Global Pulse

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  • G7 summit at Swiss-French border brings tight security in case violent protests occur

    G7 summit at Swiss-French border brings tight security in case violent protests occur

    GENEVA — Ahead of the upcoming G7 summit set to kick off on Monday near Lake Geneva, French and Swiss law enforcement and border officials are rolling out strict, pandemic-style border controls to counter anticipated large-scale and potentially violent protests against the attending leaders, including former U.S. President Donald Trump. The three-day gathering, which runs from June 15 to 17 in the French lakeside town of Evian-les-Bains, brings together the heads of government from the world’s seven largest advanced economies to deliberate on key global issues ranging from Middle East stability and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine to growing global economic imbalances.

    The threat of unrest stems from a long history of disruptive protests at elite global summits, and local stakeholders in nearby Geneva, Switzerland are determined to avoid a repeat of the violent clashes that damaged downtown storefronts during the 2003 G8 summit, when Russia was still a member of the group. This year, a broad coalition of activist groups has organized demonstrations to channel widespread frustration across multiple flashpoints: from Trump’s policy stances on trade tariffs and Middle East conflicts to perceived inaction on climate change, as well as renewed scrutiny of his past ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

    The coalition of anti-capitalist, environmental, feminist, and progressive activist groups, which brands itself the No G7 coalition, framed the gathering as a meeting of global powers that perpetuates exploitation and inequality. “As the G7 meets in Evian, France, to plan the destruction of peoples, the exploitation of life and the domination of bodies, let us organize our resistance against fascism and imperialism,” the coalition said in an official call for large-scale international protest mobilization. The standoff between authorities and activists centers on competing priorities: the right of demonstrators to gather and voice dissent, and the right of residents and businesses to be protected from damage and unrest targeting symbols of political and corporate power.

    In preparation for potential unrest, businesses across central Geneva, a major hub for United Nations and global intergovernmental agencies, have already boarded up their storefronts. Several key institutions, including the World Trade Organization — which was the target of massive anti-globalization protests in Seattle in the 1990s — have closed their downtown offices and ordered all non-essential staff to work remotely for the duration of the summit. While Switzerland is not a G7 member state, the close proximity of Geneva to the summit host town makes it a natural gathering point for traveling activists.

    To coordinate security, the two neighboring nations have signed a new military cooperation agreement tailored to the summit. Because Geneva’s main international airport is 95% surrounded by French territory, all arriving G7 leaders will travel through French-controlled airspace and border checks before entering Switzerland. The Swiss federal government confirmed it will deploy roughly 4,000 armed forces personnel to support local police operations, which include sweeping airspace restrictions, floating patrols across Lake Geneva, and targeted closures on cross-border road routes. Only seven of the 35 existing road border crossings between the two countries will remain open for the week, and Geneva officials have permanently closed a major downtown park that activists had selected as their primary protest gathering spot.

    On the French side of the border, security will be even more stringent: more than 13,000 police and gendarmerie officers will be deployed to secure the summit perimeter, with 800 dedicated border control officers on duty — a major jump from the 60 officers that work the crossing on a typical day. French authorities have implemented a special resident permit system for Evian, a town best known globally for its branded bottled water, and cordoned off a large secure exclusion zone around the Hotel Royal, where G7 leaders will hold their closed-door meetings. Only one pre-authorized protest march has been approved, scheduled for June 14 ahead of the summit’s official start, and all unapproved public gatherings are banned for the week.

    Not all observers agree that the harsh security measures are justified. Cedric Dupont, a professor of international relations at the Geneva Graduate Institute, argues that authorities are overreacting to the protest threat, pointing to widespread economic disruption and long border delays similar to those experienced during COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. “It seems that they have not learned the lesson,” Dupont said, noting that protesters can easily enter Geneva from other regions of Switzerland regardless of border restrictions. “It’s just creating more problems than actually solving them.”

    The restrictions are already set to upend daily life for cross-border communities. According to the French Foreign Ministry, more than 110,000 commuters cross the France-Switzerland border daily to work in Geneva. French officials have advised all residents to cancel non-essential travel to the region and work from home where possible. Commuter ferry crossings across Lake Geneva that normally stop in Evian have been rerouted to other docks outside the restricted zone, though authorities have confirmed recreational activities such as swimming and paddleboarding will remain permitted in non-restricted areas as the summer tourist season gets underway. To offset expected economic losses for local businesses, the Geneva cantonal government has allocated a 6 million Swiss franc ($7.6 million) compensation fund for any properties damaged during protests. Officials have acknowledged that violent unrest cannot be ruled out entirely, even with the sweeping security measures in place.

  • Chinese police detain man after dog torture videos spark outrage

    Chinese police detain man after dog torture videos spark outrage

    In a case that has ignited widespread public anger across China, authorities in the southwestern megacity of Chongqing have taken a man identified only by his surname Li into custody over allegations that he tortured adopted dogs and cats, then profited by selling graphic footage of the abuse online. The incident has thrown a spotlight on shifting public attitudes toward animal welfare across the country, as grassroots demand grows for formal legal protections for animals long absent from Chinese statute books.

