Global Pulse

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  • Aztec document goes on display in Mexico after 186 years abroad

    Aztec document goes on display in Mexico after 186 years abroad

    For the first time in nearly two centuries, one of the most significant surviving accounts of Aztec civilization will be accessible to the Mexican public, as a rare 16th-century pictorial manuscript makes its long-awaited return to Mexican soil this week. The Codex Azcatitlán, a handcrafted document that chronicles the full trajectory of Aztec history—from the founding of their great capital Tenochtitlán to their brutal resistance against Spanish conquistadors—will open to visitors at Mexico City’s iconic National Museum of Anthropology starting Thursday, following an unprecedented cultural exchange agreement between Paris and Mexico City.

    Thought to have been created just years after Hernán Cortés and his invading force arrived in the region that now makes up central Mexico, the codex stands out among surviving pre- and early post-colonial Mesoamerican manuscripts for its unfiltered indigenous perspective. Told entirely through symbolic pictograms that follow traditional Aztec artistic conventions, it preserves a nuanced, insider account of one of the most consequential turning points in American history, including vivid depictions of the 1521 siege of Tenochtitlán that ended Aztec sovereignty. Scholars have long regarded it as one of the most valuable primary sources for understanding pre-colonial Aztec life and the immediate aftermath of the Spanish invasion.

    The document has not been seen in public in Mexico for 186 years, and has resided in Paris’s Bibliothèque Nationale de France since 1898, after being removed from the country decades earlier amid widespread looting of indigenous cultural artifacts by European colonizers. Its temporary homecoming comes as part of a planned cultural partnership to mark the 200th anniversary of diplomatic relations between France and Mexico, a deal personally negotiated by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and French President Emmanuel Macron during Macron’s official visit to Mexico last year. In a reciprocal arrangement, Mexico will send another irreplaceable Aztec manuscript, the Codex Boturini, to France for public display. Where Codex Azcatitlán documents the fall of the Aztec empire, Codex Boturini traces the centuries-long migration of the Aztec (also called Mexica) people from their mythic ancestral homeland to the shores of Lake Texcoco, where they founded Tenochtitlán, the precursor to modern Mexico City.

    The temporary exchange marks a small but meaningful milestone for Mexico’s long-running campaign to repatriate thousands of indigenous cultural artifacts removed from the country during the colonial era. According to Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the country successfully secured the return of more than 2,000 stolen cultural objects from institutions around the world just last year, as global institutions face growing pressure to return artifacts taken through colonial exploitation. While Codex Azcatitlán will only remain in Mexico on a temporary loan, cultural heritage advocates say the display marks an important step forward in recognizing Mexico’s claim to its indigenous history and making irreplaceable cultural heritage accessible to the communities from which it originated.

  • US dictionary adds 1,400 words, including neckbeard, trash panda and cuffing season

    US dictionary adds 1,400 words, including neckbeard, trash panda and cuffing season

    As one of the most authoritative and longest-running dictionary publishers in the United States, Merriam-Webster has just unveiled its latest round of updates, adding 1,400 fresh words and meanings to its catalog that capture how language evolves alongside modern life, pop culture, technology, and societal shifts. Among the most eye-catching new entries is “trash panda” — the affectionate, viral nickname for raccoons that emerged from online communities, inspired by the animals’ well-known habit of foraging for food in human household trash and their passing resemblance to small pandas.

    The publisher explained in an official blog post that every new entry included in this update has been tracked and vetted over years of widespread use across different contexts, making these additions more than just new spellings — they are a snapshot of how people communicate and what matters to them in the current era.

    The new entries span a wide range of categories, from food and culture to technology, internet slang, and social trends. Food-related terms figure prominently in this update, reflecting growing global culinary exchange and changing eating habits. These include “superfood”, the widely used term for nutrient-dense foods linked to health benefits; “bao”, the fluffy, stuffed steamed bun that has grown popular far beyond its East Asian origins; “cake pop”, the handheld portable treat that combines cake and icing on a lollipop stick; and “chili crisp”, the spicy, crunchy oil-based condiment packed with fried peppers, garlic, and shallots that has become a pantry staple for many home cooks.

    Internet and pop culture slang also makes up a large share of the new additions, capturing decades of viral trends and shared online experiences. Long-time internet users will recognize “Rickroll”, the iconic prank that tricks people into clicking a link leading to Rick Astley’s 1987 hit *Never Gonna Give You Up*. Other widely recognizable terms added include “glow-up”, meaning a dramatic positive transformation in one’s appearance or confidence; “looksmaxxing”, the practice of making intentional changes to maximize one’s physical attractiveness; “meme coin”, the cryptocurrency created as a joke or viral trend rather than as a serious financial investment; and “the Mandela effect”, the widely shared phenomenon where large groups of people collectively hold the same false memory of a past event or detail.

