Global Pulse

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  • Inside the shadowy world of anti-Putin sabotage from within Russia

    Inside the shadowy world of anti-Putin sabotage from within Russia

    In a revealing new BBC World Service documentary, two Russian men secretly affiliated with Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (GUR) have gone on record to share unprecedented details of their covert operations targeting military infrastructure and personnel within Russia’s borders. The rare firsthand account pulls back the curtain on the shadow network of opposition-aligned Russians supporting Ukraine’s war effort from inside enemy territory. Polish independent journalist Marcin Mamon, who produced the documentary *Shadowmen: Russians working with Ukraine*, profiles two operatives using the pseudonyms Ivan and Foma, each describing distinct roles in the GUR’s coordinated campaign inside Russia.

    Ivan, who operates from within Russia, claims to have directly supported Ukrainian drone strikes on key military assets including strategic bombers and munitions factories located on Russian territory. He told Mamon he conducts on-the-ground reconnaissance of military sites, hides drone components in pre-positioned locations across the country, and even smuggles explosives near high-value targets. Mamon verified that Ivan shared reconnaissance video of one such mission near a Russian military airfield. If captured, Ivan would face decades in prison on terrorism charges. He recalled one close call when Russian security officers stopped his car for inspection while he was carrying handmade explosives, yet he avoided detection.

    To reduce the risk of the entire network being compromised, Ivan says there is no formal hierarchical structure to the operation, and he has never met any other operatives working for the GUR inside Russia. A former member of Russia’s political opposition, Ivan says he is motivated by ideology: he opposes both Vladimir Putin’s regime and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and he believes accelerating the war’s outcome could lead to the collapse of the Putin government. “If Putin loses the war, his regime might fall, and we are working to speed that up,” he told Mamon. He added that even small, covert actions can have outsized impact: properly assembled drone components smuggled by operatives like him can become formidable weapons capable of destroying military assets worth millions of dollars in a single strike. He also acknowledged constant danger, saying, “Fear follows me everywhere. This is Russia.” Even so, he remains optimistic that long-term change is coming, noting “Putin won’t live forever.”

    Foma, the second operative, is a former member of the Russian elite who now lives in exile in Poland. He says he runs a network of roughly 300 to 500 undercover volunteers inside Russia that conducts surveillance on high-level Russian military officers and other targets identified by the GUR. He stresses that his network only collects intelligence and never carries out attacks itself. Foma trains new volunteers remotely through online tutorials, teaching them surveillance tradecraft such as trailing targets without being detected, and prohibits recruits from carrying phones while on observation missions to avoid leaving a digital trace. He shares target dossiers with volunteers that include full biographical details, vehicle information, and residential locations, and his network maps everything from weapons storage facilities and military unit positions to the home addresses of senior officers and strategic bomber pilots. Foma says his network conducts independent vetting of all GUR-suggested targets to confirm they are involved in military actions against Ukraine, a step he says justifies the work: “People who commit terrible acts in Ukraine on behalf of Putin must know they will eventually pay for their actions. I want them to be afraid.”

    Foma did confirm that his network provided intelligence on Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov, a senior Russian officer assassinated by a car bomb in Moscow in December 2024, noting that tracking the general took extensive effort as he frequently changed his schedule and hid his movements. Foma estimates his network has a few dozen operatives split between Russia, Ukraine, and other European countries, with cross-border members handling logistical support such as tracking targets’ digital footprints. Like Ivan, he emphasizes operational security through decentralized structure, warning that any large formal grouping or digital communication trail would quickly lead to the network being rolled up by Russian security services.

    While the GUR has publicly confirmed that both Ivan and Foma are working for the agency, even Ukraine’s intelligence service says it cannot independently verify every detail of their claims. When pressed on whether Ivan can be fully trusted, one of his GUR handlers admitted, “I’m not sure of anyone except myself.” Many of the specific activities described by the two men cannot be independently verified by the BBC. That said, Ukrainian officials have openly acknowledged their broader strategy: Kyiv has confirmed it carries out coordinated drone strikes on what it calls legitimate military targets inside Russia, and it admits using undercover agents to support these operations.

    For months, there have been media reports of Russian sabotage networks working for Ukraine, but this is one of the first times an operative on the ground inside Russia has spoken publicly about his activities. Since the full-scale invasion began, there have been multiple high-profile assassinations of senior Russian political and military figures. While Ukraine never officially claims responsibility for these targeted killings, a Ukrainian intelligence officer previously admitted to the BBC that the GUR was behind the December 2024 assassination of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, another senior Russian military figure.

