LONDON – British voters are heading to the polls on Thursday for a set of elections that carries profound implications for Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s embattled premiership and marks the latest step in the United Kingdom’s transition to an uncharted era of fragmented multiparty governance. The outcome of Thursday’s votes, which cover local government seats across England and legislative elections for the semiautonomous governments of Scotland and Wales, is widely projected to deliver a severe blow to Starmer’s center-left Labour Party.\n\nPlunged into negative approval ratings by persistent economic weakness and ongoing questions over his leadership judgment, Starmer has found Thursday’s midterm contests framed as a de facto public referendum on his two-year-old government by opposition parties. Hard-right Reform UK has even centered its campaign on the slogan “Vote Reform, Get Starmer Out,” capturing the intensity of attacks on the embattled prime minister. While the next scheduled UK national general election is not required until 2029, a catastrophic rout on Thursday could open the door to a party revolt against Starmer, less than two years after he won a landslide national victory. Luke Tryl, a senior analyst at polling firm More in Common, summed up the public mood, noting that Starmer has become a receptacle for widespread public disappointment and disillusionment across the country.\n\nStarmer’s political standing has collapsed amid a string of high-profile missteps that have piled up since he took office in July 2024. His administration has struggled to deliver on core campaign promises: boosting sluggish economic growth, repairing overstretched public services, and easing the crippling cost-of-living crisis. These challenges have been compounded by the outbreak of conflict between the U.S.-Israeli coalition and Iran, which has disrupted global oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, driving up energy prices and worsening economic headwinds. The prime minister’s credibility took a particularly damaging hit from his controversial decision to appoint Peter Mandelson, a figure long tied to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, as Britain’s ambassador to Washington. Starmer already survived one leadership crisis in February, when a group of Labour lawmakers including the party’s Scottish leader publicly called for him to step down over the Mandelson appointment.\n\nPolitical forecasters project that Labour will lose more than half of the 2,500 local council seats it currently defends across England. The party is expected to bleed support to rivals on both its left and right flanks: the left-wing Green Party is set to gain ground in London, while Reform UK is targeting working-class former Labour strongholds in northern England. Tony Travers, a government professor at the London School of Economics, described the electoral moment as deeply perilous for Starmer. “After a series of policy U-turns and in an economy where there isn’t much money to spend on anything, his opponents are lining up,” Travers explained.\n\nA poor showing could trigger an immediate leadership challenge from high-profile Labour figures, including Health Secretary Wes Streeting, former Deputy Prime Minister Anglea Rayner, and popular Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham. Under Labour Party rules, a challenger needs the backing of 80 House of Commons lawmakers – equal to one-fifth of the party’s parliamentary caucus – to trigger a formal leadership contest. For Burnham, any bid would first require him to win a seat in Parliament to be eligible for the top job. Alternately, Starmer could face growing party pressure to announce a clear timetable for an orderly departure rather than force an immediate open revolt.\n\nTim Bale, a politics professor at Queen Mary University of London, noted that Labour’s parliamentary party remains divided on the timing of any leadership change, opening the possibility of a temporary reprieve for Starmer. “His parliamentary party are unsure as to whether now is the right time to unseat him, so there might be a stay of execution,” Bale said. But he added that the broader shift within the party is clear: “it’s a case of when rather than if he goes.”\n\nBeyond the fate of Starmer’s premiership, Thursday’s election is widely seen as a defining milestone in the long-term fragmentation of Britain’s political landscape. For generations, major losses for Labour would have automatically translated into major gains for the main center-right rival, the Conservative Party. But the Conservatives remain deeply unpopular after 14 turbulent years in power that ended when Labour won the 2024 national election. Instead, the main beneficiaries of Labour’s declining support are projected to be Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform UK, the left-leaning Green Party, and pro-nationalist devolved parties in Scotland and Wales.\n\nTravers noted that Britain’s long-standing “two-and-a-half party system” – which positioned the Liberal Democrats as the permanent third force – is rapidly evolving into a far more fragmented five-party system. This shift has created unprecedented opportunities for pro-devolution and pro-independence parties across the UK’s devolved nations.