Global Pulse

分类： society

  • Sweden set to ban mobile phones in schools, joining trend of shelving screens for students

    Sweden set to ban mobile phones in schools, joining trend of shelving screens for students

    For decades, Sweden has held a reputation as a global pioneer in digital innovation, home to tech giants like streaming giant Spotify and telecommunications leader Ericsson, and boasting one of the world’s most digitally advanced education ecosystems. But this Nordic nation is set to make a striking policy pivot this coming fall: a nationwide ban on mobile phones in K-12 schools, a move that anchors a growing global reckoning over the unintended costs of saturating classrooms with screen-based technology.

    The policy shift is not sudden. Sweden’s center-right coalition government, which took office in 2022, has steadily advanced an agenda that prioritizes traditional learning tools and increased reading time over unregulated screen exposure, starting with the youngest learners in preschools. Lawmaker Joar Forsell, who chairs the Swedish parliament’s education committee, explained that the move comes in direct response to measurable declines in core literacy rates across the country’s student population, particularly among younger cohorts. “We’re rolling the screens back because we believe that books and more traditional ways of learning are better for kids,” Forsell stated.

    Sweden’s new rule is far from an isolated policy change. It is the most high-profile step in a growing global trend of nations rolling back unrestricted screen use in schools, decades after governments around the world poured billions into outfitting campuses with laptops, tablets, and educational apps. Across the Nordic region, Denmark is preparing to implement a nearly identical mobile ban, while Finland enacted its own restrictions on classroom mobile device use in August 2023. Beyond Scandinavia, governments from Spain to South Korea have rolled out measures ranging from full classroom mobile bans to caps on screen-based homework assignments. In the United States, the Los Angeles Unified School District — the country’s second-largest public school system — has announced sweeping new rules that ban all screen use for students through second grade, impose grade-specific daily screen time limits, block access to YouTube on school devices, and require full audits of all existing education technology vendor contracts.

    To support its return to traditional learning, the Swedish government has allocated 555 million Swedish krona ($59 million) in new grant funding this year specifically for schools to purchase physical textbooks and updated teacher instructional guides. The policy was directly prompted by 2022 data from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), the leading global comparative study of student performance run by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The latest PISA results showed that 24.3% of Swedish ninth graders failed to reach basic proficiency in reading comprehension — a figure only marginally better than the European Union average of 26.2%.

    Cognitive science researchers back the policy’s core premise. Magnus Haake, an associate professor of cognitive science at Sweden’s Lund University, explained that learning through physical, print materials engages the motor and sensory regions of children’s developing brains in ways that digital screens do not, creating a more holistic learning experience that improves retention. Beyond school walls, Sweden’s public health agency has also issued guidance to parents encouraging them to model healthy screen habits at home, including adopting shared screen-free zones that align with the new rules in schools.

    Many Swedish schools have already been implementing mobile bans independently for years, and on-the-ground accounts from educators and students point to early positive outcomes. At Malmö Borgarskola, a high school in southern Sweden, students have long been required to stow their mobile phones in locked labeled compartments nicknamed the “Mobile Hotel” for the duration of class, retrieving their devices only after the final bell of the day. Seventeen-year-old student Melina Sallahi noted that constant notifications and social media apps create unavoidable distractions when phones are accessible during lessons. “When you have a phone, there’s always something to look at,” Sallahi said. “It’s less of a distraction without it.” Her classmate Vasilije Stjepanovic, also 17, added that entertainment apps are far more engaging than academic content for most teens, and removing phones from classrooms creates space for more focused learning. While every student at the school is still issued a laptop, deputy headmaster Patrik Sander explained that device use is now only permitted when explicitly approved by a teacher. “We have pushed back, learning that writing with your hands and a pencil helps you remember,” Sander said. “Nowadays, we see the push going in the other direction.”

    The shift to book-centric learning started early for Sweden’s youngest students: since last summer, children under 2 years old in early childhood education programs are only permitted to use non-digital learning materials such as print books, and preschools across the country face no requirement to incorporate digital learning tools into their curricula. A new national curriculum that formalizes the priority on traditional, book-based learning is scheduled to take effect in 2028.

