Global Pulse

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  • North Korea and China open new bridge after 12-year delay

    North Korea and China open new bridge after 12-year delay

    After nearly a decade of delays and shifting diplomatic tides, the New Yalu River Bridge, a key cross-border infrastructure project linking China and North Korea, has officially opened to traffic, Chinese state media has confirmed. The 3-kilometer (1.9-mile) crossing connects China’s northeastern border city of Dandong to North Korea’s northwestern town of Sinuiju, and is positioned to become the primary land corridor for bilateral trade between the two long-time allies.

    Construction of the bridge wrapped up years ago, with an initial opening date targeted for 2014. However, the project was put on indefinite hold after North Korea paused work on connecting roads and customs infrastructure on its side of the crossing, amid a period of strained relations between Beijing and Pyongyang in the 2010s.

    The modern crossing was built to serve as a higher-capacity alternative to the aging Sino-Korean Friendship Bridge, a structure originally constructed between 1937 and 1943 during Japan’s imperial occupation of the region. Ahead of the official opening, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning described the bridge as a critical connectivity hub for the two neighboring countries, noting that the new route will further boost bilateral trade and deepen people-to-people cultural and social exchanges.

    China holds the position of North Korea’s largest trading partner, and has long acted as a key economic buffer for Pyongyang amid harsh international sanctions imposed over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. Bilateral trade between the two countries hit $2.7 billion last year, bouncing back fully to pre-pandemic levels, with the growth driven primarily by Chinese exports to North Korea.

    Despite the optimistic marker of the bridge’s opening, experts warn that rapid, large-scale expansion of cross-border trade remains unlikely. “UN sanctions on North Korea are still in effect, which will cap major trade growth,” explained Kang Jun-young, a professor of Chinese studies at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul. “Pyongyang is also cautious of a sudden flood of Chinese imports that would dramatically increase Beijing’s influence over its domestic market. China is well aware of these concerns, so trade growth is far more likely to proceed gradually rather than spiking suddenly.”

    The geopolitical relationship between Beijing and Pyongyang is rooted in a decades-long mutual defense alliance – the only active mutual defense pact China holds with any sovereign state – and has historically been described as “as close as lips and teeth.” But the partnership has faced notable friction over the past 15 years. Throughout much of the 2010s, relations turned icy as Beijing grew increasingly frustrated with Pyongyang’s repeated nuclear and missile tests. Only in recent years has the relationship warmed, as China shifted to a softer public stance on North Korea’s nuclear program.

    “Just a decade ago, Beijing was openly critical of North Korea’s nuclearization and publicly pushed for Pyongyang to pursue denuclearization,” noted Edward Howell, a lecturer in East Asian studies at the University of Oxford. “Today, China says little to nothing on the issue publicly.”

    The opening of the New Yalu River Bridge is the latest in a series of steps to rebuild bilateral connectivity after North Korea lifted its strict pandemic-era border closures. In March of this year, Air China resumed direct passenger flights between Beijing and Pyongyang, after a six-year pause, and cross-border passenger train services between the two countries also restarted that same month.

    Even as Beijing moves to deepen its ties with Pyongyang, it is keeping a careful watch on the rapidly growing partnership between North Korea and Russia, which has expanded dramatically since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Last month, Pyongyang and Moscow opened their first cross-border road bridge, which Russian state media reports will be able to accommodate up to 300 vehicles and more than 2,000 cross-border travelers every day.

    Analysts frame the opening of the Chinese-North Korean bridge as a deliberate step by Beijing to strengthen its long-standing ties and reaffirm its influence in Pyongyang, amid shifting regional alliances. Chinese President Xi Jinping made his first overseas state visit of 2025 to Pyongyang back in June, where he held a high-profile meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

    “The opening of the New Yalu River Bridge makes clear that bilateral relations are genuinely improving, and that President Xi’s June visit to Pyongyang was more than just a symbolic gesture,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. “At the same time, the years of delays, compounded by North Korea’s pandemic self-isolation and domestic socioeconomic policies, highlight just how challenging a partner Pyongyang can be for Beijing.”

  • Why some pro-Palestine activists have turned their backs on Mamdani

    Why some pro-Palestine activists have turned their backs on Mamdani

    When Zohran Mamdani swept into office as New York City’s mayor, he entered office with a historic reputation as the most openly pro-Palestinian chief executive in the city’s modern history. Throughout his campaign, the Israeli military campaign in Gaza dominated his policy platform, with Mamdani repeatedly denouncing Israel’s actions and labeling the conflict a genocide against Palestinian people. Within days of taking office, he acted quickly to roll back two hardline pro-Israel executive orders enacted by his predecessor, Eric Adams.

    The first order he revoked codified New York City’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, a framework long criticized by pro-Palestinian activists for unfairly equating legitimate criticism of the Israeli state with antisemitic hate speech. The second revoked ban barred city employees from participating in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, the Palestinian-led grassroots initiative that describes its mission as ending international support for Israel’s occupation and oppression of Palestinian people. In his high-profile first meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House, Mamdani also centered pro-Palestinian demands, using the Oval Office audience to push for the release of detained Palestinian activist Leqaa Kordia. Standing alongside Trump, Mamdani doubled down on a core campaign pledge: to redirect New York City tax revenues away from investments tied to Israel and toward domestic infrastructure and services for city residents.

    Nearly a year into his term, however, the same progressive pro-Palestinian organizers and activists that swept Mamdani into office have turned against him, sparked by a string of unfulfilled high-profile campaign pledges that have left supporters feeling betrayed. One of the most prominent broken promises revolves around the 2024 International Criminal Court arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over alleged war crimes in Gaza. During the campaign, Mamdani vowed that if Netanyahu visited New York City, his administration would uphold the ICC warrant and take the Israeli prime minister into custody, publicly calling Netanyahu a war criminal.

    The test of that pledge came in July, during an interview with *The New York Times*, when Mamdani was asked directly if he would follow through on the arrest promise. He reaffirmed that Netanyahu “belongs in The Hague,” noting that his legal team was holding active discussions to clarify whether local law enforcement had the legal authority to execute the international warrant, and that he would take whatever action the law permitted. Just three days later, however, Mamdani released a public video backing away from the pledge, confirming that his administration did not hold the legal authority to enforce the ICC warrant.

