Global Pulse

作者： admin

  • Couple caned for kissing on TikTok in Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province

    Couple caned for kissing on TikTok in Indonesia’s conservative Aceh province

    In Indonesia’s only province that enforces a formal version of Islamic Sharia law, a young couple has received public corporal punishment after a viral TikTok livestream of them kissing resulted in conviction for violating local religious morality regulations. The sentence was carried out Thursday on a public stage in Bustanussalatin City Park, Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, where at least 100 onlookers gathered to watch as masked, robed officials administered 21 strokes of a rattan cane to each person.

    The couple — a 22-year-old man and 25-year-old woman — were taken into custody by Sharia authorities in April, roughly two months after their Feb. 27 in-car livestream circulated widely across social media and triggered formal complaints to local officials. Originally, the Sharia court had sentenced each defendant to 25 lashes, but the punishment was reduced by four strokes to account for the four months the pair spent in pre-sentencing detention. As part of the court ruling, the mobile phone and USB drive storing the original livestream footage were seized and ordered destroyed as evidence of the violation. Thursday’s caning was not an isolated event: four additional Aceh residents were also publicly punished the same day for convictions of online gambling and adultery.

    Aceh’s right to enforce Sharia law was granted by Indonesia’s secular national government in 2006, as a key component of a peace agreement designed to end decades of violent separatist conflict in the province. In 2015, regional authorities expanded the scope of the law to apply to non-Muslim residents, who make up roughly 1 percent of Aceh’s total population. Under the regional regulatory framework, morality offenses can carry penalties of up to 100 lashes. The punishment is also routinely applied for violations ranging from gambling and alcohol consumption to immodest clothing for women and failure to attend Friday prayers for men.

    Human rights advocates have strongly condemned the practice, labeling public caning a clear violation of fundamental human rights standards. Usman Hamid, executive director of Amnesty International Indonesia, noted that while the couple’s public kiss may be seen as inappropriate for a platform accessed by audiences of all ages, including children, corporal punishment and imprisonment remain wildly excessive responses. “It is cruel, inhumane and degrading to human dignity,” Hamid explained, pointing out that Indonesia has formally ratified an international convention requiring the elimination of cruel and unusual punishment.

    But the punishment has drawn support from some local Aceh residents who attended the public event. Aini Nadhirah, a 22-year-old Banda Aceh resident who was in the audience, argued that the public punishment serves a necessary educational purpose. “In my opinion, this caning is entirely justified because it serves as a warning to other Aceh residents to be more careful when using social media,” Nadhirah said. “It also raises awareness that such actions are unacceptable, thereby educating the public.”

  • Alleged Scattered Spider hacker arrested in Finland

    Alleged Scattered Spider hacker arrested in Finland

    A years-long cross-border investigation into one of the world’s most disruptive modern hacking networks has led to the extradition of an alleged teen member to the United States, federal law enforcement officials confirmed this week.

    The US Department of Justice (DoJ) announced Tuesday that 19-year-old Peter Stokes, a dual US-Estonian national, has been charged with multiple felonies including conspiracy, computer intrusion, and wire fraud linked to his alleged role in the transnational hacking collective Scattered Spider. Stokes was first arrested by Finnish law enforcement in April following an Interpol Red Notice, and was transferred into US custody earlier this week. He made his first appearance at a Chicago federal court on Tuesday, where a judge ordered he remain in pretrial detention.

    Per DoJ allegations, Scattered Spider has carried out a years-long campaign of high-impact ransomware attacks that have generated more than $100 million in illegal ransom payments globally. The charges against Stokes build on recent progress in the case: just last month, two young men pleaded guilty to criminal charges connected to the 2024 cyberattack on Transport for London (TfL), a major breach UK investigators have directly attributed to Scattered Spider. That 2024 intrusion compromised the personal data of roughly 10 million TfL customers, causing £39 million in total damage. UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) has also linked the group to separate 2023 cyberattacks on major British retailers Co-op and Marks & Spencer, which remain under active investigation.

    Court documents outline one specific attack linked to Stokes and his co-conspirators: in 2023, the group infiltrated the network of an unnamed luxury jewelry retailer, stole sensitive internal data, and demanded an $8 million ransom paid in cryptocurrency. According to the DoJ, the retailer successfully evicted the hackers from its network and refused to pay the extortion demand. Even so, the breach still caused at least $2 million in losses stemming from business disruption, forensic investigation, and threat mitigation work.

