Global Pulse

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  • San Francisco delegation visits Shanghai, strengthens cultural and tourism ties

    San Francisco delegation visits Shanghai, strengthens cultural and tourism ties

    Almost half a century after Shanghai and San Francisco formally established their sister city relationship, a high-level delegation led by San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie touched down in Shanghai on April 19, kicking off a two-day visit focused on expanding bilateral collaboration in culture, science and tourism across the Pacific.

    This trip arrives as the latest milestone in the 46-year-long exchange between the two major global metropolises, building on decades of uninterrupted dialogue and people-to-people connection to open new chapters of partnership. The itinerary began with a stop at the 146-year-old Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, where delegation members gained firsthand insight into the century-long development and evolution of symphonic music in China.

    Following the orchestra visit, the group toured three more iconic Shanghai institutions: the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, the Shanghai Natural History Museum (a subsidiary branch of the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum), and the Shanghai Grand Opera House. By the end of the first day of the visit, three landmark memorandums of understanding (MOUs) had been signed to formalize new cooperative frameworks. The agreements pair the Shanghai Conservatory of Music with the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum with the California Academy of Sciences, and the Shanghai Grand Opera House with San Francisco Opera, laying the groundwork for long-term exchange across art, science and education.

    Speaking on the visit, Lurie emphasized the enduring strength of the two cities’ nearly 50-year partnership. “Our cities share a partnership that is nearly five decades strong. It is a dialogue that has never stopped,” he said. “We are building on that foundation and investing in a future where science, education and sustainability remain at the center of our partnership.”

    David Stull, president of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, noted that both cities share a natural alignment in their forward-thinking, innovative identities. “When people are excited about new ideas, they gravitate to others who are excited about new ideas. San Francisco and Shanghai have always shared that spirit of imagination, innovation and the spirit of the future,” he explained.

    Beyond institutional collaborations, the delegation also took part in a joint tourism promotion event held at Xintiandi, Shanghai’s bustling cultural and commercial hub in Huangpu District. The initiative, launched in partnership by United Airlines and San Francisco International Airport, is designed to drive two-way travel by highlighting the one-of-a-kind attractions and immersive cultural experiences that each city offers.

    Mike Nakornkhet, director of San Francisco International Airport, framed the Chinese market as a core growth priority for the airport, pointing to strong existing travel volumes. “If you look at the numbers in 2025, we had 700,000 passengers travel between China and San Francisco — that’s 23 weekly flights to four destinations in China. So it’s a very important market for us,” he said. “We really see China as a growing market for us. There’s a lot of leisure and business travel demand.”

    The first day of the visit wrapped up with a celebratory evening cruise along the Huangpu River, where delegates joined a special reception to commemorate the 46th anniversary of the Shanghai-San Francisco sister city relationship. The delegation continued its schedule of meetings and tours in Shanghai on Monday, with additional discussions focused on expanding future collaborative projects across sectors.

  • North Korea again tests cluster munitions in a launch observed by Kim and his daughter

    North Korea again tests cluster munitions in a launch observed by Kim and his daughter

    On Monday, North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) confirmed that the country carried out a second test-launch of ballistic missiles fitted with cluster bomb warheads earlier this weekend — a move widely interpreted as a deliberate demonstration of Pyongyang’s advancing efforts to develop weaponry capable of piercing joint United States and South Korean defense systems. The announcement aligns with multiple launch detections by South Korean, Japanese, and U.S. military authorities that tracked projectiles launched off North Korea’s eastern coast on Sunday.

    Released KCNA photographs captured North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his teenage daughter Kim Ju Ae, both clad in matching black leather jackets, observing the test from a coastal observation post as the rocket arced over the water, leaving a thick trail of gray smoke in its wake. In recent weeks, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service has assessed that the young daughter, who has appeared alongside Kim at multiple high-profile military events, is being positioned as Kim Jong Un’s eventual successor.

    According to KCNA’s official account, Kim personally oversaw the launch of five upgraded Hwasong-11 Ra surface-to-surface ballistic missiles, each armed with a combination of cluster bomb warheads and fragmentation mine warheads. All missiles successfully struck a pre-designated island target, and Kim expressed full satisfaction with the results, noting that the test carried profound military significance for strengthening North Korea’s high-density strike capabilities.

