Global Pulse

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  • Victorian government overturns World Cup venue ban

    Victorian government overturns World Cup venue ban

    For nearly two decades, Melbourne’s iconic Federation Square has stood as the beating heart of Australian World Cup fandom, drawing thousands of passionate supporters together to cheer on the national team under open skies. But earlier this year, the venue’s manager, Melbourne Arts Precinct, ended that long-running tradition, announcing a full ban on public screenings for the 2026 FIFA World Cup – a decision that has now been reversed by the top level of the Victorian state government.

    The original ban stemmed from repeated incidents of unruly, damaging behavior by a small subset of fans at past major tournament screenings. During Australia’s historic round-of-16 run at the 2022 Qatar World Cup, viral videos of jubilant crowd celebrations hid underlying trouble: multiple people were injured by illegally deployed flares and thrown projectiles. Tensions boiled over again at the 2023 Women’s World Cup, when fans charged barricades during Australia’s semi-final clash with England. The chaos forced organizers to cancel the planned public screening of the Matildas’ third-place playoff match at the venue, leaving thousands of supporters disappointed.

    Citing these past disruptions, Melbourne Arts Precinct CEO and director Katrina Sedgwick announced the full ban in early March, arguing that the behavior of a small minority had been “unacceptable and damaging to Fed Square” and could not be tolerated for the upcoming 2026 tournament. The decision marked the first time in more than 20 years that the venue would not open its big screen to the public for World Cup matches, a tradition stretching back to the Socceroos’ legendary 2006 World Cup campaign.

    But the announcement sparked immediate backlash from Australia’s peak football governing body Football Australia, fan groups, and the general public, who pushed for state leaders to intervene. Football Australia CEO Martin Kugeler argued the ban ran counter to Melbourne’s identity as Australia’s sporting and multicultural capital, pointing to the decades of shared iconic memories created at Federation Square screenings. Patrick Clancy, chair of the Football Supporters Association Australia, added that the viral global reach of 2022 Fed Square celebrations had turned the venue into a global symbol of Australian football passion, and fans were eager to recreate that collective energy for the 2026 tournament. The governing body also noted that a ban would harm local businesses that rely on the influx of tens of thousands of fans for tournament screenings.

    Heeding that call, Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan overturned the ban in an official statement, making clear that she believed the community deserved the chance to gather for free, shared entertainment. “I disagree with that decision – and I am overturning it,” Allan said. “There’s always a risk of bad behaviour from a few at every public gathering, but police and security will be on site, and there’ll be zero tolerance for it. Now more than ever, people deserve more free stuff to do together in the city.”

    The 2026 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico, kicks off on June 11, with the final scheduled for July 19. Australia’s national team has been drawn into a group with Turkey, Paraguay, and co-host the United States, and will now have their matches broadcast for free on Federation Square’s big screen for fans across the state to attend.

  • Former FedEx driver sentenced to death for killing seven-year-old Texas girl

    Former FedEx driver sentenced to death for killing seven-year-old Texas girl

    More than two and a half years after 7-year-old Athena Strand was abducted and killed while her Christmas gift was being delivered to her North Texas home, her family has received a final legal ruling in the case that has shaken the nation. On Tuesday, a Texas jury handed down a death sentence to 25-year-old Tanner Horner, the former delivery driver who admitted to the brutal capital crime. The guilty plea from Horner came earlier this year, as his trial got underway, where he formally confessed to charges of capital murder and aggravated kidnapping. The weeks-long sentencing phase concluded with jurors selecting the harshest available punishment over the alternative of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

    The details of the crime that emerged during court proceedings have added to the collective horror surrounding the case. On November 30, 2022, Horner arrived at the Strand family’s property near Fort Worth to drop off the little girl’s holiday gift: a box of Barbie dolls. Instead of completing the delivery, he kidnapped Athena, and two days later, her body was discovered just a short distance from her home. During the sentencing trial, jurors were forced to listen to a disturbing audio recording capturing the young victim’s final moments inside Horner’s delivery van, a piece of evidence that underscored the brutality of the crime. When the death sentence was read aloud by the judge, court video footage captured Horner showing absolutely no visible reaction to the verdict. He is scheduled to be executed via lethal injection at a date yet to be confirmed, in the early morning hours before sunrise.