    The operation to arrest and extradite Stokes was a multinational collaboration, with joint work from FBI teams based in Copenhagen and Chicago, Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation, and Interpol. Security researchers and law enforcement have long noted that Scattered Spider is unusual among hacking groups for its membership: most members are believed to be young, native English speakers based in the United States and United Kingdom, a profile that has allowed the group to carry out socially engineered intrusions more effectively than many foreign-based criminal hacking networks.

  • Bus crash in South Africa’s Western Cape leaves 16 dead and 20 injured

    Bus crash in South Africa’s Western Cape leaves 16 dead and 20 injured

    JOHANNESBURG – A devastating early-morning road accident has left 16 people dead and 20 more wounded after a passenger bus bound for South Africa’s Eastern Cape province overturned on Thursday, marking the second deadly bus crash in the country in just seven days. The vehicle was carrying 78 travelers when it departed Cape Town, a major coastal hub in Western Cape, en route to the small town of Idutywa in Eastern Cape. Simon Zwane, spokesperson for South Africa’s Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC), outlined the early sequence of events leading to the tragedy: the bus driver reportedly swerved to avoid a head-on collision with an oncoming delivery van, which caused the driver to lose full control of the bus before it rolled over. Initial preliminary assessments placed the death toll at nine, but on-site investigations completed by emergency responders later updated the fatality count to 16, confirming the full scale of the disaster. All 20 injured passengers have been transferred to a public hospital in Worcester, a town located roughly 120 kilometers, or 75 miles, northeast of Cape Town, for urgent medical care. Notably, 43 uninjured passengers on board declined any medical evaluation or treatment after the crash. Zwane confirmed that a full joint probe into the root causes of the accident is currently underway, led by both the RTMC and the South African Police Service to rule out any additional contributing factors beyond the initial account of the collision avoidance maneuver. This latest tragedy comes on the heels of another fatal bus crash just one day prior, on Wednesday, when a bus carrying Malawian travelers to the Beitbridge border crossing in Limpopo province overturned, killing the bus driver. In the wake of back-to-back deadly incidents, road safety authorities have issued urgent warnings to all motorists across South Africa to exercise extreme caution during the country’s winter months. Winter weather conditions frequently create hazardous driving conditions across South African road networks, with thick fog, agricultural smoke, hidden black ice on pavement, and severely reduced visibility significantly raising crash risks for passenger and commercial vehicles alike.

  • Two metropolises seek common ground through city dialogue

    Two metropolises seek common ground through city dialogue

    On Tuesday, the third iteration of the groundbreaking ‘Our Water Season’ initiative, the Shanghai-New York City Dialogue, opened its doors at Bloomberg’s iconic Manhattan headquarters, gathering cross-sector leaders from two of the world’s most influential global metropolises to advance pragmatic cooperation and people-to-people connection between China and the United States.

    Centered on the overarching theme ‘Rivers of Opportunities’, the forum brought together a diverse cohort of participants: government officials from both nations, top business executives, leaders of global financial institutions, major consumer brand representatives, and prominent cultural figures. Attendees focused their discussions on unlocking untapped collaborative potential across China-US relations, with targeted attention to deepening partnership between the two cities in the financial and consumer sectors.

    Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg L.P. and Bloomberg Philanthropies, and a former mayor of New York City, opened with remarks highlighting the deep shared characteristics that bind the two waterfront metropolises. Both Shanghai and New York hold global status as leading commercial and cultural hubs, a common identity that forms a strong foundation for exchange, he noted. With Bloomberg L.P. maintaining a thriving presence in Shanghai for more than 30 years, and following his own visit to China in 2025, Bloomberg emphasized that city-to-city engagement has never carried greater weight than it does in today’s fractured geopolitical climate.

    ‘Great cities just don’t compete with each other. They learn from each other. That kind of exchange between cities has never been more important,’ he told attendees. Bloomberg added that with more than half of the global population now residing in urban areas, municipal governments are on the front lines of tackling shared global challenges, from public health infrastructure and education access to affordable housing and climate change adaptation. ‘We borrow ideas from other cities, and we’re glad the other cities borrowed from us,’ he said.

