Global Pulse

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  • Origin Energy forced to repay thousands over misleading electricity saver plan

    Origin Energy forced to repay thousands over misleading electricity saver plan

    A major Australian energy retailer is set to issue hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation after Australia’s competition regulator confirmed the company overcharged thousands of households on a misleadingly marketed plan. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has ordered Origin Energy to refund a total of $270,000 to 4,500 residential customers who were incorrectly billed on the provider’s so-called “ongoing savers” plan.

    The investigation into Origin’s pricing practices launched after consumer advocacy group Choice submitted formal complaints, raising alarms that energy suppliers across the country were using confusing, misleading plan names to falsely advertise cost savings to households. ACCC Commissioner Anna Brakey explained that many customers who signed up for the “ongoing savers” plan ultimately ended up paying higher rates than customers on Origin’s basic, no-frills plan, directly contradicting the value promised by the plan’s branding.

    “Energy plans are inherently complex, with layered usage and supply charges that make it challenging for the average consumer to accurately compare potential savings across offerings,” Brakey noted. “It is the core responsibility of retailers to deliver clear, accurate information about their plans so consumers can make fully informed choices that fit their household budgets.”

    Under the remediation order, each affected household will receive an average refund of approximately $60, though impacted customers have the option to apply the amount as a credit to their future energy bills instead of claiming a cash refund. In an official statement following the regulator’s announcement, Origin Energy acknowledged the error and apologized to the affected customers, who make up just 0.5% of all customers enrolled in the “ongoing savers” plan. The company added that the average overcharge per affected household sat at roughly $28, and that it has already implemented internal pricing adjustments to prevent a repeat of the error, with refund disbursements currently underway.

    Beyond the Origin Energy case, the ACCC used the announcement to issue a broader warning to all Australian energy consumers: long-term loyalty to a single provider rarely benefits the customer, and instead pads the bottom lines of energy companies. The watchdog urged all households to proactively shop around for cheaper energy plans, noting that consumers can request a better rate directly from their current provider. Under Australian regulations, retailers are legally required to disclose how a customer’s existing plan pricing stacks up against the national regulated price safety net.

    Brakey encouraged consumers to take advantage of free, government-run energy comparison tools to find plans aligned with their specific usage needs, adding that the gap between the cheapest and most expensive energy plans on the market remains substantial, leaving hundreds of dollars in potential annual savings on the table for inactive customers.

  • Israel blocks Red Cross access to Palestinian prisoners despite court ruling

    Israel blocks Red Cross access to Palestinian prisoners despite court ruling

    In a direct challenge to a recent Israeli High Court of Justice ruling that deemed a prior access ban unlawful, Israeli authorities have implemented sweeping new restrictions that effectively expand a blanket ban on International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) access to Palestinian captives held in Israeli prisons.

    Last week, Israel Prison Service (IPS) Commissioner Kobi Yaakobi formalized the new sweeping regulations, which impose far-reaching limits on the humanitarian organization’s ability to carry out routine visits to detained Palestinians. Under the updated rules, Red Cross representatives are barred entirely from visiting multiple categories of Palestinian captives under any circumstances. This total ban applies to detainees the IPS labels as “highly violent”, as well as those held in solitary confinement and prisoners currently undergoing interrogation.

    For the remaining detainees who are not subject to a total ban, visits are capped at just 30 minutes per meeting, and prison commanders retain full authority to cut humanitarian visits short at their own discretion without formal oversight. Additional constraints further restrict access: the Red Cross is only permitted to conduct one round of visits per quarter, and the organization is required to submit a pre-approved list of no more than five captives it intends to meet with ahead of any visit.

    This latest policy shift directly defies a High Court order issued last month, which compelled the Israeli state to restore Red Cross access to Palestinian captives after an initial blanket ban was introduced immediately following the October 7, 2023 attacks in southern Israel. In a brief official statement defending the new measures, the IPS asserted that “The agency operates in accordance with the law. If any allegation is raised, it should be addressed through the appropriate channels.”

    The new restrictions come just weeks after a parliamentary bill that would have formally codified a total ban on Red Cross visits failed to pass in the Israeli Knesset, falling in a 36-41 vote. The bill failed after ultra-Orthodox Haredi coalition parties boycotted the vote in protest over the ruling government’s failure to advance legislation key to their own policy agenda, in a move unrelated to the Red Cross access debate.

    This report was originally published by Middle East Eye, an outlet that provides independent, on-the-ground coverage and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and surrounding regions.

