Global Pulse

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  • A rumour, a lynching in India and a long wait for justice

    A rumour, a lynching in India and a long wait for justice

    In the humid heat of a June 2018 afternoon, two young residents of Guwahati, India, set off on a casual road trip through the rolling hills of Assam’s Karbi Anglong region. Abijeet Nath, a 30-year-old local businessman, and Nilotpal Das, a 29-year-old musician, never made it back to their homes. Nearly eight years after their brutal killing at the hands of a mob falsely accusing them of child abduction, an Assam court has finally issued a long-awaited verdict – one that has left the victims’ grieving families far from satisfied.

    On Monday, the district sessions court delivered its ruling in the high-profile case: 20 of the 45 adult accused were found guilty on charges of murder and participation in an unlawful assembly, while 25 others were acquitted due to insufficient evidence that met the “beyond reasonable doubt” standard required for conviction. The court will announce the length of the defendants’ sentences on Friday. All convicted individuals have already denied wrongdoing, and retain the right to file an appeal with a higher regional court.

    In its written judgment, the court emphasized the scale of the violence that unfolded that evening, noting “this is not a simple case of murder. The involvement of the entire locality is established from the evidence on record.” Court testimony and police records reconstruct the chaotic sequence of events: after stopping in Panjuri Kachari village to ask for directions, an unsubstantiated rumor that the pair were child kidnappers spread rapidly through the community. A spontaneous crowd of 150 to 200 villagers gathered at the site, with at least 50 people directly joining the fatal attack using sticks and other crude weapons. While the exact motivation for their trip to Karbi Anglong, roughly 112 miles from Guwahati, was not confirmed in court, the victims’ parents testified that the two were avid travelers who often explored remote areas of the state together.

    The first confirmation of the tragedy reached Nath’s family when he failed to return calls: a stranger answered Nath’s phone and told his father that his son was dead, and the news would soon air on television. Families rushed to the region immediately, while local police, alerted to reports of an assault, also deployed to the village. By the time emergency responders arrived, the two men had already been pronounced dead at a local hospital. In the aftermath of the killings, dozens of arrests were carried out, and a formal chargesheet was filed against 48 people in 2024. Three of the accused were confirmed to be minors at the time of the attack, so their cases were transferred to the juvenile justice system, leaving 45 adults to stand trial.

    The verdict has returned this shocking case to national headlines, and reignited long-simmering conversations about the deadly consequences of viral misinformation that first gripped India in the late 2010s. The 2018 lynching of Nath and Das was not an isolated incident: at the time, a nationwide wave of mob attacks was being fueled by false rumors of child abduction gangs that spread exponentially across WhatsApp, a massively popular messaging platform in India. Viral text posts and videos stoked widespread panic and deep suspicion of unfamiliar outsiders, leading to similar lynchings across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Maharashtra, Tripura and other states. Law enforcement struggled for months to curb the rapid spread of the false claims across encrypted social platforms.

    At the height of the violence, the case sparked national outrage, particularly after the federal government claimed there was no proven connection between the online rumors and the mob attacks. India’s Supreme Court publicly urged the central government to draft and pass a dedicated anti-lynching law, while lawmakers raised alarms about the growing threat of unregulated “fake news” on private messaging platforms. Pressure also mounted on WhatsApp, which the Indian government warned could face legal liability if it continued to act as a “mute spectator” to deadly misinformation. In response, the platform implemented sweeping changes: it introduced limits on how many times a single message could be forwarded, added clear labels for all forwarded content, and launched national public awareness campaigns to teach users how to identify false claims.

    Years later, the case remains a defining example of the complex challenges of containing harmful viral misinformation, a problem that continues to frustrate policymakers and tech companies alike. A 2021 UNICEF study confirmed what the 2018 attacks made clear: false information spreads far faster and reaches wider audiences than verified factual reporting, especially when the content preys on public fear and anger, making it extremely difficult to halt mid-spread.

    Prateek Waghre, a New Delhi-based researcher focused on technology policy, argues that the root of the problem extends far beyond platform design. “Technology companies alone cannot address problems rooted in society,” he explained. While limiting message forwarding can slow the spread of misinformation, Waghre noted, the measure can also restrict the flow of legitimate, valuable information to users. On platforms like WhatsApp, which uses end-to-end encryption that only allows senders and recipients to read message content, direct content moderation is inherently complicated. Any attempt to increase monitoring of private messages, Waghre added, would require weakening encryption protections, which would in turn raise serious, widespread concerns about user privacy.

    For law enforcement agencies in Assam, the 2018 lynching marked a major turning point in how authorities approach rumor-fueled violence. Kuladhar Saikia, Assam’s former top police official, told reporters that response strategies have shifted dramatically in the years since the attack. Early responses, such as temporary suspensions of local internet service, only offered short-term disruption of misinformation and did nothing to address the underlying social conditions that allowed rumors to take root, he explained. “Instead, we focused on grassroots outreach, working with community leaders to verify information and discourage rumors,” Saikia said.

