Global Pulse

作者： admin

  • Pentagon says US military to be an ‘AI-first’ fighting force

    Pentagon says US military to be an ‘AI-first’ fighting force

    The U.S. Department of Defense is advancing a sweeping push to embed artificial intelligence across military operations, announcing eight new expanded partnerships with leading American technology companies that aims to reposition the U.S. military as an “AI-first” fighting force. The agreements, finalized Friday, bring Google, OpenAI, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, SpaceX, Oracle, Nvidia, and emerging startup Reflection into the Pentagon’s growing AI ecosystem, clearing the way for these firms’ AI tools to be used for any lawful military and operational purpose.

    In a public statement following the announcement, Pentagon officials emphasized that the multi-vendor strategy is designed to avoid overreliance on a single technology provider, a vulnerability commonly referred to as “vendor lock-in.” By tapping into a diverse range of AI capabilities built across the robust U.S. technology sector, defense leaders say warfighters will gain access to cutting-edge tools to respond faster to threats and protect national security. The department also highlighted early successes from its existing military AI platform, launched last year: more than one million defense personnel across the department have already adopted the platform, cutting processing time for many critical tasks from months to just days.

    The announcement comes amid a high-profile public and legal split with leading AI developer Anthropic, which is notably absent from the new set of contracts. The San Francisco-based firm, which was the first AI company to deploy its models for U.S. classified government work, still has its Claude chatbot tools in use across multiple defense and civilian agencies. However, the relationship collapsed earlier this year after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei publicly raised ethical alarms over the potential misuse of powerful AI, warning that defense agencies could use the technology to carry out mass domestic surveillance and deploy fully autonomous lethal weapons. The company refused to agree to contract language allowing “any lawful use” of its AI tools for military purposes.

    In response, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth labeled Anthropic a “supply chain risk,” barring the firm from new government work. Anthropic has filed a lawsuit against the federal government alleging unlawful retaliation for its ethical stance, with the case scheduled to go to court in September.

    The rift between Anthropic and the Pentagon has opened new opportunities for competing AI firms to deepen their ties to the U.S. military. OpenAI, maker of the ChatGPT large language model, was the first to capitalize on the shift, finalizing its own contract with the Pentagon in late February. A company spokesperson framed the deal as a commitment to equipping U.S. defense personnel with the world’s most advanced tools, noting Friday’s announcement was simply a formalization of the existing agreement.

    For Google, the partnership marks a milestone: while the company’s Gemini chatbot is already used across some civilian government agencies, this contract will clear Gemini to handle classified defense work for the first time. The expansion has already sparked internal pushback: earlier this week, hundreds of Google employees, including dozens of researchers from the company’s leading AI research arm DeepMind, sent an open letter to CEO Sundar Pichai urging the company to abandon the deeper military partnership. Google has not yet issued a public response to the request or the contract announcement.

    Other partners bring unique AI capabilities to the new framework. SpaceX, led by Elon Musk, is the parent company of xAI, the startup behind the controversial Grok AI chatbot. While xAI’s model is widely seen as less technically advanced than offerings from Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google, the addition of SpaceX extends the Pentagon’s access to Musk’s sprawling aerospace and technology ecosystem. Nvidia, a leading producer of AI computing hardware, will contribute its open-source Nemotron large language model, while startup Reflection will offer its open-source Reflection 70B model; neither firm will provide hardware as part of the current agreement. Longtime government cloud providers Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and Oracle will continue to host the defense department’s online AI infrastructure, expanding their existing services to accommodate the growing volume of AI models and tools. None of the firms—SpaceX, Nvidia, Reflection, Amazon, Microsoft, or Oracle—have responded to requests for comment on the new contracts.

    Defense Secretary Hegseth has made accelerating AI adoption across the U.S. military a top priority, arguing that access to advanced AI has become a core determinant of military success in modern conflict. For years, the Pentagon has worked to build out its AI capabilities, and Friday’s announcement represents the most significant expansion of those efforts to date.

  • Mali accuses military officers of working with jihadis to carry out attacks against government

    Mali accuses military officers of working with jihadis to carry out attacks against government

    In a stunning development that has deepened the security crisis across conflict-wracked Mali, Malian authorities confirmed late Friday that active and recently dismissed military officers colluded with jihadi and separatist insurgents to carry out the largest coordinated offensive the country has seen in more than 10 years. This wave of attacks has already forced government and allied Russian forces to retreat from strategic territory and claimed the life of the nation’s defense minister.

    The string of unprecedented assaults, which opened with near-simultaneous strikes targeting multiple population centers including Bamako’s main international airport, was launched earlier this month through a rare partnership between Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), an al-Qaida-affiliated jihadi group, and the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA), a separatist movement fighting for northern Mali’s independence. Fighters carried out the raids using motorcycles and heavy trucks, striking at least 10 separate locations across the country in coordinated action.

