Global Pulse

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  • Iran keeps US waiting for response on peace plan

    Iran keeps US waiting for response on peace plan

    Renewed naval hostilities in the Persian Gulf have thrown US-Iranian peace diplomacy into uncertainty, with Tehran leaving Washington waiting for a formal response to a US-backed truce proposal as both sides trade accusations of ceasefire violations. The unfolding crisis, which entered its 10th week following the opening US-Israeli strikes on Iran, has put fragile diplomatic efforts at risk and raised new concerns over global energy security and regional stability.

    On Friday, US President Donald Trump publicly stated he expected Tehran to deliver its answer to the latest negotiating proposal, shared via Pakistani mediators, by the end of the day. As of Saturday, no official public response had been announced, with Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson confirming only that the plan remained “under review”. In a call with his Turkish counterpart, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi cast serious doubt on Washington’s commitment to diplomacy, pointing to repeated US violations of the existing fragile ceasefire.

    “The recent escalation of tensions by American forces in the Persian Gulf and their numerous actions in violating the ceasefire have added to suspicions about the motivation and seriousness of the American side in the path of diplomacy,” Araghchi said, according to an account of the conversation published by Iran’s ISNA news agency. Trump nonetheless told French broadcaster LCI reporter Margot Haddad in a brief interview Saturday that he still anticipated receiving Iran’s response “very soon”.

    The latest escalation came Friday, when a US fighter jet attacked and disabled two Iranian-flagged tankers that Washington accused of violating its blockade of Iranian ports. A senior Iranian military official told local media that the Iranian navy had retaliated with defensive strikes against US assets. The incident followed a separate flare-up just one day earlier in the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most critical chokepoint for global oil shipments.

    Iran has long sought greater control over the strategic waterway as a tool to exert economic leverage against the US and its Western and regional allies, a goal Washington has repeatedly described as unacceptable. The US proposal delivered via Pakistan would extend the current fragile truce across the Gulf to create space for negotiations on a permanent end to the conflict, which began 10 weeks ago with joint US-Israeli military strikes on Iranian targets.

    Beyond the direct military clashes, the conflict has already created new environmental and economic risks. Satellite imagery collected by global monitoring firm Orbital EOS shows an oil slick spreading across more than 20 square miles off the west coast of Iran’s Kharg Island, the linchpin of the country’s oil export industry and a core asset for its war-battered economy. By Saturday, the UK-based Conflict and Environment Observatory reported the slick had shrunk significantly, adding that the leak likely stemmed from damaged or neglected oil infrastructure affected by ongoing conflict. Iran shut down most traffic through the Strait of Hormuz immediately after the war began on February 28, sending shockwaves through global energy markets and pushing oil prices sharply upward. The US responded with a full blockade of Iranian ports, and earlier this week Trump announced he was ending a short-lived US naval mission aimed at reopening the strait to commercial shipping.

    On Saturday, Britain announced it would deploy HMS Dragon, a Royal Navy destroyer, to the region as part of a joint British-French coalition planning to support commercial shipping and mine clearance once a durable ceasefire is reached. UK defence officials said the deployment is part of “prudent planning” intended to boost confidence among commercial vessel operators navigating the strategic waterway.

    Diplomatic efforts to de-escalate received support from Qatar, whose Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani met with US Vice President JD Vance in Washington DC Friday to discuss Pakistan’s brokered peace initiative. Qatar has nonetheless been drawn into the conflict: Iran has launched multiple attacks on Qatari territory in recent weeks, citing the country’s hosting of a major US military air base.

    Tensions are also running high on the conflict’s secondary front in Lebanon, where a parallel ceasefire between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah is also teetering amid daily cross-border exchanges of fire. Eight people were killed in Israeli air strikes across southern Lebanon Saturday, according to Lebanese authorities, while state media reported additional raids on a highway south of Beirut, an area outside Hezbollah’s traditional southern strongholds. An AFP correspondent on the scene documented two destroyed vehicles and emergency response teams working roughly 12 miles outside the Lebanese capital.

    Hezbollah retaliated Saturday by launching an armed drone attack targeting Israeli soldiers in northern Israel. The Israeli military confirmed multiple explosive drones crossed into its territory, reporting one army reservist suffered severe wounds and two other service members sustained moderate injuries in the attack. The fresh escalation comes just days before Lebanon and Israel — which have been officially at war since 1948 — are set to hold direct peace negotiations in Washington next week, a process Hezbollah has publicly and vehemently opposed.

  • Indonesian police arrest 321 foreigners in an operation to crack down on banned online gambling

    Indonesian police arrest 321 foreigners in an operation to crack down on banned online gambling

    JAKARTA, Indonesia – In one of the most sweeping anti-illegal betting operations in the nation’s recent history, Indonesian national police announced Saturday that more than 300 foreign nationals have been taken into custody following a raid on a transnational online gambling hub based in central Jakarta.