    But for the families of Nath and Das, these broader policy discussions feel distant from their years-long fight for justice. The acquittal of more than half of the accused has left their demands for full accountability unmet. Gopal Das, father of Nilotpal Das, told reporters after the verdict that his family was “not satisfied” with the ruling. They plan to meet with their legal team to review their options for further legal action, and are pushing for the maximum possible sentence for the 20 convicted defendants. Nath’s family has echoed those concerns, noting they are also evaluating legal challenges to the acquittals and have called on the state government to provide support for their case.

    For the grieving families, Monday’s ruling is only one more incremental step in a legal process that has stretched on for nearly eight years. It cannot bring back the two young men who left home for a casual trip and never returned, nor can it undo the permanent loss that has shaped their lives every day since that summer afternoon in 2018.

  • US says Iran players welcome at World Cup amid Italy uproar

    US says Iran players welcome at World Cup amid Italy uproar

    A controversial idea to swap Iran out of the 2026 World Cup and give their spot to Italy has been firmly rejected by both the U.S. government and Italian authorities, bringing clarity to months of uncertainty around Iran’s participation in the co-hosted tournament. Addressing reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio explicitly stated that Iran’s national football team will be welcomed to the competition, drawing a clear line between Washington’s official policy and the unsolicited proposal put forward by Italian-American envoy Paolo Zampolli.

    Rubio pushed back against widespread speculation that the U.S. had pushed for Iran’s expulsion from the tournament, emphasizing that no official from the U.S. government had moved to bar the country’s athletes from entering. He did, however, note that entry restrictions could apply to other members of the Iranian delegation who are alleged to have links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a group labeled a terrorist organization by the U.S. and multiple other governments. “The problem with Iran, it would be not their athletes, it would be some of the other people (they) would want to bring with them, some of whom have ties to the IRGC. We may not be able to let them in, but not the athletes themselves,” Rubio clarified.

    The unapproved proposal originated from Zampolli, a businessman and socialite who claims to have introduced former U.S. President Donald Trump to his wife Melania. Zampolli told the Financial Times he had pitched the idea of Italy taking Iran’s spot to Trump and FIFA, saying it would be a “dream” to see the four-time World Cup champions compete in the 2026 tournament co-hosted by the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Italy failed to qualify for the event, falling to Bosnia and Herzegovina in a penalty shootout in their qualifying playoff final, marking the third consecutive World Cup the side has missed out on.

    Italian officials quickly dismissed the proposal out of hand on Thursday. Sports Minister Andrea Abodi told local news agencies ANSA and AGI that the idea “first, is not possible; second, is not appropriate, you qualify on the pitch.” That stance was echoed by Luciano Buonfiglio, president of Italy’s Olympic Committee, who added: “I would feel offended. You have to earn your place in the World Cup.” The Iranian embassy in Rome also condemned the suggestion, calling it evidence of U.S. “moral bankruptcy” and noting Italy does not need “political privileges” to prove its footballing standing.

    Iran’s participation in the 2026 World Cup has been clouded by geopolitical unrest following the outbreak of open conflict between Iran, the U.S. and Israel in late February. Earlier this year, the Iranian Football Federation confirmed it was in negotiations with FIFA to move the country’s scheduled group stage matches out of the U.S. and into Mexico. But FIFA President Gianni Infantino has repeatedly reaffirmed that Iran will remain in the tournament and play their matches at the venues assigned in the original draw, a position the governing body stood by Thursday when contacted by AFP, pointing to Infantino’s recent public comments. This is not the first time Zampolli has pushed this type of proposal: in 2022, he made an identical push to have Italy replace Iran at the Qatar World Cup amid protests in Iran, a suggestion that was ignored entirely by global football officials.

  • Ringo Starr: ‘I made all my mistakes on stage’

    Ringo Starr: ‘I made all my mistakes on stage’

    At 85 years old, the iconic former Beatles drummer remains as laid-back and approachable as ever, greeting an interviewer at West Hollywood’s legendary Sunset Marquis Hotel — a longstanding luxury retreat for rock icons tucked just off the Sunset Strip — with one simple request: Call me Ringo. Though he received a knighthood in 2018 for his decades of contributions to global music, the man legally knighted as Sir Richard Starkey brushes off formal honorifics with a laugh. For him, there is no need for stuffy titles; the only thing that matters is talking music.

    Long a Los Angeles transplant who has owned a home in the city since the 1970s, Starr says he has always fallen for the laid-back, welcoming energy that defines the city. “I love the heat and the light, it’s just been a good place for me,” he notes, his signature catchphrase “Peace and love” coming naturally as he puts his interviewer at ease. A lifelong collaborative musician, Starr says he has never been one to practice alone — a habit born from childhood, when his early solo drumming sessions drew noise complaints from his Liverpool neighbors. He now shares that lesson with his grandchildren: instead of holing up to practice alone, get together with other people and play. “If you play piano, bass, saxophone, I will play with you all night,” he says. “Get with people.”

