Global Pulse

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  • Rebel Wilson says claims she bullied women on her film are ‘absolute nonsense’

    Rebel Wilson says claims she bullied women on her film are ‘absolute nonsense’

    One of Hollywood’s most recognizable comedic stars, Rebel Wilson, has forcefully rejected allegations that she bullied female colleagues on the set of her directorial debut, calling the claims “absolute nonsense” during her first day of testimony in a high-stakes defamation trial unfolding in Sydney. The legal action against the *Bridesmaids* actor was brought by 26-year-old Australian performer Charlotte MacInnes, who appeared in Wilson’s first feature film as director, *The Deb*. The case centers on a string of Instagram posts Wilson published between 2024 and 2025 that MacInnes argues have irreparably damaged her professional reputation.

    At the core of the dispute is how MacInnes described a 2023 incident involving producer Amanda Ghost, who also worked on *The Deb*. In her posts, Wilson alleged MacInnes had initially complained of sexual harassment by Ghost during a post-swim encounter at Bondi Beach, only to withdraw the claim to advance her own career. MacInnes vehemently denies ever making a sexual harassment allegation against Ghost, saying Wilson’s version of events is entirely fabricated.

    The incident that sparked the entire conflict dates to September 2023, when MacInnes and Ghost joined for an late-afternoon swim at Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach. Ghost suffered a sudden and severe allergic reaction to cold water, a rare condition called cold urticaria that left her covered in painful red welts and shaking uncontrollably, the court heard during earlier proceedings. The pair hurried back to Ghost’s nearby beachside apartment, where MacInnes drew a hot bath to help ease Ghost’s symptoms. After Ghost got into a shower to warm up first, MacInnes stepped into the bath to warm herself; Ghost later joined her, and both remained in their swimsuits. Ghost’s assistant eventually brought hot drinks to the bathroom, where the three spoke briefly before the assistant left.

    After the incident, Wilson spoke with MacInnes about what happened, and while both sides agree the conversation took place, they offer vastly conflicting accounts of its content. Wilson maintains MacInnes told her the encounter left her feeling “uncomfortable”, while MacInnes says she only ever described the situation as “weird” and “bizarre”, never indicating she felt sexually threatened or uncomfortable. Text messages presented to the court show Wilson told Ghost immediately after the conversation that “Charlotte says all good” and “She just meant ‘it was a bizarre situation’ not that she personally felt uncomfortable.”

    When cross-examined by Sue Chrysanthou SC, MacInnes’ lead barrister, Wilson was pressed on her public self-identification as a “champion of women” — a label Wilson affirmed she still embraces. Chrysanthou challenged Wilson on this stance, pointing to accusations that the actor had publicly and privately mistreated MacInnes, Ghost, and a female writer on the set of *The Deb. “That’s absolute nonsense,” Wilson told the packed courtroom, which was filled with reporters, supporters from both sides, and multiple witnesses including Ghost. Wilson also pushed back on claims that her critical public social media posts about the women constituted mistreatment, arguing the statements were truthful, not malicious.

    Throughout hours of questioning, Wilson repeatedly said she could not recall key details related to the case, including widespread backlash she received in 2018 after claiming she was the “first ever plus-sized girl” to lead a romantic comedy. She also denied any involvement in anonymous websites that have spread damaging rumors about both Ghost and MacInnes. Prosecutors have previously alleged Wilson hired a U.S. public relations firm to create websites that compared Ghost to disgraced sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for her role in Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal ring. Prosecutors have also raised the issue of a nude photo of MacInnes that was leaked online after her social media accounts were hacked, though no link between Wilson and the hack has been proven in court.

    Wilson’s legal team has argued MacInnes has not suffered any professional harm from the Instagram posts, pointing instead to a string of career advances she has secured since the posts were published: MacInnes recently signed a record deal with major label Atlantic Records and landed a role in a new U.S. theater production being produced by Ghost. MacInnes is seeking aggravated damages for the alleged defamation and a court order to stop Wilson from repeating the claims on any public platform.

    Wilson’s testimony is scheduled to continue on Wednesday, as the high-profile trial progresses through Sydney’s court system.

  • ‘No person deserves cancer’: Trbojevic brothers help launch new initiative to raise money at Magic Round

    ‘No person deserves cancer’: Trbojevic brothers help launch new initiative to raise money at Magic Round

    Australia and New Zealand’s National Rugby League (NRL) is adding a heartfelt new layer of purpose to this year’s highly anticipated Magic Round, launching the groundbreaking Kick for a Cause charity initiative that aims to raise $1 million to support children battling cancer across both nations.

    Replacing the league’s former Try July fundraising program, the new campaign has secured major backing from insurance provider Youi, which has committed to donating directly for every successful kick scored during the May 15-17 event in Brisbane. For every completed conversion kick and penalty goal, Youi will contribute $1,000, while a larger $2,000 donation will be made for every field goal kicked across the three days of competition.