    Terms describing common social and emotional experiences also earned a spot in the dictionary: “cuffing season”, the annual trend of single people seeking a steady romantic partner to spend the colder fall and winter months with; “Sunday scaries”, the anxiety or unease many people feel as the weekend ends and the work week approaches; “parasocial”, describing the one-sided emotional bond audiences form with public figures, influencers, or celebrities; “whack-a-mole”, which now also describes the frustrating pattern of solving one problem only for an identical new issue to pop up immediately elsewhere; and “crashout”, a term referring to a sudden emotional breakdown, a dramatic defeat, or an abrupt collapse of a situation.

    Technology has also left its mark on this update, with “vibe coding” joining the dictionary — defined as the practice of using artificial intelligence tools to generate full blocks of computer code based on informal user prompts. Other notable entries include “Uncanny valley”, the unsettling feeling people get when viewing an artificial creation (such as a robot or CGI character) that is almost indistinguishable from a real human but has subtle off qualities; “neckbeard”, a term that refers both to a specific style of beard covering the chin and neck and is often used as a disparaging label for misogynistic, socially awkward online hobbyists; “California sober”, a distinctly American term describing the practice of abstaining from hard drugs like cocaine or methamphetamine while continuing to use marijuana and/or alcohol; “yacht rock”, the mellow soft rock music genre that originated in Southern California in the 1970s; “shapewear”, tight-fitting clothing designed to smooth and contour the body’s silhouette.

    Following this update, Merriam-Webster is preparing to announce its annual Word of the Year in the coming months. Last year’s pick, “slop”, was selected after its definition was expanded to encompass low-quality digital content mass-produced using artificial intelligence, a reflection of growing conversations around AI-generated media today.

  • Five minutes to steal a Renoir: Why museum thefts are becoming bolder across Europe

    Five minutes to steal a Renoir: Why museum thefts are becoming bolder across Europe

    A bold new theft of four Pierre-Auguste Renoir paintings from the Musee Renoir in southern France has underscored a fast-growing crisis: an escalating wave of audacious museum burglaries across the continent, fueled by copycat criminals inspired by last October’s high-profile heist at Paris’s Louvre. The Renoir theft, carried out when intruders cut through a perimeter fence using an electric knife and hacksaw, was pulled off in less than five minutes, with two of the stolen works quickly recovered after being abandoned in the museum’s grounds. The remaining two pieces, worth millions of euros collectively, remain at large as investigators continue their search.

    The brazen nature of this latest robbery comes as no surprise to industry experts and law enforcement. Just one month before the Renoir heist, European policing agency Europol issued a formal warning that museum thefts across the continent were growing more aggressive and frequent. Days before the Cagnes-sur-Mer break-in, veteran art detective Arthur Brand, who helped recover a stolen Van Gogh painting in 2023, told the BBC that a wave of new high-profile burglaries would likely follow the 2025 Louvre heist, where thieves made off with 88 million euros worth of untraceable jewels that have never been recovered. “If you can hit the Louvre, thieves around the world see that, and they start asking why they can’t hit smaller local institutions holding high-value items,” Brand explained.

    Data shows that the upward trend in museum theft began roughly two years ago, according to Europol. Since the Louvre robbery, thieves have targeted a string of cultural institutions across Europe: they stole coins from a smaller French museum within hours of the Louvre break-in, took a diamond necklace from Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), made off with Bronze Age artifacts from a Spanish collection, and burglarized two separate Italian museums for valuable art pieces. ARCA, the Association for Research into Crimes against Art, reports that recorded museum thefts in France spiked sharply in 2024, with a slight further increase in 2025.

    Experts largely agree that most of these post-Louvre robberies are copycat crimes, driven by a combination of systemic vulnerabilities in many museum institutions and shifting criminal priorities that make cultural institutions far more attractive targets than heavily secured banks or jewelry stores. Unlike banks, which are protected by cutting-edge security systems and hold limited physical cash these days, most museums are housed in historic, heritage-listed buildings that are difficult to retrofit with modern security infrastructure. Many museum directors also face chronic underfunding, choosing to allocate limited budgets to new exhibitions rather than costly security upgrades, and the open, public nature of museum spaces allows criminals to scout targets easily under the guise of ordinary visitors.

    “Museums cannot be fortresses,” explained MAK director Lilli Hollein, whose institution was burgled earlier this year. “We exist to be open to the public, but we are now facing entirely new threats that demand updated security standards.”

    Europol’s latest report notes that the nature of these museum heists has shifted dramatically in recent years. Where historic thefts relied on deception and stealth, modern burglaries increasingly use brute force: criminals now regularly carry power tools, sledgehammers, crowbars, and even explosives to break through barriers and access high-value targets in minutes, long before police can respond. The Louvre thieves, for example, used a mechanical lift to reach an upper floor, cut through reinforced glass with power tools, threatened on-site guards, and seized the jewels before law enforcement could arrive.