    It is impossible to confirm how many Russians are currently working for Ukrainian intelligence, though Foma estimates the total number is between 300 and 500. Ivan notes that most ideologically motivated Russians opposed to Putin have already either left the country or been arrested, leaving many operatives inside Russia either as unwitting participants (such as truck drivers who unknowingly transport compromised cargo) or paid contractors. Ivan himself is an unusual case: despite being a known former opposition member, he remains able to travel freely in and out of Russia, a fact that has raised questions even within the GUR about his reliability. Foma argues Ivan’s free movement does not automatically mean he is a double agent, pointing to widespread vulnerabilities in Russia’s governance that allow well-connected or lucky operatives to avoid detection. What lends credibility to Ivan’s account is his advance warning to Mamon of a major planned strike on Russian strategic bomber airfields, which came more than a year before a devastating large-scale drone attack on multiple Russian military airfields.

    The full documentary *Shadowmen: Russians working with Ukraine* is available to watch on YouTube for audiences outside the UK and can be listened to via the BBC World Service Documentary Podcast.

  • Trump gives Netanyahu ‘complete and total endorsement’ ahead of Israeli election

    Trump gives Netanyahu ‘complete and total endorsement’ ahead of Israeli election

    With less than two weeks remaining until Israel’s hotly contested parliamentary election on October 27, former U.S. President Donald Trump has thrown his full, unreserved backing behind incumbent Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, injecting a high-profile international dimension into the close domestic race.

  • EU tariffs aimed at China hitting Ukraine, steel boss says

    EU tariffs aimed at China hitting Ukraine, steel boss says

    As Russia’s full-scale invasion continues to pummel Ukraine’s industrial backbone, the leader of one of the nation’s largest steel producers is sounding the alarm over new European Union trade rules, saying the bloc’s sweeping import curbs unfairly lump a war-ravaged Ukraine in with global steel giants exporting cheap goods.

    Yuriy Ryzhenkov, chief executive officer of Metinvest, made the case in an exclusive interview with the BBC, arguing that the EU’s recently enacted protective tariffs and import quotas fail to account for the extraordinary crisis Ukraine’s steel sector is currently navigating. He is calling for at least a targeted carve-out that would allow Ukrainian steel to enter the bloc’s market without the new restrictions, warning that continued access to the EU is a matter of survival for Ukraine’s vital steel industry.

    In a bid to shield domestic steel manufacturers from cut-price competition primarily from China and Turkey, the EU rolled out new trade protections that cap total annual duty-free steel imports at 18.3 million tonnes. That marks a sharp 47% reduction from the quota levels in place in 2024. While the policy includes country-specific quotas and a longstanding free trade agreement between the EU and Ukraine remains in effect, that deal does not override the bloc’s right to implement independent trade protection measures. As a result, Ukraine is bound by the new caps – a outcome Ryzhenkov calls fundamentally unfair.

    “Ukraine has been bundled together into those measures without any consideration for the situation Ukraine is in,” Ryzhenkov said, referencing the ongoing full-scale war with Russia. “Access to the European market is crucial for survival. The restrictive measures that have been put in place by the authorities in the European Union, they don’t help. I think it’s unfair that Ukraine has been treated in the same way as all of the other importers into the European Union.”

    Ukraine’s domestic steel industry projects that under the new rules, annual exports to the EU could plummet by between 50% and 60%. For a nation that has relied on steel exports as a core pillar of its economy for decades, that drop could be catastrophic. Before Russia launched its full invasion in 2022, metallurgy and mining made up roughly 10% of Ukraine’s total gross domestic product and accounted for a full third of the country’s total export revenue. The European Union has long been the largest single customer for Ukrainian steel, and Ryzhenkov emphasized that years of war have destroyed alternative logistics routes, leaving the EU as the only accessible major market for the country’s output.

    The war has already gutted Ukraine’s steel production capacity. Every one of the country’s operating steel mills has sustained damage from Russian bombardment, and Ryzhenkov noted that strikes on industrial infrastructure have “intensified significantly” in recent months. In September 2024, the country recorded its first month with zero domestic steel production – a first in more than 150 years of Ukrainian steel-making. Since the invasion began, nearly 800 Metinvest employees have been killed in attacks and ongoing conflict. The company has expanded bomb shelter coverage at mill sites and implemented strict safety protocols to protect workers during air raids, but Ryzhenkov acknowledged that large-scale industrial facilities cannot be fully protected from persistent attack.