    The scheme unraveled after a woman who offered her puppies for free adoption shared her suspicious experience with friends, who then brought the case to wider public attention on Chinese social media. Earlier this month, Li posted an adoption advertisement on the popular short-video platform Douyin, posing as a loving pet owner to lure vulnerable animals. According to local media reports, Li claimed his two young children adored puppies, a fabricated backstory designed to convince people to entrust their pets to him.

    The true horror of his actions emerged Sunday, when animal welfare volunteers found one of the puppies Li had adopted abandoned in the stairwell of his apartment complex. The young dog had suffered a broken leg, a severed tail, and severe facial swelling, and later died from its injuries. Further investigation uncovered that Li had abused multiple adopted cats and dogs, recording the abuse to sell the violent clips to buyers online.

    By early this week, news of the abuse had sparked mass public protest, with more than 100 demonstrators gathering outside Li’s residential building to demand accountability. Many carried signs calling for systemic change, with placards reading “Those who abuse animals practice cruelty toward all living things” and “Stop animal abuse — we urgently call for laws banning animal cruelty.”

    Video footage posted to social media showed police responding to the protest, removing demonstrators from the premises, with some activists reporting they were barred from recording or sharing images of the demonstration online. Following Li’s detention, public calls for harsh legal penalty for the suspect have flooded Chinese social media platforms. One top-voted comment on Weibo, China’s leading microblogging platform, read, “This is appalling. I fully support severe punishment.”

    Currently, no formal national laws in China criminalize animal cruelty, meaning authorities have not yet publicly disclosed what specific charges Li is being investigated for. Even without formal legal protections, public awareness of animal welfare issues has risen sharply across China in recent years, driven in large part by growing pet ownership and grassroots advocacy on social media. This high-profile case has become a flashpoint for broader demands for legislative change, with activists and ordinary citizens increasingly pushing for the government to add animal cruelty statutes to the national legal code.

  • Brittany Higgins steps back into political arena to fight misogyny and far right

    Brittany Higgins steps back into political arena to fight misogyny and far right

    Almost four years after her high-profile sexual assault allegation against a former parliamentary colleague rocked Australian politics, Brittany Higgins has announced a formal return to the national political sphere, taking on a leadership role dedicated to pushing back against growing misogyny and the mainstreaming of far-right ideological positions across the country.

    The appointment was made public by the Vida Fund, an Australian advocacy organisation that works to support independent female candidates running on platforms of gender equality reform. Higgins will step into the role of executive director, tasking herself with building and rolling out a new national gender equality strategy to keep equity at the forefront of Australian political discourse.

    In her first public remarks following the appointment, Higgins framed the move as a timely response to shifting political tides. “We are entering a period where misogyny, extremism are becoming increasingly organised and visible. Vida intends to meet that moment with evidence-based advocacy, strategic campaigning and community-backed action,” she said.

    She specifically called out right-wing political groups for normalising anti-gender rhetoric, noting that “One Nation and the new right are trying to mainstream misogyny on a scale Australians have never seen before.” Higgins also targeted former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce, criticising his push for restrictions on reproductive rights that echo divisive U.S. conservative policy battles, adding “it has never been more important to get organised and take action.”

    This role marks Higgins’ first formal permanent position within Australian political advocacy after her 2021 allegation that she was raped by then-parliamentary colleague Bruce Lehrmann inside Parliament House. Lehrmann has consistently denied all allegations against him. A 2022 criminal trial against Lehrmann was aborted after juror misconduct, and all criminal charges were subsequently dropped. However, when Lehrmann launched a civil defamation suit against media outlet Network 10 and journalist Lisa Wilkinson over their reporting of the allegation, the Federal Court ruled on the balance of probabilities that the rape did occur, leading Lehrmann to lose the case.

    In the years following the initial allegation, Higgins and her husband David Sharaz have faced ongoing legal battles. Most recently, former senator Linda Reynolds, who was Higgins’ boss at the time of the alleged incident, launched a defamation suit against the pair over a series of critical social media posts about Reynolds’ handling of the allegation. The WA Supreme Court ruled in Reynolds’ favour, ordering Higgins and Sharaz to pay $341,000 in damages, a ruling that ultimately left the couple bankrupt.

  • Foreign workers say they were paid less than $2 an hour to build a new US Consulate in Milan

    Foreign workers say they were paid less than $2 an hour to build a new US Consulate in Milan

    MILAN – A high-profile $350 million American consulate construction project in Milan has become the center of a major labor exploitation investigation that has already led to the arrest of two senior managers, casting a shadow over U.S. diplomatic contracting practices in Europe.

    Based on interviews with five former foreign construction workers, combined with reviews of employment correspondence and payroll records, the Associated Press has confirmed that workers on the site were paid less than $2 an hour, a fraction of the fair wages promised to them when they were hired. The contractor at the heart of the scandal, Caddell Construction, an Alabama-based firm that is one of the largest U.S. diplomatic mission builders globally, is the formal target of the probe led by Italian public prosecutor Paolo Storari, an official who has previously led high-profile investigations into illegal sweatshop operations that supply luxury fashion brands.

