Global Pulse

分类： society

  • Macron says trust in France institutions ‘at stake’ after girl’s killing

    Macron says trust in France institutions ‘at stake’ after girl’s killing

    A brutal suspected murder of an 11-year-old girl in southwestern France has ignited nationwide fury, after systemic failures in the country’s child protection and justice systems allowed an alleged offender with a history of past accusations to remain free to strike. President Emmanuel Macron has acknowledged that public faith in France’s state institutions now hangs in the balance in the wake of the tragedy.

    The victim, identified only as Lyhanna, went missing from her home in the town of Fleurance on May 29, and her body was recovered by authorities one week later. The primary suspect in the case is 41-year-old Jerome B., a former school worker and father of one of Lyhanna’s classmates, who had previously been accused twice of raping a child. Both prior investigations were either closed without resolution or stalled indefinitely, long before Lyhanna’s disappearance.

    Addressing a weekly cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Macron stressed that the crisis extends far beyond the killing itself. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon relayed Macron’s assessment that “it is trust in our institutions that is at stake.” While acknowledging the widespread public anger over the mishandling of prior allegations against the suspect, Macron called for measured response to the tragedy, noting that “We do not respond to a tragedy with shouting.” He added that investigators must now untangle what went wrong: “We must now understand what falls under individual responsibilities and what concerns systemic lapses within all the public services involved.”

    Public outrage boiled over on Monday, when an estimated 60,000 people joined silent marches and protests across the country. Many demonstrators called for the resignation of Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin, who has refused to step down but issued a public apology for what he admitted was a “huge failure” in Lyhanna’s case. As of Wednesday, authorities have not yet released results of the forensic examination of Lyhanna’s body, and the suspect has only been formally charged with abduction, pending further investigation. Lyhanna’s funeral is scheduled for Friday afternoon, and will be held in private per her family’s request, according to the family’s legal representative.

    The case has already shed new light on the deep, long-running flaws in France’s handling of child sexual assault allegations. Nine months before Lyhanna went missing, another mother filed a formal complaint against Jerome B., accusing him of repeatedly raping her 10-year-old daughter between September 2023 and May 2024. The accusation was supported by a formal medical report, but law enforcement never questioned the suspect before Lyhanna’s disappearance.

    Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, the accuser — who requested anonymity to protect her daughter — slammed the justice system for its inaction. “The justice system did not do its job,” she said. “I called every Monday morning, while my daughter was with the psychologist. I called the police. The last time I rang them, they told me that if I kept harassing them, they would press charges against me.”

    Independent and government data backs up claims of systemic failure. According to France’s independent commission on child sexual violence, CIIVISE, only 7% of reported complaints of child sexual assault in France result in a criminal conviction. A 2022 government report previously flagged chronic understaffing and limited time allocated to child abuse investigations, and data published by investigative outlet Mediapart this week revealed that 70% of cases end with no additional evidence collection — such as phone record pulls, security camera review or digital device searches — after investigators interview the suspect.

    Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu told the French Senate on Wednesday that the specific investigation into the prior accusations against Jerome B. did not suffer from a lack of resources, but he conceded that the broader justice system does face widespread resourcing gaps. “But that does not mean the justice system does not have a resources issue,” he added.

    Lyhanna’s death is far from an isolated incident, and is the latest in a string of high-profile child protection failures that have shaken France in recent years. In Paris, dozens of kindergarten and primary school monitors have been suspended this year over allegations of sexual abuse against pupils in their care; Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo confirmed Tuesday that 52 staff have been suspended so far in 2025 over suspected “sexual or sexist abuse.” In 2024, a French court sentenced a retired surgeon to 20 years in prison after he confessed to sexually assaulting or raping 299 child patients over a 25-year period between 1989 and 2014 — he continued practicing for decades even after a prior conviction for possessing child sexual abuse imagery.

