Global Pulse

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  • US Supreme Court justices defiant as threats hit home

    US Supreme Court justices defiant as threats hit home

    On a historic day on Capitol Hill this week, two sitting US Supreme Court justices delivered unprecedented testimony before congressional spending panels, laying bare the escalating wave of intimidation targeting the nation’s highest judicial body while issuing a defiant commitment to uphold judicial independence amid a toxic political climate.

    Liberal justice Elena Kagan and conservative justice Amy Coney Barrett — the first sitting Supreme Court justices to appear before Congress since 2019 — opened up about the unthinkable dangers that have become part of daily life for top US judges, as the judiciary requests hundreds of millions in additional security funding to counter growing risks.

    Barrett, whose 2020 nomination to the court came from former President Donald Trump, shared a deeply personal anecdote that underscores the human cost of rising threats. In the weeks following the 2022 leak of the draft ruling that overturned the federal constitutional right to abortion, Barrett was provided with a bulletproof vest. When she set the protective gear down at home, her 12-year-old son found it, forcing her to explain the item and why she needed it. “I didn’t expect that performing the service was going to put me in the position of explaining to my children what a bulletproof vest was and why I had to wear one,” she told lawmakers.

    Kagan echoed that gravity, noting that threats have reached alarming proximity for many members of the court. “For some of us, those threats have come very close, and all of us live with the knowledge that they may again materialize,” she said. Still, she reaffirmed the court’s core promise: “all members of the court can do their jobs as they believe legally right, adjudicating cases without fear or favor.”

    This rare public appearance comes as the federal judiciary seeks a total of nearly $921 million in dedicated security funding to upgrade protections across federal courthouses and judicial facilities. The Supreme Court itself is requesting a $20.5 million annual increase to its budget, bringing its total security allocation request to $228.4 million. Of that increase, $14.6 million would go toward expanding the court’s specialized police force and upgrading building security, while $6.5 million would fund a new visitor screening facility on Supreme Court grounds. Kagan noted that current screening protocols leave gaps that put justices and staff at risk, saying “We are concerned about people coming into the building before they’ve been checked.”

    Security data paints a stark picture of the crisis: House Appropriations Committee top Democrat Rosa DeLauro told attendees that US Marshals recorded 564 threats against federal judges last year, a 31 percent jump from the prior year that DeLauro called “deeply alarming.”

    Barrett has direct experience with these threats: her private residence was targeted in a May swatting incident, where bad actors file a false emergency report to draw an armed police response to a target’s home. Last year, her sister’s South Carolina home was the subject of a bomb threat. The most high-profile recent plot targeting a justice unfolded in 2022, when an armed man from California traveled to Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s residential neighborhood with plans to assassinate him. The assailant was ultimately arrested and later sentenced to more than eight years in federal prison.

    The testimony comes on the heels of a divisive Supreme Court term that delivered a series of major rulings intersecting with former President Trump’s political agenda, including decisions blocking his attempt to end birthright citizenship and striking down his sweeping global tariffs. While Trump has praised the court’s conservative majority when it rules in his favor — most recently on a case granting him broad presidential immunity — he has repeatedly launched harsh public attacks on justices who rule against him. Chief Justice John Roberts warned earlier this year that escalating personal hostility toward sitting judges poses a grave danger to the judiciary, saying the trend “has got to stop.”

    Despite the intense pressures and personal risks, both justices stressed that the court will continue to carry out its constitutional duty without bending to political intimidation, reaffirming that rulings will be based on law rather than outside pressure.

