Global Pulse

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  • EU says Serbia could lose access to a billion euros over democratic backsliding

    EU says Serbia could lose access to a billion euros over democratic backsliding

    BRUSSELS – The European Union has issued a stark ultimatum to Serbia: reverse eroding democratic standards or risk losing access to nearly €1.5 billion ($1.8 billion) in pre-accession development funding, EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos confirmed to EU legislators Monday.

    Kos emphasized that the European Commission is increasingly alarmed by multiple troubling developments in Serbia, which has been working toward EU accession for years. The bloc’s concerns span systemic issues, including newly enacted laws that weaken judicial independence, heavy-handed crackdowns on public protest movements, and repeated interference with independent media outlets. These issues have raised serious questions about whether Serbia continues to meet the eligibility requirements for disbursements from EU pre-accession financial instruments, Kos added.

    International election monitors have already documented widespread irregularities and instances of voter intimidation during last month’s local elections held across 10 Serbian municipalities, adding to international scrutiny of Belgrade’s democratic commitments.

    Under the EU’s pre-accession assistance framework, candidate countries gain access to large-scale growth-focused funding on the condition that they implement targeted democratic and institutional reforms. To date, Serbia has received roughly €110 million ($130 million) from the allocation, leaving the remaining €1.5 billion in funding now hanging in the balance, Kos said.

    This warning comes amid a broader EU push to deepen integration with Western Balkan nations, a strategy accelerated after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The bloc has grown increasingly concerned that Moscow could seek to expand its influence and destabilize the Western Balkans, a region still grappling with political and economic fallout from the violent conflicts of the 1990s.

    Serbian populist President Aleksandar Vucic has repeatedly stated his government’s official goal of securing EU membership, but his administration has maintained close political and economic ties to Moscow. Last year, Vucic openly defied EU diplomatic warnings by attending Russia’s annual Victory Day parade in Moscow alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin, a move that deepened distrust between Belgrade and Brussels.

    To address growing concerns over judicial reforms, experts from the Venice Commission – Europe’s leading constitutional and democratic oversight body – traveled to Serbia last month. The delegation held meetings with senior political leaders, judicial heads, and legal officials to review concerns raised by the speaker of Serbia’s national parliament. The Commission is set to release an urgent formal opinion on its findings in the coming weeks.

    Kos made clear that Brussels’ demands are non-negotiable: Serbia must fully bring its national judicial legislation into line with the Venice Commission’s upcoming recommendations, and take concrete steps to restore full independence to the country’s media sector. “Serbia has to deliver,” Kos told lawmakers.

  • More than 200 rescued from IS-linked group in DR Congo

    More than 200 rescued from IS-linked group in DR Congo

    A joint military mission carried out by Ugandan and Congolese forces has secured the release of more than 200 civilian captives held by the Islamic State-linked Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda’s military has confirmed.

    The operation targeted a fortified militant encampment controlled by the ADF, an insurgent group with roots tracing back to 1990s Uganda, formed by dissidents opposed to the Ugandan government’s treatment of Muslim communities. After being driven out of Uganda by national forces decades ago, the remaining ADF fighters re-established their base across the border in eastern DRC, where they have built a brutal reputation for widespread violence, kidnappings, and killings. Among the freed hostages were multiple children, including a 14-year-old girl, according to an official statement from Uganda’s military.

    While details of when and where the captives were abducted remain undisclosed, survivors reported being held in appalling conditions, including persistent food shortages, forced labor, and harsh punishment for any disobedience. Many of the rescued civilians were found in fragile health, with widespread reports of malaria, respiratory complications, and extreme exhaustion among the group.

    “You are not under detention. You are victims of abduction, and we shall ensure you are handed over to the relevant authorities so you can reunite with your families,” Maj Gen Stephen Mugerwa, commander of the joint Uganda-DRC mission, told the freed captives, per the official statement.

    The raid on the ADF camp also left multiple militant fighters dead and resulted in the seizure of a large weapons cache, the military confirmed. No details have been released about potential casualties among the joint Ugandan and Congolese force.