    By the start of this week, the offensive delivered a major blow to Mali’s ruling military junta, which seized power in a 2020 coup: insurgents seized control of Kidal, a major northern city, in the retreat that followed the attacks. The violence also killed Malian Defense Minister Sadio Camara, marking one of the highest-profile casualties of the Sahel’s long-running extremist conflict.

    On Friday, separatist commander Achafghi Ag Bouhanda announced in a verified online video that FLA fighters had captured another critical strategic site: the military camp in Tessalit, a northern town located near the Algerian border and adjacent to a key regional airport. The announcement came after Malian army troops and fighters from Russia’s Africa Corps withdrew from the camp ahead of the separatist advance. The Associated Press has not been able to independently verify conditions on the ground at the camp, and Malian officials have not yet issued an official response to requests for comment on the fall of Tessalit.

    The most shocking revelation of the unfolding crisis came via an official statement read on Malian state television from the public prosecutor of Bamako’s Military Court. Investigations into the coordinated attacks have uncovered “solid evidence regarding the complicity of certain military personnel” – including both currently serving and recently discharged officers – in the assault, the prosecutor confirmed. The statement added that these officers directly participated in “the planning, coordination, and execution” of the attacks, and also named exiled prominent opposition politician Oumar Mariko as a co-conspirator in the plot.

    The collapse of government control across swathes of northern Mali comes as the capital Bamako faces mounting pressure from insurgent blockades. JNIM this week announced a full blockade of all four major road arteries leading into Bamako, expanding on a partial fuel and supply blockade that militants imposed on the city late last year. Traffic into the capital was severely disrupted on Friday, with multiple confirmed militant roadblocks along major routes. The persistent instability and blockades have already forced multiple travel agencies to suspend operations, leaving residents facing dangerous and restricted travel across the country. “These days, traveling by road is a dangerous undertaking,” said Aminata Traoré, a frequent traveler between Bamako and the southern Sikasso region.

    Mali’s junta leader Assimi Goita has pledged to press forward with counteroffensives to retake lost territory. “Military operations will continue until the armed groups involved have been completely neutralized and security has been sustainably restored throughout the country,” Goita said earlier this week. The Sahel region, a vast expanse of land south of the Sahara Desert spanning multiple West African nations, has become the global epicenter of violent extremist activity in recent years, with jihadi groups expanding their control across remote border areas as national governments struggle to contain the insurgency.

  • Trump tells Congress ceasefire means he does not need their approval for Iran war

    Trump tells Congress ceasefire means he does not need their approval for Iran war

    A sharp constitutional and political standoff has erupted in Washington over US military action against Iran, after President Donald Trump informed congressional leaders that all active hostilities between American forces and Tehran have formally ended following a weeks-long ceasefire — while asserting he never required legislative authorization for the conflict in the first place.

    In a formal letter sent to top congressional leaders Friday, Trump confirmed that “There has been no exchange of fire between the United States Forces and Iran since April 7, 2026,” adding that “The hostilities that began on February 26, 2026 have terminated.”

    The notification lands precisely on the 60th day after Trump formally informed Congress of the launch of strikes against Iran, a timeline that carries critical legal weight under the decades-old War Powers Resolution of 1973. Enacted in the wake of the Vietnam War to curtail unilateral presidential war-making authority, the law requires a sitting president to end all military engagement within 60 days of formal notification unless Congress grants explicit approval to continue hostilities, or issues a formal declaration of war. The legislation only allows a 30-day extension to facilitate safe withdrawal of forces if authorization is not granted.

    Trump pushed back firmly against the law’s requirements in his letter, arguing that his constitutional authority as Commander-in-Chief and chief architect of US foreign policy grants him independent power to order military action regardless of congressional approval. “I have and will continue to direct United States Armed Forces consistent with my responsibilities and pursuant to my constitutional authority to conduct United States foreign relations as Commander in Chief and Chief Executive,” he wrote.

    The Trump administration’s top defense official doubled down on this legal interpretation one day earlier, during a congressional hearing. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers that the 60-day legal clock mandated by the War Powers Resolution had been paused by the current ceasefire. “We are in a ceasefire right now, which our understanding means the 60-day clock pauses or stops in a ceasefire,” Hegseth said. Democratic Senator Tim Kaine, who questioned Hegseth on the issue, rejected this reading outright: “I do not believe the statute would support that.”

    For weeks, Capitol Hill has been roiled by growing pressure to hold a formal vote on whether to authorize the ongoing conflict with Iran. Democratic lawmakers, who hold slim majority control of both chambers, have repeatedly introduced measures to constrain Trump’s ability to continue military action against Iran, but all such attempts have failed so far due to united opposition from most Republican lawmakers. That opposition may be shifting, however: a small number of Republican legislators have signaled they may rethink their positions now that the 60-day legal deadline has passed. According to CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, Trump administration officials have already held behind-the-scenes discussions with congressional members about securing formal authorization for the conflict.