  • China’s Africa lending model has a split personality

    China’s Africa lending model has a split personality

    For 20 years, China’s ascent to the position of the world’s largest bilateral creditor has reshaped the global landscape of development financing in irreversible ways. Yet popular and academic discourse around Chinese sovereign lending to Africa has long been stuck in a limiting ideological binary: on one side, the Western-dominated narrative of “debt-trap diplomacy” frames China as a predatory actor, while on the other, Beijing’s official rhetoric positions its lending as purely altruistic South-South cooperation. A new analytical framework from development finance scholar Jiahao Yuan cuts through this divide by examining the deep structural roots of China’s lending practice, revealing a decades-long “dual system” that pairs domestic Keynesian economic logic with external neoliberal risk mitigation, and explaining how this structure ultimately led to sovereign debt distress and a sweeping reorientation of China’s Africa lending strategy. To understand the origins of China’s overseas infrastructure lending model, one must first trace its roots to the structural dynamics of China’s domestic economy. For decades, China’s state-led economic model relied on massive credit expansion orchestrated by central and local governments, which channeled liquidity through state-owned policy and commercial banks to fund capital-intensive projects. This approach sustained decades of rapid GDP growth, but by the mid-2010s, the model hit diminishing returns, leaving key industrial sectors with severe overcapacity and pushing subnational governments to the brink of balance sheet collapse. With domestic demand for fixed asset investment maxed out, China required an external outlet for its surplus industrial capacity and accumulated U.S. dollar foreign exchange reserves — a dynamic that mirrors geographer David Harvey’s concept of the “spatial fix,” where overaccumulated domestic capital is displaced into long-term cross-border infrastructure projects. It is this structural pressure that saw the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) emerge as the natural international extension of China’s domestic Keynesian model, with a carefully engineered institutional framework to facilitate the export of overcapacity. The mechanism works in three tightly coordinated steps: first, a Chinese policy bank issues a dollar-denominated sovereign loan or export buyer’s credit to an African government. Second, the loan contract includes strict procurement rules that require the infrastructure project to be built by pre-approved Chinese state-owned engineering, procurement, and construction contractors. Most critically, while the African government holds formal legal responsibility for repaying the sovereign debt, the loan capital never actually enters the African country’s financial system: during clearing, the dollar funds are transferred directly from the lending bank’s Beijing headquarters to the corporate accounts of the Chinese contractors executing the project. This structure allows China to convert its low-yield dollar reserves into active commercial orders for its domestic industrial base, effectively offloading surplus capacity onto global markets. While the macro impetus for China’s overseas credit expansion is rooted in state-backed Keynesianism, Chinese lenders operate by neoliberal commercial logic once they enter international markets. Unlike traditional Western multilateral lenders such as the World Bank and IMF, which embed explicit political conditions tied to the Washington Consensus — including fiscal austerity, privatization, and governance reforms — China frames its lending as “no political strings attached” in line with its doctrine of non-interference. However, this lack of political conditionality is often misread as a lack of commercial or legal conditions. In practice, Chinese banks act as highly rational market actors, prioritizing capital preservation and risk insulation through strict contractual mechanisms, rather than seeking to reform recipient state governance. The clearest example of this external neoliberal risk-mitigation structure is the so-called “Angola Mode” of commodity-backed infrastructure lending, designed for low-credit-rating states with limited access to global capital markets. This framework builds a closed financial loop to protect Chinese lenders: first, it requires the borrowing state to establish an offshore escrow account, usually held in a major international financial hub or directly at the lending Chinese bank, bypassing the borrower’s domestic central bank and fiscal system. Second, the borrower is required to direct all revenue from its strategic commodity exports into this escrow account, where the Chinese lender holds a senior security claim, automatically deducting principal and interest payments before any remaining funds are sent to the borrower’s domestic treasury. This structure delinks the lending and repayment process from the often fragile or corrupt domestic financial systems of borrowing states: as long as commodity exports continue, Chinese lenders secure repayment directly through offshore accounts. This approach, which secures capital through sophisticated contractual arrangements rather than institutional overhauls of borrowing states, embodies the core neoliberal emphasis on property rights, enforceable contracts, and free capital flow in its purest form. This dual-track model operated smoothly during the 2000–2018 global commodity supercycle, opening large new markets for China’s industrial exports and driving the largest infrastructure building boom in post-war African history. But the model contains an inherent structural mismatch: it combines state-controlled Keynesian capital from China with an anarchic international debt system governed by neoliberal rules, a tension that ultimately sparked widespread sovereign debt crises across Africa. Domestically, China’s central government can exercise near-total control over its financial system, managing debt distress among state-owned enterprises through administrative tools such as debt rollovers, targeted liquidity injections, and mandates for state banks to absorb non-performing loans, effectively socializing the costs of financial instability. Globally, however, there is no sovereign authority that can bail out a defaulting nation, leaving no backstop for systemic risk. When the global macroeconomic environment shifted dramatically in the early 2020s, driven by aggressive U.S. Federal Reserve interest rate hikes, the stage was set for crisis. Global capital rapidly flowed back to the U.S., triggering sharp depreciations of African currencies and extreme volatility in commodity prices. For African nations heavily dependent on dollar-denominated debt and narrow, single-commodity economies, this shift created severe fiscal pressure that pushed many toward sovereign default. Zambia became the first high-profile African defaulter, and its case exposed the core limitations of China’s dual-track model. Chinese banks held billions of dollars in Zambian debt, much of it secured by collateral and offshore escrow structures, but when Zambia’s national finances collapsed and foreign exchange reserves were exhausted, China faced what analysts call the “creditor’s dilemma.” On one hand, China cannot use military or extrajudicial force to seize assets in a defaulting state — such action would destroy its narrative of South-South solidarity and ignite widespread anti-Chinese sentiment across the Global South. On the other hand, Chinese banks initially resisted joining multilateral debt relief frameworks such as the Paris Club, preferring confidential bilateral negotiations to protect their collateral claims. This approach ran into opposition from the IMF and Western private bondholders, who demanded equal treatment and full transparency from Chinese lenders, while Beijing countered that private bondholders had earned high yields during good times and should share equally in losses during default. This standoff made clear that no carefully drafted contract can fully hedge against the systemic risk of a sovereign state collapse in the ungoverned neoliberal global financial system. In response to the fallout from widespread sovereign defaults, paired with domestic efforts to clear subnational debt, China’s African sovereign lending network has undergone a major strategic rebalancing since 2024, bringing the era of aggressive expansion to a close. During the peak of BRI expansion, annual disbursements of new Chinese loans regularly outpaced the total principal and interest payments African nations made on existing debt. Today, after tightening credit risk assessments, annual debt service payments on legacy loans exceed the inflow of new Chinese sovereign credit, meaning China has shifted from being a net provider of liquidity to a defensive creditor focused on recovering capital from its mature loan portfolio. When Beijing announced a 360 billion yuan ($50 billion) financial support package for Africa in September 2024, a closer look revealed that the new lending model differs fundamentally from the expansionary era. China’s new approach to Africa finance rests on three core pillars. First, to insulate bilateral lending from Western monetary policy shocks and Federal Reserve interest rate cycles, Beijing is rapidly expanding yuan-denominated sovereign loans and bilateral currency swap lines. Lending in yuan allows African borrowers to purchase Chinese industrial equipment directly in the Chinese currency, then repay debt with yuan earned from commodity exports to China, eliminating dollar exchange rate risk. Second, large-scale, capital-intensive transport and logistics projects have been replaced by targeted, smaller-scale high-value projects, with strict caps on individual project financing. Most new credit is directed to two strategic sectors: the green energy transition and the Digital Silk Road, including 5G networks and cloud data centers. These “small and beautiful” projects carry high long-term strategic value, as they lock in African dependence on Chinese digital technology for decades to come. Third, to counter criticism that its old model was extractive — focusing on exporting raw materials to China and importing finished Chinese goods — China is shifting its investment focus to local industrial value addition. Chinese credit is increasingly directed toward building processing facilities, smelters, and special economic zones within Africa, and Chinese firms are building downstream assembly units for electric vehicles and lithium battery components in regional hubs such as Nigeria and Egypt. This strategy integrates African industrial bases into Chinese-led green energy supply chains, while also helping China bypass Western trade barriers. In conclusion, 20 years of Chinese sovereign lending to Africa fits neither the Western narrative of predatory debt-trap diplomacy nor Beijing’s framing of purely altruistic South-South cooperation. Instead, it is the product of a large policy-driven state capitalist economy, which pursued a unique and inherently tense experiment: exporting domestic overcapacity through internal Keynesian logic while managing risk through external neoliberal market rules. Over the coming decade, this model is likely to evolve into a new third credit paradigm, centered on yuan-denominated lending, rigorous systemic risk control, green and digital growth, and deep integration with local African supply chains. To accurately understand the future of Chinese overseas financing, observers must abandon outdated Cold War ideological framing and examine the unique institutional duality that has shaped China’s lending practice from its origins. Jiahao Yuan is an economist specializing in international development finance and Chinese macroeconomic policy.

