Global Pulse

分类： politics

  • Trump’s former campaign manager running multimillion dollar pro-Israel influencer campaign: Report

    Trump’s former campaign manager running multimillion dollar pro-Israel influencer campaign: Report

    A bombshell new report from Time Magazine published Tuesday has uncovered that a covert social media initiative designed to undermine U.S. President Donald Trump’s ceasefire agreement with Iran was orchestrated by Brad Parscale, Trump’s former 2020 campaign manager.

    The operation was launched under a broader contract between Parscale’s private strategic firm Clock Tower X and global advertising giant Havas, which was acting on behalf of the Israeli government. While the public mandate for the work framed it as an effort to counter antisemitism online, Time’s investigation reveals the unstated core goal was to stop rising criticism of Israel among young American conservative audiences.

    Parscale exploited his senior leadership role as chief strategy officer at Salem Media Group, a conservative and Christian-focused national media conglomerate, to narrow his targeting to right-leaning young voters across the United States. He also tapped into a network of social media companies he founded or controls, including digital strategy firm Campaign Nucleus and influencer marketing platform Influenceable, to recruit conservative content creators and online personalities to join the campaign.

    In private encrypted group chats, these recruited influencers received guided messaging instructions tailored for major platforms including X, Instagram and TikTok, all crafted to align with Israeli government interests. Content creators were paid based on the performance of their posts, with compensation tied directly to the number of impressions and user engagement their content generated, according to Time’s reporting.

    Previous influencer campaigns run through Influenceable structured payments with a $2,250 base fee per post, plus an additional $1 for every 1,000 views earned, capped at two million views per post. Under this payment structure, top-performing influencers could walk away with as much as $4,250 for a single social media post.

    One high-profile conservative pro-Israel commentator linked to the campaign is Eyal Yakoby, who boasts 300,000 followers on X and has appeared as a guest on major U.S. outlets including Fox News, CNN and The Washington Post. Yakoby, a vocal public supporter of Israel, maintains his work is focused on combating antisemitism, but he has also spread unsubstantiated claims tying New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to the Muslim Brotherhood. When contacted by Time, Yakoby denied ever being paid to promote opinions he did not personally hold.

    Parscale committed to delivering a minimum of 50 million monthly digital impressions through the campaign, with a stated goal of shifting how major artificial intelligence platforms including OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini characterize Israel and the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. For this work, the Israeli government pays Clock Tower X $1.5 million every month. All of Parscale’s work for the Israeli government has been formally registered as required under the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act, a public disclosure requirement for foreign political actors operating in the United States. Prior reporting from The Intercept in May 2026 first revealed that Parscale’s firm had been hired by Israel for $6 million in September 2025, before signing a subsequent $15 million contract with Havas.

    While the campaign itself has been active for months, Tuesday’s Time report carries new significance because it confirms that a close former ally of President Trump was actively working to sink a core foreign policy initiative of the Trump administration. The magazine notes that U.S. officials had already observed a coordinated wave of anti-ceasefire rhetoric on social media, though they had not previously confirmed the origin of the coordinated effort.

    Measuring the campaign’s overall effectiveness remains an open question. Israel has seen consistent erosion in public support across all demographic groups in the U.S. since it launched its military campaign in Gaza following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack that killed roughly 1,200 people in southern Israel. The Israeli military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians to date, and widespread criticism of the operation as a humanitarian catastrophe has shifted public opinion across the political spectrum.

    Even prominent conservative voices have broken with the Israeli government in recent months: long-time mainstream conservative commentator Tucker Carlson and former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon have both publicly condemned Israel for dragging the United States into unnecessary conflict in the Middle East. Conservative comedian and podcaster Dave Smith has also built a large new audience for his sharp criticism of U.S. intervention in the region and Israel’s military actions in the besieged Gaza Strip.

    Polling reflects this shifting opinion: a Quinnipiac University poll released last month found that 60 percent of U.S. voters believe potential U.S. military action against Iran would not be worth the cost.

    This reporting was aggregated from original independent coverage by Middle East Eye, a publication that produces on-the-ground, independent reporting and analysis of the Middle East, North Africa and surrounding regions.

  • UK announces social media curfew for older teens

    UK announces social media curfew for older teens

    The United Kingdom has expanded its sweeping new regulations targeting underage social media use, announcing a landmark overnight curfew for 16- and 17-year-olds just one month after rolling out a full ban for children under 16 on major platforms.

    In an official statement released Tuesday, the UK government confirmed the new policy, which restricts 16- and 17-year-olds’ access to popular platforms including Instagram and Facebook between the hours of midnight and 6 a.m. The regulatory package also includes a mandatory default setting that will disable widely criticized addictive design features such as infinite scrolling for this age group. Unlike the under-16 ban, these restrictions are not fully mandatory: users can manually override the settings if they choose. However, critics have already raised questions about the measures’ effectiveness, and details on how the government will enforce these changes remain undisclosed as of press time.