    This test marks the second cluster warhead-equipped ballistic missile launch North Korea has carried out this month. Earlier tests involved the Hwasong-11 Ka variant, which Pyongyang claimed is capable of turning a 6.5 to 7-hectare area (equivalent to 16 to 17.2 acres) into ash.

    While North Korea has tested cluster munitions in the past, regional defense analysts point to the ongoing Iran-Israel conflict as a key catalyst for Pyongyang’s recent push to showcase its existing cluster stockpiles and accelerate development of more advanced designs. The conflict has thrust the destructive capacity of cluster weapons into the global spotlight: Israel has accused Iran of deploying these munitions to overwhelm its overstretched air defense networks. Cluster warheads operate by detonating at high altitude, scattering dozens of small submunitions across a wide geographic area — a design that makes them extremely difficult to intercept with traditional missile defense systems.

    Globally, more than 120 nations have ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions, an international treaty that bans the production, stockpiling, and use of these weapons. Notably, North Korea, Iran, Israel, and the United States are not signatories to the agreement.

    North Korea has ramped up its development of nuclear arsenals and advanced conventional weapons since high-profile nuclear diplomacy between Kim Jong Un and then-U.S. President Donald Trump collapsed in 2019. Pyongyang’s current military modernization priorities include multi-warhead nuclear missiles, hypersonic glide vehicles, and submarine-launched ballistic missiles — all systems that would drastically improve North Korea’s ability to defeat layered U.S. and South Korean missile defenses.

    In recent months, Trump has repeatedly signaled his interest in reviving diplomatic talks with Kim, and Kim Jong Un has left the door open for dialogue with the former president, while insisting that Washington must drop its demand for North Korean nuclear disarmament as a precondition for any negotiations. Against this backdrop, Trump is scheduled to travel to Beijing in May for a rescheduled summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Many regional observers argue that North Korea’s recent string of missile tests is a calculated strategy to strengthen its negotiating position ahead of any potential diplomatic opening that could emerge from the U.S.-China summit.

  • Key detail in Albanese government’s $1000 tax write-off pledge

    Key detail in Albanese government’s $1000 tax write-off pledge

    Over 6.2 million Australian taxpayers who were expecting to access a new $1000 no-receipt work expense tax deduction will need to adjust their expectations, after the Albanese administration confirmed the popular policy will not take effect for nearly two more years.

    The center-left Labor Party first unveiled the proposed tax relief as a key policy pledge in the lead-up to the 2025 Australian federal election, building anticipation among working people across the country. On Monday, Federal Treasurer Jim Chalmers followed through on an earlier promise to publish draft legislation for the initiative on the same day he spoke to reporters.

    Under the terms of the plan, eligible working taxpayers can claim a $1000 standard deduction for work-related expenses without needing to save and submit individual purchase receipts, simplifying tax filing and delivering direct cash relief. Chalmers explained that the policy would translate to an average reduction of $205 in annual tax liabilities per taxpayer, with the maximum benefit reaching up to $470 for qualifying filers. “It’s a good symbol of what we are trying to do more broadly, cutting income taxes, cutting red tape, and helping out where we can,” Chalmers told reporters, framing the measure as a core part of the government’s broader tax relief agenda.

    Despite the release of draft legislation, the policy faces a lengthy delay before it impacts taxpayers: the $1000 instant write-off will not go into effect until July 1, 2026, meaning the deduction can only be claimed on tax returns for the 2026-2027 financial year, which ends June 30, 2027. It will not apply to the 2024-2025 financial year, which many taxpayers are currently preparing to file for.

    The delayed rollout comes as the Albanese government continues to weigh broader tax policy changes ahead of the upcoming May federal budget. Among the potential adjustments under review are cuts to the capital gains tax discount and revisions to Australia’s negative gering rules for property investment. Earlier this month, Chalmers signaled the government’s openness to large-scale change, noting he would be “pretty happy” if the 2026-2027 budget is remembered as a landmark “tax reform budget.”

  • Blue Origin launches rocket with used booster for first time

    Blue Origin launches rocket with used booster for first time

    Blue Origin, the private space exploration firm founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, has achieved a major technical milestone over the weekend: the company successfully launched its heavy-lift New Glenn rocket using a pre-flown, refurbished booster, and pulled off a controlled landing of the recycled first stage on an ocean floating platform. The milestone marks a long-awaited step forward for Blue Origin as it works to match SpaceX’s reusable rocket technology and ramp up its competitive position in the fast-growing global launch market.