    The ADF has operated out of remote areas of eastern DRC for more than 20 years. Group leader Musa Seka Baluku first pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in 2016, and IS formally recognized the ADF’s activity in the region in 2019. After years of limited overt operations inside Uganda, the group has been linked to a string of high-profile attacks in the country in recent years, including 2021 suicide bombings in the capital Kampala and a 2023 attack on a school in western Uganda.

    In eastern DRC, however, the ADF’s campaign of violence against civilians has reached staggering levels. A 2024 analysis by BBC Monitoring found the group responsible for more than half of all civilian deaths in the conflict-plagued eastern region. Late last year, a senior researcher with global human rights group Amnesty International described the frequency of ADF abductions and killings as “alarming,” noting that women and girls captured by the group are systematically exploited as sexual slaves.

    “Men, women and children told me how they ran for their lives as fighters armed with blades and guns descended on their villages. Released hostages talked of agonizing spells – sometimes months and years – spent in captivity, practically starved and forced to do various tasks in ADF camps,” Rawya Rageh, Amnesty International’s researcher, reported.

    Uganda first deployed its troops to eastern DRC in 2021 to target ADF strongholds as part of the joint offensive with Congolese forces, a campaign launched to eliminate the militant group from its regional bases. Despite repeated military operations, the ADF has continued to carry out frequent attacks on civilian and military targets across the region, leaving thousands displaced and dead.

  • China to curb ‘one-size-fits-all’ law enforcement on factory ventilation

    China to curb ‘one-size-fits-all’ law enforcement on factory ventilation

    BEIJING – In a targeted move to address widespread complaints from manufacturing enterprises over inflexible regulatory practices, three top Chinese government agencies have jointly released new policy guidelines aimed at eliminating rigid, uniform law enforcement surrounding factory ventilation requirements.

    The new framework, issued by the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and the Ministry of Emergency Management, was developed in direct response to repeated reports from businesses across the country that local enforcement officials often imposed contradictory, one-size-fits-all rules forcing factories to either keep all production windows permanently open or fully closed, regardless of individual operational circumstances.

    Under the newly published guidelines, uniform blanket requirements are set to be replaced with context-appropriate regulation tailored to different factory setups. For production facilities that release airborne pollutants but cannot fully enclose or seal their work areas, law enforcement officers are no longer permitted to issue simple mandatory orders to keep all windows closed. Instead, regulators are required to allow alternative mitigation strategies, including switching to lower-emission raw materials and implementing targeted local exhaust gas management systems to control pollution.

    For factories that operate in fully enclosed or sealed workspaces, the guidelines also ban rigid mandatory orders requiring windows to be kept open at all times. If hazardous airborne substances in these enclosed environments exceed official safety thresholds, facilities are directed to install professional ventilation solutions such as interlocked fan systems that meet regulatory requirements, rather than relying on arbitrary window-opening rules that do little to improve worker safety or reduce pollution.

    Beyond revising ventilation-specific rules, the policy calls on local regulatory authorities across China to refine their understanding of enforcement standards by accounting for the unique operational characteristics of enterprises in different industrial sectors. It also mandates expanded professional training for frontline law enforcement personnel to reduce the incidence of rigid, noncontextual enforcement that unnecessarily disrupts legitimate production activities.

  • El Nino likely to form in coming months, raise global heat risk: China climate center

    El Nino likely to form in coming months, raise global heat risk: China climate center

    A new El Niño event, defined by anomalously warm sea surface temperatures across the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, has a high likelihood of developing in the coming months, potentially intensifying to moderate or stronger levels by the end of 2026, according to China’s National Climate Center. This development will amplify the risk of elevated global temperatures and an increase in extreme weather events across the planet.

    Recent ongoing monitoring from the center confirms that sea surface temperatures in the key equatorial Pacific region have continued a steady upward trend, a defining early indicator that El Niño is already in the early stages of formation. Projections from the center indicate the Pacific will transition into official El Niño conditions around May 2026, with a moderate or stronger event expected to take shape between summer and autumn, persisting at minimum through the end of the calendar year.

    The forecast comes amid widespread viral online speculation claiming the world could face the most intense El Niño event in 140 years, paired with predictions of unprecedented record-breaking global heat this year that has drawn broad public concern. However, Chen Lijuan, chief forecaster at the National Climate Center, emphasized that it is far too early to confirm that 2026 will see all-time high global temperatures.