    Tang Zhiwen, Minister at the Chinese Embassy in the United States, framed the ongoing exchange between Shanghai and New York as a powerful model for what constructive China-US cooperation can achieve. Tang noted that the two cities are well-positioned to take the lead in driving collaboration across high-growth emerging sectors, including artificial intelligence, climate action, green shipping, and smart city development, while paving the way for deeper high-level exchanges across the two entire nations.

    Tang also highlighted the ongoing progress of China’s youth exchange initiative, which aims to welcome 50,000 young Americans to China over a five-year period. To date, Shanghai alone has hosted nearly 10,000 young American visitors through the program, building lasting people-to-people ties between the two countries.

    Chen Yiqun, Director-General of the Information Office of Shanghai Municipality, echoed the forum’s water-centered framing, noting that river and coastal waterways have connected both cities to global markets and cultures for centuries, and continue to shape their future trajectories. ‘Water once carried both of our cities into the world. And now, water is asking something new of us: how do we keep our harbors and our waterfronts alive, open and growing for the next generation,’ she said. ‘Our Water exists to give cities like ours a place to compare notes, to learn from each other, and to keep growing together.’

    Chen added that the ‘Our Water’ initiative was specifically created to provide a sustained, open platform for cities to share best practices, exchange insights, and collaborate to solve shared urban challenges. ‘When we talk today about finance, investment, consumption and innovation, we’re not just talking about growth for growth’s sake. We’re talking about what it takes to keep a city open, adaptable and full of opportunity for the people who call it home,’ she said.

    Beyond plenary remarks, the forum featured a high-profile fireside chat titled ‘Seeking Common Ground through Dialogues’, bringing together Tsinghua University international relations professor Da Wei and Bloomberg Economics Chief Economist Tom Orlik to discuss China-US economic ties and opportunities for collaboration amid growing global economic and geopolitical uncertainty. Orlik, who lived and worked in China for multiple years, told China Daily that his time in the country deepened his understanding of China and underscored how critical people-to-people connections are to bridging divides. ‘Connections are really important for understanding,’ he said. ‘Both sides have more work to do to make it easier and more welcoming for those kinds of exchanges to take place.’

    One of the forum’s most anticipated speakers was Yao Ming, NBA Hall of Famer, chairman of the Yao Foundation, and one of the most recognizable cultural bridges between China and the United States. Yao noted that sports have long served as a universal language that connects people across cultural and national boundaries. He highlighted a coincidental milestone for both cities this year: the New York Knicks claimed the 2026 NBA championship, while the Shanghai Sharks, which Yao led to their first CBA title in 2002, won this year’s Chinese Basketball Association championship.

    Reflecting on his decades of cross-border experience, including his years playing in the NBA, Yao said splitting his time between Shanghai and regular travel across the United States transformed his perspective on cross-cultural exchange. ‘I try to learn from other people and make sure that becomes part of me,’ he said. ‘I learned so much from all the people I met and all the cities I visited.’ Yao also noted that Shanghai has grown into a top global destination for major international sporting events, including Formula One, a shift that reflects the city’s enduring openness, dynamic youthful energy, and deep cultural roots.

  • 11-year-old boy driving pickup truck crashes into group of Thai monks, killing 9

    11-year-old boy driving pickup truck crashes into group of Thai monks, killing 9

    BANGKOK – A devastating traffic accident left nine Buddhist monks dead on Thursday, after an 11-year-old boy lost control of a pickup truck and struck the religious procession as they walked along a rural highway in Thailand’s northeast, local government officials confirmed.

    The group of 35 monks had embarked on a multi-day walking pilgrimage from their home province of Mukdahan, located roughly 372 miles northeast of Thailand’s capital Bangkok, bound for neighboring Ubon Ratchathani province. The 161-mile journey had been underway for just 30 minutes when the collision occurred.

    Initial casualty reports from the Mukdahan provincial administration note that five of the monks died instantly at the crash site, while four more succumbed to their injuries after being transported to local medical facilities. Thirteen other injured monks remain hospitalized, with three still listed in critical condition as of the latest updates.

    Surveillance camera footage obtained and shared by the local Ruam Jai Mukdahan Rescue Association captures the moments before the impact: the monks were walking in a single orderly line along the shoulder of the road when the pickup veered off course and plowed into the group. Witness accounts from surviving monks indicate the vehicle began swerving unpredictably before sliding off the roadway and hitting the procession.