  • Another heatwave hits parts of US and Canada

    Another heatwave hits parts of US and Canada

    Millions of residents across the United States and Canada are grappling with a second consecutive extreme heatwave this month, bringing soaring temperatures, stifling humidity and hazardous air quality to vast swathes of North America.

    The scorching conditions, which first settled over the region on Tuesday, are forecast to hold steady through Wednesday for major population centers in southern Canada, the U.S. Midwest and the U.S. Northeast. Millions of people across major cities including Boston, New York City, Philadelphia and Buffalo remain under official heat advisories through the end of the midweek period, while residents in western U.S. states have already endured multiple days of dangerous high temperatures.

    Meteorologists trace the extreme heat to a sprawling upper-atmosphere high-pressure system, often referred to as a heat dome, that has been shifting steadily eastward across the North American continent. This dense mass of hot, moisture-heavy air has already shattered all-time temperature records across parts of Montana and Utah, and its eastward shift has now put the northern Plains, Midwest and Northeast in the path of the most intense conditions.

    Forecasts call for Chicago to hit a high of 97 degrees Fahrenheit (36 degrees Celsius) on Wednesday, while New York City is expected to reach 100°F and Washington D.C. could see a high of 102°F. A handful of isolated locations are projected to climb even higher, with thick humidity pushing the “feels-like” temperature far above the actual air reading, amplifying health risks for sensitive groups.

    In Canada, central and eastern regions have also baked under the heat, but an approaching cold front is expected to bring down temperatures over the coming days. However, this shift in weather will bring a new hazard: severe thunderstorms that will also impact parts of the U.S. New England region. By the weekend, these thunderstorms will spread across most of eastern North America, pushing the most dangerous peak heat out of the region, though most locations are still expected to see temperatures well above the seasonal average for mid-July.

    This heatwave comes just two weeks after a historic, record-breaking heatwave coincided with the U.S. Fourth of July holiday, causing widespread disruption. Over 165 million Americans across the East Coast and Midwest endured dangerous high temperatures, the July 4 parade in Washington D.C. was canceled due to health risks, and official reports attribute at least 44 deaths across the country to that earlier heat event.

    Climate experts emphasize that the increasing frequency of back-to-back extreme heatwaves is a direct consequence of human-caused climate change. Since the start of the industrial era, the global average temperature has already risen approximately 1.1 degrees Celsius, and scientists warn that temperatures will continue to climb unless major global economies implement steep, sustained cuts to greenhouse gas emissions.

  • Pogačar powers to 3rd stage victory to demoralize rivals and extend Tour de France lead

    Pogačar powers to 3rd stage victory to demoralize rivals and extend Tour de France lead

    In a dominant display of climbing prowess that further cemented his status as the overwhelming favorite to claim this year’s yellow jersey, Slovenian cycling star Tadej Pogačar notched up his 24th career Tour de France stage victory on Tuesday, outperforming all of his top rivals to extend his overall general classification lead at the 2025 edition of the race.

