Global Pulse

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  • France reintroduces ‘bee-harming pesticides’, environment minister to quit

    France reintroduces ‘bee-harming pesticides’, environment minister to quit

    In a move that has split French politics and sparked outrage among environmental groups, France’s upper legislative chamber, the Senate, has approved a divisive bill to bring back two insecticides widely documented to harm bee populations, prompting the nation’s environment minister to announce her imminent resignation.

    Monique Barbut, France’s current environment minister, confirmed to close aides Tuesday that she sees no path forward but to step down, with plans to formally submit her resignation to President Emmanuel Macron by the start of Wednesday.

    The two pesticides at the center of the debate — acetamiprid and flupyradifurone — have been banned from domestic use in France since 2018 and 2019 respectively. Backers of the legislation, led by conservative senator Laurent Duplomb, argue that domestic producers of sugar beets, apples and hazelnuts need access to the chemicals to remain competitive against farmers in other EU member states, where the two substances remain legal for use. Following the vote Tuesday evening, Duplomb told fellow senators he was proud of the legislative work that secured the bill’s passage, which passed the lower house National Assembly earlier the same day. The final Senate vote count stood at 214 in favor and 111 opposed.

    Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard has also defended the policy, framing it as a necessary response to widespread farmer discontent that erupted into large-scale protests across France this past winter. She emphasized that the bill restricts use of the pesticides to narrow emergency circumstances: it will only be approved for specific regions and limited time frames, she said, on the condition that no harm to human health or the environment is proven and no viable alternative pest control option exists.

    Critics, however, reject these assurances, pointing to robust scientific research that confirms the substances’ toxicity to pollinators and potential risks to people. Multiple studies have documented that acetamiprid poisons honeybees, damaging their ability to forage for food and impairing their memory. A 2024 academic study further found that flupyradifurone can be lethal to certain bee species.

    This is not the first attempt to reintroduce acetamiprid: last year, France’s Constitutional Council, the nation’s highest constitutional court, struck down a similar provision in an earlier agriculture bill backed by Duplomb, ruling that the chemical posed unacceptable risks to human health. That ruling came after more than two million French citizens signed a public petition opposing the reintroduction. Following the National Assembly’s approval of the new bill this week, left-wing parties have already announced plans to challenge the new legislation before the Constitutional Council if it secured Senate approval.

    The bill passed despite unified opposition from most left-wing lawmakers in the lower house, after securing backing from far-right parties and a majority of centrist legislators. Environmental and beekeeping advocacy groups have decried the move as a rejection of scientific consensus and popular will.

    “The government and its allies are trampling on science, health, the environment, and the will of the people,” environmental NGO Greenpeace said in a statement after the lower house vote. Henri Clement, a representative of the French Beekeeping Union, told regional outlet Ici Gard Lozere that the approval of the bill is “absolutely catastrophic” for France’s bee populations and beekeeping industry.

  • EU cancels subsidy to Venice Biennale over Russia presence

    EU cancels subsidy to Venice Biennale over Russia presence

    In a high-stakes decision that intersects global politics and cultural exchange, the European Union announced Tuesday it is permanently revoking a €2 million ($2.3 million) grant for the Venice Biennale, the world’s largest and most prestigious contemporary art event. The move comes directly in response to the Biennale’s controversial choice to allow Russia to participate in this year’s exhibition, marking Moscow’s return to the event for the first time since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

    European Commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier framed the cancellation as a defense of core European values, stating publicly that cultural initiatives supported by European taxpayer funding must uphold democratic ideals, promote open public dialogue, celebrate cultural diversity, and protect free expression. These principles, Regnier emphasized, are not respected by the current Russian government in the wake of its ongoing military aggression against Ukraine.

    Russia was barred from the 2022 edition of the Venice Biennale as a widespread global protest against the invasion, making this year’s reversal on participation all the more contentious. When organizers confirmed Russia’s inclusion earlier this year, the decision sparked immediate, widespread backlash from the European Union and the Ukrainian government. Ukrainian Culture Minister Tetiana Berejna drew a sharp comparison at the time, arguing that allowing Russia to join the event was equivalent to “inviting a serial killer to a dinner with your friends.”

