street – led an uprising against discriminatory police raids, a movement that redefined global queer advocacy.

    Sister Daphne’s organization, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, was founded in San Francisco in 1979, with its German chapter OSPI established in 1991. Beyond large public events like Pride, the group’s core work centers on community outreach: members regularly distribute safer sex education materials in nightlife venues, raise funds for people living with HIV and AIDS, and support grassroots queer projects across Germany and Europe. “Usually, we sisters are out and about in the nightlife scene, handing out safer-sex materials and collecting donations for people affected by HIV and AIDS, as well as for queer projects,” Sister Daphne noted. “Or we’re out at Pride parades, all over the country — across Germany, and sometimes even throughout Europe.”

    By the time the march got underway, crowds continued to grow as onlookers joined the procession along the route, a trend Sister Daphne said she was delighted to see. Standing with her fellow SPI Sisters Pia and Clementia in front of the Reichstag ahead of the march, she beamed – her face painted the traditional white makeup that is a signature of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence – and raised a clenched left fist in a universal symbol of protest and queer pride. For her, the event was as much about personal joy as it was political action. “It brings me incredible joy to get ready, put on my makeup and get into the right mindset,” she said. “I really enjoy being out and about the way I am.”

    The inaugural drag march marked a new milestone for Berlin’s long-standing Pride celebrations, cementing the city’s reputation as a welcoming hub for queer community and advocacy ahead of what organizers expected would be one of the largest Christopher Street Day parades in the event’s history.

  • China hits travel platform Trip.com with $765M in penalties over monopoly abuses

    China hits travel platform Trip.com with $765M in penalties over monopoly abuses

    BEIJING – China’s top market regulator has issued a combined penalty of nearly 5.2 billion yuan, equivalent to around $765 million, against Trip.com Group, the operator of the country’s largest online travel platform, following a finding that the company engaged in persistent monopolistic business practices, the agency announced Saturday.

    Trip.com, which manages well-known travel brands including domestic booking platform Ctrip and global flight search engine Skyscanner, violated anti-monopoly rules by leveraging its dominant market position to stifle industry competition, according to an official statement released by the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR).

    The regulator’s investigation, which was launched in January of this year, traced the company’s anti-competitive behavior back to as early as 2020. Over the following years, the platform implemented a series of restrictive practices to lock in market share: it struck exclusive cooperation agreements with partner hotels, granted preferential algorithmic traffic placement to these properties, and barred participating hotels from working with rival online travel platforms. In addition, Trip.com compelled hotels that maintained listings across multiple platforms to guarantee the lowest publicly available online room rates exclusively on its own site, the regulator confirmed.

    Under the penalty order, SAMR has confiscated more than 1.6 billion yuan ($245 million) in illegal gains earned from the anti-competitive practices, levied an additional fine of more than 3.5 billion yuan ($520 million), and ordered the company to refund roughly 122 million yuan ($18 million) in withheld fees collected from partner hotel operators.

    SAMR concluded that Trip.com’s conduct effectively eliminated and constrained fair market competition, restricted hotels’ ability to operate freely across multiple platforms, undermined hoteliers’ independent pricing rights, and ultimately damaged the interests of consumers booking travel through the platform.

    In an official statement released shortly after the penalty announcement, Trip.com acknowledged the regulator’s ruling and confirmed it would fully comply with the order. The company said it would “sincerely accept” the penalty, and committed to systematically rolling out targeted rectification measures one by one to ensure full implementation of all regulatory requirements.

  • Trump pokes fun at press during White House Correspondents’ Dinner

    Trump pokes fun at press during White House Correspondents’ Dinner

    Six months after a would-be presidential assassination attempt forced the cancellation of the annual White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) dinner just moments before it was set to begin, the event finally went ahead on Saturday, with U.S. President Donald Trump leading a night of humor, tribute, and reaffirmation of American free speech traditions.

    The original April dinner, scheduled to host more than 2,000 attendees at Washington D.C.’s Hilton Hotel, was cut short when 31-year-old Cole Tomas Allen was tackled by Secret Service agents near the event ballroom. The incident left Secret Service officer Victor Gonzalez wounded, and forced organizers to scrap the gathering entirely. On Saturday, 350 fewer guests than the original planned gathering filled the venue – only 700 attendees were welcomed, amid dramatically ramped-up security measures that included multiple street blockades around the hotel, heavy deployment of uniformed police and National Guard personnel, two layers of identity and QR code screening, mandatory wristbands for all guests, and single-file entry past armed Secret Service officers.