    “Taking into account the well-documented lagging effect of El Niño, it remains premature to conclude that the planet will hit a new extreme heat record this year. That said, the associated risks are clearly increasing,” Chen explained.

    El Niño forms when sea surface temperatures across large swathes of the tropical Pacific rise far above long-term average levels. This ocean warming releases massive quantities of heat stored deep in the ocean into the atmosphere, driving a measurable rise in global average temperatures. When this additional warming overlays the long-term, human-caused trend of global warming, it makes heat waves more frequent, more intense, and longer-lasting, the center noted.

    The full warming impact of an El Niño event typically emerges with a delay, with peak influence most often felt in the calendar year following the event’s formation. “For this reason, we cannot yet confirm whether 2026 will see record-breaking heat,” Chen added.

    Wang Yaqi, a senior engineer at the National Climate Center, pointed out that stronger El Niño events carry far-reaching negative impacts across global economies, energy infrastructure, and public health, as they are closely linked to more frequent extreme heat, severe droughts, and intense heavy rainfall events. For example, extreme flooding triggered by intense El Niño-driven rainfall can force hydropower facilities to reduce generation or shut down entirely, while prolonged drought conditions can also cut electricity output sharply across multiple generation types.

    In the public health sector, shifts in rainfall and temperature patterns tied to El Niño can increase the transmission rate of a range of infectious diseases. Additionally, drought and sustained extreme heat raise the risk of destructive wildfires in vulnerable regions, Wang explained.

    Crucially, the risks associated with El Niño do not stem from the climate pattern alone. Instead, harmful impacts typically emerge from the interaction of multiple overlapping climate factors, with El Niño acting as a triggering event within a broader climate system already altered by long-term global warming.

    Climate science confirms that for every 1 degree Celsius increase in global average atmospheric temperature, the maximum moisture capacity of the air rises by roughly 7 percent. This basic physical effect means higher temperatures accelerate evaporation, worsening drought conditions in dry regions, while also increasing the probability of extreme rainfall and destructive flooding when precipitation does occur.

    Looking ahead, the combination of long-term background global warming and additional warming driven by El Niño will raise the likelihood of compound extreme weather events, including more intense heat waves and abrupt, destructive shifts between prolonged drought and sudden heavy rainfall, Wang concluded.

  • Tour de France Femmes UK stage routes revealed

    Tour de France Femmes UK stage routes revealed

    For the first time in history, the women’s edition of the Tour de France will bring its world-class racing to British roads, with organisers pulling back the curtain on the full route details for the event’s opening three stages of the 2027 race.

    This historic occasion marks a milestone for global cycling: 2027 will be the first time that both the men’s and women’s Grand Departs (opening stages) of the Tour de France are hosted outside France in the same nation, building on the UK’s long history of welcoming the world’s most prestigious cycling race. The men’s race has previously held its opening stages in Britain four times, most recently in 2014 when an estimated 4.8 million fans lined the roads to cheer on riders.

    The three newly revealed stages for the 2027 Tour de France Femmes Avec Swift bring a mix of sprint opportunities, high-altitude drama, and a groundbreaking first for the women’s event. The opening 85.7km stage will kick off in Leeds and finish with a likely sprint finish in Manchester, setting the tone for a race that will push even the most elite riders to their limits. The most anticipated test comes in the second stage: a gruelling 154km route from Manchester to Sheffield that packs nearly 3,000 metres of climbing, including the iconic Winnats Pass in the Peak District. Race organiser ASO calls this leg “one of the hardest Grand Depart stages we’ve ever seen before”, a description echoed by rising British cycling star Cat Ferguson. The third and final opening stage will be an approximately 18km team time trial finishing at London’s Mall, a first for any edition of the women’s Tour de France; full route details for the time trial are set to be announced this coming October.