    Thai police have taken the 11-year-old boy into custody following the crash. Per protocol, formal questioning will not begin until representatives from Thailand’s state child protection services arrive at the station to oversee the process. Authorities have launched a full investigation to determine the root cause of the tragedy, including whether mechanical failure, driver error, or other factors contributed to the crash.

  • Vatican declares Society of St. Pius X in schism, excommunicates bishops and invalidates sacraments

    Vatican declares Society of St. Pius X in schism, excommunicates bishops and invalidates sacraments

    VATICAN CITY – In a historic, hardline rebuke of a long-disobedient traditionalist Catholic group, the Holy See announced Thursday it has formally designated the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) a schismatic body, issuing sweeping excommunications to all of the group’s bishops and priests after the society consecrated four new bishops without Pope Leo XIV’s explicit approval.

    The action from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith far outpaces the baseline penalties laid out in Catholic canon law, coming one day after the SSPX carried out its controversial episcopal ordination at the group’s seminary in Econe, Switzerland. The five-hour ceremony, packed with ritual and attended by more than 15,000 lay faithful and their children, marked a deliberate act of defiance against Pope Leo, who had publicly urged the society to abandon the consecrations to protect broader church unity.

    Founded in 1970 by French Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, the SSPX has existed as an informal breakaway movement from the Catholic Church for decades, born out of fierce opposition to the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II). The 1960s ecumenical council reshaped Catholic life, updating the church’s relationships with other Christian denominations, Judaism, and world religions, and permitting the celebration of Mass in local languages rather than the traditional Latin that had been standard for centuries. The SSPX rejects these changes, arguing Vatican II introduced widespread heresy and pulled the global church away from core Catholic doctrine, and it exclusively celebrates the pre-conciliar Latin Mass.

    This is not the first time the SSPX has clashed with Rome over unauthorized consecrations: Lefebvre ordained four bishops without papal consent in 1988, prompting an immediate Vatican response that excommunicated all involved and labeled the act schismatic. In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI lifted those excommunications as part of a multi-year outreach effort aimed at reconciling the traditionalist group with the Holy See. Even after that gesture, however, the SSPX held no formal legal status within the Catholic Church, and Thursday’s decree permanently formalizes the break.

    The penalties announced Thursday are unusually broad, rolling back all of the concessions Rome had granted the SSPX during decades of reconciliation efforts. The Vatican’s decree excommunicates the four newly consecrated bishops and the two existing SSPX bishops who officiated the ceremony, labels the entire society’s existence as an intentional rupture from Catholic teaching, and extends excommunication to all SSPX priests. For lay faithful who formally align themselves with the SSPX, the decree also imposes excommunication, and invalidates all sacraments of confession and marriage celebrated by SSPX clergy.

    The unauthorized consecrations created a critical test for Pope Leo XIV, an American pontiff who has centered his papacy on the theme of church unity. Notably, Leo has made targeted outreach to conservative and traditionalist Catholic groups that felt alienated during the pontificate of Pope Francis, making the SSPX’s open defiance all the more challenging for his leadership. Thursday’s aggressive response makes clear that after nearly 50 years of negotiation and outreach, the Holy See has exhausted its willingness to compromise with the group.

    Vatican observers note the harsh response is also a reaction to the SSPX’s slow but steady growth since its original split from Rome, which has allowed it to function as a parallel ultra-traditional Catholic institution that directly challenges the authority of the Holy See. According to the SSPX’s own public data, the movement now counts six bishops, 751 priests, 264 seminarians across five formation houses, 145 religious brothers, 88 oblates, 250 religious sisters, and members spanning 50 nationalities.

    SSPX leadership has defended its actions, framing the consecrations as necessary to preserve what it calls the “true Catholic faith” against what it describes as widespread modernist and liberal error within the institutional church. The society claims a “state of necessity” requires it to ordain new clergy to serve its global community of faithful. In his homily during Wednesday’s ordination ceremony, SSPX Superior General Rev. Davide Pagliarani insisted the group’s actions were actually intended to support Pope Leo and the church.

    “We are accused of not respecting the pope,” Pagliarani said. “But it is precisely because we love the pope as the vicar of Christ, as the head of the church, that we don’t want to see the pope humiliated anymore, on the side of false shepherds representing false religions.”

