Global Pulse

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  • Marseille braces for more unrest after protests give way to ‘apocalyptic’ disorder

    Marseille braces for more unrest after protests give way to ‘apocalyptic’ disorder

    When thunder and lightning cracked open the sky over Marseille in the days after France’s worst bout of modern civil unrest, the storm illuminated a scene of chaos: hundreds of storefronts stood with cracked glass panes and hastily boarded entryways, left scarred when peaceful student protests dissolved into widespread looting and violence Saturday.

    As France’s second-largest city bore the brunt of the national chaos, the scale of damage has shaken local leaders, law enforcement and residents alike. Local business associations confirm more than 500 commercial locations were damaged, the vast majority also targeted for looting across central neighborhoods and outlying shopping districts. For frontline police officers, the weekend was nothing short of catastrophic: 118 Marseille officers were hurt in the unrest, accounting for more than 10% of all injuries sustained by police nationwide during the riots. As of early this week, 101 people have been taken into custody in the port city, 25% of whom are minors.

    By Monday, a drastic emergency intervention had cleared protesters from Marseille’s streets: an 8-hour ban on all demonstrations and public gatherings was enacted to block a third straight day of disorder. The measure appeared to deliver temporary calm; the largest group to gather in the city center that day was a cluster of weather-worn tourists walking the waterfront quayside. In a further move to head off renewed unrest, local officials are set to implement an overnight curfew for minors in targeted parts of the city starting Tuesday.

    Marseille, long France’s most ethnically diverse urban hub, has been a landing point for generations of new arrivals to the country, and the unrest has split opinions across its diverse population even as it has left a shared trail of damage. For 18-year-old student Maryame, who moved to the southern city just a few weeks ago from a nearby rural area, Saturday’s violence was her first frightening experience of both big-city life and political protest.

    She joined the original student march, which first launched in September to demand improvements to dilapidated school infrastructure before expanding to address broader grievances including France’s ongoing cost of living crisis. The early solidarity of the march felt “beautiful,” she told reporters, but the situation shifted dramatically when looters broke away to attack nearby shops. Still, she remains conflicted about the unrest, echoing a thread of thought that runs through many French debates over civil protest.

    “It is a very complicated question if violence is legitimate,” Maryame said. “But the thing is, France, our history is really based on revolution, and sometimes we really have to make a really big impact. Sometimes it goes too far.”

    For rank-and-file police, the speed and severity of the collapse of order was unprecedented. “It was a war,” said Arnaud Blaise, a representative for the UN1TE police union. “An unheard-of level of violence. Unprecedented.”

    Looting stretched across the entire city: from La Canebière, Marseille’s bustling central boulevard equivalent to Paris’s Champs-Élysées, and Rue Paradis, to the popular Centre Bourse shopping mall, and out to the Grand Littoral and Le Merlan malls in the city’s northern districts. Blaise said officers eventually exhausted their non-lethal riot supplies, forcing tactical retreats as disorder spread.
    Blaise blamed the chaos on a combination of far-left Black Bloc agitators who he said provoked the unrest, and young people from deprived northern neighborhoods who seized the opportunity to loot. “The Black Blocs provoked, and the youngsters took advantage to start looting,” Blaise explained. “That created chaos, with police officers running right, running left, and in effect, we got overwhelmed.”

    When questioned about widespread accusations that police used heavy-handed tactics against peaceful student demonstrators while failing to intervene to stop looting, Blaise rejected the claim. He noted far more officers than protesters were injured in the clashes, adding: “Four thousand tear gas grenades were fired and then we ran out of ammunition. So at a certain point, you have no choice but to retreat.”

    On Monday evening, French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez traveled to Marseille to meet with local leaders, after President Emmanuel Macron rejected calls for Nuñez’s resignation in the wake of the riots. During his visit, he stopped at Marseille City Hall, which was briefly occupied by protesters Saturday, for talks with Socialist Mayor Benoît Payan.

    Payan has openly demanded answers from the national government over how the chaos was allowed to unfold, calling the entire response to the unrest a “fiasco” from start to finish. He criticized understaffed, poorly deployed police forces and called for a complete overhaul of crowd control tactics. “If there isn’t a radical change of approach on this issue – if, by chance, the only target remains high school students – then we will see looting scenes again,” Payan warned. “I don’t know what’s left to loot in Marseille, but for the little that remains, it will be looted.”