    In the moments after the verdict was announced, Athena’s uncle, Elijah Strand, addressed the perpetrator directly in court, laying bare the irreversible damage his actions caused the entire family. “There are no words that truly capture the devastation that Tanner Horner caused us and our family,” he told reporters outside the courthouse. Speaking directly to Horner during proceedings, he added: “You destroyed a family. You will feel the wrath of God.” He emphasized that the family will forever honor Athena’s memory while Horner will be forgotten, saying: “I want you to know that you are nothing. You are a footnote in Athena’s story. Her name will forever be remembered, her name will forever be celebrated, and everyone will forget you.”

    Beyond the criminal case, a separate civil lawsuit has been filed by the Strand family against Horner, global delivery giant FedEx, and Big TopSpin Inc., the independent logistics contractor that hired Horner to complete deliveries for FedEx. The suit alleges that both companies failed to complete a required background check on Horner before putting him behind the wheel for residential deliveries, a negligent act that the family argues allowed the crime to occur. In the immediate aftermath of the 2022 murder, a FedEx spokesperson told U.S. media outlets that the company was aware of the pending litigation and extended its sympathies to the grieving family, saying “Our thoughts remain with the family of Athena Strand in the wake of this tragedy.” The BBC has reached out to FedEx for an updated statement following Tuesday’s sentencing, while Big TopSpin Inc. has not responded to multiple requests for comment and has not issued any public statement on the case since the murder.

  • Orphaned baby hippo to be hand-reared by keepers at Kenya sanctuary

    Orphaned baby hippo to be hand-reared by keepers at Kenya sanctuary

    Over the weekend, a moving and dramatic wildlife rescue operation unfolded on the shores of a Kenyan lake, where rescuers intervened to save a newborn hippo calf that had been left stranded next to its mother’s deceased body.

    The tiny calf, now named Bumpy, is estimated to be only a few days old, having lost his mother under circumstances that conservation teams are still clarifying. Initial investigations from the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) suggest the mother hippo may have died of natural causes. But experts from the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (SWT), the conservation charity that now cares for Bumpy, have put forward another plausible explanation: hippo society regularly sees infanticide by competing males, and the mother may have lost her life in a territorial battle while defending her vulnerable calf.

    By the time conservation teams arrived at the scene, the mother hippo’s body had already been decomposing for more than 24 hours. Extracting the unweaned calf from the water presented unexpected logistical hurdles. The distressed newborn refused to leave his mother’s side, clinging tightly to her corpse even as rescuers approached. Faced with this difficult situation, the KWS team made the painful decision to use the decomposing body as an anchor to safely reach and retrieve Bumpy, a choice that prioritized saving the calf’s life despite the emotional weight of the decision.

    After the rescue was completed, Bumpy was first transported to a specialized wildlife nursery in Nairobi, Kenya’s capital. For his first night in human care, keepers wrapped him in a soft blanket and provided him with regular milk feedings, catering to the tiny calf’s every need. SWT teams noted that from the moment he arrived, Bumpy was clearly starved for comfort and social connection, and has stayed nearly glued to his assigned keepers ever since.

    Soon after his initial stabilization, Bumpy was airlifted via helicopter to SWT’s Kaluku Wildlife Sanctuary, located near Tsavo East National Park. This protected facility is designed to raise orphaned wildlife until they are old enough and strong enough to be released back into their natural wild habitat. At his new home, Bumpy spends most of his days submerged in a calm pool along the Athi River, but he is never left alone. A keeper stays with him around the clock, whether joining him in the cool water or staying beside him on the riverbank. According to sanctuary updates, Bumpy is an inherently affectionate young hippo, and he is most content when curled up on or pressed against his caretakers, a bond that has been captured in heartwarming shared photos.

    Bumpy is not the only young orphaned hippo at Kaluku Sanctuary; he joins another calf that is almost a year old, though the two are currently housed in separate enclosures as they acclimate to their surroundings. Both animals are on track to be released into the wild once they reach full maturity, where they will join existing wild hippo populations. Wildlife experts explain that in their natural habitat, hippo calves stay closely bonded to their mothers for multiple years, nursing for at least 12 months and remaining dependent until they reach sexual maturity, making Bumpy’s early orphanhood an especially challenging situation.

    The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, the organization leading Bumpy’s care, was founded in 1977 and has earned global recognition for its work rescuing and rehabilitating orphaned elephants and rhinos, successfully reintegrating hundreds of animals back into wild African ecosystems. This rescue of Bumpy is part of the trust’s expanded work protecting vulnerable native wildlife across Kenya, giving newborn animals that would otherwise not survive a second chance at life in the wild.