    The controversy already triggered major upheaval for the event earlier this year: the entire international jury for the 2024 Biennale resigned en masse to protest the decision to welcome Russia’s national pavilion. Activist groups including the international women’s movement FEMEN and Russian protest art collective Pussy Riot also staged high-profile demonstrations against Russia’s involvement during the Biennale’s opening in May.

    Biennale organizers defended their position when the controversy first erupted, arguing that the iconic event has been rooted in principles of openness, cross-cultural dialogue, and rejection of censorship and exclusionary politics. On Tuesday, the Biennale issued an official response to the EU’s grant cancellation, noting that the organization had expected the funding cut and would pursue formal action to defend its interests “in all relevant forums.”

    Organizers emphasized that the revoked EU grant was earmarked to co-finance programs under the Biennale College and the Venice Production Bridge, two core initiatives that are completely separate from Russia’s participation in the main Biennale Arte exhibition. The statement also downplayed the financial impact of the cancellation, confirming that the cut in funding will not have a significant effect on the Biennale’s overall budget, balance sheet, or any planned or ongoing programming.

  • India opposition leader Gandhi detained after calling for PM resignation

    India opposition leader Gandhi detained after calling for PM resignation

    India’s political landscape has been roiled by escalating mass protests in New Delhi this week, centered on widespread public anger over repeated government failures to secure national examinations and address a broken education system. What began as a small grassroots online movement has exploded into the largest challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third-term Hindu nationalist administration since it took office in 2024.

    The unrest traces its roots to a string of high-stakes testing scandals that have eroded public trust in India’s education assessment system. Most recently, 2.2 million aspiring medical students were forced to retake their entrance exam under heavy security last month after the original test was cancelled over a widespread question paper leak. That incident followed a separate scandal involving flawed online marking for nearly 2 million high school students, amplifying youth frustration that has been simmering for months.

    These grievances coalesced into the fast-growing Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a grassroots movement that launched in May and has already gained millions of followers across Indian social media platforms. On Monday, the CJP called for mass demonstrations in the capital, demanding the immediate resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and sweeping structural reforms to India’s education system. Thousands of protesters flooded New Delhi’s streets, igniting the largest public clashes in the city in five years.

    Tensions boiled over on Monday when security forces deployed tear gas and baton charges to disperse crowds, prompting protesters to respond by throwing stones at officers. Official police figures put the injury toll at 60 civilians and 118 police personnel, but CJP organizers claim hundreds of protesters were hurt, a far higher number than the official count. The violence prompted condemnation from opposition parties, with senior Congress Party leader Sandeep Dixit telling Agence France-Presse that “our Constitution got trampled upon” and that no responsible citizen could stand aside in the wake of the crackdown.

    On Tuesday, protests entered a second day, with thousands of demonstrators remaining camped at New Delhi’s iconic Jantar Mantar protest site, vowing not to leave until their demands are met. Congress Party leader and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi joined the demonstrations Tuesday morning, calling directly for Prime Minister Modi to step down over the damage the crisis has inflicted on India’s young people. “Modi must resign for destroying the future of India’s youth,” Gandhi told the crowd before staging a peaceful sit-in directly outside the prime minister’s official residence. He accused the ruling government of refusing to accept accountability for the scandals or allow a parliamentary debate on the crisis.

    Footage captured by Agence France-Presse shows uniformed security personnel, some wearing body armor, forcibly detaining Gandhi and several other opposition lawmakers. Officers carried Gandhi by his arms and legs through crowds of demonstrators before bundling him into a waiting police bus. Chaotic scenes followed as protesters attempted to block the vehicle and climb aboard before it sped away from the site.

    Gandhi later shared images of his detention on social media, affirming that the protest movement would not be halted by government crackdowns. As of Tuesday evening, Modi has not issued any direct public comment on the protests or Gandhi’s detention. India’s Parliament was adjourned on Tuesday after opposition lawmakers walked out and demanded an urgent debate on what they call the “brutality unleashed on students” by security forces.

    CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke addressed supporters Tuesday from atop a lorry, urging protesters to maintain their resolve. “They want to break our spirit,” Dipke said. “Do not let them silence you.” CJP spokesman Ashutosh Ranka called the government crackdown a shameful moment for Indian democracy, noting that peaceful student protesters advocating for a legitimate grievance were brutally targeted by police. Ranka, who met with senior ruling party official JP Nadda on Monday, said the government has yet to offer any formal response to the movement’s core demands.