    When Netanyahu ultimately traveled to New York in September to address the annual United Nations General Assembly, he received a formal police escort from the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and faced no detainment during his visit. While Netanyahu spoke inside the UN headquarters, thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters — including grassroots organizers, civilian activists, actors, and elected officials — took to city streets to condemn Israel’s military campaign and Netanyahu’s leadership, with roughly 74,000 Palestinians reported killed in Gaza since the war began. Dozens of member state delegations also staged a walkout during Netanyahu’s address inside the assembly hall.

    Many of the protesters who gathered outside UN headquarters were politicians who had previously endorsed or been endorsed by Mamdani, participating in a mass demonstration organized by Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP). More than a dozen of these protesters were ultimately arrested by NYPD officers, including high-profile public figures: congressional candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier, New York City Council member Chi Osse, former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, and New York State Senate candidate Aber Kawas. Mamdani did not join the protest, nor did he follow through on his pledge to arrest Netanyahu. Instead, he posted a wordless social media video showing himself planting an olive tree at Gracie Mansion, the city’s mayoral residence, alongside Palestinian families displaced from Gaza.

    The backlash was immediate: activists condemned Mamdani for making a populist pledge to arrest Netanyahu, only to allow the Israeli leader to visit unimpeded while permitting the arrest of peaceful pro-Palestinian protesters under his watch.

    This month marks three years since the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that killed hundreds and triggered Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. On the anniversary, Israeli Voices for Peace, an anti-occupation group that advocates for a secure future for both Israelis and Palestinians, held a public vigil in Manhattan’s Union Square to mourn all lives lost, including the 300 attendees killed at the Nova music festival attack in southern Israel. Mamdani appeared alongside the group at the event, a decision that sparked direct confrontation with pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

    At the same time as the vigil, CUNY Students for Justice in Palestine held a parallel march from City Hall to Union Square to honor the tens of thousands of Palestinians killed in Gaza. The two gatherings converged, and pro-Palestinian protesters turned their anger directly on Mamdani, chanting “traitor” and accusing the mayor of having “blood on his hands.” Leading the protest was Hadeeqa Malik, a former intern for Mamdani who has spent three years organizing to push CUNY to divest from companies that supply Israel’s military. Speaking to Middle East Eye, Malik argued that Mamdani’s participation in the Union Square vigil amounted to “normalisation of the Zionist regime” and normalizing settler colonialism.

    Malik also pointed to another unfulfilled demand: Mamdani’s failure to restructure the CUNY Board of Trustees, which controls the university system’s investment decisions. “Instead of investing into CUNY students and workers, they have decided to invest over one million dollars in weapons manufacturers,” Malik explained. “And Zohran Mamdani is one of the two people, alongside the governor of New York State, responsible for the board of trustees. So we are demanding that he abolish the board of trustees today.”

    Beyond the Gaza-related pledges, activists have also slammed Mamdani for backtracking on a promise to dismantle the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group (SRG), a specialized unit trained to suppress large-scale city mobilizations and civil unrest through aggressive crowd control tactics and mass arrests. The New York Civil Liberties Union has long labeled the SRG “notoriously violent,” accusing officers of escalating confrontations and injuring New Yorkers exercising their First Amendment right to protest. Shortly after launching his 2024 mayoral campaign, Mamdani publicly pledged to disband the unit in a post on X, but he has not taken any action to follow through on that promise.

    Calls to disband the SRG intensified last week after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer shot and killed a man in the Bronx, with the unit deployed to suppress anti-ICE protesters who gathered in response to the killing. JVP is one of the leading organizations calling for the unit’s dissolution, and has also demanded the ouster of current NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, a billionaire heiress who retained her post after Mamdani took office. Mamdani, the first New York City mayor in 80 years to decline to appoint his own police commissioner, kept Tisch — a self-described “proud Zionist” originally appointed by Eric Adams — in her leadership role.

    In a recent public statement, JVP argued: “Jessica Tisch’s virulent Zionist politics, connection to big tech surveillance, and commitment to sharing tactics between the NYPD and Israeli military should have led to her immediately being fired at the start of the new mayoral administration.” The Democratic Socialists of America, which supported Mamdani’s campaign, also signed an open letter last week demanding the SRG be disbanded and Tisch fired. Earlier this week, however, Mamdani publicly defended Tisch and rejected calls to remove her, pointing to a historic drop in city homicides during their time working together. “Over the last ten months that we have worked together, we delivered the lowest recorded number of Murders in our city’s history,” he said. A day after facing widespread backlash over the decision, Mamdani announced a first-of-its-kind comprehensive review of NYPD use-of-force policies — the first such review in a decade — alongside new measures to strengthen police accountability.

    Mamdani has also faced criticism from pro-Palestinian activists over his recently released Strategy to Combat Antisemitism, with opponents arguing the plan allocates public funding to what they call “Zionist propagandist groups,” including the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York.

    This report was originally published by Middle East Eye, an independent media outlet covering the Middle East, North Africa and surrounding regions.

  • Retired US generals call on Pentagon to cancel ‘barbaric’ execution livestream

    Retired US generals call on Pentagon to cancel ‘barbaric’ execution livestream

    A coalition of 72 retired senior U.S. military officers, including 45 generals, 12 admirals, and multiple former top legal advocates for the armed forces, has issued a public open letter calling on the White House, Congress, and the American public to block the Pentagon’s controversial plan to livestream the execution of convicted Fort Hood mass killer Nidal Hasan.

    Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, carried out the deadliest non-combat attack on a U.S. military installation in history in 2009, when he opened fire on unarmed service members at Fort Hood, Texas, killing 13 people and wounding dozens more. During his trial, Hasan admitted to the shooting, claiming he acted to protect Muslims and the Taliban in Afghanistan from U.S. military operations. He was left paralyzed after being shot by first responders during the attack and now uses a wheelchair. His execution by firing squad is scheduled for December 3.

    The Pentagon, led by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, announced the livestream plan last week, which would mark the first public execution held in the United States in nearly 100 years. While former President Donald Trump stated publicly last week that he “absolutely” supports the plan, CBS News — the U.S. media partner of the BBC — has reported that multiple senior administration officials now oppose the proposal, and no final decision had been issued by the president as of this week.