  • Massive Alaska megatsunami was second largest ever recorded

    Massive Alaska megatsunami was second largest ever recorded

    In August 2025, a catastrophic natural event unfolded in a remote Alaskan fjord that has now emerged as a stark warning about the growing dangers of climate change in glacial regions. A massive section of a mountainside near South Sawyer Glacier in Tracy Arm Fjord, southeast Alaska, collapsed into the water following a series of minor seismic events, triggering a near-500-meter-tall megatsunami – the second such event ever recorded in human history, and the second massive megatsunami to strike Alaskan waters after the 1958 Lituya Bay disaster that claimed the top spot.

    New analysis published in the peer-reviewed journal *Science* has laid bare the full scale of the collapse, which saw an estimated 64 million cubic meters of rock plunge into the fjord in less than 60 seconds. To put that volume in perspective, the mass of rock that fell is equal to 24 of Egypt’s iconic Great Pyramids of Giza. The sheer force of the impact sent the enormous wave surging through the narrow, cliff-lined fjord, leaving a trail of widespread destruction in its path. Uprooted trees were scattered across mountainsides and hurled into the ocean, while large swathes of the shoreline were stripped bare of all soil and vegetation, leaving exposed, scarred rock in their wake.

    Remarkably, what made this event even more extraordinary was how close it came to causing mass casualties among tourists. Tracy Arm Fjord is one of Alaska’s most popular cruise ship destinations, drawing thousands of visitors every summer who come to witness the region’s dramatic glacial landscapes and icy scenery. Crucially, the landslide and subsequent megatsunami struck in the early hours of the morning, when no cruise ships were transiting the fjord. Researchers describe the outcome as a catastrophic close call that could have ended very differently.

    “We know that there were people that were very nearly in the wrong place,” said Dr. Bretwood Higman, an Alaskan geologist who led on-site fieldwork after the event. “I’m quite terrified that we’re not going to be so lucky in the future.”

    Unlike the more widely known open-ocean tsunamis triggered by large underwater earthquakes – such as the 2011 Japan tsunami that traveled thousands of miles and devastated coastal communities – megatsunamis are triggered when large volumes of rock or debris slide into enclosed bodies of water like fjords. These events are typically localized and dissipate much more quickly than open-ocean tsunamis, but they can produce waves hundreds of meters high that cause immediate, devastating destruction in the affected area.

    Alaska is already uniquely vulnerable to these events thanks to its combination of steep mountain slopes, narrow glacial fjords, and frequent seismic activity. But the new research confirms what many earth scientists have long suspected: climate change-driven glacier melt is drastically increasing the risk of these catastrophic rock collapses and subsequent megatsunamis.

    By combining on-site field surveys, seismic monitoring data, and high-resolution satellite imagery, the research team was able to reconstruct the full chain of events that led to the 2025 disaster. Dr. Stephen Hicks, a researcher at University College London and co-author of the study, explained that retreating glaciers had long acted as a natural support structure for unstable cliff faces. “The glacier was previously helping to hold up this piece of rock, and so when the ice retreated, it exposed the bottom of the cliff face, allowing that rock material to suddenly collapse into the fjord,” he said.

    Hicks and his colleagues, who have studied Alaskan tsunami hazards for decades, warn that the risk of future events is growing alongside increasing human activity in these remote, dangerous landscapes. “More people are now going to remote areas – often these tourist cruises are going to see the natural beauty of the area to actually learn more about climate change – but they are also dangerous places to be,” he noted.

    Dr. Higman’s research confirms that the frequency of these events is rising far faster than many expected. “At this point, I’m pretty confident that these are increasing not just a little bit, but increasing a lot,” he said. “Maybe in the order of 10 times as frequent as they were just a few decades ago.”

    In response to the new findings and growing safety concerns, the scientific community is calling for expanded hazard monitoring systems across all high-risk regions of Alaska. Already, some major cruise companies have announced they will reroute ships away from Tracy Arm Fjord indefinitely, amid ongoing fears of another catastrophic event.

  • Robot wars – what an operation in Ukraine tells us about the battlefield of the near future

    Robot wars – what an operation in Ukraine tells us about the battlefield of the near future

    The ongoing conflict in Ukraine is reshaping the future of global military engagement at an unprecedented pace, with a growing cohort of new-age defense firms predicting that robotic combatants could soon outnumber human troops on the battlefields of the country. This bold claim comes from UFORCE, a Ukrainian-British defense technology startup that operates out of an unmarked, low-profile office in London – a security precaution implemented to fend off potential sabotage attempts from Russian actors, according to company representatives.

