Global Pulse

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  • World’s biggest condom maker to raise prices due to Iran war

    World’s biggest condom maker to raise prices due to Iran war

    The ongoing conflict between Iran and the US-Israel coalition is rippling far beyond global energy markets, now threatening to push up consumer prices for a critical everyday product: condoms. Goh Miah Kiat, chief executive officer of Malaysia-based Karex — the world’s largest condom manufacturer — has announced that the company could raise retail prices by as much as 30%, with even steeper increases possible if hostilities continue to disrupt key raw material supplies.

    Karex is an industry powerhouse, churning out more than five billion condoms annually to supply major global brands including Durex and Trojan, as well as public health systems such as the UK’s National Health Service. In recent interviews with Reuters and Bloomberg, Goh explained that production costs have skyrocketed since the outbreak of the conflict, driven by widespread disruptions to oil and petrochemical supplies that the company depends on.

    The crisis centers on the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most vital maritime chokepoints. After Iran responded to US and Israeli airstrikes by threatening to target commercial shipping passing through the waterway, the strait has effectively been closed to regular traffic. Approximately 20% of the world’s crude oil, liquefied natural gas, and key petrochemical products normally move through this route, so the closure has sent shockwaves through global supply chains.

    For Karex, this disruption hits directly at its core production inputs. The manufacturer relies on petroleum-derived materials for its products: ammonia, a petrochemical byproduct used to preserve latex, and silicone-based lubricants, both of which have seen sharp price increases and supply shortages since the strait closure.

    Compounding the issue, demand for condoms has already jumped by roughly 30% globally this year. Elevated freight costs and widespread shipping delays have further tightened supplies, creating a perfect storm of constrained production and rising consumer need. Goh noted that this demand surge follows a clear trend during periods of economic and geopolitical uncertainty: when people face unclear job prospects and future instability, they are far more likely to prioritize avoiding unplanned pregnancies. “In bad times, the need to use condoms is even more because you’re uncertain with your future, whether you’d still have a job next year,” he told Bloomberg. “If you have a baby right now, you’ll have one more mouth to feed.”

    The impending price increase at Karex highlights a little-discussed downstream impact of the Iran conflict: while much of the global focus has been on rising energy prices, the disruption to petrochemical supply chains is pushing up costs for a huge range of consumer goods that few people connect to oil markets.

    As of Wednesday, the outlook for de-escalation remains uncertain. US President Donald Trump has announced he will extend a bilateral ceasefire between the US and Iran while peace negotiations progress, but there has been no clear update on the status of talks or a timeline for a lasting resolution.

  • Young Chinese use AI to launch one-person firms over job anxiety

    Young Chinese use AI to launch one-person firms over job anxiety

    Against a backdrop of persistent workplace anxiety and widespread age discrimination, a growing number of young Chinese professionals are turning to artificial intelligence to launch independent one-person companies, reshaping China’s startup landscape and offering a new path to address soaring youth unemployment.

    The so-called “curse of 35” has long been a source of unease for Chinese workers: in competitive sectors ranging from tech to government roles, an unspoken “invisible line” at age 35 often leaves workers facing re-evaluation, layoffs, or stalled career growth. Compounding this anxiety is the rapid advancement of AI itself, which many young professionals fear will displace their traditional corporate roles. This confluence of pressures has pushed a new cohort to strike out on their own, leveraging AI to build viable solo ventures.

    Karen Dai, founder of Shanghai-based entrepreneur community SoloNest and author of *One Person Company*, explains that AI has fundamentally lowered the barrier to entry for solo entrepreneurship. “In the past, it was nearly impossible to run an entire business alone,” she notes. “Now AI can handle a huge range of routine tasks, making the model not just feasible, but accessible.” Every weekend, Dai hosts sold-out idea-swapping events for aspiring solo founders; her most recent gathering drew nearly 20 attendees in their 20s and 30s, all eager to chart their own independent paths.

    For many, the model is already delivering tangible results. Wang Tianyi, a 26-year-old who quit his corporate product manager role at a major Chinese internet firm last year, now earns up to 40,000 yuan ($5,800) per month creating AI-generated commercial advertisements for small and medium businesses. He frames the rise of one-person AI-powered companies as an inevitable shift, pointing to transformative efficiency gains from technological empowerment. “AI lets one person do the work that once required an entire team,” he says, predicting solo entrepreneurship will become a major trend in China’s economy in the coming years.