  • Fire breaks out in hospital in northern Germany, leaving 2 dead, report says

    Fire breaks out in hospital in northern Germany, leaving 2 dead, report says

    A devastating pre-dawn fire at a regional hospital in northwestern Germany has claimed the lives of two patients, local authorities confirmed Thursday. According to reporting from Germany’s leading national news agency DPA, the blaze broke out at the medical facility in Ludwigslust, a town located roughly 100 miles northwest of the German capital of Berlin.

    Citing a spokesperson for the Ludwigslust-Parchim district government, DPA shared that the two fatalities were both patients receiving care at the hospital. Early preliminary investigations into the origin of the fire point to a patient’s room as the starting point of the blaze. Among the most notable structural impacts, the hospital’s roof sustained significant fire damage before first responders were able to bring the situation under control.

    In the immediate aftermath of the fire being detected, all patients and on-duty staff were quickly evacuated from the building to prevent further loss of life. As of Thursday, officials have not yet released a definitive count of people who suffered minor injuries during the incident. However, DPA’s reporting confirms that none of the people affected by the fire outside of the two deceased patients have life-threatening injuries. Investigations are still ongoing to determine the exact cause of the fire and the full scope of the damage to the facility.

  • India asks WhatsApp to pause username feature rollout over fraud concerns

    India asks WhatsApp to pause username feature rollout over fraud concerns

    India, WhatsApp’s largest single market with more than 850 million active users, has ordered the Meta-owned messaging platform to pause the rollout of its highly anticipated username-based chat feature, citing growing concerns that the update could fuel a surge in cybercrime and malicious online activity.

    The new function, which was set to roll out gradually to WhatsApp’s 3 billion global users over the coming months, allows users to connect with other accounts without sharing their personal phone numbers, a long-requested privacy upgrade for the platform. Users were already able to reserve their preferred unique usernames ahead of the full launch when Indian regulators stepped in.

    In an official notice dated Wednesday, India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) demanded WhatsApp halt deployment immediately and explain why regulatory action should not be taken against the company under existing Indian cyber law for moving forward with a feature it argues poses unacceptable public risk. The ministry outlined that by allowing bad actors to contact potential victims without revealing their phone numbers, the update could materially increase rates of online fraud, phishing schemes, digital extortion scams, and impersonation attacks. Regulators also warned that the username system could enable bad actors to create lookalike accounts mimicking government officials, financial institutions, public agencies, and private individuals to carry out deception.

    MeitY’s notice, a copy of which has been obtained by the BBC, cites provisions of India’s Information Technology Act and national rules governing intermediary due diligence, identity theft, and impersonation offenses. The regulator has ordered WhatsApp not to proceed with launch until it completes a government consultation that addresses official concerns to the authorities’ satisfaction.

    In response to the order, Meta confirmed that the feature has not yet been activated for general users and that it has built a multi-layered framework of safeguards to prevent misuse. To combat impersonation, the platform has pre-reserved all high-profile usernames associated with public figures, government entities, celebrities, and already verified Meta accounts, ensuring these can only be claimed by their legitimate owners. It has also locked lookalike derivatives of prominent official and public figure usernames to block spoofing attempts.

    WhatsApp also emphasized that users will still require a verified phone number to create an account, even with the new username feature active. Additional protective measures include requiring any user to know an exact username to initiate contact, limiting the number of new users a single account can reach out to, blocking repeated automated attempts to guess usernames, and maintaining automated systems to detect and remove activity matching known patterns of impersonation and abuse. For first-time messages from unknown contacts, the platform will also display contextual information to help recipients assess risk, including whether the account is new, shares a common group with the recipient, is already saved in the user’s contacts, or is based in a foreign country.

    Cybercrime has become an increasingly urgent policy challenge for India, as hundreds of millions of first-time internet users adopt digital platforms and mobile payment services every year, many without formal training on digital safety practices. According to the most recent published federal data, India registered nearly 102,000 cybercrime cases in 2024, representing an 18% increase from the prior year, with online fraud accounting for nearly three-quarters of all reported cases.

    The Indian government’s order has drawn criticism from digital rights advocates, who argue the regulatory move lacks a clear legal foundation. The Internet Freedom Foundation, an Indian digital rights non-profit, stated that the notice overreaches by attempting to grant the government power to approve or reject individual software features, a authority not outlined in the laws MeitY cited. “The power to require prior permission for a feature is not in the [Information Technology] Act, not in the Rules, and cannot be created by a notice,” the organization said in a public statement.

