分类： society

A technical failure disrupted a highly anticipated winter light display over one of Sydney’s most iconic waterfront spots this week, sending scores of unmanned aerial vehicles crashing into the water below. The incident unfolded at Darling Harbour, a central tourist and recreational hub that draws thousands of visitors annually for seasonal cultural events. Organizers had planned the drone display as a centerpiece of the city’s winter light festival, with the craft programmed to create intricate, glowing patterns across the evening sky for attendees gathered along the shore. Unexpected system errors triggered a widespread malfunction that affected nearly 90 of the drones, causing the unmanned devices to lose stability mid-flight and drop into the harbor. No injuries to bystanders or damage to nearby waterfront infrastructure have been reported in the wake of the incident, local event officials confirmed. Organizers have launched an investigation into the root cause of the malfunction, reviewing pre-flight system checks and in-air operational data to determine what led to the mass failure. The incident has sparked informal discussion among event technologists about safety protocols for large-scale drone light displays, which have grown in popularity as an innovative alternative to traditional fireworks across major cities in recent years.

In a sudden development at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, Ibrahim Benbrika – the 26-year-old son of notorious convicted Australian terrorist leader Abdul Nacer Benbrika – entered guilty pleas alongside two co-accused to charges of robbery, common assault, and illegal controlled weapon possession, wrapping up a hearing that had been scheduled to span two days.

Benbrika’s co-offenders, 24-year-old Michel El-Chikhani and 24-year-old Oways Afaneh, also confirmed their guilty pleas in court before magistrate James FitzGerald. Prosecutor Michael Roper laid out the details of the Crown’s carefully compiled case against the three men, outlining how the elaborate scheme unfolded from September 2024 onward.

According to Roper’s account, the 43-year-old victim, who had no prior connection to any of the three defendants, initiated conversations on Facebook with a profile operating under the name “Holly”. Over the course of several months, the pair exchanged messages discussing an agreement for sex in exchange for money, eventually arranging a meeting at an isolated Melbourne nature reserve around 11 p.m. on January 24 this year.

When the victim arrived at the pre-arranged site, he was not met by “Holly”. Instead, Benbrika, El-Chikhani and Afaneh emerged, clad entirely in black and wearing balaclavas to conceal their identities. The trio immediately knocked the victim to the ground, delivering repeated punches and kicks while demanding his mobile phone and cash. Court documents and evidence presented during the hearing detailed particularly threatening moments: Benbrika was captured on video pressing a sheathed knife against the victim’s head, while El-Chikhani held a sharp hunting knife directly to the man’s throat at one point during the attack.

After subduing the victim, Benbrika dragged him in a headlock back to his own vehicle. There, El-Chikhani used the victim’s own phone to complete an unauthorized bank transfer of $250 to the group. In addition to the stolen cash, the trio also took two of the victim’s mobile phones, his official identity documents, and a portable battery pack before fleeing the scene. The victim managed to flag down a passing motorist for help and was subsequently transported to a local hospital for treatment of his injuries.

Roper emphasized the premeditated nature of the attack, telling the court: “This was a planned luring of a victim to a place that they’re alone at night. They are confronted by three armed men and terrorised.” Digital evidence recovered from the defendants’ phones corroborated the prosecution’s account: investigators found Snapchat clips recording segments of the assault stored on both Afaneh and Benbrika’s devices. Another video, recovered from the devices, captures the three men sitting around a kitchen table after the attack discussing their actions, with one referencing the idea of “catching pedophiles”.

Defense lawyer Veronika Drago, representing Benbrika, told the court that this offhand comment provides critical context for the entire incident, a detail she says was omitted from the prosecution’s initial summary. Drago explained that the “Holly” Facebook profile listed the account holder as an underage minor, leading the three men to frame their actions as a vigilante attempt to apprehend a child predator. “These are three young and very foolish men,” Drago told the court, adding that the ongoing notoriety of Benbrika’s father has cast a shadow over every aspect of her client’s life, from persistent bullying during his school years to his current placement in a protective custody unit while awaiting sentencing.

Abdul Nacer Benbrika, Ibrahim’s father, is one of Australia’s most high-profile convicted terrorists. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2009 for leading a domestic terror cell plotting attacks both within Australia and abroad. He completed his original custodial sentence in November 2020, but remained in detention under continuing detention orders until his release in December 2023, after serving 18 years total behind bars.

