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  • Where’s my Oscar? Eight times Academy Awards trophies have gone missing

    Where’s my Oscar? Eight times Academy Awards trophies have gone missing

    For the iconic gold-plated Academy Award, the story does not always end once it is handed to a winning filmmaker, actor, or craftsperson. Over decades of Oscar history, dozens of these coveted trophies have gone missing, suffered catastrophic damage, or fallen into unexpected hands – the result of everything from airport security rules to wildfires, brazen theft, and simple moving-day misplacement. The latest strange chapter of this long-running trend unfolded just this week, when a documentary filmmaker was unexpectedly separated from his newly won statuette at a New York airport.

    Pavel Talankin, director of *Mr Nobody Against Putin*, was forced to surrender his Oscar after Transportation Security Administration officials flagged the solid, bronze-filled trophy as a potential weapon. Banned from carry-on luggage, the statuette was misplaced during processing, leaving Talankin without his prize. Last week, airline carrier Lufthansa announced that it had located the missing trophy, and the company confirmed it is working directly with Talankin to coordinate a safe return.

    Talankin’s misadventure is far from unique in Hollywood. Dozens of A-list winners have opened up about losing track of their Oscars over the years, including Angelina Jolie, Matt Damon, Jeff Bridges, and Jared Leto – all of whom have spoken publicly about their own statuette disappearances. To contextualize this latest incident, we’ve rounded up some of the most notable recent cases of missing, damaged, and stolen Academy Awards.

    Last year, as destructive wildfires swept across Los Angeles’ Pacific Palisades neighborhood, four-time Oscar-winning costume designer Colleen Atwood was forced to evacuate her home unexpectedly, leaving three of her Academy Awards alongside three BAFTA trophies and two Emmy Awards behind. One of her Oscars, awarded for *Chicago*, was already on public display at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Museum and escaped harm, but the other three were not so lucky. The statuettes for *Memoirs of a Geisha* and *Alice in Wonderland* melted completely in the extreme heat, while the Oscar for *Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them* became unrecognizable after its gold outer layer was charred away by the blaze that destroyed Atwood’s home. Per the *Los Angeles Times*, the Academy has a longstanding policy to replace or repair damaged statuettes for living winners who lose their awards in catastrophic events, and it offered to replace Atwood’s destroyed trophies after the fire.

    One of the most high-profile recent thefts occurred back in 2018, moments after Frances McDormand took home the Best Actress Oscar for her performance in *Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri*. After the ceremony, McDormand brought the statuette to the official post-awards Governors Ball, where it was stolen from her. A man with a valid ticket to the exclusive event was arrested on suspicion of theft just hours after the statuette was reported missing, and the trophy was quickly returned to McDormand. Surprisingly, prosecutors ultimately chose to drop all charges against the suspect in August 2019, leaving the case unresolved.

    The disgraced, imprisoned former Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, who was expelled from the Academy in 2017 following widespread allegations of sexual assault and harassment, left behind two missing Oscars when his company collapsed. A 2018 *Vanity Fair* investigation into Weinstein’s downfall noted that two back-to-back Best Picture Oscars, won by *The King’s Speech* and *The Artist* under The Weinstein Company banner, vanished from the company’s New York headquarters shortly before the firm declared bankruptcy. To date, the whereabouts of these two statuettes remain unknown.

    Joker and Dallas Buyers Club star Jared Leto spent nearly six years separated from his Best Supporting Actor Oscar, which he won in 2014. Leto first revealed the statuette had gone missing during a cross-country house move in 2021, and fans were stunned when he shared a triumphant social media post in 2024 announcing the trophy had been unexpectedly located. He posed for photos with the recovered award after years of searching.

    Good Will Hunting co-writer and star Matt Damon has also been open about the mysterious disappearance of his first Oscar, which he shared with Ben Affleck when the pair won Best Original Screenplay in 1998. Damon told the *London Daily Express* in 2007 that the statuette vanished after a sprinkler system malfunction caused a flood in his New York apartment while he and his wife were out of town. To this day, he cannot confirm what happened to it: it may have been lost in flood cleanup, accidentally packed into unlabeled storage, or potentially stolen by contractors working on the damaged property.

    Iconic comedian and actress Whoopi Goldberg lost her 1990 Best Supporting Actress Oscar (awarded for her role in *Ghost*) in 2002, when she shipped it to Chicago-based trophy manufacturer RS Owens & Company for routine professional cleaning. When the package arrived four days later, the company opened it to find the box empty: someone had intercepted the shipment, removed the statuette, and resealed the box before it reached its destination. Weeks later, an airport security guard in Ontario, California, found the missing trophy abandoned. After the ordeal, Goldberg promised she would never let her Oscar leave her home again.