    CIIVISE estimates that roughly 160,000 children experience rape or sexual assault in France every year, the vast majority at the hands of a family member or someone known to the victim. Following Lyhanna’s killing, thousands of French residents joined a silent march Tuesday in Saint-Jean d’Angely, where Lyhanna’s grandparents joined the crowd to call for sweeping reform to France’s child protection laws.

  • Watch: Historic US-Canada border library gets new Quebec-only entrance

    Watch: Historic US-Canada border library gets new Quebec-only entrance

    One of the world’s most unique cross-border cultural institutions, the iconic Haskell Free Library and Opera House, has marked a new chapter in its long history with the opening of a dedicated new entrance located entirely on Quebec soil. The development comes nearly three years after the 2025 Trump administration implemented a pause on public use of the library’s historic main entrance, which sits on United States territory and had been freely accessed by visitors from both Canada and the United States for more than a century.

    Straddling the international boundary between Stanstead, Quebec and Derby Line, Vermont, the Haskell Library has occupied a one-of-a-kind space since its founding in the early 1900s. For generations, readers and guests from both countries moved seamlessly through its US-side main entrance, a quiet symbol of the open, cooperative relationship that long defined the world’s longest undefended border. Locals and frequent visitors relied on this access for decades, with many Quebec residents making regular trips to borrow books, attend community events, and enjoy the library’s programming without requiring border clearance.

    When the Trump administration suspended access to that main entrance in 2025, the move disrupted a long-standing informal arrangement that had shaped community life on both sides of the border. Facing ongoing restricted access, regional and institutional stakeholders moved forward with a plan to construct a fully Canadian entrance that would allow visitors from Quebec to enter the library without crossing into US territory at any point. That years-long planning and construction project has now come to fruition, delivering a new permanent access point that preserves the library’s role as a shared community resource for northern Vermont and southern Quebec.

    The new entrance marks a historic adjustment for an institution that has long embodied the close ties between the two neighboring countries. While the shift alters decades of border access tradition, it ensures that the library can continue to serve its full cross-border community amid changing border policies. Community leaders on both sides have emphasized that the project protects the library’s core mission as a public cultural space, even as it adapts to new restrictions on cross-border movement.

  • Belfast race riots see non-white families targeted and houses torched

    Belfast race riots see non-white families targeted and houses torched

    Overnight on Tuesday, large-scale race-fueled rioting erupted in Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland, leaving a trail of destruction as hundreds of masked rioters targeted properties belonging to non-white residents, migrant families, and asylum seekers. The unrest was triggered by the arrest of a 30-year-old Sudanese asylum seeker, Hadi Alodid, who holds indefinite leave to remain in the UK, hours before the violence broke out. Alodid has been charged with attempted murder in connection with a filmed knife attack on a man in a residential neighborhood, an incident many commentators have characterized as an attempted beheading.

    Local law enforcement has stated that the attack itself does not appear to be terror-related, but the incident quickly became a flashpoint for anti-migrant sentiment stoked by high-profile figures far beyond Northern Ireland. On Tuesday afternoon, far-right activist Tommy Robinson — whose legal name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon — and Elon Musk, the South African-born American billionaire who owns the social platform X, openly called for nationwide protests over the attack on the platform. Musk went as far as to urge repeated, large-scale public demonstrations in a post, writing: “Only by protesting REPEATEDLY and LOUDLY will there be any change!!” Both Robinson and Musk shared planned protest locations across the UK on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

    By Tuesday evening, the calls to action translated to extreme violence on the streets of Belfast. Rioters constructed makeshift roadblocks from street furniture to set up unauthorized checkpoints, stopping and searching passing vehicles to identify non-white people and foreign nationals. Targeted attacks focused on public council housing occupied by migrants, asylum seekers, and refugee families, with rioters setting ablaze multiple homes, private vehicles, and a local bus. A Middle Eastern-owned supermarket was also set on fire amid the chaos.