    The discussion around robotic combat surged into the public eye last month, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky highlighted a historic, first-of-its-kind military operation in a public video address. According to Zelensky, Ukrainian forces successfully seized hostile territory using only robotic systems and drones, a milestone he framed as a turning point in modern warfare. Neither the Ukrainian military nor UFORCE has released concrete details about the alleged operation; however, a UFORCE representative confirmed that the firm’s air, land, and sea unmanned systems are already active in frontline combat operations across Ukraine.

    “I can’t go into specifics about the operation or how UFORCE was involved, but we’ve conducted more than 150,000 successful combat missions since the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022,” explained Rhiannon Padley, the company’s UK director of strategic interactions. Padley added that the trend of robots fighting robots will only become more widespread, projecting that unmanned systems will eventually surpass human soldiers in number on future battlefields.

    Russia has already deployed its own robotic systems to deliver explosive payloads to Ukrainian positions, and independent defense analysts broadly agree that the war in Ukraine has accelerated the development and deployment of unmanned military technology by years. Beyond shifting the dynamics of the current conflict, this rapid advancement has ignited a global debate over the ethical, strategic, and operational implications of widespread robotic and AI-integrated warfare.

    Melanie Sisson, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Brookings Institution, framed Ukraine as a global leader in the evolution of modern defense technology. “I really consider Ukraine to be a major teacher in the future of national defence and armaments,” Sisson noted. “It’s an impressive case study in how necessity drives invention.”

    UFORCE is at the forefront of a new wave of disruptive “Neo-Prime” defense startups that are challenging the dominance of long-established legacy defense contractors including BAE Systems, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin. One of the most high-profile of these new entrants is Anduril, a US-based defense technology firm that completed its first test flight of an autonomous, unpiloted fighter jet in February of this year.

    While the vast majority of unmanned systems currently in use remain remotely controlled by human operators, companies like Anduril are rapidly integrating artificial intelligence into weapons platforms to increase autonomous functionality. UFORCE’s land-based drones already use AI-powered software to assist human operators with targeting, and Anduril confirms that some of its newest systems can independently complete the final stage of an attack without human input.

    The US federal government has publicly pushed for rapid adoption of AI across the US military, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stating in January that the country must transition to an “AI-first warfighting force.” A 2025 assessment from the US Department of Defense also confirmed that China is rapidly expanding its own development and deployment of AI-integrated military systems, intensifying a global arms race in autonomous defense technology.

    Many analysts argue that a future of widespread robot-on-robot combat is all but unavoidable. Jacob Parakilas, a researcher with the independent think tank RAND Europe, points out that cross-drone combat is already a regular occurrence in Ukrainian airspace. “Seeing that extend to land and maritime warfare seems extremely likely, if not inevitable,” Parakilas said.

    Despite the strategic and operational advantages touted by developers, human rights organizations have raised urgent alarms over the growing autonomy of weapons systems, particularly the critical issue of accountability for civilian harm and unlawful killings. “Militaries adopt AI to speed up processes such as target identification. But delegating life-and-death decisions to machines poses profound ethical and human rights risks,” explained Patrick Wilcken, a military technology researcher at Amnesty International.

    Defense manufacturers push back on these criticisms, arguing that retaining a “human in the loop” for critical decision-making mitigates these risks, and that all final decisions to use lethal force remain in the hands of military personnel. Proponents of AI-integrated systems also argue that autonomous technology can reduce human error in high-stress combat environments. “Humans need rest and food, and under combat conditions those needs aren’t always met,” said Dr Rich Drake, UK general manager at Anduril Industries. “Computing allows us to reduce errors across what we call the kill chain.”

    The explosive growth of UFORCE underscores the massive commercial opportunity in autonomous military technology: the startup has expanded rapidly amid the war in Ukraine and recently achieved unicorn status, reaching a valuation of more than $1 billion. As global investment pours into this emerging sector, the question is no longer whether robotic warfare will become the norm, but how the international community will govern its use to mitigate ethical and humanitarian harm.

  • ADL reports a sharp drop in US antisemitic incidents in 2025, driven by a steep fall on campuses

    ADL reports a sharp drop in US antisemitic incidents in 2025, driven by a steep fall on campuses

    WASHINGTON — A new annual audit released Wednesday by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has found that the total number of antisemitic incidents across the United States fell sharply in 2025, marking the first decline in five years. The decrease was led by a dramatic 66% drop in incidents on U.S. college campuses, a shift that came after widespread pro-Palestinian protests in 2024 and subsequent administrative pressure from the White House under the Donald Trump administration.