    Moonstruck Best Supporting Actress winner Olympia Dukakis faced a different challenge when her Oscar was stolen directly from her home. The thief contacted Dukakis to demand a ransom for the return of the trophy, but she refused to negotiate. Instead, she paid just $78 to the Academy to purchase a replacement statuette. Years later, her original stolen trophy was among 52 missing Oscars discovered by chance in 2000. A repairman working at a Los Angeles laundromat stumbled across the trophies in 10 unmarked crates dumped in a rubbish bin behind the business. The stash came from a heist of 55 new, unengraved Oscars stolen from a trucking loading dock in Bell, California, carried out by two trucking company employees who were later arrested and charged with grand theft. Three of the 55 stolen statuettes from that heist have never been recovered, leaving an unsolved cold case in Oscar history.

  • ‘Silence does not protect anyone’: Leaders call for inquiry into conditions at Alice Springs town camps after 5yo’s alleged abduction, murder

    ‘Silence does not protect anyone’: Leaders call for inquiry into conditions at Alice Springs town camps after 5yo’s alleged abduction, murder

    The horrific alleged abduction and murder of 5-year-old Kumanjayi Little Baby from an Alice Springs town camp has sparked widespread community outrage and urgent demands for a full independent investigation into the systemic failures that allowed the tragedy to occur. The young girl was last seen by her family at their home in Old Timers Camp, located on the outer edge of Alice Springs, on Saturday evening. Days later, early this week, her body was discovered along the banks of the Todd River, just five kilometers from the residence she was taken from.

    By Thursday night, police had taken 48-year-old Jefferson Lewis, the prime suspect in the case, into custody. Immediately following his arrest, hundreds of angry community members gathered outside Alice Springs Hospital, where Lewis was receiving care for life-threatening injuries. The peaceful gathering quickly escalated into civil unrest: protesters threw rocks at law enforcement, lit dumpsters and vehicles on fire, forcing police to deploy riot shields, tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.

    In the wake of the senseless killing, Northern Territory Senator Jacinta Price has emerged as a leading voice demanding a sweeping independent inquiry, not just into the specific circumstances of Kumanjayi’s death, but into the chronic dangerous conditions that have plagued Alice Springs’ town camp communities for decades. In an opinion piece published in *The Australian*, Price argued that these overcrowded, under-resourced settlements have been ignored by policymakers for far too long, creating environments that put vulnerable children at extreme risk.

    She noted that unregulated movement of people, including repeat violent offenders, is common across the camps, while existing alcohol restrictions are rarely enforced. Many settlements lack basic infrastructure, proper maintenance and effective oversight. Price, who has personal ties to Old Timers Camp that extend beyond this tragedy, shared that she has already lost multiple family members to violence and accidents in the camp.

    “These are not new observations,” Price wrote. “Not only into the circumstances surrounding this case, but into the broader conditions that allow such vulnerability to persist. That includes the governance of town camps, the role of organisations responsible for their upkeep, and whether current laws and enforcement mechanisms are adequate to protect the most vulnerable. Because if they are not, they must change.” She also raised urgent questions about transparency and accountability for the large amounts of public funding allocated to town camp management, calling for greater scrutiny of how those funds are spent.

    Opposition Leader Angus Taylor backed Price’s calls, telling Sky News that the tragedy was the inevitable result of decades of willful denial of the crisis in remote Indigenous communities. He noted that the Coalition took a proposal for a full royal commission into endemic sexual violence and abuse in these communities to the last federal election, and that that recommendation remains just as urgent today. “It’s the denial that has led us to this place where people aren’t prepared to have honest conversations about the state of affairs in our town camps and what options there are to address it,” Taylor said.

    Sue-Anne Hunter, National Commissioner for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People, added another layer to the calls for investigation, demanding an inquiry into the correctional system processes that led to Lewis being released from custody prior to the alleged murder. “We call for a wider investigation into the correctional systems that led to his release,” Hunter said.

    However, Indigenous Australians Minister Malarndirri McCarthy has pushed back on the demands for an immediate inquiry, arguing that the current moment should be focused on community mourning and supporting Kumanjayi’s grieving family. “Now’s the time to come together as a community in sorry business and be with this mum and her son as they prepare to bury their daughter,” McCarthy told the ABC.

    Across Alice Springs and the nation, the tragedy has left the tight-knit community in deep mourning. Flowers and handwritten tribute cards have piled up at the Old Timers Camp gate where Kumanjayi disappeared, as friends, neighbors and strangers grieve the loss of the young girl. In a heartbreaking public statement released after the discovery of her body, Kumanjayi’s mother and older brother shared their devastating grief. “To Kumanjayi Little Baby, me and Ramsiah miss and love you,” the statement reads. “I know you are in heaven with the rest of the family with Jesus and the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Me and your brother will meet you one day. We are giving our lives to Jesus. It is going to be so hard to live the rest of our lives without you. Ramsiah wants to tell you that when he sees you in heaven, he is going to give you the biggest hug ever. Love from Mum and Ramsiah.”