    Looking ahead to the coming winter, Ryzhenkov predicted the season will be “one of the hardest in our history” for the sector. “We are in a dire situation when we don’t have logistics to access any other market apart from the EU and cutting our available market by 60%, that doesn’t help for the industry to survive,” he added.

    In response to the criticism, a European Commission spokesperson pushed back on claims that the bloc ignored Ukraine’s crisis when drafting the new policy, saying officials “took into account the difficult situation” of Ukraine during policy negotiations. The EU maintains that its framework sets a specific quota for Ukrainian steel that guarantees the country can continue exporting to the bloc, even if that quota is set at “a level lower than in the past years.” The spokesperson added that the EU has “offered compensations” to its largest steel suppliers, which includes Ukraine, to offset the impact of the reduced quotas.

  • Major fire at Canada military base leaves four dead, dozens injured

    Major fire at Canada military base leaves four dead, dozens injured

    A devastating out-of-control fire at one of Canada’s busiest military training installations in rural Alberta has claimed the lives of four service members and left nearly 40 others injured, in what Prime Minister Mark Carney has called one of the deadliest peacetime military tragedies in Canadian history.

    The blaze ignited shortly before 4 p.m. local time Saturday at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright, a sprawling live-fire training hub located roughly 210 kilometers east of Alberta’s capital Edmonton. By the time emergency crews brought the fire under control hours later, it had already left an irreversible mark on the country’s military community.

    Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney addressed the nation from Ottawa Sunday, opening his remarks by extending condolences to the fallen service members’ families and loved ones. “The nation is in mourning for those brave members of our armed forces who we have lost,” Carney said, labeling the incident “one of the worst tragedies for the forces on Canadian soil in peacetime.”

    As of Sunday afternoon, the identities of all four fallen troops had been confirmed by BBC sources: Sergeant Morgan Wong, Private Shaun Farrell, Private Aidan Goulding and Private Hayden Lykkemark. Of the 39 injured personnel transported to hospitals across Alberta, at least 19 remain in critical condition, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith confirmed during a Sunday evening press briefing.

    At the time the fire broke out, infantry troops were conducting scheduled high-intensity live-fire combat training on the base’s grenade and attack ranges, according to Major-General Wade Rutland. Multiple types of ordnance were in use across the training area, including grenade launchers, hand grenades, small arms and live ammunition. Investigators have confirmed that a grass fire sparked approximately one kilometer from the active training range, and unseasonably strong winds pushed the flames rapidly toward the range’s administrative zone, where personnel were gathered.

    Wainwright Mayor Bruce Pugh told the BBC that cannon fire, a routine sound from the base’s training activities, abruptly stopped Saturday afternoon, before local emergency services were called in for an “all hands on deck” response. Fire and rescue teams have remained on site through Sunday to monitor for potential flare-ups of residual hotspots.

    Officials have repeatedly ruled out early foul play concerns, confirming that as the investigation into the fire’s origin continues, there is no evidence linking the incident to terrorist activity. Major-General Rutland also added that the blaze was not caused by oil and gas infrastructure operating near the base, nor any form of outside interference.

    Canadian Forces Base Wainwright is one of the Canadian military’s primary live-fire training facilities, hosting regular exercises for Canadian troops and allied partner nation personnel. On a standard day, the base hosts roughly 690 active military personnel and 300 civilian employees.

    The sheer volume of casualties overwhelmed local medical capacity in Wainwright almost immediately, prompting a mass casualty response across central Alberta. All injured patients were transferred to larger care facilities, primarily Edmonton’s Royal Alexandra Hospital, which initially activated a Code Orange disaster protocol to manage the influx of critical patients. The protocol has since been stood down as care has been stabilized.

    Dr. Warren Thirsk, an emergency department physician at Royal Alexandra Hospital, told Canadian broadcaster CBC that the incident completely strained the small local Wainwright healthcare system beyond its capacity. The Alberta provincial health agency deployed 30 emergency response units to Wainwright within hours, including 22 ground ambulances, six fixed-wing aircraft and two helicopter transport units. Regional air ambulance service STARS also sent crews and aircraft from three major centers: Edmonton, Saskatoon and Calgary to assist with patient transfers.