    The organization’s 2025 audit counted 6,274 total incidents of antisemitic assault, harassment, and vandalism nationwide, a 33% pullback from 2024’s all-time record of 9,354 incidents. On college campuses alone, the numbers dropped even more steeply: after recording 1,694 antisemitic incidents in 2024, when pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist protests spread across campuses amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, that figure fell to just 583 in 2025. The decline followed coordinated action from hundreds of colleges and universities, which implemented new protest restrictions and policy changes under pressure from the Trump administration and advocacy from the ADL.

    When broken down by state, New York recorded the highest number of total antisemitic incidents in 2025 at 1,160, followed by California with 817 and New Jersey with 687.

    Even with the overall drop in incidents, the report confirms that 2025 was one of the most violent years on record for Jewish communities in the U.S. The audit counted 203 physical assaults, a new annual high, and three separate fatal attacks targeting Jewish people. These included a May shooting outside Washington D.C.’s Capital Jewish Museum that killed two people, and a June firebombing attack at a hostage awareness event in Boulder, Colorado that left an 82-year-old Jewish woman dead from her injuries.

    Speaking to the Associated Press, ADL CEO and National Director Jonathan Greenblatt emphasized that even the reduced 2025 numbers remain far above pre-war baseline levels. “Numbers that would have shocked us five years ago are now our floor,” Greenblatt said. “People are being murdered because of antisemitism on American soil, and thousands more are threatened.” He added that while any reduction in antisemitic harm is a welcome development, the current moment does not allow for complacency: even with the 66% drop, campus antisemitic incidents remain nearly four times higher than they were in 2021, before the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.

    The shifting share of Israel-linked antisemitic incidents reflects the changing landscape of hate speech and bias over the past two years. In 2024, 58% of all recorded antisemitic incidents were tied to criticism of Israel or Zionism, marking the first time since the annual audit launched in 1979 that Israel-related incidents made up a majority of total cases. That share fell to 45% in 2025, with the ADL recording an overall 67% drop in anti-Israel rallies that crossed into antisemitic rhetoric, and an 83% drop on campuses specifically.

    The ADL’s counting methodology has long remained at the center of a fierce, ongoing debate about where to draw the line between legitimate criticism of Israeli policy and antisemitic hate speech. The organization says it explicitly distinguishes between general criticism of Israeli government policy and antisemitic speech, but classifies vilification of Zionism — the ideological movement supporting a Jewish state in Israel — as a form of antisemitism. This framing has drawn criticism from a range of groups, including some Jewish and anti-Zionist activists, who argue the ADL’s criteria are overly broad and penalize protected political speech.

    Aryeh Tuchman, a former head of the ADL’s Center on Extremism who now directs the Nexus Center for Antisemitism, which promotes a more nuanced definition of antisemitism, noted that the ADL’s approach grows from legitimate concern for the safety of American Jewish communities, but that disagreement over the framework is valid. “There are a lot of people who would disagree with that. … It’s important that there be room for multiple approaches,” Tuchman said.

    In response to pressure from the ADL and the Trump administration on college campuses, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) launched its Unhostile Campus Campaign, which advocates for protecting free speech and academic freedom for pro-Palestinian students, faculty, and staff. In CAIR’s recent reporting, the group named Columbia University, the City University of New York, and the University of Michigan as the schools it considers most hostile to pro-Palestinian viewpoints.

    The ADL’s new report comes amid a global surge in concern over rising antisemitism tied to the Israel-Hamas war. In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Keir Starmer has called for stricter action against antisemitic chants at pro-Palestinian protests, after two Jewish men were stabbed in London in a recent attack. Senior British law enforcement officials have called the current moment the greatest ongoing threat to British Jewish communities in modern history, blaming social media platforms for normalizing antisemitic rhetoric. The UK has also seen a string of recent attacks targeting Jewish sites, including multiple arson attempts at London synagogues, and has raised its national terror threat level in response.

    In Australia, a national public inquiry into antisemitism is currently hearing testimony from Jewish communities after a December 2024 mass shooting at a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach that killed 15 people. Witnesses have described growing fear and vulnerability amid a sharp nationwide rise in antisemitic incidents that dates back to the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023.

    A recent analysis from Tel Aviv University confirms that 2025 was the deadliest year for antisemitic attacks globally since 1994, when a bombing at a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, Argentina killed 85 people. Combined, fatal attacks in the U.S., UK, and Australia claimed 20 lives in 2025, the highest annual death toll from antisemitic violence in more than three decades.