    For Ferguson, a 19-year-old rider with Movistar who was born in the Yorkshire town of Skipton, the opportunity to race on home roads feels like a full-circle moment. As a young child, she watched the 2014 men’s Grand Depart in Yorkshire from the side of local roads, and now she is gearing up to compete in the 2027 edition. “I trained on those roads and I know they’re going to be super brutal stages. Stage two in particular – always up and down. It’s really going to be one [stage] that can change the Tour. The GC [general classification] leaders can lose a lot,” Ferguson explained.

    The 2027 event will see the opening three stages of both the men’s and women’s races held across the UK, with the men’s race kicking off on 2 July and the women’s race starting on 30 July. Men’s route details for stages starting in Edinburgh, Keswick and Welshpool were first unveiled back in January 2026. UK government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has billed the combined event as “the most accessible major sporting spectacle ever held in Britain”: organisers estimate the combined Grand Departs will pass within an hour’s drive of 60% of the UK population, with free public access to spectating along more than 900km of public roads.

    Tour de France Femmes race director Marion Rousse highlighted the broader significance of the UK hosting the women’s race, saying: “The United Kingdom has already shown its passion for the Tour, and these stages will once again showcase the energy of the crowds, the beauty of the landscapes and the growing importance of women’s cycling on the world stage.” The official route announcement included a focus on growing grassroots participation, with seven young girls joining race leaders and professional riders as part of the JOY programme, an initiative designed to reduce physical inactivity and improve mental wellbeing among girls in the UK.

    The 2027 event comes as the UK is poised to reap the benefits of a previous golden age of British cycling sparked by the 2014 Tour Grand Depart. After British riders Bradley Wiggins claimed the 2012 Tour title and Chris Froome won in 2013, the 2014 event cemented the UK’s status as a global cycling powerhouse. Today, that legacy has grown: the UCI World Tour now counts a combined record 49 British male and female riders, with many ranked among the top contenders to win the sport’s biggest events. The combined six stages of the men’s and women’s races in 2027 draw a global audience of over one billion viewing hours across 190 countries, making it an unprecedented moment for UK cycling.

    Even with this momentum, the event faces notable challenges. British Cycling, the national governing body for the sport, has seen declining membership numbers in recent years, and only stepped in to rescue the men’s and women’s Tours of Britain from collapse in 2024. Hosting major pro cycling races on closed public roads in the UK is far more expensive than it is on the European continent, driven largely by exorbitant policing costs for high-speed events that require a full race cavalcade of 40 cars and dozens of motorbikes. While no official cost figures have been released, unofficial estimates place the total cost of hosting all six 2027 stages at over £50 million, with the majority of funding coming from central government and local councils.

  • Victory slips away as marathon runner celebrates too soon

    Victory slips away as marathon runner celebrates too soon

    The Delaware Marathon delivered one of the most dramatic and heartbreaking final moments in recent road racing history on Sunday, when a premature celebration turned a sure victory into a stunning upset. With only a few hundred meters remaining in the 42.195-kilometer race, the front-running runner had built a comfortable gap over his closest competitor, appearing poised to cross the finish line first and claim the top prize. In a moment that will be replayed in running highlight reels for years to come, the leader began slowing down early, raising his arms in celebration to acknowledge the cheering crowds lining the race course before he had actually crossed the official finish mat. Seizing the unexpected opportunity, the trailing runner, who had never given up the chase, dug deep for a final, all-out sprint. Closing the gap in mere seconds, the chaser surged past the stunned leader right at the finish line, crossing the tape first to steal the victory in a shocking turnaround. The shocking upset has already sparked widespread discussion among running communities about the importance of staying focused until the final step, serving as a cautionary tale for competitors at all levels of endurance sports.

  • China’s reading rate rises amid digital reading boom: survey

    China’s reading rate rises amid digital reading boom: survey

    As digital reading continues to gain widespread traction across China, new national survey data reveals a steady uptick in overall reading rates among Chinese adult citizens, marking further progress in the country’s push to build a nation of avid readers.

    The 2025 survey, conducted by the Chinese Academy of Press and Publication, was publicly announced at the fifth National Reading Conference hosted in Nanchang, the capital of east China’s Jiangxi province, on Monday. Data shows the comprehensive reading rate for Chinese adults reached 82.3 percent last year, a 0.2 percentage point increase from 2024. This marginal but consistent growth reflects the tangible outcomes of China’s long-running initiatives to promote reading across all segments of society.

