Global Pulse

分类： politics

  • A car-bomb attack targets southwest Colombia a day after conservative president takes office

    A car-bomb attack targets southwest Colombia a day after conservative president takes office

    Just 24 hours after conservative first-time politician Abelardo de la Espriella took office as Colombia’s new president in a swearing-in ceremony held in Cali, a car bomb detonated at a toll plaza on the Pan-American Highway, the nation’s busiest arterial route in southwestern Colombia, the Colombian national military confirmed Saturday.

    The army has formally attributed the attack to two breakaway factions of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), a guerrilla organization that disarmed under a landmark 2014 peace deal with the Colombian government. These dissident groups rejected the agreement a decade after it was signed, continuing armed and criminal activity across rural and border regions of the country.

    The blast targeted the toll station on the highway connecting the Cauca and Valle del Cauca departments, the latter of which counts Cali as its capital. Initial security assessments confirm only two security guards sustained minor injuries in the explosion. One of the injured guards told investigators the explosive was hidden in a vehicle that was abandoned by its driver, who fled the scene on a motorcycle ahead of the detonation.

    In a statement posted to social media Saturday, the army announced that uniformed personnel had secured the blast perimeter and deployed bomb-sniffing canines to sweep the surrounding area for additional hidden explosive devices. Transportation Minister Elsa Noguera publicly condemned the attack, confirming that work was already underway to clear the site and restore full traffic flow along the critical transit corridor.

    “Colombia will not kneel before violence, nor will it allow the destruction of the infrastructure that connects our regions,” Noguera wrote in her social media statement.

    The attack comes hours after de la Espriella used his inaugural address, delivered in Cali on Friday, to lay out a hardline security agenda against armed non-state groups. He explicitly warned outlawed organizations that they face only two choices: surrender to state authority and abide by the rule of law, or meet a full military confrontation from Colombia’s security forces.

    In a separate major policy shift announced Saturday, aligning with his campaign promises to reverse his predecessor’s outreach to armed groups, de la Espriella ordered the transfer of 117 imprisoned individuals with ties to illegal armed organizations to eight high-security federal prisons. The Colombian corrections agency explained the move is designed to reestablish full, permanent state control over the country’s prison system and eliminate the ability of criminal networks to coordinate illicit activity from behind bars. De la Espriella has repeatedly rejected the peace dialogue strategy with armed groups pursued by former president Gustavo Petro, his progressive predecessor.

    The 48-year-old new head of state, a lawyer and business executive with no prior elected political experience, won office in a narrow June runoff election against Iván Cepeda, a progressive senator and close Petro ally, in what was one of the most polarized electoral campaigns in recent Colombian history. Since the official results were certified by national electoral authorities and validated by international election observers, Petro and his allies have refused to accept de la Espriella’s victory, continuing to unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud. De la Espriella’s term is already shaping up to be defined by partisan tensions, with a robust opposition bloc led by the former president entrenched in congress.

    This report included contributions from correspondent Molina, who reported from Quito, Ecuador.

  • US offers $1bn to Colombia on new right-wing president’s first day of office

    US offers $1bn to Colombia on new right-wing president’s first day of office

    Just hours after Abelardo de la Espriella, Colombia’s new right-wing populist president, took the oath of office, the United States announced a landmark $1 billion security package to support his administration’s core policy priorities. A self-described political outsider and avowed admirer of second-term US President Donald Trump, de la Espriella used his highly anticipated inaugural address to declare an all-out war on the drug cartels and organized criminal networks that have long destabilized Colombian society.

    The US State Department framed the security assistance as a collaborative effort to advance shared bilateral goals, including countering transnational organized crime and curbing irregular migration flows. For years, Trump harshly criticized de la Espriella’s left-wing predecessor Gustavo Petro for his approach to both issues, setting the stage for a reset in bilateral relations following de la Espriella’s June election victory. Ahead of the vote, Trump publicly pledged the “total support and strength of the United States” to the Colombian candidate, predicting a far more productive working relationship between the two nations.