    Footage from the scene captured children being evacuated from adjacent properties as fires spread across neighborhoods. Local pastor Jack McGee told the BBC that many residents were forced to flee their homes simply “because they’re black”. Jamie Corry, a resident on east Belfast’s Lendrick Road, described the rapid escalation of violence: “the cars started to explode, the doors started smoking, the windows started melting, and the next thing the house was going to go up on fire”. Rioters were filmed kicking in residential doors, smashing windows, and shouting that they were “getting foreigners out” of the area. On west Belfast’s Shankhill Road, rioters breached the door of a home where an ethnic minority woman had been spotted at a window, throwing bricks through the property’s windows. Elsewhere, rioters were seen riding motor scooters while carrying hammers and petrol-filled milk cartons.

    Emergency responders including police and firefighters were forced to carry out dangerous rescue operations, pulling trapped families out of burning buildings through thick smoke and flames. Across Belfast, major streets were blocked by rioters, leaving entire neighborhoods under the control of violent crowds for hours.

    The unrest was not isolated to Belfast. Anti-migrant demonstrations and related violence erupted across the United Kingdom on Tuesday night, including in London, Glasgow, and Southampton — the site of anti-migrant rioting just one week prior following the killing of a local young man. In Glasgow, approximately 300 masked men marched through city streets, with footage showing multiple clashes with passers-by and a violent attack on a delivery driver.

    Political leaders across the UK have widely condemned the violence and those who incited it. On Wednesday morning, Labour Party Chair Anna Turley issued sharp criticism of Musk, calling his role in encouraging protests “appalling”. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer denounced the disorder in a statement, saying: “There is no justification for the violence and disorder that we saw threatening our communities, nor for those who encouraged it, online or elsewhere. It is clear that people were targeted last night because of their background and I will not tolerate it.” Michelle O’Neill, First Minister of Northern Ireland, called the actions of the rioters indefensible, noting: “Groups of masked men burning families out of their homes is nothing less than disgusting cowardice. This has nothing to do with community. This is outright thuggery.”

    The coordinated wave of violence has sparked widespread public concern over the potential for further unrest across the UK this summer. It follows a similar period of national rioting in August 2024, when disorder spread across the country for more than a week after the killing of three young girls in Stockport.

  • Hong Kong files charges over deadliest fire in decades

    Hong Kong files charges over deadliest fire in decades

    One year after the deadliest residential blaze in recent global history killed 168 people in Hong Kong, authorities have officially filed manslaughter and corruption charges against multiple individuals and firms linked to safety failures at the public housing estate. The unprecedented inferno, which broke out in November 2023, swept through seven of the eight high-rise residential towers at Wang Fuk Court, leaving thousands of residents homeless and triggering a months-long joint investigation by local police and Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

    When the blaze erupted, the estate was undergoing major renovation work, and investigators quickly uncovered a pattern of systemic safety negligence and alleged corrupt misconduct. Official public hearings into the disaster confirmed that nearly all critical life-saving fire safety systems failed on the day of the fire, a breakdown traced directly to avoidable human error. According to charge sheets reviewed by Agence France-Presse, manslaughter charges have been brought against the directors of the main construction contractor and the independent consulting firm overseeing the renovation, a certified fire safety inspector, and both of their companies. In total, seven individuals who held varying responsibilities for the renovation project face an expanded slate of charges including fraud, money laundering, and tax evasion beyond the manslaughter counts.

    All defendants made their first court appearance on Wednesday, where they confirmed to the presiding judge that they understood all charges leveled against them. During the hearing, prosecutors formally stated that the accused unlawfully caused the deaths of all 168 victims, who included ordinary residents and one responding firefighter. For the first time since the disaster, the full list of victims’ names was read out in open court, bringing the human cost of the tragedy into public record. The proceedings were then adjourned to September 2024 for further pre-trial processes.

    In a press briefing held after the court appearance, law enforcement officials outlined the scope of their investigation, noting that a total of 35 people had been arrested in connection with the fire in a joint operation between police and ICAC. “We suspect this terrible incident was driven by individuals putting personal profit above all else, with complete disregard for the safety of residents’ lives and property,” stated Hazel Law, principal investigator for ICAC.