    All funds generated through the initiative will be distributed to 11 leading pediatric cancer centers across Australia and New Zealand, in partnership with two respected non-profit organizations: the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Foundation and the Starship Foundation. These 11 institutions deliver specialized clinical treatment, fund pioneering medical research, and run critical support programs for young cancer patients and their families who face the daily challenges of the disease.

    Australian Rugby League Commission Chairman Peter V’landys emphasized that the campaign brings the entire rugby league community together around a shared mission. “Every child fighting cancer deserves the very best care, comfort and hope – and rugby league is stepping up to help deliver it,” V’landys said. “At Magic Round, our game comes together in a powerful way. Every kick, every cheer and every dollar raised will make a real difference for kids and families doing it tough. We thank our partner, Youi, for their support of this important initiative and urge all fans travelling to Brisbane for Magic Round as well as those cheering on from home to get behind a very worthy cause by helping those who need it most.”

    The official launch of the campaign took place earlier this week at Manly’s 4 Pines Park, where Manly Sea Eagles star brothers Jake, Tom and Ben Trbojevic led the event. The launch holds deep personal meaning for the trio, who formed a close bond with 12-year-old Beau Hewitt, a passionate Manly tragic who passed away last year from a rare form of cancer. The brothers first met Beau in 2024 through connections at the local Mona Vale Raiders junior club, and quickly grew close to the young fan, who had an extraordinary knowledge of the game that left a lasting impact.

    Beau, who played for the Mona Vale Raiders, even once tipped the brothers off about an impending coaching ambush from then-Manly head coach Des Hasler ahead of a key match. Recalling their time with Beau, Jake Trbojevic said the young fan’s love for rugby league was unmatched. “He played for the Raiders, and lots of people reached out for us to come meet him in the hospital,” Jake said. “We went and met him in the hospital, and just seeing how much he loved rugby league was like no other, honestly. He loved it. Seeing how much he loved rugby league, you could honestly ring and have a chat with him. He’d even text you about game plans. He was well advanced for his years.”

    Jake added that carrying on Beau’s legacy through the Kick for a Cause campaign is a point of pride for the brothers. “He was a great kid, we really enjoyed hanging out with him, and just seeing how it all went was horrible. It was horrible for his family, but seeing his legacy live on through things like this makes you proud. Getting to know Beau and seeing what that whole experience was like was horrible. I can only feel very sorry for families going through it, and I think cancer has a lot to answer for, especially when it’s kids. No person deserves cancer, but no kid does. So to see the NRL and Youi get behind this cause is remarkable, and it obviously makes us very proud.”

    Off the campaign trail, Jake Trbojevic offered a lighthearted piece of advice for wingers across the league: bring the ball under the posts whenever possible to set up easier conversion kicks that will boost total fundraising. The veteran forward also showed off his kicking skills at the launch, but confirmed he is happy to let Manly’s regular goalkicker Jamal Fogarty remain the team’s first option.

    For Tom Trbojevic, the superstar fullback will not take the field at Magic Round this year as he continues his recovery from a recurring hamstring injury. Still, he said his rehabilitation is progressing on schedule, and he remains optimistic about a return to action in roughly four weeks. “It’s going good. Obviously, I’m disappointed and it’s frustrating, but I’m back on the mend and just working hard to get back out there,” he said. “It’s probably hard to get a vibe right now, but it feels like I’m on schedule. I guess it’s hard to really tell.”

  • Executions in North Korea ramped up significantly during pandemic – report

    Executions in North Korea ramped up significantly during pandemic – report

    A new report released by the Seoul-founded Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG) has documented a stark surge in executions in North Korea following the country’s 2020 border closure at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a total of 358 people confirmed executed between 2011 and the end of 2024.

    Compiled from firsthand testimonies gathered from more than 250 North Korean defectors across 51 administrative cities and counties, the report tracks sharp fluctuations in the use of capital punishment over the past 13 years. Executions peaked early in current leader Kim Jong Un’s rule, hitting a high of more than 80 documented executions in 2013. After a landmark United Nations inquiry in 2014 found systemic human rights violations taking place in the country, international pressure pushed the number of executions into a steady decline: between 2015 and 2019, an average of just five executions were recorded annually, with only 44 total executions confirmed in the five years preceding the pandemic.

    That downward trend reversed dramatically after Pyongyang shut down all cross-border movement in early 2020 to curb the spread of COVID-19. According to TJWG’s data, at least 153 people were either executed or sentenced to death between January 2020 and the end of 2024—more than three times the pre-pandemic five-year total. In 2020 alone, 54 people were put to death, followed by 45 executions in 2021, marking a drastic break from the low single-digit annual totals recorded just years earlier.