    Sunday’s mission, which lifted off at 7:25 a.m. local time from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, marked the third overall flight of the 98-meter New Glenn rocket. The vehicle carried a commercial communications satellite built by AST SpaceMobile, which aims to deliver cellular connectivity to remote and underserved regions of the globe. Approximately nine and a half minutes after liftoff, the reused first stage completed its descent and touched down safely on the company’s landing platform stationed in the Atlantic Ocean, capping a process that had been years in development for Blue Origin.

    However, the mission hit an unexpected partial failure after stage separation. In a post-launch statement posted to the social platform X, Blue Origin confirmed that while the AST SpaceMobile satellite powered on successfully after reaching space, it was deployed into what the company described as an “off-nominal orbit” that does not match the mission’s planned orbital parameters. The company added that teams are still conducting assessments to determine the full extent of the anomaly and what impact the incorrect orbit will have on the satellite’s functionality.

    This milestone represents the first time Blue Origin has reused a New Glenn booster, after two earlier launches that exclusively used brand-new first stages. Prior to this, the company had only flown reused components on its smaller New Shepard suborbital rocket, a vehicle primarily used for short space tourism flights that presents far fewer technical challenges for reusability than orbital launch systems.

    Blue Origin first successfully recovered a New Glenn booster in November 2024, after a failed recovery attempt in January 2025 when the booster’s engines failed to reignite during its descent to the platform. The booster used in Sunday’s mission underwent extensive refurbishment following its previous flight, including a full replacement of all its engines and multiple other structural and system modifications to prepare it for reflight.

    The push for reusable rocket technology comes amid cutthroat competition between Blue Origin and SpaceX, the market-leading private space firm founded by Elon Musk, which has been flying and reusing orbital rocket boosters for more than a decade. The two firms are also direct competitors in NASA’s Artemis program, which aims to return American astronauts to the lunar surface. Both companies are under contract to develop human-rated lunar landers for the program, which has a target of landing the first crew on the Moon by 2028, a deadline aligned with the end of U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term and set to outpace China’s own lunar landing ambitions.

  • Top boss vows ‘no sitting still’ as rugby bids to conquer US

    Top boss vows ‘no sitting still’ as rugby bids to conquer US

    Against a backdrop of rising challenges in rugby’s long-established traditional markets, World Rugby chair Brett Robinson has reaffirmed the governing body’s commitment to aggressive global expansion, singling out the United States — the upcoming host of the 2031 men’s Rugby World Cup and 2033 women’s edition — as a critical priority for long-term growth.

    In an interview with AFP on the sidelines of the Hong Kong Sevens tournament, the former Australian international player pushed back against growing narratives that rugby is facing a period of broad decline, arguing that the sport’s global foundations are stronger than critics claim. Recent high-profile setbacks have fueled public debate about the sport’s standing in the global pecking order, from folding professional franchises in Super Rugby to slipping public interest in traditional heartlands. Last week, All Blacks legend Michael Jones warned that rugby union is losing the battle for fan attention to rugby league in New Zealand, a comment that came just days after Auckland-based Super Rugby side Moana Pasifika announced it would cease operations at the end of the current season, becoming the second Super Rugby franchise to collapse in three years due to crippling financial pressure. In Wales, another historic rugby stronghold, the men’s national team has suffered a dramatic slump in on-pitch form, while football has overtaken rugby as the primary focus of public sporting interest.

    Robinson pushed back on this narrative of decline, pointing to global participation data that shows 2 million women playing the sport worldwide, making rugby a truly global game rather than one confined to a handful of historical markets. “We have to protect our core markets, but we can’t sit still and believe that the game will thrive if we don’t continue exploring new pathways for growth,” he said.

    That search for growth leads directly to the United States, which is set to become the first North American nation to host the men’s Rugby World Cup in 2031, followed by the women’s tournament in 2033. The upcoming 2026 men’s FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by the US this summer, has already offered a preview of the logistical and commercial challenges awaiting rugby’s governing body, with soaring ticket and transportation costs drawing widespread criticism and raising questions about large-scale event delivery in the American market.

