Global Pulse

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  • Pope Leo to hold giant mass for Angola’s Catholics

    Pope Leo to hold giant mass for Angola’s Catholics

    One year after his historic election to the papacy, Pope Leo XIV has arrived in Angola, the third stop on his 11-day four-nation African pilgrimage, and will Sunday lead a massive open-air Mass followed by a visit to one of southern Africa’s most sacred Catholic sites. The Portuguese-speaking nation welcomed the pontiff Saturday, kicking off a leg of the tour that carries both religious significance and sharp social commentary for a resource-rich nation grappling with deep inequality.

    In his first formal address to Angolan leaders, including President Joao Lourenco, Pope Leo doubled down on a core theme of his African journey: a rebuke of unregulated natural resource extraction that has, he argues, fueled systemic suffering and created sweeping social and environmental disasters across the continent. The pope has used the tour to issue repeated warnings against corruption and the plunder of Africa’s abundant natural wealth, a throughline he has maintained through every stop of the trip.

    The tour, which launched in Algeria Monday, has already been marked by a high-profile public feud with former U.S. President Donald Trump. Last weekend, after Pope Leo called for an immediate end to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, Trump attacked the first American pope as “weak” in a public statement.

    Speaking to reporters Saturday aboard his flight from Cameroon to Angola, the pontiff pushed back against the narrative that his recent comments had been crafted to respond to Trump’s criticism. He noted that a widely discussed reference to “tyrants” during a speech in Cameroon had been written long before Trump’s remarks, adding that entering into a public debate with the U.S. leader holds no benefit for him or the Vatican. “It is not in my interest at all to debate the US leader,” he told the assembled press.

    Sunday’s centerpiece events will draw crowds expected to number in the tens of thousands. First, the pope will celebrate Mass in Kilamba, a suburb of Angola’s capital Luanda. After the service, he will travel 110 kilometers by helicopter to Muxima, Angola’s most revered Catholic pilgrimage site, which is home to a 300-year-old church perched on the banks of the Kwanza River—once a major transit route for enslaved people bound for the Americas.

    Built by Portuguese colonial settlers to baptize enslaved people before they were shipped across the Atlantic to the Americas, the church houses a beloved statue of the Virgin Mary known locally as “Mama Muxima.” The site draws roughly 2 million pilgrims annually, and organizers expect large crowds to greet the pope during his visit.

    In preparation for the papal visit, the Angolan government has launched a massive multi-million-euro infrastructure project to construct a new basilica, residential housing, and expanded public services in Muxima. The development has sparked sharp criticism from observers, who question the government’s spending priorities in a country that, despite massive oil and diamond reserves, remains plagued by widespread poverty and severe wealth inequality.

    Local Catholic leader Domingos das Neves, a lawyer active in church affairs, told Agence France-Presse that Pope Leo is fully aware of Angola’s stark social divides. “The pope comes to Angola fully aware of the reality our country is facing, particularly in terms of stark social asymmetries and inequalities, which also stem from the unequal distribution of wealth,” das Neves said. He added that the pontiff would almost certainly address the urgent demand for social justice during his public remarks, noting “Angola is in great need of a guiding light to illuminate our collective efforts — both within ecclesiastical institutions and the state — so that we do not forget the poor and the destitute.”

    Widespread poverty has already fueled visible public discontent in Angola in recent years. Last July, a three-day wave of looting across the country left roughly 30 people dead, with critics blaming police for a heavy-handed response to the unrest. Analysts widely frame the unrest as a signal of deep dissatisfaction with the ruling People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the socialist party that has held continuous power since the country gained independence from Portugal in 1975.

    Following his Sunday events in Luanda and Muxima, Pope Leo will travel 800 kilometers to Saurimo Monday, where he will visit a local retirement home and celebrate a second Mass before departing Angola Tuesday morning. From there, he will travel to Equatorial Guinea, the final stop on a whirlwind 18,000-kilometer journey across the African continent.

  • Chinese construction firm among two short-listed for construction of Hobart stadium

    Chinese construction firm among two short-listed for construction of Hobart stadium

    A major Australian infrastructure milestone has moved forward this week, after Tasmanian officials confirmed two bidding consortia have advanced to the final tender phase for Hobart’s $1.13 billion Macquarie Point Multipurpose Stadium, a project that will pave the way for Tasmania’s first Australian Football League (AFL) team.

    Announcing the shortlist on Sunday, Macquarie Point Urban Renewal Minister Eric Abetz framed the selection as a critical step forward for the transformative development. The project, which will repurpose a long-abandoned industrial site at Macquarie Point into a year-round events and community precinct, is projected to deliver widespread economic and social benefits across the entire island state.