  • ‘Hero, legend, sweetheart’: Tributes to Jurassic Park actor Sam Neill, who has died aged 78

    ‘Hero, legend, sweetheart’: Tributes to Jurassic Park actor Sam Neill, who has died aged 78

    The global entertainment community is mourning the sudden, unexpected passing of beloved New Zealand actor Sir Sam Neill, who died at the age of 78 in Sydney, Australia. His family confirmed the news in an official public statement, noting that Neill died peacefully surrounded by loved ones, carrying the quiet dignity that defined his decades-long public and private life.

    Neill first revealed a diagnosis of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of blood cancer, in 2023, when he announced he had begun ongoing monthly chemotherapy after the disease went into remission. Just three months prior to his death, in April 2026, Neill shared that a full-body scan showed no remaining cancer cells in his body, a status his family confirmed he maintained up until his sudden passing. In a statement released after his death, Neill’s family thanked medical staff who cared for him, and requested privacy as they grieve their immeasurable loss, noting that additional funeral details will be shared at a later date.

    Born Nigel John Dermot Neill in Omagh, Northern Ireland in 1947, Neill moved to New Zealand with his family as a young child. He adopted the stage name Sam at the age of 12 to avoid confusion with multiple other students named Nigel at his secondary school, and cut his acting teeth while studying at the University of Canterbury. He made his feature film debut in 1971’s *The City of No*, and earned his first international recognition for his leading role in 1977’s *Sleeping Dogs*—one of the first New Zealand films to secure wide global distribution. He relocated to Australia shortly after, where his star turn in 1979’s *My Brilliant Career* cemented his status as a rising leading man.

    Neill’s rise to global superstardom came in 1993, when he starred in two career-defining roles: the romantic lead in Jane Campion’s Oscar-winning drama *The Piano*, and the sharp, quick-witted palaeontologist Dr. Alan Grant in Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster cultural phenomenon *Jurassic Park*. He would go on to reprise the role of Dr. Grant in 2001’s *Jurassic Park III* and 2022’s *Jurassic World Dominion*, and even voiced the character for three *Jurassic Park* franchise video games. Beyond his iconic film roles, Neill earned widespread acclaim for his television work, most notably his portrayal of the corrupt, brutal Major Chester Campbell in the first two seasons of the hit BBC drama *Peaky Blinders*. Over a career that spanned more than 55 years, Neill accumulated more than 150 screen credits, with additional standout roles in *Dead Calm*, *The Hunt for Red October*, and *Event Horizon*. His final on-screen performances came in 2025, in the feature film *The Fox* and the Netflix series *Untamed*. Two posthumous releases, *Godzilla x Kong: Supernova* and *The Last Resort*, are scheduled to hit theaters in 2027.

    Honored for his contributions to the arts throughout his lifetime, Neill was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1991, named a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2007, and accepted a knighthood in 2022 after changes to New Zealand’s honors system allowed recipients to accept titular distinctions. After his cancer diagnosis in 2023, Neill released a memoir titled *Did I Ever Tell You This?*, where he opened up about his treatment and his perspective on mortality. In an interview with the BBC that year, he shared: “I’m not afraid of dying. What I don’t want to do is to stop living, because I really enjoy living. I’ve regarded it as an adventure, quite a dark adventure, but an adventure nevertheless.”

    Following the announcement of his death, tributes poured in from across the globe from political leaders, co-stars, and entertainment figures. New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon called Neill “one of the greats,” noting that for more than half a century, Neill brought New Zealand stories to global audiences and helped grow the country’s film industry into one of its most celebrated cultural exports. Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern remembered Neill as “such a thoughtful, curious, and decent person,” adding that “we’ve lost another incredible kiwi, and I feel profoundly sad.” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wrote on X that Neill “starred in so many beloved Australian stories and he earned a special place in Australian hearts.”

    Longtime co-stars and collaborators also shared heartfelt remembrances. Laura Dern, who starred opposite Neill as Ellie Sattler in all three of his *Jurassic Park* franchise appearances, called him “my beloved lifetime friend,” writing: “He showed me the depths of loyalty, protectiveness and love always with the driest of wit. He was a true and noble gentleman, wrapped up in my dream leading man. I will love you forever, Dr Alan Grant.” Australian acting icon Toni Collette wrote: “I love you, dear Sam. You hero. You legend. You sweetheart. Our great friend. You are already missed so very much.” British actor Richard E. Grant, who counted Neill as a friend for 30 years, shared that Neill supported him through an incredibly difficult personal period, calling him “an officer and a gentleman in the truest sense.” *Jurassic World Dominion* director Colin Trevorrow remembered Neill as “a deeply soulful and beautiful man,” writing: “He was a friend and collaborator at a challenging time, and his strength gave us all strength. I’ll remember him for his tranquillity, his love of wine, and for the calm assuredness he brought to his characters. It’s not every lifetime you get to befriend a legend.” Global pop superstar Kylie Minogue paid her respects with the message “Vale [goodbye] Sam” paired with a broken heart emoji, while *Peaky Blinders* co-star Joe Cole simply posted “Rest in peace big dog.” Daisy Ridley, who will appear alongside Neill in the upcoming 2027 release *The Last Resort*, shared a personal photo of the pair to her Instagram story with three broken heart emojis.

