Global Pulse

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  • Michael Jackson biopic smashes box office record

    Michael Jackson biopic smashes box office record

    The highly anticipated Michael Jackson biopic *Michael* has roared onto the global box office landscape, securing its place in Hollywood history by posting the highest opening weekend gross ever recorded for any biographical film. Led by Jaafar Jackson, the late King of Pop’s own nephew in his breakout leading role, the musical biopic raked in a staggering $217 million (£160 million) worldwide during its opening five days, which launched globally last Wednesday.

    This record-breaking haul topples two long-standing benchmarks. Before *Michael*’s release, the top opening for a musical biopic belonged to 2018’s *Bohemian Rhapsody*, which launched with $124 million (£91 million) and earned star Rami Malek an Academy Award for his portrayal of Freddie Mercury. The new release even outpaced 2024’s *Oppenheimer*, which opened to $180 million (£133 million) to claim the all-biopic opening crown.

    Adam Fogelson, chair of *Michael*’s United States distribution partner Lionsgate, attributed the historic opening to broad cross-demographic appeal. “You don’t deliver this figure unless you’re seeing huge numbers across every conceivable demographic,” Fogelson noted. “Audiences are clearly having a blast.”

    Despite its massive commercial success, the film has sparked a sharp divide between critics and moviegoers. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, critics have awarded *Michael* a lukewarm 38% average score, with many reviewers criticizing the film for presenting what they call a “sanitized” narrative of Jackson’s decades-long career. In stark contrast, audience ratings sit at an overwhelming 97%, with widespread praise directed at Jaafar Jackson’s uncanny portrayal of the pop icon.

    The omission of any reference to child sexual abuse allegations that dogged Jackson’s later career has been the core point of critical contention. Jackson consistently maintained his innocence and was acquitted of all child molestation charges in a 2005 criminal trial. Filmmakers initially planned to include a storyline centered on 1990s allegations made by Jordan Chandler, but the project was forced to undergo major changes after a long-forgotten non-disclosure agreement (NDA) was rediscovered. The confidential settlement Jackson reached with Chandler’s family included a permanent clause banning the singer’s estate from ever mentioning Chandler in any film production.

    Director Antoine Fuqua described the last-minute NDA discovery as a uniquely challenging hurdle for the production team. Speaking to *Deadline* over opening weekend, Fuqua explained, “The rediscovery of the NDA led to a tough period because the team had to rethink everything. All movies have different challenges, but this one was unique.” To work around the legal restriction, the team opted to refocus the narrative entirely on Jackson’s rise to legendary status in the music industry, ending the story in 1988 – years before the first public allegations emerged.

    The revised narrative centers heavily on meticulously recreated concert performances and explores the famously strained relationship between a young Jackson and his domineering father Joseph, portrayed by Oscar-nominated actor Colman Domingo. The extensive reshoots required to restructure the film pushed its total production budget to an estimated $200 million (£148 million), making *Michael* one of the most expensive biopics ever made. Financed by Jackson’s own estate, the film features the star’s original studio and live vocals for all its iconic musical numbers, from *Billie Jean* to *Beat It* and *Thriller*.

    *Michael* is just the latest entry in a decade-long boom of musical biopics in Hollywood, a genre that studios have come to rely on as consistent box office draws. In recent years, the lives of music icons including Queen, Elton John, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Elvis Presley, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Marley, Amy Winehouse, N.W.A, Robbie Williams, and Whitney Houston have all been adapted for the big screen.

    While *Michael* launched simultaneously across most major global markets last weekend, it has yet to reach Japanese cinemas, with a June release date scheduled by local distributors. The film’s blockbuster opening also adds to a recent positive upswing for the global cinema industry, coming on the heels of other major hits including *The Super Mario Galaxy Movie* and *Project Hail Mary*, with the highly anticipated *The Devil Wears Prada 2* set to premiere this coming weekend. For long-time fans of Jackson, whose 1982 album *Thriller* remains the best-selling album of all time, the film offers a deep dive into the early career of one of pop music’s most influential and recognizable performers.