    “This is another important step forward for the Macquarie Point Multipurpose Stadium,” Abetz said in his statement. “We have seen strong interest from major contractors capable of delivering a project of this scale and complexity. We are delivering for Tasmania by turning a wasteland into a year-round events and function precinct that will provide benefits for all Tasmanians.”

    The two candidates moving into the request for tender phase are Brisbane-based construction firm Besix Watpac, and a joint venture bringing together three specialist contractors: Italy’s Webuild S.p.A, Australian engineering firm McConnell Dowell, and China Construction Oceania.

    China Construction Oceania, the Australian regional subsidiary of China State Construction Engineering Corporation, a Chinese state-owned construction giant, brings extensive prior experience delivering major infrastructure across Australia. The firm was previously selected as a contractor for the Victoria state government’s $12 billion North-East Link motorway project, one of the largest road developments in the country’s recent history.

    In this next stage of the procurement process, both shortlisted bidders will be required to submit detailed proposals covering their project delivery strategy, commercial terms, construction timeline, and plans for engaging local Tasmanian industry and businesses. The Tasmanian government expects to award the main construction contract by the end of 2024.

    New architectural renderings of the stadium, designed by Cox Architecture, were released publicly alongside the masterplan announcement earlier this week. When complete, the venue will serve as the home ground for the newly created Tasmania Devils AFL club, which is scheduled to join the national professional competition starting in 2028. The stadium’s construction was a non-negotiable core requirement from the AFL to approve the creation of Tasmania’s first permanent AFL franchise.

    Beyond the stadium itself, the Macquarie Point Development Corporation unveiled the full precinct masterplan earlier this week, which includes proposed new commercial hubs, residential neighbourhoods, and public open space that will transform the former industrial site into a vibrant mixed-use district for Hobart residents and visitors alike.

  • Crisis-hit Bulgaria votes in eighth election in five years

    Crisis-hit Bulgaria votes in eighth election in five years

    On Sunday, Bulgaria went to the polls for its eighth national election in five years, a historic stretch of political gridlock triggered by years of mass anti-corruption mobilization that has toppled one government after another across the Balkan nation. As the European Union’s poorest member state, Bulgaria has entered this prolonged period of instability after 2021, when widespread public protests against graft ended the 10-year near-continuous rule of veteran conservative leader Boyko Borissov, and no administration has managed to hold a stable majority since.

    Leading the race going into election day is the newly formed centre-left bloc Progressive Bulgaria, headed by former nine-year president Rumen Radev. A former air force general who stepped down from the presidency in January to lead his electoral alliance, Radev has campaigned on a hardline platform of rooting out systemic corruption and dismantling what he calls Bulgaria’s long-standing “oligarchic governance model”. His anti-corruption rhetoric has resonated with a public deeply frustrated by persistent graft: it was the latest wave of anti-corruption protests in late 2024 that brought down the previous conservative-backed government, clearing the way for this snap vote. Pre-election opinion polls put Radev’s bloc on track to win roughly 35% of the popular vote, positioning it as the clear front-runner to form the next government.

    Radev’s foreign policy positions have become a central point of controversy in the campaign. Unlike most major Bulgarian pro-European parties, Radev has openly called for restoring closer bilateral ties with Moscow, has repeatedly voiced opposition to Bulgarian military aid for Ukraine following Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion, and recently publicly condemned a 10-year defense cooperation agreement between Sofia and Kyiv signed last month. He drew widespread outrage from political opponents during his final campaign rally when he displayed photos of his past meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin to a crowd of 10,000 cheering supporters. Radev has also publicly rejected the European Union’s current green energy framework, calling it naive in what he frames as an unpredictable “world without rules”, though he has clarified he would not use Bulgaria’s veto power to block collective EU policy decisions.

    Coming in second in pre-election polling is Borissov’s long-standing pro-European conservative party GERB, which is projected to win roughly 20% of the vote, outpacing the centrist liberal coalition PP-DB. Borissov, who led Bulgaria from 2009 to 2021, has pushed back against Radev’s narrative of radical change, arguing that his party delivered on the core ambitions of 1990s post-communist transition, most notably securing Bulgaria’s accession to the eurozone in 2025. Speaking at his final campaign events, Borissov dismissed Radev as offering no meaningful new agenda for the country.

    Voters interviewed by AFP on election day expressed a wide range of frustrations and hopes. Many voters aligned with Radev’s anti-corruption message: 57-year-old Sofia resident Decho Kostadinov told reporters after casting his ballot that he voted for change, arguing that corrupt politicians “should leave — they should take whatever they’ve stolen and get out of Bulgaria”. Dozens of voters lined up outside polling stations in Sofia even before voting began at 7 a.m. local time. Other voters, like 60-year-old Sofia accountant Elena, who backed Borissov’s party, said she voted to “preserve what we have”, noting “we are a democratic country, we live well”.