    The race traveled through the mountainous terrain of the French Alps on Tuesday, with the 10th stage culminating in a grueling test of endurance centered on the Col de Pertus, the second-to-last major climb of the day. Pogačar, who had already shaken the confidence of his closest competitors with a sensational win on the iconic Col du Tourmalet just four days prior, launched a decisive attacking break more than 900 meters out from the Col de Pertus summit.

    Jonas Vingegaard, Pogačar’s nearest rival in the overall standings, was unable to match the Slovenian’s explosive acceleration. Pogačar quickly closed the gap to early breakaway leader Richard Carapaz, surging past the Ecuadorian rider just 200 meters shy of the summit and holding his pace all the way to the finish line. Carapaz crossed the summit 5 seconds behind Pogačar, while Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel, Florian Lipowitz, Juan Ayuso and Paul Seixas all finished 18 seconds adrift of Pogačar at the top of the climb.

    When the riders crossed the stage finish line, Pogačar held a 32-second advantage over second-place Evenepoel. Tuesday’s win marked Pogačar’s third stage victory at this year’s Tour de France, his third Bastille Day stage win on France’s national holiday, and the 24th Tour de France stage win of his already legendary career. Local favorite Paul Seixas, the top hope for French cycling fans, rounded out the top three, finishing 34 seconds behind Pogačar.

    Vingegaard, the 2022 and 2023 Tour champion, crossed the line 44 seconds slower than Pogačar on the day. That result pushed Pogačar’s overall lead after 10 stages out to an unassailable 3 minutes and 36 seconds over his Danish rival. For the four-time Tour champion, this gap marks the largest overall lead he has ever held at this point in any edition of the race, underscoring his near-perfect form so far in 2025.

  • Several found dead in lift shaft after fire in central Brussels building

    Several found dead in lift shaft after fire in central Brussels building

    A devastating fire broke out on Tuesday at an under-construction high-rise development in central Brussels, claiming multiple lives and triggering an urgent, challenging search mission for at least six missing people, local authorities confirmed this week.

    The blaze erupted at the Oxy Tower, a mixed-use development project located just 500 meters from Brussels’ iconic central Grand Place, which is set to open with residential apartments, a hotel, and multiple food and beverage venues once completed. While emergency responders managed to extinguish the fire relatively quickly, post-blaze assessments revealed the fire had spread through the site’s lift shafts, leaving two construction elevators trapped mid-shift by debris and structural damage.

    Brecht Speybrouck, spokesperson for the Brussels Labour Prosecutor’s Office, told reporters that first responders managed to pry open one of the stuck elevators, and discovered multiple fatalities inside. As of the latest updates, the exact number of victims remains unconfirmed, with investigators warning that the six reported missing people could be among those recovered, or additional victims may remain trapped in the second stuck elevator or other parts of the damaged construction site.

    “Due to heavy debris scattered throughout the lift shafts and the compromised structure of the building, working conditions for search and recovery teams are extremely difficult,” Speybrouck noted in an update, adding that full recovery operations are expected to extend over several additional hours. Investigators have not yet determined what caused the fire, and a full official investigation is now underway.

    As the operation continued, two injured workers with severe burns have already been transported to local hospitals for urgent care, while one firefighter received on-site medical treatment after suffering from heat exposure during the response. Brussels Mayor Philippe Close publicly praised the work of emergency responders, noting they had “done an exceptional job” operating under “particularly difficult circumstances.”

    By the afternoon, Belgium’s senior political and royal leadership arrived at the scene to oversee the response and meet with first responders, according to Belgian public broadcaster RTBF. Prime Minister Bart De Wever and King Philippe of the Belgians joined local officials on site to receive briefings on the fire and ongoing search efforts.

    Local residents and construction industry groups have already called for a full safety review of active construction sites across the Brussels region, as investigators work to piece together what led to the deadly blaze and identify all of the victims.

  • ‘Explosive diarrhoea’ outbreak remains a mystery as officials struggle to find sources

    ‘Explosive diarrhoea’ outbreak remains a mystery as officials struggle to find sources

    A summer outbreak of cyclosporiasis, a parasitic infection spread via contaminated food and water, has spread across 31 U.S. states and sickened more than 3,000 people, leaving public health experts scrambling to identify its source and slow transmission amid unique investigative challenges and strained public health resources.

    The illness, which is rarely fatal, is defined by its primary symptom: severe, watery diarrhea that strikes abruptly. As of current reports, Michigan has borne the brunt of the outbreak with more than 2,600 confirmed cases, followed by New York State with a smaller but still significant caseload. Despite weeks of investigation, health officials have not yet pinpointed the original contaminated source of the parasite, and have only issued general guidance to the public: thoroughly wash all produce, avoid certain high-risk fruits including raspberries, and cook vegetables thoroughly to destroy the pathogen.