\n\nIn Wales, where Labour has dominated devolved politics for a century and held power since the Welsh Senedd was established in 1999, polls point to a historic seismic shift. Labour is projected to fall to third place, behind Plaid Cymru (the Party of Wales) and Reform UK, which are currently running neck-and-neck for the top spot. Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth, who is on track to become Wales’ next first minister if current polling holds, declared that the old order of British politics is finished. “The old politics is gone,” he said. “Labour is not going to win this election.”\n\nA Plaid Cymru victory in Wales would leave three out of four of the UK’s constituent nations led by pro-independence parties. Northern Ireland has already been governed by Irish nationalist party Sinn Féin, which supports unification with the Republic of Ireland, in a power-sharing arrangement with the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party. In Scotland, the Scottish National Party (SNP), which has held power in the Scottish Parliament since 2007, has pledged to hold a second referendum on Scottish independence if it wins a majority in Thursday’s election. Scottish voters rejected independence in a 2014 referendum, but shifting public mood and long-running frustration with Westminster rule have reshaped the political landscape north of the border.\n\nWhile Plaid Cymru has said an independence referendum is not on the immediate agenda for the next term, with its short-term priorities focused on gaining greater tax-raising and spending autonomy from Westminster, the party shares the ultimate goal of breaking away from the UK. ap Iorwerth argued that the current constitutional arrangement of the UK is no longer fit for purpose, saying: “We need a fundamental redesign of Britain. This is an unequal union.”
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Theodoros Tsalkos: Rapist convicted of 1987 kidnapping and abuse has sentence reduced after appeal
Nearly 40 years after he kidnapped and sexually assaulted two underage girls while posing as a law enforcement officer, an Australian sex offender has seen his original prison term reduced following a successful sentence appeal, marking a twist in a cold case that relied on modern forensic science to reach prosecution.
Theodoros Tsalkos, 64, was first linked to the 1987 attacks through advances in DNA testing more than three decades after the crimes. Back in the early hours of that 1987 morning in St Kilda, the then 25-year-old approached two 15- and 16-year-old child sex workers, identified their vulnerability, and claimed to be a police officer conducting a prostitution bust. Over the next three and a half hours, he subjected the teenagers to a prolonged, terrifying ordeal of sexual violence that trial judges later described as depraved, sadistic and evil, before abandoning the girls back in the St Kilda area.
It was not until 2022 that advances in DNA technology matched Tsalkos to forensic samples recovered from the victims, leading to his arrest and trial. A jury rejected his insistence that the encounters were consensual, convicting him on charges of kidnapping, rape and gross indecency. In 2023, Judge Rosemary Carlin sentenced him to 13 years and six months in custody, with a scathing rebuke of his actions. Carlin emphasized that Tsalkos had intentionally exploited the victims’ youth and naivety by hiding behind a false police identity, threatening the girls with legal action, then subjecting them to repeated unprotected sexual assaults while ignoring their obvious fear and suffering.
Tsalkos immediately launched an appeal against both his conviction and sentence, and in 2024 the Victorian Court of Appeal sided with him on the conviction challenge. Prosecutors appealed that ruling to the High Court of Australia, which ultimately overturned the lower appellate court’s decision by the end of 2024, ordering Tsalkos back into custody after he had spent nearly a year free in the community pending a retrial.
With the conviction upheld, the case returned to the Victorian Court of Appeal to re-examine Tsalkos’ challenge to the length of his original sentence. On Wednesday, the court ruled that the 2023 sentence was “manifestly excessive”, setting aside the original term and resentencing him to 10 years and six months in prison. Tsalkos’ non-parole period was also cut by 18 months, bringing the new non-parole term to six years and eight months. Accounting for time he has already served in custody, he will now become eligible for parole in March 2030. Tsalkos continues to maintain his innocence in the case.
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‘A big pact’: How the US plans to unite Libya through two ruling families
Amid widespread global energy market volatility triggered by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, the United States is actively negotiating a landmark power-sharing agreement aimed at unifying oil-rich Libya under the control of its two most influential rival political families, multiple informed sources including current and former Western officials, regional Arab insiders, and independent analysts have confirmed to Middle East Eye.