    Wei Xin, a 34-year-old Shanghai resident who previously worked as a document reviewer at a foreign consulting firm, began preparing for her transition before AI displaced her role. After returning to China from completing a degree in the United States, she trained on Google’s Gemini AI model, experimented with building an AI-generated digital twin of herself, and ultimately launched a social media content creation business. “There is a bit of AI anxiety, but I see it as an opportunity,” she explains. “If I avoided learning and using it, I would be eliminated sooner or later.”

    This grassroots shift has aligned neatly with both national policy goals and local government efforts to tackle youth unemployment. Beijing has prioritized advancing technological self-reliance, and local municipalities across China have rolled out targeted incentives to support these AI-powered ventures, officially dubbed “OPCs” (one-person companies) — a rare use of English initialism in official Chinese policy.

    In November, Suzhou, a major manufacturing and tech hub in eastern China, announced plans to cultivate more than 10,000 OPC talents by 2028, with 700 million yuan ($100 million) in earmarked funding for AI robotics, healthcare, smart transportation, and other AI-focused sectors. Last month, Chengdu, the capital of southwestern Sichuan province, launched a subsidy program offering up to 20,000 yuan for new college graduates who launch AI-driven one-person firms.

    Kyle Chan, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and an expert on China’s technology development, describes these incentives as “carrots to help these startups get off the ground and be successful.” For local governments, supporting OPCs is a low-cost strategy to address China’s persistent youth unemployment crisis, where roughly one in six people aged 16 to 24 remain out of work. “The cost of supporting an OPC for local governments is very low compared to attracting large corporate investments,” Chan notes, making the model an attractive policy option.

    Still, challenges remain for these new solo ventures. Wang notes that while launching a business has become far easier with AI, many new founders struggle to commercialize their offerings and turn a consistent profit. “Getting started isn’t the hard part — the hard part is learning how to sell your work,” he says.

    Despite these hurdles, for many young founders, the model offers something traditional corporate roles cannot: autonomy. “Young people are building backup plans, and asking themselves: can I, with my own two hands and the help of AI, explore the things I actually want to do?” Dai says. “This comes with a real sense of control, and of creativity that you can’t find in a traditional job.”

    The trend mirrors a broader global shift: small, AI-powered solo startups have already grown popular in Silicon Valley and other global tech hubs, where AI is both a threat to traditional corporate jobs and a catalyst for a new wave of small-scale entrepreneurship. In China, the combination of grassroots anxiety, technological advancement, and government support has accelerated this shift, turning the one-person AI company from a niche experiment into a growing economic force.

  • Mexico officials say Teotihuacán gunman carried material related to US mass shooting

    Mexico officials say Teotihuacán gunman carried material related to US mass shooting

    On April 21, 2026, a premeditated shooting at one of Mexico’s most iconic tourist landmarks, the ancient Pyramid of the Moon in the Teotihuacán archaeological complex, left one person dead and 13 others injured, prompting a swift response from national authorities who have moved to reassure the public ahead of this summer’s FIFA World Cup.

    According to official details released by Mexican leadership at a Tuesday press briefing, the attacker was 27-year-old Mexican national Julio César Jasso Ramírez. When he carried out the attack, he brought a loaded handgun, dozens of extra ammunition cartridges, a knife, and printed materials referencing notorious violent incidents that have occurred around the world. Top law enforcement officials confirmed that Jasso Ramírez planned and executed the attack entirely on his own, with no connections to larger extremist groups or organized criminal networks. After a standoff with responding law enforcement, the attacker ultimately died by suicide on the site.

    The dead victim of the attack was identified as a 32-year-old Canadian tourist. Thirteen other people ranging in age from 6 to 61 were injured in the shooting; seven of those injured suffered gunshot wounds, including two minor tourists from Colombia and Brazil. Responding officers included a member of Mexico’s National Guard and a local municipal police officer, who scaled the steep steps of the ancient pyramid to corner the attacker. The National Guard member shot Jasso Ramírez in the leg in an attempt to disable him before the attacker turned the gun on himself.

    Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum told reporters that preliminary investigations show the attacker displayed clear signs of unaddressed psychological distress and had been radicalized by prior high-profile mass shootings carried out abroad. State of Mexico Attorney General José Luis Cervantes Martínez confirmed that among the attacker’s belongings, investigators found documents, imagery and written materials referencing the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in the United States. One eyewitness tourist told Reuters that Jasso Ramírez explicitly referenced the Columbine attack during the shooting, which took place exactly 27 years to the day after the 1999 massacre.