    Investigators confirmed that the accused conspired to defraud government regulators by submitting falsified inspection reports for the renovation project. Police added that the contractor and consulting firms are suspected of egregious breaches of their duty of care, resulting in gross negligence across the construction work. Two key factors have been identified as driving the fire’s rapid and deadly spread: substandard, non-fire-retardant safety netting installed during the renovation, and a discarded cigarette that investigators have confirmed was the original source of ignition.

    Prosecutors further revealed that fire alarm systems for all seven affected towers had been intentionally deactivated during the renovation work, a decision that “greatly shortened the window of time residents had to evacuate” the burning buildings. Required fire-retardant protective netting was replaced with cheaper non-compliant material in most locations, and foam boards used for ongoing renovation work covered external windows, providing an additional fuel source that allowed the fire to spread quickly into occupied residential units. The blaze, which stands as the deadliest residential building fire worldwide since 1980, left thousands of residents displaced, with all relocated to temporary public housing in the months following the disaster.

  • Belfast girds for more violence after stabbing suspect held

    Belfast girds for more violence after stabbing suspect held

    Belfast entered a state of heightened alert Wednesday, preparing for a second consecutive night of anti-immigrant unrest that has already displaced local families, damaged property and spread across parts of the United Kingdom, with authorities blaming far-right actors for amplifying tension online following a recent knife attack.

    The unrest erupted Tuesday evening shortly after a 30-year-old Sudanese refugee, Hadi Alodid, appeared before Belfast Magistrates’ Court on charges of attempted murder, possession of a bladed article in public, and making threats to kill. The attack left a 40-something victim with severe injuries, including the loss of an eye, according to court documents. Alodid, who arrived in the UK in 2023 via Paris and Dublin and holds a UK residence permit valid through 2028, had no prior contact with Northern Ireland police and was remanded in custody until a case hearing on July 8.

    Within hours of the court proceeding, masked rioters took to Belfast’s streets, setting vehicles and buildings ablaze and forcing terrified families to evacuate their homes. During the disorder, police had to evacuate a two-month-old infant and their family to safety, Northern Ireland Police Chief Jon Boutcher told reporters. He described the rioters, most of whom were identified as young men, as “mindless idiots” whose actions amounted to “a huge act of self-harm” against Belfast’s community.

    By Wednesday morning, multiple schools had suspended classes, local businesses had shut early in anticipation of further unrest, and transport authorities canceled all evening bus and train services across the area. Police announced they would deploy an additional 200 officers to the streets to contain potential violence, after just three people were arrested in connection with Tuesday’s riots, one of whom has already been formally charged. The unrest spilled over to the Scottish city of Glasgow as well, where three arrests were made after clashes left two police officers and three members of the public injured.

    The stabbing victim’s family issued an urgent appeal for calm, rejecting attempts by extremist groups to exploit the attack for political gain. In a statement shared via a local politician’s Facebook page, they said: “We do not want this terrible tragedy to be used to divide people or fuel hostility.”

    Graphic video footage of the stabbing, which captured members of the public intervening to stop the attack (one person using a hurling stick), spread widely across social media platforms despite official calls to stop sharing the content. Dozens of far-right and self-described “patriot” accounts reposted the footage to organize new anti-immigration protests, calling on supporters to demonstrate against immigration in local communities.

    Anna Turley, chair of Britain’s ruling Labour Party, slammed online platforms and prominent figures for stoking the unrest, specifically naming X owner Elon Musk as one of the “bad faith actors” inflaming division. Musk has recently reposted content from high-profile anti-immigration activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson, adding his own comment that “Only by protesting REPEATEDLY and LOUDLY will there be any change!!” He also shared a post from Rupert Lowe, leader of fringe hard-right group Restore Britain, that declared “millions must go” in reference to immigrants.