  • China’s cross-border e-commerce offers opportunities

    China’s cross-border e-commerce offers opportunities

    At a 2026 Shanghai Forum sub-forum focused on digital economic connectivity across the Global South, industry experts and policy researchers have highlighted that China’s cross-border e-commerce sector has stepped into a new era of high-quality growth, creating wide-ranging, mutually beneficial collaborative opportunities for emerging economies across the Global South. Today, China’s cross-border e-commerce ecosystem is defined by three key transformative trends: diversified consumer and marketing traffic channels, end-to-end integrated trade operations, and access to an expanding network of diverse global markets. As Chinese domestic sellers actively pursue new market frontiers and expand their product portfolios, Global South partner nations are positioned to gain substantial long-term advantages from these shifting dynamics.\n\nLi Mingtao, chief e-commerce expert at the China International Electronic Commerce Center, explained that Global South countries can capitalize on China’s decades of refined e-commerce operational expertise to accelerate the launch of their unique, high-quality local goods into global consumer markets. Beyond exporting their own products, Li noted that Global South enterprises can also collaborate with Chinese firms on secondary product development, leveraging China’s open cross-border e-commerce import channels to tap into the massive, evolving demand of China’s domestic consumer base.\n\nTo maximize these shared benefits, experts have proposed advancing the development of a large interconnected e-commerce market under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative. This collaborative framework would prioritize upgrading digital infrastructure in partner nations, while fostering greater operational synergy between Global South economies and China’s robust production and supply chains. Qi Xin, director of the Belt and Road Initiative Economic and Trade Cooperation Research Institute at the Ministry of Commerce’s Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, added that China has a key role to play in shaping inclusive global digital governance. She emphasized that China should work to advance the creation of a mutually beneficial, open, and transparent international rules-based system for the digital economy, while deepening strategic partnerships with core Global South regions to lift cross-border e-commerce cooperation to new levels.\n\nA growing number of Chinese cross-border e-commerce enterprises have already laid the groundwork for this collaboration by building out localized service networks across Global South countries. One standout example is Kilimall, a Chinese-founded e-commerce platform launched in Kenya that has built localized operational hubs across multiple African nations. To date, the platform has created more than 10,000 local jobs across logistics, customer service, and retail sales, delivering tangible improvements to local employment and quality of life.\n\nShanghai, China’s frontier of reform and opening-up, has emerged as a key national hub for bridging China and Global South economies through digital trade empowerment. Zhou Lan, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, outlined the city’s ongoing efforts to facilitate these connections, pointing to Shanghai’s Hongqiao International Coffee Harbor as a successful model. The hub hosts roughly 100 online and offline enterprises, curates coffee products from 60 countries across the globe, and maintains a complete end-to-end industrial ecosystem that spans every stage from raw coffee bean production to retail consumer sales. Twenty-five Belt and Road partner countries including Ethiopia, Kenya, Vietnam, and Peru supply coffee beans to the harbor, and a growing volume of products from these regions enter China through Shanghai’s Silk Road e-commerce channels before being distributed across the country.\n\nGlobal South partners have already reported tangible economic gains from existing cross-border e-commerce collaborations with Chinese enterprises. Eldor Tulyakov, executive director of the Development Strategy Center of Uzbekistan, noted that his country’s ongoing digital transformation has delivered clear commercial progress in recent years, with partnerships with Chinese platforms including Alibaba laying the foundation for Uzbekistan’s modern online retail ecosystem and opening access to hundreds of millions of global consumers. Last year, an Alibaba capacity-building initiative gave 100 local Uzbek small and medium-sized enterprises direct access to the global e-commerce market, integrating these local businesses into global value chains for the first time. Tulyakov added that Uzbekistan has recently produced its first domestic technology unicorn, valued at more than $2 billion, which now serves more than half of the country’s population and stands as a successful benchmark for inclusive digital transformation.\n\nWhile the opportunities are significant, stakeholders have noted that realizing inclusive, mutually beneficial cross-border e-commerce growth requires deeper, more balanced collaborative partnerships between China and Global South nations. Siwage Dharma Negara, a senior fellow with the Indonesia Studies Programme at Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, explained that Indonesia is working to strike a careful balance between short-term market regulation and long-term development targets. Over the long term, the country aims to strengthen its overall economic resilience while protecting consumer interests enabled by expanded digital trade, he said.