    The 321 detainees, the vast majority of whom are Vietnamese citizens, were apprehended in a commercial building located near Jakarta’s Chinatown district, according to law enforcement officials. Investigators confirmed that the site functioned as the operational center for at least 75 separate online gambling platforms, all designed to target bettors based outside of Indonesia. Evidence collected from the raid, including digital server records and marketing materials, confirms the cross-border scope of the network.

    Wira Satya Triputra, director of general crimes for the Indonesian National Police, outlined the breakdown of detainees at a Saturday press briefing: 228 are from Vietnam, 57 are from China, and the remaining detainees hold citizenship from Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, and Cambodia. Triputra added that law enforcement is still actively tracing the network’s core leadership and shadowy financial backers who have overseen the operation.

    “We apprehended all suspects while they were actively engaged in gambling-related work,” Triputra told reporters. He explained that the criminal enterprise was structured like a formal corporate operation, with hired workers assigned specialized roles ranging from customer support and telemarketing to processing illegal financial transactions. Law enforcement investigations estimate the illegal operation had been running for roughly two months before the raid.

    Authorities note that transnational gambling syndicates regularly shift their base of operations across Southeast Asia to avoid detection, and often rely on low-cost foreign labor to run customer-facing digital services. Triputra confirmed that nearly all of the detained suspects entered Indonesia on short-term tourist visas, and had overstayed their immigration permits while working at the gambling hub. “In addition to charges of illegal gambling and money laundering, we have also uncovered widespread immigration violations across the group,” he said.

    Along with the arrests, police seized a large cache of evidence and contraband: cash held in multiple global currencies, hundreds of work computers and mobile phones, personal passports, and specialized networking equipment used to run the offshore betting platforms.

    As of Saturday evening, 275 of the detained people have been formally designated as criminal suspects, while the remaining 46 are still undergoing questioning to determine their level of involvement. If convicted on all charges, suspects face up to nine years in prison under Indonesian criminal and immigration law, plus a maximum fine of 2 billion Indonesian rupiah, equal to roughly $116,000 U.S. dollars.

    The Jakarta raid is part of a growing pattern of transnational cybercrime crackdowns across Indonesia. In the weeks leading up to this operation, similar large-scale busts have been carried out in Surabaya, Bali, and Batam, highlighting a growing shift of illegal gambling and scam networks into the country following crackdowns elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

    Untung Widyatmoko, secretary of Indonesia’s Interpol bureau, explained that after neighboring Cambodia and Myanmar implemented strict new enforcement measures against offshore gambling and scam operations, criminal groups have begun relocating their infrastructure to other Southeast Asian nations, including Indonesia. “We anticipated this shift after enforcement actions in Cambodia, and we have been preparing to respond,” Widyatmoko said.

    Recent weeks have already seen a string of high-profile busts of transnational cybercrime rings across Indonesia: On Wednesday, immigration and security officials arrested 210 foreign nationals from Vietnam, China, and Myanmar in a Batam Island apartment complex on suspicion of running illegal cross-border investment fraud. On Friday, authorities in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, announced the arrest of 44 Japanese and Chinese citizens accused of running a transnational phone and online scam where they impersonated police officers to defraud victims overseas. That case stems from the arrest of 13 Japanese men in Bogor, West Java, back in March.

    Just last month, 16 suspects from a Chinese, Malaysian, and Taiwanese scam network were arrested in Sukabumi Regency, West Java, while 26 alleged online scammers from the Philippines and Kenya were deported from Indonesia after being taken into custody in Bali.

    Online gambling is strictly illegal across Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, and authorities have ramped up enforcement efforts in recent years amid growing concerns about links between unregulated online betting, organized transnational crime, and cross-border cyber fraud. Indonesian police say the ongoing investigation into the Jakarta gambling network is expected to lead to additional arrests as they untangle the network’s connections to larger international criminal groups.

  • Steve Rosenberg: This year’s Victory Day parade in Moscow felt very different

    Steve Rosenberg: This year’s Victory Day parade in Moscow felt very different

    For veteran foreign correspondent Steve Rosenberg, who has covered dozens of Victory Day parades on Moscow’s iconic Red Square, the 2026 iteration stood out as fundamentally unlike any he had witnessed before. In years past, Rosenberg recalled scrambling from media drop-off points near St. Basil’s Cathedral to claim a usable spot in the overcrowded press pen, a race that was completely unnecessary this year. Attendance for international press was sharply curtailed: most foreign news outlets were denied press credentials entirely, leaving only a tiny handful of foreign journalists on site.