    Turley emphasized that public figures bear responsibility to avoid fomenting hate that puts vulnerable communities at risk: “Musk has a responsibility, everyone in public and civil life has a responsibility to call for calm and not to stoke grievance or hatred… that puts vulnerable people and our communities at risk.” UK media regulator Ofcom has also intervened, confirming it sent formal correspondence to online service providers this week warning against allowing platforms to be used to stir up racial hatred, provoke violence and violate UK criminal law.

    For immigrant communities already settled in Belfast, the current atmosphere is one of deep fear. Anselme Shima, a 48-year-old originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo who has lived in Northern Ireland since 2013, told reporters he was uncertain whether it was safe to send his two children to school amid the unrest. “This situation is terrifying,” he said.

    The violence comes at a time of already elevated social tension across the UK, where immigration has become an increasingly divisive hot-button political issue that has fueled the growing popularity of hard-right party Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage. Just last week, skirmishes broke out in southern England following public anger over the police handling of the December murder of 18-year-old white student Henry Nowak, who was killed by British Sikh man Vickrum Digwa. Anti-immigration clashes also erupted in Southampton in early June over the same case, where Digwa had falsely claimed Nowak had racially abused him before the killing.

  • Stabbing suspect due in court after night of anti-immigrant protests in Northern Ireland

    Stabbing suspect due in court after night of anti-immigrant protests in Northern Ireland

    BELFAST, Northern Ireland — A single suspected stabbing has triggered days of chaotic, racially-charged unrest across Northern Ireland, after anti-immigration and far-right activists exploited a violent criminal attack to stoke community tension and mobilize violent street protests.

    Authorities confirmed Thursday that a 30-year-old Sudanese asylum seeker is scheduled to appear before a Belfast court to face charges of attempted murder. The suspect entered Northern Ireland from the neighboring Republic of Ireland in 2023, filed a successful asylum application, and was granted a five-year residency permit. The stabbing, which occurred Monday in north Belfast, left a 40-something male victim hospitalized with severe, life-altering injuries to his face, eyes and back. Graphic mobile phone footage of the attack spread rapidly across social media platforms in the hours after it occurred, giving anti-immigration groups immediate ammunition to frame the incident as a failure of the region’s immigration policy.

    Police have formally ruled out any connection to terrorism and confirmed they are not searching for any additional suspects in connection with the stabbing. Even so, calls for public action circulated online among far-right circles within 24 hours, drawing crowds to the streets Tuesday night.

    Masked rioters targeted residential properties believed to house immigrant families, setting multiple homes ablaze. Local garbage bins and a public Belfast bus were burned, and officers attempting to restore order were pelted with bricks and other projectiles. Firefighters were able to extract multiple trapped residents from the burning buildings before the blazes spread, though no fatalities linked to the unrest have been reported to date.

    The violence drew unified condemnation from all levels of government across the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland’s cross-community power-sharing administration. First Minister Michelle O’Neill, leader of Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein, labeled the unrest “thuggery” in a public statement Wednesday. “Groups of masked men burning families out of their homes is nothing less than disgusting cowardice,” O’Neill said.

    Her counterpart, Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly of the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party, echoed the criticism, noting that “taking frustration at the evil actions of a person out on those who had no part in it is utterly wrong.” UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the original stabbing “sickening” and added that the government would not “tolerate abhorrent scenes of violence like this on our streets.”

    Northern Ireland Justice Minister Naomi Long called out external far-right agitators for exploiting the incident for political gain, noting many of the online organizers “yesterday would have struggled to find Belfast on a map.” Long told the BBC that the targeting of immigrant families amounted to overt racism. “If you’re driving people from their homes based on nothing but the color of your skin, you can’t dress that up any other way, it’s racism, and those bad faith actors need to take a step back,” she said.