    Brandon Simmons, a long-term care resident at Wainwright Health Centre, described the chaotic scene to Reuters. When the Code Orange alert was issued, nursing staff dropped all non-urgent tasks to grab stretchers, gurneys and emergency medical supplies to respond, he said. Ambulances arrived continuously throughout the night, Simmons recalled, adding “I heard people screaming inside of those vehicles that will never end up being out of my mind. It was like a scene from a war movie.”

    As of Sunday evening, the investigation into the exact cause of the fire remains ongoing, with Canadian military officials and local law enforcement working to piece together the sequence of events that led to the tragedy.

  • Mission set to blast off for Mars to grab a piece of its moon

    Mission set to blast off for Mars to grab a piece of its moon

    On Monday, Japan’s space exploration effort will reach a historic milestone as the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) prepares to launch the Mars Moons Exploration (MMX) mission, an ambitious project that aims to collect the first-ever pristine surface sample from Phobos, the larger of Mars’ two tiny moons, and return it to Earth for deep scientific analysis.

    Scheduled for liftoff at 04:41 local time on 20 October from the Tanegashima Space Center, the MMX spacecraft will travel through deep space for nearly three years, arriving in the vicinity of the Mars system by August 2027. Once it reaches its target, the mission will first conduct preliminary observations of the smaller Martian moon, Deimos, before shifting its full focus to Phobos – an irregular, 12-mile-wide celestial body often described as looking like a lumpy space potato. One of the mission’s most remarkable technical challenges will be deploying a small rover to Phobos’ surface, a feat never before attempted by any space program. As Professor Sara Russell, deputy lead for sample analysis at the UK’s Natural History Museum and a key member of the MMX science team, explains, the tiny moon’s extremely weak gravity, combined with the overwhelming gravitational pull of nearby Mars, makes landing any craft on Phobos an extraordinary technical hurdle. After the rover scouts a safe landing site, the MMX spacecraft will touch down on Phobos, where it will use a robotic arm and specialized sampling tools to collect approximately 10 grams of lunar dust and surface material. This precious cargo will be sealed in a return capsule that is scheduled to touch down in Australia’s Woomera Desert in 2031.

    While 10 grams may sound like a negligible amount of material, scientists say even tiny individual grains of extraterrestrial rock can yield groundbreaking insights. The core scientific goal of the mission is to resolve one of the longest-running mysteries in planetary science: how Mars acquired its two small moons. For decades, two competing hypotheses have dominated scientific debate. One theory argues that Phobos and Deimos formed from debris blasted into orbit after a massive asteroid impact on early Mars, similar to how Earth’s own Moon formed. The alternative theory suggests the two moons are asteroids that formed elsewhere in the solar system and were later captured by Mars’ gravitational pull. By analyzing the chemical and mineral composition of the returned Phobos sample, researchers say they will be able to quickly distinguish between these two competing explanations.

    In a happy scientific twist, the mission may also deliver an unexpected bonus: researchers suspect that material blasted off the surface of Mars during ancient asteroid impacts has become embedded in Phobos’ surface regolith. This means the Phobos sample could contain pristine grains of original Martian material, which would give scientists an unprecedented direct look at the Red Planet’s composition. Currently, the only Martian material available on Earth is in the form of rare Martian meteorites, which become contaminated with Earth’s environment after they land, making definitive analysis difficult. Other missions have tried to collect pristine Martian samples: NASA’s Perseverance rover has cached dozens of sample tubes on the Martian surface since 2021, but a joint NASA-ESA mission to return those samples to Earth was effectively scrapped after U.S. Congress cut funding. China plans to launch its own Mars sample return mission in 2028, with a return to Earth targeted for 2031, the same year MMX will deliver its Phobos sample. If successful, MMX will make history as the first mission to return a sample from Mars or its moons to Earth, opening a new chapter in the study of the inner solar system and Mars’ evolutionary history.