    Sir Sam Neill is survived by his four children and eight grandchildren.

  • Indian activist on hunger strike at ‘cockroach’ protest loses 8.2kg

    Indian activist on hunger strike at ‘cockroach’ protest loses 8.2kg

    In the heart of India’s capital New Delhi, at the historic Jantar Mantar protest ground, 59-year-old Sonam Wangchuk – an award-winning educationist, climate innovator and revered public figure – has entered the 16th day of an indefinite hunger strike, his resolve unshaken even as his health deteriorates to alarming levels.

    Wangchuk, who traces his protest philosophy to Mahatma Gandhi’s principles of nonviolent resistance, told the BBC on Monday: “I’m weak from the outside, but I’m strong from inside.” A Monday morning health bulletin confirms the activist has lost 8.2 kilograms (18 pounds) since beginning his fast, with his blood pressure registering at 107/70 and blood sugar dropping to a dangerously low 67. Thousands of supporters across the country have pleaded with him to end his fast, but Wangchuk says he will see his protest through to its conclusion: “I have to take what I’ve begun to its logical conclusion.”

    The hunger strike is part of a broader protest organized by the online satirical activist group Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), which is demanding sweeping accountability and reform in India’s education sector. The movement’s immediate demand is the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, following the cancellation of a major national medical entrance exam in early May after a widespread paper leak scandal. Protesters argue Pradhan must accept moral responsibility for the systemic failure that led to the leak. The minister has rejected the call, dismissing CJP and its allies as “the B-team of disruptive elements” who oppose the country’s progress.

    A native of the remote Himalayan region of Ladakh, Wangchuk is far more than a protest figure. A trained mechanical engineer, he has earned international acclaim for his work in both education innovation and climate adaptation. His most famous invention, the ice stupa – an artificial cone-shaped glacier modeled after Buddhist religious structures – stores glacial meltwater during winter and releases it in late spring, when mountain communities and farmers face critical water shortages. The innovation has transformed water access for Ladakhi communities, earning Wangchuk the 2018 Ramon Magsaysay Award, widely recognized as Asia’s highest honor. He also gained nationwide fame as the inspiration for the lead character in Aamir Khan’s 2009 Bollywood blockbuster *Three Idiots*, and has been a household name across India for decades. This is not his first run-in with authorities: last October, he was arrested on charges of inciting unrest, which he denied. He spent 170 days in detention before authorities dropped all charges and released him.

    Even amid soaring Delhi summer temperatures that hit 38 degrees Celsius on Monday, with a “real feel” of 46 degrees, hundreds of supporters have maintained a continuous vigil at Jantar Mantar to stand in solidarity with Wangchuk and the CJP’s demands. CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke, who has led the movement from its start, says organizers are gravely concerned about Wangchuk’s declining condition. “Today is the 16th day of his hunger strike and his blood sugar level and blood pressure have dropped and whenever he tries to sit or stand, he feels very dizzy,” Dipke told the BBC. “He’s finding it difficult to even walk to the washroom. He’s really struggling. He’s in a lot of pain but whenever I try to tell him to end his hunger strike, he scolds me and says that ‘don’t you worry about me’.”

    Medical teams have warned Wangchuk that continuing the fast poses severe risks to his life, and Dipke says he receives thousands of messages daily from people urging him to convince the activist to end his fast. Even fellow protesters and supporters are increasingly calling on Wangchuk to stop. Animesh Sahu, a 29-year-old engineer from Hyderabad who traveled to Delhi to join the vigil, said: “I’ve grown up watching his videos and I have an emotional connect with him. I’m feeling very concerned about his health. The government must pay attention to him.” Satyaprakash Bharadwaj, a farmer who joined the protest, called Wangchuk “a diamond” sacrificing himself for India’s younger generation: “I’m praying that he will call off his hunger strike. He can fight for our children only when he’s strong.”