    When Rosenberg took his place on the press stand, a Russian television crew approached him to film a segment framing his presence as proof that international access remained open. Rosenberg’s dry response cut through the narrative: he could not spot a single other foreign reporter on the entire square.

    Beyond the depleted press corps, the event saw far fewer dignitaries in the guest stands, with only a small handful of foreign leaders traveling to Moscow for the annual commemoration. But the most striking departure from tradition only became clear once the parade officially got underway: none of the massive rolling military armor that the Kremlin typically displays to project Russian power to a global audience – no tanks, no rocket launchers, no intercontinental ballistic missiles – rolled across Red Square this year.

    Russian authorities explained the dramatic downsizing by citing urgent security concerns, revealing that intelligence pointed to a high risk of Ukrainian drone strikes targeting the Red Square event. For President Vladimir Putin, the choice to scale back the parade – a carefully choreographed centerpiece of Russian national pride that has long been used to showcase military strength – was undoubtedly a difficult one, but the threat of an attack left no other viable option.

    In a last-minute turn of diplomacy, former U.S. President Donald Trump brokered a temporary ceasefire between Moscow and Kyiv that eliminated the immediate threat of an attack during the event. In the end, the parade concluded without any security incidents. Still, Kyiv’s public framing of the ceasefire move drew sharp pushback from the Kremlin: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued an official decree “permitting” Russia to hold its parade on Ukrainian territory that Moscow currently occupies, a deliberate act of political trolling that Kremlin spokespeople rejected out of hand, noting that Russia required no permission from any third party to hold its national commemorations.

    While live military hardware was absent from the streets of Red Square, the Kremlin found a work-around: pre-recorded footage of tanks, multiple rocket launchers, fighter jets, submarines and other advanced weapons systems was broadcast on massive digital screens erected across the square. It was a clear signal that the leadership remained determined to highlight its military capabilities, even without a live display.

    In his keynote address to the gathered crowd, Putin struck a familiar defiant tone, declaring “We always were and always will be victorious!” The 2026 parade marks 81 years since the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in 1945, a historical event Russia calls the Great Victory – a milestone that holds deep legitimate national meaning, marking the Soviet Union’s defeat of an invading aggressor.

    Yet the context of 2026 casts a very different shadow over the commemoration. More than four years have passed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and as the parade unfolded, there was no visible path to a Russian victory in the ongoing conflict, turning this year’s muted celebration into a quiet reflection of the current strains of Moscow’s ongoing military campaign.