    The under-16 ban, announced last month by Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s administration, covers all of the world’s largest social media platforms: Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. That policy is scheduled to go into effect in early 2027, making the UK one of a growing number of nations implementing strict age-based restrictions on social media access for minors.

    “Even as young people gain greater independence at 16, they should still be protected from the most addictive online features that can have a harmful impact on their wellbeing,” UK Technology Minister Liz Kendall said in the official announcement. “These measures will be crucial in helping young people get the sleep they need, focus on school and college, and spend more quality time with family and friends.”

    Additional components of the new regulatory framework include mandatory break requirements for under-18 users of AI chatbot platforms, requiring providers to prompt minor users to take regular pauses from interaction.

    Reaction to the new rules has been split across advocacy and public health circles. While some children’s welfare organizations have hailed the reforms as a long-overdue step to protect vulnerable young people from the well-documented harms of excessive social media use, other observers have warned that poorly enforced restrictions could push teens toward unregulated, less safe alternative platforms that lack even basic content moderation protections.

    The UK’s policy shift comes amid a growing global trend of strict age-based social media regulation. Australia was the first country to implement a national under-16 social media ban in December 2024, a move that has so far produced mixed results in terms of compliance and enforcement. Canada and the United Arab Emirates have both announced similar under-16 bans in recent months, while Indonesia began enforcing its own under-16 social media restriction in March 2025.

  • Gibraltar and Spain end border checks

    Gibraltar and Spain end border checks

    Decades of cross-border tension and daily commuter frustration formally came to an end this Wednesday, as Spain and the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar lifted all routine land border controls between the two territories under a landmark post-Brexit agreement reached with the European Union and United Kingdom.

    Moments after midnight, an Agence France-Presse reporter on site witnessed dozens of pedestrians and vehicles cross the frontier from Spain into Gibraltar without undergoing mandatory customs or identity checks, marking the first unimpeded crossing in modern history. Hundreds of gathered celebrants waved Spanish flags at the opening, while Gibraltar’s Chief Minister Fabian Picardo declared to the crowd that “Europe is back.”

    Situated on the southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula, Gibraltar—commonly nicknamed “The Rock”—is a self-governing British territory covering just under 7 square kilometers, with a permanent population of only 40,000. Despite its small size, it depends heavily on a daily workforce of roughly 15,500 people who commute from neighboring Spanish towns. For generations, rush-hour queues stretching for kilometers were a ubiquitous fixture at the border, with delays worsening dramatically during periodic spikes in diplomatic tension over Madrid’s longstanding sovereignty claim to the territory.

    The change follows a formal treaty signed Tuesday in Brussels by EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic, alongside ministers from the UK, Spain, and Gibraltar’s Chief Minister Picardo. Negotiated over four years of intensive talks following Britain’s 2020 exit from the European Union, the agreement aligns Gibraltar with Europe’s Schengen Area, the continent’s passport-free travel zone. Routine identity checks will only remain in place for travelers arriving at Gibraltar’s airport and seaport from non-Schengen destinations.

    Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares framed the deal in a pre-signing radio interview, noting it “opens a new era” for Gibraltar and its surrounding Spanish region that will unlock “enormous opportunities.” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez plans to visit the border region Wednesday, where crews have already begun removing the old chain-link fencing that long separated the two sides. Sanchez has called the new arrangements the tearing down of “the last wall” inside the EU, laying the groundwork for a zone of shared cross-border prosperity.

    Picardo echoed the sentiment, describing the agreement as a step that eliminates “the physical barriers of a bygone era of friction” while preserving Gibraltar’s autonomy, stating the territory retains “the keys to our own front door.”

    Business and labor leaders across the region have widely praised the move, saying it will resolve longstanding problems that held back economic opportunity on both sides of the border. Owen Smith, head of the Gibraltar Federation of Small Businesses, explained that the daily hassle of border delays has long been a major barrier to recruiting and retaining cross-border workers who choose to live in more affordable Spanish communities. “It’s been a big factor in retention, and certainly a fluid border is going to make life much easier,” Smith told AFP, calling the reform “very, very positive.”

    Manuel Triano Paulete, secretary general of the CCOO trade union for Spain’s Campo de Gibraltar region surrounding the territory, framed the end of arbitrary controls as the removal of a persistent “Sword of Damocles” hanging over cross-border workers, who for decades never knew how long their daily commute would take due to politically motivated delays.

    The border has been a flashpoint in Anglo-Spanish relations for more than three centuries. Spain ceded Gibraltar to Britain under the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, and Madrid has maintained a formal sovereignty claim over the territory ever since. The most severe disruption came in 1969, when Spanish dictator Francisco Franco ordered the full closure of the border in response to Gibraltar’s overwhelming public vote in a referendum to remain a British territory. That closure lasted 13 years, cutting off thousands of workers from their jobs and splitting hundreds of families apart. Since the border reopened in 1982, periodic diplomatic tensions have repeatedly led to sudden tightening of controls and crippling daily queues.