    Prominent educationist Professor Nandita Narain echoed those concerns, saying it is tragic that a figure of Wangchuk’s standing has to resort to extreme hunger strike to force government action. “It’s very sad that someone like Wangchuk, who has made such outstanding contribution to public life has to resort to a hunger strike to get the government to act,” she said. “I would also appeal to Wangchuk to end his fast because his life is in danger. We have a battle to fight which will go on for much longer. We need a sustained protest and the movement has to be sustained. It’s important that he lives to fight the battle.”

    Since Wangchuk began his fast, dozens of opposition lawmakers, prominent activists and social media influencers have visited the protest site to express support. But Dipke says no representatives from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have reached out or agreed to enter dialogue over the protesters’ demands. “I don’t know why the government is so dismissive of the citizens of this country. We have been simply asking for accountability,” Dipke said. “We are not saying make us or Sonam Wangchuk the education minister. All we are asking for is to fix accountability and to change the person who has failed to conduct exams properly as an education minister.”

    With no government response forthcoming, protesters have announced their next step: a mass march to India’s Parliament on July 20, when the next monsoon session of the legislature is set to begin. “We have been sitting here for the last 24 days and Sonam sir has been on hunger strike for 16 days. Despite that, the government has not intervened, they have not even initiated a dialogue with us,” Dipke said. “So we thought maybe it’s time to go to the government, go to the parliament of India and keep our demands there.”

  • Ex-Canada MP arrested after police seize 439 guns and antique cannon from his home

    Ex-Canada MP arrested after police seize 439 guns and antique cannon from his home

    A former long-serving Canadian Member of Parliament and small-town mayor is facing a dozen criminal charges after Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) investigators seized nearly 450 firearms, an antique cannon, and more than C$300,000 in cash from his rural Manitoba property.

    The 78-year-old Inky Mark, who represented the Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa region at both municipal and federal levels for more than 15 years, was taken into custody on July 7 during a search warrant execution as part of an ongoing cross-border firearms trafficking probe. Authorities confirmed Tuesday that investigators recovered 439 firearms from Mark’s home near Dauphin, with at least three confirmed to be tied to illegal trafficking. One weapon was also found to have its serial number intentionally altered, a key red flag for illegal gun circulation.

    Mark faces multiple charges including formal firearms trafficking, possession of unauthorized firearms-related devices, and unsafe storage of weapons. RCMP officials have emphasized that the illicit activities uncovered in the raid pose a direct threat to public safety across the region.

    The investigation traces back to March of this year, when RCMP received notice of pending firearms charges filed in the United States against a separate man from the Dauphin area. Follow-up inquiries connected that case to Mark, leading investigators to the cache of weapons that police say were never processed through legal transfer channels. Alongside the hundreds of guns, officers also found an antique cannon and the C$300,000 in cash (equivalent to roughly £158,000).

    While Mark has a documented history as a firearms collector, investigators have not yet confirmed a clear motive for the alleged trafficking activity. Manitoba RCMP Corporal Barry Kirby told reporters Monday: “We know he’s a firearm collector, but that’s really all that we know at this stage.”

    RCMP Assistant Commissioner Scott McMurchy, commanding officer for the Manitoba division, released a formal statement on the case stressing the severity of the charges. “The illegal trafficking of prohibited weapons is a serious offence that threatens public safety,” McMurchy said. “We thank the many RCMP officers who are working on this case for their tireless efforts in targeting individuals who are trafficking these dangerous and illegal weapons and bringing them to justice.”

    Officials noted that processing and cataloging the hundreds of seized items will take investigators several additional weeks, as they work to sort legally held property from illegally possessed firearms and confirm the full scope of the alleged trafficking network.

    Following his initial court appearance last week, Mark was released from custody on a series of undiclosed conditions. A veteran of Canadian federal politics, Mark was first elected mayor of Dauphin in 1994, holding that municipal seat until he lost re-election in 2010. He moved to federal politics in 1997, representing his rural Manitoba constituency until stepping down from the House of Commons in 2010. Over his political career, he was a member of the Reform Party of Canada, the Canadian Alliance, and the Conservative Party of Canada, before running unsuccessfully for re-election as an independent candidate in 2015.

    The arrest comes amid an ongoing national debate over gun policy in Canada. While Manitoba is bound by Canada’s strict federal gun control regulations, the provincial government has openly pushed back against additional federal firearms restrictions, and recreational shooting has long held deep cultural roots in rural regions of the province.