    Public health investigators have described tracing the parasite as an extraordinarily difficult task, compounded by multiple biological and systemic barriers. “This isn’t like detecting a needle in a haystack. It’s like detecting a microscopic portion of a needle in a haystack,” explained Steven Manderach, executive director of the Association of Food and Drug Officials, who previously addressed cyclosporiasis outbreaks as a food safety official in Iowa.

    Biologically, the parasite’s long incubation period creates a major hurdle for investigators. Unlike most foodborne illnesses that cause symptoms within hours of consumption, cyclosporiasis takes one to two weeks to trigger illness in infected people, explained Jodie Guest, senior vice chair of epidemiology at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health. By the time most people seek care and report their illness, they often cannot recall every food they ate in the preceding two weeks, breaking a key link investigators rely on to trace contamination sources.

    Testing for the parasite in food supplies is also far more labor-intensive and complex than testing for other common pathogens. To isolate cyclospora, investigators must wash massive quantities of potentially contaminated produce to collect any parasite particles present, then concentrate the sample before testing can begin. “You’d have to have truckloads of lettuce to get to that point,” Manderach noted. The broad geographic spread of cases, spanning 31 states, also suggests multiple contamination points in the national food supply, a factor that further complicates coordinated investigations.

    Many public health experts point to recent federal budget and staffing cuts to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agencies as a critical additional barrier to solving the outbreak. As part of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency cost-cutting initiative, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr has implemented widespread cuts that have reduced capacity for key foodborne illness surveillance programs. Most notably, the Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network (FoodNet)—a federal program that previously tracked cyclospora, salmonella, listeria and other pathogens nationwide—scaled back monitoring last year to only track two pathogens, ending its systematic surveillance for cyclospora.

    In an internal memo to the state of Connecticut obtained by NBC News, the CDC acknowledged that “Funding has not kept pace” with the resources required to run the full FoodNet program. Guest, who previously worked on FoodNet operations, explained that the program previously collected patient data, tested food samples from state labs, and collated information at a national level to speed outbreak investigations. “When we see an outbreak or a cluster or something, we don’t have the data we normally expect to go back to use to help us, and this is one of those consequences,” she said. “You’re starting in the dark.”

    HHS officials have pushed back on criticism, telling the BBC that the CDC continues to collaborate with more than 3,000 local and state health departments to collect cyclospora data through alternative surveillance systems, and that overall health funding for foodborne illness work has “remained stable”. However, state health departments across the country report feeling the impact of reduced federal support. In Colorado, which has recorded 90 cases this year in line with typical annual totals, the state health department confirmed it has received less federal funding and operates with fewer staff assigned to case monitoring. “While our colleagues at the CDC are working hard to support state partners, we have had to adapt to federal changes,” said Hope Shuler, a spokesperson for Colorado’s public health department. The state has continued all core testing, monitoring and data reporting to the CDC despite the cuts, she added.

    Not all experts agree that the post-cut system is failing: Manderach noted that federal food safety agencies have largely maintained previous performance standards despite restructuring that began during the Trump administration, adding that “while yes, I do think there were challenges early on, most of those seem to have resolved.”

    Other public health leaders point to competing priorities that have stretched federal resources thin, including the ongoing deadly Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that has demanded significant attention and funding. This resource strain has shifted more responsibility for foodborne illness outbreak investigations to state governments, explained Nancy Glick of the National Consumers League. “States are doing that now, but they don’t have the resources that the CDC had,” she said.

    Currently, the core investigative work relies on time-consuming interviews with every person who tests positive for cyclospora, asking them to recount every food they consumed in the two weeks before they developed symptoms. Investigators hope to identify a common contaminated product or exposure point that can be pulled from the market to end the outbreak. But experts note that this work requires extensive staffing, a resource many small local health departments simply do not have available. “It is pretty straightforward, but it takes a lot of person power to do it,” said David Weber, a professor of medicine, pediatrics and epidemiology at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

    For American consumers, the ongoing uncertainty has left them to rely on general prevention measures to avoid the uncomfortable illness. “At the moment, the list of things that you need to be concerned about is unfortunately quite long, making it feel really hard to control,” Guest said.

  • France flaunts firepower, unity with allies in huge parade

    France flaunts firepower, unity with allies in huge parade

    On July 14, France hosted the largest national day parade in its history, turning the iconic Champs-Élysées avenue between the Arc de Triomphe and Place de la Concorde into a showcase of collective military power and pan-European solidarity, as the continent accelerates rearmament efforts in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The ceremony, marking the 235th anniversary of the storming of the Bastille that launched the French Revolution, marked the final Bastille Day parade led by sitting President Emmanuel Macron before he leaves office in 2025 after two full consecutive terms, and brought together more than two dozen global heads of state and government alongside thousands of troops from across Europe.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took the role of guest of honor at the event, which came one day after Macron hosted a fresh summit of Ukraine’s international supporting allies, four and a half years into Russia’s ongoing full-scale invasion. Among the other high-profile leaders in attendance were German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who joined Macron in leading joint European efforts to sustain military and political support for Kyiv. This appearance marked one of Starmer’s final foreign engagements early in his new premiership.