    De la Espriella, a lawyer and millionaire businessman by trade, took an unorthodox approach to his inauguration, opting to deliver his oath not in the national capital Bogotá, but in the violence-plagued western city of Cali. The choice was widely interpreted as a deliberate signal of his commitment to reassert state control over regions grappling with chronic gang activity. Speaking to assembled troops at a nearby military base, the new president laid out a hardline agenda: he pledged to crush armed insurgent groups, rebuild national institutions, and defend Colombian democracy “by reason or by force.” Adopting his self-styled nickname “El Tigre” (The Tiger) as a branding for his administration, de la Espriella emphasized that the Colombian state would act with unflinching decisiveness against criminal actors, declaring: “There will not be a single place in our territory where criminals can feel safe.”

    Political analysts have drawn clear parallels between de la Espriella’s proposed crackdown and the harsh anti-gang policies implemented by high-profile right-wing populist leaders Nayib Bukele of El Salvador and Daniel Noboa of Ecuador. This approach marks a complete break from the “total peace” strategy pursued by former president Petro, which prioritized negotiated settlements with armed groups and economic incentives for coca farmers to transition away from illicit crop cultivation. Critics of Petro’s framework argue it failed to curb growing criminal influence: armed group membership has expanded across Colombia in recent years, and a brutal clash between rival rebel factions along the Colombia-Venezuela border displaced more than 30,000 people in 2025.

    In one of his first official acts as head of state, de la Espriella confirmed that Colombia will join the Shield of the Americas, a US-led regional security partnership launched by the Trump administration. The move aligns Colombia with a growing bloc of right-leaning Latin American governments that have pursued closer ties with Washington, including Argentina under libertarian President Javier Milei, whom de la Espriella has publicly praised. The US State Department welcomed the accession, noting that de la Espriella’s pro-growth policy agenda creates new opportunities to expand bilateral trade and deepen economic integration.

    De la Espriella’s election is the latest milestone in a broader regional shift toward right-wing politics across Latin America, driven by widespread public frustration over economic stagnation and surging gang violence. With de la Espriella in office and Keiko Fujimori recently taking power in Peru, Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva remains the only prominent left-wing head of state in the region, though he will face a challenge from Flávio Bolsonaro, son of pro-Trump former president Jair Bolsonaro, in October’s general election.

    On foreign policy, de la Espriella has also broken sharply with Petro’s approach, promising to forge close military alliances with both the United States and Israel. Petro cut diplomatic ties with the Israeli government over its military offensive in Gaza and was a prominent vocal advocate for Palestinian statehood, a stark reversal of the new administration’s stance.

    Notably, de la Espriella has held US citizenship since 2023, after decades of living and working in Miami, Florida. Before entering politics, he built a high-profile career as a defense attorney representing drug-trafficking paramilitaries — the very criminal groups he now pledges to lock up. He launched his presidential candidacy just one month after a rival conservative candidate was assassinated during the campaign, and often appeared at public rallies behind bulletproof glass, wearing a bulletproof vest alongside his signature Colombian football jersey.

    High-profile guests in attendance at his inauguration included US Attorney General Todd Blanche and FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who attended alongside the head of CONMEBOL, South America’s governing football body, amid ongoing scrutiny of Infantino’s leadership of global football. For his part, Petro, who was constitutionally barred from seeking a second consecutive term, had been a fierce critic of Trump’s influence in Latin America, particularly condemning the Trump administration’s arrest of Venezuelan socialist President Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores on US drug charges, a move that opened the door for US energy firms to access Venezuela’s vast untapped oil reserves. Petro and his left-wing ally Iván Cepeda had repeatedly warned that Colombia must not become a US “vassal” under a de la Espriella administration.

  • Watch: Moment opposition MP throws eggs at Kosovo’s acting PM

    Watch: Moment opposition MP throws eggs at Kosovo’s acting PM

    A dramatic incident has sent shockwaves through Kosovo’s legislative body, as a confrontational opposition lawmaker resorted to unusual and chaotic tactics against the country’s top executive. Time Kadrijaj, a member of parliament from Kosovo’s Alliance opposition party, launched at least four eggs directly toward acting prime minister Albin Kurti during a parliamentary session, triggering immediate disruption to the proceedings.

    Witness footage captured the chaotic moment immediately after the eggs were thrown, with sitting lawmakers and on-site security police rushing in to intervene and de-escalate the tense situation. The unexpected act of political protest has drawn immediate attention to the rising tensions between Kosovo’s ruling coalition and opposition blocs, highlighting the deepening partisan divides that have shaped the country’s recent political landscape.

    While no injuries have been reported in the immediate aftermath of the incident, the confrontation underscores how fractious political discourse has become in Kosovo, as opposition groups increasingly turn to unconventional, public acts of protest to challenge the acting prime minister’s agenda. Parliamentary procedures were temporarily suspended following the incident to restore order to the chamber.