  • Trump says suspension of Russia sanctions is to keep peace negotiations going

    Trump says suspension of Russia sanctions is to keep peace negotiations going

    A major diplomatic rift has erupted between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after Trump halted a slate of incoming Russian sanctions just 48 hours before they were set to enter into force, a move that has escalated tensions between Washington and Kyiv and reshaped the trajectory of ongoing efforts to end the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

    In a public post shared to his Truth Social platform, Trump defended the last-minute decision, framing it as a strategic step to advance his stated goal of brokering a lasting peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv. The U.S. president argued that imposing the new restrictions would have needlessly pushed Russia away from the negotiating table, undermining progress toward a ceasefire. “I am in the process of negotiating Peace in the war between Russia and Ukraine,” Trump wrote. “I didn’t want to do anything that will drive, foolishly, Russia away from the bargaining table.”

    Alongside the suspension of sanctions, Trump launched a pointed public attack on Zelensky, claiming the Ukrainian leader has no real interest in ending the full-scale conflict that Russia launched in February 2022. “He doesn’t want to end this war, and probably never did,” Trump asserted. “He could have made a better deal two years ago than he can now.”

    Zelensky has pushed back forcefully against these claims, reiterating that Kyiv’s core priority is reaching a just end to the fighting, while repeatedly emphasizing that Russian President Vladimir Putin has refused to engage in good-faith peace negotiations. The Ukrainian leader warned Sunday in an interview with NBC News that aligning with Putin over Ukraine would constitute a “historic mistake” for the United States. The tension between the two leaders deepened further last week, after Trump commented publicly that Zelensky was “more difficult to deal with” than Putin. During a recent address to an EU leaders’ summit in Brussels, Zelensky pointedly noted that it was “nice to be among real leaders” — a comment widely interpreted as a subtle rebuke of Trump’s approach.

    Russia has welcomed Trump’s decision to suspend sanctions, with Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev describing the move as “an important and truly historic moment.” Dmitriev added that the proposed sanctions would have caused “serious damage” to both the U.S. economy and global financial markets more broadly.

    The growing rift between Washington and Kyiv comes on the heels of two other contentious moves by the Trump administration that have strained bilateral relations: last week, the U.S. finalized a controversial new deal to import Russian diesel, and the White House has pulled back key military assistance for Kyiv, moves that have already eroded trust between the two governments.

  • Saudi chopper pilots killed as landmark tower closes offices amid Houthi fighting

    Saudi chopper pilots killed as landmark tower closes offices amid Houthi fighting

    Fresh escalations in the long-running conflict between the Saudi-led coalition and Yemen’s Houthi movement have sparked multiple fast-moving developments over the weekend, centered on border tensions and shifting security arrangements in Saudi Arabia.

    A military helicopter crash near Saudi Arabia’s southern Najran region, which borders Yemen, has left both crew members dead, but the two opposing sides have offered starkly conflicting accounts of what caused the incident. Saudi-led coalition spokesman Turki al-Maliki confirmed the crash in a statement released Sunday, noting that the AH-6i helicopter went down following an unexpected technical malfunction in an area administered by Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of National Guard.

    This narrative was immediately rejected by Houthi forces, officially named Ansar Allah. The group’s military spokesperson Yahya Saree claimed that Houthi air defenses shot down a Saudi Apache helicopter near Najran while the aircraft was conducting offensive operations against Houthi positions along the shared Saudi-Yemeni border. No independent verification of either claim has been released as of Sunday.

    Alongside the border clash, security concerns have prompted a sudden operational shift at one of Riyadh’s most iconic commercial landmarks. In an internal email sent to employees late Saturday, management of the 99-story Kingdom Centre — a landmark skyscraper that hosts regional and global offices for dozens of major international companies and institutions — ordered all office-based staff to switch to remote work effective immediately, with no set end date for the policy. The tower’s high-end luxury retail mall, however, will remain open to the public as normal.

    The remote work order comes as full-scale hostilities between the two sides have ramped up across multiple Yemeni fronts. After years of relative de-escalation and intermittent ceasefire talks, tensions boiled over in July, with fighting intensifying sharply earlier this month. Both the coalition and Houthi forces have launched cross-border strikes targeting critical energy and civilian infrastructure on opposing territory.

    Heavy active combat is currently ongoing in al-Jawf province, located east of Yemen’s Houthi-held capital Sanaa, as well as on the southern frontlines of Marib province and in the southwestern city of Taiz, according to coalition updates.

    The rising violence has drawn regional backing for Saudi Arabia, with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi pledging full and unwavering support to the kingdom following an emergency meeting of Egypt’s National Defence Council on Sunday. In an official statement, the Egyptian presidency confirmed that Sisi affirmed Egypt would stand with Saudi Arabia to defend its territorial integrity, national security, political stability, natural resources, and Islamic holy sites, offering “all necessary and possible forms of support.”