    That collaborative spirit takes center stage on his brand-new country album, *Long Long Road*, recorded alongside revered producer T Bone Burnett — best known for his 1970s work as a guitarist for Bob Dylan — marking their second joint project in less than two years. The pair co-wrote the full album, splitting recording sessions between Los Angeles and Nashville, with A-list guest artists including Sheryl Crow, Billy Strings, and St. Anthony stepping in to contribute. Starr says Burnett’s deep connections to Nashville’s tight-knit music community meant top-tier musicians could drop in spontaneously to lay down tracks, creating a loose, organic energy that runs through the entire record.

    Starr’s love of country music is not a new, trendy pivot; it stretches all the way back to his 1950s childhood in Liverpool, which he describes as “the capital of country music in England” at the time. Merchant sailors bringing records into the busy port city exposed him to genres from across the globe, including hundreds of country records shipped up from Texas. After finishing secondary school, he even came close to moving to Texas at 18 to live near his blues hero Lightnin’ Hopkins — a plan he abandoned only after growing frustrated with the endless immigration paperwork. Even during his time in the Beatles, his self-penned tracks carried country flair: he only wrote two tracks for the band, 1968’s *Don’t Pass Me By* and *Octopus’s Garden*, and the former was recorded with an explicitly country sound. “I think it would be more country now if we did it with T Bone,” he jokes.

    Starr reflects that his early songwriting attempts with the Beatles drew gentle teasing from bandmates John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison, who laughed that he was often just rewriting existing tracks. It took him time to find his own voice as a songwriter, but today his work has earned the respect of his surviving bandmate: McCartney and Starr recently recorded a duet called *Home to US* for McCartney’s upcoming album *The Boys Of Dungeon Lane*, set to drop next month.

    When he hits the road for a West Coast U.S. tour this May and June to support *Long Long Road*, Starr will pull double duty as lead vocalist and drummer. The stage will hold two kits: when he moves to the front to sing, longtime collaborator Gregg Bissonette takes over drums, a setup Starr says keeps the energy loose and fun for the whole band.

    The interview also touches on the decades of headlines that have followed Starr through his career, clearing up some long-circulated bits of Beatles lore: he confirms he was the one who coined the phrase *A Hard Day’s Night*, which went on to become the title of the band’s debut film, hit single, and first studio album. He also admits he was the first Beatle to try marijuana, and stands by his longstanding dietary rule: he has never eaten pizza or curry in his life.

    Looking ahead, one of the most highly anticipated Beatles projects in recent memory is on the horizon: director Sam Mendes will release four standalone Beatles films, one focused on each band member, in 2028, with Irish actor Barry Keoghan tapped to play Starr. Keoghan recently met up with Starr in Los Angeles for a casual hangout, not a formal method acting deep dive. “It wasn’t like one of those in-depth things,” Starr says, joking that the actor never grilled him on trivial details like “which hand do you use to pick your nose. It was just hanging out and saying ‘hi’.”

    Starr notes he initially struggled to wrap his head around the project, assuming it would be a documentary, but has adjusted to the idea of a fictionalized retelling. He brushes off concerns about box office performance or whether his film will outdraw the other three, instead suggesting fans marathon all four back-to-back. “Put us all on,” he says. “That would be cool to sit there. Bring sandwiches.”

    Starr also praised the recent wave of mainstream country music success, including Beyoncé’s Grammy-winning album *Cowboy Carter*, calling the project a great work that continues a long tradition of cross-genre collaboration in country that he has long been part of.

  • Images of dead Maradona rock trial of medical team

    Images of dead Maradona rock trial of medical team

    The long-awaited wrongful death trial of seven medical workers connected to Diego Maradona’s 2020 passing took a jarring turn this week, when graphic video and firsthand testimony detailing the football legend’s physical state after death were presented to the court. Widely celebrated as one of the most gifted athletes to ever play soccer, Maradona died at age 60 just two weeks after undergoing emergency brain surgery to remove a blood clot, while he was completing his at-home recovery. An official post-mortem examination determined his cause of death was acute heart failure paired with pulmonary edema, a dangerous buildup of fluid in the lungs. On Thursday, emergency room physician Juan Carlos Pinto, the first medical responder to arrive at Maradona’s rented home after his death, took the stand to share his observation of the star’s body. “He had widespread edema across his body—his face was severely swollen, his limbs held excess fluid, and his abdomen was distended into a round, balloon-like shape,” Pinto told the court. Attendees were then shown a 17-minute forensic video recorded by police, which captures Maradona on his deathbed wearing athletic shorts and a t-shirt pulled up to expose his severely distended abdomen. Pinto explained the abnormal swelling stemmed from a combination of excess body fat and ascites, a buildup of abdominal fluid that is commonly tied to advanced liver cirrhosis, a condition Maradona battled for years linked to his long history of substance addiction. Maradona’s daughter Gianinna, who was in attendance for the day’s proceedings, broke down in tears during Pinto’s testimony and hid her face when the graphic video was played for the court. The seven defendants on trial include a neurosurgeon, a psychiatrist, and a nurse, all charged with homicide with possible intent for the substandard care they provided to Maradona in his final days. If convicted, each could face between 8 and 25 years in prison. Both Pinto and a responding law enforcement officer confirmed critical gaps in medical infrastructure at the home where Maradona was recovering, noting no life-saving equipment was on hand to address a potential cardiac event. “There was no defibrillator, no oxygen supply, nothing at all,” Pinto said. “Nothing in the room indicated this patient was receiving formal at-home hospital care.” The accused have all flatly denied any wrongdoing, arguing Maradona—who publicly struggled with cocaine and alcohol addiction for decades—died from entirely natural causes unrelated to their care. This retrial comes after the first legal proceeding over Maradona’s death was thrown out last year, when it was revealed one of the presiding judges had secretly participated in a unauthorized documentary about the high-profile case. A new panel of judges was appointed to oversee the second trial, which opened last week and is projected to run for a minimum of three months as more witnesses and evidence are presented.