    Authorities launched the investigation roughly six months ago, with the probe covering approximately 70 workers, the vast majority of whom migrated from India and Kenya to work on the project. Two Caddell site managers were taken into custody earlier this month. Prosecutors confirmed that one manager was arrested while attempting to board an outbound flight to leave Italy, while the second was taken into custody just before his planned escape from the country. To date, only Caddell Construction has been named as an official target of the investigation, with no subcontractors facing formal action at this stage.

    Prosecutors detailed multiple alleged violations: the firm illegally deducted excessive housing and meal costs from worker wages, forced staff to work 60-hour weeks spread over six days, and left some workers with monthly take-home pay of less than 580 USD after deductions – a rate that works out to under $2 an hour, far below Italian minimum wage standards.

    The AP conducted interviews with the five former workers at a Milan trade union center, where they are receiving support including legal aid and emergency housing. All workers requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation and to avoid disrupting the ongoing investigation. Four of the workers interviewed are from Kenya, and one is from India; all five stated they were hired by Caddell after previously working on a major expansion project for the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya.

    Multiple workers provided formal employment letters on Caddell company letterhead, signed by a company representative, that promised annual salaries of nearly $29,000, equal to more than 2,400 euros a month. In practice, none of the workers received anything close to that agreed-upon rate, and multiple workers reported being threatened by site human resources staff after they questioned the missing pay.

    “When you go to the office to ask any question, you are being told, ‘Either you work or you will be returned to your country. That’s the amount you are supposed to be paid,’’’ one Kenyan electrician told the AP. He added that he was promised 2,300 euros a month, but only took home 800 euros after deductions. A second Kenyan electrician said he was threatened with defamation charges after sharing an AI-generated summary of Italian minimum wage laws with management. He was told the 25,000 euro annual salary listed on his employment contract was “for visa purposes,” not an actual binding pay promise.

    The Indian worker, a veteran electrician with more than 10 years of experience on major construction projects across the Persian Gulf, reported a similar experience: he was promised 2,500 euros a month, but his pay stub shows he took home just 500 euros a month, equal to an hourly rate of 1.80 USD. All five former workers, aged between their late 20s and early 50s, said they were fired without any formal cause earlier this year. One worker said he returned to Milan from a family visit to Kenya only to find he had lost both his job and his company-provided housing. Two of the former workers are currently homeless and sleeping in Milan parks, while another is staying temporarily with a friend. One worker turned down a new job offer from Caddell at a site in another country after his experience in Milan.

    Both the U.S. State Department and Caddell Construction have stated they are investigating the allegations and are fully cooperating with Italian law enforcement. “The U.S. government does not tolerate labor exploitation,” the State Department said in an official statement. Caddell released its own statement saying it is conducting an internal inquiry to confirm that all subcontractors and consulting partners comply with local labor laws and legal standards. “Caddell is committed to treating and paying workers fairly. We will continue to work with authorities in good faith to ensure the welfare of those who work on this important project,” the company said.

    This is not the first controversy to hit the firm: more than 10 years ago, Caddell paid millions of dollars in a settlement with the U.S. government to resolve allegations that it submitted false claims to access government contracting incentives. The firm did not respond to requests for comment on this prior case.

    The Milan consulate project is a major part of a 20-year construction boom that has reshaped Milan’s skyline and boosted the international profile of Italy’s capital of fashion and finance. Caddell grew to become the leading contractor for U.S. diplomatic facilities after the State Department launched a massive global security upgrade program following the 1998 al-Qaeda bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa that killed more than 250 people. On its website, the firm noted that very few contractors can meet the strict security requirements to bid on diplomatic facility projects, and as of 2023, the firm had completed 39 embassy and consulate projects valued at a total of $7.4 billion, with four additional projects added since that time.

    The new Milan consulate campus is being built on 10 acres of land that was once a public shooting range. The project includes restoration of a historic 100-year-old building, a new five-story main consulate building, restored public gardens, a reflecting pool, and a large outdoor community gathering space. The State Department initially projected the project would employ roughly 500 local workers, though the majority of the workers named in the probe are foreign migrant workers.

    Construction work on the site is continuing, but it is now under court supervision. Following the launch of the investigation, the illegal wage deductions have been ended, workers are limited to a 45-hour work week, and they are guaranteed two full days off per week.

    Pay stubs provided by the workers confirm the alleged excessive deductions, with monthly charges of roughly 590 USD for housing and more than 350 USD for food, even these large deductions do not account for the full gap between the promised wages and the actual pay workers received. Laura Malguzzi, a labor representative for the Fillea Cgil construction union federation that is supporting the workers, said the union is seeking full damages to recover all unpaid wages owed to the workers. She added that investigators were struck by how the pay stubs openly documented the alleged exploitation, with no attempt to hide the violations, suggesting the firm believed it would face no consequences. “They probably had in their minds the absolute certainty that they were untouchable,” Malguzzi said.