    The retired military leaders, whose ranks include decorated veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and several officers who retired during Trump’s first presidential term, clarified in their letter that they do not oppose capital punishment for Hasan. Instead, they argue that broadcasting the execution to a global public audience violates fundamental American values laid out in the U.S. Constitution.

    They contend that a public livestream would transform a solemn, grave punishment into a sensational spectacle for morbidly curious onlookers. The letter emphasizes that the exploitative broadcast, which they say erodes basic human dignity, will tarnish the honor of both the U.S. military that carries it out and the nation that permits it to go forward. Most notably, the officers warn that a public execution will play directly into the narrative of jihadist extremists, allowing American adversaries to frame Hasan as a martyr, stoke anti-U.S. hatred globally, and ultimately put American service members and civilians at greater risk of future attacks.

    The list of high-profile signatories includes retired Major General Tony Taguba, who led the Army’s landmark investigation into prisoner abuse at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison; retired Air Force Colonel Moe Davis, a former Guantanamo Bay detention camp prosecutor who has publicly condemned waterboarding as torture; former NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, a retired U.S. Marine Corps Major General; and retired Lieutenant General Claudia Kennedy, the first woman to achieve the rank of three-star general in the U.S. Army.

    The plan has already drawn widespread bipartisan criticism from lawmakers across the political spectrum, as well as condemnation from religious leaders, legal scholars, and human rights experts. The pushback from dozens of retired top military officers adds significant new weight to the growing opposition to the livestream proposal ahead of Trump’s expected final decision.

  • Azerbaijan’s hijab ban sparks outrage in Turkey as women recall past restrictions

    Azerbaijan’s hijab ban sparks outrage in Turkey as women recall past restrictions

    On September 21, Azerbaijan adjusted its national school uniform regulations, banning any clothing deemed inconsistent with official uniform standards and the country’s foundational secular education principles. While the revised text never explicitly names the Islamic hijab, on-the-ground enforcement has targeted headscarf-wearing female students, who have been systematically turned away from classroom instruction. Reports also indicate that female school staff wearing hijabs have been ordered to remove their religious attire, with termination threatened for non-compliance.

    Footage of the blocked students quickly circulated online, sparking domestic protests across Azerbaijan as students rallied in solidarity with their affected peers. By October 12, Azerbaijani authorities confirmed that 37 people had been taken into custody in connection with the unrest linked to the new policy. Baku’s ruling establishment has stood firm behind the restrictions, framing them as a necessary measure to protect the country’s long-standing secular education framework and safeguard its distinct national cultural identity. Proponents of the policy argue that the hijab represents an external religious influence misaligned with Azerbaijan’s domestic cultural and secular traditions, opening urgent public debate over what forms of religious expression are permissible in public education for a self-identified secular state.

    What might have remained a domestic controversy has quickly spilled across borders, igniting intense condemnation from neighboring Turkey, a close strategic partner that Baku and Ankara frequently describe as “one nation, two states.” The viral images of hijab-wearing girls barred from classrooms have stirred painful collective memories in Turkey, of its own decades-long national ban on headscarves in public institutions that followed the 1997 “postmodern coup”, a military intervention that reshaped the country’s domestic social policy.

    Following the 1997 intervention, Turkish authorities enforced sweeping restrictions that barred hijab-wearing students from university campuses and forced women employed in public sector roles to choose between removing their headscarves or losing their jobs. Thousands of women were locked out of education and formal employment, forced to select between upholding their religious beliefs and advancing their academic and professional goals; many ultimately left the country to pursue study opportunities abroad. These restrictions were only gradually rolled back: barriers for hijab-wearing university students were lifted around 2010, and the ban for most female civil servants was not removed until 2013. Decades later, however, the policy remains a raw and defining part of Turkey’s modern political memory, shaping ongoing conversations about secularism, religious freedom, and systemic discrimination that still resonate across generations.

    Turkish social media has erupted in response to Azerbaijan’s new policy, with thousands of users sharing their own personal stories of discrimination under the old Turkish ban, and expressing solidarity with affected Azerbaijani women. “What the Turkish public went through decades ago is now being forced on the Azerbaijani people,” one Turkish commentator noted in a widely shared Instagram video. Turkish journalist Hatice Orhan echoed that sentiment in her own viral post, writing, “Women wearing headscarves in Turkey were subjected to all kinds of cruelty; so many were barred from school, blocked from their professions, and forced to put their dreams on hold. What is happening in Baku right now brings all that pain back to the surface.” Turkish content creator Gulben Tankus questioned how such restrictions could exist in 2024, writing, “We in Turkey spent decades fighting this injustice. How can we accept this happening in a country we call our brother nation?”

    Outcry has not been limited to social media: earlier this month, demonstrators gathered outside Azerbaijan’s consulate in Istanbul to demand an immediate end to the headscarf restrictions. Criticism has also come from senior Turkish political circles: presidential adviser Oktay Saral and multiple lawmakers from Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party have publicly condemned Azerbaijan’s policy. That criticism has in turn sparked a sharp diplomatic rebuke from Baku’s ruling New Azerbaijan Party, which issued a formal statement on October 13 accusing Turkish political figures of violating Azerbaijan’s sovereignty and interfering in its domestic affairs.

    The statement noted that secularism is enshrined in both nations’ constitutions, and defended Azerbaijan’s education policy as rooted in commitments to equality, secularism, and the rule of law. Baku’s ruling party further accused Turkish officials of exploiting the sensitive religious issue for domestic political gain, and rejected the argument that the two countries’ close bilateral relationship gives Ankara any right to shape Azerbaijan’s domestic policy decisions. The controversy has laid bare underlying tensions between the two nominally close allies, turning a domestic education policy debate into a high-stakes dispute over sovereignty, religious freedom, and the legacy of secular governance across the region.

  • AI giant Anthropic sees revenue surge ahead of stock market listing

    AI giant Anthropic sees revenue surge ahead of stock market listing

    Leading artificial intelligence developer Anthropic has delivered a 45% jump in third-quarter revenue, reaching $16.8 billion (£12.7 billion) in the three months ending September, according to sources familiar with the company’s investor briefing obtained by the BBC.