    While active fighting has halted under the ceasefire, the two sides have yet to reach a durable long-term peace agreement through negotiations. On Friday, Iranian state media reported that Tehran had sent a new negotiation proposal to intermediaries in Pakistan, but the details of the proposal have not been released, and it remains unclear whether the proposal has been shared with US negotiators.

    Speaking to reporters Friday afternoon, Trump acknowledged that ongoing diplomatic talks had not yet yielded a breakthrough, and expressed frustration with the pace of negotiations. “We just had a conversation with Iran. Let’s see what happens. But, I would say that I am not happy,” the president said. He blamed the slow progress on disarray within Iran’s leadership, arguing that the decimation of top Iranian military commanders in early strikes has left the country’s ruling circle “very confused” and unable to make key concessions.

    Trump also confirmed that he had received a full range of military and diplomatic options from US Central Command on Thursday, with proposals spanning from a full-scale resumption of offensive operations to “finish them forever” to continuing diplomatic efforts to reach a negotiated settlement.

  • Where’s my Oscar? Eight times Academy Awards trophies have gone missing

    Where’s my Oscar? Eight times Academy Awards trophies have gone missing

    For the iconic gold-plated Academy Award, the story does not always end once it is handed to a winning filmmaker, actor, or craftsperson. Over decades of Oscar history, dozens of these coveted trophies have gone missing, suffered catastrophic damage, or fallen into unexpected hands – the result of everything from airport security rules to wildfires, brazen theft, and simple moving-day misplacement. The latest strange chapter of this long-running trend unfolded just this week, when a documentary filmmaker was unexpectedly separated from his newly won statuette at a New York airport.

    Pavel Talankin, director of *Mr Nobody Against Putin*, was forced to surrender his Oscar after Transportation Security Administration officials flagged the solid, bronze-filled trophy as a potential weapon. Banned from carry-on luggage, the statuette was misplaced during processing, leaving Talankin without his prize. Last week, airline carrier Lufthansa announced that it had located the missing trophy, and the company confirmed it is working directly with Talankin to coordinate a safe return.

    Talankin’s misadventure is far from unique in Hollywood. Dozens of A-list winners have opened up about losing track of their Oscars over the years, including Angelina Jolie, Matt Damon, Jeff Bridges, and Jared Leto – all of whom have spoken publicly about their own statuette disappearances. To contextualize this latest incident, we’ve rounded up some of the most notable recent cases of missing, damaged, and stolen Academy Awards.

    Last year, as destructive wildfires swept across Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades neighborhood, four-time Oscar-winning costume designer Colleen Atwood was forced to evacuate her home unexpectedly, leaving three of her Academy Awards alongside three BAFTA trophies and two Emmy Awards behind. One of her Oscars, awarded for *Chicago*, was already on public display at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Museum and escaped harm, but the other three were not so lucky. The statuettes for *Memoirs of a Geisha* and *Alice in Wonderland* melted completely in the extreme heat, while the Oscar for *Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them* became unrecognizable after its gold outer layer was charred away by the blaze that destroyed Atwood’s home. Per the *Los Angeles Times*, the Academy has a longstanding policy to replace or repair damaged statuettes for living winners who lose their awards in catastrophic events, and it offered to replace Atwood’s destroyed trophies after the fire.

    One of the most high-profile recent thefts occurred back in 2018, moments after Frances McDormand took home the Best Actress Oscar for her performance in *Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri*. After the ceremony, McDormand brought the statuette to the official post-awards Governors Ball, where it was stolen from her. A man with a valid ticket to the exclusive event was arrested on suspicion of theft just hours after the statuette was reported missing, and the trophy was quickly returned to McDormand. Surprisingly, prosecutors ultimately chose to drop all charges against the suspect in August 2019, leaving the case unresolved.

    The disgraced, imprisoned former Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, who was expelled from the Academy in 2017 following widespread allegations of sexual assault and harassment, left behind two missing Oscars when his company collapsed. A 2018 *Vanity Fair* investigation into Weinstein’s downfall noted that two back-to-back Best Picture Oscars, won by *The King’s Speech* and *The Artist* under The Weinstein Company banner, vanished from the company’s New York headquarters shortly before the firm declared bankruptcy. To date, the whereabouts of these two statuettes remain unknown.

    Joker and Dallas Buyers Club star Jared Leto spent nearly six years separated from his Best Supporting Actor Oscar, which he won in 2014. Leto first revealed the statuette had gone missing during a cross-country house move in 2021, and fans were stunned when he shared a triumphant social media post in 2024 announcing the trophy had been unexpectedly located. He posed for photos with the recovered award after years of searching.