  • ‘Missing scientist’ cases have stoked wild speculation. For loved ones, the theories are hurtful

    ‘Missing scientist’ cases have stoked wild speculation. For loved ones, the theories are hurtful

    In recent months, a loose collection of deaths and disappearances of roughly 10 people linked to U.S. scientific and national security work has ignited a firestorm of baseless conspiracy theorizing across social media, drawing official scrutiny from federal investigators and congressional oversight bodies while inflicting unnecessary additional pain on grieving families who have repeatedly tried to set the record straight.

    Among the cases at the center of the online speculation is the February killing of 67-year-old Carl Grillmair, a respected astronomer at the California Institute of Technology’s IPAC science and data center, who was shot and killed at his rural Llano, California, property. A local 29-year-old man named Freddy Snyder has been charged with murder and burglary in the case, and is scheduled for arraignment next week. Despite an arrest and a clear, publicly outlined motive from the victim’s family, Grillmair’s name has become a centerpiece of unsubstantiated online narratives that frame the 10 cases as part of a coordinated, hidden plot tied to classified research.

    According to Grillmair’s widow, Louise, the killing was the result of a misplaced revenge plot, not a targeted assassination tied to her husband’s work on exoplanets and astronomy. Months before the shooting, Snyder had trespassed on the couple’s land while claiming to hunt coyotes, and later escalated disruptive behavior across the neighborhood. When a local resident called 911 to report Snyder’s activity, the suspect incorrectly blamed Grillmair for the call, Louise explained. After returning to the property with a baseball bat two weeks prior to the killing, Snyder came back armed on February 16 and fatally shot Grillmair.

    Louise Grillmair has dismissed the online conspiracies as utter nonsense, noting that her late husband — a kind, morally grounded man who regularly helped others and refused to pursue legal action even when he was not at fault in car accidents — would laugh off the wild claims and use statistical reasoning to debunk them. She called the unfounded speculation denigrating to the memory of those who have died or gone missing, a sentiment echoed by other grieving relatives who have described the theorizing as disgusting and disrespectful, compounding the pain of their loss.

    Other cases included in the online conspiracy lists equally straightforward explanations that theorists routinely ignore. Retired Air Force General William Neil McCasland, the highest-profile person on the list, disappeared from his New Mexico home in February, with his wife Susan McCasland Wilkerson quickly clarifying that all evidence points to a deliberate departure driven by declining health. McCasland, who had retired nearly 13 years prior and only held routine clearances, had recently struggled with anxiety, memory loss, and insomnia, and had told his wife he did not want to live if his physical and mental health continued to deteriorate. He left his phone behind and took only his gun, leading Susan to note that he planned not to be found. Even dryly addressing the conspiracies, she joked that if there was no evidence of any foul play, the only outlandish hypothesis left was that aliens had beamed him to a mothership — a claim she noted had no supporting evidence.

    Eight months before McCasland’s disappearance, Melissa Casias, an administrative assistant at Los Alamos National Laboratory, vanished from Taos, New Mexico, with her family confirming she left deliberately. Even with that public statement, conspiracy theorists continue to fixate on her case. MIT physicist Nuno Loureiro was murdered by a former classmate, who confessed to the killing on video and was arrested for additional homicides at Brown University. Another researcher died by suicide after suffering devastating grief following the loss of both of his parents in a single day, his body later recovered from a local lake, while another death was officially ruled the result of cardiovascular disease by a coroner.

    Mick West, a well-known science writer and debunker of pseudoscience, has pushed back against the conspiracy claims, pointing out that statistical probability explains the small number of deaths among the hundreds of thousands of people with security clearances in the U.S. aerospace and nuclear sectors. Over a 22-month period, ordinary mortality would predict roughly 4,000 deaths, 70 homicides, and 180 suicides among that population, West noted, making the 10 cases cited by conspiracy theorists entirely unremarkable.