    The explosive growth figure was shared Wednesday with potential investors during a presentation at Anthropic’s San Francisco headquarters, as the firm behind the Claude large language model lays the groundwork for an initial public offering (IPO) projected to launch before the end of 2024. A company spokesperson declined to confirm or comment on the unpublished financial data when contacted by reporters.

    This strong quarterly result extends a pattern of consecutive growth for Anthropic throughout 2024. Revenue climbed from $4.7 billion in the first quarter to $11.6 billion in the second quarter, and the firm notched a second consecutive profitable quarter, according to the briefing materials.

    Anthropic’s financial performance, paired with results from industry rival OpenAI, serves as a key benchmark for measuring the broader AI sector’s actual growth trajectory and its capacity to fund the massive computing infrastructure required to advance next-generation model development.

    The upbeat earnings update comes at a moment of heightened market volatility across AI-focused and tech hardware stocks, as investor anxiety grows over the enormous capital outlays required to build out AI capacity. On Wednesday, major U.S. technology shares pulled back, with leading semiconductor manufacturers including AMD, Nvidia and Intel recording sharp share price drops.

    Market unease spread to Asian exchanges Thursday morning. Shares in Japanese technology investment conglomerate SoftBank fell 9%, while South Korean semiconductor leaders Samsung dropped 8.4% and SK Hynix declined more than 6%. South Korea’s tech-heavy Kospi index tumbled 7.6% in early morning trading.

    The recent market declines follow critical remarks from Hock Tan, chief executive officer of U.S. tech manufacturing firm Broadcom, delivered at an industry conference in Singapore earlier this week. Tan argued that many investors hold “extreme expectations” for AI returns that are disconnected from actual market fundamentals, comparing current AI investment sentiment to gambling in a casino where many participants “have no clue” about the underlying risks.

    Beyond market concerns over infrastructure spending, the AI industry continues to grapple with widespread debate over model safety. Last month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman confirmed his firm would not pursue an IPO in 2024, prioritizing work to address outstanding safety risks before moving forward with a public listing. The ChatGPT developer is also preparing for a blockbuster IPO that is projected to value the company at more than $1 trillion.

    Anthropic has itself been a prominent voice in calls for more deliberate AI development, with CEO Dario Amodei repeatedly urging the industry to slow the pace of advanced model rollouts to mitigate unaddressed safety risks. Despite these public concerns over sector risks, the company has continued its global expansion, opening a new regional office in Singapore on the same day it held its investor briefing in San Francisco.

  • FBI arrests Saudi OpenAI engineer over hidden recording device

    FBI arrests Saudi OpenAI engineer over hidden recording device

    A high-stakes national security case has emerged around one of the world’s most influential artificial intelligence firms, after U.S. federal prosecutors filed criminal charges against a former OpenAI engineer accused of sneaking a hidden recording device into the company’s top-level executive conference room. The incident has amplified already urgent conversations about protecting sensitive AI development as global competition for advanced artificial intelligence technology intensifies.

    The U.S. Department of Justice announced the charges this week, confirming that federal law enforcement agents arrested 35-year-old Abdulrahman Alfozan, a Saudi national and legal permanent U.S. resident, last week. Alfozan made his first formal court appearance at a federal hearing on Tuesday, with the case moving rapidly through the judicial system amid heightened scrutiny of AI sector security.

    Court documents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation lay out the timeline of the alleged surveillance plot. Alfozan joined OpenAI as an engineer in July 2025, and investigators say he planted the custom recording device approximately two months after starting his role, around September 28. The thumb-sized device, equipped with both a microphone and camera, was concealed inside a roll of toilet paper and connected to an available USB port behind a mounted television in OpenAI’s San Francisco executive meeting space. Company staff discovered the covert device just two days later, on September 30. All data stored on the device remained encrypted, leaving investigators unable to access any recorded content as the probe continues. A second identical custom-built recording device was also seized from Alfozan’s personal bag during searches, according to the complaint.

    Beyond placing the device, the FBI alleges Alfozan leveraged an AI productivity tool to gather key details: meeting room schedules, layout blueprints, and technical capabilities of the space he targeted. Once the device was discovered, OpenAI said it used its own proprietary AI models to link the device to Alfozan and trace how it was planted. Internal investigations by the company also uncovered evidence that Alfozan had planned to place additional covert recording devices across other sensitive areas of OpenAI’s office to capture more private executive discussions.

    In an official statement posted to X, OpenAI moved quickly to reassure stakeholders that no critical company data had been compromised. “At this time, we have no indications of this individual inappropriately accessing or exfiltrating model weights, source code, or customer data. The employee was terminated immediately following the discovery,” the company said.

    FBI Director Kash Patel emphasized the severity of the alleged plot in an official statement, noting that Alfozan “allegedly concealed a covert recording device inside his employer’s executive conference room to secretly capture sensitive communications about the company’s super intelligence technology.” The FBI’s investigation into the incident remains active and ongoing.

    Public records show Alfozan has been a legal permanent resident of the United States since September 2020. His public LinkedIn profile lists academic credentials from two of the country’s most prestigious technology programs: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, Berkeley. He is also listed as holding prior engineering roles at two other major U.S. tech firms, Meta and Microsoft. Outlets including Middle East Eye have not been able to independently confirm the accuracy of the details posted to his LinkedIn profile. As of this reporting, Alfozan has not issued any public response to the criminal allegations against him.

    If convicted on the current charges, Alfozan faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine, and three years of court-supervised release following incarceration.

    The case has struck a nerve across the global tech and policy communities, as private companies and national governments around the world pour billions of dollars into a race to develop cutting-edge, next-generation artificial intelligence. With so much economic and strategic advantage riding on breakthroughs in AI, the incident highlights the persistent vulnerability of even the most high-profile AI firms to insider threats and espionage targeting confidential development information.