    For the surrounding region, the economic stakes of the reform are high. Gibraltar’s economy, built on financial services and online gaming, boasts one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, and it has long served as an economic lifeline for Campo de Gibraltar, a region that has historically recorded one of Spain’s highest unemployment rates.

  • ‘The Middle East is coming together’: Trump hosts handpicked Iraqi leader in Washington

    ‘The Middle East is coming together’: Trump hosts handpicked Iraqi leader in Washington

    Exactly two months after his surprise appointment as Iraq’s prime minister, political outsider and former banker Ali al-Zaidi stood in the White House Oval Office on Tuesday, receiving public praise from the U.S. president who backed his rise to power.

    Speaking to reporters in the room, former U.S. President Donald Trump made clear his active role in Zaidi’s ascent, noting he had thrown his full support behind the Iraqi leader after saying he was dissatisfied with the election’s expected frontrunner. “I think he’s going to end up being a great leader,” Trump told assembled media, adding that Zaidi has long been a friend to the United States. The president closed his introductory remarks with a lighthearted jab: “He’s young and he’s handsome, which I don’t like,” drawing laughter from Zaidi in attendance.

    Beyond the ceremonial pleasantries, the meeting served as a platform for the Trump administration to lay out its core agenda for Iraq: moving Baghdad fully out from under Tehran’s sphere of influence, with the top priority being the full disarmament of Iran-aligned militias that operate under the umbrella of the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) within Iraq’s state structure.

    For his part, Zaidi reaffirmed his commitment to disarmament, telling reporters that his September 30 deadline for all unauthorized armed factions to surrender their weapons remains non-negotiable. “Whoever surrenders his weapons… We will cooperate with them,” he said via a translator, adding, “Factions are a need, not a profession” — a comment signaling his view that armed groups should integrate into formal state institutions rather than operate independently.

    U.S. opposition to Iranian influence in Iraq is not a new policy, but current tensions have pushed Washington to ramp up pressure dramatically in recent months. In April, amid escalating tit-for-tat hostilities between the Trump administration and Tehran in the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. froze dollar shipments to Iraq and suspended security cooperation to pressure the Iraqi government ahead of Zaidi’s appointment. Within days of Zaidi’s confirmation as prime minister, the funds were immediately unfrozen, a clear signal of U.S. backing for the new leader.

    The structure of Iraq’s economy gives Washington significant leverage over Iraqi politics: since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, nearly 90% of Iraq’s state revenue — almost all drawn from oil exports — is held in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the Iraqi government requires explicit U.S. approval for cash reserves to be airlifted back to Baghdad for domestic use.

    Unlike many previous Iraqi political leaders, Zaidi built his career in finance rather than partisan factional politics, and his core agenda centers on rebranding Iraq as a stable, economically attractive destination for foreign direct investment. Analysts note he is also positioning himself as a committed anti-corruption reformer to win over international investors. “He wants to portray himself as someone who’s leading a campaign against corruption within his country, and I think his approach is to kind of convince, in this case, U.S. investors that Iraq will be a country where the rule of law is honoured,” explained Gordon Gray, a former senior adviser to the U.S. ambassador in Iraq from 2008 to 2009, in an interview with Middle East Eye.

    To his credit, Zaidi has already launched an unprecedented anti-corruption crackdown that has resulted in the arrest of two former Iraqi oil ministers alongside dozens of other high-profile figures, with authorities seizing millions of dollars in untraceable cash and gold bars from the suspects.

    Still, critical questions linger over Iraq’s ability to exercise full sovereignty over its own affairs. How can a country be fully self-determining when it cannot access its own oil revenue for domestic development without U.S. approval? And how can it act independently when Tehran continues to interfere in key policy projects, from energy development to security? Former U.S. ambassador to Iraq Stuart Jones argued that Iraq’s vast natural resources should make it one of the wealthiest countries in the Middle East. “They should be richer than Saudi Arabia. They should be richer than Qatar,” Jones told Middle East Eye. “But they have not created the platform for themselves that allows them to enjoy that wealth, and that’s going to require investment in infrastructure, and it means making independent decisions from Iran.”

    Many regional analysts point out that the Trump administration’s own maximum pressure campaign against Iran has itself been a major source of economic and political instability for Iraq. Giorgio Cafiero, CEO of Gulf State Analytics, noted that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz amid escalating U.S.-Iran tensions plunged Iraq’s already fragile economy into a deep crisis, costing the country tens of billions of dollars in lost revenue. Early in the standoff, media reports also emerged that the CIA was working to arm Iraqi Kurdish groups to destabilize Tehran, a move that Kurdish officials publicly distanced themselves from, warning that involvement in U.S.-Iran hostilities would plunge their autonomous region into chaos. Cafiero summed up the country’s precarious position: “Iraq seems to be a victim of chaos in the region.”