    The report identifies the most common charges leading to execution or death sentences tied to religion, unapproved superstition practices, and access to foreign cultural content—most notably South Korean popular media including K-dramas and K-pop. These content types are strictly banned in North Korea, where the ruling regime views the spread of South Korean cultural influence as a direct threat to its ruling ideology. A high-profile 2024 case documented by outside observers saw two North Korean teenagers sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for watching and distributing K-dramas, a public sentencing that underscored the regime’s intensified crackdown on outside cultural access. TJWG counted 29 cases of capital punishment tied to these cultural and religious offenses out of the 144 fully documented cases of execution and death sentencing included in the analysis.

    Other common capital offenses included public criticism of Kim Jong Un or the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, premeditated murder, drug trafficking, and assisting North Korean residents to flee the country. More than 70 percent of all executions recorded in the report were carried out publicly, and the vast majority were conducted by firing squad. TJWG researchers also mapped 46 active execution sites across North Korea that have been used for capital punishments during Kim Jong Un’s time in power.

    Founded in Seoul in 2014 by a coalition of human rights activists and researchers from North Korea, South Korea, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada, TJWG’s core mission is to document human rights violations and track the use of the death penalty in North Korea through on-the-ground testimonies from defectors. In its official press release accompanying the new report, the organization warned that the country faces a growing risk of further increasing executions as the regime works to consolidate power ahead of a planned fourth hereditary transfer of political power. The group noted that tighter ideological and cultural control will likely be paired with harsher punishments to maintain the ruling establishment’s political dominance.

  • IS claims responsibility for Nigeria attack that killed 29 people

    IS claims responsibility for Nigeria attack that killed 29 people

    In a devastating act of violence that has deepened concerns over persistent insecurity in Nigeria’s restive northeast, gunmen aligned with the Islamic State group have killed at least 29 civilians in a targeted assault on a remote village in Adamawa State, local government officials have confirmed. The attack, which the terror group has claimed responsibility for without outlining a clear motive, unfolded in the village of Guyaku, located within the Gombi local government area, and unfolded over the course of several hours, according to state authorities. Witness accounts and official reports detail that militants first stormed a local football pitch where community members had gathered for a public event, opening fire indiscriminately on unarmed civilians before launching a coordinated arson attack that destroyed dozens of residential homes, local places of worship, and hundreds of civilian motorcycles. In the wake of the bloodshed, Adamawa State Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri traveled directly to the attack site to assess the damage and meet with affected community members, sharing on-the-ground photos of his visit and condemning the violence as a fundamental “affront to our humanity”. In a public post shared to his Facebook page, the governor’s spokesperson captured the raw mood gripping the small, close-knit community, writing that “the atmosphere in the community remains tense, with grief and fear evident” following the carnage. Many residents, the spokesperson added, have already fled their homes in search of safer ground, driven out by widespread anxiety that follow-up attacks could target the area in the coming days. Governor Fintiri moved quickly to reassure the public in a statement posted to X, formerly Twitter, affirming that “We are intensifying security operations immediately to restore peace and ensure every resident feels safe in their home again.” The region where the attack took place, which sits along Nigeria’s porous border with Cameroon, has been plagued by near-constant violence linked to Islamist militant factions and local criminal gangs for more than a decade. The current wave of instability traces its origins back to 2009, when the jihadist group Boko Haram launched a full-scale insurgency focused on establishing an Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria. According to international aid organizations, the decades-long conflict has claimed the lives of more than 35,000 people and forced over 2 million Nigerians to flee their homes as internally displaced persons, while violence has spilled across national borders into neighboring Niger, Chad, and Cameroon. In recent years, Boko Haram has fractured into rival factions, with the larger breakaway group, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), aligning itself with the global Islamic State network and carrying out regular attacks against civilian and military targets across the region. Earlier this month, Nigerian courts concluded mass trials that saw almost 400 convicted individuals handed down sentences for their ties to both Boko Haram and ISWAP, marking one of the largest crackdowns on militant affiliation in the country’s recent history. The latest attack comes as the Nigerian federal government faces mounting domestic and international pressure to rein in widespread insecurity across the country, with general elections scheduled for January drawing increased global scrutiny of the administration’s ability to protect civilians and maintain stability. Late last year, the United States launched what it described as “powerful and deadly” drone strikes against IS-aligned militants operating in northwest Nigeria, marking a escalation of international counter-terrorism cooperation in the region even as militant factions continue to carry out high-profile attacks against soft civilian targets.

  • Nations to kick off world-first fossil fuel exit talks

    Nations to kick off world-first fossil fuel exit talks

    Against a backdrop of escalating geopolitical tensions, global energy market volatility, and growing alarm over accelerating climate change, more than 50 national delegations have gathered in the Colombian Caribbean port city of Santa Marta this week for the world’s first dedicated international conference focused on phasing out fossil fuels, the primary driver of anthropogenic global warming.