    Good Will Hunting co-writer and star Matt Damon has also been open about the mysterious disappearance of his first Oscar, which he shared with Ben Affleck when the pair won Best Original Screenplay in 1998. Damon told the *London Daily Express* in 2007 that the statuette vanished after a sprinkler system malfunction caused a flood in his New York apartment while he and his wife were out of town. To this day, he cannot confirm what happened to it: it may have been lost in flood cleanup, accidentally packed into unlabeled storage, or potentially stolen by contractors working on the damaged property.

    Iconic comedian and actress Whoopi Goldberg lost her 1990 Best Supporting Actress Oscar (awarded for her role in *Ghost*) in 2002, when she shipped it to Chicago-based trophy manufacturer RS Owens & Company for routine professional cleaning. When the package arrived four days later, the company opened it to find the box empty: someone had intercepted the shipment, removed the statuette, and resealed the box before it reached its destination. Weeks later, an airport security guard in Ontario, California, found the missing trophy abandoned. After the ordeal, Goldberg promised she would never let her Oscar leave her home again.

    Moonstruck Best Supporting Actress winner Olympia Dukakis faced a different challenge when her Oscar was stolen directly from her home. The thief contacted Dukakis to demand a ransom for the return of the trophy, but she refused to negotiate. Instead, she paid just $78 to the Academy to purchase a replacement statuette. Years later, her original stolen trophy was among 52 missing Oscars discovered by chance in 2000. A repairman working at a Los Angeles laundromat stumbled across the trophies in 10 unmarked crates dumped in a rubbish bin behind the business. The stash came from a heist of 55 new, unengraved Oscars stolen from a trucking loading dock in Bell, California, carried out by two trucking company employees who were later arrested and charged with grand theft. Three of the 55 stolen statuettes from that heist have never been recovered, leaving an unsolved cold case in Oscar history.

  • ‘Silence does not protect anyone’: Leaders call for inquiry into conditions at Alice Springs town camps after 5yo’s alleged abduction, murder

    ‘Silence does not protect anyone’: Leaders call for inquiry into conditions at Alice Springs town camps after 5yo’s alleged abduction, murder

    The horrific alleged abduction and murder of 5-year-old Kumanjayi Little Baby from an Alice Springs town camp has sparked widespread community outrage and urgent demands for a full independent investigation into the systemic failures that allowed the tragedy to occur. The young girl was last seen by her family at their home in Old Timers Camp, located on the outer edge of Alice Springs, on Saturday evening. Days later, early this week, her body was discovered along the banks of the Todd River, just five kilometers from the residence she was taken from.

    By Thursday night, police had taken 48-year-old Jefferson Lewis, the prime suspect in the case, into custody. Immediately following his arrest, hundreds of angry community members gathered outside Alice Springs Hospital, where Lewis was receiving care for life-threatening injuries. The peaceful gathering quickly escalated into civil unrest: protesters threw rocks at law enforcement, lit dumpsters and vehicles on fire, forcing police to deploy riot shields, tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.

    In the wake of the senseless killing, Northern Territory Senator Jacinta Price has emerged as a leading voice demanding a sweeping independent inquiry, not just into the specific circumstances of Kumanjayi’s death, but into the chronic dangerous conditions that have plagued Alice Springs’ town camp communities for decades. In an opinion piece published in *The Australian*, Price argued that these overcrowded, under-resourced settlements have been ignored by policymakers for far too long, creating environments that put vulnerable children at extreme risk.

    She noted that unregulated movement of people, including repeat violent offenders, is common across the camps, while existing alcohol restrictions are rarely enforced. Many settlements lack basic infrastructure, proper maintenance and effective oversight. Price, who has personal ties to Old Timers Camp that extend beyond this tragedy, shared that she has already lost multiple family members to violence and accidents in the camp.

    “These are not new observations,” Price wrote. “Not only into the circumstances surrounding this case, but into the broader conditions that allow such vulnerability to persist. That includes the governance of town camps, the role of organisations responsible for their upkeep, and whether current laws and enforcement mechanisms are adequate to protect the most vulnerable. Because if they are not, they must change.” She also raised urgent questions about transparency and accountability for the large amounts of public funding allocated to town camp management, calling for greater scrutiny of how those funds are spent.

    Opposition Leader Angus Taylor backed Price’s calls, telling Sky News that the tragedy was the inevitable result of decades of willful denial of the crisis in remote Indigenous communities. He noted that the Coalition took a proposal for a full royal commission into endemic sexual violence and abuse in these communities to the last federal election, and that that recommendation remains just as urgent today. “It’s the denial that has led us to this place where people aren’t prepared to have honest conversations about the state of affairs in our town camps and what options there are to address it,” Taylor said.

    Sue-Anne Hunter, National Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People, added another layer to the calls for investigation, demanding an inquiry into the correctional system processes that led to Lewis being released from custody prior to the alleged murder. “We call for a wider investigation into the correctional systems that led to his release,” Hunter said.

    However, Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy has pushed back on the demands for an immediate inquiry, arguing that the current moment should be focused on community mourning and supporting Kumanjayi’s grieving family. “Now’s the time to come together as a community in sorry business and be with this mum and her son as they prepare to bury their daughter,” McCarthy told the ABC.