    What thieves target is also changing. While fine art like Renoir paintings is still occasionally stolen, criminals increasingly prioritize small, portable, easily fenced items: precious metals that can be melted down to erase any trace, loose gemstones that can be resold individually, and high-demand cultural artifacts like Chinese porcelain that have a ready black market. Renoir paintings are particularly difficult to sell on the black market, which leads Brand to predict the two remaining stolen works will likely eventually be recovered – a fortunate exception to the broader trend. Art recovery firm Art Recovery International estimates that only 5 to 10 percent of all stolen cultural property is ever recovered, making thefts from small regional museums like the Musee Renoir uniquely devastating.

    In response to the rising threat, many museums have begun implementing new security measures, even as funding remains a major barrier for smaller regional institutions. After its post-Louvre burglary, the Maison des Lumières in Langres launched a government-ordered security audit, and has already added enhanced video surveillance, with larger structural upgrades in development. MAK has overhauled its security protocols, adding metal detectors at entry, requiring all bags to be stored in lockers, and increasing the number of on-site security guards to deter copycat attacks.

    Security experts emphasize that the core goal of museum security is not to make theft impossible, but to slow intruders down enough for police to arrive. “Security is all about buying time,” explained Ibrahim Bulut, a museum security expert and member of the International Committee for Museum Security board. “The objective is to make a burglary difficult, noisy, detectable, and above all time-consuming – because the truth is, any institution can be targeted, but delaying thieves is the key to stopping them.” Low-cost measures like training guards to spot and confront potential scouts can be just as effective as expensive high-tech systems, Bulut notes, though many institutions have begun investing in advanced tools like vibration-detection systems that can alert security to intruders cutting or drilling through walls. A handful of countries, including Sweden, have seen major museum thefts decline over the past decade, though the rise in illicit trafficking of smaller cultural artifacts remains a persistent threat even there.

    For small regional museums holding nationally significant collections, the challenge of funding these upgrades remains acute. “A small city can be entrusted with collections of global importance, but it will never have the same budget as a major Paris institution,” explained Théo Caviezel, mayor of Langres. The debate now centers on how European cultural institutions can balance the core mission of public access with the urgent need to protect irreplaceable cultural heritage from a growing wave of organized theft. Critics also note that many high-value treasures held in European museums have colonial origins, raising ethical questions about efforts to recover stolen artifacts that were originally taken through imperial force, though defenders argue these pieces remain part of global cultural heritage that must be preserved for public access.

  • Singaporean man pleads guilty in US to massive crypto heist

    Singaporean man pleads guilty in US to massive crypto heist

    In a landmark cybercrime case that exposes the growing global threat of digital asset theft, a 22-year-old Singaporean national named Malone Lam has entered a guilty plea to a racketeering conspiracy charge in a U.S. federal court. The charge stems from Lam’s role as the ringleader of one of the largest cryptocurrency heists in recent history, which saw the group steal roughly $245 million worth of bitcoin from hundreds of victims across the globe.

    According to official documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), the transnational criminal conspiracy operated from no later than October 2023 through at least May 2025. Lam assembled a network of co-conspirators spread across four U.S. states — California, Connecticut, New York, and Florida — as well as multiple countries outside the United States, with the group first connecting through popular online gaming platforms. Operating under multiple aliases including Anne Hathaway, $$$, and King Greavy, Lam structured the enterprise, targeted potential victims, and assigned specialized roles to each member of the ring, prosecutors confirmed.

    The criminal group used a mix of sophisticated cyber deception and physical burglary to steal digital assets, the DOJ says. Conspirators tricked victims into handing over sensitive account credentials through phishing and social engineering schemes, and in some cases carried out residential break-ins to steal private keys required to access cryptocurrency wallets. Once they gained control, the group drained the wallets and transferred the stolen bitcoin to accounts they controlled.

    Over the course of the conspiracy, Lam and his associates laundered the stolen funds and spent the proceeds on an extravagant lifestyle of luxury. Court records and evidence released by U.S. authorities show the group spent as much as $500,000 per outing on high-end nightclub trips, where they threw tens of thousands of dollars worth of Hermes Birkin handbags into crowds of partygoers. They also purchased a collection of high-performance supercars, with individual vehicle values ranging from $100,000 to $3.8 million, alongside luxury watches priced as high as $500,000, designer clothing, and long-term luxury home rentals in elite U.S. destinations including Los Angeles, the Hamptons, and Miami. The group also splurged on private jet travel and hired a dedicated team of private security to protect their operation. U.S. law enforcement has released public photos showing Lam partying with large stacks of cash at a Miami nightclub in September 2024, alongside images of the exotic car fleet purchased with stolen funds.

    Following his guilty plea entered on Tuesday, Lam now faces a maximum possible prison sentence of 20 years behind bars. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has not yet scheduled a formal sentencing hearing for the defendant. In a statement following the plea, U.S. Attorney Pirro emphasized that the DOJ’s commitment to combating transnational cybercrime remains unwavering. “If you build a cybercrime empire, we will find you, dismantle your operation, and hold you accountable,” Pirro said. She added that Lam “led an international network that preyed on victims through deception, invaded their privacy, and stole hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency.”