    Young protesters have shown no sign of backing down, with many saying the violent police response has only hardened their commitment to reform. “We have become even more fearless now,” 25-year-old law student Chandra Pratap Sishwi told reporters. “When I saw people being beaten up by the police like that, my blood boiled.”

    On Tuesday, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju defended the Modi administration’s response, saying officials had acted quickly to address the exam leaks by arresting multiple individuals implicated in the scandals. He also told reporters that Modi had called for the creation of a “foolproof system” to prevent future testing irregularities during a closed-door meeting with governing coalition allies.

  • Chelsea sign Rogers from Villa for reported UK record fee

    Chelsea sign Rogers from Villa for reported UK record fee

    In a landmark move that has shaken up the English Premier League summer transfer window, Chelsea have confirmed the signing of 23-year-old England attacking midfielder Morgan Rogers from Aston Villa, with the deal valuing at a new British transfer record of £117 million ($157 million).

    The London-based club announced on its official website Tuesday that Rogers, who just returned from the FIFA World Cup held in North America, has put pen to paper on a 10-year contract that will keep him at Stamford Bridge until 2033, after successfully completing his mandatory medical examination on Monday.

    Speaking following the completion of his transfer, Rogers expressed his long-held admiration for one of London’s most iconic football institutions. “I’m so excited,” he told Chelsea’s media team. “For me, Chelsea are the biggest club in London and a club I’ve always admired since I was a kid. I’m really excited about the project with the new manager, the players we’ve got and where the club is heading. That’s why I’m here and I can’t wait to get started.”

    This historic transfer breaks two major records in English football. It surpasses the previous record for the highest fee paid for a British player, which was set just weeks earlier when Manchester City purchased Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest for £116 million earlier this July. It also becomes the most expensive signing in Chelsea’s 119-year club history, outstripping the £107 million the club paid to acquire Enzo Fernandez from Benfica back in 2023.

    The high-profile capture of Rogers represents a clear statement of ambition from Chelsea, who pulled off the signing despite the club failing to qualify for next season’s UEFA Champions League – a competition that Aston Villa will compete in after their strong top-five finish last campaign. The west London side had been tracking Rogers for more than two years, and eventually won the race for his signature by meeting Aston Villa’s steep asking price, beating out fellow Premier League giants Arsenal, who declined to match the valuation.

    For Villa, Rogers’ exit marks the third high-profile departure of this transfer window for manager Unai Emery, following Youri Tielemans’ recent move to Manchester United and an expected outgoing of left-back Lucas Digne to Paris Saint-Germain. The Midlands club issued a warm farewell to their former star, saying in an official statement: “A player with impeccable behaviour and commitment, Morgan leaves Aston Villa with the best wishes of everyone at the football club for both his service to the club and for for his future career. He will always remain a core part of our recent great moments and memories.”

    Championship club Middlesbrough, who sold Rogers to Aston Villa back in 2024, will net a 20 percent cut of the transfer fee thanks to a sell-on clause inserted into the original deal, a windfall that will reportedly go towards their new stadium project.

    Rogers enjoyed a breakout 2023/24 season with Villa, scoring 14 goals and providing 11 assists across all competitions, and notching up a total of 21 goals in 85 league appearances for the club. He was also a key part of Villa’s successful Europa Conference League run, scoring in the club’s May final victory over SC Freiburg.

    Now, new Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso faces the exciting challenge of integrating Rogers into a revamped attacking line that already includes Cole Palmer, Pedro Neto, Estevao Willian, and fellow recent signing Geovany Quarda. To free up space in the squad and the wage bill, Chelsea are expected to offload Argentine winger Alejandro Garnacho before the summer transfer window closes.

    Off the pitch, Rogers shares a long-standing personal connection with Palmer, having come through the youth academy at Manchester City together. It was Rogers, in fact, who inspired Palmer’s famous ‘cold’ celebration – the pose was first popularized by Rogers during his time as a Middlesbrough player.

    The signing is widely viewed as proof that Chelsea remain a huge draw for top-tier talent even after a disappointing 2023/24 campaign that saw the club finish 10th in the Premier League and miss out on all European competition. Rogers will join up with his new Chelsea teammates after taking a planned post-World Cup break, having helped England reach the semi-finals of the 2024 tournament in North America.