    Not all stakeholders in Sweden support the sweeping shift away from digital learning, however. The Swedish Edtech Industry, a leading trade association for educational technology companies, issued a warning that the pivot could leave Swedish students ill-prepared for the modern workforce. The group’s report notes that 90% of all future jobs are projected to require advanced digital skills, and reduced exposure to digital tools in schools could lead to widespread skills gaps among young workers, stalled innovation in the public sector, and higher youth unemployment.

    Peter Carlsson, CEO of Malmö-based edtech startup Imvi Labs, which develops virtual reality tools to train brain-eye coordination for students and adults, argued that framing all screen use as harmful is an oversimplification. Many targeted digital tools are actually critical for supporting students with learning and reading disabilities, he said, and can make instruction far more effective for struggling learners. “By having good tools, the teaching can become more efficient,” Carlsson noted.

    But for students and educators on the ground at Malmö Borgarskola, those concerns fail to hold up to daily experience. On a recent May morning, students gathered with printed textbooks to discuss Russian history as they prepared for end-of-year final exams, and many echoed the view that digital literacy is already a part of students’ daily lives outside of school. “Everyone uses digital devices during their free time, so I don’t think that’s something that should be taught in school,” Sallahi said. “It’s nothing I’m worried about.” Classmate Aslan Özhan Kilicasan agreed, adding: “We learn much more easily when we use books.”

  • Truck carrying fireworks catches fire, sparking spectacular display

    Truck carrying fireworks catches fire, sparking spectacular display

    An unexpected turn of events turned a routine transport mission into a jaw-dropping holiday preview on the roads, when a truck transporting a full load of fireworks erupted in flames. Instead of triggering panic and a devastating disaster, the burning cargo ignited a chain reaction that lit up the sky with spontaneous bursts of color, delivering an early Fourth of July show that passing motorists never could have planned for. Emergency responders rushed to the scene immediately to contain the blaze and secure the surrounding area, launching rapid assessments to check for any casualties or threats to bystanders. To the immense relief of all involved, official reports confirm that no individuals suffered injuries throughout the entire incident, turning what could have been a catastrophic road accident into a bizarre, memorable holiday spectacle that onlookers will likely talk about for years.

  • Kenya’s ex-chief justice arrested at protest against building on national park

    Kenya’s ex-chief justice arrested at protest against building on national park

    A high-profile protest against proposed development inside one of Africa’s most iconic urban wildlife reserves has landed Kenya’s former Chief Justice David Maraga in police custody, igniting widespread condemnation from human rights and environmental organizations over the treatment of peaceful activists. On Monday, Maraga — who leads the opposition United Green Movement and is a widely speculated 2027 Kenyan presidential candidate — joined nine fellow demonstrators for a march along a highway bordering Nairobi National Park, a 117-square-kilometer protected conservation area and major tourist attraction located directly within Kenya’s capital. The demonstration was organized to oppose plans that activists claim would turn a portion of the park’s protected land into a 1,300-vehicle public car park, part of a broader development deal tied to a neighboring convention center.

    The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), the government agency that manages the park, has publicly pushed back against the activists’ allegations, defending its approved projects within the reserve. While KWS has not directly addressed the car park claims, it confirmed plans to construct a new, expanded animal orphanage on an 89-acre plot — just 0.31% of the park’s total area, according to a KWS official quoted by local outlet *The Star*. KWS argues the relocated orphanage will deliver meaningful benefits: enhanced care for rescued wildlife, improved veterinary training opportunities for local conservationists, and a more accessible, engaging experience for the millions of visitors who visit the park each year. The agency also notes that public consultation was held for the orphanage project prior to approval.

    Footage shared on social media captured the chaotic end to Monday’s demonstration, showing Kenyan police moving in to disperse the crowd of protesters, who had staged a sit-in on the two-lane highway. Video clips show the 72-year-old former top judge, wearing his party’s signature green attire, being assisted into the back of a police transport truck as surrounding demonstrators chanted “Long live the park” in protest. Maraga and the nine other detained activists were taken into police custody following the dispersal. Though Maraga was granted release shortly after his arrest, he refused to exit the police station until all other detained protesters were freed, a demonstration of solidarity with his fellow activists.

    Following his detention, Maraga took to social media platform X to outline the motivations for the protest, writing that he and the other detainees were “fellow patriotic Kenyans” demanding that the country’s “national heritage and environment must be safeguarded from greed and unnecessary destruction without public participation.” So far, Kenyan police have not issued any official public statement regarding the circumstances of the arrests or the reasons for detention.