    Co-hosted by fossil fuel-dependent Colombia and the Netherlands, the two-day summit is being held outside the framework of long-running United Nations climate negotiations, a deliberate choice that reflects widespread frustration among participating nations over the UN process’s repeated failure to make meaningful progress on fossil fuel reduction. Santa Marta, the host city, is a fitting backdrop for the talks: it sits at the heart of one of Colombia’s busiest coal exporting hubs, a reminder of the deep economic ties many nations still retain to planet-warming fossil fuels.

    As delegates arrived for the opening of talks on Tuesday, climate activists and Indigenous community groups marched through the city’s streets and along its beaches to demand urgent action, with coal tankers clearly visible lined up on the ocean horizon beyond the shore. The summit is not mandated to produce binding international commitments, but an independent scientific advisory panel has put forward a sweeping 12-point policy menu for attending nations to consider, headlined by a call for an immediate halt to all new fossil fuel extraction and infrastructure expansion projects.

    The attendee list includes a diverse cross-section of major fossil fuel producers, large energy consumers, and climate-vulnerable nations: major developed producers Canada, Norway and Australia, developing energy giants Brazil, Nigeria and Angola, European Union member states, coal-dependent emerging economies Turkey and Vietnam, and small island developing states that face existential risk from rising sea levels driven by climate change. Notably absent from the talks are the world’s three largest greenhouse gas emitters—the United States, China and India—as well as oil-rich Gulf nations.

    Organizers first announced the summit in late 2024, but recent geopolitical upheaval, including the ongoing Iran conflict and subsequent oil and gas market disruptions, has only sharpened the urgency of the conversation, according to speakers. UK special climate envoy Rachel Kyte told reporters on the ground in Santa Marta that the current crisis has underscored a core truth long argued by climate advocates: global reliance on fossil fuels is a major source of geopolitical and economic instability.

    “People seem refreshed to be able to talk about these issues without having to sort of argue the existential question of — do we need to do this at all?” Kyte said. “Many nations are here in good faith to really work through what is a very complex challenge made more urgent by the crisis.”

    Alongside calls to halt new fossil fuel development, the summit’s agenda includes work to map out a framework for equitable reductions in global fossil fuel production and consumption, and strategies to reform harmful fossil fuel subsidies that currently skew global energy markets and block much-needed investment in renewable energy. A new analysis released Monday by the International Institute for Sustainable Development highlights the scale of this challenge: the research found that governments around the world still spend five times more public funding on fossil fuel support than they invest in renewable energy alternatives.

    Scientists leading the advisory panel have stressed that there is no possible justification for opening new fossil fuel extraction sites, even as renewable energy investment hits record highs. Speaking to AFP in Santa Marta, Carlos Nobre, a Brazilian climate scientist and former member of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, warned that even if no new fossil fuel projects are developed, the existing reserves of coal, oil and gas already in production or development are enough to push global average temperatures 2.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2050.

    The planet has already warmed 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial averages, and current policy trajectories put the world on track to blow past the 1.5 degree Celsius warming threshold that scientists identify as the limit for avoiding catastrophic, irreversible climate impacts. Beyond that threshold, scientists warn of irreversible losses including the complete disappearance of the world’s coral reef systems and the full collapse of the Greenland ice sheet, which would eventually raise global sea levels by more than seven meters, displacing hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

  • Horses unlikely saviours for those who serve in uniform

    Horses unlikely saviours for those who serve in uniform

    For uniformed service members and police officers who routinely risk their lives in service to the public, breaking points are rarely discussed openly. But behind the stoic public image, many struggle with crippling physical injuries and unmanaged mental health trauma that traditional therapies often fail to address. For three British servicemen and law enforcement officers, the path to recovery did not come from a human clinician — it came from an unlikely source: horses.

    Former Royal Air Force reservist John Lewis, serving police officer Nick Morton, and ex-military intelligence operative Al Strudwick all reached catastrophic lows in their post-service or on-duty lives. Lewis, whose 12-year military career ended abruptly after a traffic accident left him with multiple broken bones that forced him into medical retirement, grappled with constant suicidal thoughts. Morton, a 20-year veteran police officer, suffered a total mental breakdown after years of responding to unspeakably traumatic incidents, including child murders. Strudwick, who underwent a double leg amputation after a life-threatening sepsis infection, lost all sense of self-worth and confidence after the procedure. Oddly enough, all three shared one additional common trait: a deep-seated fear of horses.

    Today, all three men credit their dramatic recovery to Warrior Equine, a small British charity that uses equine interaction to support vulnerable current and former service members. Founded in 2019 by Ele Milwright, whose husband is a serving RAF officer, the organization grew out of Milwright’s years of informal observation of the unaddressed trauma many veterans bring home after overseas deployments.