    Skepticism around the 2031 project has grown in recent months: Major League Rugby, the top domestic professional men’s competition, has shrunk to just six teams after four clubs exited the league in recent years, while the men’s national team has struggled with inconsistent performances. British media reports have also raised questions about the US’s ability to deliver a commercially successful 2031 World Cup.

    Robinson countered that World Rugby has laid out a long-term strategy to build fan momentum ahead of the 2031 tournament, rather than rushing to deliver a fully formed event overnight. “We have worked with top national unions to bring iconic, high-profile matches to the US over the coming years to build deeper connections with new fans,” he explained, noting that the governing body is currently evaluating 27 potential host cities, a list that will be narrowed to 12 to 14 ahead of a formal announcement following the 2027 World Cup.

    To build early excitement for the 2031 tournament, World Rugby has already arranged a blockbuster Test match between two-time world champions South Africa and three-time winners New Zealand in Baltimore this September, following on from a sell-out 2024 match between Ireland and the All Blacks in Chicago. “We’re working really hard to build a long-term play,” Robinson said. “We aren’t sitting still in terms of preparing, and we fully acknowledge that it’s a challenging market.”

    He added that the 2033 women’s Rugby World Cup will be a equally important milestone for the sport, noting that women’s rugby has seen rapid, sustained growth across North America in recent years.

    Looking ahead to the next major global rugby event, the 2025 men’s Rugby World Cup in Robinson’s native Australia, he shared that initial ticket sales have already “exceeded all expectations”, with more than 750,000 tickets sold for the expanded 24-team tournament, the largest edition of the competition in history. While Robinson acknowledged that global geopolitical uncertainty stemming from the ongoing conflict in the Middle East has created some headwinds for major international events, he said World Rugby remains optimistic about the tournament’s success. “It’s a really good signal about the World Cup,” he said. “We’re really optimistic and excited.”

  • Israel vows to level homes in Lebanon, counter threats with ‘full force’

    Israel vows to level homes in Lebanon, counter threats with ‘full force’

    A fragile 10-day truce between Israel and Hezbollah that halted weeks of deadly cross-border fighting has done little to ease tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border, after Israel announced Sunday it had ordered its military to operate with “full force” and demolish structures it claims are used by the militant group. The ceasefire, which went into effect Friday following the first high-level talks between Lebanese and Israeli officials in decades, has split displaced southern Lebanese residents: some have rushed home to retrieve belongings and rebuild, while others remain wary of the truce’s durability and have chosen to stay away.

    On the ground, Agence France-Presse correspondents across southern Lebanon have documented disparate scenes of returning life and lingering destruction. In the village of Dibbine, one resident inspected blast damage to his property, with rubble of already destroyed buildings lining nearby streets. In Srifa, returnees unloaded household goods including mattresses and a washing machine from vehicles as they moved back into their homes. In other border communities, however, some residents only returned to collect personal items before heading back to safer areas further north.

    Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz confirmed Sunday that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had issued explicit orders to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to maintain aggressive operations even during the ceasefire. “We have instructed the army to act with full force, both on the ground and from the air, including during the ceasefire, in order to protect our soldiers in Lebanon from any threat,” Katz said. He added that the military had been ordered to destroy any booby-trapped structures or roads, and raze border-area homes that Israel claims function as Hezbollah outposts.

    Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported Sunday that Israeli forces were already carrying out these demolition orders across multiple hard-hit border towns. One day after carrying out initial demolitions in Bint Jbeil, a site of intense pre-ceasefire fighting between Israeli troops and Hezbollah, the NNA said Israel was “still destroying what remains of houses” in the town. Additional demolitions by detonation were reported in Mais al-Jabal and Deir Seryan, while the border town of Kunin came under Israeli artillery shelling Sunday.

    Last Saturday, the IDF announced it had established a “Yellow Line” security buffer in southern Lebanon, a framework identical to the barrier separating Israeli-held and Hamas-controlled territory in Gaza. On Sunday, the military released an official map marking this new “forward defence line” and a red-zoned area spanning the entire length of the border, where it says operations will continue to dismantle Hezbollah military infrastructure and eliminate threats to northern Israeli communities. Hours after publishing the map, the IDF confirmed it had killed an armed man it described as a terrorist who crossed the designated buffer line.