  • Russia ignores Ukraine’s unilateral ceasefire and attacks kindergarten

    Russia ignores Ukraine’s unilateral ceasefire and attacks kindergarten

    In a sharp escalation of hostilities just hours after Ukraine enacted its own unilateral ceasefire, Russian forces have launched a coordinated wave of drone and missile strikes across Ukrainian civilian and frontline areas, killing multiple civilians and drawing sharp condemnation from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

    Local officials in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region confirmed Wednesday morning that a direct strike on a local kindergarten claimed the life of one adult woman. No children were present on site at the time of the attack, limiting what could have been a far deadlier outcome.

    The breakdown in the temporary truce comes after both Russia and Ukraine announced competing unilateral ceasefires earlier this week, with no shared agreement on terms, duration or independent monitoring. Russia first declared a 36-hour truce spanning May 8 and 9 to coincide with its annual Victory Day commemorations marking the Soviet Union’s 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany, which will be capped Saturday by a traditional military parade on Moscow’s Red Square. Ukraine followed suit, announcing an open-ended ceasefire starting at midnight Tuesday, stating it would respond symmetrically to any Russian actions.

    Zelenskyy accused Russia of outright rejecting the opportunity to de-escalate and save civilian lives in a statement Wednesday morning. “Russia’s choice is an obvious spurning of a ceasefire and of saving lives,” the president said, adding that Ukraine would “decide on our further actions” after receiving updated evening briefings from military and intelligence commanders. Zelenskyy noted that Russian forces had launched “active hostilities and terrorist shelling” across the frontline, alongside dozens of drone and missile strikes targeting populated civilian areas.

    A wave of Russian attacks across Ukraine Tuesday left 27 civilians dead, including 12 people killed in strikes in the southern Zaporizhzhia region alone. Andriy Sybiha, Ukraine’s foreign minister, said the continued aggression laid bare the insincerity of Moscow’s ceasefire call. “Fake calls for a ceasefire on May 9th have nothing to do with diplomacy. Putin only cares about military parades, not human lives,” Sybiha said.

    This year’s Victory Day events in Russia, including the Red Square parade, have been scaled back dramatically, with officials citing a heightened “terrorist threat” from Ukraine. Residents of Moscow and St. Petersburg have also been notified that mobile internet service will be disrupted across parts of both cities during the commemorations for security purposes.

    Since launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin has worked to shield the Russian public from direct impacts of the war. But in recent months, Ukraine has increasingly demonstrated its ability to strike deep into Russian territory with long-range drones. While these attacks typically cause limited physical damage, they have eroded public confidence and rattled Russian political leadership.

    On Tuesday, Ukraine carried out a strike on the city of Cheboksary, located more than 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) from the Ukrainian border, which killed two people.

    Moscow has not issued any formal response to Ukraine’s ceasefire proposal. Instead, the Kremlin has threatened to carry out a “massive missile strike” on central Kyiv if Ukraine violates Russia’s 8-9 May truce. The Russian Ministry of Defense announced Wednesday that it had downed 53 Ukrainian drones between 21:00 Tuesday and 07:00 Wednesday GMT, but did not clarify whether any of the intercepted drones were launched after Ukraine’s ceasefire went into effect.

  • Pope to inaugurate Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia tower and meet with migrants in June trip to Spain

    Pope to inaugurate Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia tower and meet with migrants in June trip to Spain

    Vatican officials announced Wednesday that Pope Leo XIV will undertake a seven-day pastoral visit to Spain next month, headlined by two major engagements: the inauguration of the iconic central tower of Barcelona’s world-famous Sagrada Familia basilica, and a outreach visit to migrant communities in the Canary Islands.

    The trip, scheduled to run from June 6 to 12, will kick off in Spain’s capital Madrid, where the pontiff is set to hold official meetings with top Spanish government leaders, members of parliament, and King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia. He will also lead an evening prayer vigil with young Catholics, an event that echoes the 2011 World Youth Day gathering hosted in Madrid by the late Pope Benedict XVI, the last pope to travel to Spain.

    From Madrid, the papal tour will move on to Barcelona, where the visit coincides with the 100th anniversary of the death of Antoni Gaudí, the legendary Catalan architect who devoted his life to designing the Sagrada Familia, the world’s tallest church structure. During his time in the city, Pope Leo will celebrate Mass inside the UNESCO-listed basilica and formally open the recently completed Tower of Jesus Christ, the soaring central spire that was secured into its final position in February. This new tower brings the basilica to its planned maximum height of 172.5 meters (566 feet) above the Barcelona skyline, though the Sagrada Familia’s decades-long construction project remains incomplete.