  • 2 drones spotted flying over German military base after drone with explosives found at cargo airport

    2 drones spotted flying over German military base after drone with explosives found at cargo airport

    BERLIN — Germany’s armed forces, the Bundeswehr, announced Saturday that two unidentified unmanned aerial vehicles were detected over a western German military installation earlier this week, an incident that comes only 48 hours after an explosive-carrying drone was recovered at one of the country’s most critical freight airports.

    Per an official statement from Germany’s Joint Force Command, base security surveillance at the Mechernich Bundeswehr facility first registered the two drones at approximately 10 p.m. local time Thursday. After the sighting was independently confirmed, military police were immediately dispatched to the area to conduct on-site checks.

    The national military confirmed that the Euskirchen state police department has launched a formal criminal investigation into the incursion. As of Saturday evening, local law enforcement had not issued any public response to requests for comment on the case, and the Bundeswehr declined to share further details about the scope of the investigation or any potential leads regarding the drones’ operators.

    This latest drone sighting comes amid a growing pattern of unauthorized drone incursions across critical European infrastructure sites. Over the past year, repeated mysterious drone flights over civilian and cargo airport airspace across EU member states triggered widespread public alarm and forced major disruptions to air travel, leading to the cancellation of dozens of commercial flights that left thousands of passengers stranded across the continent.

    Thursday’s incursion follows the discovery of an explosive-laden drone at Germany’s Leipzig/Halle Airport, a major international logistics hub that plays a key strategic role in military and humanitarian support operations for Ukraine. The drone was found shortly before midnight Tuesday and successfully defused by bomb disposal experts before it could cause harm. After the incident, German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt warned that the episode marked a “new quality of danger” for German security.

    Leipzig/Halle Airport is not only a top freight hub for global trade; it also hosts NATO’s Strategic Airlift International Solution (SALIS), a program that conducts daily operational flights to deliver military equipment to NATO battle groups deployed along the alliance’s eastern flank, stretching from Finland to Romania. The airport regularly accommodates Ukrainian Antonov transport aircraft that move critical supplies to frontline forces amid Russia’s ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

    This is not the first major security incident at the facility: earlier in 2024, an incendiary device ignited at an on-site logistics center, destroying a freight container in a suspected sabotage plot that Western security officials have attributed to Russian intelligence operatives. Since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than four years ago, Western officials have repeatedly accused Russia and its proxy actors of carrying out dozens of coordinated sabotage attacks and disruptive security incidents across European soil.

    In response to growing accusations linking Russian intelligence to the Leipzig drone incident, the Russian Embassy in Berlin issued a statement Friday dismissing the incident as part of a “new wave of anti-Russian hysteria in Germany.”

  • Spain imposes border controls against Italy as row over Ceuta migrant influx intensifies

    Spain imposes border controls against Italy as row over Ceuta migrant influx intensifies

    A diplomatic dispute between two European Union member states, Spain and Italy, has escalated sharply in recent days over a surge of migrant arrivals into the Spanish North African exclave of Ceuta, with both nations enacting temporary border controls that suspend long-standing Schengen Area free movement rules. The tit-for-tat measures, each set to run for one month, took effect after Italy first implemented random additional checks for air and sea travelers arriving from Spain a week ago, triggering an immediate retaliatory response from Madrid that went into force at midnight Spanish time (22:00 GMT).

    The root of the crisis stretches back to late July, when roughly 78,000 migrants crossed from Morocco into Ceuta, a Spanish territory that Morocco has long claimed as its own. In the wake of that mass influx, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a conservative leader who has built her political platform on demanding stricter EU-wide migration policies, announced Rome would temporarily pause its Schengen border-free commitments to block any migrants who entered Ceuta from traveling onward to Italy. Italian officials clarified that only non-EU residents would face extra checks, with Spanish and other EU citizens exempt, and confirmed the restrictions would remain in place through at least August 15, citing unsubstantiated claims of an anticipated second major migrant wave into Ceuta.