    Despite the clear explanations and family members’ repeated attempts to quell the hysteria, the conspiracy theories have gained enough traction online that both the FBI and the U.S. House Oversight Committee have launched formal investigations. For Louise Grillmair, the attention would be better focused on celebrating her husband’s legacy: groundbreaking scientific research, a commitment to helping others, and a quiet life spent enjoying flying, outdoor work, and astronomy from the small observatory he built at his home.

  • Trump says Israel-Lebanon ceasefire to be extended by three weeks

    Trump says Israel-Lebanon ceasefire to be extended by three weeks

    A new chapter of diplomatic engagement between longtime adversaries Israel and Lebanon has resulted in a three-week extension of their fragile ceasefire, U.S. President Donald Trump announced this week, following a fresh round of high-level talks between the two nations’ envoys hosted in Washington. The initial ceasefire, brokered last week after the first direct high-level negotiations between the sides in 30 years, was scheduled to expire Sunday, and its extension keeps open the window for de-escalation after more than seven weeks of open conflict between Israel and the Iran-aligned militant group Hezbollah.

    Trump made the announcement first on his social platform Truth Social, noting the Washington-based meeting between envoys “went very well.” Speaking alongside U.S. Senate lawmakers JD Vance and Marco Rubio in the Oval Office, the president added that the U.S. will deepen cooperation with Lebanon to secure its borders against Hezbollah, and confirmed that both Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been invited to visit the White House in the coming weeks to continue negotiations. “They do have Hezbollah to think about,” Trump said. “We are going to be working with Lebanon to get things straightened out in that country. I think it will be a wonderful thing to get this worked out simultaneously with what we are doing in Iran.”

    Lebanese Ambassador Nada Hamadeh Moawad and Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter joined Trump for the Oval Office remarks, and both diplomats commended the U.S. leader for his hands-on role in advancing the talks. Leiter emphasized that both nations share a core goal of eliminating what he described as Hezbollah’s “malign influence” from Lebanese territory.

    Despite the diplomatic breakthrough for a ceasefire extension, violence has continued to plague the border region, with both sides trading accusations of ceasefire violations in the days leading up to this week’s talks. On Thursday evening local time, just as negotiations were getting underway in Washington, Hezbollah announced it had launched a rocket barrage against northern Israel in retaliation for what it called an Israeli breach of the truce. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed it intercepted all incoming projectiles.

    A day earlier, Lebanon filed formal accusations of war crimes against Israel after an Israeli airstrike in southern Lebanon killed one journalist and injured a second. The IDF has denied it intentionally targeted media personnel.

    The current round of conflict erupted in early March, after Hezbollah launched a large-scale drone and rocket attack on Israel in retaliation for the killing of Iran’s supreme leader in a joint U.S.-Israeli strike on Iran on February 28. In response, Israel launched intense airstrikes across Lebanon, concentrated in the southern part of the country and the capital Beirut, and reintroduced ground troops into southern Lebanon, where it has maintained an occupation of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) of Lebanese territory ever since.

    Humanitarian costs of the conflict have been catastrophic, according to official data. Lebanon’s health ministry reports at least 2,294 people have been killed in Israeli attacks across the country since the outbreak of the latest war, a toll that includes 274 women and 177 children. On the Israeli side, Israeli authorities confirm Hezbollah attacks have killed two civilians, while 15 Israeli soldiers have died in combat operations inside Lebanon. United Nations data indicates more than one million Lebanese people — roughly one out of every five residents of the country — have been displaced by the fighting, most from southern Lebanon, where entire villages and residential areas have been destroyed by Israeli bombardment.

    A major sticking point in long-term peace talks remains the future of Hezbollah, a Shia Muslim organization that operates as both a militant militia and a mainstream political party within Lebanon. The U.S., Israel, and many Lebanese political factions have demanded Hezbollah fully disarm, but the group has refused to enter any discussions about the status of its weapons. Lebanese President Aoun has repeatedly warned that forcing disarmament through military action would trigger internal Lebanese violence, arguing any resolution on the issue must come through negotiated dialogue with the group. For Hezbollah’s supporters, the group remains the only credible defense force for southern Lebanon amid the country’s weak central state institutions, a position that has been reinforced by the ongoing conflict.

  • Trump administration vows crackdown on Chinese companies ‘exploiting’ AI models made in US

    Trump administration vows crackdown on Chinese companies ‘exploiting’ AI models made in US

    As China rapidly closes the technological gap with the United States in global artificial intelligence development, the Trump administration has launched a new crackdown on what it frames as unfair exploitation of American AI innovation by foreign firms, with China positioned as the primary target of the policy push.