    While emergency measures have brought a fragile, temporary calm to Marseille, more national demonstrations are already scheduled for the coming weekend. For long-time Marseille residents like 79-year-old grandmother Chantal Bellanger, the unrest reflects deep, unaddressed failures across French society that have left young people disillusioned.

    Standing near a shattered tram stop in a damaged neighborhood, Bellanger said she had been worried about growing unrest for a long time. “We can clearly see that France has lost its grip on many things,” she said. “Public services, hospitals, education is in a horrible state, the peripheral neighbourhoods are dilapidated, they are abandoned.”

    Bellanger, who once worked in the impoverished northern suburbs where much of the unrest originated, said she fears anger and despair are pushing an entire generation of young people into criminal activity that will exclude them from society for life. “It tugs at your heartstrings,” she said. “To see children whose actions are going to place them completely outside of society. It’s painful to watch.”

  • Kenya cult leader’s children still being starved weeks before trial, son says

    Kenya cult leader’s children still being starved weeks before trial, son says

    The chilling legacy of one of Kenya’s deadliest cults has been laid bare by the eldest son of its convicted leader, who has revealed that forced starvation indoctrination continued to target his own younger siblings more than two years after the cult’s brutal practices were first exposed.

    Twenty-seven-year-old Dan Mackenzie, son of doomsday cult leader Paul Mackenzie, came forward to Kenyan police with a disturbing tip-off just two weeks ago: his five young siblings were being held at their grandmother’s home and denied food as part of the cult’s deadly doctrine. Acting on his report, law enforcement officers raided the property, rescued eight children including the five siblings, and transferred them to a state-run protection center. “They were basically forcibly fasted because they were denying food to them for almost three days,” Dan told BBC’s Newsday in an exclusive interview.

    On Monday, a Kenyan court delivered a historic guilty verdict: Paul Mackenzie was convicted of the murder of 191 people — 190 children and one adult — who starved to death in the remote Shakahola Forest near Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast. The 53-year-old pastor ordered followers of his Good News International Church doomsday cult to starve themselves and their children to death to “meet Jesus” ahead of an apocalypse he preached was imminent. Twenty-eight other senior cult leaders were also found guilty of murder alongside Mackenzie.

    Dan, who once defended his father’s actions, told reporters he spent months grappling with the reality of the cult’s crimes as the court case unfolded, before his own childhood trauma led him to break with his family’s dangerous beliefs. “When I was 12, I was forced to fast for almost a week,” he recalled. He also detailed violent childhood abuse at the hands of church members, who beat him for hours to force him to attend cult services. Under the cult’s extreme ideology, formal education was banned entirely and modern medicine labeled “evil” — a rule that cost Dan his own schooling at just seven years old.

    Today, Dan lives in the coastal town of Malindi, where he works as a motorcycle taxi driver to support himself and the newly rescued siblings he helped save. While some local residents have shunned him over his father’s atrocities, he says most have accepted him after he publicly cut all ties with the cult and its dangerous teachings. “I hope the verdict would bring some comfort to those who had lost friends and relatives,” he said.

    In her eight-hour ruling delivered in the coastal port city of Mombasa, Justice Diana Mochache outlined the full scale of the cult’s manipulation and violence. She told the court that Mackenzie had convinced his followers he was “Jesus’s mouthpiece,” and that any member who resisted the order to fast would be beaten into compliance to “send them to heaven through kicks and blows.” Bodies of victims buried in shallow graves across Shakahola Forest were referred to by cult members as “weddings,” the judge added, with deaths celebrated as followers “wedding with Jesus.”

    The murder conviction marks the first major ruling on the most severe charges against Mackenzie, who was first arrested in 2023 after investigators discovered more than 400 bodies in shallow graves across the forest. The cult leader and his co-convicted still face a string of additional pending charges, including terrorism, radicalization, and the unlawful denial of education to hundreds of children. Mackenzie’s sentencing is scheduled for 6 November, where he could face the death penalty for his crimes.

  • A Chinese dissident falsely claims Kim Jong Un is dead – why is this rumour back?

    A Chinese dissident falsely claims Kim Jong Un is dead – why is this rumour back?

    Unsubstantiated online speculation claiming North Korean leader Kim Jong Un had died following a reported brain hemorrhage was swiftly disproven this week, after North Korean state media released clear photographs showing the 42-year-old leader in good health touring a domestic exhibition.