    Many of the workers had accepted low pay in their home country of Kenya, where widespread unemployment leaves workers with few other options, but they said they expected far better treatment from a major American contractor working in Western Europe. “They can just hire you, and you just go running,” one worker said. “Because you are poor you have nothing. And you have nothing you can do.” Despite their hardships, the former workers are calling on current employees at the site to speak out about any abuses they have faced. “I believe in justice,” one worker said. “Also the workers there should not be afraid. They should come and speak up.”

  • Australia recalls Meredith after 5 years, bats first against Bangladesh in 2nd ODI

    Australia recalls Meredith after 5 years, bats first against Bangladesh in 2nd ODI

    MIRPUR, Bangladesh — The second ODI cricket clash between Bangladesh and Australia delivered a key pre-match twist on Thursday, as Australia turned to a familiar pace talent for his first international limited-overs appearance in five years, before captain Josh Inglis won the pre-game toss and opted to set a first-innings total for the hosts.

    Bangladesh heads into this fixture with a golden opportunity to make history, having secured an dominant 86-run victory in the opening match of the series via the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) rain-adjusted method. The win puts Bangladesh one step away from its first ever ODI series win over a full-strength Australian side — though the current Australian touring squad is far from its best, facing pressure to perform without the team’s three top-tier fast bowlers: Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, and Mitchell Starc.

    The only adjustment Australia made to its starting XI from the first match was bringing 32-year-old fast bowler Riley Meredith back into the fold, replacing Liam Scott. Meredith has only appeared in one senior ODI for Australia to date, a 2021 fixture against the West Indies, making his return a long-awaited milestone for the paceman.

    Bangladesh also made just one single change to its starting lineup, with opening batter Saif Hassan stepping out of the squad to make room for experienced batter Soumya Sarkar.

    Full starting lineups for the second ODI are as follows:

    Bangladesh: Tanzid Hasan, Soumya Sarkar, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Tawhid Hridoy, Litton Das, Mosaddek Hossain, Mehidy Hasan Miraz (captain), Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman, Nahid Rana, Tanvir Islam

    Australia: Matt Short, Cooper Connolly, Josh Inglis (captain), Marnus Labuschagne, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Matthew Renshaw, Xavier Bartlett, Riley Meredith, Nathan Ellis, Adam Zampa

    This report is part of AP News’ ongoing cricket coverage, with more updates available via the organization’s official cricket hub.

  • US launches a second day of strikes on Iran and Iran fires back at the Gulf states and Jordan

    US launches a second day of strikes on Iran and Iran fires back at the Gulf states and Jordan

    A new cycle of violence has swept across the Middle East early Thursday, as the United States unleashed a second, more extensive wave of airstrikes targeting Iranian military assets, drawing immediate retaliatory strikes from Tehran against three neighboring Gulf and regional states. This tit-for-tat escalation has put a fragile two-month ceasefire to the test, roiled global energy markets, and underscored deep divides that continue to block a negotiated end to a conflict that began in late February.

    U.S. Central Command confirmed the latest round of airstrikes concluded just before sunrise Thursday, stating the operation was launched “in response to Iran’s unwarranted and continued aggression.” The strikes, carried out jointly by U.S. Air Force, Marine Corps, and Naval assets, targeted Iranian military surveillance infrastructure, communication networks, and air defense installations across multiple Iranian cities. Explosions from the attacks were reported as far as the capital Tehran, the key Strait of Hormuz port city Bandar Abbas, and other southern Iranian regions along the strategic waterway. Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard reported that strikes hit a manufacturing complex, a military barracks, and a Guard outpost on the outskirts of Tehran. Tehran has so far released limited details on the full scope of casualties and infrastructure damage from the expanded assault, which U.S. officials confirm was broader in scope and intensity than the previous day’s attacks.

    In response to the U.S. strikes, Iran launched its second consecutive day of retaliatory strikes targeting Bahrain, Kuwait, and Jordan. The escalation triggered immediate disruptions across the region: Kuwait closed its entire airspace for several hours Thursday morning, offering no further details on potential damage. While the U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan, issued advance warnings of the incoming Iranian strikes, the Jordanian government has not publicly acknowledged the attack. In Bahrain, the Interior Ministry reported an 11-year-old girl was injured, and multiple civilian vehicles and residential properties were damaged by falling debris from air defense interceptions aimed at the incoming Iranian projectiles. Early Thursday also brought an additional security alert from Israel, which ordered northern residents to seek shelter after detecting potential incoming fire from Iran-allied Hezbollah in Lebanon, further expanding the scope of regional instability.

    This exchange marks the third round of direct cross-border strikes in just one week. It follows an initial Iran-Israel clash Sunday through Monday, then two back-to-back rounds of hostilities between the U.S. and Iran. The new escalation comes as diplomatic efforts to reach a ceasefire and end the overall conflict have once again hit a deadlock. Iran has remained firm in its position that it will maintain its effective chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most critical chokepoint for global oil and natural gas trade. Tehran’s control of the waterway has already disrupted global energy supplies and pushed crude prices sharply higher, giving Iran what it sees as a powerful bargaining chip in negotiations.