    In a formal memorandum released Thursday, Michael Kratsios, then-President Trump’s top science and technology advisor, leveled accusations that foreign entities—most headquartered in China—are running coordinated, industrial-scale campaigns to “distill” core capabilities from leading U.S.-built AI systems, effectively siphoning off American research and development work for their own gain. “Foreign actors are exploiting decades of American expertise and innovation to cut corners on their own AI development,” Kratsios wrote, outlining that the administration would partner with leading U.S. AI companies to map unauthorized extraction activity, reinforce defensive systems, and implement penalties against bad actors.

    The policy announcement lands amid a shifting global AI landscape: the White House has repeatedly framed AI dominance as a critical strategic priority, arguing U.S. leadership is necessary to set global technical norms and secure long-term economic and military advantages. However, a recent analysis from Stanford University’s Human-Centered AI Institute found that the performance gap between the world’s top U.S. and Chinese AI models has “effectively closed” in recent years, eroding the long-held American competitive edge.

    China’s embassy in Washington swiftly pushed back against the accusations, condemning what it called the United States’ “unjustified suppression of Chinese companies.” “China has always been committed to advancing global scientific and technological progress through open cooperation and healthy, fair competition,” embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said in a statement, adding that China prioritizes rigorous intellectual property protection for all innovators.

    Kratsios’ memo coincided with a key congressional development that same week: the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee gave unanimous, bipartisan backing to a new bill that would establish a formal government process to identify foreign actors that steal core technical details from closed-source, U.S.-owned AI models, and impose punitive measures including economic sanctions against offenders. The bill’s sponsor, Republican Representative Bill Huizenga of Michigan, framed model extraction attacks as a new front in Chinese economic aggression and intellectual property theft. “American AI models are delivering transformative new capabilities that will reshape our economy and national security,” Huizenga said. “It is absolutely critical that we block China from stealing these decades of technological advancement to boost their own strategic position.”

    Tensions over AI extraction first flared last year, when Chinese AI startup DeepSeek launched a high-performance large language model that could compete with products from top U.S. AI giants—at a fraction of their development cost, sending shockwaves through U.S. tech markets. David Sacks, who served as Trump’s AI and crypto advisor at the time, publicly claimed there was substantial evidence that DeepSeek had distilled proprietary knowledge from OpenAI’s leading models to build its own product. OpenAI, the developer behind ChatGPT, echoed these claims in a February letter to U.S. lawmakers, arguing that China should not be allowed to build what it called “autocratic AI” by “appropriating and repackaging American innovation.”

    Shortly after, Anthropic—creator of the popular Claude chatbot—accused DeepSeek and two other China-based AI research labs of running coordinated campaigns to illicitly extract Claude’s core capabilities to improve their own competing models via knowledge distillation, a technique that involves training a smaller, less advanced model on the output of a more powerful, cutting-edge system. While Anthropic acknowledged that distillation can be a legitimate, widely used method for AI training when done with permission, the company argued that it becomes unfair and illicit when competitors use the technique to gain powerful AI capabilities in a fraction of the time and at a tiny fraction of the cost required to develop leading models independently.

    However, cross-border knowledge sharing in AI works in both directions. San Francisco-based startup Anysphere, maker of the widely used coding tool Cursor, recently confirmed that its latest flagship product is built on an open-source model developed by Chinese AI firm Moonshot AI, creator of the popular Kimi chatbot.

    Industry and policy experts note that enforcing new restrictions on unauthorized AI distillation will pose massive practical challenges. Kyle Chan, a Brookings Institution fellow based in Washington D.C. and a leading expert on Chinese technology development, explained that distinguishing unauthorized extraction from the massive volume of legitimate, routine data requests from AI systems is comparable to “looking for needles in an enormous haystack.” That said, Chan added that coordinated information sharing between U.S. AI research labs could help mitigate the risk, and the federal government can play a key facilitating role in aligning anti-extillation defenses across the private sector.

    While it remains unclear how far the House-passed bill will advance through the legislative process, Chan noted that the Trump administration may be hesitant to escalate tensions with Beijing ahead of a planned mid-May state visit by the U.S. president to China, creating uncertainty about how aggressively the new policy will be implemented.

    This reporting included contributions from Matt O’Brien, an AP technology writer based in Providence, Rhode Island.

  • Singer D4vd had ‘significant amount’ of child sex abuse images when arrested, prosecutors say

    Singer D4vd had ‘significant amount’ of child sex abuse images when arrested, prosecutors say

    The American music industry and online fan communities have been rocked by the unfolding of a horrific criminal case that has gripped Los Angeles: rising TikTok star D4vd, best known for his viral 2020s hits *Romantic Homicide* and *Here With Me*, stands accused of the brutal murder, sexual abuse, and dismemberment of 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. Court proceedings this week have brought previously unreported, disturbing details to light, peeling back the curtain on a months-long investigation that spawned widespread online speculation after the teen’s body was discovered.