  • Texas camp where 25 girls died drops reopening plans after parents protest

    Texas camp where 25 girls died drops reopening plans after parents protest

    One year after catastrophic flash floods swept through central Texas during the Fourth of July holiday, killing 27 people including 25 children and two counselors at iconic all-girls Camp Mystic, the historic private Christian camp has announced it will not open for the 2026 summer season, abandoning its plans to relocate operations after withdrawing its state license application.

    Founded in 1926 on a 700-acre property along the Guadalupe River, Camp Mystic had initially drawn up plans to welcome 800 campers to an alternative, fatality-free site for the 2026 season after last year’s disaster. However, amid ongoing official investigations and fierce pressure from bereaved families, camp leadership announced Thursday that it was stepping back from its licensing effort.

    In a public statement, the camp noted that no administrative steps or summer programming should proceed while grieving families still process their loss, official investigations into the tragedy remain active, and communities across Texas continue to carry the trauma of last July’s disaster. “Rather than risk defending our rights under Texas law in a manner that may unintentionally inflict further harm, we choose rather to withdraw our application for the 2026 camp season,” the statement read.

    The decision comes after a months-long wave of public and political scrutiny, which intensified following two days of emotional testimony from flood investigators before Texas state lawmakers. The Texas Department of State Health Services had already confirmed in a review, first reported by *The New York Times*, that Camp Mystic’s emergency evacuation and response plans required sweeping overhauls before a license could be granted. Family members of the flood victims had repeatedly urged state regulators to reject any application to reopen the camp, as multiple parallel probes into the camp’s pre-flood emergency preparations continue.

    Last year’s July 4 holiday flood disaster left more than 130 people dead across central Texas, a tragedy that shocked the entire United States and exposed critical gaps and failures in the state’s emergency early warning systems. Camp Mystic’s disaster received outsized national attention in part because of its long history and well-documented location in a known flood-prone river corridor.

    Texas Governor Greg Abbott confirmed in a post-withdrawal statement that the camp will remain shuttered for 2026, adding that the Texas Department of State Health Services will continue its ongoing investigation into the 2025 tragedy.

    Reactions from victim families and local communities have been deeply divided following the announcement. Cici and Will Steward, whose 8-year-old daughter Cila is the only victim still unaccounted for following the flood, said they are grateful that no child will be placed under the operating family Eastlands’ care this summer. They pushed back on framing the withdrawal as an act of compassion, saying, “Camp Mystic did not withdraw its application out of grace. It withdrew because the State of Texas was prepared to deny it.”

    Sam Taylor, an attorney representing six families of deceased campers in an ongoing wrongful death lawsuit against the camp, welcomed the decision but said advocacy would not end. “We are grateful that no other Texas family will hand their daughter over to Camp Mystic this summer,” Taylor said. “But until there is full accountability for what happened on July 4 and until there are real, enforceable safeguards for every child sent to a Texas summer camp, our work continues.”

    Not all families affected by the tragedy supported the permanent 2026 closure. Liberty Lindley, whose 10-year-old daughter survived the Camp Mystic flood, said she had planned to send her daughter back to the camp as part of her emotional healing process. Lindley told *The Washington Post* that confronting traumatic memories head-on can be a powerful step toward recovery: “Emotionally, that’s part of the work: facing the water again, the fears. It’s so important for them to take their power back.”

  • AI actors and writers not eligible for Oscars: Academy

    AI actors and writers not eligible for Oscars: Academy

    In a landmark decision addressing one of the entertainment industry’s most contentious modern challenges, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced sweeping new policy updates on Friday that explicitly bar AI-generated performances and screenplays from Oscar eligibility, alongside major reforms to the Best International Feature Film nomination process. The regulatory changes mark the Academy’s most high-profile intervention into the growing use of artificial intelligence in Hollywood, a technology that has sparked widespread anxiety among creative workers over job security and artistic integrity. Under the new framework, only roles performed by consenting human performers that are officially credited in a film’s legal billing can be considered for nomination in any acting category. For writing categories, the rules have been formally codified to require that all submitted screenplays must be human-authored to qualify for awards consideration. The announcement arrives just days after an AI-generated recreation of late Hollywood star Val Kilmer was publicly revealed to a gathering of cinema industry leaders. One year after Kilmer’s passing, a digitally recreated youthful version of the actor appears in the trailer for the upcoming archaeological action film *As Deep as the Grave*. The project was developed with full support from Kilmer’s family, who provided access to the actor’s personal video archive to help reconstruct his likeness at multiple points throughout his life and career. Unregulated AI development has been one of the most divisive issues in global entertainment for years, and it served as the core sticking point during the 2023 Hollywood strikes that brought major film and television production to a standstill. During the work stoppage, striking actors and writers repeatedly warned that unregulated adoption of AI would threaten long-term career stability for millions of creative professionals by enabling studios to replace human workers with digital alternatives. Beyond its AI policy reforms, the Academy also introduced significant changes to the eligibility rules for the Best International Feature Film category, a revision designed to address longstanding criticism of the old selection system. Prior to this update, only films officially selected by a recognized national governing body in their country of origin could be entered into the category. This requirement created a major barrier for acclaimed filmmakers working in authoritarian states, where government-backed bodies often block politically critical works from submission. A high-profile example of this gap came earlier this year, when Iranian dissident director Jafar Panahi’s film *It Was Just an Accident* was ultimately submitted as an entry from France rather than his home country. Under the new rules, non-English language films can now qualify for submission to the category if they win a qualifying award at one of five major international film festivals: Cannes, Berlin, Busan, Venice, and Toronto. Additionally, the Academy has revised attribution protocols for the category: moving forward, the film itself will be recognized as the nominee rather than the submitting country, and the director’s name will be listed on the statuette plaque directly after the film title, with the country of origin included only when applicable.

