分类： society

France’s justice system has launched a formal probe into the unexpected resurgence of a controversial platform tied to one of the country’s most high-profile violent sexual crime cases, renewing urgent calls for stronger regulation of unmoderated anonymous online spaces. The original platform, Coco.gg, first gained infamy during the 2024 trial of Dominique Pelicot, a man convicted of drugging his wife Gisèle Pelicot for more than 10 years, raping her repeatedly, and recruiting more than 50 random strangers via the platform’s chatrooms to join in the attacks. Forty-nine additional men were also convicted of rape, attempted rape, or sexual assault against Gisèle Pelicot in the December 2024 ruling, all of whom had connected with Pelicot on the platform.

Long before the Pelicot case brought national attention to the platform, French law enforcement had linked Coco.gg to a litany of other serious crimes, including widespread child sexual abuse, drug trafficking, and even murder. The site operated with no content moderation whatsoever and required no user registration, allowing anonymous users to access open chatrooms with zero vetting. By the time authorities took the original platform offline in 2024, it had been cited in more than 23,000 official criminal activity reports, according to the Paris prosecutor’s office. The platform’s founder, Isaac Steidl, was arrested and charged with multiple offenses including possession and distribution of child pornography in January 2025, and he has formally denied all charges against him.

But in early April 2025, internet users spotted at least two new platforms with nearly identical design layouts and similar names to the original Coco site operating publicly online. One of the new platforms, Cocoland.cc, released a public statement denying any connection to the original Coco.gg and its founder. As of April 29, Cocoland.cc had been taken offline, but a second Cocoland-branded site remained accessible to users that morning.

Investigators have now opened an official investigation into the new sites on charges of “disseminating violent, pornographic, or offensive messages accessible to minors”, the Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed to the BBC. Steidl’s legal representative, attorney Julien Zanatta, told Agence France-Presse that his client has “nothing to do” with the newly emerged platforms.

Local French news outlet BFM TV conducted an on-the-record test of the accessible new platform, finding that journalists could create a pseudonymous profile and access chatrooms in seconds, with no registration requirements or identity verification checks. When a reporter posed as a 13-year-old girl, they were immediately contacted by multiple platform users who continued to send lewd photos and explicit sexual messages even after being told the account holder was underage.

Sarah El Haïry, France’s High Commissioner for Childhood, condemned the resurgence of the platform, calling it a “collective failure” in the fight against child sexual abuse, one of the most severe forms of violence against minors. “Websites like this exploit every legal and regulatory loophole, they actively seek out prey, and that prey is children,” El Haïry said in a public statement. She added that predators routinely target and approach children via these unmoderated platforms, holding both the site creators and hosting services accountable for enabling the harm. El Haïry also confirmed she has filed separate official complaints against two additional unregulated open chatroom platforms that pose similar risks to minors.

Tucked 100 kilometers southeast of Berlin, the historic riverside village of Lehde sits within the winding waterways of the Spreewald Forest, a protected UNESCO biosphere reserve where the Spree River splits into hundreds of narrow, shallow canals cutting through lush wetlands and old-growth forest. For 129 consecutive years, this tiny German village has held a singular distinction across the whole country: it is the only community in Germany that receives all its mail delivery by boat, a seasonal tradition that returns every spring as ice thaws and waterways become navigable once more.

This year, that long-awaited seasonal kickoff fell on a Wednesday in early April, when 55-year-old veteran postal worker Andrea Bunar stepped back onto her bright yellow 9-meter barge after a months-long winter break. For 14 years, Bunar has carried out this unique delivery route, switching between overland car trips in the frozen winter months and waterborne deliveries from April through October. On her first day back on the water, she stood at the stern of her vessel, guiding the shallow-draft barge through narrow channels with a single long oar that handles rowing, steering, and navigation all at once.

“The start of the season is always special for me,” Bunar shared as she set off, clad in her official postal uniform. “After the long winter break, I enjoy being in the nature and back on the water.” Winter overland delivery is far from ideal in Lehde: rural roads are often slick with ice and snow, forcing much longer travel times than the water route. From spring through mid-autumn, Bunar makes deliveries six days a week, dropping letters and packages into mailboxes that residents have mounted directly along the riverbanks. She also offers on-route postal services, selling stamps to locals along the remote waterway and collecting outgoing mail to bring back to the main postal hub.