    Across Alice Springs and the nation, the tragedy has left the tight-knit community in deep mourning. Flowers and handwritten tribute cards have piled up at the Old Timers Camp gate where Kumanjayi disappeared, as friends, neighbors and strangers grieve the loss of the young girl. In a heartbreaking public statement released after the discovery of her body, Kumanjayi’s mother and older brother shared their devastating grief. “To Kumanjayi Little Baby, me and Ramsiah miss and love you,” the statement reads. “I know you are in heaven with the rest of the family with Jesus and the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Me and your brother will meet you one day. We are giving our lives to Jesus. It is going to be so hard to live the rest of our lives without you. Ramsiah wants to tell you that when he sees you in heaven, he is going to give you the biggest hug ever. Love from Mum and Ramsiah.”

  • Texas camp where 25 girls died drops reopening plans after parents protest

    Texas camp where 25 girls died drops reopening plans after parents protest

    One year after catastrophic flash floods swept through central Texas during the Fourth of July holiday, killing 27 people including 25 children and two counselors at iconic all-girls Camp Mystic, the historic private Christian camp has announced it will not open for the 2026 summer season, abandoning its plans to relocate operations after withdrawing its state license application.

    Founded in 1926 on a 700-acre property along the Guadalupe River, Camp Mystic had initially drawn up plans to welcome 800 campers to an alternative, fatality-free site for the 2026 season after last year’s disaster. However, amid ongoing official investigations and fierce pressure from bereaved families, camp leadership announced Thursday that it was stepping back from its licensing effort.

    In a public statement, the camp noted that no administrative steps or summer programming should proceed while grieving families still process their loss, official investigations into the tragedy remain active, and communities across Texas continue to carry the trauma of last July’s disaster. “Rather than risk defending our rights under Texas law in a manner that may unintentionally inflict further harm, we choose rather to withdraw our application for the 2026 camp season,” the statement read.

    The decision comes after a months-long wave of public and political scrutiny, which intensified following two days of emotional testimony from flood investigators before Texas state lawmakers. The Texas Department of State Health Services had already confirmed in a review, first reported by *The New York Times*, that Camp Mystic’s emergency evacuation and response plans required sweeping overhauls before a license could be granted. Family members of the flood victims had repeatedly urged state regulators to reject any application to reopen the camp, as multiple parallel probes into the camp’s pre-flood emergency preparations continue.

    Last year’s July 4 holiday flood disaster left more than 130 people dead across central Texas, a tragedy that shocked the entire United States and exposed critical gaps and failures in the state’s emergency early warning systems. Camp Mystic’s disaster received outsized national attention in part because of its long history and well-documented location in a known flood-prone river corridor.

    Texas Governor Greg Abbott confirmed in a post-withdrawal statement that the camp will remain shuttered for 2026, adding that the Texas Department of State Health Services will continue its ongoing investigation into the 2025 tragedy.

    Reactions from victim families and local communities have been deeply divided following the announcement. Cici and Will Steward, whose 8-year-old daughter Cila is the only victim still unaccounted for following the flood, said they are grateful that no child will be placed under the operating family Eastlands’ care this summer. They pushed back on framing the withdrawal as an act of compassion, saying, “Camp Mystic did not withdraw its application out of grace. It withdrew because the State of Texas was prepared to deny it.”

    Sam Taylor, an attorney representing six families of deceased campers in an ongoing wrongful death lawsuit against the camp, welcomed the decision but said advocacy would not end. “We are grateful that no other Texas family will hand their daughter over to Camp Mystic this summer,” Taylor said. “But until there is full accountability for what happened on July 4 and until there are real, enforceable safeguards for every child sent to a Texas summer camp, our work continues.”

    Not all families affected by the tragedy supported the permanent 2026 closure. Liberty Lindley, whose 10-year-old daughter survived the Camp Mystic flood, said she had planned to send her daughter back to the camp as part of her emotional healing process. Lindley told *The Washington Post* that confronting traumatic memories head-on can be a powerful step toward recovery: “Emotionally, that’s part of the work: facing the water again, the fears. It’s so important for them to take their power back.”