    Even as both Washington and Tehran have signaled openness to a deal that could end the conflict if framed as a domestic political win, deep core disagreements continue to block progress. U.S. President Donald Trump, who is pushing for a rapid agreement to ease pressure on fuel prices ahead of November’s midterm elections, has repeatedly called on Iran to sign a peace deal and suggested this week an agreement could be reached within days. But Trump’s demands remain unacceptable to Tehran: the U.S. insists Iran abandon its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which Washington argues puts Tehran just a short technical step away from developing a nuclear weapon. Iran, which maintains its nuclear program is entirely peaceful, has refused to give up its uranium stockpile and is demanding sweeping sanctions relief and the immediate release of billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets before any final deal is reached — a demand Trump has already rejected. Iran also insists any peace deal must end ongoing fighting between Israel and its ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.

    Adding to the already high human cost of the conflict, an Indian government official confirmed Thursday that three Indian mariners were killed in a recent U.S. attack on the Palau-flagged oil tanker *Settebello*, which U.S. Central Command accused of violating a blockade by transporting Iranian crude oil. Indian Ports, Shipping and Waterways Minister Sarbananda Sonowal announced the deaths of the three missing crew members on the social platform X. U.S. forces fired on the tanker’s engine room to halt its voyage Wednesday. The head of the International Maritime Organization, a United Nations body overseeing global shipping, condemned the attack, noting that 43 separate attacks on commercial shipping have been recorded in the region since the conflict began, putting civilian seafarers at severe risk. A second tanker near the strike site off the coast of Oman reported an engine room fire early Thursday, according to British military maritime operations authorities, though it remains unclear what caused the blaze, with initial unconfirmed reports pointing to a potential second U.S. strike.

    Trump has confirmed that the U.S. military has been running what he calls a “secret mission” to move oil shipments past Iranian forces in the Strait of Hormuz for the past month. He claimed that ships are transiting undetected under cover of darkness, enabled by U.S. strikes that destroyed Iranian radar systems, and that more than 100 million barrels of oil have already evaded Iran’s blockade. That figure roughly equals five days of pre-war traffic through the strait, but no independent verification of the claim has been released. U.S. Central Command has disputed Iran’s claims that the strait is fully closed, saying commercial vessels continue to transit the waterway, but the threat of attacks has drastically reduced normal shipping traffic.

    The conflict, which began with joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran starting February 28, has already sent shockwaves through the global economy. International benchmark Brent crude traded above $93 per barrel Wednesday, representing a more than 25% jump since the start of hostilities, driving up prices for gasoline, food, and other essential goods worldwide. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also further complicated efforts to reach a compromise, with his stated goals including the full collapse of Iran’s theocratic government, the complete elimination of Iran’s nuclear program, and the destruction of the Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon — aims that make any negotiated deal far harder to achieve.

    Mediation efforts remain ongoing, with a Qatari diplomatic delegation working in coordination with U.S. officials wrapping up talks in Tehran and departing the capital Thursday morning, according to an anonymous official briefed on the mediation process.

  • Knicks stage historic comeback to beat Spurs, one win from NBA title

    Knicks stage historic comeback to beat Spurs, one win from NBA title

    In a clash that will go down in NBA Finals folklore, the New York Knicks pulled off the largest comeback in championship series history on Wednesday, erasing a mammoth 29-point deficit to edge the San Antonio Spurs 107-106 at Madison Square Garden. The stunning result gives New York a commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven title race, with Game 5 set to tip off this Saturday in San Antonio.

    OG Anunoby, who finished the night with 33 points, delivered the game-winning tip-in with just 1.2 seconds left on the clock, converting the putback after Jalen Brunson’s three-point attempt bounced off the rim. The last-second bucket sent the sold-out, star-studded Garden crowd into a wild celebration, capping off an unprecedented second-half surge from the Knicks. Brunson led all scorers with 36 points in a performance that showcased his clutch leadership when his team needed it most.

    San Antonio got off to a historic start that looked set to lock in a series-tying win. Led by young star Victor Wembanyama, who posted a 24-point, 13-rebound double-double, the Spurs hit 14 first-half three-pointers – a new NBA Finals record – and carried a 76-49 lead into the halftime break. Their 27-point halftime advantage was also the largest ever for a road team in the Finals, built on red-hot shooting that left the Knicks reeling early.

    Additional contributions from Dylan Harper (21 points), De’Aaron Fox (18 points) and Devin Vassell (18 points) powered San Antonio’s opening half dominance, but the team’s offense vanished after the break. The Spurs managed just 30 total second-half points, and their late-game collapse allowed the Knicks to claw their way back into contention.

    Early game foul trouble plagued the Knicks from the start: center Karl-Anthony Towns picked up two quick fouls in the first quarter, while reserve Mitchell Robinson was called for a flagrant foul after a frustrated forearm to Wembanyama’s throat. Brunson, constantly hounded by San Antonio’s defense, did not hit his first basket until the second quarter. By the midpoint of the game, it looked like the Spurs would force a 2-2 split heading back to Texas.