  • Calls for boycott of The Odyssey over filming in occupied Western Sahara

    Calls for boycott of The Odyssey over filming in occupied Western Sahara

    As blockbuster director Christopher Nolan prepares to release his highly anticipated new film *The Odyssey* to global audiences this Friday, a growing movement of Sahrawi activists, journalists and filmmakers is demanding a widespread audience boycott, sparked by Nolan’s decision to shoot key scenes in Dakhla, a city located in Morocco-occupied Western Sahara.

    For nearly 50 years, Morocco has maintained military and political control over Western Sahara, a disputed territory where the indigenous Sahrawi population has long campaigned for full self-determination. Activists argue that Nolan’s production choice actively normalizes Morocco’s decades-long occupation, turning a contested, occupied homeland into a scenic backdrop for a Hollywood blockbuster without any acknowledgment of the territory’s fraught political reality.

    Mamine Hachimi, a Sahrawi journalist and documentary filmmaker who is leading the boycott call, emphasized that the campaign is not an attack on artistic expression — it is a demand for ethical accountability from global cultural creators. Hachimi co-directed *Three Stolen Cameras*, a 2017 short documentary that chronicled the risks faced by independent Sahrawi media collective Equipe Media as they documented human rights abuses against local populations under Moroccan rule. The film was pulled from its scheduled Beirut premiere after the Moroccan government applied diplomatic pressure, and multiple Equipe Media members have faced ongoing arrest and harassment from Moroccan authorities.

    Hachimi pointed to the ongoing incarceration of two of his colleagues as evidence of the stark double standard at play: Abdallah Lhafaouni is serving a life sentence, while Bachir Khadda is serving a 20-year sentence, both detained solely for documenting human rights violations in occupied Western Sahara. “It is deeply disturbing that while Sahrawi journalists are imprisoned for exposing abuses, an international film production can use our homeland as a cinematic backdrop without addressing the reality of the occupation,” he said.

    While much of the mainstream public conversation around *The Odyssey* has centered on manufactured controversy stirred up by far-right online trolls targeting lead actor Lupita Nyong’o’s casting as Helen of Troy — a controversy Nolan has dismissed as irrelevant — Sahrawi activists insist this is a distraction from the far more substantive ethical scandal of the film’s production location. They note that the same Moroccan security forces responsible for routine violence and repression against Sahrawi pro-independence campaigners directly facilitated Nolan’s shoot in Dakhla. Moroccan Culture Minister Mohamed Mehdi Bensaid has even publicly embraced the production, posing for selfies with Nolan and saying he hopes the film will raise Dakhla’s profile as a global filming and tourism destination.

    Despite a high-profile open letter from global public figures including Oscar-winner Javier Bardem, legendary filmmaker Pedro Almodovar and climate activist Greta Thunberg calling for all Dakhla-shot scenes to be cut from the final film, Nolan has refused to publicly address the demands. Requests for comment from Universal Pictures and Nolan’s production company Syncopy Inc. have also gone unanswered.

    Mohamedsalem Werad, a Sahrawi documentary filmmaker who gained international acclaim for his work on the life of iconic Sahrawi singer Mariem Hassan, called Nolan’s silence deeply disappointing. “Choosing to film in occupied Western Sahara was not a politically neutral production decision — it meant operating with the permission of the occupying power in a territory where the indigenous Sahrawi people have long been denied the opportunity to exercise their right to self-determination,” he explained. For Werad, a widespread audience boycott is the only clear way to send a message that creators cannot expect viewers to ignore choices that legitimize illegal occupation.

    Another Sahrawi filmmaker, Abidin Mohamed Hamudi, went further, accusing the entire *The Odyssey* production team of complicity in the subjugation of the Sahrawi people. He framed Hollywood’s choice as the most extreme expression of a longstanding pattern: capitalist Western economies exploiting the land and resources of the Global South for profit. “Shame on them — history will put everyone in the place they deserve, and they will be in the dustbin of history, remembered as nothing but cultural parasites,” Hamudi said.

    With a reported $250 million production budget and riding high on the critical and commercial success of Nolan’s Oscar-winning *Oppenheimer*, *The Odyssey* is projected to be one of the summer’s biggest blockbusters, set to draw millions of viewers looking to escape into a mythic world of ancient gods, epic battles and fantasy. But behind the glitz and marketing hype, Sahrawi activists say, lies a stark, underreported reality that both Hollywood and the international community have chosen to ignore for decades.