    Spain has flatly rejected Italy’s justification for the controls, dismissing the argument as factually baseless spurious reasoning. Spanish authorities note that migrants currently in Ceuta have no existing route to enter the wider Schengen Area, making Italy’s security concerns unfounded. Madrid issued an ultimatum for Rome to reverse the measures by the past Sunday, a demand that Meloni’s government rejected outright. In response, Spain rolled out its own set of random border checks for all air and sea passengers arriving from Italy, set to expire September 7, with a clause allowing for early termination only if the underlying circumstances that prompted the move change significantly.

    While both governments have characterized their respective checks as random, on-the-ground reports have challenged these claims. Spanish national newspaper El Pais has documented long passenger queues and extended wait times at multiple Italian airport terminals over recent days, with all travelers from Spain directed to separate screening lines regardless of their nationality. On the Spanish side, multiple passengers arriving from Italy told public broadcaster RTVE that every person on their flights was required to show passports before being allowed to disembark. “They told us we couldn’t get off the plane without showing our documents,” one passenger, Elisa, told reporters.

    The dispute has laid bare deep divisions across the European Union over migration policy. Italy’s one-month suspension of Schengen rules for Spanish travelers has received public backing from Finland and Denmark, while the Czech Republic has gone a step further, calling for Spain’s EU Schengen Area membership to be temporarily suspended. Temporary Schengen suspensions are not without precedent: Italy already maintains ongoing extra controls along its land border with Slovenia.

    In the weeks following the initial mass crossing, the vast majority of the 78,000 migrants who entered Ceuta have been returned to Morocco. Tragically, an estimated 100 people are believed to have died during the dangerous crossing from North Africa, and nearly 1,400 unaccompanied minor migrants, including many very young children, remain in Ceuta with no clear path forward.

    Though Spain’s government has stated it does not expect a second large-scale wave of migrant crossings to match the late July surge, BBC Arabic has identified dozens of public Facebook posts calling for a new mass crossing in mid-August, including some posts marketing swimming equipment to aspiring migrants. Some of these Facebook groups had accumulated more than 100,000 followers before parent company Meta removed the content for violating its platform policies.

    Officials have continued to debate the underlying cause of the unprecedented mass crossing. The European Union’s Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner has blamed criminal smuggling networks spreading intentional disinformation for the event, a conclusion that the Spanish government under Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has endorsed. The crossing came shortly after Spain’s Supreme Court issued a ruling that barred authorities from immediately summarily returning migrants intercepted at sea while attempting to reach Ceuta or the other Spanish Moroccan exclave Melilla. The Moroccan government has echoed this framing, with an anonymous senior source telling local outlets that the ruling eliminated the existing deterrent to unauthorized crossings, saying “the dam gave way, not under the weight of the criminals, but of a judge’s decision”.

    The mass crossing also reignited long-standing diplomatic tensions between Spain and Morocco, as Morocco does not recognize Spanish sovereignty over either Ceuta or Melilla, and questions remain open about why Moroccan border forces did not intervene to stop the tens of thousands of people attempting the crossing simultaneously.

  • Hunter Biden says his father’s prostate cancer is causing him pain even as he continues to speak out

    Hunter Biden says his father’s prostate cancer is causing him pain even as he continues to speak out

    LONDON – In an emotional, wide-ranging interview broadcast by the BBC on Friday evening, Hunter Biden has shared a devastating update on the health of his father, former U.S. President Joe Biden, confirming that the 83-year-old’s prostate cancer has metastasized to other parts of his body, including his bones, and triggered persistent, debilitating pain that he largely hides from public view.

    At 83 years old, Biden made history as the oldest person to ever occupy the Oval Office, and his advanced age was a constant source of public concern and political scrutiny throughout his four-year presidential term. The former president and his White House team faced sharp criticism over allegations that they concealed the full severity of his health issues during his time in office. That criticism intensified after a poor performance in a pre-election debate against eventual successor Donald Trump forced Biden to drop his 2024 re-election campaign.

    Biden first publicly announced his prostate cancer diagnosis in May 2024, fewer than four months after he departed the White House following the inauguration of Donald Trump. Hunter Biden told the BBC that the diagnosis has taken a heavy emotional and physical toll on the entire Biden family, and that watching his father navigate the illness is an incredibly difficult experience.

    “It’s really sad to watch,” Hunter Biden said of his father’s condition. “The cancer has spread, metastasized into his bones and further. It’s very painful and it’s very debilitating in many respects. The only thing that I’d say about my dad, about his health right now, is I wish he would complain more, because it’s not good.”