    In total, nearly 6,700 military personnel, 98 aircraft, 31 helicopters, and 315 military vehicles took part in the procession, breaking records for the size of the annual Western European parade. Around 500 soldiers from the Coalition of the Willing, the group of mostly European nations backing Ukraine against Russian aggression, marched in the parade, with 25 Ukrainian troops following behind coalition contingents in a deliberate symbolic gesture. For the first time in the event’s history, French aircraft flew over the Champs-Élysées carrying dummy armaments including Scalp cruise missiles, a public demonstration of France’s combat-ready posture. Newly modernized French military equipment, including Griffon and Jaguar armored vehicles and truck-mounted reconnaissance drones, was also displayed to highlight progress on armed forces upgrades in recent years.

    In a poignant nod to European air support for Ukraine, Ukrainian pilots who had completed training in France co-piloted two French Mirage 2000 fighter jets during the aerial flyover. The Mirage 2000 is among the combat aircraft France has transferred to Ukraine to bolster its air defenses against Russian drone and missile strikes. The United Kingdom also sent its largest contingent to the parade in more than 20 years, with soldiers from the Grenadier Guards marching alongside France’s elite Garde Républicaine.

    Tens of thousands of civilian spectators gathered along the parade route, enduring a severe seasonal heatwave after registering for entry via special QR codes to clear tightened security perimeters. The event also carried a somber undercurrent: 2026 marks the 10-year anniversary of the 2016 Nice Bastille Day attack, where a terrorist driver rammed a truck into crowds leaving a fireworks display, killing 86 people and injuring more than 400 others. Macron planned to travel to Nice later the same day to lead a memorial commemoration for the victims.

    Senior French officials framed the parade as a clear statement of European unity in the face of mounting security threats. “What is marching past is a Europe united and determined to support Ukraine in the face of Russia — a Europe confident in itself,” French Deputy Defence Minister Alice Rufo told broadcaster RTL radio. Chief of the Defence Staff General Fabien Mandon described the event on social media platform X as “a physical embodiment of the strategic solidarity between our countries.” Mandon, who sparked public controversy last year for stating France must prepare to “accept losing its children” in a potential future conflict with Russia, has repeatedly warned that European nations must build up their defensive capabilities to counter Russian aggression.

    Macron, who has made European strategic autonomy and reduced reliance on the United States a central plank of his foreign policy, doubled down on this stance in remarks ahead of the parade. On Monday, he stated that Europe was prepared to fight to defend its freedom, even if that requires European troops to sacrifice their lives. “Yes, we cherish freedom and the rule of law. And yes, we stand ready to fight to defend them. Always, and at the cost of blood if necessary,” Macron said.

    Zelenskyy welcomed his country’s inclusion in the historic parade, saying it represented “a sign of respect and recognition of the strength of Ukraine, our people, and our armed forces.”

    The event closes out a tenure for Macron that has seen consistent increases to French defense spending and deeper defense cooperation with European allies. Notably, the 2017 Bastille Day parade, early in Macron’s first term, famously hosted then-US President Donald Trump for his first major state visit to Europe. A decade later, with Trump back in office and widely viewed as an unpredictable ally on security issues, European leaders have moved to accelerate their own defense integration and rearmament. After the parade, Parisians and visitors were set to gather on the Champs-Élysées in the evening to watch the World Cup semi-final match between France and Spain.

  • Hundreds protest in Maine over the fatal shooting of a Colombian man by ICE

    Hundreds protest in Maine over the fatal shooting of a Colombian man by ICE

    BIDDEFORD, Maine — Hundreds of demonstrators gathered across southern Maine on Tuesday to denounce the fatal shooting of 26-year-old Colombian national Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, an incident that has sparked national outrage over conflicting official accounts of the deadly encounter and growing scrutiny of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement agenda.

    The shooting unfolded Monday as ICE agents carried out surveillance on a Biddeford residence connected to an individual facing a final deportation order for unlawful presence in the United States. Initial public accounts from federal officials have already shifted, creating confusion around the circumstances of Durán Guerrero’s death. In a post on the social platform X, the Department of Homeland Security claimed the ICE officer opened fire after the vehicle Durán Guerrero was driving attempted to flee the stop, saying the agent acted “fearing for public safety.”

    This account contradicts an earlier description shared by Maine Senator Angus King, who said Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin told him the officer fired after Durán Guerrero attempted to use his vehicle as a weapon against agents. King also confirmed that agents were not serving an arrest warrant for Durán Guerrero at the time of the encounter, raising additional questions about why the 26-year-old was targeted.

    The Colombian Embassy formally confirmed Durán Guerrero’s identity to the Associated Press, and outgoing Colombian President Gustavo Petro — who has had repeated public clashes with President Donald Trump — issued a scathing rebuke of the shooting on X. Petro called the incident a deliberate targeted killing “at the hands of the U.S. government,” accused ICE agents of treating Durán Guerrero as “an inferior being without rights,” and called on the Trump administration to release a full public explanation for the shooting.

    Outrage over the killing quickly spread across Maine, with hundreds of protesters assembling outside the ICE detention center in Scarborough, a coastal community between Biddeford and Portland. Demonstrators carried signs reading “Stop the murder” and “End this terror,” with event organizer Todd Chretien telling the crowd, “These people are killers and they must leave our state now.”