  • Need for speed fuels mini-car race craze

    Need for speed fuels mini-car race craze

    For generations of Chinese people born between the 1980s and 1990s, mini four-wheel-drive (4WD) toy cars hold far more than nostalgic value. Far from being just simple playthings, these tiny speed machines were childhood portals to adventure, sparking boundless imagination and forging lasting friendships between like-minded hobbyists. Now, decades after their first boom in popularity, that long-dormant childhood passion is roaring back to life across the country, driven by a retro hobby craze centered on the thrill of speed.

    On April 12, one of the largest recent amateur mini 4WD events brought nearly 300 enthusiasts from across China to Beijing’s Wenyuhe Park, where a purpose-built track has become an unlikely hub for the resurgent hobby. The action-packed day of competition kicked off in the morning with 60 teams going head-to-head in a timed group challenge that tested both assembly speed and on-track performance. In the afternoon, the tournament shifted to a high-stakes one-on-one knockout format, featuring 160 individual racers vying for the top title.

    The Wenyuhe Park track, which first opened in 2022, was originally conceived as a public art installation designed around China’s traditional xiangyun (auspicious cloud) pattern. Planners later made subtle modifications to the layout to meet the strict dimensional requirements of official mini 4WD racing courses, but the space remained relatively unknown to the broader hobby community until late 2025, when it went viral across Chinese social media platforms. Today, the 88-meter track — which includes a complex overpass section — is open to the public completely free of charge, and has grown into a thriving social gathering spot for retro culture lovers, drawing hobbyists from every profession and age group.

    For many enthusiasts, the Wenyuhe track has already achieved near-legendary status. Among the participants at the April 12 event was 33-year-old Zou Chenyang, who traveled more than 1,000 kilometers from his home in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, to join the race. A full-time livestreamer and professional custom mini 4WD builder, Zou describes the park as a “pilgrimage site” for anyone passionate about the hobby. “I came here just to race and have fun,” he explained. “The atmosphere is incredible, there are so many kids and parents here enjoying the day. I really hope more families will give it a try and join the community.”

    The winner of the inaugural one-on-one ultimate battle, An Ruifeng, a middle-aged working professional, downplayed his victory, attributing his win to good fortune rather than raw skill. An first fell in love with mini 4WD cars when he was just 8 or 9 years old, and took up the hobby again as an adult to decompress from the stress of his daily work. Before the event, he even turned down his family’s offer to come cheer him on, worried he would be embarrassed if he crashed out early. “My only real goal was to pass the pre-race technical inspection and finish just one lap,” he said. “That would have made me happy enough. Getting all the way to the win is unbelievable… I just love these cars.” Holding the winner’s flag, he shared advice for future participants: “Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. This is just for fun — don’t let it get in the way of your work, family or daily life. As long as you cross the finish line, we’re all champions.”

    All competing cars are required to meet strict technical regulations to keep competition fair and accessible. Liu Han, one of the event’s technical inspection judges, outlined key rules for the afternoon knockout race, including a 40,000 revolution per minute limit on motors and a ban on metal chassis. “As a long-time mini 4WD enthusiast, I didn’t get to compete this time around, but volunteering as a judge let me stay involved with the community while making sure all racers follow the rules,” Liu explained.

    The mini 4WD craze is not limited to Beijing, with new tracks opening and hobby communities growing across the entire country. Earlier this month, Shanghai’s Jiabei Country Park launched trial operations for a new 228-meter professional-grade track, which offers greater challenges for experienced racers with a layout that includes long straightaways, sharp curves and gentle sloped sections. Like the Wenyuhe Park venue, the Shanghai track is free for public use, and also offers dedicated spaces for car maintenance and customization, plus on-site sales of starter cars for new enthusiasts looking to join the hobby.