    The arrests have drawn sharp criticism from a coalition of leading global and local rights and environmental groups. In a joint statement, Amnesty International, Greenpeace Africa, Friends of Nairobi National Park, and The Green Belt Movement strongly condemned what they called a violent dispersal of peaceful demonstrators. The groups emphasized that the use of force against Kenyan citizens exercising their constitutionally protected rights to peaceful assembly, free expression, and public participation in environmental decision-making is completely unacceptable. The incident has reignited national debate in Kenya over the balance between infrastructure development and the protection of critical natural heritage, particularly as political actors gear up for the 2027 general election.

  • Two nations, two exams, one AI reckoning

    Two nations, two exams, one AI reckoning

    This month, as 12.9 million Chinese students sat for the gaokao — the world’s largest annual standardized college entrance examination — anxious family members gathered outside test centers across the country, many wearing traditional red qipao to wish their students good luck. Half a world away, on the opposite side of the Pacific Ocean, the American higher education system has been moving in the exact opposite direction on standardized testing: roughly 90% of ranked four-year U.S. colleges have dropped mandatory SAT or ACT score requirements for admissions in recent years.

    These two of the world’s largest national education systems now stand at opposing crossroads on one core question: how can we fairly evaluate the potential of a young student? Increasingly, the rapid rise of artificial intelligence is rewriting the global answer to that longstanding debate, forcing both systems to confront unforeseen challenges and unexpected tradeoffs.

    China has doubled down on its high-stakes centralized exam model. Researchers describe the gaokao as a longstanding pillar of educational equity and social mobility, offering a clear, merit-based path for students from all socioeconomic backgrounds to access higher education. Even as Chinese policymakers work to expand the evaluation framework beyond pure exam scores, the core standardized test remains the foundation of the country’s admissions system. More than that, the gaokao is now being aligned to meet national strategic priorities: this year’s reforms added new undergraduate majors in cutting-edge, high-priority fields including embodied intelligence, rare-earth science and low-altitude economy, explicitly directing students toward industries facing critical workforce gaps.

    The U.S. took the opposite turn for decades, moving away from standardized testing after widespread test access inequalities were amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic. But now, many institutions are rethinking that choice. Elite schools including Yale, MIT and Dartmouth have already reinstated mandatory standardized test requirements, and a growing cohort of educators are sounding the alarm about falling academic preparedness. This spring, more than 1,000 faculty across the University of California system publicly called for the restoration of at least a mandatory math test requirement, pointing to alarming preparation gaps so severe that college instructors now have to reteach middle-school level mathematics to incoming undergraduates.

    National data backs up these concerns: fewer than 40% of students who take the SAT now meet the College Board’s own college readiness benchmarks, the threshold defined as giving students a 75% chance of earning at least a C in entry-level college courses. Widespread grade inflation at the high school level, UC faculty argued, has left high school transcripts “nearly meaningless” as a signal of actual student ability.

    The most consequential shift, however, has less to do with long-running debates over which assessment model is superior, and more to do with AI’s ability to expose unspoken flaws in every existing framework. For the U.S. holistic admissions system, the personal essay was long celebrated as a human-centered counterpoint to rigid multiple-choice test scores, allowing admissions officers to see a student’s unique voice and experiences beyond numbers. Today, that essay has become the system’s most vulnerable point.

    A growing share of college applicants now use generative AI to brainstorm, outline, or even fully draft their personal statements. Survey data cited by Inside Higher Ed shows that roughly half of all applicants use AI for brainstorming, while one in five use it to produce a first draft of their essay. A small commercial industry has even emerged to refine AI-generated text to make it indistinguishable from authentic student writing. For U.S. admissions offices, this has upended long-held assumptions about holistic assessment.

    The UC faculty drew a clear, ironic conclusion: in an era of AI-assisted essays and inflated high school grades, a standardized test score is the most reliable, difficult-to-fake signal of student ability that colleges have. The subjectivity that once made holistic admissions feel more fair and inclusive has become its greatest weakness in the age of AI.