    The shooting marks the second fatal use of force by ICE in just one week, and the ninth deadly incident tied to the agency since Trump launched his administration-wide immigration crackdown. Compounding growing calls for transparency, the officers involved in the Biddeford shooting were not wearing body cameras, leaving key details of the encounter unaccounted for. Key unanswered questions include how close the officer was to the vehicle when shots were fired, whether agents ordered Durán Guerrero to stop before opening fire, and what specific threat to public safety ICE claims the driver posed. In a brief statement, an ICE spokesperson declined to disclose details of agency tactics, saying only, “We are always evaluating our procedures to keep our officers safe and criminals off our streets.”

    Maine’s senior Republican Senator Susan Collins confirmed that the DHS Office of Inspector General is leading the investigation in partnership with the FBI. The Maine Attorney General’s office, which is also cooperating with federal investigators, said initial statements indicate Durán Guerrero was attempting to flee toward the shooting officer when shots were fired. The unnamed officer has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the probe, and photos of the vehicle show multiple bullet holes in the front windshield.

    Security camera footage from a nearby local business obtained by the AP shows Durán Guerrero’s white car slowly approaching a nearby intersection before circling the area multiple times. A law enforcement SUV blocks the vehicle’s path, after which two officers pull open the driver’s side door and drag out a limp body. The timing of the gunfire is not visible in the clip. Daniel Boucher, a nearby resident who heard the gunshots and ran to the scene, said he saw Durán Guerrero bleeding from the face and head, and clearly heard the victim say, “I tried to stop.” Boucher also recalled the shooting officer telling him, “He tried to run me over,” shortly after the incident.

    Community members who knew Durán Guerrero described him as a friendly, regular presence in the Biddeford neighborhood, where he lived with his wife and young daughter. Two advocacy groups, the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition and Presente!, say Durán Guerrero held valid work authorization to live and work in the United States. Neighbors noted he rarely spoke with locals due to limited English proficiency, but was a familiar sight around the area. Sadie Dilboy, co-owner of a local laundromat that Durán Guerrero visited often, said he frequently came to the business with his young daughter, who he would give quarters to buy candy. “Everyone knows him,” Dilboy said. Claudia Morton, a nearby neighbor who often waved to Durán Guerrero, described herself as distraught over the killing, saying Tuesday, “The whole world should be crying.”

    Just one week before the Maine shooting, another ICE officer fatally shot 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston as he drove to a construction job site, following a pursuit by federal agents in unmarked vehicles. The back-to-back shootings come as the Trump administration ramps up its mass deportation agenda: ICE data shows the agency arrested more than 10,000 people over just five days at the end of June, a sharp surge in enforcement that signals an expansion of crackdown efforts after the administration shifted away from targeted city-wide raids. This is not the first time the administration’s enforcement policies have faced widespread condemnation: last winter, two killings in Minnesota — that of Alex Pretti and Renee Good — sparked national outcry over aggressive deportation tactics.

    Reporting for this story was contributed by Astrid Suarez in Bogota, Colombia, Rebecca Santana in Washington, D.C., and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, with original reporting from AP correspondents in New Orleans and New York.

  • Watch: Maine residents protest latest ICE shooting

    Watch: Maine residents protest latest ICE shooting

    Hundreds of Maine residents have taken to the streets of Biddeford to voice their outrage over the fatal shooting of a Colombian national by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent during a recent immigration enforcement operation in the southern Maine town. The incident, which unfolded this week, has ignited fresh tensions over federal immigration tactics and sparked widespread calls for transparency from community members and activist groups across the state.

    Protesters gathered at the site of the operation holding signs calling for greater accountability for ICE personnel and an independent investigation into the circumstances of the shooting. Many attendees shared concerns about the use of lethal force during routine immigration actions, highlighting long-simmering frustrations over aggressive enforcement practices in small, tight-knit New England communities. Speakers at the rally also emphasized the need for immigrant communities to feel safe in their homes, noting that the shooting has left many local immigrant residents fearing for their own security.

    Local law enforcement agencies have confirmed that the ICE agent opened fire during the operation, though few additional details about what led to the shooting have been released to the public as of yet. ICE officials have not yet commented on the identity of the individual or the specific actions that preceded the shooting, a lack of information that has only amplified community anger and demands for a full public accounting. Advocacy groups that support immigrant rights have already organized follow-up community meetings to discuss next steps, including pushing state lawmakers to review local agreements that govern collaboration between local police and federal immigration authorities.

  • An experimental Alzheimer’s drug shows promise targeting a different brain protein, new study shows

    An experimental Alzheimer’s drug shows promise targeting a different brain protein, new study shows

    LONDON – Researchers unveiled groundbreaking new findings Tuesday at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference, revealing that an experimental drug from Biogen offers a novel path to slow early-stage Alzheimer’s disease by targeting a destructive brain protein long considered difficult to treat. Unlike today’s approved therapies that focus on clearing a different toxic protein linked to the condition, this new candidate works by reducing the production of tau, a protein that forms deadly tangles in neurons and drives cognitive decline.