  • Jilin’s chill no challenge for cherry tomato crop

    Jilin’s chill no challenge for cherry tomato crop

    Even as lingering cold snaps still grip Northeast China’s Jilin province in mid-April, a cutting-edge smart agricultural facility in Changchun is bucking traditional seasonal constraints to produce bountiful, high-quality cherry tomatoes year-round.

    Located within the Changchun National Agricultural High-Tech Industry Demonstration Zone, the 77,000-square-meter intelligent greenhouse operated by Hengtong Ecological Agriculture Technology Development Co is a showcase of modern, data-driven agriculture. Unlike open-field farms that rely on natural weather conditions, every element of cherry tomato growth here is fine-tuned by a connected digital system: sensors woven through rows of climbing tomato vines continuously collect real-time data on plant development, feeding insights to a centralized big data platform that automatically adjusts water, fertilizer, light, temperature, air flow and heat. Every management task, from drip irrigation to environmental regulation, can be completed remotely with a single click.

    First launched for construction in 2024, the facility’s 36,000-square-meter planting center is already fully operational, turning out consistent yields that outperform traditional cultivation by a wide margin. “We hit an annual output of more than 300 metric tons, with a steady daily harvest of one ton,” explained Xu Lihui, chairman of Hengtong. “On the same plot of land, our total yield is three times higher than open-field growing. Where traditional cherry tomato harvests only last around four months a year, we harvest 12 months out of the year—even during Jilin’s frigid deep winters, our vines stay heavy with ripe, plump fruit.”

    The intensive, technology-driven design of the plant factory maximizes land productivity while cutting down on agricultural inputs. Growing cherry tomatoes in a sterile, soilless environment, paired with AI-powered precision control of growth conditions, has drastically reduced the need for synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Automated transport robots and guided vehicles navigate the greenhouse by scanning ground QR codes, handling logistics tasks assigned by the central system to cut down on labor needs and reduce human error.

    This focus on optimized, controlled growing translates directly to premium product quality. Ripened from flowering to maturity under consistently perfect conditions, the greenhouse-grown cherry tomatoes boast thin, crisp skin, rich juiciness and a naturally sweet flavor that has resonated with upscale buyers across China’s major cities. Today, the company’s output is in high demand at high-end supermarkets, membership-based fresh food chains and corporate bulk buyers in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

    To meet growing market demand, Hengtong is already expanding its operations. By the end of 2026, the company will complete construction of a second 42,000-square-meter plant factory dedicated to cultivating high-quality seedlings for vegetables, flowers and medicinal herbs, as well as scaling up production of new specialty varieties of cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and strawberries for both domestic and international markets. A 24,000-square-meter agricultural science center will also open to the public as an educational and outreach hub.

    Once the expansion is fully completed, the project is expected to deliver far-reaching benefits beyond its own production output. It will create roughly 300 local jobs for residents in surrounding communities, while driving coordinated growth in supporting local industries including logistics, agritourism and catering, unlocking simultaneous improvements to the region’s economic output, ecological sustainability and social well-being.

  • At least 42 killed in Chad after water well dispute escalates

    At least 42 killed in Chad after water well dispute escalates

    A simmering local dispute over access to a water well has exploded into deadly inter-ethnic violence in eastern Chad, leaving at least 42 people dead and 10 others wounded, senior Chadian officials have confirmed. What began as a confrontation between two families in Wadi Fira province quickly escalated into a sustained cycle of retaliatory attacks that spread across multiple communities, leaving multiple villages burned to the ground in its wake.

    Chadian government announced on Sunday that a high-level delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Limane Mahamat has been dispatched to the conflict zone to oversee security operations and mediate local tensions. Officials confirmed that the violence has now been contained, and stability is gradually being restored to the area.

    Deadly inter-communal clashes are a persistent crisis across this central African nation, where long-standing frictions between farming and pastoral communities, compounded by deep-seated ethnic tensions, have created a repeating pattern of violence. Competition over increasingly scarce water resources and grazing land is the most common trigger for these outbreaks of conflict.