    The case marks one of the highest-profile cryptocurrency theft prosecutions in recent years, highlighting how cross-border criminal networks are increasingly targeting unregulated digital assets, and the challenges international law enforcement faces in tracking and apprehending the perpetrators of these digital crimes.

  • Africa’s mother tongues are finding new life as youth connect with roots and relatives

    Africa’s mother tongues are finding new life as youth connect with roots and relatives

    Across continents and digital platforms, a quiet cultural movement is reshaping the relationship between people of African descent and their ancestral languages — languages long sidelined and pushed to the social and economic periphery by decades of colonial rule. Two distinct scenes, separated by thousands of miles, lay bare the scope of this growing revival: one in Lagos, Nigeria’s bustling commercial capital, where a primetime television game show penalizes contestants who speak English; and another 8,000 miles away in virtual learning spaces, where a Canadian teen connects with a Zimbabwean tutor to master the Shona language her parents once feared she would never learn. This grassroots resurgence is not just reclaiming cultural heritage — it is also spurring new entrepreneurial opportunities that meet rising demand for African language learning.

  • King Charles, Macron and Burnham to preview Bayeux Tapestry display

    King Charles, Macron and Burnham to preview Bayeux Tapestry display

    One of the world’s most celebrated medieval artifacts is set to open its doors to the general public at the British Museum next week, marking an unprecedented act of cultural diplomacy between the United Kingdom and France. Ahead of the 10 September public launch, three senior leaders—King Charles III of the UK, French President Emmanuel Macron, and newly appointed UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham—will gather on Wednesday for an exclusive preview of the 70-meter embroidered masterpiece. They will be joined by Queen Camilla, Burnham’s wife Marie-France Van-Heel, and Brigitte Macron, alongside school students from both nations, who will take part in the historic occasion. Joint speeches from the British monarch and French president are scheduled to honor the landmark loan.

    Created in the 1070s, just a decade after the 1066 Norman Conquest, the Bayeux Tapestry chronicles the lead-up to and decisive Battle of Hastings, where Norman leader William defeated Anglo-Saxon King Harold to seize the English throne. Believed to have been stitched by English artisans for Norman rulers, the linen tapestry features 58 distinct scenes, 627 human figures, hundreds of animals, and a running Latin narrative, making it one of the most important surviving primary sources for medieval European history. Notably, the tapestry’s final sections have been lost to time, a detail President Macron highlighted during his 2025 state visit to the UK—when the long-term loan was first announced—as a metaphor for Franco-British relations, arguing that “in the great mural of Franco-British history, the end is yet to be written – it is up to us to do it”.

    For nearly a thousand years, the tapestry has been housed in the French town of Bayeux, surviving near-destruction during the French Revolution in the 18th century when it was nearly cut up to line military supply carts. The decision to loan the national treasure to the British Museum through July 2027 sparked early concerns about risks to the 900-year-old fragile textile. French authorities have since dismissed those worries, confirming that the British Museum has implemented ideal conservation conditions, including displaying the tapestry flat rather than vertically—an arrangement that reduces stress on the ancient woven fibers and is widely viewed as preferable for long-term preservation.

    The preview event carries broader political significance beyond cultural exchange: it marks the first official joint public appearance by King Charles and Prime Minister Burnham since Burnham took office in July 2026. It also sees Macron become the first foreign head of state to meet the new British prime minister, providing an opportunity for the two leaders to strengthen bilateral cooperation on pressing global issues, including support for Ukraine, the ongoing Middle East conflict, and post-Brexit UK-EU relations. Burnham has framed the tapestry’s UK display as a chance to celebrate the deep shared heritage binding the two nations, calling the return of the work to its country of origin “a landmark moment in the history of our two nations”.

    In reciprocal gesture of goodwill as part of the cultural exchange agreement, the British Museum is lending one of its most iconic holdings to France: the extraordinary Anglo-Saxon treasures uncovered from the Sutton Hoo burial site. UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy emphasized the unique symbolic weight of the tapestry loan, noting that the iconic artifact perfectly encapsulates the intertwined shared history of Britain and France, and that the display will leave a lasting impression on an entire generation of British schoolchildren.

    Public interest in the once-in-a-generation exhibition has already reached extraordinary levels: all tickets for visits through the end of 2026 have completely sold out. Tickets for the January to March 2027 viewing window will be released to the public by the British Museum on 21 October.

  • Exclusive: Igor Tulchinsky, British Museum’s Bayeux Tapestry sponsor, backs Israeli defence tech fund

    Exclusive: Igor Tulchinsky, British Museum’s Bayeux Tapestry sponsor, backs Israeli defence tech fund

    One of the most historic and widely anticipated cultural events in recent British history opened its doors to the public at London’s British Museum on Thursday morning: the first display of the Bayeux Tapestry on English soil in almost a century. The 70-metre fragile medieval embroidery, which chronicles the 1066 Norman Conquest of England, is set to draw hundreds of thousands of visitors over its 11-month run, after decades of diplomatic efforts to secure the loan from France finally bore fruit this summer. The artefact arrived in the UK under heavy security, and tickets for the first four months of the “once-in-a-generation” exhibition sold out within hours on the busiest single sales day in the museum’s 273-year history.