  • Conflict inflames tensions at Venice Biennale of Art

    Conflict inflames tensions at Venice Biennale of Art

    The world’s most prestigious contemporary art gathering, the Venice Biennale, opens its doors to the public this Saturday against a backdrop of searing global geopolitical tension, as competing representations of warring nations have turned the iconic event into a flashpoint for international conflict. The proximity of participating pavilions for Russia, Ukraine, Israel, and Palestinian artistic collectives has sparked heated debate, with one key stakeholder comparing the arrangement to hosting a violent offender at a private gathering of friends. Just meters from Russia’s exhibition space in the Biennale’s central gardens sits a deer sculpture recovered from active front lines in Ukraine, a quiet but visceral symbol of the war that has split the artistic community since Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. Russia’s return to the Biennale, after a two-year absence following the invasion, triggered widespread international condemnation when the participation was announced in early March. Speaking on the ground in Venice Thursday, Ukrainian Culture Minister Tetiana Berejna delivered a scathing rebuke of the decision to allow Russia to participate. “Having them here in the Biennale is like inviting a serial killer to a dinner with your friends,” Berejna said, rejecting arguments that art should remain a space separate from geopolitics and welcome all participants regardless of state actions. She added that more than 340 Ukrainian artists have been killed by Russian forces since the start of the full-scale invasion, and that Russian forces have deliberately targeted Ukrainian cultural infrastructure. “When Russia comes to our country, they destroy our libraries, they burn our books, they destroy our museums,” she said. “Culture is targeted during this war.” The friction extends far beyond the ongoing war in Ukraine, as multiple other regions in active conflict have a presence at this year’s event. The United States and Israel, which launched a targeted strike on Iranian territory in late February, both maintain official pavilions; Iran, which was originally slated to participate, ultimately pulled out of the exhibition. Israel’s pavilion at the Arsenale, the Biennale’s sprawling secondary exhibition space housed in a former 19th-century shipyard, sits just a short walk from Ukraine’s national pavilion. While Palestine does not hold official state recognition from Italy and thus cannot host its own official national pavilion, a dedicated group exhibition focused on Gaza is being held at Venice’s Palazzo Mora, titled “Gaza – No Words – See the Exhibit”. Curator Faisal Saleh, founder of the Palestine Museum based in Connecticut, United States, said the exhibition was created to amplify Palestinian experiences amid ongoing military operations in Gaza. “There’s really no way to describe the horror that was inflicted upon the Palestinians in Gaza, and I don’t think we would want to be in the same place as the people who did that,” Saleh said. The heightened tensions have forced Italian authorities to deploy a permanent police presence near the Russian, Israeli, and U.S. pavilions, a visible reminder that the rifts from global war have the potential to spill over into the art event. According to Italian national news agency Ansa, roughly 2,000 protesters gathered in Venice Friday for a pro-Palestinian demonstration calling for the removal of Israel’s official pavilion from the Biennale. Earlier in the week, Russia’s pavilion became the site of a high-profile joint protest by members of Russian dissident group Pussy Riot and Ukrainian feminist collective Femen, where demonstrators marched with covered faces and bare chests to oppose Moscow’s participation. Biennale President Pietrangelo Buttafuoco defended the decision to include all participating entities, arguing that barring artists based on their nationality would undermine the event’s core purpose. “If the Biennale were to start selecting not works but affiliations, not visions but passports, it would cease to be what it has always been: the place where the world comes together, and all the more so when the world is torn apart,” Buttafuoco said Wednesday. That view is shared by many artists and Italian political leaders who argue art should not be reduced to a tool of political division. Israeli sculptor Belu-Simion Fainaru, whose installation “The Rose of Nothingness” features a water basin fed by a slow drip irrigation system, said the growing political rifts are eroding art’s fundamental mission. “The divisions at the Biennale were destroying the meaning of art… to unite people,” Fainalu told AFP. “I don’t think we should reduce the art world to a political arena.” Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini echoed that sentiment during a visit to the Biennale Friday, noting that individual artists should not be treated as official spokespeople for their governments’ military or political actions. “I don’t think American, Chinese, Israeli, or Russian artists are spokespeople for ongoing conflicts,” Salvini said. At the Palazzo Mora Gaza exhibition, around 100 hand-embroidered works created by Palestinian women living in refugee camps bring to life the experiences of people in Gaza over the past two years, with Saleh noting the pieces carry a raw power that outstrips even journalistic photography. In a bid to de-escalate tensions and center the theme of coexistence, event organizers scheduled three evenings of reflection focused on the theme of peace during the pre-opening week, featuring appearances by exiled Russian filmmaker Alexander Sokurov and prominent Palestinian writer and architect Suad Amiry.

  • Indonesia rescuers retrieve hiker’s body after volcanic eruption

    Indonesia rescuers retrieve hiker’s body after volcanic eruption

    Three hikers are dead after a sudden eruption of one of Indonesia’s most active volcanoes, and rescuers have recovered the first of the victims’ remains as hazardous conditions forced a temporary pause in search operations, Indonesian disaster management officials confirmed this weekend.

    Mount Dukono, located on Indonesia’s Halmahera Island in North Maluku, erupted Friday, blasting a dense ash plume 10 kilometers (6 miles) into the atmosphere. The eruption did not threaten populated areas nearby, with no towns or villages located close enough to face immediate danger, according to geological officials. However, the blast hit a group of 20 hikers who had entered the closed exclusion zone surrounding the volcano’s crater.

    Local police chief Erlichson Pasaribu confirmed Friday that three hikers were killed: two citizens of Singapore and one Indonesian national. The remaining 17 members of the hiking group, including seven other Singaporeans, were evacuated from the dangerous area unharmed, authorities said.

    On Saturday, a joint team of search and rescue personnel recovered the body of one victim, found alongside the hiker’s backpack at approximately 2:30 p.m. local time (0530 GMT), said Iwan Ramdani, head of the local search and rescue agency. Ramdani did not release the victim’s nationality prior to formal identification. The remains were transferred to a nearby local hospital for official identification processing. Photos released by the rescue agency show the recovery team carrying the victim, sealed in a black body bag, down the volcanic slope on a hand-built stretcher.

    Search operations for the two remaining victims have been temporarily suspended due to heavy rainfall and persistent volcanic ash in the area, Ramdani added. Teams are scheduled to resume their search on Sunday, weather conditions permitting.

    Indonesia’s national Centre for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation reported that Mount Dukono continued to experience fresh eruptions through Saturday, including one blast that sent an ash column 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) into the sky. Abdul Muhari, spokesman for Indonesia’s national disaster mitigation agency, said preliminary positioning data places the two remaining Singaporean victims roughly 20 to 30 meters (65 to 100 feet) from the volcano’s crater rim.

    Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed it is coordinating with the country’s embassy in Jakarta to provide consular support to affected citizens and their families, according to local Singaporean media reports.

    Mount Dukono has been classified at level two on Indonesia’s four-tiered volcanic alert system since 2008, marking it as an active, potentially dangerous volcano. In December 2024, Indonesian geological authorities expanded and enforced a 4-kilometer (2.5-mile) exclusion zone around the volcano’s crater, restricting all public access to the dangerous area, confirmed Lana Saria, head of the national Geology Agency.

    Despite repeated warnings, the group of hikers intentionally ignored both official warning signs posted at the trail entrance and public appeals shared on social media to stay out of the restricted zone, police chief Pasaribu said Friday.

    As a sprawling archipelagic nation located along the Pacific Ring of Fire, the geologically active boundary where multiple tectonic plates collide, Indonesia experiences hundreds of seismic and volcanic events every year. The country is home to roughly 130 active volcanoes, making it one of the most volcanically active regions on Earth.

  • Liverpool frustrated by Chelsea draw, Man Utd held at Sunderland

    Liverpool frustrated by Chelsea draw, Man Utd held at Sunderland

    The penultimate stretch of the English Premier League season delivered a raft of dramatic results that shook up the race for European spots and the title fight on Saturday.

    At Anfield, defending champions Liverpool saw a golden opportunity to move to the brink of next season’s Champions League qualification slip through their fingers, forced to share the points in a 1-1 draw with Chelsea. The hosts got off to a flying start just six minutes into the contest, as Ryan Gravenberch curled a perfectly placed strike past Chelsea’s goalkeeper to open the scoring. But the Blues responded before half time: Enzo Fernandez’s 35th-minute long-range free kick evaded every Liverpool player in the box and nestled into the bottom corner of the net, leveling the score.

    By full time, boos rang out around Anfield, a reflection of fan frustration with another underwhelming performance from the side. The result still moves fourth-placed Liverpool closer to securing Champions League football, holding a four-point advantage over sixth-place Bournemouth. Addressing fan discontent after the match, Liverpool manager Arne Slot said he remains confident he can win back supporter backing — but not during the current campaign. “Not this season by the way. This season they will have their opinion and it will not change,” Slot explained. “If we can have the summer that we are planning to have, then I’m 100 percent convinced that we will be a different team next season than we are now.”

    For Chelsea, the draw comes at a point where the club can no longer mathematically clinch a top-five finish, leaving them stuck in ninth place in the table. The Blues had entered the match on Merseyside having dropped six straight Premier League results, which ended their own European qualification hopes. Still, a far more organized, resolute performance offered interim head coach Calum McFarlane a much-needed boost heading into next weekend’s FA Cup final against Manchester City.

    Elsewhere, third-place Manchester United, who had already locked in their own Champions League spot for next season after beating Liverpool a week prior, were held to a dour goalless draw at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light. The lackluster showing came as no surprise, with United with little left to fight for in the remaining league fixtures. The stalemate marked the first time the Red Devils had failed to score a league goal since November.

    The biggest drama of the day unfolded in west London, where Bournemouth kept their stunning dream of Champions League qualification alive with a 1-0 away win over Fulham. The match was turned on its head before half time, with VAR intervention forcing two red cards: Bournemouth’s Ryan Christie saw an initial yellow card for a dangerous foul on Timothy Castagne upgraded to a red, while Fulham defender Joachim Andersen also walked after a similar VAR review upgraded his booking for a foul on Adrien Truffert. Reduced to 10 men apiece, it was 19-year-old Brazilian winger Rayan who claimed the winning goal for the Cherries in the 53rd minute, curling a clinical finish from the edge of the penalty area past Fulham’s keeper. Unbeaten in their last 16 consecutive league matches, Bournemouth is chasing a first-ever European qualification in the club’s history.

    Brighton & Hove Albion also boosted their own European bid with a comprehensive 3-0 demolition of already-relegated Wolverhampton Wanderers at the Amex Stadium. Jack Hinshelwood put the Seagulls ahead just 37 seconds into the match with a headed finish, before captain Lewis Dunk doubled the lead with another header just five minutes later. Yankuba Minteh put the icing on the cake with a thunderous long-range strike in the 86th minute to complete the rout. With two matches remaining, Brighton sit just two points behind Bournemouth in seventh place.

    The permutations for European spots remain tight this season: a sixth-place finish could deliver either Champions League or Europa League football, depending on the outcome of the Europa League final. If current fifth-place Aston Villa beats Freiburg in next month’s final, the sixth-placed side will earn a Champions League berth.