  • Australia wants to be first nation in the world to eliminate a cancer – can it?

    Australia wants to be first nation in the world to eliminate a cancer – can it?

    Twelve years ago, Chrissy Walters’ life changed forever. Six months after welcoming her long-awaited first daughter into the world following years of fertility struggles, the Toowoomba resident was rushed to hospital with a severe internal bleed. After multiple tests, biopsies and specialist appointments, the 39-year-old received a devastating diagnosis: advanced cervical cancer.

    Today, after more than a decade of grueling, invasive treatments, Walters’ cancer has spread throughout her body, and her condition is terminal. For her 12-year-old daughter, cervical cancer has been a constant presence throughout her life – the family began having open conversations about Walters’ mortality when the girl was just three years old. Now, as her daughter reaches the age Australia’s national immunization program targets for HPV vaccination, Walters holds onto the hope that her daughter’s generation will be the first to grow up free of the disease that is taking her life.

    Australia is well on its way to making that hope a reality. On track to become the first country in the world to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health threat – potentially beating its 2035 target – the nation has built on decades of local innovation and public health investment to reach this historic cusp. The story of Australia’s progress begins in 2006, when University of Queensland scientists Ian Frazer and Jian Zhou developed Gardasil, the world’s first effective vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV), the most common high-risk cause of cervical cancer. A year later, Australia became the first country to roll out a national HPV vaccination program for adolescent girls, expanding the program to include boys (who can be asymptomatic carriers of the virus) in 2013.

    Alongside widespread vaccination, Australia has implemented a world-leading screening program that has drastically improved early detection. In 2017, it became one of the first nations to replace traditional pap smears with more sensitive HPV-based screening, which only needs to be completed once every five years. It also introduced the option of self-collected samples, a change public health officials call a game-changer for people who avoid screening due to anxiety about pelvic exams, or barriers like limited time or geographic distance from healthcare services.

    Public health experts define elimination of cervical cancer as fewer than four new cases per 100,000 people annually. As of the latest data, Australia already records 6.3 new cases per 100,000 women, down from double that rate when national record-keeping began in 1982. Most notably, 2021 data recorded zero new diagnoses of cervical cancer in women under 25 – a landmark that would have been unthinkable a generation ago. Karen Canfell, a leading epidemiologist at the University of Sydney and global pioneer in cervical cancer control, says the end of cervical cancer as a widespread public health threat is in sight. “It’s not all women of all ages yet, but you can see that concept of elimination being realised,” she notes.

    Canfell adds that Australia’s early investment in vaccination and screening has served as a blueprint for the World Health Organization’s global elimination strategy, making the country a trailblazer in the first global effort to eliminate any form of cancer. “Public health innovations in Australia sort of gave a general exemplar for WHO to follow,” she says.

    Despite this remarkable progress, significant challenges remain. The latest progress report highlights a small but concerning decline in vaccination coverage across the country, with stark disparities for First Nations communities. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women currently face twice the rate of cervical cancer diagnoses and three times the mortality rate of non-Indigenous Australian women, due to long-standing barriers to healthcare access that often lead to late detection. On current trends, cervical cancer elimination for Indigenous Australian women will not come until 2047 – 12 years after the national 2035 target.

    Researchers add that other barriers, including lingering vaccine hesitancy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, rising healthcare costs, and missed school-based vaccinations among students who have missed class time, are slowing progress. Many families also remain unaware that the HPV vaccine is fully free under Australia’s universal healthcare system, and there is no systematic national program to help children catch up on missed doses. “There’s not a lot of a concerted effort to get them back in if they’ve missed it… The onus is very much on families to get their child caught up on that vaccine,” explains researcher Jocelyn Jones.

    Beyond Australia’s borders, high implementation costs remain a major barrier to replicating the nation’s success in low- and middle-income countries, which often lack the robust public health infrastructure and funding needed to roll out widespread vaccination and screening programs. Global aid cuts have exacerbated this gap: in 2025, former U.S. President Donald Trump announced the end of American support for Gavi, the global vaccine alliance that supplies HPV vaccines to developing nations. Australia has stepped in to support neighboring nations including Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea to pursue their own elimination goals, but Canfell notes that high-income countries hold a unique advantage. “To say the obvious thing, we are obviously lucky to be in a high-income country where we have a form of universal healthcare and access for all,” she says.