    “I did notice a lot of our friends and colleagues were coming back a little bit quirky,” Milwright told AFP. “You couldn’t quite put your finger on it, but they came back and it was different. Nobody told you what to do about it. It was the elephant in the room. So three things: understanding the value of horses, understanding how horses think, their psychology, and my commitment to help people with a military background or those who serve, all came together.”

    To keep operating costs low, the charity does not own permanent facilities or a herd of its own horses. Instead, it partners with civilian equestrian centers and borrows military horses to run three-day intensive therapy courses, hosting between six and eight cohorts of participants each year. Milwright works alongside chief equine instructor Jim Goddard, who has years of experience working with veterans.

    The core of the charity’s approach centers on the natural connection between equine psychology and emotional regulation for traumatized humans. During the courses, participants are tasked with leading a horse into an enclosed pen and using only their body language, breath control, and energy to encourage the animal to move and interact with them. Horses are innately attuned to tension and emotional instability; only when a participant can achieve a calm, focused state that feels safe to the animal will it choose to engage voluntarily. This exercise becomes a tangible, immediate reward for participants learning to manage their own overwhelming stress and trauma responses.

    For Lewis, who tried multiple traditional talk therapies and was so skeptical of the equine program that he turned around three times on his drive to his first course, the experience proved transformative. He ultimately pushed through his doubt, recognizing that he had nothing left to lose and wanted to build a stable life for his two children.

    “That vulnerability became exacerbated every time I was away from my family and my kids,” Lewis explained. “It became so overwhelmingly controlling. Even if I went into a supermarket to buy a loaf of bread and there wasn’t any bread on the shelf, that was me failing to be able to protect them. Then I would get into conflict in the supermarket just because there wasn’t bread on the shelf.”

    After working with the horses, Lewis says his life is unrecognizable. “The point where the horse can detect that you’re in control of those stress emotions going on inside you, they will, of their own free will, walk over to you and follow you around with no lead,” he said. “They’ll stay close to you in this amazing way. And the way it’s been described to us, and you can really see it, is that they just want to sit there and trust you.” Today, Lewis says his crippling controlling behaviors are gone, and while he acknowledges the trauma he experienced will always be part of his story, he is no longer trapped by it: “That dark tunnel doesn’t even stare me in the face. I know it’s there. But I’m able to turn my back on it every single time.”

    For Strudwick, the program restored the self-confidence he lost after his amputation, so much so that he was able to climb Wales’ Pen y Fan mountain — a core training test for British SAS candidates — from his wheelchair. “It made me realise how far I had come, from lying in a hospital bed for 50 nights, and being released with damaged kidneys and a slowly recovering liver, to climbing a mountain,” he said. Known for his sharp, self-deprecating humor even after his trauma — his upcoming memoir about his recovery is titled *Finding My Feet Again* — Strudwick says the program gave him his joy of life back.

    In recognition of the organization’s extraordinary track record of success, Warrior Equine has been selected as the official charity partner of the 2025 Royal Windsor Horse Show, one of the most prestigious equestrian events in the United Kingdom, running from May 14 to 17. The partnership is expected to raise critical funds to expand the charity’s reach and help hundreds more uniformed service members find healing through the unexpected connection with horses.

  • Crude extends gains as Trump considers latest Iran proposal

    Crude extends gains as Trump considers latest Iran proposal

    Global financial markets traded with heightened volatility on Tuesday, as crude oil prices extended upward momentum while equity indexes struggled for direction, driven by ongoing geopolitical negotiations between the United States and Iran that could reshape Middle Eastern energy security and end an eight-week-old regional conflict.

    Tehran has submitted a written peace proposal to Washington via diplomatic channels through Pakistan, outlining its core negotiating red lines that cover both its nuclear program and the future status of the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most critical energy chokepoint. Under the reported interim framework, Iran has offered to immediately reopen the Strait of Hormuz — through which roughly 20 percent of global oil and liquified natural gas supplies transit daily — in exchange for the United States lifting its ongoing blockade of Iranian ports. More contentious negotiations over Iran’s nuclear activities, a long-standing sticking point for the Trump administration, would be deferred to a later date under the plan.

    The White House confirmed that President Donald Trump convened a meeting with senior advisors on Monday to review the Iranian proposal, but press secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to comment on whether Trump would accept the terms. The news comes just days after Trump abruptly scrapped a planned trip to Islamabad by top envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, dashing earlier market hopes for a quick breakthrough. Top U.S. diplomat Secretary of State Marco Rubio already poured cold water on the proposal during an interview with Fox News, arguing that Iran’s offer does not meet Washington’s requirements. “If what they mean by opening the straits is, ‘yes, the straits are open as long as you coordinate with Iran, get our permission or we’ll blow you up and you pay us,’ that’s not opening the straits,” Rubio said.