    China faces the mirror image of this challenge. Because the entire gaokao is held as a single, tightly proctored, synchronized, sealed exam, the system is already structured to resist AI disruption. During the 2025 gaokao, all of China’s leading domestic chatbots — including ByteDance’s Doubao, Alibaba’s Qwen, Tencent’s Yuanbao, Moonshot’s Kimi and DeepSeek — temporarily disabled image recognition and question-answering functions during testing hours, a coordinated move explicitly designed to protect exam fairness. A tightly controlled, in-person standardized exam is structurally far more resistant to AI-assisted cheating than any open-ended, take-home admissions materials that U.S. colleges rely on. The standardization that critics for decades have dismissed as rigid has actually turned into a powerful integrity firewall against AI fraud.

    But that same rigidity creates its own limitations. A system built first to be cheat-proof and uniform is inherently poorly suited to measuring the creativity, critical thinking and adaptive judgment that an AI-saturated global economy will increasingly demand from new graduates.

    Stepping back from common framing of Chinese vs. American education models, a counterintuitive lesson emerges: AI is not pushing assessment toward more open-ended, human-centered evaluation as many early experts predicted. Instead, for now, it is pushing the world in the opposite direction — toward assessment measures that are harder to automate or fake, and easier to independently verify.

    The U.S. is rediscovering the value of standardized testing out of necessity, not nostalgia: AI eroded the credibility of alternative assessment methods far faster than most education leaders expected. Meanwhile, China’s exam-centric model, long criticized in Western circles as an overly pressured, rigid system, has turned out to be uniquely resilient to the threat of AI-enabled cheating.

    But resilience against fraud does not equal a model that measures what truly matters for the 21st century. A test that machines cannot beat is not automatically a test that accurately measures the skills students will need to thrive in an AI-driven economy. The deeper, unanswered question remains: can any single assessment tool — whether a personal essay, a multiple-choice exam, or a cumulative GPA — survive in an era where AI can imitate or solve nearly every task we once used to measure student ability?

    Even the UC faculty who called for restoring test requirements acknowledged that scores should be used as a college readiness check, not a rigid, sole ranking tool for admissions. The most productive framing of this global shift is not China versus the U.S., or standardized exams versus holistic essay assessment. All existing assessment models were designed for a world that no longer exists: a world without generative AI capable of replicating nearly all traditional student work.

    The 12.9 million students who took the gaokao this week, and the thousands of American teenagers now debating whether to register for the SAT, are all early participants in this global, unprecedented experiment. The education system that adapts fastest will not be the one with the toughest exam rules or the most polished holistic admissions process. It will be the system willing to ask an honest, foundational question: what do we actually need to measure, now that a machine can fake almost everything we once relied on?

  • Kenya’s former chief justice David Maraga arrested during park construction protest

    Kenya’s former chief justice David Maraga arrested during park construction protest

    NAIROBI, Kenya — A high-stakes environmental demonstration in Kenya’s capital has drawn international attention after former Chief Justice David Maraga was taken into custody on Monday during a protest against controversial planned construction inside Nairobi National Park. Maraga, who joined dozens of fellow activists in a peaceful sit-in demonstration along a busy arterial road just outside the park’s main entrance, was detained temporarily before being released shortly afterward. On the day of his arrest, he posted a statement on social media platform X confirming he was detained while en route to submit a formal petition to the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), the government agency charged with managing the country’s protected natural areas.

    Dressed in a green protest t-shirt matching those worn by other demonstrators, Maraga emphasized in his post-protest remarks that Kenya’s irreplaceable national heritage and wild ecosystems demand robust protection from unaccountable development motivated by private greed. He condemned the proposed project for moving forward without meaningful public input, a common grievance among activists challenging land use changes in protected spaces across the country.

    Hundreds of activists converged on the protest site to oppose two linked initiatives: the planned construction within the boundaries of Nairobi National Park and the proposed relocation of an on-site orphanage. Protesters argue the entire initiative is a covert effort to seize public land for private gain, a longstanding contentious issue in Kenya that has repeatedly sparked pushback from environmental and community advocates. For decades, environmental organizers have spoken out against incremental encroachment on national parks, urban green spaces, and other protected public lands, warning that unsustainable development erodes both Kenya’s natural heritage and public access to critical green infrastructure.

    Amnesty International’s Kenya branch quickly issued a statement of solidarity with the demonstrators, backing their demands for transparent public participation in all decisions that impact the country’s environmental heritage. The human rights organization stressed that Nairobi National Park, one of Kenya’s most iconic urban protected areas, is not a commodity to be developed for private profit. “Our public spaces, our environment, and our rights cannot be traded away behind closed doors,” the group’s statement read.