    Investigators added that the attack was far from impulsive. Jasso Ramírez had made repeated trips to the Teotihuacán complex, located roughly 50 kilometers (31 miles) northwest of Mexico City, in advance of the attack, and arrived at the site shortly before noon local time on Monday. Witness cell phone footage captured from the scene captured the chaos of the incident: visitors can be seen scrambling for cover as multiple gunshots ring out, while Jasso Ramírez can be heard making threats against crowds of tourists.

    In the aftermath of the attack, the entire Teotihuacán archaeological site — a UNESCO World Heritage Site that draws roughly 1.8 million visitors annually — was closed to allow for forensic investigation and security adjustments. President Sheinbaum announced the site will reopen to visitors on Wednesday with newly implemented enhanced security protocols. The president also acknowledged that prior to the attack, most Mexican archaeological sites including Teotihuacán did not have entrance security checkpoints in place. In response, she has ordered immediate security upgrades at all tourist and archaeological sites across the country, including the installation of permanent metal detectors at Teotihuacán and other high-traffic landmarks.

    With less than two months to go before the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicks off in Mexico City on June 11, President Sheinbaum moved quickly to reassure domestic and international audiences that security for the global tournament will be fully guaranteed. The president noted that she has already held in-depth talks with FIFA organizers to review logistics and security planning for the tournament. She emphasized that Mexico remains a safe destination for travelers, pointing to the 16 million international visitors that entered the country between January and February of 2026 as evidence of the country’s ongoing ability to welcome tourists safely.

  • Delicate extraction: Malaysia offers rare earths alternative to China

    Delicate extraction: Malaysia offers rare earths alternative to China

    Against a backdrop of growing global anxiety over China’s control of the global rare earths market, Australian mining giant Lynas is expanding its rare earth refining operations in eastern Malaysia, positioning itself as a leading alternative supplier for the critical minerals that underpin modern technology and clean energy.

  • Domestic workers legally recognised in Indonesia after ’22-year struggle’

    Domestic workers legally recognised in Indonesia after ’22-year struggle’

    After more than two decades of stalled negotiations and persistent grassroots advocacy, Indonesia’s parliament has finally enacted a groundbreaking law that formally recognizes and protects the rights of the nation’s 4.2 million domestic workers, a workforce overwhelmingly made up of women.

    For years, this critical segment of the Indonesian labor force existed in a legal gray area: prior to this new legislation, domestic workers were not officially classified as workers under national labor regulations, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation, abuse, and poverty with no formal recourse. An estimated 90% of all domestic workers in Indonesia are women, many of whom have long faced systemic marginalization in informal work arrangements that lack basic social protections.

    The Domestic Workers Protection Law, which was first introduced to legislative chambers back in 2004, delivers sweeping new guarantees for domestic workers across the country. Under the new framework, workers will be legally entitled to paid rest days, public health insurance coverage, and formal pension benefits. The legislation also bars recruitment and placement agencies from withholding any portion of workers’ wages as placement fees, and imposes an outright ban on child domestic labor, making it illegal to hire any person under the age of 18 for full-time domestic work.

    Emotional reactions greeted the final passage of the bill, with many long-time advocates and domestic workers describing the moment as the fruition of a decades-long fight for dignity. “It feels like a dream,” Ajeng Astuti, a domestic worker, told BBC Indonesian. “This is our 22-year struggle as marginalized women to gain protection.” Jumiyem, a domestic worker based in Yogyakarta, echoed that sentiment, saying “We’ve been longing for this [law], and now we can feel it.”

    The legislation faced repeated setbacks over its 22-year journey to passage: after its initial introduction in 2004, the bill hit one legislative roadblock after another, with parliamentary discussions put on hold for more than a decade before being revived for debate in 2020. Now that the bill has been signed into law, national regulators have one year to develop detailed implementing regulations that will lay out how the new protections will be enforced across the country.

    Before the new law, even as domestic workers played an unseen but foundational role in Indonesian households and the broader national economy, millions remained completely outside the protection of existing labor laws. Most worked in informal arrangements with no written employment contract, many logging 12-hour or longer workdays for substandard wages, and reports have documented children as young as 12 being pushed into full-time domestic work.