    Still, many Bulgarian voters remain deeply disillusioned with the entire political class. 55-year-old taxi driver Miglena Boyadjieva, who showed up to vote, summed up a common sentiment: “The problem is that there is no one to vote for. You vote for one person and get others. The system has to change.” Public distrust in political institutions has dragged down voter turnout in recent cycles, hitting a low of just 39% in 2024’s last election. However, polling analyst Boryana Dimitrova of the Alpha Research institute noted that Radev’s high-energy campaign has mobilized frustrated voters, leading analysts to predict a higher turnout on Sunday.

    Authorities have stepped up efforts to combat systemic vote buying, a long-standing issue in Bulgarian elections. In coordinated raids over recent weeks, police seized more than 1 million euros in illicit campaign funds and detained hundreds of people, including sitting local councillors and municipal mayors. Political parties across the ideological spectrum have urged voters to turn out to the polls, in part to dilute the impact of vote buying on the final result.

    Polling stations closed at 17:00 GMT on Sunday, with exit polls expected immediately after voting concludes. Official final results are not expected to be released until at least Monday. Radev has announced he is aiming to secure an absolute majority in the 240-seat National Assembly, a result that would allow his bloc to form a government alone without entering coalition negotiations with rival parties.

  • Chernobyl’s radioactive landscape is testament to nature’s resilience and survival spirit

    Chernobyl’s radioactive landscape is testament to nature’s resilience and survival spirit

    Deep within the radioactive contamination of Ukraine’s Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, where humans have not been allowed to settle for nearly four decades, one of the planet’s most remarkable ecological recoveries is unfolding. On ground poisoned by the worst nuclear disaster in human history, rare and once-endangered wildlife roams free, turning a symbol of human catastrophe into an accidental wild refuge—now facing a new, man-made threat from Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

    The disaster that created this strange landscape dates back to April 26, 1986, when a catastrophic explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant blew a plume of radioactive fallout across much of Europe. The disaster forced the immediate evacuation of every town and village across a 2,600-square-kilometer exclusion zone spanning Ukraine and neighboring Belarus, displacing more than 100,000 people. To this day, the zone remains too radioactive for permanent human habitation, unfit for settlement for generations to come. But in the absence of people, nature has reclaimed the land.

    Wolves now traverse the vast unoccupied terrain that humans abandoned. Brown bears, absent from the region for more than a century, have returned to repopulate their historic range. Populations of lynx, moose, red deer, and even free-roaming dog packs have rebounded dramatically, creating an ecosystem that mirrors the wild European landscapes of centuries past. The most notable success story, however, centers on Przewalski’s horse, a rare wild breed native to the steppes of Mongolia that once hovered on the edge of total extinction.

    Distinct from all domestic horse breeds, Przewalski’s horses carry 33 pairs of chromosomes—one more than their domesticated relatives— and are the last truly wild horse species walking the planet today. Known as takhi, meaning “spirit,” in their native Mongolia, the species was first formally documented by 19th-century Russian explorer Nikolai Przhevalsky, from whom it takes its common name. As the species declined to near-extinction across its original Asian range, conservationists launched an experimental reintroduction in the Chernobyl exclusion zone in 1998, releasing a small founding population into the radioactive landscape.

    Four decades on, that experiment has yielded what leading zone ecologist Denys Vyshnevskyi calls a “small miracle”: a self-sustaining, free-roaming population of the rare horses has taken root and grown. Hidden motion-activated camera traps, which Vyshnevskyi spends hours installing across dense, overgrown terrain, have revealed the horses adapting to their new home in unexpected ways: they seek shelter from harsh winters and biting insects in crumbling Soviet-era barns and abandoned human homes, even bedding down inside the derelict structures. While many of the original introduced animals died off in the first years, the remaining population has adapted, forming small, stable social groups: one mature stallion, multiple mares, and their young, alongside separate all-male bands of younger horses.

    Scientists have not recorded widespread wildlife die-offs tied to the zone’s persistent background radiation, though subtle biological impacts have been documented: some frog species have evolved darker pigmentation to protect against radiation damage, while bird populations in the most contaminated areas show higher rates of cataract development. Even so, ecologists broadly agree that the absence of human activity, from industrial development to hunting and agriculture, has created a net benefit for wildlife that far outweighs the costs of low-level radiation exposure. “Nature recovers relatively quickly and effectively,” Vyshnevskyi explained, noting that the exclusion zone now looks much like European landscapes did centuries before widespread industrialization and human settlement. The transformation is visible to the naked eye: tree saplings push through the foundations of abandoned apartment blocks, crumbling roads have been reclaimed by forest, and faded Soviet road signs stand weathered beside overgrown cemeteries dotted with leaning wooden crosses.