    In the title race, second-place Manchester City were set to host Brentford in Saturday’s late kickoff, looking to chip into leaders Arsenal’s advantage. Pep Guardiola’s side sit five points behind Arsenal, who travel to take on 18th-place West Ham United on Sunday. City hold one game in hand over the leaders, but a damaging 3-3 draw at Everton earlier this week means the destiny of the title is no longer in City’s hands. Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, who have also reached the Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain, will secure their first top-flight English title in 22 years if they win all three of their remaining matches.

  • Uruguay’s Guillermo Silva wins crash-marred stage 2 of Giro and claims overall lead

    Uruguay’s Guillermo Silva wins crash-marred stage 2 of Giro and claims overall lead

    VELIKO TARNOVO, Bulgaria — Cycling history was written in Bulgaria Saturday, as Uruguayan rider Guillermo Silva claimed a dramatic sprint victory in a crash-disrupted second stage of the 109th Giro d’Italia, seizing the overall general classification lead and becoming the first Uruguayan to ever win a Giro stage and wear the coveted maglia rosa.

    The 137-mile hilly route from coastal Burgas to the historic north-central Bulgarian city of Veliko Tarnovo, marked by three moderate climbs, concluded after five and a half hours of racing. A wet road surface turned the late stages of the route into a dangerous test of skill and luck, with a large crash taking down roughly 15 riders just 20 kilometers from the finish line.

    Among those caught in the incident was British rider Adam Yates, twin brother of retired defending champion Simon Yates. Even with blood and mud covering his face, Yates pushed on to complete the stage, though he finished nearly 14 minutes behind Silva, ending his realistic chances of contending for the overall title. Two riders — Australia’s Jay Vine and UAE Team Emirates teammate Marc Soler — were not able to continue, and were taken from the course via ambulance. Race organizers paused competition for several minutes to allow medical teams to assist injured riders scattered across the roadside, with several athletes thrown over steel barriers in the impact.

    Prior to the crash, Italian Mirco Maestri and Spaniard Diego Pablo Sevilla launched an early breakaway that held off the peloton for more than 100 kilometers, before being caught with 27 kilometers remaining. The pair ended their joint effort with a gesture of good sportsmanship, patting each other on the back before rejoining the main group.

    Pre-race favorite and two-time Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard avoided the late crash, positioning himself at the front of the peloton in the closing kilometers to stay clear of trouble and capitalize on his climbing strength on the uphill run to the finish. The Dane, who is attempting to become one of the few riders to win all three of cycling’s Grand Tours in a career after taking the 2022 and 2023 Tours de France and 2023 Vuelta a España, ended up in the leading group of four on the home stretch. However, the breakaway was reeled in by a large group of sprinters with just 300 meters left to the line.

    Silva’s XDS Astana teammate Christian Scaroni delivered a critical lead-out, putting the Uruguayan in the perfect position to launch his sprint. Silva held off late challenges from Germany’s Florian Stork, who crossed second, and Italian climbing specialist Giulio Ciccone, who finished third, to take the historic win.

    In a post-race interview, the Maldonado-born rider said he could barely believe his career-defining result, saying, “I’m over the moon. It’s only my second stage at the Giro d’Italia and I’ve already managed to win and even take the maglia rosa. I was feeling good but I never imagined I could achieve something like this.” He also highlighted his teammate’s contribution, adding, “I have to thank Christian Scaroni, who helped me both in the chase to the leaders and in setting up the sprint. I don’t think I’ll ever forget this day.” As he crossed the finish line, Silva held his head in his hands in disbelief before playfully sticking out his tongue in celebration of the biggest win of his professional career.

    Silva took the overall lead and the pink jersey from French rider Paul Magnier, who won the opening Giro stage Friday. That first of three planned Giro stages in Bulgaria also ended with a major crash at the finish line. After Saturday’s race, Silva held a four-second advantage over second-place Stork and third-place Colombian Egan Bernal in the general classification. Vingegaard sits 10 seconds off the lead in 15th place overall.

    Racing continues Sunday with the third stage, a mostly flat 175-kilometer route starting in Plovdiv, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Europe, and ending in Bulgaria’s capital city of Sofia. The 109th men’s Giro d’Italia will conclude on May 31 in Rome. The women’s Giro is scheduled to run from May 30 to June 7, with Italian star Elisa Longo Borghini returning to defend her 2023 title.

  • England captain Ben Stokes takes 2 wickets and completes 20 overs for Durham on injury comeback

    England captain Ben Stokes takes 2 wickets and completes 20 overs for Durham on injury comeback

    In a promising development for English cricket ahead of a packed summer Test schedule, star all-rounder and national captain Ben Stokes made a successful return to competitive play on Saturday, turning out for county side Durham in a second-tier County Championship clash against Worcestershire in Worcester, England.