    The unrest is the second high-profile incident in the United Kingdom in recent weeks where a violent criminal attack has been weaponized by anti-immigration figures, including high-profile American political actors. Last week, the conviction of a murderer in the December stabbing death of a university student in Southampton, England, was seized on by activists and U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who framed the killing as evidence of dangers tied to open immigration.

    The victim, 19-year-old Henry Nowak, was stabbed to death with a Sikh dagger by Vickrum Digwa, who falsely told responding officers that Nowak had assaulted him in a racist attack. Police initially misidentified Nowak as the aggressor before recognizing his fatal injury and attempting life-saving resuscitation. Digwa was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison with a minimum 21-year term before he is eligible for parole. A protest held over Nowak’s death later turned violent, with participants attacking police with chairs and rocks, and multiple attendees have been charged with violent disorder.

  • Firms charged with manslaughter over deadly Hong Kong fire

    Firms charged with manslaughter over deadly Hong Kong fire

    A devastating blaze that ripped through Hong Kong’s Wang Fuk Court residential complex last November remains the city’s deadliest fire in over seven decades, having claimed 168 lives. Months of investigative work have now culminated in formal charges against two companies and seven individuals connected to the fatal incident.

    Authorities confirmed Tuesday that the accused face a total of 25 criminal charges, ranging from manslaughter and conspiracy to defraud to attempting to pervert the course of public justice and tax evasion. The charged entities include a project consultancy firm and the main contractor that led the building’s renovation work, while the seven individuals encompass directors from both companies and a registered inspector employed by the consultancy. As of the latest update, law enforcement has not released the public identities of the companies and people facing charges.

    The investigation into the tragedy unfolded steadily in the months following the fire. Within days of the blaze breaking out, Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), the city’s anti-graft watchdog, took two directors from structural engineering consultancy Will Power Architects into custody. By March 2025, local police had arrested 38 people on suspicion of manslaughter and fraud-related offenses. The ICAC also conducted a separate arrest round-up, detaining 23 additional people including independent consultants, contractors, and sitting members of Wang Fuk Court’s owners’ corporation. Prior industry reporting has previously identified Prestige Construction and Engineering Company as the official registered contractor for the pre-fire renovation project.

    The tragedy has prompted widespread calls for tighter regulation of residential building renovation works across Hong Kong, with public safety advocates pushing for more rigorous inspection protocols and greater transparency in contractor licensing to prevent similar disasters in the future.

  • Hong Kong charges 7 people and 2 firms over deadly fire that killed 168

    Hong Kong charges 7 people and 2 firms over deadly fire that killed 168

    HONG KONG – Nearly eight months after Hong Kong’s deadliest fire in recent decades claimed 168 lives, local authorities have brought formal charges against seven individuals and two companies in connection with the November 2025 tragedy that ripped through a crowded suburban residential complex.

    The catastrophic blaze broke out on November 26, 2025, rapidly spreading across seven apartment buildings at Wang Fuk Court, a tight-knit residential community in Tai Po that was home to thousands of people. For months after the fire reduced the complex to ashes, surviving former residents and bereaved family members of the victims have waited anxiously for accountability and answers about what led to the devastating loss of life.

    In an official statement released Wednesday, law enforcement and anti-graft officials confirmed that the seven suspects and two corporate entities face a total of 25 criminal charges. Beyond the core charges of manslaughter and conspiracy, the allegations also include money laundering, intentional efforts to undermine public judicial proceedings, and tax evasion.

    All seven charged individuals held distinct roles in a large-scale renovation project underway at Wang Fuk Court at the time of the fire. The two corporate defendants are the main contractor leading the renovation work and the project’s appointed consultancy firm.

    The first court hearing for the cases was scheduled to open Wednesday afternoon. This latest development follows a wave of arrests earlier this year: back in March, Hong Kong police took 38 individuals into custody on charges tied to the disaster, ranging from manslaughter to fraud, with nine of those suspects already formally charged. Separately, the city’s Independent Commission Against Corruption also arrested 23 people that same month on suspicion of bribery and conspiracy to defraud.