  • Hormuz, Malacca and other key straits spawn tensions throughout history

    Hormuz, Malacca and other key straits spawn tensions throughout history

    For more than 500 years, narrow maritime straits across the globe have stood as the unshakable backbone of international commerce, and equally as persistent flashpoints for great power rivalry that shape global geopolitics to this day. Today, growing friction around two key Middle Eastern waterways underscores just how much these small stretches of water continue to hold the global economy hostage to political conflict.

    As Iran increasingly asserts unilateral control over the Strait of Hormuz, the primary maritime gateway to the Persian Gulf, its Yemeni allied faction the Houthi movement has launched repeated disruptions to commercial shipping transiting the Red Sea en route to and from Saudi Arabian ports. Experts warn this unrest could easily spill over to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the mandatory passage for all vessels traveling between the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, one of the world’s most vital man-made trade routes.

    Hormuz, Bab el-Mandeb, and roughly 10 other straits globally are classified as critical strategic chokepoints for international trade. Every year, thousands of vessels—from oil and liquefied natural gas tankers to bulk cargo ships and container carriers carrying consumer goods and raw materials—pass through these narrow natural maritime corridors, their operations critical to keeping global supply chains moving and energy prices stable.

    Sylvain Domergue, a geography lecturer at Sciences Po Bordeaux and author of *Geopolitics of Maritime Spaces*, explained the international legal framework governing these waterways in an interview with AFP. The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), signed in Montego Bay and widely described as the global constitution for the world’s oceans, formally enshrines two core rules for natural straits: they cannot be subject to commercial tolls, and the principle of free and unrestricted navigation for all vessels is guaranteed under international law. This stands in contrast to man-made waterways such as the Suez Canal and Panama Canal, where the nations that control the infrastructure have the legal right to charge transit tolls for passage.

    Domergue noted that while Iran has never formally ratified the UNCLOS convention, it has abided by its free navigation principle for decades as a matter of customary international law—something that is changing as Tehran escalates its geopolitical posturing.

    The struggle for control over strategic straits dates back centuries. As early as 1507, Portugal, whose explorers pioneered European sea access to South Asia and the East Indies, attempted to seize full control of Hormuz to lock in a monopoly over trade in spices and other valuable commodities from the Orient. That early attempt at control sparked a centuries-long debate over maritime sovereignty, which eventually settled on the *Mare Liberum* doctrine put forward by Dutch jurist and philosopher Hugo Grotius in the early 17th century. Grotius’ core thesis—that the sea is the shared property of all nations, belonging to no single state—became the foundation for modern international rules on navigation, with straits recognized as critical to enabling long-distance global trade.

    “To guarantee freedom of navigation across the world’s oceans, one had to start by guaranteeing freedom of passage through straits,” Domergue explained. The Netherlands championed this doctrine, and was later joined by Britain, and eventually the United States. While the U.S. has also never ratified UNCLOS, it adheres to almost all of the convention’s provisions to this day.

    However, the principle of free navigation did not stop European powers from shaping their colonial expansion around control of strategic straits. Britain built its global naval empire around key military outposts along critical waterways: its largest Asian colonial naval base was built in Singapore, which gives it direct oversight and control over the Strait of Malacca, the chokepoint that today carries the largest share of global maritime trade bound to and from China. Britain also established a key outpost on Socotra Island, located just off the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the southern entrance to the Red Sea.

    In Europe, the Danish straits (the Oresund and Kattegat), which connect the Baltic Sea to the North Atlantic, were a major 19th century flashpoint. For centuries, Denmark charged transit tolls for passage through the waterways, and they remain strategically critical today, as they control all Atlantic access for Baltic nations, most notably Russia.

    The only major global straits where tolls are still legally collected today are the Turkish Straits—the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. They are governed by the 1936 Montreux Convention, an earlier international agreement that predates UNCLOS and preserves Turkey’s right to charge for transit.

    Looking ahead, Domergue warned that new tensions over strategic straits are already emerging in other parts of the world. The Taiwan Strait has become an increasing flashpoint amid China’s rising territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific, while the Strait of Malacca—shared by Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia—carries its own set of unresolved sovereignty and economic disputes.

    Domergue pointed to growing low-level friction in the Taiwan Strait, where he noted there is already an ongoing “sand war”: Chinese vessels regularly travel into waters claimed by Taiwan to dredge marine sand for China’s construction sector, a move widely viewed as deliberate provocative encroachment.