  • India and China aren’t friends – but Nepal wants to unite them against climate threats

    India and China aren’t friends – but Nepal wants to unite them against climate threats

    The catastrophic August debris floods that swept across Nepal served as a stark wake-up call for the Himalayan region, and one that Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah brought to the global stage during his recent address to the United Nations General Assembly. While Shah dedicated much of his speech to highlighting the escalating climate-driven catastrophe risks threatening the world’s highest mountain range, it was his groundbreaking call for collaboration between regional rivals India and China that captured international attention. To unify action across this environmentally fragile and geopolitically tense region, Shah has proposed the creation of a Himalayan Climate Resilience Mechanism, a framework designed to strengthen cross-border disaster response, and facilitate the open sharing of scientific data and specialized expertise. His vision: to turn the Himalayas into a global hub of climate cooperation, rather than a region divided by fragmented information and competing interests.

    A senior anonymous official from Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed the proposal remains in its early conceptual stages, noting that the prime minister’s address has set a clear political direction for the government. Interagency working groups are currently developing a preliminary framework to build common ground among the three nations, though neither India nor China has yet issued a formal public response to the plan. The BBC has reached out to both countries’ foreign ministries for comment, with no official statement released to date.

    The proposal comes at a moment of growing urgency, as the Himalayan region faces climate change impacts far outpacing the global average. Decades of scientific data confirm temperatures are rising faster here than most other parts of the world, triggering accelerated glacial retreat, permafrost thaw, and a sharp increase in the frequency and severity of catastrophic events including landslides, rockfalls, avalanches, and glacial lake outburst floods. Unlike many natural hazards, these disasters do not respect international borders: floodwaters and debris can travel hundreds of miles downstream, threatening lives, critical infrastructure, and livelihoods in multiple countries, making cross-border cooperation not just beneficial, but essential.

    A March 2025 report from the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) underscores this urgency, finding that the rate of ice loss across the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region has doubled since 2000, compared to the 1975-1999 period. Further data from Chinese glaciologist Kang Shichang, director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, shows that glaciers on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau have shrunk by 24% in total area over the past 60 years. As glaciers retreat, they leave behind expanding glacial lakes, which raise the risk of sudden, catastrophic cross-border floods that can impact Nepal, India, and Bhutan. All three countries depend on major river systems that originate on the Tibetan Plateau, which is currently home to more than 14,000 glacial lakes covering over 1,100 square kilometers, per Chinese state media People’s Daily Online.

    The threat extends far beyond flooding. A 2024 study published by the American Geophysical Union projects that increasing intensity of rainstorms across the region will drive a significant rise in landslide hazards across the Himalayas and Tibetan Plateau over the coming decades. While the largest absolute increases in hazard are expected in already vulnerable areas including Nepal and India’s Garhwal and Kumaon regions, the Tibetan Plateau will see the fastest relative growth in landslide risk.

    Despite the clear shared risk, past efforts to foster collaboration between India and China on Himalayan climate issues have struggled to gain traction, hampered by the two nations’ long-running territorial disputes along their 3,500-kilometer de facto border, the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Competing territorial claims have already sparked a full-scale war, deadly border clashes, and repeated military standoffs, creating a persistent climate of mistrust.

    While India and China have found common ground in multilateral UN climate negotiations, where both have pushed back against Western demands for steep emissions cuts, arguing that developing nations should not carry the same mitigation burden as historical industrialized emitters, they have never reached a dedicated bilateral agreement to address Himalayan climate impacts. A 2009 joint research initiative to study glacial melt in the region, launched by India’s Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology and China’s Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, ultimately collapsed after just one initial meeting, according to Dr. DP Dobhal, a retired glaciologist who led the Wadia Institute’s glaciology program at the time.

    More recently, long-standing agreements for China to share real-time flood-season hydrological data for the Brahmaputra and Sutlej rivers, both of which originate on the Tibetan Plateau, expired in 2025. India’s junior foreign minister Kirti Vardhan Singh told India’s parliament that China stopped sharing Brahmaputra data in June 2023, and has not provided Sutlej data since 2022. China has not issued a public explanation for the halt, though during a similar 2017 interruption amid a border standoff, Beijing cited technical issues at its Tibetan monitoring stations.

    Some analysts see a small opening for progress in the recent thaw in bilateral relations between India and China, which has included high-level diplomatic meetings and moves to restart cross-border trade through Himalayan mountain passes. “These developments suggest there might be more room for the three countries to explore climate-related co-operation,” says William Yang, senior analyst for North East Asia at the International Crisis Group. Even so, Yang notes that Beijing is likely to remain cautious about entering any major new agreement with Nepal and India, as core border disputes remain unresolved.

    One of the biggest structural barriers to cooperation is the dual nature of climate data: information critical to forecasting disasters can also carry strategic military value in a contested border region. “What climate scientists might see as essential research data might look like strategic intelligence to the national security establishment in an environment where two militaries face each other across a disputed frontier,” explains Walter Ladwig, an associate fellow in the Indo-Pacific Programme at the UK-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).

    Decades of work by the Kathmandu-based ICIMOD, which has spent more than 30 years pushing for regional cooperation on transboundary disaster early warning systems, has already demonstrated how these geopolitical tensions slow progress. Arun Bhakta Shrestha, a former senior specialist at ICIMOD, notes that upstream countries are often reluctant to share sensitive data like full river flow measurements due to national security concerns. Instead, Shrestha argues, nations should prioritize sharing less sensitive data related to disaster risk to build trust.

    Dr. Uday Kala, head of the Centre for Climate Change and Disaster Management at India’s IIT Mandi, recommends starting with small, practical collaborative steps: jointly mapping high-risk glacial lakes and cross-border hazard zones, agreeing to basic shared data-sharing protocols and monitoring standards, and establishing a system for immediate exchange of disaster warnings. “Climate change is moving the baseline itself; catching up with the previous disaster is no longer enough. We need to anticipate the next one,” he says.

    For Nepal, which has already paid a devastating human cost for unaddressed Himalayan climate risk with hundreds killed in the August cross-border floods, the immediate challenge is convincing its two large, powerful neighbors to set aside decades of tension to confront a threat that puts all three nations at risk. Whether India and China will agree to even the most modest incremental steps toward collaboration remains an open question.