    In a preemptive response released one day before the protest, the KWS pushed back against allegations of land grabbing, framing the proposed construction as a beneficial public project. The agency explained the work is part of an official plan to expand the existing orphanage within the park and upgrade visitor facilities to improve the overall experience for tourists and local visitors. As of Tuesday, law enforcement authorities have not issued any public statement explaining the rationale for Maraga’s arrest, leaving lingering questions about the treatment of peaceful environmental activists in the country.

  • Senior member of Kinahan crime group sentenced to 24 years in prison

    Senior member of Kinahan crime group sentenced to 24 years in prison

    In a landmark ruling handed down at Dublin’s non-jury Special Criminal Court on Monday, a high-ranking leader of the internationally sanctioned Kinahan organised crime network, Sean McGovern, has received a 24-year consecutive prison sentence for his conviction on two counts of directing gang criminal activities.

    The three-judge panel, led by judges Patrick McGrath, Sarah Berkeley, and Fiona Lydon, handed down 14 years of imprisonment for the first charge tied to the 2016 murder of Noel Kirwan, and a further 10-year sentence for a second offence. The second charge centres on McGovern’s role in coordinating surveillance of James Gately, a prominent member of the Kinahan gang’s long-standing rival the Hutch organisation, between 2015 and 2017, as the gang prepared to carry out a major violent attack against Gately. The ruling confirms McGovern will serve the two sentences one after the other, with the sentence backdated to account for the period he has already spent in custody following his arrest in Dubai.

    McGovern, who had been identified by law enforcement as one of the most influential senior figures in the Kinahan organisation—an international criminal syndicate that has already faced formal sanctions from the United States government—entered guilty pleas to both charges ahead of the final sentencing hearing. The conviction marks one of the most significant blows to the Kinahan network’s leadership in recent years, closing a long-running cross-border investigation into the gang’s violent activities.

    Detective Superintendent Dave Gallagher, of Ireland’s national police force An Garda Síochána’s National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, emphasized the gravity of the ruling in remarks following the sentencing. Gallagher stated that the outcome sends an unmistakeable message that no figure involved in organised crime is “untouchable”, regardless of their rank or standing within a criminal network.

    “McGovern’s conviction holds to account a key architect of violence for a criminal organisation that carried out a ruthless campaign of murder and intimidation that devastated local communities and damaged Ireland’s global reputation,” Gallagher said. He added that ongoing law enforcement operations will continue to target high-priority criminal groups across the country, with the explicit goal of disrupting and fully dismantling their networks.

    In closing, Gallagher noted that the landmark sentence should serve as a stark warning to anyone who romanticises organised crime or promotes it as a viable lifestyle, stressing that Irish law enforcement remains committed to rooting out violent organised criminal activity at every level.

  • Celebrating a wedding amid the Ebola outbreak: No kisses or close contact, but love lives here

    Celebrating a wedding amid the Ebola outbreak: No kisses or close contact, but love lives here

    BUNIA, Democratic Republic of Congo — Weddings in eastern Congo are traditionally vibrant, day-long affairs filled with warm embraces, crowded dance floors, and hundreds of joyful well-wishers gathering to celebrate a couple’s new chapter. But as the country grapples with a deadly Ebola outbreak that has already claimed 91 lives among more than 500 confirmed cases, the rituals of marriage have been fundamentally reshaped by life-saving public health restrictions. Even so, love finds a way to prevail.

    The current outbreak, driven by the rare Bundibugyo Ebola virus, is centered entirely in Ituri, an eastern province of the DRC. Local and national health authorities have moved quickly to curb transmission, rolling out strict measures that include bans on large public gatherings and mandatory social distancing protocols. Unlike previous Ebola outbreaks, this strain has no approved vaccine or targeted treatment, and a weeks-long delay in confirming the outbreak means actual case counts are likely higher than official numbers, making response efforts all the more challenging.

    For Jean Claude Érable and his new wife Solange Hahati, who exchanged vows on a recent Saturday, these restrictions transformed one of life’s most celebrated milestones. The couple originally planned to welcome 300 guests to their big day, but local rules capped attendance at just 50, forcing many beloved family members and close friends to miss the ceremony. “It was really difficult because we wanted to celebrate with our friends,” Hahati shared in an interview with the Associated Press, reflecting on the disappointment of the scaled-back event.