    The ongoing Israeli operations have drawn sharp international condemnation. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan denounced the actions Sunday as an example of “Israeli expansionism” into Lebanese territory. Since the conflict erupted on March 2, it has killed nearly 2,300 people in Lebanon and displaced more than one million, making the fragile truce a much-watched development for regional stability.

    Diplomatic efforts to solidify the ceasefire and support Lebanese territorial integrity are moving forward this week. On Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron will host Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam in Paris, a meeting the Élysée Palace says is intended to demonstrate France’s commitment to Lebanon’s sovereignty. Macron will also push Lebanese authorities to hold accountable those responsible for a Saturday attack on UNIFIL peacekeepers that killed one French soldier, Florian Montorio, and wounded three others. Both France and UNIFIL have blamed Hezbollah for the attack, which the group has denied. Montorio was honored posthumously with UN and Lebanese Army medals at a memorial service held at Beirut’s international airport, in recognition of his service to peacekeeping in southern Lebanon.

    Following his Paris meeting, Salam will travel to Luxembourg on Tuesday to meet with European Union foreign policy chiefs. In a small sign of returning normalcy, Lebanon’s military announced Sunday it had reopened a key road connecting the city of Nabatiyeh to the Khardali region, and partially reopened the Burj Rahal-Tyre bridge in southern Lebanon. Access to much of the south has been severely constrained since the conflict began, after Israeli airstrikes destroyed multiple crossings over the Litani River, which sits roughly 30 kilometers from the Lebanese-Israeli border.

  • History haunts Arsenal as Man City take control of title race

    History haunts Arsenal as Man City take control of title race

    After a tense 2-1 defeat to Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday, Arsenal’s 22-year wait for a first Premier League title has grown even more agonizing, as Pep Guardiola’s side took a decisive stranglehold on the 2025/26 season’s championship race. Mikel Arteta’s Gunners still cling to the top spot of the table for the moment, but their place at the summit is set to be taken as early as this Wednesday, when City travel to face relegation-bound Burnley with a game in hand on their title rivals.

    What has made this late-season slump so familiar to Arsenal’s long-suffering fanbase is the pattern that has repeated itself for four straight seasons. Before a League Cup defeat to City last month, Arteta’s side had dropped just three matches across 49 games in all competitions this term. But in the six outings that have followed, Arsenal have only managed a single win, including four straight losses across domestic competitions – a run that leaves them facing the prospect of another empty trophy season. This collapse mirrors the events of the 2022/23 and 2023/24 campaigns, where Guardiola’s relentless City side hunted down and overtook Arsenal in the final stretch, with the Gunners finishing outside the top spot once again last season behind a resurgent Liverpool side.

    A stark statistical contrast highlights the historic trend of late-season struggle for Arsenal and surge for City: across Guardiola’s 10-year tenure in Manchester, the City boss has claimed 31 wins from 39 Premier League games played in April, as he chases a seventh league title. By comparison, Arteta has only notched 11 April league victories from 27 matches across his six-and-a-half year spell in charge of the Gunners.

    Arteta argued after the match that fine margins and bad luck had cost his side, and the run of play backed up that claim. In contrast to their nervy home defeat to Bournemouth the previous weekend, Arsenal started strongly, fought back quickly after Rayan Cherki gave City an early opening goal. Kai Havertz charged down an attempted clearance from City keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma to equalize just minutes after falling behind, and the Gunners created a string of good chances to take all three points. A strike from Eberechi Eze bounced off the post and rolled along the goalline rather than crossing, while Gabriel Magalhaes saw a deflected late header also hit the woodwork in a frantic closing 10 minutes.

    But ultimately, Arsenal’s repeated failure to convert clear chances – a long-unresolved flaw in the side – proved their downfall. Havertz, who was handed a full 90 minutes by Arteta despite 18 months of injury struggles, missed two gilt-edged second-half chances: he failed to beat Donnarumma in a one-on-one situation, then nodded over the bar from an unmarked position deep into stoppage time, leaving Arteta collapsed to his knees in despair on the technical area. The German forward’s inclusion ahead of summer signing Viktor Gyokeres raised further questions; the Sweden international, signed last summer to solve Arsenal’s long-running search for a prolific starting striker, is the club’s top scorer this season with 18 goals across all competitions, but he was left on the bench until the final minutes, and has repeatedly struggled to deliver against top opposition.