  • How backlash against data centres could shape the US midterm elections

    How backlash against data centres could shape the US midterm elections

    ### Widespread Public Backlash Against Data Center Expansion Forces U.S. Political Shift Ahead of Midterms

    Across the United States, a rapidly growing wave of public opposition to the explosive expansion of AI-powered data centers is upending political calculations, forcing lawmakers at every level of government to reverse long-held positions and draft new legislation to curb unregulated growth. What was once a niche local issue has quickly emerged as a key voter priority ahead of the upcoming midterm elections, splitting parties and pitting grassroots community organizers against big tech and the White House.

    Just 12 months ago, a senior Democratic U.S. senator paid little mind to the proliferation of data centers across the country. Today, according to his senior policy advisor, who spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity, the senator holds regular briefings to track the local impact of data center projects and is actively working on new federal legislation to rein in their rapid expansion. “This happens sometimes, something starts slow and then it goes fast,” the advisor explained. This 180-degree policy shift is not an isolated case; it mirrors a nationwide sea change in political sentiment driven by fierce grassroots pushback from communities that now view these massive computing facilities as a threat to their quality of life.

    Data centers, the sprawling warehouse facilities packed with rows of seven-foot-high server racks that power global internet traffic and underpin the recent boom in artificial intelligence development, were once seen as little more than neutral infrastructure for the digital economy. Now, they have become the physical face of public anxiety over unregulated AI growth, with ordinary citizens leading a coordinated opposition movement that has caught political leaders off guard.

    Angelita Soriano, an Indiana resident who now faces a 26-building Amazon data center complex directly across from her home, summed up the frustration felt by thousands of opponents. When complete, the project will cover more than one square mile of her neighborhood and operate 782 diesel-powered generators. Soriano told the BBC, “I don’t want to be the guinea pig for this.” Her opposition is far from unique: the planned data center complex in Ohio, a joint venture between OpenAI, Nvidia, SB Energy, and the U.S. Department of Energy, will cover roughly six square miles, an area equivalent in size to many entire U.S. townships.

    Current Pew Research Center data estimates there are already roughly 3,000 operational data centers across the U.S., and that number is projected to double within the next few years. Historically, data center permitting has fallen entirely under local jurisdiction, meaning federal lawmakers have had little to no input on where these facilities are built. But as opposition has grown and intensified at the local level, politicians from both major parties have been forced to abandon their neutral stances and take public positions on the issue.

    Chloe Autio, an AI policy advisor, notes that opposition to unregulated data center expansion is not confined to one end of the political spectrum. “This isn’t just an issue on the left, there is huge pushback among conservatives to data centers,” she explained. “Whoever articulates a clear position and sticks to it, in either party, really stands to benefit.” This analysis is echoed by the congressional advisor working on new data center legislation, who told the BBC, “There is a clear policy need here that we’re looking to fill. This is a major backlash across the country – constituents are seeing the impacts of data centers and they do not like them.”

    This widespread opposition has already put members of Congress from both parties in direct conflict with former President Donald Trump, who has been a vocal champion of unconstrained AI growth. Trump has dismissed the backlash as a “sick conspiracy” and has labeled communities opposing data center development as “backwards and poor” — a position that Democratic candidates have already weaponized to win over disaffected voters ahead of the midterms.

    BBC reporters spoke to local organizers in five states — Indiana, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Oregon — all of whom have launched local campaigns to block new data center construction. Opponents raise a wide range of concerns, including noise pollution during construction and operation, harm to local air and water quality, strain on regional energy grids, and the lack of transparent public review before local authorities approve these massive projects.

    Data from Data Center Watch, a research firm that collects data for AI industry stakeholders, shows that the number of community groups organizing against new data center projects more than doubled to 833 in the first half of this year, with new groups cropping up in nearly every U.S. state. Stephanie Maldonado, political director of Arizona-based community organizing group LUCHA, described the movement as a modern David and Goliath story that has been building for years. “People have been ready to put a stop to it,” Maldonado said. “Now, people are angry.”

    New national polling confirms that AI regulation and data center expansion rank among the top issues for voters in this election cycle, trailing only the ongoing Iran conflict and broader economic concerns. Proponents of data center development, including big tech firms and many local economic development agencies, often argue that new facilities create high-paying local jobs. But recent non-partisan research from the Brookings Institution finds that the average new data center creates only 100 to 200 local jobs — far fewer than industry advocates claim — and has no measurable positive impact on local wages.

    Even politicians who once supported aggressive data center expansion have reversed course under public pressure. Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, once a proponent of the industry, signed an executive order in July putting a three-year pause on new tax breaks for data center projects. Arizona is far from alone in this policy shift: in Michigan, Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El Sayed made strict new data center regulations a core plank of his successful primary campaign. In the Georgia governor’s race, a Democratic candidate calling for a moratorium on new data centers is locked in a dead heat with a pro-development Republican incumbent.

    In Ohio, where recent polling shows a majority of voters oppose new data centers, Republican incumbent Senator John Husted has been forced to soften his pro-development stance, now saying that local communities should have final say over whether new facilities are built. His Democratic challenger, Sherrod Brown, has centered his campaign on opposition to new data centers and currently leads Husted in recent polling. This shift has prompted the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Senate’s top Republican fundraising body, to issue a private memo warning that GOP candidates must completely reframe their messaging on data centers to avoid upsetting voters. The memo called the issue a “sleeper issue for the entire election cycle.”

    Texas offers one of the clearest examples of how backlash has transformed even the most pro-business political positions. Pew data shows Texas currently hosts nearly 300 operational data centers, with another 170 planned. Just a few months ago, Republican Governor Greg Abbott touted Texas as “the epicentre of AI development” thanks to its booming data center sector. Today, he has walked back that claim, citing public concerns over “safety and quality of life.”

    This shift is already reshaping Texas’ upcoming Senate race. Democratic candidate James Talarico has centered his campaign on ending what he calls “sweetheart tax deals” for big tech, and he is now considered a frontrunner for a historically Republican Senate seat, facing off against Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, who still insists that “there’s plenty of open space in Texas that we can put data centers.”

    Most policy changes proposed so far are temporary, with many states enacting one-to-three-year moratoriums on new tax breaks or approvals. This leaves open the possibility that by the time these temporary measures expire, political pressure will have faded, allowing big tech and AI firms to resume their expansion plans. But for now, public anger runs deep, and even developers who design projects with modern sustainability features face overwhelming local opposition.