    Beyond rising overall reading rates, the survey offers a detailed snapshot of evolving reading habits among the Chinese public. In 2025, the combined per capita reading volume for both print paper books and electronic books hit 8.39 copies per person, while the total number of digital reading works available to Chinese readers surpassed 70 million distinct titles. Around 80.8 percent of adult respondents reported that they regularly engage in digital reading, confirming the format’s dominant position in the modern reading landscape.

    The survey also highlights growing interest in supplementary reading formats: the share of adults who consume audiobooks rose 0.2 percentage points year-on-year to 38.7 percent in 2025, while the proportion of adults who watch video book reviews jumped 0.6 percentage points to 6.3 percent.

    Surging consumer demand for digital reading content has driven rapid expansion of the domestic market. Over the past five years, China’s mass market for digital reading nearly doubled in size, swelling from 30.25 billion yuan (approximately 4.4 billion U.S. dollars) in 2020 to 59.48 billion yuan in 2025.

    Despite the digital boom, print books have retained significant loyal support among Chinese readers. The survey found that 45.9 percent of adults still prefer physical books over all digital formats, with literary works ranking as the most popular reading category overall.

    This dual preference reveals that while Chinese readers embrace the convenience of on-the-go digital access, their demand for immersive deep thinking, structured systematic learning, and meaningful spiritual nourishment through reading has not faded in the digital era.

    Wu Shulin, chairman of the Publishers Association of China, noted that even amid widespread digital adoption, deep focused reading remains the core foundation for individual personal growth, long-term career achievement, and ethical cultivation. He called for enhanced public guidance to improve the quality of digital reading and broader efforts to nurture a culture of deep reading, encouraging readers to move beyond superficial fragmented browsing and engage with more in-depth content.

  • China launches national reading week

    China launches national reading week

    China has officially launched its annual national reading week, kicking off the 2026 initiative during the fifth National Conference on Reading held Monday in Nanchang, the capital city of East China’s Jiangxi province.

    Li Shulei, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and head of the CPC Central Committee’s Publicity Department, was in attendance at the opening event and delivered a keynote address to assembled participants.

    Event attendees united in a call for amplified action to popularize reading among all segments of the Chinese public and cultivate a pervasive, society-wide culture of regular reading. Stressing that reading forms the most foundational pillar of cultural advancement, participants emphasized that nationwide reading programs must be fully leveraged to support China’s broader national strategy to build itself into a leading global culture power.

    In addition to promoting public engagement with reading, attendees called for strengthened investment, development and regulatory oversight of public reading infrastructure, including libraries, community reading spaces and other public resources that make accessible reading materials available to all citizens.

    Running this week from Monday through Sunday, the 2026 National Reading Week will feature a diverse lineup of community and national events designed to reignite public passion for reading, spanning book fairs, author talks, reading clubs and youth engagement programs that reach across urban and rural communities to encourage people of all ages to pick up books and build regular reading habits.

  • The train expert you don’t know you need

    The train expert you don’t know you need

    For many modern travelers, navigating China’s extensive rail network can come with small, unexpected frustrations — from confusing transfer routes to uncertainty about what to expect on different types of train services. But one working rail professional is turning her on-the-job expertise into accessible, helpful content for millions of ordinary people, one short video at a time.

    At 32 years old, Li Xin holds the position of head conductor on the high-speed rail route connecting Jilin City in northeast China and Shanghai, one of the country’s busiest economic hubs. Outside of her full-time responsibilities on the train, Li has built a growing following on the Chinese short-video platform Douyin under the screen name “Tie Xinran”, where she shares insider knowledge about all things rail travel.

    One of Li’s most popular pieces of content, a video exploring China’s classic “green skin” conventional trains — a nostalgic and still widely used service that predates the high-speed rail era — has racked up more than 100,000 likes from viewers across the platform. Li fits video editing and content creation into her schedule during work breaks, treating the project as a fun, rewarding hobby that lets her connect with passengers beyond her daily shifts.