    The 34-year-old last featured in professional cricket back in early January, during the fifth and final Ashes Test against Australia. In February, a devastating training accident left Stokes with a broken cheekbone: he was struck in the face by a cricket ball while coaching players at Durham’s academy, forcing him to undergo emergency surgery. Speaking to the England and Wales Cricket Board in an internal interview last month, Stokes admitted he considered himself lucky to have survived the incident with no more severe damage.

    On Saturday, Stokes defied recovery expectations to bowl a full 20 overs for his side, finishing with impressive, economical figures of 2 wickets for 54 runs. He opened the bowling for Durham, displaying both his signature raw pace and characteristic seam movement that has made him one of the world’s most feared fast bowlers. This strong performance has put Stokes firmly in contention to open the English attack in the first Test against New Zealand, scheduled to kick off at Lord’s on June 2. While Stokes has opened the bowling twice previously for England, he has not done so since a 2022 clash against Pakistan.

    Stokes’ successful comeback comes at a critical moment for English cricket. The national team is still reeling from a 4-1 series defeat to Australia in the recent Ashes, a result that left the side facing heavy public criticism. Beyond the on-field loss, the tour was marred by reports of player indiscipline, with the leadership of head coach Brendon McCullum and managing director Rob Key coming under intense scrutiny from fans and pundits alike. England now faces a high-stakes summer of cricket, with a three-Test series against New Zealand followed by another three-match series against Pakistan, starting at Headingley in Leeds on August 19, as the side works to rebuild its form and win back public support.

  • Crunch Clasico as Barca look to pounce on Real unrest

    Crunch Clasico as Barca look to pounce on Real unrest

    El Clasico, the most anticipated fixture in Spanish football, is never just another 90 minutes of action. But this Sunday’s Nou Camp meeting between Barcelona and Real Madrid carries far higher stakes than most, as the Catalan side stands just one result away from securing back-to-back domestic titles, while Real enters the clash mired in damaging internal conflict.

    Barcelona holds an 11-point advantage at the top of the La Liga table heading into the fixture. A win or even a draw on home soil will formally seal their second consecutive championship, capping a season of near-total dominance across Spain’s top flight. For head coach Hansi Flick’s squad, the build-up to the match has been marked by calm confidence, with the club framing its camp as a unified push to claim the title in front of its own supporters.

    The narrative around Real Madrid, by contrast, has been dominated by off-pitch chaos rather than on-pitch preparation. A dressing-room altercation between star midfielders Federico Valverde and Aurelien Tchouameni earlier this week has thrown the club into crisis, leaving Valverde sidelined for El Clasico with concussion symptoms and resulting in a 500,000 euro fine for both players after an internal investigation.

    Tchouameni returned to training Friday and is available for selection, but interim head coach Alvaro Arbeloa refused to confirm whether the French international will start. Addressing reporters at his pre-match press conference Saturday, Arbeloa attempted to downplay the severity of the incident, noting that internal disputes are not unprecedented in elite football. The 43-year-old, who took over the role in January following Xabi Alonso’s departure, even recalled a well-documented 2007 incident from his time at Liverpool, where Craig Bellamy confronted John Arne Riise with a golf club during a training camp dispute.

    “These are situations that have always happened, although I’m certainly not justifying it,” Arbeloa told reporters. “It was an incident and we were unfortunate that Fede ended up with a gash. It was more bad luck than anything else. What happens in the Real Madrid dressing room should stay in the Real Madrid dressing room, and that’s what hurts me the most. The players have acknowledged their mistake, expressed their regret and asked for forgiveness. That’s enough for me. If you want to blame someone, here I am.”

    Arbeloa’s position at the club is already precarious, with Spanish media linking high-profile candidates including Jose Mourinho to the permanent head coach role for next season. Pressure is also mounting on long-time Real president Florentino Perez, who has overseen a turbulent two-year stretch that has seen three different managers in charge and no major trophy won. The upcoming permanent head coach appointment is widely seen as one of the most critical decisions of Perez’s 20-plus year presidency, as the club works to rebuild stability and competitiveness after a messy season. Arbeloa, however, defended the 79-year-old, arguing no leader is better positioned to turn the club’s fortunes around.

    “There is no-one more prepared than Florentino Perez to turn this situation around,” he said. “I remember how the club was before his arrival. He is the president with the most titles in Real Madrid history and he brought the club back to where it belongs. We all have to fight together.”

    Despite the off-pitch chaos, Arbeloa insisted his squad remains focused on claiming three points Sunday. “We face the Clasico with the ambition to do things well and go to win,” he added.