    Canfell argues that eliminating cervical cancer is a worthwhile long-term investment for all nations, pointing to not only the saved lives and societal benefits but also tangible economic returns: when women do not die prematurely from cervical cancer, they remain active in the workforce and boost national economic productivity.

    Currently, Australia is in a quiet global race to be the first to reach elimination, with Sweden and Rwanda targeting 2027 and the UK targeting 2040, though all other nations currently lag behind Australia on key coverage milestones. For terminal patient Chrissy Walters, who describes living with cervical cancer as a full-time job that has left her with debilitating side effects, crippling fatigue and crippling financial stress even under Australia’s universal healthcare system, the progress could not come soon enough. While she will not live to see a world free of cervical cancer, she holds onto the hope that her daughter’s generation will never have to experience the pain and loss the disease has brought her family. That future, for Australia, is now within reach.

  • Jury convicts former Florida congressman in Venezuela lobbying case

    Jury convicts former Florida congressman in Venezuela lobbying case

    In a high-profile federal corruption trial that wrapped up Friday, a jury found ex-U.S. Representative David Rivera of Florida guilty on multiple felony counts, including conspiracy and failure to register as a foreign agent, for his role in a covert lobbying campaign on behalf of the Venezuelan government. The conviction marks a major conclusion to a six-week proceeding that drew testimony from high-profile political figures and laid bare a secret influence campaign worth tens of millions of dollars. Prosecutors laid out that the former lawmaker’s consulting firm secured a $50 million contract from PDVSA, Venezuela’s state-owned oil giant, to lobby sitting U.S. officials to soften Washington’s stance on Caracas during a period of extreme bilateral tension. The work was carried out in 2017 and 2018, when the Trump administration first imposed harsh economic sanctions on the Maduro regime, and was funneled through PDVSA’s U.S. subsidiary Citgo, according to court documents. Joining Rivera in conviction was his long-time associate Esther Nuhfer, a veteran political consultant who partnered with him on the scheme. Federal prosecutors from the Southern District of Florida argued that the pair intentionally hid the true source of their funding and the ultimate backer of their lobbying: Nicolás Maduro’s Venezuelan government. “As long as the money kept coming in, they didn’t care from where,” lead prosecutor Roger Cruz told jurors during closing arguments. The trial featured unexpected testimony from sitting U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a long-time friend and former housemate of Rivera’s, who was one of the targets of the lobbying effort. Rubio repeatedly stated he had no knowledge of Rivera’s work for the Venezuelan-linked firm, a claim confirmed by Texas Congressman Pete Sessions, who also testified during the proceedings. Neither Rubio nor Sessions have been accused of any wrongdoing in the case. Defense teams for both Rivera and Nuhfer mounted a two-pronged defense throughout the trial. First, they argued that the pair were under no legal obligation to register as foreign agents because their contract was directly with the U.S.-based Citgo, not the Venezuelan central government. Second, Rivera’s lead attorney Ed Shohat told jurors that his client was actually working to remove Maduro from power, not normalize relations between the two countries. “He was working every possible angle to get Nicolás Maduro out,” Shohat said, according to court transcripts from the Associated Press. “There was not a word in the chats about normalizing relations.” The case unfolded against a dramatic shifting backdrop for Venezuelan politics: earlier this year, in January, former President Donald Trump authorized a military strike in Venezuela that resulted in Maduro’s capture. The former Venezuelan leader is currently being held in New York City, awaiting trial on federal drug trafficking charges alongside his wife. Following the verdict reading, during which Rivera showed no visible emotion according to U.S. media reports, the judge ordered the former congressman into immediate detention. Prosecutors successfully argued that Rivera poses a significant flight risk given his ties and possible assets abroad. The conviction caps a decades-long political career for Rivera, who represented a South Florida congressional district for one term from 2011 to 2013, and closes a major chapter in a federal investigation into unregistered foreign lobbying in Washington. Rivera and Nuhfer now face sentencing at a later date, with potential penalties including decades of federal prison time.