    In recent months, the already fragile security situation along Chad’s eastern border has been further exacerbated by the arrival of tens of thousands of refugees fleeing the ongoing civil war in neighboring Sudan. The influx of new residents has placed enormous additional strain on limited natural resources, driving up resource competition and stoking broader security tensions. On Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister Mahamat reaffirmed the Chadian government’s commitment to deploying all necessary measures to stop Sudan’s conflict from spilling over and destabilizing the country’s border regions.

    This latest deadly incident is part of a years-long trend of escalating communal violence across Chad. Over the past several years, hundreds of people have been killed in these clashes; in November last year alone, 33 people died in a similar conflict over a contested water well in the southwestern town of Dibebe. Data from the International Crisis Group, a leading international think-tank, shows that between 2021 and 2024, roughly 100 separate communal clashes across the country left more than 1,000 people dead and another 2,000 injured. Global human rights organization Amnesty International has also documented seven major outbreaks of herder-farmer violence between 2022 and 2024, which collectively claimed 98 lives.

    In a report released last year, Amnesty International linked the rising frequency and severity of these clashes to the accelerating impacts of climate change, which has worsened drought conditions and scarcity of critical resources across the Sahel region. The organization also criticized Chadian authorities for failing to effectively protect civilian populations, noting that security force responses to emerging violence are often delayed, and few perpetrators are ever held legally accountable for their actions. “This pattern of inaction fuels a widespread sense of impunity and deepens feelings of marginalization within affected communities,” the report stated.

  • Trump says King will be ‘very safe’ during US visit after security talks

    Trump says King will be ‘very safe’ during US visit after security talks

    Four days of high-stakes diplomatic pageantry are set to kick off Monday in Washington D.C., as King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrive for their first state visit to the United States under the second Trump administration. The trip remains on track almost entirely in its original form, despite heightened security jitters following a weekend security breach at a Trump event that left a Secret Service agent with minor injuries.

  • Rising maritime threats test global trade lifeline

    Rising maritime threats test global trade lifeline

    Against a backdrop of accelerating global interconnectedness and shifting geopolitical dynamics, rising traditional and non-traditional threats to maritime security have emerged as an urgent collective challenge for the international community. Global industry experts and academic analysts have emphasized that coordinated negotiation, mutual respect, and unified governance mechanisms are critical to protecting maritime shipping, the undisputed backbone of the global economy and international stability.

    This consensus was forged by hundreds of global participants at a high-level international forum hosted by Shanghai Maritime University on Thursday, which centered on advancing shared maritime security and inclusive blue economic prosperity.

    Zhang Feng, professor and dean of the School of Marxism at Shanghai Maritime University, outlined the outsized importance of maritime shipping to global commerce, noting that more than 80 percent of all global trade by volume and over 95 percent of China’s foreign trade cargo – much of it originating from China’s role as the world’s manufacturing hub – moves across ocean shipping lanes. Even minor disruptions to these shipping operations can ripple through global import and export markets, Zhang warned, posing cascading risks to global economic activity, food security, and energy stability.

    “Shipping connects every corner of the globe and binds our shared future together; it is the irreplaceable economic lifeline of the modern world,” Zhang said. “As the world navigates major changes unseen in a century, maritime security has become a central arena for major power competition. Recent events in the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea have underscored just how critical this domain is to global welfare.”

    Kazem Agamy, dean of the Arab Research Institute for Sustainable Blue Economy at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport, used a recent high-profile disruption to illustrate the fragility of global maritime security. Two years ago, widespread insecurity in the Red Sea forced the world’s largest container carriers to divert their fleets on the much longer route around the Cape of Good Hope, sending global freight costs soaring. The centuries-old supply chain connecting Asia, Africa, and Europe via the Suez Canal was severed almost overnight. The canal, which normally carries roughly 12 percent of all global trade and generates over $10 billion in annual revenue at peak activity, saw its annual earnings plummet by nearly half.

    “This incident laid bare a harsh fundamental truth,” Agamy explained. “While more than 80 percent of global trade travels by sea, the governance frameworks that underpin maritime security remain deeply fragmented. Shipping lanes are inherently global, but the institutional mechanisms designed to protect them are not. This gap is the single most pressing challenge we face on this issue.”