    Trump offered a far more optimistic framing during the meeting. When asked about relations between Baghdad and Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan Region, Trump claimed the Middle East was moving toward unprecedented unity. “We are getting rid of the bully of the Middle East. Iran was the bully of the Middle East. They bullied Iraq. They bullied every country,” he said. “There’s no fear anymore because their military capability has been knocked to hell.” Tehran has repeatedly rejected claims that its military capabilities have been severely degraded, and has little incentive to agree to the disarmament of its allied militias in Iraq, which give it critical strategic leverage in the region.

    Cafiero says he remains skeptical that the Iraqi state will be able to establish a full monopoly on the use of force by disarming Iran-aligned groups. “I am quite sceptical about this idea that the Iraqi state will be able to assert its monopoly” on Iranian-backed factions, he said. “I have a rather tough time imagining that.”

    If there is a path to tangible progress under Zaidi, analysts say it likely stems from the personal rapport he has built with Trump, a leader who has openly prioritized personal relationships over institutional diplomatic norms. Both men are political outsiders with backgrounds in business, a shared identity that makes them open to cutting high-stakes deals.

    Zaidi’s first official visit to the U.S. includes more than just the White House meeting. After leaving Washington, his next stop is Houston, where he will meet with senior executives from major U.S. energy companies to discuss investment opportunities. A key item on the agenda is a proposed deal with Chevron to build a new oil pipeline, a project that would give Iraq an alternative export route and reduce its vulnerability to disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz. The visit will conclude back in Washington on Friday, where Zaidi will address the Iraqi American Chamber of Commerce to pitch Iraq as a viable investment destination to U.S. business leaders.

  • Trump retreat over Hormuz tolls suggests he is struggling to end Iran war

    Trump retreat over Hormuz tolls suggests he is struggling to end Iran war

    The four-month-long standoff between the United States and Iran took another chaotic turn last week when former President Donald Trump first announced a controversial 20% transit fee for all vessels passing through the Strait of Hormuz, then scrapped the plan entirely less than 24 hours later. The abrupt policy reversal has laid bare the deep strategic impasse at the heart of the ongoing conflict, leaving the Trump administration stuck between unpalatable options: escalation that risks economic and political fallout, or a negotiated settlement that falls short of the president’s promises.

    The drama unfolded on a Monday morning, when Trump took to his social platform Truth Social to announce the resumption of a full American naval blockade on Iranian shipping. As part of the new policy, he mandated that every commercial vessel transiting the strategic Strait of Hormuz — including those flagged by U.S. allies — would be required to pay a 20% fee to the U.S. The proceeds, he claimed, would cover the costs of American military operations that provide security to the volatile waterway, through which roughly 20% of the world’s daily oil supplies pass.

    By the following day, the proposal was dead. Trump walked it back completely, replacing the fee plan with a new framework that would see the U.S. strike targeted trade and investment deals with Gulf Arab allies, offering guaranteed safe passage in exchange for cooperation. This sudden U-turn came amid renewed American military strikes across Iranian territory, marking the formal collapse of a month-old temporary ceasefire and bilateral memorandum of understanding (MOU) that had been hailed by both sides as a step toward lasting peace just weeks earlier.

    That MOU, which went into effect after weeks of on-again, off-again negotiations, was intentionally vague from its inception, leaving core contentious issues to future talks. The agreement included provisions that recognized a limited role for Iran in overseeing Hormuz shipping, with the explicit commitment that Iran would facilitate safe passage for commercial vessels without charge. It also promised billions in planned international investment in Iran and a full rollback of crippling economic sanctions in exchange for Iranian cooperation.

    U.S. officials had gambled that these concessions, paired with threats of consequences for noncompliance, would convince Iran to abandon its long-held goal of asserting more direct control over the waterway that sits on its doorstep. That gamble failed. Iran responded to Trump’s announcement of the renewed blockade by ramping up attacks on U.S. allies and commercial shipping in the region, bringing traffic through the Strait of Hormuz to a near standstill. The MOU, once seen as a path out of conflict, is now effectively dead, according to regional experts.

    The 20% fee proposal itself was not an entirely new idea: Trump had floated similar arrangements multiple times over the course of the war. What makes the pivot striking, however, is its direct contradiction of public statements just one month prior from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Rubio had harshly condemned an Iranian plan to charge transit fees for Hormuz shipping, arguing that “no country is allowed to charge tolls or fees on an international waterway” under existing international law.

    Today, both the U.S. and Iran find themselves trapped in a familiar, intractable predicament. Militarily, the U.S. has achieved its measurable objectives: it has destroyed significant amounts of Iranian naval and air assets, degraded Iranian defense capabilities, and reimposed a full blockade that has cut off Iran’s vital oil export revenue, a lifeline for the Iranian government. Even so, militarily weakened as it is, Iran retains the ability to disrupt traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, and the U.S. cannot force it to stop without committing to a dramatic, full-scale escalation of the war.