  • Fifa Congress: Infantino tried to stage an Israel-Palestine handshake. He failed

    Fifa Congress: Infantino tried to stage an Israel-Palestine handshake. He failed

    At FIFA’s annual global congress held in Vancouver on Thursday, a staged gesture of reconciliation orchestrated by FIFA President Gianni Infantino devolved into a high-profile public standoff, drawing fierce backlash across global sports and human rights circles. Infantino had invited both Jibril Rajoub, president of the Palestinian Football Association, and Basim Sheikh Suliman, vice president of the Israel Football Association, onto the main stage, gesturing for Rajoub to approach his Israeli counterpart for a public handshake and photo opportunity. What followed exposed the deep, unresolved political tensions that have long plagued regional soccer governance, and renewed scrutiny of Infantino’s controversial approach to Middle East politics. After a brief, heated exchange with the FIFA leader, Rajoub declared, “We are suffering,” before stepping off the stage, stopping only to share an amicable hug with Infantino before exiting. In an immediate explanation of Rajoub’s refusal, Palestinian FA Vice President Susan Shalabi told Reuters that Rajoub told Infantino he cannot “shake the hand of someone the Israelis have brought to whitewash their fascism and genocide.” The incident came directly after Rajoub used his allotted speaking time at the congress to deliver a blistering rebuke of FIFA’s recent decision to reject sanctions against Israel over Israeli football clubs operating in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Shalabi emphasized that forcing a handshake immediately after Rajoub’s speech completely undermined the core message of his address. “He spent 15 minutes trying to explain to everyone how the rules matter, how this could easily become a precedent where the rights of member associations are violated with impudence, and then we’ll just wrap this under the carpet. It was absurd,” Shalabi said. Speaking publicly after the incident, Rajoub – a long-time Fatah politician who has been repeatedly detained by Israeli authorities – acknowledged the value of sportsmanship, but drew a clear line at engaging with a representative of what he called a criminal Israeli administration. “If the other side is representing a criminal like Bibi [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] and speaking on behalf of Bibi as if Bibi is Mother Teresa, how can I shake hands or have a photo with such a man?” Rajoub asked. Infantino, who used the Vancouver congress to officially announce his candidacy for a third term as FIFA President next year, attempted to frame the failed gesture as a step toward progress. “We will work together, President Rajoub, Vice President Suliman. Let’s work together to give hope to the children. These are complex matters,” he told delegates after Rajoub’s exit. Reactions to Infantino’s move online were overwhelmingly critical, with many observers labeling the attempt tone-deaf, cynical, and a dangerous trivialization of ongoing human suffering in Gaza. Amnesty UK’s Kristyan Benedict posted a sarcastic rebuke on social media platform X, writing, “Why can’t they just get along…..with genocide, apartheid, and an ever expanding occupation?” Sports journalist Leyla Hamed echoed that criticism, noting, “Gianni Infantino treating genocide like it can be solved with a handshake and a camera. There’s something deeply unsettling about seeing such horror reduced to nothing more than optics.” Other commentators slammed the moment as a failed act of performative soccer diplomacy, accusing Infantino of staging the moment to boost his own public image and cast himself as a global peacemaker ahead of his re-election bid. “Dreaming of the Nobel Peace Prize himself, Infantino sought to stage a handshake between the Israeli and Palestinian federations at the Fifa annual Congress. Complete failure of his ‘soccer diplomacy’ and irritation from the Palestinian president, Jibril Rajoub,” French sports journalist Romain Molina posted on social media. This incident is far from the first time Infantino has faced widespread criticism over his handling of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. UN experts and Palestinian and global human rights activists have repeatedly called for FIFA to suspend Israel from the international governing body, pointing to the same precedent FIFA set when it suspended Russia from all international competition following its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Infantino has also drawn condemnation for other controversial political moves in recent months, including awarding the first-ever FIFA Peace Prize to former U.S. President Donald Trump during the 2026 World Cup draw in December. FIFA has repeatedly defended the award as an apolitical gesture, but human rights groups across the globe uniformly condemned the decision. In the days leading up to the Vancouver congress, the Norwegian Football Association called on FIFA to abolish the new prize entirely to avoid dragging the governing body into partisan political disputes. Australian men’s national team player Jackson Irvine argued that decisions like the Trump Peace Prize award have severely eroded FIFA’s claimed credibility as a force for global good. “As an organisation, you would have to say decisions like the one that we saw awarding this peace prize make a mockery of what they’re trying to do with the human rights charter,” Irvine told Reuters.

  • Starmer accused of ‘weaponising’ Golders Green attack to target pro-Palestine protests

    Starmer accused of ‘weaponising’ Golders Green attack to target pro-Palestine protests

    A violent stabbing incident targeting two Jewish men in a majority-Jewish northwest London neighborhood has ignited a fierce national debate in the United Kingdom over the intersection of pro-Palestine protest rights, rising antisemitism, and political opportunism. The attack, which left a 34-year-old and a 76-year-old injured, prompted Prime Minister Keir Starmer to deliver a nationally televised address that immediately drew sharp criticism from civil liberties campaigners, opposition politicians, and pro-Palestine organizers.

    Following the attack, a 45-year-old Somali-born British national named Essa Suleiman was taken into custody just hours after the stabbing. Channel 4 News later confirmed that Suleiman had been discharged from a psychiatric facility only days before the incident. On Friday, London’s Metropolitan Police formalized charges against him: two counts of attempted murder and one count of illegal public possession of a bladed weapon. Notably, no terrorism-related charges have been filed, despite widespread early speculation. Additional court documents seen by the BBC also reveal Suleiman is accused of attempting to murder a third man, Ishmail Hussein, an acquaintance of 20 years, on the same morning as the Golders Green attack. Records also show Suleiman was referred to the UK’s controversial Prevent counter-extremism programme back in 2020.