    More recently, when Iran announced plans to introduce a new transit toll for the Strait of Hormuz, the Malaysian prime minister initially publicly praised the idea and suggested Malaysia could follow suit for the Strait of Malacca, before quickly walking back the comment. If tolls were introduced for Malacca, Domergue argued, Singapore would suffer a major blow to its status as the premier logistics and trade hub for East Asia.

    Today, as geopolitical tensions rise across the Middle East and Indo-Pacific, these centuries-old disputes over control of the world’s most critical maritime chokepoints remain as relevant to global trade and security as they were 500 years ago.

  • US readies new tariffs as Trump’s 10% global levy to expire

    US readies new tariffs as Trump’s 10% global levy to expire

    Just days before President Donald Trump’s temporary 10% global import tariff is set to expire, a top U.S. trade official has confirmed that new targeted duties against dozens of nations are imminent, launching a renewed push to advance the administration’s trade agenda after a series of high-profile legal setbacks.

    U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told CNBC on Tuesday that “we expect to see some action soon” on fresh tariffs crafted to penalize 60 U.S. trading partners over their alleged insufficient action to curb forced labor in global supply chains. The outgoing temporary tariff was implemented earlier this year after the Supreme Court struck down a broader set of Trump administration tariffs in February, and it is scheduled to expire at the end of this week. Industry and policy analysts broadly expect the new forced labor-linked tariffs, which will carry rates between 10% and 12.5%, to replace the expiring temporary measure.

    This latest tariff push comes as the Trump administration doubles down on using import duties as a negotiating tool to extract concessions from U.S. trading partners, a strategy that has already stoked widespread fears of retaliatory measures and escalating diplomatic friction across major global economies. In just the past week, the administration has rolled out two new unilateral tariff measures: a 25% duty on select Brazilian goods set to take effect Wednesday, and a 50% levy on most Canadian imports scheduled to enter into force in 30 days.

    In response to the Canadian tariff announcement, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed Tuesday that Ottawa is examining “all options” to respond, but noted that he and Trump had agreed to ramp up bilateral discussions over the coming weeks to work toward a potential negotiated settlement. Alongside the country-specific measures, Trump also announced Tuesday a phased 100% to 200% sector-specific tariff on imported generic pharmaceuticals, set to take full effect by 2029. To incentivize domestic production relocation, the administration will keep the tariff at zero for all imports through August 2026, giving companies a three-year window to onshore generic drug manufacturing to the U.S.

    Greer emphasized that the new forced labor-linked tariffs will cover the vast majority of all U.S. goods imports, a scope that almost guarantees renewed friction in global trade relations. Countries found to have taken at least some action to address forced labor – including Canada, the European Union, Mexico, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom – will face a 10% tariff, while more than 40 other major economies including China, India, and Japan will face a higher 12.5% levy. The European Union has already publicly rejected the tariffs as unjustified on legal and policy grounds.

    The 50% Canadian tariff comes as negotiations over the future of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) enter a critical phase. Washington recently rejected calls to extend the existing trade deal in its current form, and Greer is scheduled to travel to Mexico this week for official talks tied to the required joint review of the trilateral pact. Negotiations with Canada have progressed far slower than with Mexico, leading many trade legal experts to conclude that the new tariffs are a deliberate leverage play to force Canadian concessions.

    Many legal analysts point out that Trump is relying on Section 338 of the 1930 Tariff Act, a largely untested legal provision, to justify the new measures. “Higher tariffs appear to be aimed at encouraging an agreement between Canada and the United States, or in retaliation for the failure to reach such agreement, or both,” explained Dave Townsend, a trade attorney at Dorsey & Whitney. The core open question, Townsend noted, is whether both sides will spiral into a “cycle of escalation and retaliation.” A critical detail that amplifies this risk is that no Canadian goods entering under USMCA rules are exempt from the new 50% levy. Trump pushed back Tuesday against suggestions the tariffs are tied to earlier tensions over Canadian wildfire smoke drifting into the U.S., saying the two issues are unrelated.

    For Brazil, the incoming 25% tariff over alleged unfair trade practices has already drawn fierce pushback from South America’s largest economy. The measure is set to take effect just months before Brazil’s presidential election, making it a major flashpoint in the country’s national campaign. While a handful of sensitive products – including beef, coffee, certain aircraft parts, and goods that cannot be sourced domestically in the U.S. – are exempt from the duty, the measure still covers more than $11 billion in annual Brazilian exports to the U.S. The American Chamber of Commerce for Brazil has warned that the new rules place Brazil among the nations facing the most restrictive access to the U.S. market.