    Spanish bishops also confirmed Wednesday that while Gaudí is currently advancing through the canonization process toward sainthood, the ceremony will not take place during Pope Leo’s visit. This mirrors the 2010 visit of Pope Benedict XVI, who consecrated the still-unfinished basilica during his trip to the site.

    The final leg of Pope Leo’s trip will take him to the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago off the northwest coast of Africa that serves as the primary entry point for migrants traveling from Africa to Europe. The visit fulfills a long-held priority of Pope Francis, Pope Leo’s immediate predecessor, who made outreach to migrants and refugees a defining mission of his papacy. Pope Leo has continued this legacy, consistently calling for dignified treatment of migrants even amid restrictive new migration policies put in place by the Trump administration in his native United States.

    The trip to the Canaries also aligns with the migration agenda of Spain’s current socialist government led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. At a time when many European governments have tightened border controls and expanded deportation programs, Sánchez’s administration has openly championed managed legal migration. The government is currently advancing a sweeping migrant amnesty that would grant legal status to an estimated 500,000 unauthorized migrants currently residing in Spain. The policy has drawn fierce pushback from conservative opposition groups, particularly the far-right Vox party, which has labeled the legalization push an “attack on Spanish national identity.”

    Despite the criticism, the amnesty plan holds broad support from a coalition of backers that includes the Catholic Church and leading Spanish business groups. Sánchez has repeatedly framed the reform as a demographic and economic necessity: Spain’s population is rapidly aging, and the nation requires additional working-age people to sustain its growing economy and fund public social security programs. Currently, roughly 10 million of Spain’s 50 million residents are foreign-born — around one in five people — with the largest share hailing from Latin America and Africa.

    During his time in the Canaries, Pope Leo will first meet with migrant support organizations in Las Palmas, before traveling the next day to meet with migrants at a reception center on the island of Tenerife, where he will also hold separate talks with local aid groups that work with newcomer populations.

    For decades, the Canary Islands, located just 105 kilometers (65 miles) from the African mainland, have been a key transit route for migrants seeking to reach the European Union from West Africa and Morocco. To avoid interception by security forces, many migrants undertake dangerous extended sea journeys that can last days or even weeks. Arrivals peaked in 2024, when nearly 47,000 migrants reached the islands, according to data from Spain’s interior ministry. After the EU struck cooperation deals with Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia to curb irregular crossings, arrivals have dropped sharply: just over 2,000 migrants landed in the Canaries in the first four months of 2026.

    Following his Spain trip, Pope Leo — the first U.S.-born pope in history — will travel to another major European migrant entry point: the Italian island of Lampedusa, off the coast of Sicily. That visit is scheduled for July 4, the same date the United States celebrates the 250th anniversary of its Declaration of Independence.

    This report includes contributions from correspondents Naishadham in Madrid and Brito in Barcelona, and is produced by the Associated Press. AP’s religion coverage is supported through a collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP retains full editorial responsibility for all content.