    For conservation science, the Chernobyl recovery offers an unprecedented natural experiment. “For those of us in conservation and ecology, it’s kind of a wonder,” Vyshnevskyi said. “This land was once heavily used—agriculture, cities, infrastructure. But nature has effectively performed a factory reset.”

    That accidental wonder is now under severe threat from the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. When Russian troops advanced toward Kyiv in the early weeks of the war, fighting swept directly through the Chernobyl exclusion zone, with soldiers digging fortifications and military positions directly into contaminated soil. Military activity has sparked widespread wildfires across the zone’s forests, sparked by downed drones and artillery strikes. Oleksandr Polischuk, who leads a local firefighting unit in the zone, says crews often must travel dozens of kilometers across unpaved, dangerous terrain to reach blazes. The fires pose an additional hidden risk: they can stir up trapped radioactive particles and release them back into the atmosphere, spreading contamination across wider areas.

    Harsh wartime winters and damage to Ukraine’s power grid have also taken a heavy toll, stripping protected area management teams of critical resources. Scientists have recorded sharp increases in fallen trees and dead wildlife, casualties of both extreme cold and hastily built military fortifications that fragment habitat and disrupt animal movement. Today, the exclusion zone is no longer just a quiet accidental wildlife refuge: it is a heavily militarized corridor, crisscrossed with concrete barriers, barbed wire, and unmarked minefields. Personnel who monitor the wildlife and maintain the zone rotate in and out constantly to limit their radiation exposure, just as they navigate the constant risks of a war that has settled across the contaminated landscape.

    The paradox of Chernobyl remains, decades after the disaster: it will almost certainly remain off-limits to permanent human settlement for generations. It is a landscape defined by one of humanity’s worst mistakes, too dangerous for people to call home. Yet in that absence, it has become a haven for life—one that ecologists are working desperately to protect even amid the chaos of a new man-made conflict.

  • Australia’s most-decorated soldier vows to ‘fight’ war crime charges

    Australia’s most-decorated soldier vows to ‘fight’ war crime charges

    One of Australia’s most celebrated military figures, Ben Roberts-Smith, has broken his silence for the first time since being hit with five war crime-related murder charges last week, issuing a public statement emphatically rejecting every allegation against him.

    The 47-year-old former Special Air Service (SAS) corporal, who is Australia’s highest-decorated living soldier and a recipient of the Victoria Cross, was granted bail this Friday following his arrest earlier this month at Sydney International Airport on April 7. In his first public remarks since the charges were filed, Roberts-Smith said he remains unapologetically proud of his military deployment to Afghanistan, and is ready to use the upcoming criminal proceedings as a platform to permanently clear his reputation of wrongdoing.

    “I understand this journey will be difficult. But I can promise everybody that I have never run from a fight in my life,” Roberts-Smith told reporters, adding that while he never wished to face these criminal charges, he welcomes the chance to resolve the allegations once and for all.

    Across his years of service in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012, Roberts-Smith stands accused of involvement in the unlawful killings of unarmed Afghan detainees, prosecutors allege. The charges include one count of murder, one count of joint murder, and three counts of aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring murder. Roberts-Smith has pushed back forcefully against these claims, asserting that every action he took during his deployment aligned with his personal values, his military training, and the official rules of engagement governing Australian forces.

    The former soldier also criticized the circumstances of his arrest as an unnecessary, over-the-top media spectacle, and declined to answer any follow-up questions from journalists after reading his prepared statement.

    In granting bail, the presiding judge noted that Roberts-Smith’s case is highly unusual. If bail had been denied, the judge explained, the veteran could have waited years in pre-trial custody before his case even went to trial, an outcome that could not be justified under the circumstances.

    The criminal proceedings mark the latest chapter in a years-long legal battle over the allegations against Roberts-Smith. The case traces its origins back to 2018, when Nine Entertainment newspapers first published reports detailing the alleged war crimes. Roberts-Smith subsequently filed a civil defamation suit against the outlets, and in 2023, the Federal Court ruled that on the balance of probabilities, several of the murder allegations held substantial truth. Roberts-Smith’s appeal against that ruling was rejected in 2024, setting the stage for the criminal charges that were filed earlier this month. This high-profile case also marks the first time any Australian court has ever considered formal war crime allegations against members of the country’s military deployed overseas.