    The images, published by state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun, captured Kim inspecting a clothing and footwear exhibition alongside his daughter, Kim Ju Ae, and his regular retinue of senior officials. The photos emerged just hours after a China-based dissident living in the U.S. named Wanjun Xie — who self-identifies as chairman of the banned Chinese Democratic Party — spread an unevidenced claim that Kim had been transferred comatose to a Beijing hospital and ultimately succumbed to his condition.

    For analysts who closely track North Korean affairs, this wave of rumor is far from an unusual event. As one of the most closed and secretive nations on the globe, verifiable information about the inner workings of the Pyongyang regime and its leadership is notoriously scarce, creating ideal conditions for unproven speculation to spread rapidly.

    Beyond the photographic evidence contradicting Xie’s claim, multiple independent indicators cast major doubt on the rumor. Regional and international intelligence agencies have not recorded any of the preparatory actions that would logically precede a sudden leadership change: China has not increased security along its shared border with North Korea to prepare for potential instability or refugee flows, there has been no unusual uptick in activity at North Korean diplomatic outposts, and informal cross-border information networks used by North Korean defectors in South Korea have not picked up any chatter consistent with Kim’s death. South Korean intelligence officials also confirmed to Yonhap News Agency that they have found no evidence to back up the unsubstantiated death claims.

    This incident mirrors a pattern of false alarms around Kim’s health stretching back years. In 2020, a prominent North Korean defector claimed he was 99% certain Kim had died after cardiovascular surgery, a claim that quickly collapsed when Kim made a public appearance shortly afterward.

    Experts point to two core reasons why rumors about Kim’s health and status keep resurfacing repeatedly. The first is widespread uncertainty over the North Korean succession process. Unlike the carefully planned, decades-long transitions that brought Kim Jong Il to power after the death of Kim Il Sung in 1994, Kim Jong Un’s rise to the top was rapid and untested, following his father’s sudden stroke in 2008 and death in 2011. Though Kim has spent years consolidating power by purging rivals, the question of who will succeed him remains open. South Korean intelligence currently assesses that Kim may be grooming his daughter for the role, as she has appeared increasingly often at high-profile state and military events, but she is estimated to be only around 13 years old, has never been formally named as heir, and would be the first woman to lead North Korea — all factors that add layers of uncertainty to the succession question.

    The second reason these rumors gain traction is that they are not entirely without plausible basis. Multiple assessments from South Korea’s National Intelligence Service have noted that Kim is overweight and a heavy smoker, lifestyle factors that increase his risk of cardiovascular disease, and heart and circulatory issues are a documented family health trend. A sudden leadership transition in North Korea would carry massive stakes for the entire international community: any sudden political crisis would raise urgent questions about control of Pyongyang’s nuclear arsenal, the risk of regional instability, and potential humanitarian crises along the Chinese border. With roughly 28,000 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, any unrest directly impacts core U.S. security interests, making even unproven rumors newsworthy.

    North Korea’s status as an information black hole also makes it far easier for false reports to spread. Only a tiny inner circle of officials has regular access to Kim, and even the world’s most sophisticated intelligence agencies struggle to confirm information about the leader’s health or internal regime affairs. Many updates from open sources are framed as unconfirmed or probable rather than definitive fact, and the Pyongyang regime itself is widely suspected of deliberately allowing ambiguity to leak in order to obscure internal developments.

    Given this context, analysts note it is extremely unlikely that Xie — an individual with no established access to classified intelligence on North Korea — would have obtained accurate information about Kim’s death that professional intelligence agencies missed. Observers suggest Xie likely spread the claim to seek public attention or to embarrass China over its long-standing diplomatic ties to North Korea, a relationship that is already a matter of public record. Regardless of his motive, Xie is just the latest actor to exploit the persistent uncertainty surrounding North Korean leadership for their own ends.

  • Zelensky prepares for Oslo talks with US envoys as Rubio denies withholding intelligence

    Zelensky prepares for Oslo talks with US envoys as Rubio denies withholding intelligence

    In a high-stakes gathering aimed at resetting strained relations between Kyiv and Washington, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff have convened in Oslo, Norway, for critical talks centered on the future of Western support for Ukraine and diplomatic efforts to end Russia’s full-scale invasion. Both leaders arrived in the Norwegian capital on Tuesday, with the meeting arranged at Zelensky’s explicit request through Norwegian and Finnish authorities, at what Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre called “a critical time for Ukraine.”

    The talks come amid a sharp downward spiral in ties between Zelensky and U.S. President Donald Trump, whose public comments in recent weeks have openly questioned Zelensky’s leadership. Trump has gone so far as to state that Ukraine needs a new president and suggested that a third party should take over Ukraine’s negotiation mandate for any peace deal. The rift has deepened over mounting accusations from Ukrainian officials that Washington is withholding critical intelligence that would warn Kyiv of incoming Russian missile and drone attacks.