    Separately, during a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Saint Petersburg on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged that Moscow would deploy all possible efforts to bring an end to the ongoing Middle East conflict. Iran’s UN envoy Amir Saeid Iravani also told a UN Security Council session that Tehran requires binding guarantees that both the U.S. and Israel will halt future military strikes before it can offer full security assurances for Gulf waterways.

    Energy markets responded directly to the diplomatic developments, with both major global crude benchmarks extending gains. By 0230 GMT, West Texas Intermediate crude climbed 1.0 percent to settle at $97.32 per barrel, while Brent North Sea crude rose 1.0 percent to $109.27 a barrel, approaching the key $110 threshold that has stoked global inflation concerns. Equity markets were far more mixed, with most major Asian indexes ending the session in negative territory: Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 0.5 percent to 60,238.21, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dropped 0.3 percent to 25,851.82, and Shanghai’s Composite Index slipped 0.2 percent to 4,079.78. Gains were limited to a handful of regional exchanges including Seoul, Singapore, Taipei and Jakarta. In prior New York trading, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq notched new all-time record closes, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.1 percent lower to 49,167.79 at close. London’s FTSE 100 also fell 0.6 percent to 10,321.09 on Tuesday.

    Tony Sycamore, a market analyst at IG, noted that mounting domestic pressures may push Iran toward a faster agreement. The country’s aging crude storage facilities are projected to hit full capacity this week, and if storage is exhausted, Iran will be forced to shut in production. “If forced shut‑ins follow, Tehran risks irreversible long‑term damage to its reservoirs and a serious hit to future production and revenue streams,” Sycamore explained. While he called the latest Iranian proposal a step in the right direction, Sycamore added that “it is hard to see the US accepting anything less than a comprehensive deal that both opens the Strait of Hormuz and addresses Iran’s nuclear weapons programme.”

    Beyond Middle Eastern geopolitics, global investors are also bracing for a packed week of high-stakes economic and corporate events. The Bank of Japan is set to announce its latest interest rate decision later Tuesday, with most market analysts expecting the central bank to hold policy steady. The U.S. Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and Bank of England are all scheduled to announce their own rate decisions this week, and most are expected to keep borrowing costs unchanged as the recent surge in energy prices stokes fresh fears of a renewed inflation spike. On the corporate side, earnings reports are due this week from three of the world’s largest technology companies — Apple, Meta Platforms and Microsoft — as well as major industrial and energy firms including Ford and ExxonMobil, which will give investors greater insight into the health of the U.S. and global economy.

  • Philippine museum brings deadly, lucrative galleon trade to life

    Philippine museum brings deadly, lucrative galleon trade to life

    Manila, Philippines – A striking new cultural landmark has opened on the shores of Manila Bay, inviting visitors to step back into one of the most transformative yet under-told chapters of global history: the 250-year era of Spanish Pacific galleon trade. At the heart of the newly opened Museo del Galeon sits a full-scale, meticulously crafted replica of the *Espiritu Santo*, a 17th-century galleon that once plied the deadly trade route connecting Manila, Acapulco, and Spain.

    Unlike many historical accounts of the galleon trade that center on European colonial powers, this new museum deliberately frames the story through the experiences of the Filipino people who built, crewed, and suffered under the colonial enterprise. From 1565 to 1815, 181 galleons completed hundreds of trans-Pacific crossings, forging the first sustained interconnected trade network linking Asia, the Americas, and Europe – a milestone many historians recognize as the dawn of early modern globalization. The *Espiritu Santo*, constructed with forced Filipino labor in 1603, was one of the most formidable vessels of its era.

    Manuel Quezon, the museum’s executive director and a noted historian, emphasizes that the institution does not shy away from the brutal human and environmental cost of the galleon trade. For centuries, Spanish colonial authorities required able-bodied Filipino men to complete 40 days of unpaid forced labor annually felling old-growth hardwoods and constructing the massive ships. Many others were conscripted to serve as crew for voyages that could last more than a year, with death tolls averaging one out of every three sailors per crossing.

    Cramped, overcrowded hulls loaded with luxury cargo left crewmembers surviving on a meager, often rotten diet of hardtack, spoiled salted meat, and rotting fish. Disease and starvation were rampant, and deadly uprisings against the exploitative system broke out across multiple shipbuilding sites, including the Cavite coast near Manila. Even as the trade reshaped global commerce and introduced new foods, religions, cultural practices, and ideas to the Philippines that shape modern Filipino identity today, it left a trail of environmental destruction, decimating local old-growth forests and shattering Indigenous communities.