    Norman Martinez Gutierrez, director of the International Maritime Law Institute at the International Maritime Organization, added that while maritime security is most often linked to traditional threats such as terrorism, piracy, and armed robbery at sea, its actual scope is far broader. Modern maritime security also encompasses reliable safe navigation, protection of critical offshore and port infrastructure, environmental protection of marine ecosystems, and consistent compliance with established international legal standards.

    “Without robust, widespread maritime security, there can be no predictability in global maritime transport, no stability in cross-border supply chains, and no confidence in the international legal rules that govern global shipping,” Gutierrez said.

    Mao Ruipeng, a senior researcher at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, highlighted China’s active role in advancing collective global maritime security. He noted that China was among the first group of nations to sign the ambitious agreement under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea focused on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, widely known as the BBNJ Agreement.

    “China is a steadfast defender of the established international maritime order,” Mao said. “It has proposed and implemented the Global Governance Initiative, consistently upholds multilateral cooperation, and works to safeguard the international maritime order rooted in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.”

  • Scientists deploy tech in cancer radiation therapy

    Scientists deploy tech in cancer radiation therapy

    A decade-long research project led by scientists at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center in Guangzhou has yielded an artificial intelligence-powered innovation that is set to reshape radiation therapy for cancer, particularly nasopharyngeal carcinoma, by drastically improving precision and cutting down on clinician workload.

    Nasopharyngeal carcinoma, which forms in the upper throat behind the nose, is primarily treated with radiation therapy. The stakes of this treatment are extraordinarily high: an undersized radiation field leaves sections of the tumor untreated, raising the likelihood of cancer recurrence, while an overly broad field can inflict irreversible damage to critical nearby structures including the brainstem, temporal lobe, middle ear, and optic nerve. Such collateral damage often triggers life-altering complications ranging from chronic headaches and memory loss to permanent hearing and vision impairment, severely diminishing a patient’s post-treatment quality of life.

    To avoid these outcomes, clinicians must complete a meticulous pre-treatment step called target volume delineation, where they manually identify and trace the boundaries of both the tumor and surrounding healthy organs on medical scans to define the exact radiation field. Before this new technology was introduced, this demanding task required clinicians to maintain intense focus for three to six hours per patient, according to Sun Ying, a professor at the cancer center.

    The complexity of the process is further compounded by changes in patient anatomy over the course of treatment. A full course of radiotherapy typically spans six to seven weeks and requires more than 30 separate treatment sessions. During this period, tumors often shrink and patients may experience weight loss that shifts the exact position of the remaining cancer. This means initial scans taken at the start of treatment quickly become outdated, leaving clinicians to update delineations repeatedly to avoid misaligned radiation delivery.

    To solve these longstanding challenges, the research team led by the center’s vice-president Ma Jun, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Sun spent more than 10 years developing their proprietary AI-powered “digital dissection” technique. The system is trained on large datasets that map how nasopharyngeal tumors grow and shift over the course of treatment, allowing it to automatically generate highly precise outline of target radiation areas in real time as a patient’s condition changes. Clinicians then only need to review and make minor adjustments to the AI-generated outline before finalizing an adaptive radiotherapy plan, which adjusts to current patient anatomy during each session.

    In a recent demonstration at the center, the entire process — from integrated CT imaging to completed adaptive radiation delivery — was finished in under 30 minutes for a nasopharyngeal carcinoma patient.

    Zhou Guanqun, a chief physician at the center, noted that the new system already outperforms 50% of specialist physicians in terms of delineation accuracy. Beyond accuracy gains, the technology has cut the variation in outline work between different clinicians by 50% and boosted workflow efficiency by more than five times, bringing total treatment time for each case down to roughly 30 minutes from the multiple hours previously required for manual delineation alone.

    The innovation marks a significant step forward in making precision radiotherapy more accessible and consistent, addressing a critical gap in cancer care that has long depended on individual clinician skill and experience.