    For Trump, that escalation carries steep costs. The conflict has remained deeply unpopular with the American public, and a major expansion of hostilities would almost certainly send global oil prices soaring, reversing recent positive trends in U.S. inflation. Just one day after Trump’s initial announcement of the fee and blockade, global oil prices jumped nearly 10% — the largest single-day increase in six years. While the administration received good news this week when official data showed consumer prices dropping, an escalation would likely erase that progress, leaving Trump’s Republican party vulnerable in the upcoming November midterm congressional elections.

    At the same time, Trump has little political appetite to accept a negotiated settlement that does not deliver a deal explicitly better than the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action struck by the Obama administration, a deal he has repeatedly criticized. This leaves the conflict stuck in a holding pattern of prolonged attrition, many analysts argue.

    “The most likely ending is a non-ending,” explained Rosemary Kelanid, Director of the Middle East program at Defense Priorities. “This has turned into a war of attrition, and wars of attrition tend to go on for a long, long period of time. He has already tried the things he can easily do, can credibly do. He can attack military targets, regime targets. He’s done that before, and it didn’t cause Iran to surrender.”

    Elliot Abrams, senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, echoed that assessment, noting that the conflict has boiled down to a test of patience. “We’re back to where we were initially, where the question was: who’s got more patience? The Iranians, who will not be able to export oil, or the US and other countries that use Persian gulf oil?” he said. Abrams added that while there may still be room to negotiate a narrow agreement focused solely on Strait of Hormuz security, a return to the original MOU is no longer on the table.

    Even if the two sides return to talks and hammer out another ceasefire, the core intractable disagreements that sparked the conflict — control over Hormuz, the future of Iran’s nuclear program, and Iran’s regional influence — remain unresolved. Trump has recently hinted at potential airstrikes on Pickaxe Mountain, a heavily fortified Iranian nuclear research site south of Tehran, but experts question whether American strikes can inflict meaningful damage on the deep underground tunnel complex protected by solid granite.

    As the war approaches its fifth month, Trump has drawn a parallel to other long-running U.S. conflicts, such as the Vietnam War. But that decades-long quagmire ultimately destroyed the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson and damaged U.S. global standing for a generation, a fate Trump is eager to avoid. It also contradicts a core campaign promise Trump has made for years: that he would end the era of endless “forever wars” in the Middle East that have drained American resources and political capital.

    Now, with the MOU in tatters, the temporary ceasefire collapsed, and the fee proposal dead after just one day, the end of the US-Iran conflict appears no closer than it was in the first weeks after hostilities began.

  • How a former ‘street kid’ is key to South Africa’s police corruption inquiry

    How a former ‘street kid’ is key to South Africa’s police corruption inquiry

    After a year of dominating the headlines around South Africa’s landmark public inquiry into systemic police corruption, controversial businessman Vusimusi ‘Cat’ Matlala is finally scheduled to give his long-awaited testimony before the Madlanga Commission on Wednesday. The 49-year-old, who has remained in police custody for over 12 months pending an unrelated attempted murder charge, will face questions from the commission’s panel led by retired Constitutional Court judge Mbuyiseli Madlanga, answering to a sweeping set of corruption and criminal allegations that have shaken the country’s law enforcement establishment to its core.

    Matlala first entered the public spotlight just three years ago, when his name was linked to reported tender irregularities at a state-run hospital — a connection he has consistently denied. What is known of his early life comes almost entirely from testimony he gave to a parallel parliamentary corruption inquiry last November, where he detailed a harsh childhood growing up in a township east of Pretoria during the final decades of apartheid. Raised for much of his youth by a single mother who eventually left him, Matlala told lawmakers he grew up as a street child, only reuniting with his mother in 2002 as she battled terminal illness. After her death, he learned she had been sexually assaulted because of her albinism, a condition targeted by harmful myths that claim intercourse with an albino person can cure disease.

    After leaving school, Matlala built up an informal small business to survive, a path that brought him repeated run-ins with the law. In 2001, he was convicted and served prison time for possession of stolen property. Over subsequent decades, he was arrested on charges ranging from house robbery and cash-in-transit heist to assault; he has denied all involvement in these allegations, and in every case, he was either acquitted or saw the charges withdrawn. Contrary to popular speculation that his nickname ‘Cat’ refers to an ability to escape legal trouble like a cat with nine lives, Matlala has explained the moniker comes from his large family: he and his wife share nine children.

    According to Matlala’s own account, he turned his life around in 2017, when he registered his first formal security services company. He later expanded into healthcare service provision, eventually landing lucrative government contracts first with a public hospital and then with the South African Police Service — a remarkable feat he admitted to parliament, given he had no prior track record in the healthcare sector. His current legal troubles began in May 2025, when he and his wife Tsakane were arrested and charged with attempted murder, a charge both vehemently deny. While his wife was granted bail, Matlala has remained in custody ever since. He was later hit with additional corruption charges tied to his police healthcare contracts; he initially pleaded guilty as part of a plea deal with prosecutors last month, but withdrew the plea after the agreement collapsed.