The tradition of boat-borne mail delivery in Lehde dates back to the late 19th century. Before the service launched, villagers only collected their mail once a week, after Sunday church services. As rural-to-urban migration boomed across Germany, demand for more frequent long-distance communication surged, prompting the national postal service to establish regular delivery routes. For Lehde, a village crisscrossed by more waterways than paved roads, a boat delivery route was the only practical solution – turning the community into a tiny, Teutonic counterpart to Venice, built on interconnected canals.

Today, Bunar covers an 8-kilometer route every week, completing the full circuit in roughly two hours. On average, she delivers around 600 letters and 80 packages each week, a mix that has shifted noticeably in recent years: handwritten and personal letters have declined, while online shopping has led to a sharp jump in package volume. Bunar jokes that her small barge has started to feel like a miniature container ship, having delivered everything from full-sized refrigerators and lawnmowers to electric scooters. On her 2024 opening day, alongside the usual stack of bills and registered correspondence, she delivered a large industrial saw to one local resident.

For Bunar, this unconventional postal route is far more than just a job – it is a lifelong dream. “This is and has been my dream job all along,” she said with a smile, steering her barge past tree-lined canal banks. “Being on the water is just so relaxing – it slows down life.” The Spreewald biosphere, which protects hundreds of kilometers of waterways and a vast array of native plant and animal species, provides a quiet, scenic backdrop for her daily work, a pace of life that stands in stark contrast to the bustle of Berlin just an hour’s drive away.

As King Charles III and Queen Camilla arrive in the United States for their first state visit since Charles ascended to the British throne, one of the monarchy’s most enduring charitable initiatives is stepping into the global spotlight: The King’s Trust, formerly known as The Prince’s Trust, is celebrating 50 years of lifting young disadvantaged entrepreneurs and job seekers out of economic uncertainty, with plans to deepen its work across the U.S. and more than 20 other countries.

The organization’s origin story traces back to 1976, when a young Prince Charles poured his entire £7,600 Royal Navy severance pay into launching the charity amid widespread economic turmoil across the United Kingdom. Half a century later, the trust reports it has supported more than 1.3 million young people across the UK, turning early seeds of opportunity into household names from actor Idris Elba to fashion designer Ozwald Boateng. But for Scottish entrepreneur Mike Welch, now a Florida-based business leader who built a multimillion-dollar fortune as an online tire retailer, the charity’s impact is a deeply personal turning point that changed the entire trajectory of his life.

Welch, a working-class dyslexic teen, left school at 15 after struggling with college entrance exams and landed a job installing tires. When that position fell through, he found himself waiting in line at a Liverpool job center, staring at two options: an opening for a funeral director role, which he calls a “great career” but a “pretty grim” path, and an advertisement for a Prince’s Trust charity event offering small business grants to young aspiring entrepreneurs. He chose the grant opportunity, and less than a day later, he was pitching his unpolished idea: selling affordable tires to niche customers like his friends who owned customized modified cars. What the plan lacked in structure, it made up for in enthusiasm — and the trust backed him. He walked away with a £500 (worth roughly $677 today) grant and access to a mentor who offered office space for his new venture. That small startup eventually sold to tire giant Michelin for £50 million ($68 million). “It wasn’t a well thought out plan, really,” Welch recalled. “But they backed me. And they backed my enthusiasm. And they gave me a chance.” If he had chosen the funeral director listing instead, he says he would have built his career in death care instead of e-commerce.

Today, the organization bears a new name: it rebranded from The Prince’s Trust to The King’s Trust after Charles became monarch in 2023. It has long outgrown its UK origins, expanding its footprint primarily across countries that were once part of the British Commonwealth, with a growing focus on the U.S. market. Its core programs are built around one core belief: young people from marginalized communities do not just need funding — they need opportunity. Offerings include Get Hired, which supports young people without college degrees to land their first full-time job; Development Awards, small grants to cover work essentials like laptops, professional clothing or training; and the Enterprise Challenge, an afterschool program that tasks students with building small businesses to solve pressing local problems.

That model has already delivered tangible results in the U.S. At Chicago’s Collins Academy High School, located in the majority-Black, economically disinvested neighborhood of North Lawndale, students launched C2C: Crops2Customers, a small business that grows and sells fresh produce to local retailers that lack access to affordable healthy groceries. The team won the King’s Trust USA Enterprise Challenge, and for principal LaKenya Sharpe, the win was about far more than the prize. “A lot of times our babies, especially in this community, feel like no one’s watching, no one is looking, no one is paying attention,” Sharpe explained. “This shows that they can achieve anything. Their belief now is ‘Oh, other people are watching. Other people are seeing this.’ And they ask ‘How far can this go?’ My answer is, ‘It can go as far as you guys take it. Don’t let anything limit you.’”