    “It was the first global trade, connecting three continents. It made the world smaller,” explained Francis Navarro, archives director at Manila’s Ateneo de Manila University, of the trade’s historical significance. Quezon added that the long legacy of Filipino seafaring persists to this day: Filipinos still make up one quarter of the world’s merchant sailors, a tradition rooted in the exploitative galleon era that has never been fully highlighted in mainstream historical narratives.

    After 14 years of planning and development, the museum opened its doors to the public on May 1. Visitors can walk the decks of the replica *Espiritu Santo*, surround by immersive, wraparound LED displays that recreate the open Pacific skies. Artifacts recovered from actual galleon wrecks line the surrounding exhibit halls, including a fragment of a Chinese tomb stone once used as ballast in a 17th-century ship’s hold.

    The $16.5 million (billion-peso) project ultimately secured funding from some of the Philippines’ wealthiest families after attempts to secure government financing and support from a Mexican billionaire fell through. Unlike the original *Espiritu Santo*, the modern replica is not built from native hardwood – a choice made out of environmental responsibility. The original 1,000-ton galleon required 800 mature old-growth water-resistant hardwood trees, a stock that has been completely wiped out in the Philippines due to centuries of unsustainable logging for shipbuilding. Today, those trees can only be found in remote Myanmar forests, and clearing that many ancient trees to build a static display would have been unethical, Quezon explained. Instead, the replica was constructed from fiberglass and other synthetic materials while remaining scrupulously accurate to the original ship’s design and dimensions.

    Quezon notes that the museum fills a critical gap in Philippine historical memory. “We’re filling the blanks in with this museum,” he said during a pre-opening tour. “The child who comes through, we want them to realise that many of the things that they take for granted have absolutely amazing stories behind them.”

  • Queensland RSL’s Anzac Day decision condemned by Indigenous elder

    Queensland RSL’s Anzac Day decision condemned by Indigenous elder

    Australia’s annual Anzac Day commemorations have been roiled in fresh national debate this year over the inclusion of Welcome to Country and Acknowledgment of Traditional Custodians ceremonies, after a regional Queensland Returned and Services League (RSL) branch drew widespread backlash for removing the Indigenous recognition ritual from its flagship Dawn Service.

    The controversy centered on the Townsville RSL, based in the northern Queensland garrison city with deep, enduring ties to Australia’s military history. Thousands attended the city’s 2024 Anzac Day Dawn Service, where the traditional Welcome to Country and acknowledgment of First Nations peoples was omitted from the official program.

    Prominent Indigenous elder and academic Professor Gracelyn Smallwood condemned the RSL’s decision in comments to Seven News, calling the move “very disgraceful”. She emphasized the erased contributions of Indigenous Anzacs, who fought for Australia alongside non-Indigenous soldiers but returned home to systemic exclusion: denied the pensions, land grants, and citizen rights granted to their white counterparts.

    When approached for comment on the decision, Townsville Mayor Nick Dametto’s spokesperson distanced the local government from the choice, noting that event programming falls exclusively under the RSL’s control. The Townsville RSL itself has not yet issued a public response to the criticism, after repeated requests for comment.

    Townsville was not the only site of division around the ritual this Anzac Day. Booing broke out during Welcome to Country ceremonies at major Dawn Services in three of Australia’s largest cities: Perth, Sydney, and Melbourne, stoking national discussion over the place of Indigenous recognition in major public events.

    The backlash has drawn commentary from senior political figures across the ideological spectrum. Federal Opposition Leader Angus Taylor told ABC Insiders that while the public booing was “absolutely unacceptable”, he echoed the frustrations of some Australians by arguing that Welcome to Country ceremonies have become “overused” in national events. Taylor claimed that frequent, widespread inclusion of the ritual has diluted its meaning, saying “they are devalued” through overuse, and argued for fewer ceremonies to preserve their significance.

    Western Australia’s Aboriginal Affairs Minister Don Punch hit back at Taylor and state opposition leader Basil Zempilas, accusing the pair of embracing a populist stance that ignores the cultural importance of the ritual. Punch pushed back against critics of the practice, noting that while some hold strongly negative, often racist views of Welcome to Country, the ritual is a core part of respecting Australia’s First Nations heritage. “What a Welcome to Country is, it’s saying g’day, saying welcome to the land, it’s respecting First Nations culture,” he explained.

    Elsewhere across the country, many Anzac Day services maintained the longstanding practice of including Indigenous recognition. In far north Queensland’s Cairns, for example, the official program included an acknowledgment of country paired with a traditional didgeridoo performance, mirroring protocols at most major services including Sydney’s Martin Place Dawn Service, where Aunty or Uncle Raymond Minniecon delivered the official Welcome to Country this year.