    The allegations against Matlala that will be front and center at Wednesday’s testimony are wide-ranging. Prosecutors and commission witnesses claim Matlala secured influence and won police contracts by peddling lavish gifts to senior law enforcement and political figures. These gifts include 20 impalas, doses of the popular weight-loss drug Ozempic, and thousands of dollars in unsecured personal loans. Most seriously, Matlala has not yet been forced to address claims that he was a core member of a major drug trafficking syndicate known locally as the Big Five.

    In his November 2024 parliamentary testimony, Matlala pushed back against early accusations, saying he had no personal connections to senior police officers or leading politicians, and denied all core corruption claims. He did admit to making donations to activities affiliated with the African National Congress, South Africa’s ruling coalition party.

    Over the 10 months the Madlanga Commission has held public hearings, a string of explosive testimonies has tied Matlala to some of the most senior figures in South African law enforcement and politics. Witnesses have claimed Matlala provided indirect campaign funding to suspended Police Minister Senzo Mchunu to support his political activities, a claim Mchunu has outright denied. Matlala has also been linked to Mchunu’s predecessor, Bheki Cele. During his parliamentary testimony, Matlala claimed he paid Cele a 500,000 rand (equivalent to roughly $31,000) facilitation fee after police returned firearms that had been seized from him, and that Cele additionally asked for help funding a home purchase and his son’s university tuition — requests Matlala says he refused. Cele has acknowledged knowing Matlala and staying twice at his rented Pretoria penthouse, but denies ever receiving any payments from the businessman.

    The commission has also scrutinized Matlala’s relationship with suspended deputy police chief Major-General Shadrack Sibiya. Both men have repeatedly claimed their interactions were strictly professional, but commission testimony has contradicted this account. Witnesses allege Sibiya received 20 impalas from Matlala around the same time the businessman was awarded his major police contract; Sibiya has denied this, saying he would never accept gifts from a government service provider. One witness also told the commission that after his May 2025 arrest, Matlala openly bragged about his close connections to top-tier police leadership, including Sibiya.

    Multiple other senior police officers have been implicated in the alleged corrupt network tied to Matlala, and two have already been fired from the force. Brigadier Rachel Matjeng, the senior officer who oversaw the awarding of the controversial police contract to Matlala, told the commission she had an on-again off-again romantic relationship with the businessman, who showered her with expensive gifts including Ozempic injections. Major-General Richard Shibiri, head of the police’s organized crime unit, admitted to accepting a $4,000 personal loan from Matlala to cover repairs for his son’s car, which he has since repaid. Shibiri, who oversees anti-gang, narcotics and illegal mining investigations, denies having any close personal connection to Matlala or knowing he was allegedly part of a criminal cartel. Both Matjeng and Shibiri have been dismissed from the police service.

    Further allegations have emerged tied to suspended Ekurhuleni acting police chief Julius Mkhwanazi, who is accused of arranging to have blue lights and sirens installed on Matlala’s personal vehicles — a privilege reserved only for official security use. Mkhwanazi has denied this specific claim, but admitted to receiving money from Matlala, whom he described as a ‘blood brother’ during his commission testimony.

    After 10 months of shocking revelations that have gripped public attention across South Africa, expectations are high for Matlala’s Wednesday testimony. Many South Africans, who have followed the commission’s proceedings closely, believe Matlala holds key information that could unpack the full scale of systemic corruption within the national police force, and are eager to hear his response to the full scope of allegations against him.

  • US House of Representatives passes Trump-backed bill to make daylight saving time permanent

    US House of Representatives passes Trump-backed bill to make daylight saving time permanent

    After years of stalled negotiations and bipartisan debate, the U.S. House of Representatives has taken a historic step to end the decades-long practice of twice-annual clock changes, passing the Sunshine Protection Act with overwhelming bipartisan support in a Tuesday vote. The final tally came in at 308 in favor to 117 opposed, codifying a shift to permanent daylight saving time – the clock setting currently observed across most of the U.S. from March through November each year. Under the terms of the legislation, states and territories that currently maintain full or partial exemptions from daylight saving time will retain the authority to opt for permanent standard time in their exempt jurisdictions. The push to eliminate seasonal clock changes has built cross-party momentum for more than a decade, after the U.S. Senate approved a nearly identical version of the bill back in 2022. That earlier measure, however, never advanced to a floor vote in the House, leaving the policy in legislative limbo until this week’s vote. Unlike the 2022 proposal, this iteration of the Sunshine Protection Act has secured the public backing of former president and current 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump, clearing a key political hurdle for its passage. The origins of the U.S.’s seasonal clock-changing system date back to World War I, when policymakers first adopted daylight saving time as an energy conservation measure, designed to extend afternoon daylight hours and cut electricity consumption during the wartime production push. Under the current system, clocks are moved forward one hour in spring to enter daylight saving time, then rolled back one hour each autumn to return to standard time. For years, medical researchers, business groups and public health advocates have raised concerns about the negative impacts of twice-annual clock shifts, citing links to increased rates of heart attacks, traffic accidents, workplace productivity dips and disrupted sleep patterns. Those concerns have fueled growing congressional support for scrapping the seasonal change entirely, with lawmakers coalescing around the permanent daylight saving model to unlock the economic and public health benefits of consistent, longer afternoon daylight year-round. The bill now moves to conference committee to reconcile differences between the House and Senate versions before heading to the White House for presidential signature.