    Over at Barcelona’s training ground, the mood has been strikingly different. The club has shared multiple upbeat updates from training throughout the week, featuring photos and videos of relaxed, connected players, with one social media post describing the squad as “One big family”. Flick echoed that unified tone in his pre-match press conference, saying his side is eager to secure the title at home in front of their supporters.

    “We want to win our second title in a row. I think it’s amazing. It’s not normal here in Spain,” Flick said. “We are very clear in how we want to play. We want to win this at home. The fans are supporting us. This is why the Clasico is so important for everyone. We are here because we have played a fantastic season as a team and this is what I want to see tomorrow. The tension is very high. Everyone in the world is watching, but in the end it’s about us. We want to play as a team and a unit.”

    Asked for his reaction to Real Madrid’s dressing-room dispute, Flick downplayed the news, saying such incidents are not unique to any club. “Things like this happen all over the world, so I don’t think it’s something exclusive to Real Madrid,” he said. “Was I surprised? Maybe a little, but in the end I don’t really care, because it’s not my club and not my team, so I shouldn’t be thinking about it.” He added that the key to Barcelona’s success this season has been the squad’s shared focus and internal unity: “The most important thing in this club is that we are all going in the same direction. When something happens, we respond together. In football and in life, these things can happen, but you have to manage them.”

    Flick did reserve praise for Real star Kylian Mbappe when asked about the French forward, describing him as “one of the best players in the world” and highlighting his exceptional finishing quality in the penalty area.

    The first El Clasico of this campaign, played back in October at the Santiago Bernabeu, ended in a 2-1 win for Real, when the title race was still wide open and the club was under different management with far less public internal tension. This time around, the stakes could not be clearer: Barcelona can lift the trophy on home soil just 90 minutes after kickoff, while Real is only playing to delay the inevitable and preserve its season’s pride.

    A victory would also put Barcelona on course to match La Liga’s all-time record of 100 points in a single season, moving the Catalan side to 91 points with just three matches remaining. The 100-point mark has only been hit twice before – by Mourinho’s Real Madrid in 2011-12, and Tito Vilanova’s Barcelona a year later – and no side has reached the milestone since. For Flick’s dominant squad, matching that record would be the final confirmation of their status as the best team in Spain this season. But before that history can be written, they must first get past their biggest rivals on Sunday.

  • Frontier Airlines plane hit and killed a person on the runway at Denver airport

    Frontier Airlines plane hit and killed a person on the runway at Denver airport

    Late Friday night, a fatal incident unfolded at Denver International Airport (DIA) when a Frontier Airlines commercial flight bound for Los Angeles International Airport struck and killed an unauthorized individual who had illegally accessed an active runway, United States aviation and transportation authorities confirmed.

    According to official statements from the airport, the unidentified person — who is not an airport employee, and has not yet been named by investigators — scaled DIA’s perimeter security fence roughly two minutes before walking onto the runway where Flight was beginning its takeoff roll around 23:00 local time (06:00 UTC+1 BST). A preliminary inspection of the fence after the incident found the main structure to remain fully intact, DIA officials added.

    Unsealed air traffic control audio from the incident reveals that moments after a controller cleared the flight for departure and wished the crew a good night, the pilot immediately radioed the tower to report a collision and an ongoing emergency. “We’re stopping on the runway,” the pilot told controllers. “We just hit somebody. We have an engine fire.” The pilot later confirmed there had been a person walking across the active runway as the aircraft accelerated to takeoff speed. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed the plane was traveling at high speed at the time of the impact.

    The collision sparked a small engine fire that was rapidly extinguished by responding Denver Fire Department crews, per airport officials. Passengers reported visible smoke filling the aircraft cabin in videos and photos shared with CBS News, the BBC’s U.S. partner, which also showed visible damage including what appears to be blood on the affected engine.

    As a standard precautionary measure, all 224 passengers and crew on board were immediately evacuated via the plane’s deployed inflatable emergency slides. Once evacuated, passengers were transported by bus back to the main airport terminal. Twelve passengers sustained minor injuries related to the emergency evacuation, with five individuals transported to local medical facilities for evaluation and treatment. Most passengers have since re-booked onto alternate Frontier Airlines flights and departed Denver as planned, airport authorities confirmed.

    Both Frontier Airlines and DIA have released statements expressing profound sorrow over the fatal event. “We are deeply saddened by this event,” a Frontier spokesperson said. DIA’s official statement echoed that sentiment, noting: “We are extremely saddened by this incident and express our sympathies to those involved.” Secretary Duffy emphasized that runway trespassing poses unacceptable risk to all parties, saying: “No one should EVER trespass on an airport.”

    The active runway involved in the incident has been temporarily closed while two leading U.S. aviation safety agencies — the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board — conduct a full on-site investigation to determine the full timeline and circumstances of the event.