  • AI actors and writers not eligible for Oscars: Academy

    AI actors and writers not eligible for Oscars: Academy

    In a landmark decision addressing one of the entertainment industry’s most contentious modern challenges, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced sweeping new policy updates on Friday that explicitly bar AI-generated performances and screenplays from Oscar eligibility, alongside major reforms to the Best International Feature Film nomination process. The regulatory changes mark the Academy’s most high-profile intervention into the growing use of artificial intelligence in Hollywood, a technology that has sparked widespread anxiety among creative workers over job security and artistic integrity. Under the new framework, only roles performed by consenting human performers that are officially credited in a film’s legal billing can be considered for nomination in any acting category. For writing categories, the rules have been formally codified to require that all submitted screenplays must be human-authored to qualify for awards consideration. The announcement arrives just days after an AI-generated recreation of late Hollywood star Val Kilmer was publicly revealed to a gathering of cinema industry leaders. One year after Kilmer’s passing, a digitally recreated youthful version of the actor appears in the trailer for the upcoming archaeological action film *As Deep as the Grave*. The project was developed with full support from Kilmer’s family, who provided access to the actor’s personal video archive to help reconstruct his likeness at multiple points throughout his life and career. Unregulated AI development has been one of the most divisive issues in global entertainment for years, and it served as the core sticking point during the 2023 Hollywood strikes that brought major film and television production to a standstill. During the work stoppage, striking actors and writers repeatedly warned that unregulated adoption of AI would threaten long-term career stability for millions of creative professionals by enabling studios to replace human workers with digital alternatives. Beyond its AI policy reforms, the Academy also introduced significant changes to the eligibility rules for the Best International Feature Film category, a revision designed to address longstanding criticism of the old selection system. Prior to this update, only films officially selected by a recognized national governing body in their country of origin could be entered into the category. This requirement created a major barrier for acclaimed filmmakers working in authoritarian states, where government-backed bodies often block politically critical works from submission. A high-profile example of this gap came earlier this year, when Iranian dissident director Jafar Panahi’s film *It Was Just an Accident* was ultimately submitted as an entry from France rather than his home country. Under the new rules, non-English language films can now qualify for submission to the category if they win a qualifying award at one of five major international film festivals: Cannes, Berlin, Busan, Venice, and Toronto. Additionally, the Academy has revised attribution protocols for the category: moving forward, the film itself will be recognized as the nominee rather than the submitting country, and the director’s name will be listed on the statuette plaque directly after the film title, with the country of origin included only when applicable.

  • Australia wants to be first nation in the world to eliminate a cancer – can it?

    Australia wants to be first nation in the world to eliminate a cancer – can it?

    Twelve years ago, Chrissy Walters’ life changed forever. Six months after welcoming her long-awaited first daughter into the world following years of fertility struggles, the Toowoomba resident was rushed to hospital with a severe internal bleed. After multiple tests, biopsies and specialist appointments, the 39-year-old received a devastating diagnosis: advanced cervical cancer.

    Today, after more than a decade of grueling, invasive treatments, Walters’ cancer has spread throughout her body, and her condition is terminal. For her 12-year-old daughter, cervical cancer has been a constant presence throughout her life – the family began having open conversations about Walters’ mortality when the girl was just three years old. Now, as her daughter reaches the age Australia’s national immunization program targets for HPV vaccination, Walters holds onto the hope that her daughter’s generation will be the first to grow up free of the disease that is taking her life.

    Australia is well on its way to making that hope a reality. On track to become the first country in the world to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health threat – potentially beating its 2035 target – the nation has built on decades of local innovation and public health investment to reach this historic cusp. The story of Australia’s progress begins in 2006, when University of Queensland scientists Ian Frazer and Jian Zhou developed Gardasil, the world’s first effective vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV), the most common high-risk cause of cervical cancer. A year later, Australia became the first country to roll out a national HPV vaccination program for adolescent girls, expanding the program to include boys (who can be asymptomatic carriers of the virus) in 2013.

    Alongside widespread vaccination, Australia has implemented a world-leading screening program that has drastically improved early detection. In 2017, it became one of the first nations to replace traditional pap smears with more sensitive HPV-based screening, which only needs to be completed once every five years. It also introduced the option of self-collected samples, a change public health officials call a game-changer for people who avoid screening due to anxiety about pelvic exams, or barriers like limited time or geographic distance from healthcare services.

    Public health experts define elimination of cervical cancer as fewer than four new cases per 100,000 people annually. As of the latest data, Australia already records 6.3 new cases per 100,000 women, down from double that rate when national record-keeping began in 1982. Most notably, 2021 data recorded zero new diagnoses of cervical cancer in women under 25 – a landmark that would have been unthinkable a generation ago. Karen Canfell, a leading epidemiologist at the University of Sydney and global pioneer in cervical cancer control, says the end of cervical cancer as a widespread public health threat is in sight. “It’s not all women of all ages yet, but you can see that concept of elimination being realised,” she notes.

    Canfell adds that Australia’s early investment in vaccination and screening has served as a blueprint for the World Health Organization’s global elimination strategy, making the country a trailblazer in the first global effort to eliminate any form of cancer. “Public health innovations in Australia sort of gave a general exemplar for WHO to follow,” she says.

    Despite this remarkable progress, significant challenges remain. The latest progress report highlights a small but concerning decline in vaccination coverage across the country, with stark disparities for First Nations communities. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women currently face twice the rate of cervical cancer diagnoses and three times the mortality rate of non-Indigenous Australian women, due to long-standing barriers to healthcare access that often lead to late detection. On current trends, cervical cancer elimination for Indigenous Australian women will not come until 2047 – 12 years after the national 2035 target.