    Serhii Beskrestnov, Zelensky’s top military technical adviser, recently told the BBC that inconsistent access to U.S. early warning intelligence is directly costing Ukrainian lives. “Sometimes we receive this information before the attack, another time we do not,” Beskrestnov said, describing the pattern of inconsistent alerts as deeply concerning. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, currently on an official visit to India, has pushed back fiercely against these claims, dismissing the accusations as “scandalous” and “outstandingly outrageous.” While Rubio acknowledged that additional Patriot air defense interceptors requested by Ukraine have not yet arrived in the country, he denied Washington has intentionally withheld any critical military support from Kyiv. Unconfirmed reports emerging on Tuesday have added to tensions, indicating that formal approval for the transfer of more Patriot interceptors is still pending in Washington.

    Another major point of friction revolves around SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet network, a critical infrastructure for Ukraine’s military and civilian communications on the front lines. Last week, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators called for an urgent investigation into repeated service disruptions of Starlink across Ukrainian territory. Zelensky noted ahead of the Oslo talks that he had already held a “constructive discussion” with Rubio about the pressing need for consistent U.S. intelligence support, additional missile interceptors, and uninterrupted Starlink connectivity.

    The Oslo meeting is not a bilateral dialogue between the U.S. and Ukrainian delegations. Witkoff was joined remotely by Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, while in-person and virtual attendees include Finnish President Alexander Stubb, and senior officials from the United Kingdom, Poland, France, Germany, the European Union, and NATO. Støre emphasized that the core goal of the facilitated talks is to steer the fractured U.S.-Ukraine relationship back onto “a more constructive path,” with the ultimate aim of reaching a “lasting and just peace” through diplomatic negotiations.

    Speculation is growing that Witkoff may travel to Moscow for talks with Russian officials after wrapping up his engagements in Oslo, though no official itinerary has been confirmed. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russian officials hope to arrange a meeting with Witkoff in the near future, adding that Moscow “greatly appreciates the mediation efforts of the American negotiators.” The contact comes just weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin held a phone call with Trump to discuss the war, a conversation that was followed by Trump’s announcement that Russia would lift its ban on diesel exports to the U.S. and other global markets, ending U.S. sanctions on Russian diesel shipments.

    European leaders have openly voiced growing concern over inconsistent signals from the Trump administration on the Ukraine war. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told Bloomberg TV on Monday that Washington has sent “mixed pictures and messages” on the conflict, noting that the U.S. has halted all funding for Ukraine’s defense since the start of 2025. “Europe and other countries are shouldering the burden now,” Merz said. “It’s really a big effort for our budgets, it’s really a big thing for the European Union, but we are doing that and we are trying to keep on doing that until this terrible war ends.”

    U.S. Vice President JD Vance further clarified the Trump administration’s stance in a recent television interview, saying that while Ukraine is a “partner in some ways” to the U.S., the two countries hold “divergent interests from time to time” — specifically calling on Ukraine to halt strikes on Russian energy infrastructure. Vance added that the U.S. does not have a formal alliance with Ukraine, and he does not support Ukraine joining NATO, saying “we’re gonna work together on some things, but also we’re gonna be opposite on some things too.”

    As the talks get underway in Oslo, the outcome of the negotiations is expected to shape the future of Western support for Ukraine, the trajectory of diplomatic efforts to end the war, and the stability of the transatlantic alliance amid shifting U.S. foreign policy priorities.

  • Man charged with attack on Australian MP as suspect’s father says she is family friend

    Man charged with attack on Australian MP as suspect’s father says she is family friend

    The tight-knit regional community of Wangaratta, Victoria, remains reeling from shock this week after a deliberate violent attack that left veteran independent MP Helen Haines fighting for her life after being struck by a car multiple times outside her constituency office. A 43-year-old male suspect has been formally charged in connection with the Monday attack, and is scheduled to appear before a local court on Wednesday to answer three serious charges: dangerous driving causing severe bodily harm, intentional infliction of serious injury, and the federal criminal charge of harming a public official serving in an official capacity.