    The case dates back to September 2025, when workers at a Hollywood towing yard responded to complaints of a foul odor coming from a parked Tesla, registered to D4vd, whose legal name is David Anthony Burke. Inside the vehicle’s front trunk, investigators found Rivas Hernandez’s dismembered remains sealed inside a black zipper bag. At the time of the discovery, Burke was mid-way through a planned worldwide tour; the tour was immediately scrapped following the find, and the artist withdrew almost entirely from public view and his social media platforms, which had served as the launchpad for his rapid rise to fame.

    Rivas Hernandez had been reported missing by her family months earlier, after she was last seen leaving Burke’s Hollywood Hills home on April 3, 2025. For months after the discovery of her body, law enforcement released almost no details about the case, the nature of the relationship between the 14-year-old and the singer, or the progress of the investigation. That information vacuum fueled a wave of unfounded conspiracies across social media platforms, leaving the public and Rivas Hernandez’s family without clear answers.

    It was not until last week that Los Angeles law enforcement announced Burke’s arrest. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office officially filed seven criminal charges against the artist, including one count of murder, multiple counts of continuous sexual abuse of a minor, and charges for the mutilation of human remains. This week, prosecutors presented even more disturbing allegations during open court proceedings.

    Prosecutors told the court that during the execution of search warrants for Burke’s electronic devices, investigators recovered what they described as a “significant amount” of images depicting child sexual abuse on both his personal phone and linked iCloud account. Prosecutors further alleged that Burke repeatedly sexually assaulted Rivas Hernandez before killing her and dismembering her body, claiming he took these extreme steps to conceal the abuse and protect his fast-growing, profitable music career.

    On Wednesday, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner released its long-withheld autopsy report, which had been kept from public disclosure at the request of investigating officers. The report officially ruled Rivas Hernandez’s death a homicide, caused by multiple penetrating injuries from an as-yet-unidentified weapon or weapons. It confirmed the body was heavily decomposed and had been dismembered, matching the initial observations of first responders.

    Burke has entered a formal plea of not guilty to all criminal charges brought against him. It is important to note that while prosecutors have alleged the possession of child sexual abuse material, no additional charges related to those claims have been filed against the singer to date. The BBC reached out to Burke’s legal team for comment on the new allegations, and the team has repeatedly stood by their client’s claim of innocence.

    “We will vigorously defend David’s innocence, and we are confident that evidence will ultimately prove David did not kill Celeste,” the defense team said in an earlier statement. They have also pushed back on the prosecution’s procedural approach, noting that three grand juries have reviewed evidence in the case so far, but no indictment has been returned. Instead, the district attorney chose to bring charges via a direct criminal complaint, a step the defense has questioned.

    “There has been no indictment returned by any grand jury in this case, and no finalized criminal complaint filed. David has only been detained under suspicion,” the defense team told the BBC.

    This week, Rivas Hernandez’s family broke their months-long silence to release their first public statement about the case, offering a tender portrait of the teen they lost and calling for accountability. “Celeste was a beautiful, strong girl who loved to sing and dance. Every Friday night was movie night and we spent wonderful times together,” her parents Jesus Rivas and Mercedes Martinez said. “We love her very much and she always told us that she loved us. We miss her deeply. All we want is justice for Celeste.”

    Two upcoming court hearings in the case are scheduled for next Wednesday and Friday, as the legal process moves forward and more details are expected to enter the public record. Law enforcement officials have said they have recovered and analyzed a substantial body of digital and forensic evidence to support their charges, setting the stage for a high-profile trial that will continue to draw national attention.

  • Iran blames US as truce talks reach a deadlock

    Iran blames US as truce talks reach a deadlock

    Truce talks aimed at de-escalating conflict between the United States and Iran have reached an impasse, with top Iranian leaders directly blaming Washington’s bad-faith tactics and uncompromising posture for the breakdown, as escalating military and maritime moves in the strategic Strait of Hormuz threaten global energy supplies. As of April 23, 2026, Washington has unilaterally extended its proposed ceasefire on its own terms, but ongoing exchanges of attacks and counterattacks have continued to disrupt critical commercial shipping through the key waterway, through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil flows daily.

    In a public social media statement released Wednesday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian pushed back against US claims that Iran has refused to negotiate in good faith, emphasizing that the Islamic Republic has consistently remained open to meaningful dialogue. “Bad faith, siege and threats are the main obstacles to genuine negotiation,” Pezeshkian said. “The world is witnessing your hypocritical empty talk and the contradiction between your claims and your actions.”

    Hours after Pezeshkian’s remarks, US President Donald Trump issued his own provocative social media statement, announcing he had ordered the US Navy to “shoot and kill” any small Iranian vessels that attempt to block passage through the strait. “There is to be no hesitation,” Trump added, doubling down on his administration’s aggressive posture toward Iran.

    The day before Trump’s order, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that the White House cites inconsistent messaging from Tehran as a core barrier to progress, noting that US leadership retains full authority to end the unilateral ceasefire extension at any time. “We see a lot of different messaging and rhetoric,” Leavitt said, adding that the US maintains full control of the regional situation and holds significant leverage over the Iranian government. “Not only have they been significantly weakened and obliterated militarily, but they are losing economically and financially every single moment that passes with this blockade. So the president is going to continue to lead the free world, to run the United States of America as we await the Iranian response,” she said.