    Sisi also called for an urgent extraordinary parliamentary session scheduled for later Sunday to approve and authorize military assistance to Saudi Arabia if Riyadh formally requests the support.

    The human cost of the resumed conflict has already been steep, international aid organizations have confirmed. Data from the World Health Organization shows that at least 1,282 people have been killed across Yemeni battlefields between the start of August and October 16. The Saudi-led coalition reports that cross-border Houthi strikes into Saudi territory have killed at least 19 people and injured 364 more. The International Organization for Migration adds that more than 230,000 Yemeni civilians have been newly displaced from their homes since the fighting resumed in August, adding to one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.

  • Cindy Crawford ‘beyond heartbroken’ after death of son Presley at 27

    Cindy Crawford ‘beyond heartbroken’ after death of son Presley at 27

    The entertainment and modeling industries are mourning the loss of 27-year-old Presley Gerber, son of legendary supermodel Cindy Crawford and prominent businessman Rande Gerber, who died on September 20 at a California rehabilitation facility. Law enforcement sources have confirmed his death is being investigated as a suspected drug overdose, with officials ruling out foul play and awaiting additional toxicology testing to confirm the official cause.

    In a heartbreaking public tribute posted to Instagram over the weekend, Cindy Crawford shared that her entire family is “beyond heartbroken” following the passing of her eldest child. Accompanied by a tender black-and-white portrait of Presley, Crawford remembered him as a gentle, compassionate person who navigated the world with radical openness and warmth. “He is a sweet, beautiful soul who loved and is loved, now and forever,” she wrote. “We are so proud of how he showed up in the world, with kindness and vulnerability. We feel so blessed to have had Presley in our lives for 27 years.”

    Closing the tribute with a message from the entire immediate family, Crawford added, “Til we meet again our sweet boy. We love you forever, Mom, Dad and Kaia,” paired with an angel wings emoji. The post also included Presley’s birth and death dates, and expressed gratitude for the widespread support the family has received from both close contacts and strangers sharing their grief.

    Presley Gerber followed in his mother’s modeling footsteps, alongside his younger sister Kaia Gerber, who has also become a globally recognized fashion figure. Presley made his high-profile runway debut at just 16 years old, walking for iconic Italian fashion house Moschino, and went on to build a career in the industry over the following decade.

    Kaia Gerber also shared an intimate, devastating tribute to her older brother over the weekend, compiling childhood memories, personal photos, and a hand-typed four-page letter addressed to her brother, whom she nicknamed “prez”. The post featured a video of the pair dancing together as small children and a candid photo of them standing side-by-side along a coastline. In the letter, Kaia recalled small, formative moments they shared – including Presley volunteering to go first when she was scared to get her ears pierced. She opened up about the pain of learning to live without her brother, writing, “But when I held the earring they took from your body, all I could think was: That belongs to you. I am learning how to love you when I cannot see you. How to tell you something without picking up my phone to call you. How to be your sister in a world that I can’t reach for you in.”

    In the years leading up to his death, Presley spoke openly about his long struggles with mental health and substance use. He regularly used his own Instagram platform to launch what he called “Mental Health Mondays,” sharing personal videos to raise awareness and reduce stigma around mental illness.

    Presley’s father Rande Gerber is a well-known hospitality and business figure, best known as the co-founder of the popular Casamigos tequila brand alongside Hollywood star George Clooney.

    Officially, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner has listed Gerber’s case as pending, noting that additional testing and investigation are required to finalize the cause of death. The Santa Monica Police Department has repeatedly stated that there is no evidence to suggest any outside foul play contributed to his death.

    For anyone affected by issues of substance use or mental health crisis referenced in this reporting, support resources are available via BBC Action Line, and global support can be accessed through Befrienders Worldwide.

  • Macron calls for calm in France and warns rioting must not escalate

    Macron calls for calm in France and warns rioting must not escalate

    France was plunged into unrest on Saturday, as hundreds of thousands of demonstrators gathered across the country to voice frustration over soaring fuel costs, a skyrocketing cost of living, and declining public services including primary and secondary education. While the vast majority of the 550,000 protesters participated in peaceful demonstrations, isolated pockets of unrest spiraled into widespread rioting and looting that shook major urban centers over the weekend.