    For City, the difference came down to the clinical finishing that Arsenal lacked, with world-class striker Erling Haaland delivering the decisive moment. Haaland was tightly marked for most of the match in a physical battle with Gabriel, but the Norwegian got ahead of his marker to slot home the 72nd-minute winner – his 47th goal for club and country across the 2025/26 season.

    Speaking to Sky Sports after the match, former Arsenal captain Patrick Vieira said the gap in quality between the two sides’ top talent decided the match. “You can see the difference today on the field and those top players made a difference today,” Vieira said. The ex-Gunner also questioned Arteta’s side’s mental fortitude following the defeat, adding: “They will feel the pressure more now. I always question the mental strength of the team and I will question it more now regarding the result today.”

    Arteta acknowledged after the game that City were simply more clinical in front of goal, admitting: “We proved that we are there, but the reality is that in the two boxes there was a difference. That’s what we think is the difference between the two sides, the finishing in the boxes. There is an element of luck, there is an element of timing, of execution. There are a lot of things that have to be your way. At the end, winning or not winning is going to come down to this moment. There are certain individual moments that you need in order to achieve what we want.”

  • AFL 2026: Collingwood captain Darcy Moore poised for return, Essendon defender Jordan Ridley sidelined

    AFL 2026: Collingwood captain Darcy Moore poised for return, Essendon defender Jordan Ridley sidelined

    The annual Anzac Day AFL blockbuster between Collingwood and Essendon is just days away, and two of the league’s key defenders are facing drastically different fitness outcomes as their clubs finalize round six lineups. For Collingwood captain and star backline leader Darcy Moore, the next week brings a make-or-break pair of training sessions that will determine whether he can take the MCG stage for one of the season’s most anticipated matches.

    Moore’s 2024 campaign has been plagued by a string of soft tissue injuries and setbacks, starting with pre-season niggles to his calf and hamstring, followed by an aggravated bursa injury that has disrupted his build-up. Despite the rocky start to the year, Moore says he has turned a corner in his recovery, posting a strong, full training session last Friday that has left him confident of meeting the fitness benchmark this week.

    Speaking to reporters Monday during a remembrance event at the Shrine of Remembrance, Moore outlined his path to selection: “In great news, I had a really good session last Friday. I made a couple of really big breakthroughs, so body feels awesome coming into this week. We’ve got two sessions before the game, Tuesday and Thursday. I am in a really great position to train fully this week and hopefully put my hand up. I’ve got to back up and be feeling good going into the weekend to be selected.”

    This isn’t the first time Moore has fought back from an early-season injury to push for selection: he returned to the field in round three against GWS Giants, but faced widespread criticism after he was seen grimacing through every kick across the entire match, prompting questions about whether he was rushed back too soon. He missed at least a month of game time following that outing, but Moore has rejected claims he was underprepared for that round three clash, saying he takes full accountability for the decision to play.

    “I put my hand up, I was ready to go and I am accountable for that decision. Absolutely was ready to go,” Moore said.

    Across town, the outlook is far less positive for Essendon counterpart Jordan Ridley, who is all but certain to miss the Anzac Day clash after picking up yet another calf injury during Saturday’s match against the Gold Coast Suns. Ridley has endured a brutal run of soft tissue injuries in recent seasons, and the latest setback comes just as he had worked his way back to full fitness after a previous layoff.

    Essendon captain Andy McGrath told reporters on Monday that the seven-day turnaround between Saturday’s match and this weekend’s blockbuster is far too quick for Ridley to recover, given his well-documented history of recurring calf issues. The club plans to take a cautious approach to avoid a longer-term injury.

    “I don’t think so at this stage, Jordan has got a little calf injury and with his history there, we’re just being cautious with his approach,” McGrath said. “We’ll see how he presents today and throughout the week, but I don’t think this weekend will be realistic. Obviously, Jordan is a really important member of our team, culturally and on the field. He’s a super player, we’ve loved having him back. We’ll see how the injury unfolds but I feel for Ridds at the moment. It’s been a tough run, but I am sure we’ll have him back soon.”

    With the Anzac Day clash drawing millions of viewers and drawing a capacity crowd to the MCG, both clubs will confirm their final lineups ahead of the iconic annual fixture, with Moore’s fitness progress set to be tracked closely by Collingwood fans through the week.