  • Belgium’s Beguinages: Tranquil oases in a world of noise and distraction

    Belgium’s Beguinages: Tranquil oases in a world of noise and distraction

    Bruges, Belgium’s most iconic tourist hub, hums with the constant energy of rolling suitcase wheels on cobblestones, chugging motorboats cutting through canal waters, and multilingual chatter from visitors that fills every historic street. Tucked away just across a small bridge, beneath an ornate stone arch carved with the Latin word “sauvegarde” — meaning “safe place” — a small group of 24 women have carved out a quiet sanctuary far from the city’s crowds: the Princely Beguinage Ten Wijngaerde, a serene oasis ringed with golden daffodils that dates all the way back to 1245.

    For Trees Dewever, this enclosed community has been home for 22 years. In a world defined by chaos and constant stimulation, she says the beguinage wraps its residents in an overwhelming sense of peace that feels essential to modern life. Her neighbor Jo Verplaetsen, who has lived here for the same span of decades, echoes that sentiment: the medieval spirit of shelter that shaped the community remains just as soothing and socially connected today, leaving residents grateful for their home every single day.

    The origins of beguinages stretch back to the 12th century, born as a response to widespread societal upheaval. Centuries of medieval conflict had decimated Europe’s male population, leaving a surge of widows and unmarried women without financial or social stability. Rather than committing to the strict, binding rules of traditional convents, many of these women chose the more flexible structure of beguinage life, explains Michel Vanholder, a volunteer at the Grand Beguinage Church of Mechelen. “They didn’t want to go become nuns but nevertheless they wanted to live together without men because there were not enough men to marry,” he notes.

    Women who joined these communities were called beguines. Unlike nuns, they were never required to take formal vows of celibacy or poverty, could own personal property, and were free to leave the beguinage at any time if they chose to marry. This middle way between secular life and religious order filled a critical gap for women seeking independence in a male-dominated medieval world, says Brigitte Beernaert, who has called the Bruges beguinage home for more than 20 years. Historically, beguines supported their communities by caring for the sick and impoverished, selling skilled handwork like needlepoint and fine lace, and reinvesting earnings back into shared community resources.

    For centuries, beguinages had a fraught relationship with the Vatican: at times embraced as legitimate religious communities, they were also targeted with waves of persecution. One of the most famous beguines, French Christian mystic Marguerite Porete, was burned at the stake as a heretic in 1310 for her unorthodox theological writings. Over the centuries, the beguine movement has captured the imagination of creative thinkers, with iconic novelists including Charlotte Brontë, Ken Follett, and Umberto Eco all featuring beguines and their male equivalent, the beghards, in their work.

    Architecturally, beguinages were intentionally designed to prioritize comfort, quiet, and safety for like-minded women. Small private gardens are tucked along quiet alleys or clustered around a central courtyard, where homes face inward to foster community connection, and a chapel or church almost always sits at the heart of the site. Today, 13 historic beguinages across Flanders, Belgium’s Dutch-speaking northern region, are protected as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, recognizing their unique cultural and historical significance.

    For visitors like German tourist Biata Weissbaeker, who explored the Bruges site with her husband, these all-women spaces remain just as vital today as they were 800 years ago. “Women need a place like this: a safe place that gives them the possibility to go inside themselves,” she says.

    While the last traditional beguine in Belgium, Marcella Pattijn, passed away in 2013 at 92 years old, the core mission of the beguinage community has endured through eight centuries. “Once you are in here, you are safe — that was of course literal in the Middle Ages, once you lived here, the law couldn’t take you away,” Beernaert explains. “Today it’s more like a safe place for women alone.”

    The Bruges beguinage still restricts residency to women exclusively, even as the city of Bruges now owns and maintains the grounds, with residents renting their homes from the municipal government. Across Belgium, beguinage communities host regular public events to nurture connection among residents through shared activities like community gardening, and open their doors to the public through open house events to share their history. Recently, residents of the Bruges beguinage planted raspberry bushes along the canal wall and keep beehives to produce their own honey. For Beernaert, the timeless peace of the site feels more important than ever amid global uncertainty. “The world is terrible for the moment, and this gives us the impression that it’s still safe here,” she says. “This gives Bruges already a little bit of a small paradise, if you want. And living inside that paradise feels unbelievable.”

  • ‘Hard to put a number’ on people targeted by Coalition’s new immigration policy: Duniam

    ‘Hard to put a number’ on people targeted by Coalition’s new immigration policy: Duniam

    Australia’s federal political landscape has been roiled this week by a heated debate over the opposition Coalition’s hardline new migration proposal, after the party’s senior home affairs spokesman declined to provide clear, concrete figures for how many people could face deportation or visa cancellation if the party wins the next national election. The plan, dubbed the Australian Values Migration Plan, was unveiled earlier this week by Opposition Leader Angus Taylor during an address at the Menzies Research Centre. Taylor framed the policy as a bold intervention to fix what he calls a broken immigration system, centering it on stricter checks for prospective migrants and a crackdown on people the party describes as threats to national social cohesion.