  • Watch: Moment Darline Graham is sworn in to senate seat

    Watch: Moment Darline Graham is sworn in to senate seat

    A historic moment in South Carolina state politics has come to pass, as Darline Graham, sister of the late sitting US Senator Lindsey Graham, has been formally sworn in to fill her brother’s unexpired senate term on an interim basis. The appointment follows the sudden passing of the veteran South Carolina lawmaker earlier this month, who died after suffering an aortic tear, a life-threatening medical emergency that claimed his life unexpectedly.

    The swearing-in ceremony, which was captured on camera by multiple local and national media outlets, marks a rare transition of legislative power within a family line in modern US congressional history. South Carolina state law stipulates that when a US Senate seat becomes vacant mid-term, the sitting governor has the authority to appoint a temporary replacement to serve until a special election can be held to select a permanent successor. Political insiders note that the appointment of Graham’s sister was widely expected in the days following the lawmaker’s death, as state leaders sought a transitional figure that would honor Graham’s legacy while maintaining stable representation for South Carolina’s voters ahead of the upcoming special vote.

    In brief comments following the ceremony, Darline Graham has indicated she does not plan to run for the permanent seat in the upcoming special election, focusing instead on upholding her brother’s policy priorities during her short time in office. Political analysts expect that candidates from both major US political parties will formally launch their campaigns for the full term in the coming weeks, setting the stage for a competitive contest that will shape the balance of power in the US Senate for the remainder of the original term.

  • Exclusive: MPs demand investigation into British Museum’s ‘erasure’ of Palestine

    Exclusive: MPs demand investigation into British Museum’s ‘erasure’ of Palestine

    A growing political scandal has erupted in the United Kingdom after an investigative journalism exposé uncovered that London’s British Museum removed references to “Palestine”, “Palestinian” and “Israelite occupation” from its public exhibits in direct response to coordinated lobbying from pro-Israel advocacy groups and public figures. In response to the revelations, cross-party members of UK Parliament have united to call for an immediate independent probe into the incident, citing evidence of political interference that undermines the credibility of the country’s leading national cultural institution.

    The investigation, carried out by independent outlet Middle East Eye (MEE), found the controversial edits to museum displays were made between October and December 2024, prompted by a wave of complaints from pro-Israel activists and organizations. Multiple MPs from across the political spectrum — including the Green Party, Labour Party, and Your Party — have signed onto the demand for a full independent inquiry.

    Green Party MP Sian Berry, representing Brighton Pavilion, called MEE’s findings “deeply troubling”, warning that if the museum did indeed cave to external political pressure, it would severely damage the institution’s standing and erode public trust in its scholarly work. “An independent investigation should urgently be launched to determine if political interference has occurred,” Berry said.

    Richard Burgon, Labour MP for Leeds East, echoed the call for transparency, emphasizing that national cultural bodies have a responsibility to preserve rather than erase marginalized histories. “The British Museum must urgently answer serious questions about its unacceptable removal of references to Palestine,” Burgon said. “Our national institutions must not take part in the erasure of Palestinian history. There must now be an independent investigation into who authorised these changes, why they were made, and whether the Museum misled the public.”

    Your Party MP Jeremy Corbyn, representing Islington North, went further, labeling the erasures as a clear case of anti-Palestinian racism. “This assault on academic freedom represents an attempt to wipe Palestinians from history… which can only embolden Israel’s ongoing illegal occupation,” Corbyn said. “We should call this politically motivated attack out for what it is: anti-Palestinian racism. We need an urgent investigation into political interference at the British Museum, and whether that led to the disgraceful Palestinian erasure.”

    The British Museum has so far refused to confirm whether it will launch an independent inquiry, and did not respond to multiple requests for comment from MEE on the specific claims of political interference. Back in February, the institution defended the changes, claiming the edits were the result of audience testing that found the term Palestine “is in some circumstances no longer meaningful.” But freedom of information responses obtained by MEE contradict that claim: despite the museum holding an extensive archive of audience testing reports, it has no official records of any such testing related to the Palestinian terminology edits.

    MEE’s analysis of heavily redacted internal British Museum emails further exposes the true context of the decision: senior museum staff openly raised concerns about private complaints from individual pro-Israel activists and the Board of Deputies of British Jews, a prominent pro-Israel Jewish community organization, as well as critical social media posts from pro-Israel public figures.