    While human and labor rights organizations have widely praised the law as a historic step forward for worker protections, they caution that the work to secure dignity for domestic workers is far from finished. Lita Anggraini, a representative of Jala PRT, one of Indonesia’s leading domestic worker advocacy groups, told AFP that widespread public education campaigns will be critical to inform employers of their new legal obligations under the law.

    Advocacy groups point to ongoing systemic abuse that the new law must address: between 2021 and 2024, Jala PRT documented more than 3,300 reported cases of violence against domestic workers, including instances of severe physical assault and ongoing psychological abuse. The new legal framework marks the first major national effort to curb these abuses and bring millions of marginalized workers under the protection of the law.

  • Alicia Gardiner: Australian actor to take stand in hearing over alleged breast twist assault

    Alicia Gardiner: Australian actor to take stand in hearing over alleged breast twist assault

    A high-profile Australian television actor is scheduled to take the witness stand this week as a legal hearing examines a contentious assault allegation stemming from a pro-Palestinian protest inside Victoria’s Parliament House in Melbourne.

    Alicia Gardiner, widely recognized for her long-running role on the hit series *Offspring* and more recent appearances in *Deadloch*, stands accused of intentionally twisting a female parliamentary staff member’s breast on the afternoon of May 7, 2024. The incident unfolded moments after a group of protestors were removed from the building’s public gallery for demonstrating against the Israel-Hamas conflict. Security body-worn camera footage played in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday captured the crowd chanting slogans including “free free Palestine” and “from the river to the sea” as they were escorted out of the parliamentary complex.

    Prosecutors claim the alleged assault took place just after 1 p.m. near the door to the state’s legislative chamber, where the staff member was stationed. One witness testifying at the hearing told the court he pushed back a woman in blue—who prosecutors identify as Gardiner—when she attempted to enter the restricted chamber area. He told the court he then observed her in a physical tussle with his colleague, the alleged victim. The witness added that moments after the confrontation, police protective services officers arrived on the scene, and when he checked on his colleague afterward, she appeared visibly shaken and shocked by the encounter.

    Gardiner has repeatedly denied that she intentionally assaulted the staff member. Her defense lawyer, Angeline Centrone, told the court Wednesday that any physical contact between her client and the complainant was accidental. Centrone explained that Gardiner had raised her hands to steady herself amid the chaotic crowd crush that followed the protest dispersal, and any contact with the staff member was an unintended result of that movement.

    The ongoing hearing, overseen by Magistrate Malcolm Thomas, continued Wednesday with Gardiner expected to give her own testimony to the court later that afternoon. No verdict has been delivered as the proceedings are still underway.

  • How Sheila the three-wheeler dodged danger on a record 14,000-mile journey to tip of South Africa

    How Sheila the three-wheeler dodged danger on a record 14,000-mile journey to tip of South Africa

    For most adventure seekers, a cross-continental road trip requires a sturdy, four-wheeled vehicle built to handle punishing terrain and extreme conditions. But for British car enthusiast Ollie Jenks and his Canadian friend Seth Scott, the appeal of their latest challenge lay in its sheer absurdity. What started as a wild proposal from Scott quickly became a once-in-a-lifetime expedition that would push the pair, and their vintage three-wheeled car, to the absolute limit.

    The pair’s bold plan? Drive a half-century-old British-built Reliant Robin — a tiny three-wheeled vehicle originally designed for 1970s local grocery runs — from London all the way to Cape Town, South Africa. The 14,000-mile route would cut through 22 countries, traversing tropical jungles, rugged mountain ranges and scorching deserts along the way, all in pursuit of a new world record for the longest journey ever completed in a three-wheeled vehicle. For Jenks, the ridiculousness of the idea was exactly what made it impossible to turn down. “It was so ridiculous I couldn’t say no,” Jenks recalled of Scott’s initial pitch.

    The Reliant Robin holds a unique cult status in British culture. Though production of the model ended in the early 2000s, it remains a beloved icon, largely thanks to its famous role as the Trotter brothers’ beat-up yellow van in the hit UK sitcom *Only Fools and Horses*. Even so, the small, underpowered vehicle is widely considered one of the least suitable cars for a multi-thousand-mile transcontinental expedition — and that was exactly the point for Jenks and Scott.