    The landmark exhibition would not have been possible without a £5 million ($6.75 million) sponsorship deal with Igor Tulchinsky, founder, CEO and chair of U.S.-based investment firm WorldQuant, who was named as the official sponsor in February. While Tulchinsky maintained a low profile at the exhibition’s official opening reception last week – where he stood alongside senior dignitaries including King Charles III, French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham – new reporting has revealed troubling connections between Tulchinsky’s newer business ventures and controversial Israeli military operations in Gaza and Lebanon that have drawn widespread human rights criticism.

    In April, two months after Tulchinsky’s sponsorship of the Bayeux Tapestry was announced, he launched WorldQuant Genesis, a Tel Aviv-based venture capital fund focused on early-stage defence technology startups. The fund is led by retired Israeli Major General Saar Tzur, who stepped down from his senior military posts leading the IDF’s Northern Corps and Manoeuvre Array in October 2024, retiring shortly after. During his tenure, Tzur oversaw Israeli military operations during the first year of the Gaza war, where Israel faces allegations of genocide against Palestinian civilians, as well as operations against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

    Following his retirement, Tzur joined the advisory board of Ottopia, an Israeli tech startup that develops remote control technology for Israeli military unmanned ground vehicles. On the company’s website, Tzur has described the technology as a critical “force multiplier” for IDF operations in Gaza, noting that “teleoperation is essential for unmanned operations, enhancing ground superiority by reducing casualties, improving maneuver resilience, and boosting combat effectiveness.” Ottopia frames its technology as “battle proven” for direct combat and target engagement, and founder Amit Rosenzweig has confirmed the company has supplied the IDF with remote-controlled explosive-laden armoured personnel carriers for use in Gaza. Rosenzweig explained that operators can control military vehicles, tanks and APCs from a safe distance using just a joystick.

    Human rights groups have linked the widespread deployment of these remote-controlled vehicles in Gaza to indiscriminate attacks on civilian residential areas and the systematic demolition of entire neighbourhoods. According to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, the IDF first began using explosive-laden remote-controlled vehicles in densely populated Gaza residential areas in May 2024, with use intensifying that October as part of Israel’s “Generals’ Plan” to depopulate and forcibly displace residents from northern Gaza. Between August and October 2025, the rights group recorded an average of 300 residential units destroyed daily, with the IDF deploying roughly 15 explosive remote-controlled vehicles each day, dropping an estimated 100 tonnes of explosives on residential areas monthly. Gazan residents described the blasts from these vehicles as far more destructive than standard airstrikes, reducing entire multi-story buildings to unrecognizable rubble and forcing mass panic displacement. While a ceasefire agreement reached in October 2025 paused most large-scale operations, Euro-Med Monitor has recorded a resurgence in the use of these explosive vehicles in northern and eastern Gaza over the past two months.

    Beyond civilian casualties and residential destruction, the widespread use of these weapons has also put Gaza’s cultural heritage at severe risk. While the group has not directly linked vehicle deployments to the destruction of specific heritage sites, multiple culturally significant locations – including Gaza City’s Old al-Omari Mosque, the Byzantine Church of Jabalia, and multiple historic Palestinian homes – lie in areas where these vehicles have been heavily deployed. “What is clear is that the use of these weapons has taken place in and around densely populated areas containing homes, religious sites, and other elements of Gaza’s historic and cultural fabric,” said Euro-Med Monitor’s Anas Jerjawi. “Their large-scale use has therefore posed a serious threat not only to civilian lives and residential structures, but also to the cultural heritage embedded within these communities.”

    While Euro-Med cannot independently confirm that the vehicles documented in Gaza use Ottopia technology, the vehicles observed match the description and features of the systems marketed by the company and Tzur. In southern Lebanon, the IDF has intentionally destroyed entire border towns and villages including multiple heritage sites, following a similar model of destruction to that used in Gaza, according to Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz. While remote-controlled vehicles have been spotted in southern Lebanon, they have not been directly linked to demolitions there to date. No direct connection between Tulchinsky and Ottopia has been established, and neither Ottopia, the British Museum nor WorldQuant have responded to multiple requests for comment from Middle East Eye.

    WorldQuant Genesis has already publicly invested in NavAiro, an Israeli defence tech startup developing counter-drone technology, and Tulchinsky has been open about his longstanding financial and personal support for the IDF since the start of the 2023 Gaza war. In a March 2026 interview with the *Jerusalem Post*, Tulchinsky confirmed he has provided direct financial donations to the Israeli military, saying “First I was helping the army financially. I gave them money and they did whatever.” Born in Soviet-era Belarus, Tulchinsky emigrated to the U.S. as a child and has maintained business operations in Israel since 2009, and has publicly reaffirmed his commitment to investing in the country amid the ongoing conflict.