    The Western Sahara International Film Festival (FiSahara), which is hosted annually in Sahrawi refugee camps in southwestern Algeria — where hundreds of thousands of displaced Sahrawis have lived since being forced from their homeland by Moroccan forces — has emerged as a key organizer of the boycott. FiSahara Executive Director Maria Carron pointed out that Nolan’s crew relied on security support from the same Moroccan military and police forces that routinely target Sahrawi filmmakers and activists just kilometers from the Dakhla filming location. Local resisters face beatings, arbitrary arrest, and confiscation of equipment for simply documenting daily life under occupation, Carron noted. During filming last year, FiSahara and a coalition of Sahrawi creators and activists publicly protested, urging Nolan and Universal to suspend production, leave the territory, and refuse to include Dakhla footage without the explicit consent of the Sahrawi people. Their appeals were rejected.

    “FiSahara calls for a general audience boycott of the film and for Nolan to be held accountable for personally benefiting from an illegal occupation by collaborating with Moroccan authorities to enter and film the territory and then by using images of Western Sahara without the consent of their rightful and legal owners, the Sahrawi people — an act that amounts to plunder,” Carron said.

  • AFP release full list of 62 childcare centres linked to accused Hamish Tait

    AFP release full list of 62 childcare centres linked to accused Hamish Tait

    A former Sydney childcare worker accused of being one of Australia’s worst alleged child predators has been publicly identified after a court rejected his bid to keep his name secret, with police releasing the full list of 62 early education facilities where he worked over a 16-year period of alleged offending.

    Thirty-five-year-old Hamish Tait was already facing dozens of child abuse-related charges when prosecutors added more than 100 new counts last week, bringing his total number of charges to 329. Australian Federal Police (AFP) allege Tait produced child abuse material while employed at childcare centres across North West Sydney between 2009 and 2025. Tait had argued in court for a non-publication order to suppress his identity, but a Sydney judge ruled against his application on Monday, siding with the AFP, prosecutors, and media outlets that all opposed the request for secrecy.

    To date, investigators have connected 136 children across 121 Sydney locations as alleged victims of Tait’s abuse, but law enforcement officials confirm they are still working to identify an additional 22 unaccounted-for victims. Acting Commander Luke Needham of the AFP confirmed that families of already identified victims have already been contacted by investigators. The AFP has now published the full names and locations of all 62 centres Tait worked at during his 16-year career, marking five of those facilities as specific locations where police allege offending directly occurred. These high-risk locations are marked with an asterisk: Fit Kidz Learning Centre Box Hill, Fit Kidz Learning Centre Putney, Fit Kidz Learning Centre Rouse Hill, Fit Kidz Learning Centre Warrawee, and Wild Earthlings Glenorie.

    Beyond offences committed at Australian childcare centres, the AFP further alleges Tait shared child abuse material with recipients overseas on three separate occasions. However, Commander Needham clarified that there is currently no evidence to suggest Tait uploaded any illegal content to the dark web. The vast majority of alleged offences are concentrated in New South Wales, though Needham noted there is also limited evidence of offending in one other Australian state.

    Due to the multi-decade span of the alleged abuse, some of Tait’s victims may now be adults, police said. Commander Needham urged members of the public and communities across Sydney to visit the official AFP website to review information about the case and share any details that could help investigators locate and identify the remaining 22 unknown victims. “There are 22 victims who we are yet to positively identify and that’s why I would point the community to our website … We would ask the community to consider what they might be able to share with the AFP which we hope goes some way in assisting us in identifying those other 22 (alleged) victims,” Needham said.

  • Storm’s finals hopes in tatters with Cameron Munster set for knee surgery

    Storm’s finals hopes in tatters with Cameron Munster set for knee surgery

    For more than a decade, the Melbourne Storm have been a constant presence in the NRL finals, a streak stretching all the way back to 2010, when salary cap penalties wiped their competition points and kept them out of the postseason. Now, that unprecedented run looks all but certain to end after the club confirmed its star playmaker Cameron Munster will miss 4 to 6 weeks of action to undergo knee surgery for a cartilage injury.

    Munster was already a late scratch from the Storm’s Round 19 win against the Gold Coast Titans on Sunday night, and early Tuesday, the club released an official statement confirming the extent of the five-eighth’s injury. “Melbourne Storm can confirm Cameron Munster will undergo surgery on his knee after sustaining a cartilage injury,” the statement read. “Munster will begin his rehabilitation with Storm medical staff and is expected to be sidelined for at least 4-6 weeks.”

    Even in the best-case scenario, Munster would not return to the field until Round 25, when the Storm face the reigning premiers Penrith Panthers. That timeline leaves Melbourne without its most influential playcaller for the bulk of its remaining seven regular season fixtures, a stretch that already looked grueling even with a full-strength squad. Four of Melbourne’s remaining games are against teams currently ranked in the top eight, with three of those opponents sitting in the top four of the competition ladder.