    An independent public inquiry into the root causes of the fire is still ongoing. Legal counsel for the inquiry previously shared that a preliminary assessment found nearly every fire safety system installed in the complex failed to operate during the blaze, with the breakdown traced entirely to preventable human error.

  • Some burial societies in Africa now focus on helping the living, too

    Some burial societies in Africa now focus on helping the living, too

    In the crowded, tight-knit Kuwadzana township of Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, 29-year-old Melisa Kasu faced an unthinkable crisis when her mother passed away suddenly, leaving her family completely unprepared. Across Zimbabwe, cultural norms demand elaborate, costly funeral send-offs that feature feasts, entertainment, and community gatherings to uphold a family’s honor. For low-income households, these expectations often push grieving families into crippling debt or push them to sell vital assets just to avoid public shame. But for Kasu, a local mutual aid group stepped in at the worst moment. Arriving with large cooking pots, sacks of cornmeal, and all the other essential supplies needed for the funeral, members of the Kuchemana Burial Society even helped light the cooking fires to prepare food for mourners.

    “That’s the time I decided to join them,” Kasu recalled, and she took over her late mother’s membership in 2023. What she discovered after joining is part of a quiet, transformative cultural shift reshaping community mutual aid groups across much of Africa: traditional burial societies, long focused exclusively on ensuring dignified end-of-life ceremonies, are expanding their missions to support members while they are still alive.

    Founded by a group of local women in 2021, the Kuchemana Burial Society – whose name translates to “mourning one another” in the local Shona language – was originally created to spare low-income families the public embarrassment of holding a funeral that exposes their financial hardship. Today, it retains its core funeral support: each member pays just $3 in monthly dues, and receives a $150 cash payout when a family member passes away, plus on-site help with food preparation and ceremony logistics. But at a recent gathering of the group held under the shade of a large avocado tree, death was barely mentioned on the meeting’s agenda. Instead, members – most of them women, clad in matching T-shirts and floral skirts – sang together, debated community initiatives, and pitched small business ideas ranging from small-scale poultry farming to homemade detergent production.

    Alongside its core funeral services, the society now runs a collective savings fund, where members pay an extra $10 per month to build a pool of capital. Both members and trusted community members can borrow from this fund at a 20% annual interest rate, and all profits from the interest are split between members at the end of each year. The group also operates a bulk grocery purchasing program, allowing members to access staple food goods at lower prices than they would pay at individual retailers. For Kasu, who was laid off from her job at a local hardware store in 2022, this expanded support has been life-changing. She accessed $100 from the savings cycle in December, then borrowed an additional $30 – no complicated bank applications, no strict eligibility checks, no hidden fees. With that capital, she purchased gas tanks and a sales scale, and now runs a small business selling cooking gas to neighbors in her community. “Business is good. I support myself,” Kasu said.

    Researchers note that this shift is not unique to Kuchemana, but reflects a broader trend across the continent. With more than two-thirds of Zimbabwe’s workforce employed in the informal sector, most workers lack access to formal bank loans, conventional financial services, and government social safety nets. Formal funeral insurance is the most widespread form of insurance held in Zimbabwe today – a legacy of the tradition’s roots dating back to the early 20th century, when colonial-era migrant workers formed the first burial societies to ensure they could receive a dignified burial if they died far from their home communities while working in neighboring South Africa. Today, official data shows that fewer than one in 10 Zimbabweans can access affordable health insurance, while low-cost funeral policies are widely promoted by insurance providers and even mobile phone companies. But community-run burial societies still fill a gap that formal insurance cannot, members and researchers agree.