    Local Australian media has identified the accused as Brendan Nugent, a self-identified environmental activist with long-standing personal ties to Haines and her family. In a public statement released following the attack, the suspect’s father Rod Nugent and his partner Christine Cunningham expressed deep distress over the incident, confirming that their family had maintained close friendships with Haines for more than two decades. “Helen Haines is a deeply respected, valued and much loved member of our local community,” the pair wrote, adding “All of our love and all of our thoughts are with Helen and her family and friends.” They also committed to cooperating fully with Victoria Police in any capacity throughout the ongoing investigation.

    Accounts from witnesses and law enforcement have painted a chilling picture of the premeditated attack. According to Australia’s national public broadcaster ABC, the suspect reportedly completed a U-turn to position his vehicle before striking 65-year-old Haines, then reversed his car and hit her a second time, pinning her between two vehicles. Bystanders rushed to Haines’ aid immediately after the collision, and the MP was airlifted to a major hospital in Melbourne for emergency surgery. As of Tuesday, Haines remains in critical but stable condition, though the incident has already claimed one of her legs, and medical teams are still working aggressively to save her second leg.

    Quick action by bystanders and nearby law enforcement prevented further harm, according to official updates. Ricky Jefferies, a local barber who was nearby during the attack, pulled the suspect from his vehicle and removed a knife he had been carrying in his pocket before it could be used. Speaking to reporters, Jefferies downplayed his actions, saying “I don’t think I’m a hero. I think that I was just a person who had an opportunity to intervene in a safe-ish way.” He also noted that other bystanders rushed to aid Haines without pausing to assess danger, recalling “the car was still on and they sat in front of a rolling car, that’s not an exaggeration.”

    Victoria Police confirmed that a highway patrol unit happened to be in the immediate vicinity when the attack unfolded, arriving on the scene just eight seconds after the first emergency call was placed. Following the suspect’s arrest, law enforcement executed a search warrant at a property in Tarawingee, a small rural community located roughly 60 kilometers (40 miles) outside Wangaratta. In a formal briefing, police confirmed “At this stage it appears this is an isolated incident, and there are currently no other known threats connected to this matter,” but added that uniformed officers would maintain an increased visible presence in Wangaratta through the coming days to reassure local residents.

    Haines, a widely popular crossbench politician, first won the regional Victorian seat of Indi as an independent candidate in 2019, and has since earned a reputation as a unifying figure across Australia’s deeply fractured partisan political landscape, building working relationships with major parties on both sides of parliament. Her Wangaratta office, located on the town’s main commercial street, reopened to through traffic on Tuesday, a day after the attack. As vehicles slowly resumed passing the building, local residents have left a growing pile of bouquets and supportive messages on the sidewalk outside. One handwritten card left among the flowers reads “may you recover quickly and continue to be a light in this world.”

    On Tuesday evening, hundreds of locals gathered for a vigil at Wangaratta’s cathedral to show support for Haines. Attendees queued quietly down the cathedral aisle to light candles for the MP, with clergy on hand to comfort those shaken by the attack. The violence has sent ripples of shock across both the local community and the broader Australian political landscape, leaving many grappling with the unprovoked attack on a politician widely known for her collaborative, community-focused work.

  • Residents warned not to drink tap water after hundreds fall sick near South Africa capital

    Residents warned not to drink tap water after hundreds fall sick near South Africa capital

    In the Tshwane metropolitan area encompassing South Africa’s capital city of Pretoria, a new public health emergency has emerged after contaminated water left more than 400 people sickened and prompted officials to issue an urgent advisory for residents to avoid using tap water for consumption or cooking. Over a two-week monitoring period, local hospitals recorded hundreds of cases of acute gastrointestinal illness marked by severe stomach cramps and diarrhoea, with most patients being children under the age of four. While no fatalities have been reported in this outbreak, laboratory testing confirmed high levels of E. coli bacteria in the regional water supply. Additional testing also identified other harmful pathogens including norovirus, campylobacter, and shigella – all agents linked to acute gastrointestinal illness. The latest contamination incident adds to a troubling pattern of repeated waterborne disease outbreaks in the region surrounding Pretoria over the last several years. In 2023, a cholera outbreak in the Hammanskraal township, located just outside Pretoria, killed 29 people and was traced back to inadequate water purification protocols. Then in 2025, 48 confirmed cases of typhoid were recorded in the same eastern Pretoria region, though the source of that outbreak has never been officially identified. In the current incident, no cholera bacteria has been detected in water samples. In a joint statement released on Monday, South Africa’s Department of Water and Sanitation and Department of Health confirmed that 408 cases were recorded between October 7 and October 18 across five local townships. Early investigations point to failures at the local water treatment facility that supplies these communities, with officials confirming that exposure to contaminated water from this facility is the direct cause of the current outbreak. Investigators also found that local authorities failed to issue a timely warning to residents after the contamination was first detected. The regional water supply has now formally been declared unfit for human consumption, with officials urging residents to only use tap water for non-essential purposes such as flushing toilets. Emergency response teams have already dispatched a fleet of water tankers to deliver clean, potable water to affected communities. Officials have also issued guidance for residents, advising them to dispose of any previously stored tap water and disinfect all water storage containers using standard household bleach. Public health officials are continuing to monitor the situation closely, with ongoing testing of water sources and contact tracing to prevent further spread of illness.