  • Great Apes kiss and cuddle to keep the peace, says study

    Great Apes kiss and cuddle to keep the peace, says study

    When teams of athletes huddle close before a high-stakes match, or friends squeeze each other in a hug ahead of a stressful challenge, this instinct to reach for physical connection may be far older than humanity itself. New research published in *Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences* reveals that the use of affectionate, reassuring touch to build social cohesion before tense competitive events is a shared behavior between chimpanzees and bonobos — humanity’s closest living ape relatives — pointing to an evolutionary origin that stretches back at least seven million years. The work, led by researchers from Durham University, offers groundbreaking new insight into the deep ancestral roots of human social cooperation.

    The research team conducted their observational study at two accredited great ape sanctuaries, one located in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the other in Zambia. To replicate the naturally competitive context of wild feeding scenarios, the team designed a controlled experiment: after the apes learned that a shipment of desirable peanuts was imminent, researchers documented all social interactions in the five-minute window before the food arrived. This setup created the controlled stressful competition needed to observe how apes prepare for potential conflict.

    One of the study’s most surprising findings upends long-held popular assumptions about chimpanzee behavior. While chimpanzees are widely stereotyped as an inherently aggressive great ape species, the research documented frequent instances of pre-conflict reassuring physical contact between individuals. This contact ranged from gentle touching and embracing to more intimate gestures, such as mutual finger-to-mouth contact, that function to lower tension and build mutual trust. Bonobos, already known for more tolerant social dynamics, displayed even higher rates of this reassuring touch, matching their more collaborative species norms.

    “Before stressful events, they come together, they reassure each other, they touch each other, they hug each other,” explained Professor Zanna Clay, one of the lead researchers on the project. Clay draws a parallel between this ape behavior and the pre-game huddles common in human team sports, framing the pre-competition contact as a collective “rallying cry.” “It’s like a ‘we’ rather than a ‘me,’” she added. The research also documented a unique collective behavior the team dubbed “reassurance trains,” where multiple apes take turns embracing one another in sequence to unify the whole group ahead of competition.

    The team found that apes that engaged in this pre-stress touching and embracing saw tangible social benefits: these individuals were far more likely to access the contested food resource and eat alongside other group members without aggressive conflict. More socially tolerant groups of apes consistently showed higher levels of this reassuring pre-competition contact, confirming the link between the behavior and peaceful cooperation.

    Dr. Jake Brooker, another co-author of the study, emphasized that comparing behavior in the two closely related great ape species opens a rare window into the evolutionary origins of human sociality. “Comparing bonobos and chimpanzees – our two closest relatives – offers fascinating insight into the evolutionary roots of social behaviour and how they, and we, manage tension, competition and cooperation,” Brooker said. The research team concludes that social touch, as a tool for building trust and cooperation, is one of the oldest forms of social communication, far predating the emergence of complex human language.

    Based on the shared behavior of both chimpanzees and bonobos, researchers estimate that this social touch strategy dates back at least seven million years, to before the evolutionary split that separated the common ancestor of humans, chimpanzees, and bonobos into distinct lineages. That means when humans hug a nervous teammate, share a comforting handshake, or huddle close before a big challenge, we are drawing on an ancient social toolkit inherited from our shared ape ancestry — a biological instinct that has helped social primates navigate competition and build cooperation for millions of years.

  • Why WhatsApp usernames could upset Somalia’s anti-terror fight

    Why WhatsApp usernames could upset Somalia’s anti-terror fight

    As Meta-owned WhatsApp prepares to roll out a new privacy-focused feature that allows users to connect via unique usernames instead of public phone numbers, governments in Somalia and India have issued urgent warnings about potential national security and public safety risks the update may bring. The feature, set to launch globally to WhatsApp’s 3 billion monthly active users in the coming months, lets users adjust or remove their usernames at will, marking a major shift from the platform’s long-standing reliance on linked phone numbers for account identification.

    For Somalia, a nation grappling with a 20-year-long brutal insurgency led by al-Qaeda-affiliated militant group al-Shabab, the new feature poses particularly acute risks. Somalia’s Communications and Technology Minister Ahmed Osman Dirie told the BBC that the change would undermine the country’s existing regulatory framework, which centers on tracking registered phone numbers to counter criminal and extremist activity.