  • At least 42 people killed in eastern Chad during clashes over water resources

    At least 42 people killed in eastern Chad during clashes over water resources

    In the early hours of Saturday, a long-simmering local dispute over access to a critical water source between two families in eastern Chad erupted into widespread, revenge-fueled violence that left at least 42 people dead and 10 others injured, the Central African nation’s deputy prime minister confirmed in a statement late Sunday.

    Deputy Prime Minister Limane Mahamat made the confirmation during an official visit to Igote, the small border village in Wadi Fira province where the violence unfolded, located just kilometers from Chad’s shared boundary with conflict-wracked Sudan. The injured victims have already been evacuated to the region’s main provincial health facility for urgent medical care, Mahamat added.

    The cycle of retaliatory attacks quickly spread across multiple communities in the area, forcing Chadian military forces to deploy to curb the violence. According to Mahamat, the army’s rapid intervention successfully halted further bloodshed, and public order has now been fully restored across the conflict zone.

    In response to the violence, Chadian authorities have launched two parallel processes: a traditional community mediation initiative to resolve underlying tensions in Igote, and formal judicial investigations to hold those responsible for the deaths and destruction accountable.

    Intercommunal violence driven by competition over scarce natural resources is a recurring crisis across Chad. Just last year, similar clashes between farming and pastoral communities in southwestern portions of the country also claimed 42 lives and destroyed hundreds of residential structures.

    Mahamat stressed that the Chadian government will implement every necessary measure to prevent further instability in this high-risk border region, which has faced growing strain since the outbreak of full-scale civil war in Sudan in early 2023. For months, eastern Chad has hosted hundreds of thousands of Sudanese refugees who fled the cross-border conflict, placing unprecedented pressure on local water, food, and land resources that has exacerbated existing intercommunal tensions.

    Back in February, Chad’s government took the drastic step of closing its entire border with Sudan indefinitely, framing the move as an effort to stop the spillover of Sudanese fighting into its territory after multiple armed incursions by militias aligned with Sudan’s warring factions.

    According to United Nations estimates, the ongoing civil war in Sudan has already killed more than 40,000 people, though independent humanitarian groups warn the actual death toll is likely far higher, as many casualties in hard-to-reach conflict zones are never counted. The conflict has spawned the world’s most severe current humanitarian crisis, displacing more than 14 million people from their homes, triggering widespread deadly disease outbreaks, and pushing multiple regions of Sudan into full-blown famine.

  • Miracle moment missing dog rescued from 13-story ledge in Dee Why after being trapped for days

    Miracle moment missing dog rescued from 13-story ledge in Dee Why after being trapped for days

    In a breathtaking, camera-captured rescue that left onlookers cheering, a team of firefighters pulled a missing jack russell terrier to safety after the small pet spent two days trapped on a narrow 13th-storey ledge of a coastal Sydney high-rise.

    The dog, named Elbie, went missing from her home on Anzac Day, leaving her owners distraught and launching a frantic search across the Dee Why neighborhood on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. For 48 hours, Elbie’s whereabouts remained a mystery – until a drone operator scanning the exterior of the 40-meter-tall Meriton Apartments spotted the frightened dog perched on the narrow ledge, tucked behind an external building screen.

    Emergency services were quickly dispatched to the scene, and a crowd of local onlookers gathered on the ground below to watch the high-stakes operation unfold. Video footage of the rescue shows a trained firefighter abseil down the side of the residential building to reach Elbie’s precarious position. Working carefully around the narrow ledge 40 meters above ground, the rescuer spent roughly 20 minutes extracting the trapped dog from behind the screen before passing her safely through an open apartment window to waiting crew members inside the building.

    As Elbie was pulled into the building unharmed, cheers of jubilation erupted from the crowd gathered below. Elbie’s owner, who had spent two days searching for the missing pet, spoke to local media after the rescue, expressing overwhelming relief at the outcome. “I was over the moon, you know, I thought I didn’t know how I was going to see her again,” the owner told 9News. “So very happy.”

    Initial investigations into how Elbie ended up on the ledge suggest the adventurous dog climbed over a row of rooftop flower pots before wandering onto the narrow exterior ledge, where she became stuck for two days until the drone discovery that saved her life.