    Balaji Tammabattula, CEO of Barupon, is developing a 700-acre data center and technology campus in Liberty, Texas, designed to capture rainwater for its water needs and operate on independent energy supplies — a design that has become increasingly common for large projects in response to environmental concerns. Even so, Tammabattula told the BBC that local opposition has been intractable. “There’s just such a high level of tension from the jump that you can’t really even break through with the facts,” he said. After one recent community event, he recalled attempting to speak one-on-one with a woman who was a vocal opponent of the project. “She just looked right at me and said, ‘Get the hell out of my state.’”

  • How a Chinese-made toy gets to a US retailer

    How a Chinese-made toy gets to a US retailer

    As the holiday shopping season approaches, the US toy industry enters its most high-demand period of the year. Behind every toy lining the shelves of major online platforms and small local family stores, a little-known production and supply chain story connects southern China to American consumers. New official US trade data for 2024 reveals that nearly 78.3% of all toy imports into the United States originate from China, the world’s largest toy manufacturing hub, with the total value of these imports reaching $9.8 billion. To unpack how a toy travels from a Chinese factory floor to an American child’s Christmas stocking and where the retail revenue ends up, BBC World Service’s *Follow the Money* investigation launched a deep dive into the global toy supply chain.

    Southern China’s Guangdong Province, which shares a border with Hong Kong, has long been the beating heart of China’s toy manufacturing sector. In Dongguan, one of the province’s major industrial centers, the Mihox toy factory exemplifies China’s dominant role in the global market. With more than 800 workers on staff, the facility churns out roughly 55 million toys annually for the US market alone, accounting for 50% of the company’s total annual output.

    The process of bringing a new toy to market begins long before production starts. Unlike widespread assumptions that Chinese factories originate toy designs, all initial concepts come from American toy brand clients. The factory’s role is to develop custom prototypes, then craft precision steel moulds to shape plastic and other component parts. Melanie Wang, a member of Mihox’s sales team, explains that the entire development cycle from initial concept to finished product typically takes 12 to 24 months, with most of that timeline spent on repeated design revisions requested by clients. “They modify the design again, again, and again to refine it before signing off on mass production,” Wang notes. Once the design is finalized, mould manufacturing takes roughly one month, with full production completed in an additional three months.

    One of the most revealing insights from the investigation is how retail revenue is split along the supply chain. When a toy sells for $30 at a US retail location, Mihox, the Chinese manufacturing partner, only retains 20% of that final price – equal to $6. That $6 must cover all raw material costs, worker wages, factory overhead, and profit for the Chinese manufacturer. Jay Foreman, chief executive of US-based toy company Basic Fun, explains that Chinese toy factories typically see slim profit margins between 3% and 10% of the factory price. Translated to the $30 retail example, that means the factory only clears between 60 cents and $1.80 in total profit per toy.

    The structure of China’s toy manufacturing industry took shape in the 1980s, when many Hong Kong-based toy manufacturers moved their operations across the border to mainland China to take advantage of far lower land and labor costs. Samson Ko, president of the Toys Manufacturers’ Association of Hong Kong, notes that while some production processes such as moulding and packaging have become automated in recent decades, the industry still remains heavily labor-reliant. “For soft plush toys, and even many electronic toy products, most assembly and finishing work is still done by hand,” Ko explains. He also points out that rising wages in China have eroded some of the country’s historical cost advantage: recent industry analysis puts average manufacturing wages in Vietnam at roughly half the average rate in China.

    Surprisingly, despite the lower labor costs available in other Southeast Asian markets, fewer than 10% of Hong Kong-based toy manufacturers have shifted any significant production outside of China. Even when manufacturers do move a portion of their capacity abroad, Ko says the change is almost always done at the request of foreign clients, not out of voluntary choice. The reason for this loyalty lies in the integrated supply chain network that has grown up around Guangdong’s toy industry. A single finished toy often requires multiple specialized manufacturing steps across different facilities – from component moulding to electronics integration to sewing and final assembly. In Guangdong, these specialized factories are located in close proximity to one another and have decades of experience coordinating work, creating a far smoother and more efficient production process than can be found in emerging manufacturing hubs.

    Once production is completed, toys are transported by truck to major Chinese ports such as Shenzhen, Guangdong’s largest container hub, before being loaded onto cargo ships bound for the United States. Ivy Tse, co-founder of Hong Kong-based digital logistics firm FreightAmigo, says the sea journey takes roughly 15 days to reach the US West Coast, and between 25 and 30 days for East Coast destinations. To meet Christmas demand, all holiday season toys depart Chinese ports in August and September to account for transit and restocking timelines. Tse adds that logistics costs from the factory to US distribution centers add roughly 10% to the factory’s production cost. For the $30 retail toy example, that equals 60 cents in total shipping costs.

    Upon entering the United States, Chinese-made toys are subject to existing import tariffs set by US Customs and Border Protection. Following recent bilateral talks between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, the two governments have proposed lowering tariff rates for toy imports. However, no new tariff schedule or implementation date has been finalized, and the US is still in the public consultation period, so the current 12.5% base rate remains in effect for most toys, with some categories facing higher duties. Tariffs are calculated based on the factory production price, not the final retail price. For a $30 toy, that equals 75 cents in import duty, a cost that is paid entirely by the US importing company. Rick Woldenberg, chief executive of Chicago-based educational toy importer Learning Resources – which sources 50% of its product line from China – confirms that American importers absorb 100% of these tariff costs.

    Adding up all costs up to the border: $6 for production, 60 cents for shipping, and 75 cents for tariffs, brings the total pre-retail cost to $7.35 for a toy that sells for $30 in US stores. That leaves $22.65, or 75.5% of the final retail price, retained entirely within the United States. Foreman explains that this remaining revenue is split between the US toy brand, domestic logistics providers, and the retail seller. After accounting for roughly $2.65 in domestic transportation and distribution costs, the US toy brand and the retailer split the remaining $20 evenly, coming away with $10 each. While exact profit margins are private commercial information, industry research shows that both the brand and retailer typically clear profit of up to 25% on that $10 share, equal to $2.50 each in profit per toy.