    Dubbed “Sheila,” the silver Reliant they selected for the trip was one of the last models ever produced, acquired specifically for the adventure. When the pair set off in October, they brought little more than a spare can of fuel, a handful of essential supplies strapped to Sheila’s tiny roof, and a healthy dose of blind optimism that they would somehow reach South Africa. In a blunt assessment of the vehicle’s capabilities, Jenks noted: “No power steering, no air con, and it doesn’t do well up hills or down them. It is the most unsuitable car for probably any journey. We made friends with the designer of this car, and he’s scared to take it any more than 20 miles.”

    Undeterred by warnings from even the car’s own designer, Jenks and Scott pressed ahead with the four-and-a-half month expedition, which cost an estimated $40,000 to $50,000, funded through a mix of sponsor support and crowdfunding. The pair documented every step of the journey on their Instagram page, fittingly titled “14,000 miles, 3 wheels, 0 common sense,” which quickly attracted a following of nearly 100,000 people tracking their progress.

    The journey was far from smooth. The pair arrived in Benin in the middle of an attempted coup d’état, passed through northern Nigeria just as the U.S. launched airstrikes against Islamic State targets in the region, and required a 300-mile military escort through a separatist conflict zone in Cameroon. “Imagine this car in a military convoy,” Jenks joked.

    Beyond political and security hazards, the pair faced constant danger on the road, including a heart-stopping moment when an overtaking bus nearly crushed Sheila against a Congolese cliff face. True to the Reliant’s reputation for unreliability, the vehicle suffered countless breakdowns across the continent’s rough, unpaved roads. Wheel springs needed replacing within the first two weeks of the trip. The gearbox failed in Ghana, leaving the pair stuck with only fourth gear for hundreds of miles. Clutch and distributor issues plagued the vehicle in Cameroon, before the expedition nearly ended entirely when Sheila’s engine blew out.

    Against all odds, the kindness of local strangers and global Reliant Robin enthusiasts kept the dream alive. A local contact arranged for a new gearbox to be shipped to Ghana, while UK-based Reliant fans sourced and sent a replacement engine to Cameroon. On multiple occasions, locals helped tow the broken-down car to garages, often on improvised vehicles like cattle trucks. Mechanics across Africa spent hours welding, hammering and repairing Sheila to keep her running, many shaking their heads at the sheer madness of the pair’s mission.

    For all the hardship and setbacks, the journey also delivered the breathtaking moments the pair had dreamed of. Sheila crawled across towering mountain passes and vast arid deserts, traversing terrain no Reliant Robin had ever reached. The three-wheeler even joined a safari, rolling alongside galloping giraffes, passing endangered rhinos, and posing for photos beside a massive African elephant.

    More than 120 days after setting off, Sheila rattled into Cape Town last month, her engine having overheated in the Namibian Desert and running on borrowed power for the final 1,000 miles of the trip. For onlooker Graeme Hurst, a South African car enthusiast who followed the expedition on Instagram and traveled to see the pair arrive, the journey is a modern underdog story. “I see the farcical kind of comical nature of it … but also the sheer admiration. I mean, they have utter tenacity,” Hurst said.

    In Cape Town, Sheila was given a temporary spot in a luxury car showroom, where she drew more attention than the gleaming Porsches and Mercedes parked around her, her broken side window, petrol-stained windshield, bent rims and countless dents and scratches a testament to her incredible journey. For now, Sheila will rest in South Africa for a full, well-deserved servicing before her final voyage: she will be driven to Kenya, shipped to Turkey, and eventually transported back to the UK, where she will take up permanent residence at the London Transport Museum.

    After arriving in Cape Town, Jenks said he felt a deep sense of triumph, mixed with overwhelming relief to finally escape the car’s tiny two-seat cabin. “It was like driving a motorized coffin,” he joked.

  • Who is calling the shots in Iran?

    Who is calling the shots in Iran?

    A sudden diplomatic reversal following recent US-Iran talks in Islamabad has laid bare the dramatic new power dynamic reshaping Iran in the wake of six weeks of coordinated US-Israeli military strikes. On April 17, Iranian foreign minister and lead nuclear negotiator Abbas Araghchi took to the social platform X to announce that the strategically critical Strait of Hormuz was “completely open,” a signal that Tehran was prepared to show flexibility on two sticking points in negotiations: uranium enrichment limits and Iranian support for regional proxy armed groups.