  • Alberta votes overwhelmingly to remain part of Canada, projections suggest

    Alberta votes overwhelmingly to remain part of Canada, projections suggest

    In a landmark non-binding public ballot that put Canadian national unity to one of its most significant modern tests, residents of the western oil-rich province of Alberta have delivered a clear verdict: more than two-thirds of voters have rejected calls to pursue a formal binding independence referendum, choosing instead to remain part of Canada, according to preliminary projections from Elections Alberta with most ballots counted.

    The ballot was initiated earlier this year by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who personally opposed separatism but moved forward with the vote after a grassroots pro-independence group collected 300,000 signatures on a petition demanding a binding separation referendum. That original petition was blocked by a court on the grounds that it failed to consult Indigenous First Nations communities, prompting Smith to proceed with the advisory vote instead. In a counter-move, anti-separation activists gathered more than 400,000 signatures on their own opposing petition, reflecting deep public division on the sovereignty issue. The core question on the ballot asked voters to choose between remaining a Canadian province or launching the constitutional process to hold a future binding independence referendum. Smith had previously stated that if voters backed the status quo, no separation referendum would be held during her tenure in office.

    Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney praised the outcome as a “clear choice” from Albertans, echoing Smith’s own reaction to the preliminary results. “Albertans have voted for a stronger Alberta in a united Canada,” Smith said, welcoming the verdict. Pro-union supporters gathered in Edmonton celebrated the projection, while the mood at a pro-separatist watch party in the same city shifted sharply when the results were announced: upbeat conversation quickly faded, and attendees packed up and departed shortly after overnight projections were released by CBC and other Canadian outlets.

    Separatist arguments for breaking from Canada centered on claims that federal environmental policies out of Ottawa have held back the province’s energy-driven economic growth. Anti-separation campaigners, including Prime Minister Carney, framed the vote as a moment to maintain national unity amid mounting external pressures, including the ongoing trade dispute with the United States.

    Despite the lopsided result against their position, separatist leaders have struck a defiant tone, insisting their movement is far from finished. Jeffrey Rath, a Calgary-based lawyer and leading separatist figure, told BBC World Service’s Newsday that the vote should be viewed not as a defeat, but as a critical first step for the movement. “Our movement isn’t stopping and we’re continuing to move forward,” Rath said, noting that the campaign had gained valuable lessons from the ballot process. When asked if the movement would continue pushing for repeat votes until it secured the outcome it wanted, Rath replied simply: “why not?”, adding that his side’s position is backed by solid economic and numerical analysis.

    Looking ahead, separatist leaders have already laid out their next plan: they aim to oust Premier Smith from the leadership of her United Conservative Party and replace her with a candidate sympathetic to the separatist cause. It remains unclear whether the movement has enough support within the party to pull off the leadership challenge, but political analysts widely expect the debate over Albertan sovereignty to dominate provincial politics for years to come. Mitch Sylvestre, another leading separatist, acknowledged ahead of the vote that even a defeat would not extinguish public support for independence, saying “a lot of work will have to be done” to curb that appetite if the result went against his side.

    This is not the first time Canada has faced a major challenge to its national unity: the province of Quebec held two high-profile independence referendums in 1980 and 1995, both of which failed. Alberta separatists have pointed to Quebec’s example, noting that the province used the persistent threat of independence to gain substantial political leverage from the federal government.

    Alongside the core sovereignty question, Monday’s ballot included nine additional policy questions covering two broad themes: five focused on immigration, and four addressed issues related to the Canadian Constitution. Full official vote counting is ongoing, but the preliminary projection has already cemented the immediate outcome, while leaving the long-term future of the Albertan separatist movement unresolved.