    At the main Catholic Church in Bunia, Ituri’s provincial capital, where Érable and Hahati’s wedding was held, multiple couples celebrated their marriages alongside the pair on the same day. Inside the sanctuary, the small group of attending guests stayed spaced apart in their pews, following social distancing guidelines as the choir sang and brides walked down the aisle. Cheering and photo-taking still filled the space, while a larger crowd of uninvited guests gathered outside the church walls to sing excitedly for the newlyweds.

    Despite the scaled-back celebration, the groom emphasized that the couple has fully embraced the public health rules to protect their community. “We are adhering to the preventive measures and respecting social distancing,” Érable said. “I must say that there is no problem, no obstacle, because we are doing our best to respect all the measures dictated by the state.”

    After the ceremony, as Érable placed the wedding ring on his bride’s finger, Hahati smiled through the moment. Following the mass, she happily showed off her new ring to waiting onlookers before the couple departed for their reception, which they moved outdoors to allow guests to spread out more comfortably and lower transmission risk.

    Father Aimé Lokanabego, the priest who officiated the wedding, explained that adapting daily religious and community life has become a necessity amid the crisis. Many families have already chosen to postpone their upcoming weddings entirely rather than hold them under restrictions, he said, and the church has paused other high-risk religious gatherings, including large baptism ceremonies, to slow the spread of the virus. “This is, in a way, how we are dealing with this Ebola epidemic at our level. The situation is critical,” Lokanabego noted.

    Across Ituri, these precautions, while inconsistently followed by all members of the public, have upended long-held social traditions that bind communities together. For couples like Érable and Hahati, that means a different wedding than they ever imagined — but still a celebration of love that persists even in a public health crisis.

  • Sydney newsagency renews desperate plea to find mystery $100m jackpot winner after life-changing prize remains unclaimed

    Sydney newsagency renews desperate plea to find mystery $100m jackpot winner after life-changing prize remains unclaimed

    More than a full year after a winning $100 million jackpot ticket was sold at a small Sydney suburban newsagency, the mystery winner has yet to step forward to claim their life-changing prize – prompting staff at Bondi Junction Newsagency to launch a renewed public appeal to track down the elusive ticket holder.

    The winning entry was purchased by an anonymous customer at the eastern Sydney store back in June 2024, and officials from lottery operator The Lott confirm no valid claim has been submitted to date. Retail assistant Grace Martino, who has worked at the shop three days a week throughout the entire 12-month search, says the team has spent the past year relentlessly urging visitors to check forgotten lottery tickets hiding in unexpected places.

    The only public proof of the landmark win is a framed commemorative metal plaque hanging on the wall behind the store’s counter, documenting that the division one ticket was sold on-site. Martino explained that unlike most entries, this winning ticket was not linked to a registered NSW Lotteries membership account – a free service that would have allowed organizers to contact the winner directly via phone and email. Because of that unregistered status, no contact details exist for the buyer, leaving the team with few leads to track them down.

    “There was one winner, one ticket that matched all the correct numbers. But we’ve never seen the winning ticket in person, and we’ve never met the person who bought it,” Martino told NewsWire in an interview. “All we can do is put the plaque up to prove we sold the winning entry, and keep asking people to check – check old tickets in drawers, check tote bags, check handbags, check coat pockets, anywhere that ticket could have been tossed aside and forgotten.”

    Martino added that the team has long encouraged customers to sign up for the free membership program to avoid exactly this kind of situation. “If that ticket had been registered, we wouldn’t be going through all this worry right now. The free membership protects your win and makes sure you get notified if you take home a prize,” she said.

    While the real winner remains missing, the store has not been short of people stepping up to claim the $100 million prize. Martino estimates that hundreds of people have visited the shop over the past 12 months to fill out claim forms asserting they are the mystery winner – but none have been able to pass the simple verification check the store uses to weed out false claims.

    “The key detail we ask for is what time the ticket was purchased. The sale happened within a specific 10-minute window, and no one claiming the prize has gotten that detail right,” Martino said. “A lot of people ask if we can check our security cameras, but the footage only shows when people entered the store – it doesn’t tell us exactly when the winning transaction went through.”