    In his launch speech, Taylor argued that migrants coming from established liberal democracies are far more likely to embrace what the Coalition terms “Australian values” than those arriving from nations governed by extremist groups, religious fundamentalists, or authoritarian regimes. The policy outlines two key changes: an expansion of social media background checks for all visa applicants, and the creation of a dedicated inter-agency task force that would coordinate with Australia’s leading national security and border agencies – including the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation, Australian Federal Police, Australian Border Force, and the Department of Home Affairs – to remove migrants who have overstayed their visas or are found to violate the policy’s values requirements.

    When pressed on Sunday by journalists to outline the expected scale of deportations under the new plan, opposition home affairs spokesman Jonno Duniam repeatedly conceded that producing a specific numerical target was not feasible. “It is very hard to put a number on these things, because there are global events shifting migration patterns constantly,” Duniam told Sky News’ *Sunday Agenda*. “Conflicts in different regions of the world change how many people move, so we can’t lock in a fixed figure. If we do our job correctly and stop people who pose a risk from entering the country in the first place, the number of people we have to deport after arrival should be minimal anyway.”

    Duniam pushed back against widespread criticism that the proposal duplicates existing immigration rules, noting that all visa applicants are currently required to sign the Australian Values Statement, but arguing that the current framework lacks enforceability. Under the Coalition’s plan, the Migration Act would be amended to embed a legally binding values test as a formal condition of all visa grants, giving authorities clearer power to reject or revoke visas for people who fail to meet the standard.

    The policy has already sparked fierce backlash across Australia’s human rights and refugee advocacy sectors, with major groups including Amnesty International, the Refugee Council of Australia, and the Asylum Seekers’ Resource Centre all issuing scathing condemnations. Critics have widely labeled Taylor’s rhetoric as deliberately divisive, accusing the Coalition of stigmatizing and demonizing migrants from non-Western backgrounds to court political support. Sitting Labor government officials have echoed this criticism: Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has challenged the Coalition to provide even one example of a case where existing ministerial powers would not already allow a visa to be refused or cancelled for the kind of high-risk individuals the party says it is targeting.

    Duniam dismissed this widespread criticism, telling reporters that critics would always oppose changes to immigration policy regardless of their content. “Critics will always criticise, won’t they? Or else they wouldn’t have much to say,” he said, adding that the Coalition would commit sufficient resources to the relevant enforcement agencies to root out potential risks before migrants enter Australia, and rapidly deport any high-risk individuals who do manage to arrive despite screening.

  • The US backs a South Africa project to extract rare earths despite a diplomatic clash

    The US backs a South Africa project to extract rare earths despite a diplomatic clash

    In the small South African town of Phalaborwa, two massive, sand-like dunes of industrial waste have become the focal point of a high-stakes U.S.-supported initiative to unlock a new supply of rare earth elements — minerals critical to modern high-tech manufacturing that the U.S. currently relies heavily on its top economic rival, China, to provide.

    The Phalaborwa Rare Earths Project, led by UK-founded firm Rainbow Rare Earths, secured a $50 million equity investment from the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), a U.S. government agency established during the first Trump administration. The commitment was formalized in 2023 under the Biden administration, but the current second Trump administration has opted to advance the work despite a sharp recent diplomatic rift between the U.S. and South Africa. Shortly after Trump returned to office in February this year, he issued an executive order freezing all U.S. financial aid to South Africa, but strategic economic priorities have overridden that diplomatic friction for the project. The DFC has framed its involvement in Phalaborwa as part of a broader goal to unlock Africa’s untapped mineral wealth while advancing core U.S. strategic interests.

    Rare earth elements, a group of 17 chemically similar metals, are a key subset of the dozens of critical minerals that major global economies have identified as irreplaceable for manufacturing everything from smartphones and robotics to defense systems, electric vehicle motors and wind turbine generators. Expanding domestic and allied access to these critical minerals has been a signature policy priority for Trump across both of his presidential terms, with the current administration announcing this year it will allocate nearly $12 billion to establish a U.S. strategic reserve of these materials.