    Within days, however, that public outreach was completely reversed following backlash from Iran’s most powerful institution. Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, a former Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commander newly appointed as secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, filed a formal complaint criticizing Araghchi for deviating from the negotiating mandate set by the IRGC leadership. The entire Iranian negotiating delegation was recalled to Tehran, state-run media launched scathing attacks on Araghchi, warning that his public statement had handed then-US President Donald Trump a political opening to falsely declare victory in the conflict, and the Iranian government issued a new declaration that the Strait of Hormuz was closed.

    This high-profile public clash is not an isolated misstep, argues King’s College London defense studies associate professor Andreas Krieg in analysis shared via The Conversation. It is the clearest visible indicator of a permanent power shift that has transformed Iran’s political order: the IRGC now holds total control over all state decision-making, while civilian and traditional religious institutions have been reduced to little more than a ceremonial facade.

    The decapitation strikes that opened the US-Israeli military campaign eliminated decades of entrenched Iranian leadership. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in the opening day attack, alongside dozens of his most senior colleagues. Where Iran was once described as a sovereign state with an exceptionally powerful militia, Krieg argues the new reality is the opposite: Iran is now a powerful militia with a state, structured entirely around the IRGC as its core governing authority.

    Traditional centers of Iranian power, including the elected civilian government and the senior Shia clergy, have been pushed to the margins as mere front organizations. Even the newly appointed supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the late Ali Khamenei, functions only as a symbolic legitimizing figure. Multiple reports confirm Mojtaba Khamenei sustained severe injuries in the strike that killed his father, and he plays no active role in governing the country.

    The undisputed holder of power in contemporary Iran is IRGC leader Ahmad Vahidi, a founding member of the corps with decades of experience in Iranian security and politics. The IRGC was founded immediately after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and his allies distrusted the existing conventional military and state bureaucracy to protect the new revolutionary order. Over the subsequent 47 years, the IRGC expanded far beyond its original mandate as guardians of the revolution, evolving into an all-encompassing network that spans every sector of Iranian life: it operates a conventional military force, a domestic intelligence apparatus, a multi-billion dollar transnational economic conglomerate, and a regional expeditionary network that projects Iranian power across the Middle East.

    Its domestic arm, the Basij militia, enables mass social control across Iran’s population, while the elite Quds Force manages the IRGC’s network of proxy armed groups across Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and other regional states. Far from dismantling this network, decades of international sanctions against Iran actually strengthened it: sanctions pushed the IRGC to build a sprawling web of front companies for illicit trade and patronage networks that enriched IRGC-aligned elites, creating a parallel state that gradually outgrew the formal civilian government in both power and influence.

    The IRGC’s organizational structure is built around a “mosaic defense doctrine,” a decentralized network design with a centralized core that sets strategic direction, surrounded by semi-autonomous cells that can continue operating even after decapitation strikes that eliminate top leadership. This structure was explicitly designed to allow the IRGC to keep functioning even when facing large-scale military attacks targeting its command structure, a design that has been vindicated by recent events.

    After IRGC chief Mohammad Pakpour was killed on the opening day of the conflict, Vahidi— a former Iranian interior minister and founding IRGC figure— stepped into the top role in an emergency appointment. He has since consolidated full control over Iranian governance as civilian institutions have been hollowed out by war losses. With the new supreme leader incapacitated and the clergy sidelined, Vahidi and his coalition of hardline IRGC commanders and security council allies, including Ali Akbar Ahmadian and Zolghadr, now set all negotiating mandates and red lines for ongoing ceasefire and nuclear talks with the United States.

    The IRGC’s non-negotiable red lines are well-defined: it will not abandon its uranium enrichment program entirely, it will preserve its ballistic missile program and its regional network of proxy groups (known as the “axis of resistance”), it demands full lifting of international sanctions and the unfreezing of billions of dollars in Iranian overseas assets. Only narrow technical details, such as enrichment level limits, sanctions lifting timelines, and the formal language of any final agreement, are open to negotiation.

    The decimation of pragmatic Iranian political figures in Israeli strikes has cleared the last remaining obstacles to IRGC control. Former Supreme National Security Council secretary Ali Larijani, a leading pragmatic voice, was killed by an Israeli strike on March 16, leaving no prominent opposition to the IRGC’s hardline agenda. While the war accelerated the IRGC’s consolidation of power, Krieg notes this shift was decades in the making: the IRGC spent generations entrenching its influence across Iranian institutions, capturing economic assets, and building up its coercive capacity. The war only provided the final opportunity to eliminate competing power centers, most notably the senior clergy, and solidify total control.