    This latest regulatory action is part of a broader ongoing trend of Indian authorities tightening oversight of global technology platforms operating in the country. Earlier this year in February, New Delhi amended its digital rules to require social media platforms to remove unlawful content within just three hours of receiving a government takedown notice, cutting the previous compliance deadline of 36 hours dramatically. Just last month, Indian authorities temporarily banned the messaging platform Telegram ahead of a retest for the country’s national medical entrance examination, over concerns that its username-based interaction and hidden phone number features made it easier for exam cheaters to coordinate. The government’s position was upheld in court after Telegram unsuccessfully challenged the ban.

    For Meta, the regulatory clash in India carries particular weight: as WhatsApp’s largest market by user count, any changes to product rollout or design in the country will have a major impact on the platform’s global rollout plans and long-term growth strategy.

  • At least 13 killed in large-scale Russian missile and drone strikes on Kyiv

    At least 13 killed in large-scale Russian missile and drone strikes on Kyiv

    In a devastating escalation of hostilities that followed a pre-emptive warning from Ukrainian leadership, Russian forces unleashed a massive combined drone and missile assault on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv overnight, leaving at least 13 people dead and dozens more injured.

    The attack came just hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued an urgent alert that Russia was gearing up for a “massive” strike, prompting widespread precaution across the capital. Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s military administration, confirmed that children were among the casualties, calling out Russian forces for deliberately targeting populated civilian areas. “The enemy is once again deliberately targeting residential areas and killing civilians,” Tkachenko stated early Thursday.

    According to Ukraine’s air force, the assault included 74 missiles and 496 drones, with the vast majority of the ordinance directed at Kyiv. While Ukrainian air defense systems successfully intercepted and shot down most of the incoming weapons, 25 ballistic missiles and 12 drones penetrated the defensive layer, striking 33 separate locations across the city.
    On-the-ground reporting from a BBC team in Kyiv documented non-stop explosions throughout the night. By 3:30 a.m. local time, 10 major blasts had been confirmed, with a large blaze raging in the city center and multiple smaller fires visible in outlying districts. Tracer rounds from air defense units lit up the night sky repeatedly, each followed by the thunder of exploding ordinance.

    Daylight on Thursday revealed the full scope of the damage: a deep crater left by a direct impact, smoldering destroyed vehicles, collapsed building facades, and scattered debris across residential neighborhoods. Multiple fires broke out across the city, with critical damage recorded at a local ambulance station that left one person in critical condition. Firefighters worked through the night to contain a large fire that destroyed a hotel on one of Kyiv’s central boulevards.

    Ukraine’s state emergency service confirmed the death toll of 13, with more than 30 additional people injured. So far, 34 people have been pulled from the rubble of damaged structures, with search and rescue operations ongoing at multiple hit sites, including a high-rise apartment building and residential homes in southeastern Kyiv. As emergency services continue to battle remaining blazes and recover victims, thousands of Kyiv residents spent the night sheltering in underground metro stations when air raid sirens sounded across the city.

    Ukrainian officials have issued an urgent appeal to international allies for greater support. Foreign Ministry official Andriy Sybiha called on partner nations to supply additional air defense systems, noting that Ukraine requires more than just verbal condemnation of the attack. “We need not only words of condemnation but concrete action to stop Russian terror,” Sybiha said, also calling for expanded international sanctions against Russia. Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, described the attack in a social media post: “Another horrific night for the residents of the city, who were forced to spend it in shelters. Fires and the destruction of civilian infrastructure and residential buildings in several districts of the city.”

    This strike marks the first large-scale combined missile and drone assault on Ukraine by Russia in more than two weeks. Russia’s Ministry of Defense has justified the attack, claiming it targeted energy and defense infrastructure in retaliation for recent Ukrainian strikes on Russian power facilities stretching from Moscow to the Black Sea. Russian media reported that the attack also hit Ukrainian military bases in central and eastern Ukraine. Notably, the strikes came after Russian President Vladimir Putin made a rare admission that his country is facing widespread fuel shortages.

    Zelensky, who cut short an official visit to Dublin after receiving intelligence of the planned assault, urged Ukrainian civilians to remain vigilant. “I urge our people to be especially careful, to protect themselves, their children, and, of course, their families,” he said, adding that Putin had been preparing the massive strike for some time.