    Dirie emphasized that Somalia operates under a unique economic context: its entire financial ecosystem is heavily dependent on mobile money transactions, making the population disproportionately vulnerable to financial fraud that would be harder to trace with unvetted, untraceable usernames. Beyond financial crime, the minister pointed out that al-Shabab militants already regularly exploit WhatsApp for extremist operations, including extortion rings, propaganda dissemination, and intimidation of civilians. In 2024 alone, Somalia’s intelligence service dismantled 20 al-Shabab-linked WhatsApp groups used for criminal activity and disabled mobile data for roughly 2,500 associated phone numbers – actions that would be far more difficult to execute without linked phone number data, Dirie argued.

    Somalia is not alone in its concerns. Earlier this month, India – WhatsApp’s largest single market with more than 850 million active users – raised identical objections to the feature. Indian regulators warned that allowing anonymous access via usernames would create new opportunities for bad actors to carry out online fraud, identity impersonation, and other illicit crimes, and formally requested that Meta delay the rollout until all government concerns are addressed through full consultation.

    In response to the criticism, Meta has noted that the feature is not yet active, and clarified that all users will still be required to register a valid phone number to create a WhatsApp account, even after the feature launches. The company also added that the new username tool includes built-in security safeguards designed to prevent scam activity.

    Despite these assurances, Dirie said the Somali government has already reached out directly to Meta to share its concerns, and is pushing for additional concrete guarantees. The minister is calling on Meta to prove that hiding phone numbers will not erode the digital traceability that Somali authorities depend on to combat crime and terrorism, and to outline specific protections tailored to Somalia’s high-risk context. “If they prove that, when we discuss if we put those safeguards in place, then we will not have any issue with rolling out the new feature,” Dirie told the BBC.

    Industry analysts and security experts have weighed in on the debate, framing the conflict as a core tension between user privacy and state-level security needs. Moses Kemibaro, a Nairobi-based technology blogger focused on African digital markets, explained that the shift to usernames is a deliberate evolution of WhatsApp’s privacy model, bringing it in line with other Meta platforms such as Instagram, where user identities are not tied to public phone numbers. “It’s almost saying that this can work irrespective of the phone number and just give you a single identity,” Kemibaro noted. While he acknowledged the feature’s privacy benefits for users, he confirmed that governments hold valid concerns about the potential for an increase in scams and criminal activity, and said Meta must clearly explain to regulators how they can still trace criminal activity back to individual users even with the new username system.

    Kenyan security analyst George Musamali echoed that perspective, noting that the change comes in response to long-standing user complaints about unwanted access to personal phone numbers through WhatsApp groups. Musamali also pointed out that the shift away from public phone numbers can also protect users from arbitrary surveillance by governments that target political opponents using social media data – a core priority for Meta as it faces growing global pressure to strengthen user privacy. Ultimately, Musamali argued that many governments may be jumping to premature conclusions, and that a balanced solution that addresses both privacy rights and legitimate security concerns is achievable.

  • Judge rules Trump must hand over records sought by BBC in defamation case

    Judge rules Trump must hand over records sought by BBC in defamation case

    In a pivotal first hearing in Miami, Florida, a federal judge has ruled that former President Donald Trump must comply with a legal request from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to hand over confidential financial records held by the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust — the entity created to manage his business interests during his tenure as U.S. president. The ruling comes as the BBC defends itself against a $10 billion defamation lawsuit filed by Trump over a 2023 *Panorama* documentary episode that edited together segments of a speech Trump delivered on January 6, 2021, the day of the U.S. Capitol riot.

    Judge Enjoliqué Lett granted the BBC’s motion to compel the release of the financial documents during Tuesday’s hearing, handing the public broadcaster a partial procedural victory in the pre-trial discovery phase of the case. While the ruling remains open to appeal by Trump’s legal team, it requires Trump to produce records that will back up his core claim that the controversial *Panorama* edit caused him substantial financial harm. The judge issued a split decision on a separate BBC request for documents directly related to the January 6 Capitol riot, partially granting and partially denying that demand.