    Speaking to the value of the unclaimed prize, Martino shared what she would do if she was the one holding the winning ticket, saying she would donate the entire windfall to good causes. “I would send every dollar to charity. That’s such an enormous amount of money, it doesn’t need to just sit accumulating in a bank account,” she said. “My family and I don’t need $100 million, but that money could change so many lives for the better if it goes to people who need it.”

    A spokeswoman for The Lott, Khat McIntyre, noted that it is extremely unusual for a top-tier division one prize to go unclaimed for this length of time. “It’s very rare for major prizes to stay unclaimed for more than a few weeks, and we are just as eager as the newsagency to connect our mystery $100 million winner with their life-changing prize,” McIntyre said. “Now, 12 months on, this incredible ticket could still be sitting anywhere completely unchecked. Since the entry wasn’t registered, we have no way to reach the winner directly, so we’re relying on the public to check their old entries.”

    Lottery rules in New South Wales give unclaimed major prizes a set validity window, and any prize that goes unclaimed after that period is typically redistributed to state government community programs, according to state lottery regulations.

  • Swiss healthcare united against immigration cap plan

    Swiss healthcare united against immigration cap plan

    As 80-year-old Marcelle Mivelaz marked her birthday surrounded by loved ones at a Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne nursing home in western Switzerland, the smooth running of her celebration and daily care at the facility depended entirely on a team made up mostly of immigrant nurses and caregivers. This small, personal scene reflects a widespread reality across Switzerland’s entire healthcare system: decades of chronic domestic staffing shortages have left the sector deeply dependent on foreign workers, a dependence that has placed it at the heart of a fierce national debate ahead of the June 14 popular vote on a strict immigration cap proposal.

    The initiative, dubbed “No to a Switzerland with 10 million!”, was put forward by the hard-right Swiss People’s Party (SVP). It aims to cap the Alpine nation’s total population — which currently stands at 9.1 million — below 10 million through 2050 by drastically cutting annual immigration levels. While the proposal has drawn broad opposition from the federal government, national parliament, and most major business groups, recent public opinion polls indicate the outcome of the vote remains too close to call, leaving the healthcare sector bracing for a potential devastating outcome.

    For many on the ground at care facilities across the country, the risk of the cap passing is an immediate threat to patient safety. Carine Savioz, a native Swiss nurse working at the Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne nursing home, told AFP that a steep drop in new immigrant caregivers would push the entire national healthcare system toward collapse. “If there aren’t enough caregivers, our healthcare system is headed for disaster,” she said. Her warning was echoed by 81-year-old resident Marie-Therese Barraz, who added: “We must have respect for the people who care for nursing home residents.”

    The scale of the sector’s reliance on foreign labor is stark. Christian Weiler, director of the Primeroche Foundation that operates the Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne facility and cares for 360 patients across multiple sites, revealed that nearly 80 percent of his 240 total employees are foreign nationals. Weiler noted that the foundation already cannot meet existing demand for care: 240 elderly people are currently on waiting lists for nursing home spots in the Lausanne region alone. If the immigration cap passes and cuts off the supply of new workers, the foundation will not be able to expand capacity to meet that need, he warned, triggering a ripple effect across the entire health system.

    “If there aren’t enough places, they’ll go to the hospital,” Weiler explained. “And when hospitals are full of elderly people, they won’t be able to fulfil their role, and the system will become very problematic” as Switzerland’s population continues to age. This assessment is shared by the Swiss federal government, which has publicly warned that the proposal “threatens the proper functioning of society” by leaving hospitals and nursing homes unable to deliver the same level of care to sick and elderly patients that the public expects.

    The SVP has pushed back against these warnings, arguing that the cap will not cripple healthcare. Party leaders say the initiative still allows up to 40,000 new immigrants to enter the country each year, and they are calling for expanded training programs to increase the number of native Swiss healthcare workers. SVP parliamentarian Thomas Blasi, an independent pharmacist based in Geneva, also argued that overreliance on foreign workers has actually harmed young Swiss health graduates. “Despite the urgent need for healthcare staff, our young graduates cannot find employment because we prefer to rely on foreign workers,” he claimed.

    But healthcare leaders and sector representatives reject that argument, pointing to persistent data showing a chronic shortage of domestic candidates for open roles. The demanding nature of care work and relatively uncompetitive salaries have long discouraged many Swiss nationals from entering the field, they say, leaving foreign workers to fill the gap. A broad alliance of major healthcare groups — including the Swiss National Association of Hospitals and Clinics and the Swiss Nurses’ Association — has formed a dedicated committee to campaign against the proposal, which they have labeled the SVP’s “chaos initiative” that directly endangers patient lives.