    What started as a side project has already made a tangible difference for many travelers. Li often gets recognized by passengers during her work, who tell her that her practical transfer guide videos helped them plan smoother, less stressful trips. For Li, the project is far more than a personal pastime: she plans to keep growing her channel as an “online conductor”, committed to adding both practical convenience and a little extra joy to people’s travel journeys through her unique, insider perspective.

  • Israel restores West Bank settlement, as minister demands occupation of Gaza

    Israel restores West Bank settlement, as minister demands occupation of Gaza

    Two decades after Israel’s 2005 unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip that dismantled a handful of settlements in both Gaza and the West Bank, the Israeli government has formally re-established a Jewish settlement at the site of Sanur, a Palestinian village located southwest of Jenin in the occupied West Bank. The move is the most high-profile step in a dramatic acceleration of Israeli settlement construction that has unfolded since the start of the 2023 Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, a trend that has put the international legal order governing occupied territories under unprecedented strain.

    The inauguration ceremony held Sunday drew senior members of Israel’s ruling coalition, including Defense Minister Israel Katz and far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a prominent advocate for annexation who resides in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank himself. In remarks at the event, Smotrich framed the re-establishment of Sanur as a momentous turning point for Israel, calling it a “national holiday” and a “historic correction” of what he termed the “sinful expulsion” carried out during the 2000 withdrawal. He went further, declaring that the step “abolishes the disgrace of expulsion, kills the idea of a Palestinian state, and returns to the settlement of Sa-Nur.” Smotrich also used the occasion to call for the re-establishment of Israeli settlements inside the Gaza Strip to create what he described as a “security belt for Israel.”
    Alongside the Sanur project, the Israeli government has already committed to rebuilding three additional West Bank settlements that were dismantled as part of the 2005 withdrawal. All Israeli settlements constructed on land seized by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War, including those across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, are explicitly deemed illegal under international law, a standing position held by the United Nations and most of the global community.

    Palestinian groups have immediately decried the move as a deliberate escalation targeting Palestinian claims to statehood and territorial sovereignty. Mahmoud Mardawi, a senior official with Hamas, described the re-establishment of Sanur as a “dangerous escalation” aimed at erasing Palestinian presence in the West Bank. In an official statement, Hamas emphasized that the step opens an “unprecedented stage of settlement expansion, which falls within the so-called annexation plan and the complete control of the West Bank and Palestinian land.”

    Today, an estimated 700,000 Israeli settlers currently reside in roughly 300 illegal settlements spread across the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Data from Israeli and peace monitoring groups confirms that settlement expansion has surged to unprecedented levels under the current Israeli government, which took office in 2022.

    Earlier in April, Israeli news outlet i24NEWS reported that the Israeli cabinet secretly approved a record-breaking batch of new settlement units during a period aligned with escalating U.S.-Israeli tensions with Iran. In a single decision, the government authorized 34 new settlements — a figure equal to more than half of all settlements approved in 2025, which itself was a record-setting year for expansion. Since 2022, the current government has greenlit a total of 68 new formal settlements, while nearly 200 unauthorised settler outposts have been established across the West Bank in the same period.

    Israeli peace advocacy group Peace Now’s annual data underscores the scale of the expansion: in 2025, the government approved 54 new settlements, shattering the previous record of nine approvals set in 2023. Twenty-six of these were unauthorised outposts that the government retroactively legalised. The group also recorded a 40 percent jump in new unauthorised outposts last year, with 86 new outposts established — an average of one to two new outposts per week.

    The re-opening of the Sanur settlement coincides with a dramatic spike in settler violence targeting Palestinian communities in the West Bank. Over recent weeks, dozens of Israeli settlers have carried out coordinated attacks against Palestinian civilians and property, including torching and vandalising Palestinian infrastructure, shooting at residents, and destroying agricultural and residential property.

    A United Nations report released on March 17 documented the devastating human impact of this surge in violence: between November 2024 and October 2025, more than 36,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homes in the West Bank amid rising settler attacks. The UN recorded 1,732 incidents of settler violence resulting in casualties or property damage during that 12-month period, a 25 percent increase from the previous year. A tally compiled by Agence France-Presse based on data from the Palestinian Ministry of Health found that more than 1,151 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces or settlers since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.