    Despite the advanced progression of his cancer and the severe symptoms it causes, Hunter Biden emphasized that the former president has not stepped back from public life. He remains actively engaged in speaking out on policy and political issues that he has long prioritized, holding onto his deep faith in the future of the United States. “He’s still doing his thing,” Hunter Biden said. “He so believes in this country.”

    Separately, the former president is set to release a new memoir titled “Promise Me, America” following the conclusion of U.S. midterm elections.

  • Todd Blanche, Trump’s ex-lawyer, confirmed as US attorney general

    Todd Blanche, Trump’s ex-lawyer, confirmed as US attorney general

    After months of political gridlock and high-stakes partisan negotiations, former personal lawyer to President Donald Trump, Todd Blanche, has secured confirmation as the next United States Attorney General, the country’s highest-ranking law enforcement official. The final Senate vote ended in a razor-thin 50-49 split, marking one of the closest cabinet confirmation votes in modern U.S. political history, with two moderate Republican senators breaking ranks to oppose the nomination.

    Blanche had served in an acting capacity leading the Department of Justice (DOJ) since April, following the abrupt dismissal of his predecessor Pam Bondi. The months-long standoff between Senate Republicans and the Trump administration over the nomination put a spotlight on deep intra-party divides and lingering tensions between the former president and dissident members of his own party.

    All Democratic senators uniformly voted against Blanche’s nomination, while Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska crossed party lines to reject his appointment. Murkowski, one of the most vocal critics of the nomination, cited deep-seated concerns over the growing politicization of the Department of Justice, and stated she lacked confidence that Blanche would act as a check on what she described as “the worst impulses of this administration.” Collins echoed these concerns, raising specific questions about Blanche’s role in negotiating a $10 billion legal settlement between Trump and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), though she stopped short of casting the deciding vote against him.

    The deciding vote ultimately fell to Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy, who had spent weeks weighing his decision amid intense national and intra-party pressure. Notably, Cassidy voted to convict Trump during his second impeachment in 2021 over his role in the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot. Earlier this year, Trump backed a primary challenger to unseat Cassidy, ultimately forcing the senator into retirement. Despite this history of acrimony, Cassidy announced on Friday he would support the nomination, arguing that Blanche represented the best option the White House would put forward. Cassidy framed his vote as a judgment on Blanche’s qualifications, not a referendum on President Trump, and argued that a confirmed Attorney General would have greater leverage to provide candid legal pushback to the administration, while also allowing the DOJ to move forward with its core work combating violent crime.

    During confirmation hearings, multiple Republican senators raised sharp objections to two key priorities tied to Blanche and the Trump administration: his handling of planned public releases of documents related to the late Jeffrey Epstein, and the administration’s proposed $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund. Critics, including Murkowski, warned the fund, which was designed to compensate individuals who claim they were targeted by government persecution, would ultimately funnel money to rioters convicted for their participation in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Facing widespread pushback from within his own party, Blanche pledged during hearings to roll back plans for the fund.

    The confirmation closes a tense chapter of intra-party and partisan conflict in the Senate, but key questions remain unanswered. It is still unclear whether Blanche’s commitment to abandon the fund is legally binding, and political observers have widely noted that Blanche has a long-standing personal and professional loyalty to Trump as his former personal attorney, leading to speculation that the administration could revive a similar initiative under a different name at a later date.

  • US Senate confirms Trump’s ex-lawyer as attorney general

    US Senate confirms Trump’s ex-lawyer as attorney general

    In a closely watched and deeply partisan vote early Saturday, the United States Senate confirmed Todd Blanche, former personal lawyer to President Donald Trump, to serve as the nation’s top law enforcement official as permanent attorney general. The final vote tally ended at 50-49, split almost entirely along party lines, with only two moderate Republican senators — Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski — breaking with their caucus to join all Democrats in opposing the nomination.

    Blanche, who has already led the Department of Justice (DOJ) in an acting capacity since April, when Trump fired former acting attorney general Pam Bondi, carries a long history of representing Trump in high-stakes criminal cases. Prior to his appointment to the acting role, Blanche stood as Trump’s private defense counsel in his 2024 New York hush money trial linked to payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels. He also served on the former president’s legal team in two federal indictments brought by special counsel Jack Smith: one over improper retention of classified documents after Trump left the White House, and a second for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Both cases were dismissed immediately following Trump’s victory in the 2024 general election.