    This new power structure has profound implications for ongoing US-Iran negotiations. US negotiators are not bargaining with independent civilian diplomats; every Iranian negotiator operates on a short leash held directly by the IRGC leadership. Any progress in talks cannot be measured by public statements from Iranian diplomats, but only by what the IRGC is actually willing to implement in practice.

    The US-Israeli decapitation strategy failed to break the IRGC’s structure, and the hardline network now finds itself emboldened, as it recognizes the White House is desperate to secure a diplomatic exit from the conflict. Krieg argues that assumptions the IRGC will quickly capitulate to US demands are unfounded wishful thinking.

    Recent events have confirmed that the IRGC now governs Iran as a militia with a state, using the formal civilian and religious institutions of the Islamic Republic as a public outer layer. While there remains space for negotiation to reach a mutually acceptable agreement, the US administration must approach talks with a clear-eyed understanding of the IRGC’s non-negotiable red lines, and the resilience of a hardened network that has repeatedly demonstrated it can absorb severe punishment and maintain control.

  • PGA Tour mulls pathway back for golfers as LIV plots survival

    PGA Tour mulls pathway back for golfers as LIV plots survival

    The global golf landscape has been thrown into fresh turmoil in recent days, following widespread reports that Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the primary backer of the breakaway LIV Golf circuit, will only guarantee financial support through the end of the current season. With an estimated $5 billion already poured into the four-year-old tour, a major funding gap would open if the circuit continues operations beyond this point, sparking intense speculation over LIV’s long-term future and triggering parallel moves from both LIV and its rival, the PGA Tour.

    Amid this uncertainty, the PGA Tour has confirmed it is actively exploring pathways to allow players who defected to LIV Golf to return to the premier tour. PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp shared details of the ongoing discussions during an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show Monday, noting that the organization has already approved the return of five-time major champion Brooks Koepka, who rejoined after reaching out to request reinstatement once his LIV contract concluded.

    “Brooks came back onto the tour because he made a phone call and said, ‘Look, I’m out of my contract. I’m ready to come back,’” Rolapp told listeners. “So we’re thinking about it. We’ll react when we have an opportunity to react. I’m interested in whatever makes the PGA Tour better.”

    The question of return looms largest for marquee LIV players whose contracts are set to expire soon, including two-time major winner Bryson DeChambeau. It remains unclear whether DeChambeau would opt to return to the PGA Tour, given the steep financial penalties the tour has imposed on returning players like Koepka. The popular star, whose YouTube channel regularly draws more than two million views per video, could also choose to only compete in golf’s four major championships, which grant eligibility to top-ranked players regardless of tour affiliation. According to a recent report from The Athletic, DeChambeau is demanding as much as $500 million to renew his contract with LIV, a asking price that underscores the high stakes of LIV’s current fundraising push.

    For its part, LIV Golf is scrambling to implement a survival strategy as it confronts the potential end of Saudi backing. LIV CEO Scott O’Neil has reaffirmed to staff that the circuit will continue operations at “full throttle” through the current season, while acknowledging that the organization will almost certainly need to secure new external funding to continue long-term.

    One of the central strategies O’Neil has promoted is selling minority equity stakes in LIV’s 12 existing franchise teams, a move designed to unlock new capital while deepening local connections to fan bases and sponsor networks. This week, LIV took another step in that localization strategy with a high-profile rebrand: the team formerly led by Brooks Koepka, Smash GC, has been renamed “OKGC” to align with new captain Talor Gooch, a native of Oklahoma City.

    A LIV Golf statement called the rebrand “a significant step in LIV Golf’s strategy to connect its teams to home markets, creating stronger identities and deeper relationships with fans, partners and communities. As the league continues to grow globally, OKGC highlights the growing impact of localized, domestic team identities within the LIV Golf franchise model.” This follows earlier rebrands that tailored teams to specific regional markets, including the Korea-based Korean Golf Club and South Africa’s all-local Southern Guards.

    Even with this plan, however, analysts note that selling team equity is unlikely to come close to covering the massive spending LIV has drawn from Saudi backers to date. In January, Bloomberg reported LIV was targeting valuations as high as $300 million per team, but no public valuation of the franchise roster has been released, leaving the actual amount of capital that could be raised through equity sales uncertain.