Despite pushback from the prosecution, magistrate FitzGerald ruled that the case would remain within the jurisdiction of the Magistrates’ Court, rather than being elevated to the higher County Court for a plea hearing. FitzGerald noted that there was insufficient evidence before the court to confirm whether the trio had planned the attack over three months, or only became aware of the planned rendezvous shortly before the meeting. Still, he acknowledged the severity of the offense, calling it a “very aggressive attack on a person in the middle of the night” that must have been terrifying for the victim. All three defendants are scheduled to return to court on Wednesday for a scheduled pre-sentence hearing.

In a highly anticipated public press conference held in Seoul this Tuesday, the South Korean licensee of Starbucks, Shinsegae Group, laid bare a cascade of systemic errors and oversights that led to the widely condemned ‘Tank Day’ promotional campaign, a misstep that has roiled the country and caused severe reputational and financial damage to the coffee giant’s local operations.

The controversial campaign, which launched a line of insulated ‘tank tumbler’ cups under the ‘Tank Day’ branding, was deliberately scheduled to launch on May 18 — the annual national anniversary of the 1980 Gwangju Pro-Democracy Uprising, where hundreds of unarmed civilians were killed in a violent military crackdown ordered by the then-ruling government. Official records confirm 165 civilians were killed during the crackdown, 65 remain unaccounted for, and 376 more died from injuries sustained in the uprising, though many South Koreans maintain the actual death toll is far higher.

The promotional name and timing immediately triggered widespread public fury across South Korea, as observers drew a direct parallel between the ‘tank’ branding and the military tanks deployed to crush the pro-democracy movement. What followed was a sharp drop in consumer sales, a nationwide call for a public boycott, and the immediate dismissal of Starbucks Korea’s chief executive, Son Jung-hyun.

During Tuesday’s press briefing, Shinsegae executive Jeon Sang-jin presented the findings of the company’s internal investigation, which uncovered a pattern of reckless prioritization of speed over due diligence that extended from the campaign’s planning through its approval process. Jeon revealed that the marketing team relied entirely on artificial intelligence to generate campaign concepts, and the team members claimed the May 18 anniversary never registered as a problematic date during the ideation phase. ‘Those involved denied any intentional wrongdoing,’ Jeon stated, adding that the team only recognized the harm of the campaign after widespread public backlash erupted.

The investigation also uncovered extreme negligence during the approval stage: of the seven senior officials required to sign off on the campaign, multiple approved the proposal as a routine administrative task without even opening the email attachment containing the campaign design and full details. Additionally, the mandatory legal team review that had been standard for all previous marketing campaigns was completely skipped for this promotion.

Three of the five marketing team members working on the campaign have refused to surrender their mobile devices for independent forensic investigation, citing personal privacy rights, leaving open questions about whether the team intentionally moved forward with the AI-generated concept despite any implicit red flags. The internal probe confirmed the company has failed to build sufficient social and historical sensitivity across its teams, a systemic shortcoming that goes far beyond individual employee error.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has already publicly condemned the campaign as ‘inhumane and disgraceful’, and local law enforcement has launched a separate criminal investigation. If investigators find evidence that the campaign was intentionally created to mock or trivialize the Gwangju Uprising, those responsible could face criminal charges in addition to termination from the company.

Shinsegae Group Chairman Chung Yong-jin opened the press conference with a deep public bow, issuing a direct apology to the bereaved families of Gwangju uprising victims and accepting full accountability for the incident. ‘I will make no excuses. I take full responsibility for this matter,’ Chung said, before declining to take questions from assembled reporters.