    Researchers add that other barriers, including lingering vaccine hesitancy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, rising healthcare costs, and missed school-based vaccinations among students who have missed class time, are slowing progress. Many families also remain unaware that the HPV vaccine is fully free under Australia’s universal healthcare system, and there is no systematic national program to help children catch up on missed doses. “There’s not a lot of a concerted effort to get them back in if they’ve missed it… The onus is very much on families to get their child caught up on that vaccine,” explains researcher Jocelyn Jones.

    Beyond Australia’s borders, high implementation costs remain a major barrier to replicating the nation’s success in low- and middle-income countries, which often lack the robust public health infrastructure and funding needed to roll out widespread vaccination and screening programs. Global aid cuts have exacerbated this gap: in 2025, former U.S. President Donald Trump announced the end of American support for Gavi, the global vaccine alliance that supplies HPV vaccines to developing nations. Australia has stepped in to support neighboring nations including Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea to pursue their own elimination goals, but Canfell notes that high-income countries hold a unique advantage. “To say the obvious thing, we are obviously lucky to be in a high-income country where we have a form of universal healthcare and access for all,” she says.

    Canfell argues that eliminating cervical cancer is a worthwhile long-term investment for all nations, pointing to not only the saved lives and societal benefits but also tangible economic returns: when women do not die prematurely from cervical cancer, they remain active in the workforce and boost national economic productivity.

    Currently, Australia is in a quiet global race to be the first to reach elimination, with Sweden and Rwanda targeting 2027 and the UK targeting 2040, though all other nations currently lag behind Australia on key coverage milestones. For terminal patient Chrissy Walters, who describes living with cervical cancer as a full-time job that has left her with debilitating side effects, crippling fatigue and crippling financial stress even under Australia’s universal healthcare system, the progress could not come soon enough. While she will not live to see a world free of cervical cancer, she holds onto the hope that her daughter’s generation will never have to experience the pain and loss the disease has brought her family. That future, for Australia, is now within reach.

  • Jury convicts former Florida congressman in Venezuela lobbying case

    Jury convicts former Florida congressman in Venezuela lobbying case

    In a high-profile federal corruption trial that wrapped up Friday, a jury found ex-U.S. Representative David Rivera of Florida guilty on multiple felony counts, including conspiracy and failure to register as a foreign agent, for his role in a covert lobbying campaign on behalf of the Venezuelan government. The conviction marks a major conclusion to a six-week proceeding that drew testimony from high-profile political figures and laid bare a secret influence campaign worth tens of millions of dollars. Prosecutors laid out that the former lawmaker’s consulting firm secured a $50 million contract from PDVSA, Venezuela’s state-owned oil giant, to lobby sitting U.S. officials to soften Washington’s stance on Caracas during a period of extreme bilateral tension. The work was carried out in 2017 and 2018, when the Trump administration first imposed harsh economic sanctions on the Maduro regime, and was funneled through PDVSA’s U.S. subsidiary Citgo, according to court documents. Joining Rivera in conviction was his long-time associate Esther Nuhfer, a veteran political consultant who partnered with him on the scheme. Federal prosecutors from the Southern District of Florida argued that the pair intentionally hid the true source of their funding and the ultimate backer of their lobbying: Nicolás Maduro’s Venezuelan government. “As long as the money kept coming in, they didn’t care from where,” lead prosecutor Roger Cruz told jurors during closing arguments. The trial featured unexpected testimony from sitting U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a long-time friend and former housemate of Rivera’s, who was one of the targets of the lobbying effort. Rubio repeatedly stated he had no knowledge of Rivera’s work for the Venezuelan-linked firm, a claim confirmed by Texas Congressman Pete Sessions, who also testified during the proceedings. Neither Rubio nor Sessions have been accused of any wrongdoing in the case. Defense teams for both Rivera and Nuhfer mounted a two-pronged defense throughout the trial. First, they argued that the pair were under no legal obligation to register as foreign agents because their contract was directly with the U.S.-based Citgo, not the Venezuelan central government. Second, Rivera’s lead attorney Ed Shohat told jurors that his client was actually working to remove Maduro from power, not normalize relations between the two countries. “He was working every possible angle to get Nicolás Maduro out,” Shohat said, according to court transcripts from the Associated Press. “There was not a word in the chats about normalizing relations.” The case unfolded against a dramatic shifting backdrop for Venezuelan politics: earlier this year, in January, former President Donald Trump authorized a military strike in Venezuela that resulted in Maduro’s capture. The former Venezuelan leader is currently being held in New York City, awaiting trial on federal drug trafficking charges alongside his wife. Following the verdict reading, during which Rivera showed no visible emotion according to U.S. media reports, the judge ordered the former congressman into immediate detention. Prosecutors successfully argued that Rivera poses a significant flight risk given his ties and possible assets abroad. The conviction caps a decades-long political career for Rivera, who represented a South Florida congressional district for one term from 2011 to 2013, and closes a major chapter in a federal investigation into unregistered foreign lobbying in Washington. Rivera and Nuhfer now face sentencing at a later date, with potential penalties including decades of federal prison time.