    The overnight attack comes amid shifting momentum on the ground. Russian forces recently advanced into Kostyantynivka, one of Ukraine’s last remaining strongholds in the eastern Donbas region; a full Russian capture of the city would open a pathway for Moscow to seize control of the entire Donbas. On the other hand, Ukrainian commanders report that their forces have recaptured more territory in 2025 than they have lost, and have successfully disrupted critical Russian supply lines connecting the Russian border to occupied Crimea. The broader ground war has remained largely deadlocked for months, with both sides’ troops entrenched in fixed positions. Currently, Russia occupies roughly one-fifth of Ukraine’s total territory, most of which was seized in the opening months of the full-scale invasion launched in February 2022.

  • Lopes will relish Messi duel, says Cape Verde defender’s mother

    Lopes will relish Messi duel, says Cape Verde defender’s mother

    The 2026 FIFA World Cup has already served up no shortage of underdog stories, and few have captured global attention quite like Cape Verde’s historic run to the knockout stages. As the smallest nation ever to advance past the group phase, the Blue Sharks now face their biggest test yet: a last-32 clash against defending champions Argentina, led by the tournament’s all-time great Lionel Messi, in Miami on Friday at 23:00 BST. For 44-cap Cape Verde center-back Roberto “Pico” Lopes, a key cog in the team’s tight defensive unit, the moment is one he will welcome rather than fear, according to his mother Judy Lopes.

    Most professional defenders would admit to feeling a flutter of nerves before marking the man who holds the record for the most World Cup goals in history, currently notching six goals in what is widely expected to be his final World Cup campaign. But Judy Lopes says her son’s temperament and depth of experience will carry him through the hype and pressure of the high-profile fixture. “He’ll relish the challenge of taking on Messi at the weekend and he’s always very composed, confident and performs very well under pressure,” Judy told BBC Sport NI’s Nicola McCarthy. “He just takes it all in his stride. He’s very grounded, level-headed and he’ll be well able to block out the noise that’s around in this fixture.”

    Lopes, who has spent a decade playing for Irish side Shamrock Rovers and featured in two Africa Cup of Nations tournaments, has already proven his quality at the international level. Through Cape Verde’s three Group H matches, a pair of draws against 2010 champions Spain, 2022 champions Uruguay, and Saudi Arabia, the side finished second behind Spain to advance, conceding just two goals and finishing the group stage unbeaten. The defensive backbone of the side has been anchored by Lopes, with 40-year-old goalkeeper Vozinha turning in a star performance in the opening goalless draw against European champions Spain.

    Judy Lopes says even she never could have imagined this moment for her son, even as Cape Verde defied all pre-tournament projections that gave the side just a 1% chance of escaping their tough group. “Not in a million years, it’s like I’m watching it all happen from the outside,” she said. “I don’t actually believe I’m involved in it at all, it’s that amazing. Just to think he’s probably going up against one of the best players in the world at the moment. Also that he, Messi, will be studying Pico’s form before Friday and analysing his strategy and seeing how he’s going to beat the rock at the back!”

    While Lopes and his teammates are fully focused on extending their World Cup fairytale, Judy has returned to her day-to-day routine as a school secretary in Dublin for a handful of days, before traveling to Miami with her husband and Pico’s brothers to attend the match. Pre-tournament plans only included tickets for the three group stage matches, given the low expectations for the side, so she had originally scheduled a return to work right after the group phase wrapped up. Judy said her students gave her a warm send-off before she traveled for the group stage, creating a custom good luck poster for Pico that the entire Cape Verde squad has now signed. She plans to hang the memento in her school’s foyer when students return in September.

    This World Cup has already seen countless heavy favorites eliminated earlier than expected, making Cape Verde’s underdog run feel like part of a broader tournament trend. While Judy acknowledges Argentina enter the fixture as heavy favorites, with Messi playing in his sixth World Cup and 30th tournament match, she remains optimistic that the unlikely story can continue. “I think where maybe Argentina are the favourites to win the tournament, I think Cape Verde are the darlings of the tournament, without a doubt,” she said. “It would be wonderful [if they progressed], anything is possible in football. At the end of the day, it’s 90 minutes and it’s 11 against 11 and anything can happen. So, let’s hope the fairytale continues and they move on to the next stage.”