    The pre-trial discovery process, during which opposing legal sides exchange evidence to build their cases, has already become a major point of contention between the two parties. BBC legal counsel Charles Tobin told the court that the public broadcaster has already turned over more than 87,000 pages of relevant documents, while Trump’s legal team has only produced a paltry 735 pages — most of which, Tobin argued, are publicly available news articles and other internet-sourced material, amounting to what he called a “sham production.” Tobin emphasized that the lopsided disclosure has left the entire discovery process “entirely one-sided.”

    Alejandro Brito, lead counsel for Trump, pushed back against the BBC’s document requests, describing them as overly broad, oppressive, and a “fishing expedition” designed to harass former Trump administration officials rather than obtain legitimate evidence. Brito argued that the network’s demands for records of conversations between Trump and his aides related to the Capitol riot, as well as subpoenas issued to federal agencies and former White House officials, go far beyond the scope of the defamation claim.

    Much of Trump’s legal argument centered on a November 2024 letter sent by BBC Chairman Samir Shah to Trump. In the letter, Shah apologized for the edited clip, acknowledging that it unintentionally created the “mistaken impression that President Trump made a direct call for violent action.” Brito framed the letter as a clear admission of fault and concession by the BBC, bolstering Trump’s defamation claim.

    The BBC has already filed a motion to dismiss the entire lawsuit, arguing that the *Panorama* documentary in question was never broadcast to audiences in the United States, meaning it cannot form the basis of a defamation claim under U.S. law. The court has not yet issued a ruling on that dismissal motion.

  • Venezuela confirms 3 people have died of hantavirus infections, with 2 more deaths suspected

    Venezuela confirms 3 people have died of hantavirus infections, with 2 more deaths suspected

    CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelan health authorities announced Tuesday that three people have died from confirmed hantavirus infections, a rare rodent-borne illness that has seldom been recorded in human cases across the South American nation. Officials emphasized that no evidence has emerged to prove the virus can spread between humans in the currently detected cases.

    The nation’s Health Ministry added that two additional deaths of healthcare workers in southwestern Barinas state are currently suspected to be linked to hantavirus. Those cases remain active in investigation, and officials have confirmed no connection between these suspected deaths and the three confirmed fatalities in eastern Anzoátegui state, located roughly 655 kilometers (407 miles) northeast of Barinas. Notably, both affected regions escaped the most severe damage from back-to-back major earthquakes that struck northern Venezuela earlier this month.

    Health officials characterized the deaths in both states as isolated events that “do not represent a risk to the general community.” Despite this reassurance, the ministry noted that additional healthcare personnel will be deployed to the affected regions to “guarantee the health security of all Venezuelans,” though no further details on the scope or timeline of the deployment were provided.

    The Venezuelan Medical Federation, the country’s leading national professional association for physicians, confirmed the three fatalities in Anzoátegui belonged to the same family residing in the rural municipality of Miranda in the southern part of the state.

    Globally, hantaviruses are distributed across every inhabited continent, with primary transmission occurring through direct or indirect contact with wild rodents including rats and mice. Human-to-human spread is extremely uncommon, but severe infections can trigger life-threatening pulmonary inflammation or acute kidney failure. The World Health Organization has tracked growing attention to the pathogen following a deadly outbreak on an Atlantic cruise ship earlier this year that confirmed rare instances of person-to-person transmission.

    That May outbreak on the expedition vessel MV Hondius killed three passengers and infected multiple others, linked to the Andes hantavirus — a strain that remains poorly understood by the global scientific community. The outbreak sparked international concern due to the strain’s estimated mortality rate of up to 30 percent, paired with the current absence of targeted antiviral treatments or approved vaccines.

    The cruise ship departed from Argentina, and Argentinian public health officials have spent weeks working to trace the origin of the outbreak. Initial official hypotheses speculated that the index case, a Dutch ornithologist, contracted the virus in Ushuaia, Argentina’s southernmost city famous as the popular “end of the world” departure point for Antarctic cruises.

    However, recent field testing of wild rodents in the Ushuaia area by Argentinian scientists ruled out the city as the outbreak’s origin. The conclusion has been welcomed by local tourism leaders, as the Antarctic cruise hub relies heavily on international visitor revenue. Earlier this month, Argentine authorities also ruled out the major wine-producing province of Mendoza as the source of contagion, after joint investigations by local researchers and biologists from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found no trace of Andes hantavirus in rodents collected from areas the Dutch researcher and his spouse visited before the voyage.