  • Hamas rebuffs ‘trap’ disarmament plan as Israeli violations stall ceasefire process

    Hamas rebuffs ‘trap’ disarmament plan as Israeli violations stall ceasefire process

    ### Hamas Rejects US-Backed Disarmament Plan Amid Unresolved Ceasefire Violations

    Palestinian militant group Hamas has flatly rejected a US-backed disarmament proposal put forward by the Board of Peace, framing the initiative as a deliberate trap designed to sow internal conflict and destabilize Palestinian governance in the Gaza Strip. Multiple Palestinian sources with direct knowledge of the closed-door Cairo talks shared details of the negotiations with Middle East Eye, outlining the group’s deep-seated opposition to the framework presented earlier this month.

    From Hamas’ perspective, the proposal would leave Gaza’s Palestinian population completely defenseless while enabling Israeli-aligned armed gangs to operate unimpeded across the enclave, creating widespread chaos and disorder. A senior Gaza-based source close to the group confirmed the outright rejection, noting that opposition runs particularly strong within Hamas’ military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, which has labeled any disarmament agreement as nothing less than collective suicide. “They know that giving up their weapons is not an option and will not happen,” the source emphasized.

    The plan was formally delivered to Hamas delegates by Nickolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s High Representative for Gaza, who centered the entire proposal on coercing Hamas into relinquishing its weapons arsenal. Beyond the disarmament demand, Hamas has also decried a second unacceptable provision that would remove 20,000 sitting civil servants – nearly the entire administrative workforce that keeps basic services running across Gaza – from their positions. The source called the mass dismissal plan a catastrophic mistake, noting that these workers hold the cumulative expertise needed to address Gaza’s ongoing humanitarian and governance challenges, and replacing them en masse is fundamentally illogical.

    A core non-negotiable demand from Hamas is that Israel must first fully comply with all obligations laid out in the first phase of the October 2023 US-brokered ceasefire before any talks on further steps, including disarmament, can begin. That ceasefire was negotiated to end a two-year Israeli military campaign that has claimed the lives of roughly 72,000 Palestinians and pushed Gaza’s 2.3 million residents into widespread mass starvation. Under the terms of the truce, Israel was required to lift all restrictions on humanitarian aid entry, allowing up to 600 trucks of food, fuel, medical equipment, shelter materials and commercial goods to enter the enclave daily.

    To date, Israel has failed to meet these requirements, maintaining harsh limits on aid deliveries that have left Gaza’s catastrophic humanitarian situation largely unchanged. Even after the ceasefire took effect, Israeli forces have killed more than 700 Palestinians in ongoing incursions and attacks across the Strip. When Hamas presented these demands to Mladenov during negotiations, the envoy offered no substantive commitments or responses to address Palestinian concerns.

    Talks over the proposal have stretched on for two weeks, with multiple sessions marked by sharp tensions. Mladenov presented the plan as a non-negotiable take-it-or-leave-it offer to the Hamas delegation in Cairo, and at one point issued a 48-hour ultimatum: accept the terms or face a resumption of full-scale Israeli military operations. In a subsequent meeting, Mladenov was joined by unexpected high-level US officials, including Major General Jasper Jeffers, commander of the International Stabilisation Force, and senior US advisor Aryeh Lightstone. The unannounced addition of the US delegation was not coordinated in advance with Hamas, led by senior leader Khalil al-Hayya, and was viewed as an additional layer of pressure to force concessions, ultimately leading to a breakdown in talks with no agreement reached.

    Egypt, one of the key mediators in the process, has also pushed Hamas to accept the proposal, despite internal concerns that the plan does not align with either Palestinian or Egyptian national interests. Sources note that Egyptian leadership is reluctant to publicly oppose or upset the US administration. In recent days, external pressure has grown to convince Hamas to grant preliminary approval for the proposal before hashing out specific details later, according to reporting from Asharq Al-Awsat. A revised version of the plan has recently been circulated that proposes moving to second-phase talks – which include disarmament – once Israel begins implementing its first-phase ceasefire obligations.

    At present, it remains unclear whether Hamas will agree to the revised framework. Hamas continues to stand firm in its demand for legally binding, concrete guarantees that Israel will fully implement all first-phase ceasefire commitments before any discussions of further negotiations begin.