    The turning point came early in the third quarter, when Wembanyama was called for a flagrant foul after an elbow to Towns’ face, leaving the Spurs star one foul away from an automatic suspension. The call seemed to introduce hesitation into San Antonio’s play, and the Knicks capitalized immediately with a 13-0 scoring run. The Spurs cooled off dramatically, connecting on just 4 of 20 third-quarter shots and turning the ball over five times after only two turnovers in the entire first half.

    Trailing 90-75 going into the final quarter, the Knicks chipped away at the lead steadily, withstanding San Antonio’s attempts to stem the tide and leaning on their collective resilience to stay in the fight. Brunson put the Knicks ahead for the first time all game with a 105-104 floater just 82 seconds away from the final buzzer. San Antonio’s Stephon Castle hit two free throws to reclaim the lead, setting up Anunoby’s last-second heroics.

    After the game, Wembanyama took responsibility for the collapse, acknowledging his team’s lack of hunger in the final two quarters. “I don’t know. I think it’s just execution, greediness of some sort. We clearly weren’t the most hungry in the second half,” the Spurs star said.

    Towns paid tribute to the Garden faithful who never gave up on the team despite the lopsided halftime deficit. “It was an ugly, ugly game. We didn’t bring it in the first half. But they stuck with us,” Towns said.

    Knicks head coach Mike Brown praised his team’s collective resilience in the face of severe early adversity, highlighting the squad’s chemistry as the key to the historic win. “You talk about a total team effort when we hit adversity. Our guys showed their resiliency and showed they’re connected enough to handle a moment like that,” Brown said.

    Prior to Wednesday’s game, the largest comeback in NBA Finals history was a 24-point rally by the Boston Celtics against the Los Angeles Lakers back in 2008. The Knicks’ 29-point comeback has now set a new benchmark for late-series resilience in championship play, putting New York 48 minutes away from their first NBA title in decades.

  • Philippine town seeks immediate airlift of food to ease hunger in quake-hit villages

    Philippine town seeks immediate airlift of food to ease hunger in quake-hit villages

    Four days after a catastrophic 7.8-magnitude offshore earthquake struck the southern Philippines, leaving dozens dead and thousands displaced, a local mayor has issued an urgent appeal for military helicopters to deliver life-saving food supplies to communities cut off by widespread landslides.

    The powerful quake, which hit Monday off the coast of Sarangani province, ranks among the strongest seismic events to shake the Philippine archipelago in 50 years. As of Thursday, official disaster data puts the death toll at no less than 47, with 688 people injured and 31 others still unaccounted for. More than 12,600 residential structures across rural farming communities and urban centers were damaged in the disaster, forcing more than 45,000 residents to leave their homes. Roughly half of these displaced people are now sheltering in emergency evacuation facilities, and provincial officials note that many survivors remain too fearful of ongoing aftershocks to return to their properties even if their homes survived intact.

    According to the Philippines’ Office of Civil Defense, the national agency tasked with managing major disasters, Sarangani province has recorded the highest number of fatalities at 20, most of which stemmed from a single landslide that buried multiple homes in the coastal town of Glan.

    Glan Mayor Victor James Yap, speaking to Philippines-based DZMM radio, outlined the dire conditions facing his town of more than 100,000 residents. Ten of the town’s 31 barangays (villages) remain completely cut off from overland access, blocked by landslide debris, and power has yet to be restored across the area. “We need food and water but it’s difficult to transport them to some of our villages which remain isolated,” Yap said. “Choppers are needed to transport food because people there are already very hungry.”

    While a key access highway leading into Glan has been cleared and reopened to traffic, allowing fuel deliveries to resume as early as Thursday, the town still remains without grid electricity, and mobile phone connectivity remains spotty at best across most affected areas.

    Most fatalities across the disaster zone were caused by falling debris from collapsed buildings or landslides across Sarangani, the nearby coastal city of General Santos, and the adjacent provinces of South Cotabato and Davao Occidental. In a separate, quake-related tragedy, two swimmers drowned off the coast of General Santos after being swept out to sea by sudden abnormal waves immediately after the quake struck, with one additional swimmer still missing. Seismic sea surges reaching up to 1.4 meters above normal tide levels were recorded in southern Philippines, with smaller wave activity detected as far away as Indonesia, Palau, and southern Japan.

    Geographically, the Philippines sits along the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, a seismically active arc of fault lines encircling the Pacific Ocean that leaves the country regularly vulnerable to major earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. This recent quake is the strongest to hit the nation since an 8.1-magnitude quake and subsequent tsunami in August 1976 killed an estimated 8,000 people across the archipelago.