    From the outset of the confirmation process, Senate Democrats uniformly opposed Blanche’s nomination, raising urgent alarms that Trump intended to transform the traditionally independent DOJ into a political weapon serving his personal interests rather than the American public. Senate Judiciary Committee ranking Democrat Dick Durbin argued that the role of attorney general demands the holder serve as “the people’s lawyer,” not personal counsel to the sitting president. “Mr Blanche continues to operate as the president’s personal lawyer, treating the Justice Department like a law firm serving one client — the president,” Durbin said ahead of the vote.

    The nomination faced a last-minute threat from within Republican ranks, after a handful of GOP senators raised objections to two controversial proposals tied to Blanche’s appointment. The first was a plan for a $1.8 billion fund to compensate what Trump labels “victims of politicized prosecutions” — a category widely expected to include hundreds of rioters who participated in the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, a violent attempt to block the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory over Trump. The second was an unprecedented proposal to grant Trump, his two eldest sons, and the Trump Organization permanent immunity from future federal tax audits.

    To shore up support from wavering Republicans, Blanche released a written concession over the weekend that reversed both policies. The controversial “anti-weaponization fund” was scrapped entirely, while the tax immunity agreement was revised to apply only retroactively to past tax filings, with no protections for future returns. The compromise was enough to secure the narrow majority needed for confirmation.

    Following the vote, Blanche took to social platform X to express gratitude for the outcome. “I am deeply honored by the trust and confidence President Trump has placed in me to lead the Department of Justice,” he wrote. “I am grateful to the Senate for staying late to complete this process. To the dedicated public servants of the Department of Justice, thank you for your work each day to uphold the law and keep our country safe.”

    President Trump has praised Blanche as a “star” throughout the nomination process, framing his appointment as part of a broader effort to bring independent federal agencies under more direct White House control — a shift that has already upended longstanding U.S. political norms. Critics, however, warn that Blanche’s leadership aligns with what Democrats have labeled a Trump “retribution campaign” targeting the president’s political opponents. Blanche has also faced sustained criticism from survivors of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who have condemned his oversight of the public release of investigative files tied to the case, given Epstein’s longstanding personal ties to Trump.

    The close final vote underscores the intense political sensitivity surrounding the nomination, which has renewed national debate over the separation of powers and the independence of the nation’s top law enforcement agency at the start of Trump’s second term.

  • Buddha and a road trip: Sussan Ley breaks silence on life after Liberal spill

    Buddha and a road trip: Sussan Ley breaks silence on life after Liberal spill

    Almost a year after her abrupt ousting as leader of Australia’s Liberal-National Coalition, former opposition leader Sussan Ley has opened up for the first time about the fallout of the February leadership spill that ended her top political role, and the unplanned cross-country American road trip that helped her rebuild her sense of purpose.

    The long-serving Member for Farrer stepped into the Liberal leadership role in 2023, but her tenure collapsed in just months amid two turbulent, public splits between the Liberal Party and its coalition partner, the Nationals. In a candid opinion piece published in *The Australian Financial Review* on Saturday, Ley described the leadership spill that removed her from office as the most catastrophic turning point of her life.

    In the immediate aftermath of the spill, Ley withdrew from public life entirely: she switched off her phone, retreated from the political sphere, and spent days in reflection. Drawing on two unexpected sources of guidance, she turned to Buddhist teachings — which reminded her that “you only lose what you cling to” — and the uncompromising ethos of The Clash’s frontman Joe Strummer, who long championed radical honesty in public life.

    Recalling the emotional toll of the moment, Ley compared her burnt-out state to a windscreen cracked by a falling rock: all the structural pieces remain in place, but the driver can no longer see clearly through the damage. “Recognising the symptoms of burnout does little to blunt their impact,” she wrote.

    Rather than lingering on the political defeat, Ley soon acted on a long-held dream of exploring Middle America. She booked a one-way plane ticket to Los Angeles, traveled north to North Dakota, and embarked on a rambling, unscripted journey by Greyhound bus all the way to the southern tip of Texas. Traveling light, she brought just one backpack, a single pair of sturdy boots, and a playlist packed with punk music.

    Along the route, she stayed in budget, modest hotels and rode alongside ordinary passengers she described as “people in transition and disarray”. Crossing through South Dakota, she noted the omnipresence of small-town convenience stores; as she moved further south into the border regions, Spanish became the primary language heard along highways, and the landscape took on the rough, unregulated energy of the historic Wild West. On her rides, she encountered people moving through the region carrying everything from cash to narcotics to undocumented migrants, she said.