    In response to the ongoing US blockade and escalating rhetoric, Iranian legislative and security bodies are now reviewing a new framework to assert full sovereign control over the Strait of Hormuz, according to Iran’s official Mehr News Agency. Fada Hossein Maleki, a senior member of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, confirmed Thursday that both parliament and the Supreme National Security Council are conducting joint reviews of proposals for the strategic waterway.

    Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said in a Wednesday social media post that any meaningful ceasefire can only function if Washington ends its maritime blockade, which Tehran argues is holding the global economy hostage. Ghalibaf stressed that reopening full unimpeded navigation through the strait is impossible while Washington flagrantly violates the terms of the proposed truce. “They did not achieve their goals through military aggression, nor will they through bullying. The only way forward is to recognize the rights of the Iranian nation,” he added.

    On Thursday, Iran’s state-run media outlets Islamic Republic News Agency and Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting released the first public footage of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGC-N) operations in the strait, directly contradicting recent claims from the Trump administration that Iran’s naval capabilities have been completely destroyed. The IRGC confirmed it has seized two foreign commercial vessels for violating Iranian shipping restrictions in the waterway, and opened fire on a third vessel that failed to comply with orders.

    Tasnim News Agency, another Iranian state outlet, also reported Thursday that the first revenue collected from new shipping tolls imposed on vessels passing through the strait has been deposited in the Central Bank of Iran, marking the formal launch of the country’s new toll regime for the waterway.

    For its part, US Central Command confirmed Thursday that American forces have diverted or ordered 31 vessels back to port as part of Washington’s ongoing economic blockade against Iran. Most of the redirected vessels are oil tankers, US officials said, and the vast majority have complied with US orders to avoid the region.

    A recent Pentagon assessment, first reported by The Washington Post, estimates that it would take up to six months to clear all naval mines laid by Iran from the strait, a timeline that would keep global oil prices elevated for an extended period. International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol confirmed the severe impact of the ongoing conflict on global energy markets, noting that the world is currently losing 13 million barrels of oil supply per day due to disrupted shipping and production tied to the confrontation.

  • Kuwait releases journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin after acquittal

    Kuwait releases journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin after acquittal

    After 52 days of behind-bars detention on charges tied to social media posts about the US-Israeli military campaign targeting Iran, award-winning Kuwaiti-American journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin has been cleared of all counts and released from custody in Kuwait.

    The 41-year-old, who holds dual Kuwaiti-American citizenship and was born in the United States, was taken into custody on March 2 during a trip to Kuwait to visit extended family. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the arrest was triggered by a string of social media posts Shihab-Eldin shared about the ongoing regional conflict. Among these posts was footage of a U.S. fighter jet crashing at an American airbase located within Kuwait; the press freedom advocacy group stressed that all material the journalist shared was already publicly available.

    Caoilfhionn Gallagher, international legal counsel representing Shihab-Eldin’s family, confirmed the acquittal in an official statement, saying, “We are relieved that, after 52 days in detention, Ahmed has been found innocent on all charges. Our focus now is upon ensuring the liberty and safety of our client.”

    The CPJ echoed this relief in an update posted to the social platform X, noting that while full details surrounding the case were still being collected, Shihab-Eldin’s international legal team had formally confirmed the full acquittal and his impending release.

    A veteran journalist with an extensive career, Shihab-Eldin has contributed reporting to a roster of major global media outlets including The New York Times, Al Jazeera English, and PBS. His work, which focuses heavily on human rights and regional affairs, has earned him high-profile industry honors, including a British Journalism Award and an Amnesty International Human Rights Defender Award.

    Beyond Shihab-Eldin’s individual case, the CPJ has framed his detention as part of a growing, region-wide crackdown on digital free speech that has unfolded alongside the escalation of the US-Israeli war on Iran. Like other Gulf nations, Kuwait has rolled out increasingly strict limits on online expression amid rising regional tensions, moving to restrict public discussion of attacks on the country’s critical infrastructure.

    On the same day Shihab-Eldin was arrested, Kuwait’s Ministry of Interior published a public statement advising citizens and residents against “photographing or publish any clips or information related to missiles or relevant locations,” warning that multiple people had already been taken into custody on charges of spreading false information. Weeks after that initial announcement, Kuwait’s legislature introduced sweeping new legislation that carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence for anyone found guilty of “disseminating news, publishes statements, or spreads false rumours related to military entities” with the intent to erode public trust in state military institutions.

    Data from the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) underscores the scale of this crackdown: the rights organization reports that dozens of people across the region have been arbitrarily detained since the outbreak of the war, all for the act of “peacefully expressing their opinions on social media.” The GCHR added that most of these detainees are held in unacknowledged state security facilities for days at a time, and are systematically denied access to both family visits and legal representation, in violation of international human rights standards.