    The injury is the latest devastating setback for a Storm side that has fought through a turbulent 2024 campaign. After dropping seven consecutive matches – the longest losing streak in the club’s modern history – Melbourne clawed its way back into fringe finals contention, entering Round 20 just two wins behind the eighth-placed team on the ladder. The back-to-back beaten grand finalists have already been forced to adjust for long-term season-ending injuries to key players including Eli Katoa, Xavier Coates and Tui Kamikamica, leaving the side with little depth to cover another superstar absence.

    Utility Tyran Wishart, who is set to join the North Queensland Bears next season, is widely expected to slot into the halves for Melbourne’s upcoming Friday night clash against the Sydney Roosters. The shift will still disrupt the Storm’s bench rotation, however, as Wishart has carved out a valuable role as an impact substitute bringing speed through the middle of the park. With Munster sidelined, halfback Jahrome Hughes, the side’s other starting playmaker, will be forced to take on an even greater offensive workload, while star hooker Harry Grant has already carried the club through much of its 2024 struggles. Analysts note even Grant’s elite form can only go so far with so many key starters already ruled out for the year.

    To secure a finals spot, Melbourne will need to win five of its seven remaining matches – a feat that most rugby league pundits now see as nearly impossible without Munster. Should the Storm fall short, it will mark the first time the club has missed the postseason since that 2010 salary cap scandal, closing the book on one of the most dominant eras of consistency in Australian rugby league history.

  • Israeli teen threatened with suspension over call to refuse military service

    Israeli teen threatened with suspension over call to refuse military service

    A wave of grassroots conscientious objection among young Israelis has sparked a disciplinary clash after an 11th-grade student at Ramat Gan’s Ohel Shem High School, a campus just outside Tel Aviv, was summoned for official punishment over distributing leaflets that urge peers to reject mandatory military service over Israel’s documented atrocities in Gaza and ongoing ethnic cleansing in the occupied West Bank. Leading Israeli daily Haaretz first reported the incident, which has pulled back the curtain on deep political tensions around military conscription and free speech within Israeli educational institutions.

    The student was not immediately suspended, but school officials informed her that disciplinary action, including a suspension starting in the upcoming academic year, remains on the table. The teen was one of three young organizers who circulated the leaflets, titled “We Hereby Refuse,” just outside the Ohel Shem High School campus, per the Haaretz report.

    The document directly calls on teens approaching conscription age to sign a pledge committing to refuse enlistment in the Israel Defense Forces, citing widespread war crimes committed by the military in occupied Palestinian territories that have continued since the outbreak of hostilities in October 2023. “We, teenagers slated for conscription in the Israeli Army, hereby refuse to take part in its crimes and to serve the dictatorial government’s interests,” the leaflet reads in part.

    To date, organizers confirm that roughly 130 students have added their signatures to the refusal pledge. The campaign is backed by Mesarvot, an Israeli grassroots organization that provides support to young people who choose to refuse mandatory military service on conscientious and political grounds. The group has long criticized Israel’s education system for normalizing militarism, arguing that schools intentionally embed a pro-military worldview into daily student life from an early age.

    The refusal letter expands on this critique, noting: “The schools prepare us for the army by embedding militaristic discourse. The truth is that the army is not a preordained fate – no one is born a soldier.” It adds that even with a temporary ceasefire in place in Gaza, “genocide, ethnic cleansing, and war crimes continue,” highlighting that Israeli military forces and civilian settlers in the occupied West Bank are actively advancing a state-backed policy of ethnic cleansing. “We refuse to take part in moral wrongdoings,” the statement continues, adding that signatories refuse to “collaborate with a fascist government” and “continue the cycle of bloodshed.”

    During the disciplinary meeting, Ohel Shem principal Israel Vilozny told the student that distributing activism materials focused on education or climate change would have been treated as a far less severe offense, according to the student’s account. The teen’s parents have hit back against the school’s action, accusing administrators of selective enforcement of campus rules and targeting their daughter for political persecution.

    Vilozny has defended his handling of the case, arguing that the student broke campus policies by distributing unauthorized political materials on school grounds. The Ramat Gan municipality, which has oversight over the public high school, has issued a full statement backing the principal’s decision, framing mandatory military service as “a sacred value” at the core of Israeli civic life. While the municipality acknowledged that it supports open political dialogue on campus, it maintains that all political materials require advance approval from school leadership before they can be distributed.