    These revelations have sparked fierce criticism from pro-Palestinian cultural advocates, who have called out the British Museum’s decision to accept Tulchinsky’s sponsorship as unethical. Artists for Palestine UK, a network of artists and cultural workers, notes that the destruction caused by remote-controlled military vehicles has contributed to the damage or destruction of more than 70% of Gaza’s documented cultural heritage sites, including a UNESCO World Heritage Endangered Site. Centuries of cultural history built by Palestinians and earlier civilizations across the region have been lost to rubble, in what a UN report has suggested may amount to cultural genocide.

    The group described Tulchinsky’s sponsorship as “shameful”, noting the billionaire appears set to profit from ongoing Israeli military operations that are erasing Palestinian communities and cultural heritage in Gaza and southern Lebanon. “How can the museum’s trustees possibly have come to the conclusion that Tulchinsky, with his links to the ongoing erasure of Gaza and parts of Lebanon, was a suitable sponsor? And, more fundamentally, how are basic ethical standards, human rights and international law not guiding factors in such decisions, even before considerations of reputational damage?” the group said.

    This is not the first time the British Museum has faced public backlash over controversial corporate sponsorships. The institution previously faced widespread protests and criticism over a 10-year, £50 million ($67.5 million) sponsorship deal with oil giant BP to fund its major Masterplan redevelopment project. It has also previously faced calls from UK Members of Parliament to launch an investigation into the museum’s removal of multiple references to Palestine from its public galleries, adding to ongoing scrutiny of the institution’s ethical decision-making around funding and content.

  • China’s visa-free boom is rewriting inbound tourism

    China’s visa-free boom is rewriting inbound tourism

    On August 20 this year, China’s National Immigration Administration announced two key adjustments to its visa-free entry policies, adding Kyrgyzstan and Vietnam to the list of eligible countries for the 240-hour visa-free transit program. This expansion brings the total number of qualifying nationalities for the policy to 57, while the parallel 30-day visa-free travel scheme for the southern island province of Hainan has grown to cover 61 nationalities.

    Though these modest, incremental policy changes received only passing coverage in global wire reports, they mark the latest milestone in one of the most underreported major travel shifts of the decade: China is steadily reopening its borders to international travelers at a pace and scale that most visitors from Western nations have not yet recognized.

    New official data underscores the rapid growth of this trend. China’s National Immigration Administration reports that in the first half of 2026, the country recorded 22.91 million entries by foreign nationals, representing a 20.4% year-on-year increase. What is even more striking is the composition of these arrivals: 17.8 million entries, or 77.7% of the total, used visa-free entry channels, marking a 30.6% jump from the same period last year.

    The ten largest source markets for international arrivals to China are South Korea, Russia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, the United States, Japan, Mongolia and Australia, which together account for 62% of total entries. This broad geographic distribution challenges the common narrative that only regional neighbors are taking advantage of new visa-free rules.

    This wave of policy liberalization is no one-off stimulus measure; it is the result of a deliberate, step-by-step rollout that has been unfolding for years. Unilateral visa waivers for ordinary passport holders launched in December 2023, starting with six European nations and Malaysia. The program was repeatedly expanded throughout 2024 and 2025, and the United Kingdom and Canada were added to the unilateral waiver list in February 2026, bringing the total number of eligible countries for that scheme to 50 by the end of the first half of 2026.

    Complementing these unilateral waivers is the 240-hour visa-free transit policy, which now opens 10 days of visa-free stay to citizens of 57 countries. Eligible travelers holding valid ordinary passports and confirmed onward tickets to a third country or region may enter China through any of 65 participating ports of entry, including major hubs in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The policy permits travel for tourism, business and family visits, though work, study and journalism still require pre-approved specialized visas.

    What official policy announcements do not always communicate is the on-the-ground experience for visitors, which is where the large gap between policy change and global public perception persists. Here are three key details most outdated travel guides get wrong:
    First, the 240-hour transit policy is far more practical for casual visitors than most travelers assume. A 10-day visa-free stay is long enough for a substantive introductory trip: it can accommodate visits to Beijing and the ancient capital of Xi’an, a journey to Shanghai and Chengdu, or a high-speed rail loop through the economically dynamic Yangtze River Delta.

    That said, there are important caveats that many first-time visitors miss. Under the transit rules, travelers must exit China to a third country or region rather than flying directly back to their country of origin, and itinerary regions are constrained, so careful advance planning is non-negotiable. This requirement is the most commonly misunderstood detail in online travel forums, and this lack of clarity has turned many promising “visa-free” trips into frustrating border denials for unprepared visitors.

    Second, the travel infrastructure that once intimidated international visitors has undergone massive upgrades to accommodate global travelers. China’s high-speed rail network now exceeds 40,000 kilometers in length, making it the largest such network in the world, with 350 km/h premium services connecting all major tourist corridors. Booking tickets with a foreign passport is a straightforward process through official channels, and English-language customer support has improved dramatically in recent years.