  • German police raid neo-Nazi criminal youth groups

    German police raid neo-Nazi criminal youth groups

    Over the past two years, a worrying new wave of explicitly neo-Nazi youth organizations has sprung up across multiple regions of Germany, prompting a large-scale coordinated law enforcement operation targeting two of the most prominent violent groups. On Wednesday, more than 600 police officers carried out raids across approximately 50 residential and commercial locations spanning 12 German states, with operations concentrated in the country’s eastern and southern regions including Bavaria, Berlin, Brandenburg, and Saxony. Federal prosecuting authorities confirmed that the operation targeted individuals linked to two groups: Jung & Stark (JS, translating to Young and Strong) and Deutsche Jugend Voran (DJV, or Forwards German Youth). While no arrests were made during the search operation itself, investigators have laid out detailed allegations of organized criminal violence and extremist networking against the suspects. According to a formal statement from federal prosecutors, the targeted individuals are suspected of coordinating violent attacks through encrypted social media platforms and building interconnected extremist networks that span the entire country. Prosecutors detailed that multiple accused group members have carried out brutal assaults on people they categorized as political enemies, including left-wing activists, as well as individuals they falsely accused of being pedophiles. In each documented attack, victims were beaten by multiple attackers and left with severe, lasting injuries. Internal group meetings, authorities add, regularly include open calls for violent action against political opponents and the groups’ perceived enemies. This is not the first time members of these networks have faced legal consequences: last year, a leading figure in DJV was sentenced to over three years in prison following a series of violent assaults on political opponents in Berlin. Twenty-four-year-old Julian M. was convicted alongside a cell of attackers aged 16 to 23 for brutally beating multiple people who displayed visible symbols associated with left-wing political movements. Unlike older generations of German far-right extremist groups, these new youth networks operate with unprecedented openness, maintaining active, public profiles on major mainstream and encrypted social platforms including Telegram and Instagram. Experts on extremism warn that this intentional openness is a deliberate recruitment strategy targeting young, disillusioned men who feel alienated from mainstream society. Jakob Guhl, a researcher at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, notes that the majority of people joining JS and DJV are extremely young, typically teenagers or in their early 20s. Guhl emphasizes that unlike more established, mainstream far-right political movements in Germany such as the Alternative for Germany (AfD) or the Identitarian movement, which aim to build broad public support and enter mainstream political discourse, JS and DJV center their activities on militant training, public protest participation, and direct physical violence against perceived enemies. Since 2024, hundreds of smaller, local offshoots of these groups have emerged across eastern Germany in particular, following JS’s model of open online organizing and militant activity. German security and political officials have repeatedly voiced deep, growing concern over the rising rates of young people being radicalized and drawn into far-right extremist activity, which has increasingly targeted not only left-wing political figures but also members of Germany’s LGBT community. Today’s coordinated raids mark one of the largest law enforcement actions against this new wave of openly militant far-right youth groups, underscoring the German state’s growing alarm over the spread of violent neo-Nazi organizing among young people.

  • The Summer I Turned Pretty fans asked to stop visiting film set

    The Summer I Turned Pretty fans asked to stop visiting film set

    One of Prime Video’s biggest breakout hit series of recent years is wrapping up its run with a feature-length conclusion — but the massive, passionate fanbase that turned *The Summer I Turned Pretty* into a global phenomenon is now creating unexpected headaches for its production team.

    In an official public statement posted across social media channels, the creative team behind the coming-of-age romantic drama has urged fans to immediately stop visiting active filming locations and leaking on-set footage online, citing legitimate safety risks and constant disruptions to the production process.

    “We absolutely love how excited you are for this final chapter, but sharing unconfirmed location details and turning up on set derails our filming schedule,” the team explained in the post. The statement comes after dozens of unofficial clips purporting to show lead cast members on set have circulated widely across TikTok, Instagram, and other social platforms, with some short videos racking up hundreds of thousands of views in just days.

    To deliver a polished, seamless final product, the production team says they have worked for months to build a controlled, private production environment, calling this “protected bubble” critical to crafting the conclusion fans deserve. Jenny Han, the best-selling author who originally wrote the *The Summer I Turned Pretty* trilogy and is returning to write and direct the upcoming final film, echoed the team’s request in a post to her own Instagram Story.

    Han explained that overenthusiastic fan visits have forced production to repeatedly pause filming to clear crowds from shooting setups, breaking crew focus and throwing carefully planned shooting schedules off track. “This story means more to me than I can say, and I know it means just as much to all of you,” she wrote.

    First launched on Prime Video in 2022, *The Summer I Turned Pretty* quickly became a cultural juggernaut, drawing millions of viewers worldwide with its tender coming-of-age story and addictive love triangle at its core. The series follows Isabel “Belly” Conklin, played by rising star Lola Tung, as she navigates young adulthood and a years-long romantic connection with brothers Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher, portrayed by Christopher Briney and Gavin Casalegno. The show’s central romantic dynamic even spawned an internet-wide cultural divide, with passionate “Team Conrad” and “Team Jeremiah” factions that have occasionally spilled over into targeted harassment of cast members amid heated debates.

    At the peak of its third season run last year, *The Summer I Turned Pretty* claimed the title of Prime Video’s most-watched series in the United Kingdom, and hit the number one streaming spot in more than 120 countries around the globe, cementing its status as one of the platform’s most successful original series. This is not the first time production has been forced to rein in fan behavior, either: ahead of the third season’s emotional climax last year, creators issued a similar plea asking fans to “act normal online” after cast members faced sustained online abuse tied to plot developments.

    While the series is set at the iconic fictional Cousins Beach, on-location filming primarily takes place across coastal towns in North Carolina. Plot details for the upcoming feature film remain tightly under wraps, but Amazon MGM Studios has confirmed it will serve as the definitive final chapter closing out Belly’s coming-of-age journey, with all core lead cast members set to reprise their roles for the feature-length conclusion.