    Alzheimer’s, the leading cause of dementia worldwide, impacts more than 7 million people in the United States alone and tens of millions globally. For years, the majority of approved treatments have centered on clearing amyloid, a sticky protein that forms plaques in the brain up to two decades before symptoms emerge. While the two currently approved drugs, lecanemab and donanemab, can modestly slow cognitive decline by removing amyloid buildup, scientists have long recognized that amyloid alone does not cause Alzheimer’s. The dominant scientific model holds that amyloid accumulation ultimately triggers abnormal tau to clump into tangles that kill brain cells, making tau a critical yet underexploited target for new therapies. Prior attempts to develop tau-targeting drugs have repeatedly failed, leaving a critical gap in treatment development.

    Biogen’s new candidate, diranersen, works through a fundamentally different mechanism than existing amyloid-focused drugs. Classified as an antisense oligonucleotide, the drug does not attack existing tau buildup; instead, it instructs the gene that produces tau to generate less of the protein. “If you lower tau production, you are lowering the amount of the abnormal tau that needs to be cleared by the microglia, by the clearance mechanism in the brain. And so you are enabling the normal clearance mechanism to have more capacity to clear the tau,” explained Dr. Cath Mummery of University College London, who led the phase 2 study of the drug. Unlike approved amyloid drugs that are delivered via intravenous infusions or injections into the bloodstream, diranersen is administered via injection into the fluid surrounding the spinal cord, providing a more direct route to brain tissue.

    The phase 2 trial enrolled roughly 400 patients with mild cognitive impairment or early-stage Alzheimer’s, who were randomly assigned to receive varying doses of diranersen or a placebo. In an unexpected finding announced earlier this year by Biogen and its development partner Ionis Pharmaceuticals, the lowest dose – given just twice per year – produced the strongest effect, meaning the study did not meet its pre-planned endpoint of demonstrating greater benefit from higher doses. Despite this miss, new data presented this week shows encouraging signs of cognitive benefit: five out of six cognitive tests showed that patients receiving diranersen still experienced cognitive decline, but at a markedly slower rate than patients given a placebo. For the lowest dose group, the decline rate slowed by 26% – a reduction comparable to the benefits seen in clinical trials of approved amyloid drugs.

    Notably, side effects reported in the trial were mild, including injection site pain and temporary confusion that resolved within roughly a week of treatment. Crucially, researchers observed no cases of brain swelling or inflammation, a common and potentially dangerous side effect linked to amyloid-targeting drugs.

    Independent researchers not involved with the Biogen study called the results a promising step forward for the field. “This is really quite promising if it were to hold up” in larger-scale confirmatory testing, said Jessica Langbaum of the Banner Alzheimer’s Institute in Phoenix. While Dr. Reisa Sperling of Mass General Brigham emphasized that the results are still early, she noted that the findings “will reinvigorate interest and investment in lots of tau mechanisms, and the field needs that.” Biogen has confirmed it plans to launch a large-scale phase 3 trial to confirm the drug’s clinical benefit.

    Diranersen is just one of multiple innovative new approaches to Alzheimer’s treatment presented at the conference, reflecting a growing shift in the field toward targeting tau and exploring combination therapies. Last week, the University of California, San Francisco launched the first-of-its-kind Alzheimer’s Tau Platform, a National Institutes of Health-funded study that will test multiple experimental anti-tau therapies, both alone and in combination with approved amyloid treatments. The first candidate to be tested through the platform is AADvac1, a tau vaccine designed to train the body’s immune system to recognize and attack abnormal tau. The platform will expand to sites across the U.S. and will even include patients who have tau and amyloid buildup but have not yet developed cognitive symptoms, allowing researchers to test the potential of early intervention.

    Other researchers are exploring repurposing existing drug candidates for Alzheimer’s prevention. Scientists reported that obicetrapib, an experimental cholesterol-lowering drug, may hold promise for reducing Alzheimer’s protein buildup in people with a genetic risk for the disease. The APOE4 gene, the strongest known genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer’s, also impacts how the body processes cholesterol, leading researchers to hypothesize that cholesterol-lowering drugs could mitigate this elevated risk. NewAmsterdam Pharma, the developer of obicetrapib, plans to launch a clinical trial soon to test this hypothesis in carriers of one or two copies of the APOE4 gene.

    Companies are also advancing new technologies to overcome one of the biggest barriers to Alzheimer’s drug development: penetrating the blood-brain barrier, a protective lining that blocks most large molecules from entering brain tissue. Denali Therapeutics is developing technology that “hitches a ride” on iron, a molecule that naturally crosses the blood-brain barrier, to deliver both anti-tau and anti-amyloid drugs to the brain in higher concentrations.

    The new wave of tau-focused research comes as the field continues to search for more effective treatments for a disease that is projected to see a sharp rise in cases globally as populations age. While diranersen still requires years of additional testing before it could win regulatory approval, researchers say its early success has already re-energized work on a long-overlooked target that could be key to slowing or stopping Alzheimer’s progression.

    This reporting was supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, with the Associated Press taking sole responsibility for all content.