    The long-standing “cashless payment barrier”, once the biggest practical headache for foreign visitors, has largely been dismantled. Leading Chinese mobile payment platforms Alipay and WeChat Pay now accept international Visa and Mastercard credit and debit cards, and both platforms offer built-in translation tools. Major ride-hailing platform Didi supports foreign phone numbers for registration, and prepaid eSIM tourist packages from domestic mobile carriers allow visitors to connect to the internet within minutes of landing, eliminating the need to hunt for a physical SIM card on arrival.

    Third, and most importantly, outdated information remains the single largest barrier to growth, based on six years of on-the-ground experience living in Xi’an. Most English-language travel guidance for China was written between 2019 and 2023, when entry rules were strict and practical travel for international visitors was genuinely difficult. That outdated guidance warned travelers to expect widespread payment problems, booking complications and app-based access barriers that no longer exist for most visitors.

    A large share of that old guidance is now obsolete, and in some cases it actively misleads travelers. Visitors who rely on outdated guides often miss the fact that the 240-hour visa-free policy exists, fail to realize that their passports qualify for entry, or still incorrectly believe that international bank cards do not work on major Chinese payment platforms.

    This information asymmetry has major implications not just for individual tourists, but for the global travel industry as a whole. China is one of the only major global travel destinations currently undergoing an aggressive, policy-driven push to open its borders to international visitors. Airlines, hotel groups, tour operators and travel insurance providers that update their guidance to reflect new entry rules and on-the-ground conditions are well positioned to capture rapidly growing demand. By contrast, businesses that still rely on pre-2024 assumptions about travel to China are leaving significant revenue on the table.

    The steady pattern of expansion – adding two new countries to eligible lists every few months, on a predictable schedule – suggests this trajectory of gradual liberalization will continue through at least 2027.

    None of this is to downplay remaining challenges for international visitors. Access to most Western digital services still requires a virtual private network (VPN), some smaller local merchants still only accept cash or domestic QR code payments, and perennial travel hurdles including crowds, seasonal weather and language barriers have not disappeared.

    But the core value proposition for travelers has changed fundamentally. For a growing share of the world’s passport holders, China is now easier to enter, more affordable to travel around, and more navigable than at any point in the past two decades.

    The boom in visa-free travel to China is far more than a minor policy footnote. It represents a structural shift in how, and how many, foreigners get to experience China. Travelers who take the time to learn the new rules, plan their itineraries to comply with transit requirements, and arrive with updated expectations will encounter a version of China that old guidebooks never described. The rest of the world is still playing catch-up to this quiet transformation.

  • Mount Fuji pics, life-changing ramen and a weak yen – why young Brits are going to Japan

    Mount Fuji pics, life-changing ramen and a weak yen – why young Brits are going to Japan

    A wave of young British travelers is flocking to Japan in record numbers, and two key forces are driving this unprecedented tourism boom: viral social media content and a historically weak yen that has turned the Asian destination into an unexpectedly affordable getaway. Data from the Japanese National Tourism Organization confirms the rapid growth: 483,157 British tourists visited Japan in 2025, marking a 24.8% increase from 2024 and a 40.8% jump from 2019, the pre-pandemic benchmark used by the travel industry. Provisional 2026 data indicates this upward trajectory shows no signs of slowing, aligning with Japan’s overall post-pandemic tourism recovery that saw a record number of global visitors in 2025.

    Interviews with dozens of British travelers in their 20s and 30s reveal that while Japan’s unique offerings – from bustling neon cityscapes and centuries-old temples to world-renowned street food, anime culture, and rugged natural landscapes – draw intrinsic interest, social media is the single biggest catalyst turning casual interest into booked trips. For 24-year-old Maitri Sanghvi, constant algorithm-driven exposure to Japan content on TikTok made a long-held desire to visit impossible to ignore. “Japan just kept popping up on my feed,” she explained, noting that seeing other travelers’ trip snaps was the main push for her three-week holiday with her boyfriend earlier this year.

    Scroll any popular travel hashtag such as #japantravel on TikTok or Instagram, and feeds are flooded with curated content: sun-kissed shots of Mount Fuji, steaming bowls of authentic ramen, detailed itinerary guides, quiet mountain villages, the iconic red torii gates of Kyoto’s Fushimi Inari, the glowing neon of Osaka’s Dotonbori, and the chaotic energy of Tokyo’s Shibuya Crossing. Twenty-nine-year-old Aden Ibrahim openly admits that this constant buzz on social media directly pushed him to book a trip with friends last July. Since returning, he has continued to fuel the hype himself, uploading dozens of trip clips to TikTok more than a year after his visit; one viral video titled “Japan made it out the group chat” has racked up more than 1.1 million views.

    Beyond social media’s pull, a decades-low yen has removed one of the biggest barriers to traveling Japan: cost. While round-trip off-peak budget flights start around £450, the weak currency makes on-the-ground spending far cheaper for international visitors, even as rising domestic prices place strain on Japanese residents. In July, the yen fell to a 40-year low against the British pound, stretching travel budgets further than many young travelers expected. “You can literally get a bowl of life-changing ramen for £3 or £4, compared to a mediocre one back home for like £20,” explained 26-year-old Faye Jawad, a TikTok restaurant reviewer who visited Japan last year.