  • Hundreds pack Montevideo’s plaza as La Rueda de Candombe caps a breakout run

    Hundreds pack Montevideo’s plaza as La Rueda de Candombe caps a breakout run

    Every Monday evening as the sun sets over Montevideo, Uruguay’s coastal capital, hundreds of people stream into Plaza de España, gathering around a large wooden table to lose themselves in the rolling, centuries-old rhythms of candombe. What began as an informal jam session between a small group of friends has exploded from humble street-corner origins to one of Uruguay’s most celebrated cultural events, even earning an invitation to the world-famous Cannes Film Festival.

    “It started as something just for us, and we never set out to become this visible,” explained Caleb Amado, a Uruguayan producer and one of the co-founders of La Rueda de Candombe. The late-season closing performance held this Sunday marked the end of the group’s 2025 public gathering schedule, bringing together six core musicians to honor candombe — the dynamic, drum-driven musical tradition that sits at the core of Uruguayan national identity, and a practice officially named an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

    The story of La Rueda de Candombe begins in the fall of 2024, when Amado and his collaborator Rolo Fernández traveled to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Strolling through the city’s iconic bar districts under warm tropical nights, the pair encountered “rodas” — loose, informal circles of musicians who gather around a table to play and sing, with standing audiences milling close to join the energy. Inspired by the accessible, communal spirit of these gatherings, they returned to Montevideo and gathered four additional local musicians to launch their own version, rooted in Uruguay’s own iconic musical tradition.

    Like the Brazilian rodas that inspired it, La Rueda de Candombe centers its performance around a single table. But the sound it produces is unmistakeably Uruguayan: a driving blend of drums, acoustic guitar and accordion that brings new life to candombe, a genre with roots stretching back to the 18th century, when African traditions were brought to the region by enslaved people. Today, candombe is woven into the very fabric of Uruguayan national identity, a status formalized by its UNESCO designation in 2009.

    In the group’s early days, nearly 100 fans packed into a tiny neighborhood bar called Santa Catalina on a quiet Montevideo corner to listen. Within just a few months, the crowds grew too large for the small space, forcing the weekly gatherings to move out into the open expanse of nearby Plaza España. As word of the communal, energetic performances spread across social media, tourist vans began arriving weekly from across the country, and the event became a must-see stop for visitors to Montevideo.

    Unlike neighboring South American capitals such as Buenos Aires or Rio de Janeiro, spontaneous street performances are relatively rare across Montevideo, even with the city’s abundant public spaces, including a 22-kilometer waterfront promenade that stretches along the Atlantic coast. But social media buzz around La Rueda drew attention from across Uruguay’s creative scene, leading to high-profile collaborations: the group has shared the stage with Oscar-winning Uruguayan singer-songwriter Jorge Drexler at Montevideo’s legendary Centenario Stadium, and has recorded a full studio album of traditional and reimagined candombe tracks. By early 2025, the group’s rising profile earned them an invitation to represent Uruguayan culture at the Cannes Film Festival, which hosts dedicated global cultural showcases alongside its iconic film competition program.

    For Uruguay, candombe has never been just music — it is a living cultural and political tradition tied to the country’s African roots. The genre itself first emerged from the historic Plaza España, where enslaved Africans brought to Montevideo used drum beats to preserve their ancestral rituals at the site where they first disembarked. Traditional candombe is built around three distinct drum types: the small, high-pitched chico, the mid-range repique, and the low, booming piano drum. Every February, the tradition takes over the country during carnival, when dozens of community troupes called comparsas parade through Montevideo’s streets playing nonstop candombe rhythms.

    By the middle of the 20th century, candombe evolved to blend with jazz and mainstream popular music, giving rise to a new subgenre called “candombe canción.” It became a staple of informal community gatherings much like La Rueda, and during the political repression of the 1960s and 1970s, it emerged as a powerful form of cultural and political expression for Uruguayan communities demanding greater autonomy and recognition.

    As the Southern Hemisphere’s colder winter months approach, Amado and Fernández have no plans to pause the project. Instead of slowing down, the pair say La Rueda de Candombe is using the off-season to develop new programming, with plans to expand weekly gatherings to additional public squares across Montevideo in the 2026 season, bringing the centuries-old rhythm to new audiences across the capital.