    O’Neil has outlined other potential avenues to sustain the circuit, including forming strategic partnerships with established national open tournaments and doubling down on high-growth regional markets where LIV has drawn record crowds, most notably Australia and South Africa. In the United States, the circuit still retains high-profile backing, with its next tournament scheduled to take place at Trump National Golf Club, the owned course of former U.S. President Donald Trump, located just outside Washington, D.C.

  • ICE detains wife of US Army soldier at immigration appointment

    ICE detains wife of US Army soldier at immigration appointment

    A controversial incident playing out in El Paso, Texas has thrown a harsh spotlight on the overlapping tensions between US immigration enforcement policy and the treatment of military families, as an active-duty Army sergeant’s spouse has been taken into federal immigration custody — the second such case involving a service member’s family member this month alone.

    On April 14, Deisy Rivera Ortega, the wife of 28-year Army veteran Sergeant First Class Jose Serrano, was arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents after the couple attended a scheduled interview for a parole-in-place program, a federal initiative designed specifically to let immediate family members of US military personnel remain in the country while their immigration applications are processed. What was supposed to be a routine step toward legal permanent residency turned into a chaotic separation that has left Serrano distraught and searching for answers.

    “They just took my wife away,” Serrano shared in an interview with the BBC, describing the disorienting moments after the arrest. The long-serving soldier, who completed a deployment to Afghanistan and was born a US citizen in Puerto Rico, said he has been unable to settle since the detention, alternating between frantic online research for legal resources and anxious, aimless drives to cope with the stress. “I’m searching on the internet how I can help my wife. If not, I’m walking in the house back and forth. Or jumping in my car and just driving for four hours.”

    According to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) records, Rivera Ortega is currently being held at an El Paso-area detention facility. DHS has characterized her as a “criminal illegal alien” from El Salvador, citing her 2016 illegal entry into the US as a federal offense. But her attorney, Matthew James Kozik, and court documents paint a more nuanced picture of her immigration history. After crossing the Rio Grande Valley border in 2016, Rivera Ortega filed a formal asylum claim, court records show. While an immigration judge ordered her removal to El Salvador in December 2019, the same ruling granted her withholding of removal under the UN Convention Against Torture, a protection that barred the government from sending her back to El Salvador on the grounds that she would face significant physical harm there. The ruling also explicitly granted her legal permission to reside in the US while waiting for long-term relief.

    Under the second Trump administration, DHS has expanded a policy of “third-country removals,” which allows the agency to deport undocumented individuals to countries other than their nation of origin. Kozik told reporters that ICE has notified the legal team it intends to deport Rivera Ortega to Mexico, a move Kozik calls completely unlawful and unjust. “She was following the prescribed law of what someone is supposed to do,” he said, arguing that her arrest is “arbitrary and capricious.”

    The couple’s official marriage certificate, provided by Kozik, confirms they were married in June 2022 in Westbury, New York, making Rivera Ortega the immediate family member of an active-duty service member — a status that should have qualified her for the parole-in-place program she was applying for when she was detained. Serrano recalled that the couple was told the meeting was a routine interview with US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency that handles parole applications. After officials flagged an unspecified issue with the filing, the couple was escorted down a hallway, where ICE agents were waiting to take Rivera Ortega into custody as Serrano watched.

    “It took me a minute, two minutes to react,” he recalled. “And then I started to ask, ‘what is going on, what happened, where are they taking her?’” That encounter was the last time Serrano has seen his wife, and as of this report, the next legal steps for the couple remain unclear. Despite the trauma of his wife’s detention, Serrano says he still retains pride in his nearly 28 years of military service, even as he acknowledges the Army has no control over the immigration agency’s actions. “I love the Army,” he said. “If I had to do it again…I’d go in and do it again.”

    This incident marks at least the second time ICE has detained a military spouse in the month of April. Earlier this month, the agency detained 22-year-old Annie Ramos, the newly married wife of Army Sergeant Matthew Blank. Ramos, an undocumented Honduran immigrant who was brought to the US as a child, was held for five days before ICE released her to her husband. The back-to-back cases have sparked renewed criticism of immigration enforcement policies that separate active-duty military families, who are already tasked with defending US national security.