  • US considering sending stranded Afghans in Qatar to the Congo, advocacy group says

    US considering sending stranded Afghans in Qatar to the Congo, advocacy group says

    Nearly three years after the chaotic 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, more than 1,100 Afghan allies with verified ties to the U.S. military and government remain trapped in a geographic and bureaucratic limbo at Camp As Sayliyah, a U.S.-operated military base tucked into Qatar’s arid desert. What was supposed to be a maximum 21-day waiting period for U.S. resettlement has stretched into years, leaving the group confined to the base with no legal permission to reside in Qatar, forbidden from leaving the compound. One resident previously described the facility to Middle East Eye as little more than an open-air prison.

    Now, a new and deeply controversial proposal has sparked outrage from refugee advocacy groups: transfer the entire cohort to the Democratic Republic of Congo for permanent resettlement, according to #AfghanEvac, a leading advocacy organization working to evacuate and resettle Afghan allies.

    The Trump administration, which took office in 2025, originally ordered the Camp As Sayliyah facility closed by March 31 of this year, giving the stranded Afghans a firm deadline to find a new host country after the administration reversed prior commitments to bring all vetted allies to the U.S. To date, no permanent resettlement destination had been publicly confirmed, until details of the DRC plan emerged during a recent virtual press briefing held by #AfghanEvac last week.

    Shawn VanDriver, president of #AfghanEvac, told reporters that the current proposal would send Afghan interpreters, former special operations personnel, and immediate family members of more than 150 current and recently separated U.S. service members to a country grappling with multiple overlapping crises. The DRC already hosts over 600,000 displaced people from regional conflicts, is engaged in active armed hostilities with Rwanda, and is classified by the United Nations as one of the world’s worst humanitarian displacement emergencies. The U.S. State Department also maintains a Level 3 travel advisory for the DRC, a strong official warning that advises U.S. citizens against all non-essential travel to the country due to widespread violence, crime, and political instability.

    “This plan cannot stand,” VanDriver emphasized, arguing that forcing vulnerable Afghans who worked alongside the U.S. to resettle in an active conflict zone violates every commitment Washington made to these allies.

    U.S. State Department officials have neither confirmed nor denied the DRC proposal, stating only that the agency is actively working to identify viable resettlement options for all Camp As Sayliyah residents. In a statement emailed to Middle East Eye, a department spokesperson framed third-country resettlement as a “positive resolution” that would allow Afghans to build new lives outside Afghanistan while upholding U.S. national security priorities. The spokesperson added that the agency maintains regular direct communication with residents, and would not disclose details of ongoing negotiations due to the sensitivity of the process.

    Middle East Eye’s request for comment to the Department of Homeland Security, asking whether new DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin – who has a public record of supporting Afghan ally resettlement efforts – has been involved in discussions, was redirected to the State Department.

    The controversy has already sparked partisan finger-pointing over the years-long delay. The Trump administration has blamed the prior Biden administration for what it calls a rushed, flawed vetting process for Afghan allies evacuated after the 2021 withdrawal. But Jon Finer, Biden’s former deputy national security advisor, pushed back against that characterization during the #AfghanEvac briefing. He clarified that the evacuation operation for Afghan allies, dubbed Operation Enduring Welcome, was not an unplanned emergency pullout, but a structured, deliberate resettlement pipeline.

    Finer also confirmed that the Biden administration preserved and strengthened the strict enhanced vetting frameworks developed over decades, including those put in place during the first Trump administration. “They are, by design and by implementation, the most vetted lawful immigrants to the United States among all the categories of people who come,” Finer said of the Camp As Sayliyah residents, adding that all 1,100 people currently held at the base have already completed full vetting for U.S. immigration. #AfghanEvac’s data confirms that more than 200,000 Afghans have already successfully been resettled in the U.S. through this exact same vetting process with no reported security incidents.

    Earlier this year, the State Department launched a controversial voluntary departure program, offering cash payments to Afghans who leave the base on their own. Then-Assistant Secretary of State Samir Paul Kapur told lawmakers in February that 150 Afghans had already accepted the payments, but Camp As Sayliyah residents told Middle East Eye that many of those who accepted the offer had no other viable option and chose to return to Afghanistan, where they face targeted violence from the Taliban for their past work with the U.S.

    VanDriver rejected framing the program as a voluntary choice, noting that Afghans were given only two unacceptable options: return to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan or relocate to a conflict zone in the DRC. “You cannot call a choice voluntary when the two options are Congo and the Taliban, civil war or an oppressor who wants to kill you,” VanDriver said. “That is not a choice. That is a confession extracted under duress.”

    Last weekend, VanDriver led a bipartisan congressional delegation to visit the Camp As Sayliyah facility, where his organization collected a video plea from 14-year-old stranded resident Zahra. In her message, addressed to U.S. First Lady Melania Trump, Zahra asked simply for “a peaceful life, a chance to get a better education, and a brighter future” that the U.S. had promised her and her family for their service alongside American forces.