  • States, territories warn the commonwealth ‘no agreement’ ahead of NDIS cuts

    States, territories warn the commonwealth ‘no agreement’ ahead of NDIS cuts

    A fierce political clash has erupted over the Albanese government’s sweeping planned changes to Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), with state and territory governments launching an extraordinary rebuke of proposals that would remove an estimated 160,000 participants from the scheme to cut billions in spending. The federal government’s legislative package, which aims to slash $35 billion in long-term expenditure by tightening provider requirements and shifting almost 200,000 people off NDIS rolls, has already cleared the lower house of parliament. It now faces a Senate vote following a ongoing parliamentary inquiry, and will require crossbench support from either the Coalition — which has signaled tentative backing for reform — or the Greens to pass. In their formal submission to the inquiry, state and territory health ministers acknowledge that the NDIS, which has ballooned since its launch, faces urgent systemic pressures: prior reviews have documented widespread financial strain, market distortion, rising fraud, and a gradual drift away from the scheme’s original core purpose. Ministers agree that targeted reform is necessary to keep the NDIS effective, participant-centered, and financially sustainable — but they argue the federal government’s current approach is disproportionate, rushed, and poorly coordinated. Critically, the subnational governments stress they never agreed to take on funding responsibility for the 160,000 people set to be removed from NDIS, including participants shifted to off-scheme foundational support programs such as Thriving Kids, which serves children with mild to moderate autism. “While elements of the proposed reforms have the potential to deliver improved outcomes, the Bill in its current form risks undermining the original intent of the NDIS,” the ministers wrote in their submission. They warn that the government’s laser focus on rapid expenditure cuts, paired with a lack of clear planning for a broader disability support ecosystem and insufficient consultation with subnational governments, creates a severe risk of fragmented, chaotic service delivery. Without a coordinated, carefully phased approach that integrates these changes with broader improvements to the national disability support system, the ministers argue, many people with disability could end up in inappropriate care settings such as hospitals, or lose access to critical support entirely. To address these gaps, the state and territory governments have put forward two key amendments: first, that the most fiscally impactful components of the bill can only proceed if they are agreed to by all states and territories; second, that the NDIS Act be updated to include a formal “Category A rule-making power” for outlining alternative support arrangements, and that the federal government clarify future NDIS pricing frameworks. The ministers note these recommendations align with agreements reached during a January meeting with federal officials, and that their submission focuses only on the most contentious section of the legislation, Schedule 1, with more concerns potentially to come. Another major flashpoint is the consolidation of extensive decision-making power in federal Health Minister Mark Butler, the submission argues. The proposed changes would allow Butler to enact long-lasting modifications to the scheme without adequate safeguards, parliamentary scrutiny, or agreement from state and territory co-governors. Specifically, the reforms would let the minister set binding caps, limits, or funding ratios for support categories and make broad changes to individual participant budgets via a simple determination, with no clear rules around how the powers would be applied, whether they would apply across the entire scheme, or which participants would be exempt. “This is a significant power with limited safeguards, and there is insufficient clarity about how these changes would operate in practice,” the submission reads. Amid growing cross-party and advocacy pushback, Butler has defended the government’s reform plan, telling reporters the government is monitoring the inquiry and reviewing thousands of public submissions closely, and will not make final adjustments until the inquiry concludes. He stressed that the government’s plan was carefully developed to put the NDIS back on a sustainable long-term footing, while still keeping people with disability at the center of the scheme. The inquiry has already heard damning testimony from disability advocates and NDIS participants, who have repeatedly urged parliament to reject the reforms in their current form.

  • The lost West Bank

    The lost West Bank

    Against the backdrop of high-intensity conflicts roiling Lebanon and Iran, a slower, steady process of Israeli territorial consolidation in the West Bank has faded almost entirely from global geopolitical discourse. Yet for Israeli expansionist factions, this long-disputed territory between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea lies at the very core of their decades-old vision of a “Greater Israel” – a goal that the current government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is actively advancing through incremental, largely underreported measures.

    Netanyahu’s administration has deployed a layered strategy to solidify Israeli control over the West Bank, which is home to more than 3.3 million Palestinian residents. Tactics include the rapid expansion of Israeli civilian settlements, forced evictions of Palestinian families from their long-held lands, turning a blind eye to escalating settler violence against rural Arab communities, and increasingly frequent large-scale military raids across Palestinian population centers. In parallel, the government has moved to establish direct Israeli governing institutions for roughly one-third of the territory, a step that amounts to effective annexation despite the absence of a formal declaration.

    Israeli and Palestinian analysts both project that once this restructuring is complete, up to 80% of the entire West Bank will fall under de facto Israeli control. The remaining 20% would continue to be administered by the Palestinian National Authority (PNA), the body established in 1994 as part of the Oslo Accords to lay the groundwork for an independent Palestinian state.

    This steady push to tighten Israeli control gained new momentum in the wake of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel. Israel’s large-scale counteroffensive in Gaza has since captured roughly 60% of that enclave, while a parallel low-intensity campaign to consolidate control in the West Bank has progressed largely out of the international spotlight. Overlooked amid the far more visible conflicts unfolding across Lebanon, Iran and Gaza, the West Bank’s slow absorption into Israel has become a largely unaddressed “geopolitical orphan” on the global stage.

    For Netanyahu and his ruling coalition, the takeover of the West Bank is the fulfillment of a long-held political promise. The goal of incorporating the territory into Israel has been a core plank of his Likud Party since its founding 70 years ago, and the religious-nationalist factions that prop up his current government share this expansionist objective. The October 7 attack created a unique political opening for these ambitions: polling shows 58% of Israeli citizens back the expansion of settlements in the West Bank, while an identical majority opposes an outright, formal annexation. This split public opinion allows Netanyahu to advance de facto control incrementally, avoiding the international backlash that would come with a formal annexation while creating irreversible “facts on the ground” that effectively erase Palestinian claims to statehood.