One of the Southern Hemisphere’s most anticipated annual cultural events, Vivid Sydney, hit an unexpected snag on the evening of Monday 25 May local time, when nearly 90 drones plummeted from the night sky over Darling Harbour during the festival’s popular Star-Bound aerial display. Witness footage captured the dozens of unmanned devices tumbling out of formation, with many splashing into the waters of Cockle Bay just a short distance from gathered onlookers, leaving crowds confused by the sudden disruption to the programmed light show. The incident has already forced the cancellation of two scheduled performances, with the future of the remaining 20 planned drone shows still under review. The UK-based drone production company Skymagic, which designed and operates the 1,000-drone display, has pinpointed the root of the failure: an unanticipated shift in radio frequency conditions that occurred after the drones had already taken off. According to a company spokesperson, the frequency change disrupted positional accuracy for affected devices, triggering their pre-programmed failsafe landing protocols that sent them descending into the harbour and surrounding marina areas. Skymagic was quick to emphasize that no drones fell outside the designated safety boundaries set for the performance, meaning no bystanders were injured in the incident. That claim did little to soften the shock of witnesses, however. Robert, a worker at the Darling Harbour waterfront, told Australian public broadcaster ABC that the sound of crashing drones was audible even from 10 to 20 meters away. “You could hear them physically crash and smash onto the cement marina,” he explained. Representatives for Vivid Sydney, the three-week long festival that draws hundreds of thousands of locals and tourists to Sydney Harbour and central Sydney every year, issued a formal apology for the disruption. “We apologize for the disappointment and inconvenience caused to attendees,” the spokesperson said, adding that the decision to cancel upcoming performances aligned with the event’s standard safety protocols. Festival organizers have confirmed that Skymagic will partner with relevant Australian government agencies to conduct a full technical review of the incident. No decision will be made on whether to resume the remaining drone performances until the assessment is complete. The Star-Bound drone display was scheduled to run over 11 nights, with 22 total shows planned as a key attraction for the 2026 festival. This year marks only the second time Vivid Sydney has included drone shows in its official lineup: the festival first introduced aerial drone displays in 2024, drawing massive crowds, but opted to cancel all drone shows in 2025 over public safety concerns related to overcrowding. First launched in 2009, Vivid Sydney brands itself as the Southern Hemisphere’s largest combined festival of light, music, ideas and food. The event’s core attraction is a free 6.5-kilometer walking trail dotted with 43 large-scale light installations, including iconic light projections mapped onto the sails of the Sydney Opera House. Annually, thousands of visitors from across Australia and around the world travel to Sydney to attend the three-week winter festival.

In the bustling San Francisco market of Quito, Ecuador’s highland capital, a centuries-old Andean spiritual tradition is adapting to meet a modern, 21st-century need. Traditional local healers known as curanderas have carved out a unique new niche, offering energy cleansing rituals called limpias to the furry companions of anxious, doting pet owners.

What began as a practice to clear physical, emotional, and spiritual blockages for human clients now extends to dogs, cats, rabbits, and even farm animals across the country. For devotees of the ritual, the treatment works to unblock blocked energy centers, or chakras, in animals, just as it does for people. Healers use a blend of ancestral tools: fragrant wild-harvested medicinal herbs, purifying smoke, raw farm eggs, and sacred Amazonian seeds to draw out negative energy and fend off harmful spiritual influences.

Fifth-generation healer Nancy Correa comes from a long line of female curanderas, and she says her pet cleansing services have grown steadily in popularity in recent years. When 1-year-old golden retriever Lucas arrived at her stall after a frightening run-in with a neighborhood cat left him withdrawn and anxious, Correa pulled together a bundle of wild amaranth, rue, nettle, and eucalyptus to rub over his fur. She selects these specific herbs, she explains, because they grow wild in mountain ravines, absorbing the pure combined energy of water, air, and Andean sunshine.

Lucas’s owner Ximena Tixi, a 49-year-old Quito architect, says she has already seen dramatic improvements after just two cleansing sessions. “He’s more active now, and he no longer carries that fear he had after the encounter,” she told Agence France-Presse. By the time Lucas showed up for his third session, he trotted willingly into Correa’s stall, his tail wagging with no sign of his earlier anxiety.

A short walk away at the same market, fellow healer Amparo Lugmana recently led a cleansing ritual for her own 4-year-old mixed-breed dog Copito, who had been listless and “feeling down” for weeks. Lugmana rubbed rose petals, a raw egg, and healing herbs over Copito’s thick white curly fur, before finishing the ritual by tying a necklace of Amazonian huayroro seeds around his neck — a traditional charm meant to ward off negative energy and evil spirits.

Lugmana is no stranger to treating animal clients: she has worked on cats, rabbits, and even ships post-treatment cleansing kits to rural areas for owners of cows and chickens that have stopped producing milk or eggs. The cost of a pet limpia ranges from just $5 to $10, depending on the size of the animal, making the ancient ritual accessible to many local pet owners.

For Quito’s pet parents, the practice offers a low-cost, culturally rooted alternative to modern behavioral interventions for anxious or withdrawn pets, filling a gap between standard veterinary care and holistic wellness that resonates with Ecuador’s deep Andean cultural heritage.