    An obscure little-known online faction calling itself Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia (Hayi) quickly issued a statement claiming responsibility for the attack. The unsubstantiated claim has not been verified by any British law enforcement body, and no evidence has emerged to connect Suleiman to the group, or to explain how a mentally ill man recently discharged from hospital could have received operational direction from the faction. Hayi has issued a string of similar uncorroborated claims for attacks across Europe over the past two months. While the Israeli government has alleged the group has ties to Iran, British investigators have not confirmed any such link, though they confirm the connection is being probed.

    In his national address, Starmer drew direct connections between widespread pro-Palestine marches across the UK and the recent surge in antisemitic violence, arguing that any protester who participates in a march where the slogan “globalise the intifada” is used is effectively endorsing terrorism against Jewish people, and that anyone using the phrase should face prosecution. He doubled down on the claim, adding that protesters who march alongside people displaying paraglider images—an reference to the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel—without speaking out are glorifying the murder of Jewish people. Three women were convicted of a terror offense earlier this year for displaying paraglider images at an early October protest, though officials confirm such displays are extremely rare at pro-Palestine gatherings. To date, there are no recorded instances of an antisemitic attack in the UK linked to the “globalise the intifada” slogan. Even so, UK police forces moved in December to authorize arrests for anyone chanting or displaying the phrase, and three pro-Palestine protesters were charged on counts related to the slogan in January.

    As of this week, the Metropolitan Police confirmed it is reviewing a proposed full ban on upcoming pro-Palestine demonstrations, including a major rally planned in London for May 16, organized by the Stop the War Coalition to mark Nakba Day—the annual commemoration of the 1948 displacement of over 750,000 Palestinians from their ancestral lands. Jonathan Hall, the UK’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, further escalated the conversation this week by calling for a full moratorium on all ongoing pro-Palestine marches, arguing that such events inevitably incubate antisemitic and anti-Jewish rhetoric.

    Political and activist leaders have pushed back fiercely against these moves, condemning what they describe as the cynical weaponization of a violent attack to erode fundamental civil liberties and target the pro-Palestine movement. Zack Polanski, leader of the Green Party of England and Wales and the only Jewish leader of a major UK political party, accused Starmer’s government of exploiting the pain of the Jewish community for political gain. “I suffer antisemitic abuse every single day. For other politicians to use antisemitism as a political football, especially after these appalling attacks, is utterly appalling and should be beneath them,” Polanski said, adding that any response to the stabbings that cuts away at civil rights is inherently wrong.

    Pro-Palestine organizers have repeatedly rejected claims that the slogan “globalise the intifada” is antisemitic or a call for violence, noting that the Arabic term “intifada” translates directly to “uprising” or “shaking off occupation,” not a targeted campaign against Jewish people. They also point out that British Jews have been among the most visible and consistent participants in pro-Palestine marches across the country. The Stop the War Coalition, which is organizing the upcoming Nakba Day rally, issued a statement unequivocally condemning the Golders Green stabbing and all forms of antisemitism, but rejected any attempt to tie the attack to peaceful pro-Palestine protest. “These marches are supported by many Jewish people who attend. They are not the ‘hate marches’ described by right-wing politicians but expressions of solidarity and support for those under attack,” the coalition said. Jeremy Corbyn’s left-wing group Your Party echoed the criticism, saying politicians are “weaponising the abhorrent stabbings to take away our civil liberties and baselessly attack the Palestine movement.”

    UK officials confirm there has been a major, documented surge in antisemitic hate crimes across the country in recent months, including multiple arson attacks and dozens of antisemitic incidents investigated by the Metropolitan Police in just the past 30 days. The ongoing controversy comes as the UK government struggles to balance growing concerns over antisemitic violence with long-standing protections for freedom of speech and peaceful protest, a balance that has become increasingly fraught amid the Israel-Gaza war.

  • Kenya celebrates Sawe’s historic run with state recognition

    Kenya celebrates Sawe’s historic run with state recognition

    Nairobi, Kenya – May 1, 2026 – Thousands of Kenyans turned out to welcome distance running star Sabastian Sawe back to the capital this week, capping a historic milestone in marathon racing with formal state recognition and nationwide celebration that framed his sub-two-hour achievement as both a personal victory and a landmark national moment.

    At an official ceremony held Thursday at Kenya’s State House, President William Ruto presented Sawe with a combined financial award of 8 million Kenyan shillings, equal to roughly $61,900. Of the total, 5 million shillings recognizes Sawe’s unprecedented record-breaking marathon run, while an additional 3 million shillings honors his 2026 London Marathon gold medal win.