To mark its 50th anniversary, the trust will host a high-profile gala in New York on Wednesday, designed to highlight the longstanding philanthropic partnership between the UK and the U.S. The event comes at a moment of unusual political tension between the two allies: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s recent refusal to back U.S. military action against Iran has sparked anger from U.S. President Donald Trump. But charity observers note that Charles’ choice to center the trust during the state visit offers a quiet reminder of the shared priorities that bind the two nations beyond political rifts.

“The harsh reality today is that the need for the work of people like the trust is growing at a rate far faster than we can grow,” said Jeremy Green, trustee of the King’s Trust Group Company and chair of King’s Trust USA. JP Tribe, a senior law lecturer at the University of Liverpool who specializes in royal patronage, explained that Charles’ decision to build his own charity, rather than just lend his name to an existing organization, speaks to his longstanding commitment to youth employment. “Hopefully the gala is a kind of event which shows that both countries have and can continue to engage in very positive public benefit activity that helps the most disadvantaged in our society,” Tribe said.

King’s Trust USA has set an ambitious target: reach 1,000 young people across the country in 2024, working with local partners including education nonprofit City Year, workforce development organization Per Scholas, and Maryland public school districts to pilot its core programs. Victoria Gore, CEO of King’s Trust USA, notes that the organization’s focus on local impact aligns with what young participants already prioritize: solving problems in their own backyards. “Keeping employment in communities and keeping people in communities is actually the key to everyone’s success,” Gore said.

For Welch, who now runs the Anglo Atlantic advisory and investment firm, the blueprint for successful U.S. expansion is already proven. The model that worked for a teen in Liverpool works just as well for a student in Chicago or an aspiring entrepreneur in Orlando, he says — all it takes is partnership with local organizations that can connect the trust to the young people who need support most. “It doesn’t require giant investments to make an impact,” Welch emphasized, pointing to his own small £500 grant that grew into a multimillion-dollar business.

Looking ahead, the trust plans to launch a fundraising campaign in 2026 to build a permanent endowment for its UK operations, capping off a year of global celebrations for its 50-year legacy of opening doors for young people. The Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits for this story received support through a collaboration with The Conversation US, funded by Lilly Endowment Inc., with the AP retaining sole editorial control over the content.

LONDON – A Wednesday morning stabbing incident in Golders Green, a northwest London neighborhood with one of the largest Jewish communities in the United Kingdom, has left two people injured and sparked a cross-unit counterterrorism investigation into what officials have formally classified as an antisemitic attack. A 45-year-old suspect is currently in custody, facing suspicion of attempted murder following the violent assault.

According to local Jewish security organization Shomrim, witnesses observed the suspect moving along Golders Green Road armed with a large blade, actively targeting Jewish civilians going about their daily routines. Members of Shomrim, a community patrol group that provides supplementary security for Jewish neighborhoods across the U.K., managed to detain the suspect before law enforcement arrived. Metropolitan Police officers subsequently took the suspect into custody, deploying a stun gun to subdue him during the arrest. Officials confirmed the suspect also attempted to stab responding officers, though no law enforcement personnel were harmed in the confrontation.

The two victims, a man in his 30s and a second man in his 70s, were transported to local hospitals for treatment. As of the latest update, both are reported to be in stable condition, with no immediate threat to their lives.

Counterterrorism detectives have taken lead on the investigation to determine whether the stabbings are connected to a recent string of arson attacks targeting synagogues and other Jewish community sites across London. While investigators are probing potential extremist links, the incident has not yet been formally designated as an act of terrorism. Detectives are still working to establish the suspect’s full background, nationality and potential motives, with Detective Chief Superintendent Luke Williams noting that “investigators are considering all possible motives” tied to the attack.

The stabbing comes on the heels of multiple arson incidents over recent weeks that have all targeted Jewish infrastructure within a few miles of Golders Green. Those attacks damaged a Jewish charity’s ambulance fleet parked in the neighborhood and hit a synagogue located a short distance away. No injuries were reported in any of the arson attacks, and law enforcement has already arrested and charged multiple suspects ranging in age from teenagers to people in their 40s. Counterterror officials are currently examining whether the arson attacks were carried out by proxies linked to Iran, a line of inquiry that has now expanded to include the Wednesday stabbing.