    Today, the West Bank’s physical landscape already reflects this de facto annexation: separation walls, barbed-wire fences, military watchtowers, rapidly growing settler communities, and a segregated road network restricted to Israeli citizens have created a system of separate and unequal rule that divides 3.3 million Palestinian residents from the roughly 540,000 Israeli settlers currently residing in the territory.

    The International Crisis Group (ICG), a leading global conflict prevention think tank, summarized the process in a recent assessment: “Israel’s far-right government is restructuring the occupation of the West Bank, shifting governing powers from military to civilian agencies in order to gradually institute permanent control. With Israeli law reaching further into the territory and space for Palestinian independence shrinking, much of the territory has, in effect, already been annexed.”

    A key pillar of this consolidation is escalating violence against Palestinian communities carried out by Israeli settlers, which is rarely prosecuted and often enabled by Israeli security forces. B’tselem, one of Israel’s most prominent human rights organizations, documents that since October 7, 2023, settler violence has escalated dramatically: what once centered on vandalism and property destruction now includes kidnapping, prolonged physical abuse, and open complicity from the Israeli military. In one widely circulated video from last year, a settler was recorded beating a Palestinian sheepdog to death with wooden sticks, while other groups have stolen entire herds of sheep from Palestinian pastoral communities, echoing the tactics of 19th-century American frontier cattle rustlers.

    A March 2025 report from the United Nations Human Rights Office echoed these findings, noting that “Settler violence continued in a coordinated, strategic and largely unchallenged manner, with Israeli authorities playing the central role in directing, participating in or enabling this conduct, making it difficult to distinguish between state and settler violence.”

    Prosecutions of violent settlers remain extremely rare. Data from Israeli human rights group Yesh Din shows that between 2005 and 2025, 90% of all complaints filed by Palestinians against settler harassment were closed without any charges being brought. The group’s report notes that “Israeli security forces routinely accompanied settlers and acted as a shield for the violence.” According to UN data, at least seven Palestinians were killed and more than 830 injured in settler and state-linked violence in 2025, with near-daily attacks continuing into 2026. The UN report concludes that “the increasing participation of Israeli security forces in settler attacks amounts to a de facto collapse of the distinction between settlers and soldiers.” Israeli diplomatic officials have rejected the UN findings, dismissing them as unsubstantiated allegations.

    Beyond physical violence, the Israeli government is using bureaucratic measures to cement control. The cabinet recently legalized 50 previously unauthorized settler outposts, granting them full state funding and official status, bringing the total number of authorized settlements to 141 alongside more than 300 remaining unapproved outposts. Just this month, the government introduced a new rule requiring Palestinians to provide written proof of land ownership dating back to either Ottoman or Jordanian rule – a standard that is impossible for most residents to meet, as much of the land was historically held under communal ownership with no formal title documentation. Israel also regularly expropriates vacant Palestinian land under the pretext of military needs or the construction of state communications infrastructure.

    Global and regional powers have so far taken little meaningful action to push back against the expansion. While many Western governments friendly to Israel continue to pay lip service to a two-state solution, no major power has made concrete efforts to advance that outcome in decades. Former U.S. President Donald Trump, a staunch ally of Israel across all its regional conflicts, has only commented on the West Bank to demand that Israel avoid formal annexation, raising no objection to the incremental de facto consolidation. Iran, a major backer of Hamas, has dismissed the PNA as weak and ineffective, and has funneled support to armed resistance groups in the northern West Bank for years. However, Iran’s influence in the region has weakened following the ouster of its long-time ally Bashar al-Assad in Syria, replaced by a new Sunni Islamic government that is courting Western economic support.

    The current frontline of this expansionist push is the small Palestinian Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar, a community of 300 people located just east of Jerusalem in the West Bank. The village sits along a strategic east-west highway connecting Jerusalem to major Israeli settlements and the Jordan River border, and Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich – a hardline expansionist who resides in a West Bank settlement himself – has ordered the village demolished to clear space for further settlement construction. The project would create an unbroken bloc of Israeli settlements that cuts off the main north-south corridor connecting the northern and southern West Bank, permanently dividing Palestinian territory and making a contiguous independent Palestinian state impossible. Smotrich has openly stated that this outcome is intentional: “The Palestinian state is being erased from the table not with slogans but with actions. This reality finally buries the idea of a Palestinian state. There is nothing to recognize and no one to recognize.”

    Smotrich’s accelerated push for the demolition came in direct response to news that the International Criminal Court (ICC) based in The Hague planned to issue an arrest warrant for him over his role in expanding Israeli control of the West Bank. Smotrich called the ICC move an “act of war” and ordered the evacuation of Khan al-Ahmar as a direct response, telling reporters: “I promise all our enemies, this is only the beginning.” The ICC issued the arrest warrant on April 2, 2026, but bulldozers have not yet been deployed to demolish the village, leaving the community in limbo as the world focuses on more visible conflicts elsewhere in the Middle East.