    For 26-year-old Vivek Haria, who has spent years cultivating an interest in Japanese culture – even learning the language and joining the UK-Japan Choir – the favorable exchange rate was the final nudge to book his autumn 2026 trip. “When the yen was weakening, I thought ‘actually this is a good time to go, things are going to be cheap’,” he said. The affordable on-the-ground costs have even spawned a new viral content category: “haul videos” where travelers show off bulk purchases of limited-edition KitKat flavors, high-quality stationery, skincare products, and unique clothing. Twenty-three-year-old Sam Corbett, who visited in May, ended up buying an entire extra suitcase to carry all his affordable souvenirs, from matcha products to snacks and apparel.

    The vast majority of young British travelers stick to Japan’s famous “Golden Route”: Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka, with day trips to nearby popular spots including Nara, Hiroshima, and Mount Fuji. The route’s popularity is easy to explain: well-connected by public transport and packed with Japan’s most iconic attractions, it fits neatly into a two to three week holiday that fits most young travelers’ vacation allowances.

    But this massive surge in visitor numbers has come with growing pains, as rising reports of unruly tourist behavior have sparked urgent debate around overtourism and prompted Japanese authorities to roll out new regulations and crackdowns. Chiyuki Izumii, a tour guide with the Japan Guide Agency, says she has observed a noticeable decline in tourist behavior in recent years. While her own clients are respectful, she has witnessed other visitors cutting bus queues, blocking aisles with oversize luggage, carving initials into trees in Kyoto’s Arashiyama Bamboo Forest, disturbing local neighborhoods with loud noise after dark, and trespassing into restricted areas to get viral photos.

    Local governments have already taken action: Fujikawaguchiko, a popular small town near Mount Fuji, canceled its 2026 cherry blossom festival entirely after repeated incidents of misbehavior from crowds. In June, Tokyo’s Shibuya ward introduced on-the-spot fines for littering in high-traffic tourist areas. In July, the Japanese national government raised the international tourist tax – charged to visitors leaving the country via plane or boat – from 1,000 yen to 3,000 yen (approximately £4.60 to £13.80), with revenues earmarked for upgrading public transport infrastructure and restoring damaged historic sites.

    Many young visitors themselves have expressed surprise at just how crowded top tourist spots have become. “I was prepared for it to be busy but I didn’t expect it to be as busy as it was,” said Millie Dring, an anime fan who traveled to Japan in November to celebrate her 21st birthday. At Tokyo DisneySea, Dring and her friend waited three hours to ride just one attraction before leaving overwhelmed by the crowds. Sam Corbett, who encountered packed queues at a Kyoto dessert spot he only visited because of its social media fame, noted the queue held no local residents at all – only tourists chasing viral trends. Popular photo spots like the Hakone floating torii gate and Arashiyama bamboo forest are now so packed with people waiting for Instagram-perfect shots that it can be hard to even enjoy the scenery, he added.

    Still, some travelers are unphased by the crowds, arguing that embracing the popular tourist experience is part of the fun. Twenty-nine-year-old Laura McGregor, who is planning a two-week honeymoon across Tokyo and Osaka this November, with stops including Tokyo Disney, Universal Studios, a sumo match, Mount Fuji, Hiroshima, and even Tokyo go-karting, pushes back against the trend of “off-the-beaten-path” snobbery. “I think there’s a snobbiness around being a tourist over the past couple of years where people want to avoid looking like one,” she said. “Of course I want to experience an authentic side of Japan but I’m excited to embrace the tourist side too and go along with it.”

  • Liverpool telco worker, 30, charged with selling customer details to criminal gangs

    Liverpool telco worker, 30, charged with selling customer details to criminal gangs

    A 30-year-old telecommunications employee from Liverpool in southwest Sydney is set to appear in court this week, facing serious criminal charges for allegedly leaking sensitive customer personal information to organised criminal gangs that used the data to carry out fraud against innocent members of the public. The arrest on Thursday capped off a four-week investigation led by New South Wales Police’s Financial Crimes Squad, which was launched after Queensland law enforcement referred the case to their NSW colleagues.

    According to allegations from NSW Police, the suspect, who holds a position at a major Australian telecommunications provider, abused his work access to illegally pull confidential customer records, which he then sold on to external criminal actors. Law enforcement officials confirmed that the stolen data was subsequently weaponised by the criminal groups to commit multiple fraud offences against unknowing victims.

    The defendant has been slapped with a total of 34 criminal charges. These include 12 counts of handling identity information for the purpose of committing an indictable offence, 12 counts of carrying out unauthorised system access with the intent to commit a serious offence, and 10 counts of a public servant or agent corruptly accepting financial benefits for improper conduct. Following his arrest, the man was denied bail and is scheduled to make his first court appearance at Liverpool Local Court this Thursday.