    The investigation makes clear that getting a single toy from a Chinese factory to an American retail shelf requires a months-long, coordinated global supply chain effort, with the vast majority of retail revenue staying within the United States despite the product being made in China.

  • Leicester police ‘blanket arrest’ journalists under Terrorism Act for covering protest at Israeli drone factory

    Leicester police ‘blanket arrest’ journalists under Terrorism Act for covering protest at Israeli drone factory

    On October 8, a peaceful demonstration targeting an Israeli-owned drone manufacturing facility in Leicester ended in widespread detentions, with at least five working journalists swept up in mass arrests under the UK’s Terrorism Act – an incident that has sparked fierce debate over police overreach and press freedom. The protest was held outside UAV Tactical Systems, a UK-based subsidiary of Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems, and drew participants backing Palestine Action, a direct action group proscribed under British law. Under Section 13 of the Terrorism Act, public expression of support for a proscribed organization is a criminal offense, a provision that police leveraged to order mass detentions of everyone inside a cordoned protest zone.

    The arrested journalists included two full-time reporters from the local *Leicester Gazette* and two union-accredited freelance journalists who were on site specifically to cover the demonstration, according to *Leicester Gazette* editor Emma Guy. In comments to Middle East Eye, Guy confirmed that all five journalists had explicitly identified themselves as press to multiple officers before their arrest, ruling out any case of mistaken identity. The reporters were held in detention for three hours before being de-arrested only after turning over full personal information to officers. “A decision was made by Leicestershire Police to blanket arrest journalists and then de-arrest them on a case by case basis,” Guy explained.

    Two freelance journalists who spoke to Middle East Eye on condition of anonymity (using the pseudonyms Matt and Barold) detailed the chaotic turn of events that led to their detentions. They confirmed the protest had been organized to end peacefully at midday, and that activists had already reached an agreement with police to disperse by that time. But instead of allowing the crowd to leave, officers deployed in large numbers formed a rigid police cordon – colloquially known as a kettle – around the entire protest site. An announcement over a police megaphone confirmed that every person inside the cordon would be arrested.

    Matt, a veteran freelance photographer with 40 years of experience covering demonstrations, said he had repeatedly shown his official press card to officers to move through the cordon throughout the morning, with no pushback. But when he attempted to exit the cordon for a final time, he was stopped and placed under arrest. “I didn’t think that necessarily would apply to press. I mean, it never does, press is always the exception,” he said. Both freelance journalists confirmed that even after they presented their officially verified press cards – which include secure PIN codes that allow police to confirm identity on the spot – officers refused to verify their credentials and instead demanded private personal information as a condition for release. Matt called the action “incredibly heavy-handed”, noting “They just arrested anybody that was in there. People that were just standing round holding banners, and people that had done nothing at all.”

    Barold, a freelance video journalist, added that arresting officers refused to communicate with his National Union of Journalists (NUJ) representative, and that an officer explicitly confirmed the mass arrests were intended primarily to collect identifying information on all attendees. For the *Leicester Gazette* team, which has covered regular protests at the Elbit Systems site for five years without any incident, the arrests mark a dramatic escalation. “This is concerning for us as a small newsroom. Like many others, we don’t go to work thinking that we’ll be arrested under the Terrorism Act. It sets a worrying precedent that journalists are being arrested for doing their jobs,” Guy said.

    Legal observers have harshly condemned the police tactic of mass arrest followed by conditional de-arrest in exchange for personal information. Tim Crosland, a former government lawyer and spokesperson for campaign group Defend Our Juries, called the practice legally baseless and fundamentally incompatible with British policing norms. “There is no legal basis for police to demand members of the public provide them with personal information generally, and definitely not as a pre-condition for ‘de-arrest’,” he said. “Such oppressive and intimidatory police conduct is characteristic of a police state, not policing by consent.”

    Guy added that the arrests were carried out under a recent expansion of the Terrorism Act that expands criminal liability to include livestreaming or photographing material that could be interpreted as supporting a proscribed organization. In its official response to requests for comment, a Leicestershire Police spokesperson defended the mass detentions, saying “To affect a thorough investigation, due to the circumstances and number of people at the scene, everyone was placed under arrest and told to remain in the area. Once these individuals had been spoken to, details provided to officers and it was established that no offences had been committed, they were de-arrested.” The spokesperson confirmed a total of 35 people were arrested under Section 13, with one additional arrest on suspicion of racially aggravated public order, and all 35 have since been released on conditional bail. None of the journalists were taken into formal custody beyond their initial detention.

    The NUJ, which represents working journalists across the UK, has formally raised the incident with the National Police Chiefs’ Council over concerns about systemic police overreach. NUJ General Secretary Laura Davison noted that the union has repeatedly emphasized that simply covering Palestine Action protests and documenting placards or statements does not constitute criminal support for the group. Defend Our Juries confirmed that despite widespread filming and livestreaming of previous protests at the site, no journalist or attendee has ever been arrested for this activity prior to the October 8 demonstration.

    For Matt, the incident is only the latest in a pattern of aggressive targeting of journalists who cover pro-Palestine protests at arms manufacturing sites tied to Israel. He said he has now been arrested five times in the last three years, all while covering Palestine Action demonstrations, and that the persistent targeting has created a constant climate of fear for working reporters. “As a journalist, you don’t feel entirely safe. You’re made to feel that you shouldn’t really be there,” he said. “It seems to be particularly difficult at Elbit Systems sites. It’s becoming almost impossible. You can’t relax. You don’t really know if you’re ever gonna come home. It acts as a deterrent.”

    In April 2025, Matt was arrested while covering a Palestine Action protest at a Lockheed Martin site in Ampthill, on suspicion of conspiracy to commit burglary. Police alleged he had fired fireworks from his vehicle, but he was in fact photographing the protest from outside the main gate. He was held for 20 hours, and police seized his car and all journalistic equipment. He ultimately won a financial settlement from Bedfordshire Police over the unlawful arrest, though the force maintained it acted with reasonable grounds and settled the claim without admitting liability. A month after that arrest, Matt was detained again on suspicion of a hate crime while photographing the aftermath of a Palestine Action protest at a London site tied to Elbit Systems, and was later released without any further action.