    In one notable case, a complaint argued that referencing “Israelite occupation” in a display text about the ancient Phoenicians, a civilization that existed more than 2,000 years ago, would fuel contemporary hatred and “justify attacks against Jews” in the present day. While the full text of the Board of Deputies’ official complaint has not been disclosed, an internal museum note indicates the organization argued that the term “occupied” had become overly “politically charged in the context of contemporary politics.” The Board of Deputies has not responded to MEE’s request for comment on the matter.

    Internal records also show the museum moved with extraordinary speed to address the pro-Israel complaints: most were resolved within days, and one high-profile complaint from the Board of Deputies was approved for action just hours after it was circulated internally. One staff memo even advised colleagues to be “uber-conscious” of the upcoming first anniversary of the 7 October attacks when processing the complaints. By contrast, MEE found no evidence of museum leadership showing similar consideration for the situation of Palestinians, who are facing what the United Nations has described as a ongoing genocide and systematic cultural erasure in Gaza.

    When contacted for comment following the publication of MEE’s initial investigation earlier this month, the British Museum declined to address any of the substantive questions raised, instead reissuing a vague February press statement. A museum spokesperson claimed that “it has been reported that the British Museum has removed the term Palestine from displays. It is simply not true. We continue to use Palestine across a series of galleries, both contemporary and historic.”

    Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian ambassador to the United Kingdom, warned that the erasure of Palestinian history from one of the world’s most prestigious cultural institutions carries severe existential implications for the Palestinian people, coming amid ongoing violence in Gaza. “This is absolutely existential for us in light of the ongoing genocide,” Zomlot said.

    Israel’s 2023–2024 military assault on Gaza has already caused widespread destruction of Palestinian cultural and historical heritage sites. UNESCO, the UN’s cultural and heritage agency, has verified damage to at least 164 distinct heritage sites in Gaza since October 2023. In September 2024, Israeli forces bombed Gaza City’s primary ancient artifact storage depot, destroying 30 years of accumulated Palestinian archaeological work in a single attack.

    Accusations that Israel pursues a deliberate policy of erasing Palestinian cultural heritage long predate the 2023 outbreak of the current Gaza war. Back in 2022, Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq published a report accusing Israel of enacting a formal policy of “cultural apartheid” that targets Palestinian historic sites for destruction “in an attempt to erase them from memory.”

    Berry emphasized that the timing of the British Museum’s actions makes the incident even more unacceptable. “When the Israeli government is committing genocidal acts in Gaza and the Palestinian people are being systematically destroyed, it could not be more wrong for the UK’s most prestigious museum to erase the history of Palestine and the ongoing occupation,” Berry said.

  • Relationship and cooperation with China highly valued, Soloman Islands FM says

    Relationship and cooperation with China highly valued, Soloman Islands FM says

    In a high-level diplomatic meeting held in Beijing on Tuesday, top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi and Solomon Islands Foreign Minister and External Trade Minister Rick Houenipwela convened to discuss deepening bilateral cooperation, reaffirm shared political commitments, and push back against outside interference in the Pacific island nation’s sovereign foreign policy choices.

    During the talks, Wang Yi emphasized that China pursues no hidden geopolitical agendas in its engagement with Pacific island nations, nor does it seek to carve out any sphere of influence in the region. He stressed that Beijing’s partnership with Pacific island states is rooted in the principles of South-South cooperation, centered on driving inclusive mutual development rather than advancing unilateral interests.

    Noting that all Pacific island countries are fully sovereign independent states that do not belong to any major power’s “backyard”, Wang underscored that these nations hold the unconditional right to independently select their own development partners, and that China-Solomon Islands relations should remain free of interference from third-party actors.

    China’s collaboration with the Solomon Islands adheres to three core principles: it comes with no attached political conditions, is never forced upon the Pacific nation, and is backed by tangible action rather than empty pledges, Wang added. Looking ahead, he said China stands ready to align national development strategies with the Solomon Islands, advance high-quality cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, expand practical collaboration in priority sectors including green energy, and deepen people-to-people ties across education, public health, and youth exchanges.

    Bilateral diplomatic relations between China and the Solomon Islands were established in 2019, after the country cut its unofficial diplomatic ties with the Taiwan region of China. Wang expressed China’s appreciation for the new Solomon Islands government’s repeated reaffirmation of its unwavering commitment to the one-China principle, noting that this shared commitment solidifies the political foundation of bilateral ties and creates a stable enabling environment for expanding cooperation.

    For his part, Houenipwela echoed the importance of the bilateral relationship, expressing profound gratitude for China’s long-running support for the Solomon Islands’ social and economic development. He pointed out that China is currently the Solomon Islands’ largest trading partner, and the two countries have signed dozens of memorandums of understanding covering a wide range of cooperation areas. The Solomon Islands is eager to grow bilateral trade and investment ties and deepen on-the-ground practical cooperation with China, he added, noting that the country also intends to take an active role in advancing broader cooperation between China and the wider Pacific island region.