    Along with the cash prize, Sawe received a one-of-a-kind custom license plate etched with the time 1:59:30 – the exact mark of his trailblazing finish that cemented his place in athletic history.

    In his remarks during the ceremony, President Ruto emphasized that Sawe’s breakthrough achievement has redefined global understandings of human athletic potential, and will serve as a touchstone of inspiration for generations of young Kenyan athletes to come. Ruto added that the runner’s historic performance has further strengthened Kenya’s long-held reputation as a global powerhouse in long-distance running.

    “You have not only broken a record; you have expanded the horizon of human potential. You have made the impossible possible. You have inspired a nation, a whole generation and the world,” Ruto told the gathering.

    For his part, Sawe dedicated his historic win to all Kenyans, emphasizing that he competed to lift his country’s profile on the world stage. He also expressed gratitude to the Kenyan government for its consistent investment and support for the nation’s athletic community.

    “I did it on behalf of all of us, to build the name of our country so that it continues to shine,” Sawe said.

    Claudio Berardelli, Sawe’s long-time coach, credited the runner’s unprecedented success to relentless discipline and extraordinary natural endurance. Berardelli revealed that Sawe maintains an grueling training routine, averaging more than 200 kilometers of running each week, with his mileage peaking at 241 kilometers in the final weeks leading up to the London Marathon.

    “In over two decades of coaching in Kenya, I have not seen such a complete athlete,” Berardelli said, praising Sawe’s unwavering focus and fierce competitive spirit.

    Veteran retired Kenyan marathoner Ibrahim Hussein, who made history as the first African athlete to win the Boston Marathon, called Sawe’s performance a potential turning point for the sport of distance running. Hussein noted that Sawe’s sub-two-hour finish could open the door to even faster times in future races, when run under optimal competitive conditions.

  • US criticises allies over failure to stop Gaza aid flotilla

    US criticises allies over failure to stop Gaza aid flotilla

    Tensions between the United States and its European allies have escalated sharply in recent days, after Washington publicly blamed its partners for failing to block a Gaza-bound humanitarian aid flotilla that Israeli naval forces intercepted and seized in international waters earlier this week.

    On Wednesday, Israeli commandos seized at least 21 vessels participating in the aid mission, detaining 175 activists on board. Organizers with the Global Sumud Flotilla, the coalition behind the effort, have labeled the interception an outright act of piracy carried out in neutral international waters.

    One day after the raid, State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott released a formal statement dismissing the flotilla as a “baseless, counterproductive stunt”. Pigott argued that the mission bypassed existing official channels designed to deliver humanitarian support to Palestinian civilians in Gaza, and said the Biden administration expects allied nations to take “decisive action” against vessels involved in the effort. That action, he specified, includes blocking access to ports, denying docking privileges, prohibiting departures from allied territories, and refusing refueling services to participating ships.

    “The United States will explore using available tools to impose consequences on those who provide support to this pro-Hamas flotilla and supports our allies’ legal actions against [it],” Pigott added.

    The U.S. rebuke comes as growing rifts have emerged between Washington and its European partners over U.S. and Israeli policy in the Middle East, particularly amid escalating tensions with Iran. According to a recently leaked internal Pentagon email, the U.S. government threatened last week to punish NATO member states that refuse to back the U.S.-led campaign against Iran, and even considered expelling Spain from the alliance over Madrid’s public opposition to the conflict. The same email also revealed U.S. officials have floated recognizing Argentina’s territorial claims over the Falkland Islands, a move that would directly target the United Kingdom for what Washington claims is insufficient support for its Iran policy.

    The U.S.-led “Board of Peace”, a body created by the Trump administration to oversee a new governing framework for Gaza, also issued a public statement on the social platform X condemning the aid flotilla. The organization dismissed the effort as “performative love-boat activism”, and called on critics of Israeli policy to instead redirect pressure toward Hamas. In the same statement, the Board claimed it has drastically expanded humanitarian support for Gaza’s civilian population, asserting that three times as many Gaza residents are now receiving food aid compared to previous periods.

    These claims, however, stand in stark contrast to on-the-ground data and reporting from the region. Back in April, the Gaza Government Media Office reported that an average of just 227 aid trucks enter the blockaded strip each day, which amounts to only 37 percent of the daily delivery volume agreed to under the October 2024 ceasefire deal. Despite a U.S.-mediated truce agreement, Israel has continued to tighten entry restrictions on humanitarian aid, leading to a steady decline in food deliveries to Gaza’s 2 million residents. Independent reporting from Middle East Eye has documented widespread fears of imminent famine across the strip, as Palestinians grapple with acute shortages of basic food ingredients, cooking gas, and fuel needed to power homes and medical facilities.

    In response to the Israeli raid and the U.S. criticism of allied inaction, officials from Germany and Italy issued a joint statement expressing “deep concern” over the interception and calling for “full respect of international law” in the incident. The Italian government additionally demanded that Israel immediately release the Italian nationals who were unlawfully detained during the seizure of the flotilla.