    During her trip, Ley made a stop to search for the controversial border wall built under former U.S. President Donald Trump, and spoke with a U.S. Border Patrol officer who declined to have his photo taken. What struck Ley most about the country was not the deep political divisions that have long defined American public life — “America has always argued with itself,” she noted — but a widespread, underlying weariness that cut across all regions and groups. While it remains a cultural truism that hard work brings success, Ley observed that many ordinary Americans now feel that working hard is no longer enough to get ahead.

    By the end of her journey, Ley reached a stark conclusion about the current state of the U.S.: the country does not feel like a single unified nation, but rather a collection of separate societies that barely communicate with one another. Despite that sober observation, the trip left Ley with a renewed sense of connection to marginalized people, and she wrote that she felt “harmony with the downtrodden” while riding the public bus network across the country.

    Ley contracted influenza A during her travels and returned to Australia physically unwell, but the numb, defeated feeling that had lingered since the leadership spill had completely lifted. Following her departure, Angus Taylor was selected to replace her as Liberal leader. For Ley, the weeks of traveling alongside ordinary people carrying far heavier burdens than her own helped her accept the end of her career in national leadership, and restored a clear, balanced perspective on her place in the world.

  • Donald Trump splashes $560m on regional NSW mine for US ‘warfighters’

    Donald Trump splashes $560m on regional NSW mine for US ‘warfighters’

    In a major move aimed at strengthening U.S. national security and reducing reliance on adversarial nations for strategically vital materials, the Trump administration has greenlit a $560 million conditional loan to an Australian-listed minerals firm to develop a high-grade scandium project in the tiny outback town of Fifield, New South Wales. The funding, awarded through the Office of Strategic Capital (OSC) under the recently renamed U.S. Department of War (formerly the Department of Defense), will support Melbourne-based Sunrise Energy Metals Limited to build out its full domestic scandium value chain starting at the Syerston Scandium Project, located in NSW’s Central West region.

    Scandium, classified as a critical rare earth material, is a core input for high-priority sectors including aerospace, advanced defense manufacturing, and clean energy technology. It is an essential component for products ranging from fifth-generation F-35 fighter jets to electric vehicle components and advanced semiconductors. For decades, global scandium supply has been heavily concentrated in three countries: China, Russia, and Ukraine – a dynamic that has raised persistent national security concerns for U.S. policymakers.

    This transformation is set to reshape the local economy of Fifield, a former gold rush town with a total population of just 128. According to data from Sunrise Energy Metals’ official website, the Fifield deposit holds approximately 80% high-grade scandium ore, making it one of the most promising undeveloped scandium resources in the world. “Under the leadership of President Donald J. Trump, securing our critical minerals supply chain is a top national security priority,” said OSC Director David A. Lorch in an official statement.

    Lorch emphasized that the public-private partnership behind the project, which totals nearly $1 billion (equivalent to $1.4 billion Australian dollars) in combined capital, marks a defining milestone in building long-term supply chain resilience for a mineral that grows more important by the day. “This would help address foreign dependencies in scandium supply and facilitate scandium’s use in critical defence and commercial applications,” he added.

    As part of the financing agreement, the U.S. Department of War will receive a right of first offer on all output from the Sunrise project, ensuring U.S. defense and industrial manufacturers have priority access to the domestically aligned supply of scandium. OSC Senior Managing Director Peter B. Zuckerman noted that a U.S.-aligned scandium supply chain would eliminate U.S. warfighters and manufacturers’ reliance on geopolitical competitors, while also drawing significant private capital investment into the country’s frontline industrial base. The project has secured full backing from Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, per the department’s statement.

    This investment builds on existing bilateral cooperation between the U.S. and Australia on critical minerals. Back in October, President Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a joint bilateral framework focused on critical and rare earths during a meeting at the White House. Australia holds extensive deposits of multiple minerals critical to U.S. defense and tech sectors, including semiconductor-grade gallium and nuclear-grade uranium, positioning the country as a key strategic partner for the U.S. in diversifying global mineral supply.

    As of the 2026–2027 financial year, the OSC reported it has already committed $11.8 billion in debt financing across critical infrastructure and industrial projects, and has mobilized more than $25.1 billion in total public and private capital to advance U.S. national security and industrial resilience goals.