    Unlike most rare earth projects that develop new ore deposits, Phalaborwa plans to extract its target minerals from 35 million tons of phosphogypsum, a waste byproduct left behind from decades of phosphate rock processing for fertilizer and industrial acid production at the site. Extraction is targeted to launch in 2028, with construction of the on-site processing facility scheduled to begin in early 2027 — and the $50 million DFC investment will only be disbursed once construction gets underway. The project is projected to operate for 16 years, producing high-demand rare earths including neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium, all core components of high-performance magnets for clean energy and defense technologies.

    Rainbow Rare Earths chief executive George Bennett told the Associated Press the project’s output will be primarily destined for the U.S. market, noting that American interest in the initiative is heavily tied to national defense supply chains. Project director Alberto Bruttomesso explained that the pre-processing of the waste material by former owners of the site eliminates one of the most costly steps in rare earth extraction, meaning the project can operate as a low-cost producer on par with Chinese mining operations. The firm also says up to 90% of the energy used for extraction will come from renewable sources, bringing the project’s environmental footprint far below that of traditional rare earth mining.

    While rare earth elements are geologically relatively common around the world, they typically appear in very low concentrations and require complex, expensive separation and processing, which has left the global market dominated by China for decades. Industry analysts note that the Phalaborwa project is unique in its experimental approach of extracting minerals from existing above-ground waste, but its long-term potential remains unproven.

    Neha Mukherjee, research manager at industry analyst firm Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, noted that the project’s low operational and capital costs are a major advantage, adding that it fills a pressing gap in global supply. “We do not have enough projects to meet the entire demand outside of China,” Mukherjee explained.

    The Phalaborwa initiative is just one part of a broader, sustained push by the U.S. to expand its access to rare earth and critical mineral supplies, both at home and abroad. Beyond domestic mining investments, the Trump administration has pursued critical mineral deals in Ukraine, and has repeatedly signaled interest in acquiring Greenland largely due to the Arctic island’s large untapped rare earth reserves. In Africa, where China has long held the position of the dominant foreign investor in mining, the U.S. is actively working to catch up, according to mining specialist Patience Mususa of the Nordic Africa Institute in Sweden.

    Other recent U.S.-backed rare earth projects on the continent include a $1.8 million feasibility study grant from the U.S. Trade and Development Agency for the Monte Muambe rare earth project in Mozambique, signed in February. The Trump administration is also continuing to fund the Lobito Corridor, a Biden-era infrastructure initiative to build a 1,290-kilometer railway connecting the mineral-rich interior of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia to the Atlantic coast, designed to open up new export routes for African critical minerals to Western markets.

  • Bulgarians head to the polls to elect a parliament for the eighth time in 5 years

    Bulgarians head to the polls to elect a parliament for the eighth time in 5 years

    SOFIA, Bulgaria — Balkan EU and NATO member Bulgaria is heading into its eighth national parliamentary election in just five years on Sunday, a vote that comes after years of crippling political gridlock that has left the country starved of stable, effective governance. This snap election was triggered last December, when a conservative-led administration stepped down in the wake of mass nationwide demonstrations that drew hundreds of thousands of protesters, overwhelmingly young Bulgarians, to capital and city streets across the country. Demonstrators’ core demand was the creation of a truly independent judiciary capable of rooting out the deep, systemic corruption that has defined the nation’s political landscape for decades.

    Since 2021, the country of 6.5 million people has been trapped in a cycle of fragmented legislative bodies that have only produced fragile, short-lived governments. No administration formed in that window has managed to hold power for more than 12 months, with every government falling either to mass public protests or unaccountable backroom power deals within parliament. This constant rotation of ruling coalitions has eroded public faith in democratic institutions, spurred widespread voter apathy, and driven a steady decline in election turnout across successive votes.

    Sunday’s ballot carries outsized geopolitical weight, coming just days after Hungarian voters rejected the long-ruling authoritarian administration of Viktor Orbán, a prominent far-right leader who has maintained close personal and policy ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The clear front-runner in this election is Rumen Radev, a left-leaning, pro-Russian former president who resigned from his largely ceremonial post in January — months before the end of his second five-year term — to launch a campaign for the position of prime minister. The 62-year-old Radev, a former fighter pilot and ex-air force commander, is leading the newly organized center-left Progressive Bulgaria coalition, and stands as Bulgaria’s most popular active politician.

    Radev has campaigned on a promise of a national fresh start, positioning himself as a vocal opponent of the country’s deeply entrenched oligarchic networks and their links to top political figures. At campaign stops across the country, he has vowed to “remove the corrupt, oligarchic model of governance from political power.” His support base is split between two broad groups: voters drawn to his anti-corruption platform, and backers who align with his open Eurosceptic and pro-Russia policy stances. While Radev has issued formal public condemnation of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he has repeatedly opposed sending military aid to Kyiv and has advocated for reopening diplomatic negotiations with Moscow to end the ongoing conflict.