    In her opening remarks, outgoing WHCA president Weijia Jiang of CBS News opened the event by rejecting violence’s ability to disrupt democratic press traditions, saying organizers would refuse to “let an act of violence have the final word.” She also confirmed that the 2027 WHCA dinner would return to the Washington Hilton, the site of the April attempt, to reinforce that commitment. President Trump honored Gonzalez for his quick action during the attempt, presenting him with a special award to recognize his bravery. In a symbolic moment that underscored the dinner’s mission of honoring press work regardless of political tension, Trump also shook hands with a reporting team from *The Wall Street Journal* that took home an award for its investigative coverage of Trump’s ties to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein – a story deeply critical of the president. Other high-ranking administration officials in attendance included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.

    Before Saturday’s dinner, many members of the White House press corps had expected Trump to deliver a harsh, combative rebuke of the media, consistent with his long-running public criticism of outlets that have covered him critically, including CNN, *The New York Times*, and the *Wall Street Journal* – all of which have faced lawsuits and public attacks from the president in the past. But Trump struck a largely cordial, if still playful, tone throughout his remarks. Opening with his core message for the night, he said, “As I said three months ago, the show must go on.” He added, “The second time is always better,” noting that he respected most of the journalists in attendance, and called on the country to uphold core free speech values.

    “We settle our differences not with bullets, but with open and vigorous debate,” Trump told the crowd. “And no deranged loser with a gun will ever change that. We can’t let that ever happen.” That said, the president wove his well-known criticism of media coverage into his jokes. He quipped that the dinner was “really the largest group of ‘Trump derangement syndrome’ people ever put together at one time,” joking that “sometimes I really do think that some of you don’t like me.” He added a lighthearted jab that attendees were lucky the April event was cut short, saying he had planned a far harsher speech that night.

    Allen, the suspect in the April assassination attempt, remains in custody facing federal charges of attempted assassination of the U.S. president.

  • Ukraine is still fortifying its border with Belarus years after Russia invaded from there

    Ukraine is still fortifying its border with Belarus years after Russia invaded from there

    Four years have passed since Russian forces launched their full-scale assault on Kyiv from Belarusian territory, and Ukraine continues to ramp up defensive fortifications along its 1,084-kilometer shared border with Moscow’s closest military ally. What once served as a bustling, cross-border transit corridor connecting communities on both sides is now a quiet, restricted zone, off-limits to all civilian travel and laced with hidden landmines.

    An on-the-ground reporting trip by the Associated Press to northern sections of the border earlier this month revealed the scale of Ukraine’s defensive buildup. For miles along border-side roads, anti-drone netting has been stretched to shield infrastructure from aerial attacks. The entire border landscape is crisscrossed with lines of razor-wire fencing and reinforced concrete “dragon’s teeth” anti-tank barriers, designed to block any potential armored incursion.

    The AP visit followed a recent spike in bilateral tensions between Kyiv and Minsk. Ukraine issued a formal demand that Belarus shut down a series of Russian communications relay stations, which Moscow had installed on Belarusian soil to extend the operational range of drones targeting Ukrainian population centers. According to Ukrainian officials, Belarus complied with the request, and hostile rhetoric between the two governments has cooled significantly in the weeks since.

    Despite the de-escalation, Ukrainian security officials remain vigilant. They have confirmed that there are currently no visible signs of a new Russian troop buildup inside Belarus, but have stressed that reinforcing the border will remain a top national security priority for the foreseeable future. Ukrainian border guard units conduct 24/7 patrols across the frontier zone, using armored fighting vehicles, surveillance drones, and integrated monitoring systems to track any unusual activity.

    Belarusian authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko has repeatedly stated that his country has no intention of deploying its own troops to join Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, unless Belarus itself comes under direct attack. Even so, for residents living on the Ukrainian side of the border, the persistent risk of deeper Belarusian involvement in the war remains a constant source of anxiety.

    For many local communities, the sprawling network of new fortifications carries a dual meaning: the heavy defensive works serve as a stark reminder of the chaotic, uncertain early days of the 2022 invasion, when Russian forces advanced to the outskirts of Kyiv from this very border, while also offering a measure of reassurance that Ukraine is prepared for every possible security scenario. Additional reporting for this story was contributed by AP journalist Volodymyr Yurchuk based in Kyiv.