    By Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron convened an emergency inter-ministerial crisis meeting at the Élysée Presidential Palace in Paris to address the escalating chaos. Following the closed-door meeting, the president delivered a live national address to the country, acknowledging the deep discontent that had driven people to the streets while drawing a clear line between peaceful advocacy and destructive violence.

    “We all feel anger and shame” after the turn of events on Saturday, Macron told viewers. He emphasized that the core concerns raised by demonstrators were legitimate, but stressed that no grievance could justify the uncontrolled violence that left a trail of damage across the nation. “Nothing justifies the unbridled violence we have seen, and all those who have taken part in this destruction will answer for their actions before the law,” he said.

    Eyewitness and official reports documented widespread chaos in multiple major French cities: groups of rioters, many clad in black and concealing their identities with masks and balaclavas, targeted vehicles and buildings with arson in Paris, Marseille and dozens of other urban areas. Looting was particularly rampant across Paris, Marseille and Lille, with retail storefronts and commercial districts bearing the brunt of the damage.

    Official data confirms that roughly 2,400 people have been arrested in connection with the unrest. The French Interior Ministry also reported that approximately 1,000 police officers were injured while responding to the violence on Saturday, seven of whom sustained serious injuries. Over the weekend, law enforcement deployed tear gas and water cannon to disperse unruly crowds, and videos and witness accounts documented riot officers striking demonstrators with batons in multiple locations across the country.

    In response to the damage to commercial and public properties, Macron announced that local prefects and municipal leaders would coordinate national efforts to secure communities and protect businesses and infrastructure. He also committed to full transparency regarding law enforcement’s actions during the protests, responding to growing scrutiny over the tactics used by police to control crowds.

    In his address, the president issued a clear warning that the unrest could not be allowed to escalate further, calling on all French citizens to prioritize calm and public order in the coming days as the government works to address the underlying grievances that sparked the mass demonstrations.

  • What we know so far about deadly fire at Canadian military base

    What we know so far about deadly fire at Canadian military base

    A catastrophic fast-moving fire has claimed at least four lives and left dozens seriously injured after sweeping through one of Canada’s busiest military training facilities over the weekend. The blaze erupted shortly after 4 p.m. local time (22:00 GMT) Saturday at Canadian Forces Base Wainwright, a sprawling training ground located in remote rural Alberta, roughly 120 miles northeast of Edmonton.

    As of Sunday, authorities have not confirmed the exact source of ignition, though preliminary unconfirmed reports from local Canadian media suggest the fire may have started after a live-firing military exercise damaged an on-base gas main. Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed the violent spread of the fire in a national address Sunday, noting that high winds that fanned the flames across the base, turning a small incident into a rapidly escalating disaster.

    Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has labeled the incident one of the most devastating peacetime tragedies to hit the Canadian Armed Forces in the country’s history. He commended the joint response from military and civilian firefighting teams, who battled the blaze through the night under extreme, dangerous conditions, putting their own lives at risk to rescue personnel and contain the spread.

    The Canadian Department of National Defense confirmed Sunday that the cause of the fire remains the subject of an active official investigation, and investigators have not found any preliminary evidence linking the incident to terrorist activity. It remains unclear whether casualties were sustained on the base’s live-fire training ranges or if the blaze spread to on-base residential quarters.

    While Carney confirmed four fatalities and dozens of serious injuries, early reports from Canadian media citing anonymous military sources had placed the death toll at seven. Carney did not confirm whether he expected the final death toll to rise in the coming days as search and assessment operations continue. Next of kin for all four confirmed deceased service members have been notified, but official identities have not yet been released to the public.

    Hours after the fire broke out, Edmonton’s Royal Alexandra Hospital activated a Code Orange disaster protocol, designed to respond to large-scale mass casualty incidents. Local footage showed a continuous stream of ambulances arriving at the facility, and one physician told Canadian public broadcaster CBC that the hospital’s system was completely overwhelmed by the sudden influx of injured patients.

    Canadian Forces Base Wainwright, sited behind security fencing on isolated Alberta land, is one of the Canadian Army’s busiest training installations, with an airfield also shared and used by the Royal Canadian Air Force. While the base’s on-site population fluctuates depending on scheduled training rotations, more than 1,000 personnel are typically stationed at the facility at any given time.