  • French cities calm overnight after curfews imposed to quell violence, PM says

    French cities calm overnight after curfews imposed to quell violence, PM says

    After a chaotic weekend of widespread rioting and looting across France, targeted local curfews have helped restore a measure of calm to the country, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has confirmed. The first phase of post-disorder cleanup operations is now getting underway across affected communities, while law enforcement personnel remain on high alert to prevent a resurgence of unrest.

    Curfew restrictions have been rolled out across key districts of central Paris, including the Place de la République — a major gathering point for weekend protesters — and the busy Les Halles shopping district. Additional movement restrictions, including limits on youth travel and public gatherings, have been implemented in major cities across the country, ranging from Marseille, Bordeaux, Nice and Lyon in the south to Lille and multiple smaller towns in the northern region.

    Lecornu publicly thanked frontline police officers and gendarmes for their work enforcing the new emergency measures. In a post published to the social platform X, he noted that decisions about extending curfews for Tuesday night would be made on a location-by-location basis, with authority delegated to regional authorities and local mayors to respond to on-the-ground conditions.

    The unrest has already exposed deep rifts over government preparedness. Earlier this week, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez publicly acknowledged that law enforcement had “lost control” of the situation in several affected cities. Facing heavy criticism from opposition political leaders over the government’s failure to anticipate and contain the disorder, Nuñez submitted his resignation on Monday. President Emmanuel Macron rejected the resignation, opting to keep him in his post.

    Official government data shows that more than 2,500 people have been taken into custody since the unrest first erupted. According to reports from Agence France-Presse, one protester suffered the amputation of a hand after being hit by a police crowd-control grenade. Roughly 1,000 police officers have also been injured across the country during clashes with demonstrators.

    The current wave of unrest traces its origins to protests that began last month, when university and high school students first took to the streets to demand improved learning and campus conditions. Since then, the demonstrations have expanded dramatically, drawing in trade unions and a wide range of activist groups that have brought broader social and political grievances to the movement, swelling the size of crowds at protests across the nation.

  • Reese stars as Dream win first WNBA Finals match

    Reese stars as Dream win first WNBA Finals match

    For the Atlanta Dream, a franchise that had gone 12 years without a WNBA Finals appearance and carried a winless 0-10 all-time record in the championship round, Game 2 of the 2025 WNBA Finals was a night for the history books. Fueled by a career-defining performance from star forward Angel Reese, the Georgia side claimed their first ever Finals victory, downing the expansion Golden State Valkyries 79-65 on the Valkyries’ home court in San Francisco to level the best-of-seven series at one win apiece.

    Reese, the 2025 WNBA Defensive Player of the Year who joined Atlanta in an off-season trade from the Chicago Sky, put on a dominant two-way display that will go down in postseason record books: she finished the matchup with 30 points and 16 rebounds, becoming just the third player in league history to notch 30 points and 15 rebounds in a Finals game, joining elite former champions Jonquel Jones (2019) and Breanna Stewart (2020). At 24 years old, she is also the youngest player to ever hit that statistical milestone in a WNBA playoff game.

    The game remained tight through the first two quarters, with Atlanta holding a narrow 39-37 lead going into halftime. But the Dream flipped the script in a pivotal 13-minute stretch spanning the third and fourth quarters, putting on a defensive masterclass that held the Valkyries to just eight points, while pouring in 30 points of their own to pull away for good. Reese anchored the run, scoring nine of her total points in that game-changing window to shut down any comeback hopes for the expansion side.

    Reese’s standout performance came after a underwhelming showing in Game 1, where the Dream fell 68-64 on Saturday. Speaking to reporters after the win, Reese admitted she had felt she let her team down in the opening game, particularly in the second half, and entered Game 2 with a point to prove. “I walked off the court not feeling like myself, and I wanted to make sure that, this game, I did everything I could do to walk off the court and feel like who I am,” she said. “I was hungry, I think we let one slip away [on Saturday]. You can’t do that. We felt disappointed, we felt embarrassed.”
    Atlanta guard Allisha Gray praised Reese’s relentless focus after the win, saying “She just came out on a mission tonight.”

    The matchup marked a historic first for both franchises: Atlanta is making their first WNBA Finals appearance since a 2010, 2011 and 2013 three-peat of Finals runs that all ended in 3-0 sweeps, leaving the franchise without a single championship round win entering the 2025 series. For the Golden State Valkyries, the 2025 Finals already represent a historic Cinderella run, as the expansion franchise is competing in the championship in their very first season in the league. Gabby Williams, who led the Valkyries to their Game 1 win, put up 14 points in Game 2, but it was not enough to counter the Dream’s dominant defensive and offensive push. The game even drew a high-profile celebrity spectator: Golden State Warriors superstar Steph Curry, who attended the matchup alongside his daughter.