    The committee warns that understaffing from an immigration cap would force facilities to rely on underqualified personnel, leading to a measurable increase in mortality risk, particularly for patients in emergency care settings. Official data from the Swiss Medical Association (FMH) backs up the sector’s claims of structural dependence on foreign-trained workers: 43 percent of all practicing doctors in Switzerland are trained abroad, and that share continues to grow each year. FMH vice-president Philippe Eggimann told Swiss newspaper Le Temps that Swiss universities only graduate between 1,200 and 1,300 new medical professionals each year, while the system needs 3,500 to 4,000 new doctors annually to meet demand.

    “The country remains far from being able to ensure the replenishment of its medical workforce on its own,” the FMH concluded. That gap is just as stark for nursing roles. At Geneva University Hospitals (HUG), one of the country’s largest public health systems, nursing director Sandra Merkli explained that the facility needs to hire 200 to 300 new nurses every year, but the local canton’s medical school only graduates 150 to 160 new nursing candidates annually. As of 2025, nearly half of HUG’s 13,000 total employees are foreign nationals: the share hits 60 percent for nursing staff, and 45 percent for physicians, reflecting a nationwide trend that leaves the sector scrambling ahead of the upcoming vote.

  • Stabbing wounds six at New York’s Penn Station

    Stabbing wounds six at New York’s Penn Station

    On a Sunday when the New York metropolitan area was finalizing security preparations for two of the world’s biggest upcoming sporting events, a stabbing attack at the city’s iconic Penn Station left six people injured, sending shockwaves through the region just days before thousands of visitors are set to arrive for the NBA Finals and FIFA World Cup. According to city Mayor Zohran Mamdani, initial official reports had put the number of victims at five, but updated on-site investigation confirmed six people sustained stab wounds in the attack, and the alleged perpetrator has been taken into police custody. The New York Fire Department confirmed that all victims were rushed to nearby medical facilities, with one person suffering life-threatening injuries. All casualties are expected to recover from their wounds, city officials later confirmed. While the full context and motive behind the attack remain under investigation in the immediate aftermath, New York City Comptroller Mark Levine noted on social media platform X that early accounts from law enforcement identify the suspect as a homeless individual experiencing an emotional crisis. Photographers who arrived at the scene shortly after the incident reported clear signs of the emergency: blood stains, discarded medical gauze and used gloves scattered across the platform near tracks 5 and 6, where law enforcement quickly established a cordon to preserve evidence and secure the area. New York State Governor Kathy Hochul issued a formal statement condemning the incident, calling it an “act of horrific violence.” She reaffirmed the state government’s commitment to public safety, saying “New Yorkers deserve to feel safe wherever they go, and we will never stop working to make that a reality.” The timing of the attack has drawn particular attention, as it unfolded at one of the busiest transit hubs in the United States, just days before the city hosts two high-profile global sporting events that are expected to draw hundreds of thousands of spectators from across the country and around the world. Madison Square Garden, the iconic indoor arena located directly above Penn Station in Lower Manhattan, is scheduled to host Games 3 and 4 of the NBA Finals on Monday and Wednesday, featuring the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs. Just across the Hudson River in New Jersey, MetLife Stadium will welcome its first FIFA World Cup match this coming Saturday. Notably, former President and current U.S. President Donald Trump has confirmed he will attend Monday’s NBA Finals game at Madison Square Garden, after accepting an invitation from Knicks owner James Dolan. New York City officials had already implemented heightened security protocols across the city in advance of the two events, and the emergency notification system issued an advisory shortly after the stabbing urging the public to avoid the Penn Station area, warning of expected traffic delays, road closures, mass transit disruptions and a heavy emergency response presence in the neighborhood. In a separate development tied to the lead-up to the NBA Finals, city officials announced the cancellation of a planned outdoor watch party for Monday’s game outside Madison Square Garden, a decision that came before the Penn Station stabbing. The cancellation followed a chaotic watch party held on Friday for Game 2, which drew thousands of fans to the streets outside the arena. Authorities reported that the event turned rowdy, resulting in an assault on a police officer and 26 arrests of unruly attendees.