    In a controversial comparison, the municipality drew a parallel between the anti-conscription leaflets and the spread of racist ideology by followers of the extremist Kahanist movement, a far-right Jewish nationalist faction classified as a terrorist organization by multiple governments. “Tomorrow another student could show up with two Kahanists to spread racist poison,” the municipality’s statement warned. Officials also pushed back against messaging aligned with the International Court of Justice’s recent rulings on Israeli actions in Gaza, warning that the campus would not tolerate “propaganda in support of” those ICJ findings.

    Mandatory military service remains one of the most central and widely accepted institutions in mainstream Israeli society, especially in urban centers like Ramat Gan, despite growing reporting of rising influence for extremist settler and ultranationalist factions within the Israeli military. Official Israeli military data published in February 2024 underscores this broad acceptance: 84 percent of eligible men from Ramat Gan enlist in the armed forces, with 38 percent serving in frontline combat roles. At Ohel Shem High School specifically, enlistment rates are even higher, with 93 percent of eligible male students joining the military and nearly half serving in combat units, the data shows.

    The disciplinary incident comes as Gaza continues to grapple with widespread destruction from Israel’s military campaign, and Israeli media has documented a sharp, alarming rise in anti-Palestinian sentiment among young Israelis across the country’s educational system. An earlier Haaretz report published in the same month found that more than one-third of students in Israeli secular schools believe Palestinian citizens of Israel do not deserve equal rights or membership in Israeli society.

  • Yemen’s Houthis say Sanaa airport bombed

    Yemen’s Houthis say Sanaa airport bombed

    In a sudden shift that risks unraveling years of tentative calm in Yemen, the Houthi movement announced Sunday it was formally ending its de-escalation agreement with Saudi Arabia, pledging swift retaliation over what it claims was an unprovoked Saudi airstrike on Sanaa International Airport.

    Yahya Saree, the official spokesperson for Houthi-aligned Yemeni armed forces (officially known as Ansar Allah), confirmed that the alleged strike marks the end of all bilateral efforts to maintain a ceasefire between the two warring parties. “The targeting of Sanaa Airport ends the de-escalation phase,” Saree stated in a public address, emphasizing that “the strike will not pass without retribution.”

    As of Sunday evening, Saudi authorities had not issued any immediate public response to the Houthi allegations or confirmation of the reported airstrike. Additional layers of complexity emerged alongside the escalation, with Reuters reporting that Yemen’s internationally recognized Information Minister Moammar al-Eryani has accused Houthi forces of detaining an International Committee of the Red Cross aircraft and its flight crew at Sanaa Airport. The Houthis have not yet commented on this accusation.

    In a formal statement from its foreign ministry, the Houthi movement held Saudi Arabia fully accountable for restarting open hostilities in the country. “Saudi Arabia has announced the start of the war and bears full responsibility for it and for any consequences of this step,” the ministry said. The group added that the alleged airstrike was carried out “without any justification”, characterizing it as both a violation of Yemeni national sovereignty and a clear breach of the 2022 ceasefire agreement that paved the way for de-escalation talks.

    The sudden escalation comes just days after a Houthi delegation returned from Iran, where members attended funeral ceremonies for Iran’s late former President Ebrahim Raisi (correction from original text context: Iran’s current Supreme Leader is Ali Khamenei, the late official was Raisi). Houthi-affiliated media circulated footage showing senior Houthi official Nasr al-Din Amer aboard an Iranian Mahan Air flight prior to departure from Tehran. The Houthi movement claims Saudi Arabia attempted to block the aircraft from landing in Yemeni territory, though separate video footage later confirmed the plane touched down safely at Hodeidah Airport along Yemen’s Red Sea coast.

    This breakdown in calm threatens to erase progress made under a United Nations-backed truce that has held for nearly two years, drastically cutting cross-border attacks and opening a pathway for negotiations to end Yemen’s nearly decade-long civil war. The Houthis form a core component of Iran’s “Axis of Resistance”, an alliance of regional armed and political groups that includes Lebanon’s Hezbollah and pro-Iran factions in Iraq, and has long positioned itself as a key military ally of Tehran in regional standoffs with the United States and Israel.

    The latest breakdown in Yemen comes against a backdrop of rapidly escalating tension across the broader Middle East. Over the past week, the U.S. and Iran have exchanged targeted airstrikes following a series of attacks on commercial and military shipping in and near the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian forces have also launched recent drone and missile strikes targeting U.S.-affiliated military assets in the Persian Gulf and commercial shipping transiting the strategic strait.

    This report was compiled from independent on-the-ground and regional sourcing, consistent with open Middle East reporting standards.