    After two opening games in California, the series will now shift to Atlanta for the next two matchups. Game 3 is scheduled to tip off on Thursday, October 22 at Atlanta’s 16,000-seat State Farm Arena, with Game 4 to follow two days later on Saturday, October 24.

  • My son has disappeared off the face of the earth fighting for Russia

    My son has disappeared off the face of the earth fighting for Russia

    For nine months, a Newcastle-based mother has clung to fragile hope that her 30-year-old son, missing while fighting for Russia in Ukraine, will be found alive, after he was left with what the family describes as an impossible choice: deportation away from his newborn child or enlistment in the Russian military.

    Valerie Stobbart’s life fractured overnight in December 2025, when a panicked text arrived from her daughter-in-law Ksenia, who lives in Russia with Nathan Stobbart and their young family. The message revealed Nathan, who had hidden his military service from his UK family for eight months, had vanished on the front lines in Ukraine. No trace of him has been found since.

    Before the shocking revelation, Valerie had believed her son was working as an electrical contractor in Russia, building a quiet new life after relocating there on Christmas Day 2024 to be with Ksenia, whom he met online. The couple married, welcomed their first child together, and were also raising Ksenia’s three children from a previous relationship. Relocating the entire family to the UK was financially out of reach, Valerie explains, and the conflict in Ukraine felt distant from their home in Russia, so she eventually supported her son’s decision to move. Regular updates and photos of the new grandchild left her with no reason to suspect anything was amiss.

    What Valerie only learned after Nathan went missing is that Russian authorities had forced her son into a devastating ultimatum: sign up for one year of military service, or face deportation for not being granted a residency visa. Under existing Russian policy, foreign men residing in the country have been offered legal status in exchange for military service in the invasion of Ukraine, a requirement that left Nathan with no acceptable options: leave his wife and newborn baby behind to return to the UK, or take up arms against Ukraine. “He was so desperate to stay with his family he would do anything,” Valerie says.

    Nathan is not the first British national without dual Russian-UK citizenship to fight for Russia in Ukraine. Prior cases include Ben Stimson and Aiden Minnis, who were granted Russian citizenship for fighting in occupied Donbas, and Bradley Townsend, who became the first British national fighting for Russia to be killed in the conflict in June 2025. But Valerie stresses that Nathan’s situation is fundamentally different: he did not move to Russia to fight, and only enlisted to stay with his family. Valerie also makes clear that she condemns Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and does not expect public sympathy for her son’s choice.

    Officially, Nathan was declared missing in action by his Russian military unit on 12 December 2025, nine months before the report, with no body recovered. His last communication via military radio came a week before Ksenia sent her urgent message to the UK. The family later discovered Nathan had recorded a private goodbye video for his mother, to be released only if he was killed, a recording Valerie says she has only been able to watch once before turning it off.

    Valerie’s relentless search for answers has run into constant roadblocks. She approached UK government officials, Russian authorities, and cross-border charities for help, but has hit dead end after dead end. The UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office confirms it is in contact with the family, but notes its ability to provide consular assistance in this context is severely limited, and it advises against all travel to Russia. When the family reached out to Russian officials for information on Nathan’s last known location, they were told all details are classified, with no further information provided.

    The search also cost Valerie her longtime job as an asylum decision maker at the UK Home Office. After she contacted a journalist investigating a Ukrainian prisoner of war camp for information on Nathan, she informed her employer of the outreach. She was immediately suspended, then fired for gross misconduct, on the grounds that speaking to media violated her employment contract. Valerie says she only contacted the reporter to find information on her son and never disclosed her workplace, but lost her appeal against the termination. The Home Office declined to comment on individual personnel cases when approached by the BBC.

    With all official avenues exhausted, Valerie now spends every free hour trawling online for any clue of her son’s whereabouts. She follows reports of prisoner exchanges between Russia and Ukraine closely, holding out hope that Nathan is being held captive and will be identified through the DNA the Russian military collected from him, linked to his infant child. Despite facing harsh online criticism from people who condemn Nathan’s decision to fight for Russia, and nine months without any new leads, Valerie refuses to abandon her search.

    “Every single day I think my phone could go and somebody somewhere is going to say ‘we’ve found him’,” she says. “I have read reports of Russians that have turned up after a year of being in captivity, or whatever, and their families thought they were dead. So every day there is a new hope he could be found.”