Local residents expressed shock and unease following the latest attack, which comes amid a sustained rise in antisemitic aggression across the country. “It happens in Israel, but happening on our own doorstep, of course it’s shocking,” said Golders Green resident Moishe Grunfeld, who spoke of his concern for his children and grandchildren who live in the area. Golders Green has long been a central hub for British Jewry: the neighborhood is home to dozens of synagogues, multiple Jewish day schools, and a wide array of kosher businesses, alongside sizable Asian and Middle Eastern communities. The broader U.K. Jewish community numbers roughly 300,000 people, a small share of the country’s total population but one with deep, centuries-long roots in British society.

Top political leaders across the U.K. united to condemn the attack. Prime Minister Keir Starmer emphasized the inseparable link between attacks on British Jews and attacks on the nation itself, stating that “attacks on our Jewish community are attacks on Britain.” London Mayor Sadiq Khan echoed that condemnation, noting that “London’s Jewish community have been the target of a series of shocking antisemitic attacks.” He added, “There must be absolutely no place for antisemitism in society.”

The incident is the latest in a dramatic nationwide surge in antisemitic hostility recorded since the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent outbreak of the Gaza war. Data from the Community Security Trust, the leading organization tracking antisemitic incidents in the U.K., shows recorded attacks jumped from 1,662 in 2022 to 3,700 in 2025. Britain’s Chief Rabbi has warned that British Jews are now facing an organized campaign of violence and intimidation. The Golders Green stabbing also comes just months after a fatal antisemitic attack in Manchester in October 2025, when an attacker drove a vehicle into a crowd gathered outside a synagogue on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, stabbing one person to death. A second person at the scene died after being inadvertently shot by responding police.

BERLIN – For nearly five months, a wayward humpback whale that wandered hundreds of kilometers off its natural migration route has captured global public attention, and on Wednesday, a long-planned rescue operation finally moved the ailing animal one step closer to its intended home in the Atlantic Ocean.

Nicknamed Timmy by German media outlets, the young humpback was first spotted off Germany’s Baltic Sea coast on March 3, thousands of kilometers from the cool Atlantic waters that make up the species’ native habitat. Since its unexpected arrival, Timmy has faced repeated stranding events in the region’s shallow coastal waters, and its overall health has steadily declined. Multiple earlier attempts to guide the whale out to deeper open water failed, with every step of these efforts streamed live to audiences around the world, turning the stranded mammal into an international headline maker.

According to Germany’s national press agency dpa, rescuers worked for hours on Tuesday to secure the whale with heavy-duty straps and pull it through a specially dredged channel onto a flooded cargo barge, marking the start of the most ambitious rescue attempt to date. By early Wednesday morning, the barge had already reached the northern German island of Fehmarn, which sits just a short distance from Danish territorial waters. From there, the vessel will travel around the northern tip of Denmark, through the Skagerrak Strait, before reaching the North Sea, where the whale is scheduled to be released to make its own way back to the Atlantic.

The high-stakes operation has sparked widespread public and scientific debate across Germany, dividing experts, officials and animal welfare activists over the best course of action for the ailing whale. Till Backhaus, environment minister for the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where Timmy has been stranded, publicly threw his support behind the private rescue initiative that planned the transport, even saying Tuesday that he was “on the verge of jumping into the water to help the whale get through the last few meters.” Despite warnings from some scientific experts that the stress of the transport could be fatal for the already weakened animal, Backhaus greenlit the operation following sustained pressure from activists, who held public protests on Wismar beaches demanding the whale be rescued and returned to its natural habitat.

Critics of the operation, however, argue that repeated rescue attempts have only caused unnecessary suffering for Timmy, who many scientists confirm is severely ill. Thilo Maack, a marine biologist with the environmental organization Greenpeace, told the Associated Press earlier in the month that the ongoing interventions have already placed extreme, harmful stress on the animal. “I believe the whale will die very soon now. And I would also like to raise the question: What is actually so bad about that?” Maack said. “Yes, animals live, animals die. This animal is really, really very, very, very sick. And it has decided to seek rest.” Many scientists have echoed this position, noting that Timmy likely sought out shallow coastal waters intentionally because his declining health left him too weak to swim further and he needed to rest. Still, the veterinary team working with the private rescue initiative maintains that the whale is healthy enough to withstand the multi-day journey to the North Sea, leaving the final outcome uncertain as the barge continues north.