  • Fifa Congress: Infantino tried to stage an Israel-Palestine handshake. He failed

    Fifa Congress: Infantino tried to stage an Israel-Palestine handshake. He failed

    At FIFA’s annual global congress held in Vancouver on Thursday, a staged gesture of reconciliation orchestrated by FIFA President Gianni Infantino devolved into a high-profile public standoff, drawing fierce backlash across global sports and human rights circles. Infantino had invited both Jibril Rajoub, president of the Palestinian Football Association, and Basim Sheikh Suliman, vice president of the Israel Football Association, onto the main stage, gesturing for Rajoub to approach his Israeli counterpart for a public handshake and photo opportunity. What followed exposed the deep, unresolved political tensions that have long plagued regional soccer governance, and renewed scrutiny of Infantino’s controversial approach to Middle East politics. After a brief, heated exchange with the FIFA leader, Rajoub declared, “We are suffering,” before stepping off the stage, stopping only to share an amicable hug with Infantino before exiting. In an immediate explanation of Rajoub’s refusal, Palestinian FA Vice President Susan Shalabi told Reuters that Rajoub told Infantino he cannot “shake the hand of someone the Israelis have brought to whitewash their fascism and genocide.” The incident came directly after Rajoub used his allotted speaking time at the congress to deliver a blistering rebuke of FIFA’s recent decision to reject sanctions against Israel over Israeli football clubs operating in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Shalabi emphasized that forcing a handshake immediately after Rajoub’s speech completely undermined the core message of his address. “He spent 15 minutes trying to explain to everyone how the rules matter, how this could easily become a precedent where the rights of member associations are violated with impudence, and then we’ll just wrap this under the carpet. It was absurd,” Shalabi said. Speaking publicly after the incident, Rajoub – a long-time Fatah politician who has been repeatedly detained by Israeli authorities – acknowledged the value of sportsmanship, but drew a clear line at engaging with a representative of what he called a criminal Israeli administration. “If the other side is representing a criminal like Bibi [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] and speaking on behalf of Bibi as if Bibi is Mother Teresa, how can I shake hands or have a photo with such a man?” Rajoub asked. Infantino, who used the Vancouver congress to officially announce his candidacy for a third term as FIFA President next year, attempted to frame the failed gesture as a step toward progress. “We will work together, President Rajoub, Vice President Suliman. Let’s work together to give hope to the children. These are complex matters,” he told delegates after Rajoub’s exit. Reactions to Infantino’s move online were overwhelmingly critical, with many observers labeling the attempt tone-deaf, cynical, and a dangerous trivialization of ongoing human suffering in Gaza. Amnesty UK’s Kristyan Benedict posted a sarcastic rebuke on social media platform X, writing, “Why can’t they just get along…..with genocide, apartheid, and an ever expanding occupation?” Sports journalist Leyla Hamed echoed that criticism, noting, “Gianni Infantino treating genocide like it can be solved with a handshake and a camera. There’s something deeply unsettling about seeing such horror reduced to nothing more than optics.” Other commentators slammed the moment as a failed act of performative soccer diplomacy, accusing Infantino of staging the moment to boost his own public image and cast himself as a global peacemaker ahead of his re-election bid. “Dreaming of the Nobel Peace Prize himself, Infantino sought to stage a handshake between the Israeli and Palestinian federations at the Fifa annual Congress. Complete failure of his ‘soccer diplomacy’ and irritation from the Palestinian president, Jibril Rajoub,” French sports journalist Romain Molina posted on social media. This incident is far from the first time Infantino has faced widespread criticism over his handling of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. UN experts and Palestinian and global human rights activists have repeatedly called for FIFA to suspend Israel from the international governing body, pointing to the same precedent FIFA set when it suspended Russia from all international competition following its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Infantino has also drawn condemnation for other controversial political moves in recent months, including awarding the first-ever FIFA Peace Prize to former U.S. President Donald Trump during the 2026 World Cup draw in December. FIFA has repeatedly defended the award as an apolitical gesture, but human rights groups across the globe uniformly condemned the decision. In the days leading up to the Vancouver congress, the Norwegian Football Association called on FIFA to abolish the new prize entirely to avoid dragging the governing body into partisan political disputes. Australian men’s national team player Jackson Irvine argued that decisions like the Trump Peace Prize award have severely eroded FIFA’s claimed credibility as a force for global good. “As an organisation, you would have to say decisions like the one that we saw awarding this peace prize make a mockery of what they’re trying to do with the human rights charter,” Irvine told Reuters.