    Bulgaria’s geopolitical standing has shifted notably in recent months: the country joined the EU’s eurozone on January 1 of this year, shortly after gaining full membership in the EU’s border-free Schengen Area, even as its domestic political system remains mired in chaos. The current race was triggered by the 2021 resignation of three-time conservative prime minister Boyko Borissov, who stepped down after mass protests driven by public anger over corruption and systemic injustice. The closest rival to Radev’s coalition is Borissov’s center-right GERB party.

    Opinion polling indicates Radev’s coalition is on track to capture more than 30% of the national vote, putting it roughly 10 percentage points ahead of GERB. Most published polls carry a margin of error between 3% and 3.5%. Polling stations opened across the country at 7 a.m. local time and are scheduled to close at 8 p.m., with initial exit polls set to be released immediately after voting ends. Preliminary full election results are expected to be published on Monday.

  • A humanoid robot sprints to victory in Beijing, beating the human half-marathon world record

    A humanoid robot sprints to victory in Beijing, beating the human half-marathon world record

    On a race day in Beijing’s Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area (Beijing E-Town), a milestone event unfolded Sunday that underscores China’s rapid advancement in humanoid robotics: an autonomous humanoid built by Chinese consumer electronics firm Honor claimed the top spot at the world’s second annual robot-only half-marathon, clocking a finish time that outpaces the official human world record for the 21-kilometer distance.

    The winning Honor robot crossed the finish line in 5 hours? No, 50 minutes and 26 seconds, according to an official post from Beijing E-Town on China’s super-app WeChat. That time beats the current human men’s half-marathon world record of 57 minutes 31 seconds set by Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo at the 2025 Lisbon Half Marathon in March by nearly seven full minutes. A separate remotely operated Honor robot finished even faster at 48 minutes 19 seconds, but under the competition’s weighted scoring framework that prioritizes autonomous navigation, the autonomously running unit was awarded the official championship. Two additional autonomous Honor robots took second and third place, finishing in 51 minutes and 53 minutes respectively.

    This dramatic improvement from the 2024 inaugural race is impossible to ignore: last year’s winning robot crossed the line after 2 hours 40 minutes and 42 seconds, a time that is more than double the 2025 winner’s result. Even with the clear progress, the competition was not without small missteps that highlight the technology is still maturing: one robot collapsed immediately at the starting line, while another collided with a course barrier along the route. Organizers noted that roughly 40 percent of all competing robots completed the course fully autonomously, with the rest operating via remote control.

    Du Xiaodi, a test development engineer leading Honor’s robot project, explained the design choices that enabled the standout performance. The team modeled the robot’s proportions off elite human long-distance runners, outfitting it with 95-centimeter legs, and integrated an in-house developed high-performance liquid-cooling system to manage heat output during extended operation. Du added that the core technologies refined through this racing project have broader practical potential: innovations like structural reliability testing and liquid-cooling systems can be adapted for future industrial use cases, even as full commercialization of general-purpose humanoid robots remains years away.

    Spectators at the joint human-robot race event expressed astonishment at how far the technology has come in just 12 months. Sun Zhigang, who attended the 2024 race and returned this year with his son, called the progress “enormous”, noting that a robot beating the human world record was something he never expected to see so soon. Another attendee, Wang Wen, who attended with his family, observed that the humanoid racers had already overtaken human runners as the main attraction of the day. “The robots’ speed far exceeds that of humans, this may signal the arrival of a new era of robotics,” he said. Beyond the race itself, event organizers even deployed a humanoid robot to work as a traffic marshal, directing participants using a combination of arm gestures and pre-programmed audio cues.

    The breakthrough performance comes as humanoid robotics has become a core priority of China’s national technology development strategy. The country’s recently released 14th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) identifies accelerating the research, development, and real-world deployment of humanoid robots as a key target, part of Beijing’s broader push to lead global innovation in frontier technology sectors amid ongoing tech competition with the United States.

    Industry data already reflects China’s growing clout in the general-purpose embodied intelligent robot space. A 2025 global assessment from London-based technology research firm Omdia ranked three Chinese robotics firms — AGIBOT, Unitree Robotics, and UBTech Robotics — as the only first-tier global vendors based on shipment volume. All three companies shipped more than 1,000 units of general-purpose intelligent robots in 2024, with AGIBOT and Unitree Robotics each shipping more than 5,000 units, confirming China’s position as a major mass producer of advanced robotic systems.

    The race result is being seen widely as a visible public demonstration of how quickly Chinese humanoid robot capabilities are advancing, moving beyond lab demonstrations to real-world dynamic navigation and sustained operation that challenges even the limits of top human athletic performance.