    “Banks normally do not lend to the poor or the unemployed, and governments are not providing enough support,” explained Sharon Chilunjika, a social sciences lecturer at Zimbabwe’s Midlands State University. “People are using an institution they already trust, the burial society, and expanding it to cover more of their needs.” Chilunjika notes that unaffordable funerals are “one of the most underrated or underappreciated drivers of household poverty” across Africa, where families facing pressure to uphold cultural standards often turn to predatory loan sharks or sell critical farm or household assets to cover costs. Beyond financial support, community burial societies offer a sense of connection and belonging that formal corporate providers cannot match. “It is your neighbor, your church mate. They don’t ask you to fill a form. They come to your home and comfort you,” Chilunjika added.

    For the leaders of Kuchemana, the new mission is a natural evolution of the group’s original values. “We wanted dignity in death. Now we are striving for it in life,” said Nyadzisayi Mirisawu, the society’s secretary. “We don’t want members suffering while alive.”

  • Sentence for Christopher Joannidis over crash that killed five upheld on appeal

    Sentence for Christopher Joannidis over crash that killed five upheld on appeal

    One of Victoria’s deadliest road incidents in a decade has sparked renewed anger after the state’s highest court upheld a lenient prison sentence for the driver who caused the crash that killed five people, dismissing a prosecution appeal that argued the original penalty was far too low.

    In January last year, 32-year-old Christopher Dillion Joannidis accepted responsibility for five counts of dangerous driving causing death, and was handed a total sentence of five-and-a-half years behind bars, with a minimum non-parole period of just three years. The fatal collision occurred on April 20, 2023, when Joannidis was driving his Mercedes-Benz along Labuan Road in Strathmerton, a small northern Victorian community located near the New South Wales border. When he reached the intersection with the Murray Valley Highway, he failed to give way to oncoming traffic and crashed directly into a ute.

    The impact of the collision sent the ute spinning out of control, directly into the path of an oncoming heavy truck. The truck’s driver, Deborah Markey, and four visiting farm workers — Zhi-Yao Chen, Pin-Yu Wang, Wai Yan Lam and Hsin-Yu Chen — were killed instantly. Disturbingly, police had pulled Joannidis over just minutes before the fatal crash to issue him a speeding ticket, and explicitly warned him that the stretch of road was notoriously dangerous, with nine fatalities recorded in the area over the preceding 19 months.

    During the original sentencing, Judge Gavan Meredith adjusted the penalty after considering expert testimony that a raised rail hump positioned just before the intersection on Labuan Road created a hidden safety hazard, blocking drivers’ view of traffic on the Murray Valley Highway and turning the crossing into what experts described as a “trap” for motorists.

    Prosecutors with the Office of Public Prosecutions challenged the sentence before the Victorian Court of Appeal, arguing that the penalty was “manifestly inadequate” given the scale of loss of life, Joannidis’ clear culpability for the crash, and the need for a strong sentence to deter other motorists from dangerous driving behavior.

    On Wednesday, the three-judge panel led by Justices Stephen McLeish, Christopher Boyce and Terry Forrest issued their ruling dismissing the appeal. The panel acknowledged that the original sentence was indeed lenient, but concluded it did not fall outside the acceptable range of penalties available to the original sentencing judge.

    “After anxious consideration, we have concluded that this appeal must be dismissed,” the justices wrote in their formal ruling. “Whilst lenient, the Director (of Public Prosecutions) has not demonstrated that the cumulation imposed and the consequent total effective sentence are manifestly inadequate.”

    In their reasoning, the judges noted that Joannidis was not speeding at the time of the crash, nor was he impaired by alcohol or drugs. They also agreed that the pre-existing hazard at the intersection reduced Joannidis’ moral culpability for the deaths, noting “we may have imposed a longer sentence, but that it is only when a sentence is obviously wrong that an appeals court should intervene.”

    Outside the courtroom following the ruling, Daniel Montero, son of crash victim Deborah Markey, said he was devastated by the decision and condemned the justice system as fundamentally broken. “This guy killed five people, and it doesn’t matter how you spin it, that’s what he did,” Montero told reporters. “It really has taken a massive impact on my life and my family’s, and today was just not the outcome that we wanted. I just need to try and move on with my life.”