The proposed framework would restructure Libyan governance by aligning the western-based Dbeibeh family and the eastern-based Haftar clan, while transitioning leadership from the older generation of political strongmen to a new cohort of younger leaders. Though negotiations have been ongoing for months, the initiative has gained urgent new momentum in recent weeks as rising oil prices driven by the Iran conflict have rekindled interest from U.S. energy firms in accessing Libya, which holds the largest proven crude oil reserves on the African continent.
Libya’s existing ruling factions have already seen a dramatic surge in revenue amid the Brent crude price rally: the country’s National Oil Corporation reported April oil revenues hit $2.9 billion, a three-fold increase from the start of 2025, and Libya’s oil minister traveled to Washington for high-level talks last week.
“This process has been in the works for several months, and the U.S. is actively laying the groundwork for a comprehensive agreement between the two families,” explained Riccardo Fabiani, North Africa director at the International Crisis Group. “There is enormous profit to be gained from expanded upstream oil exploration, so Washington has enormous stake in this outcome—especially now with the ongoing conflict in Iran.”
Leading the U.S. diplomatic push is Massad Boulos, U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy for Africa. While the proposed deal has been acknowledged in limited public discourse and faces widespread opposition from Libyan civil society groups, it has received little mainstream attention in Western capitals, overshadowed by the regional focus on the war against Iran.
Under the terms of the draft arrangement, the Trump administration is pushing for Ibrahim Dbeibeh, a veteran western Libyan powerbroker, to replace his cousin, incumbent prime minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, who has struggled with ongoing health issues in recent months. An Arab source familiar with negotiations and a former senior Western official confirmed that Boulos coordinated this leadership reshuffle with Turkish officials as recently as April during the Antalya Forum, which hosted a high-level Libyan delegation.
As previously reported and confirmed by *The New York Times*, Ibrahim has built an unusually close relationship with Boulos, and the pair have held private discussions about unlocking billions of dollars in Libyan sovereign assets that have been frozen in Western financial institutions for decades. On the eastern side of the proposed power split, 35-year-old Saddam Haftar—son of 82-year-old eastern Libyan strongman General Khalifa Haftar, who has controlled the eastern half of the country for more than a decade—would be appointed as Libya’s president.
Saddam Haftar currently serves as deputy commander of his father’s Libyan National Army, and has already moved to rework the Haftar family’s diplomatic ties, building new relationships with former rivals including Turkey. He is widely viewed as the U.S.’s preferred successor to his aging father, and the Arab source confirmed Saddam met with the Central Intelligence Agency’s deputy director during an official visit to Washington last year. As part of Boulos’s negotiating process, Ibrahim Dbeibeh and Saddam Haftar held high-level unity talks at the Élysée Palace in Paris earlier this year.
This latest effort to unify Libya comes after more than 14 years of fragmented governance following the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that ousted and killed long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Since 2011, the country has been split into two competing political blocs: an internationally recognized government based in the western capital of Tripoli, and a parallel administration in the east led by Khalifa Haftar. The two sides fought a brutal civil war in 2019, when Khalifa Haftar launched an assault on Tripoli that devolved into a full proxy conflict: Turkey backed the UN-recognized western government, while Russia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates provided military and financial support to the Haftar-led eastern bloc. Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh was appointed prime minister in 2021 as part of a UN-backed initiative to lead the country toward unified democratic elections, which have been repeatedly delayed and ultimately collapsed.
“Outside powers, including the U.S., have effectively abandoned any pretense of pushing for democratic elections in Libya,” said one former senior Western official. “Their preference is to cut a deal with the already entrenched ruling families and split the country’s energy wealth between the two most corrupt factions. But the Haftar name is toxic in western Libya, and the Dbeibeh family does not exert full control over the west. This entire process bypasses the Libyan people entirely, and it could easily backfire.”
The Dbeibeh family has built alliances with powerful militias in western Libya but faces persistent opposition from other regional factions. Any power-sharing deal that includes Saddam Haftar is expected to face fierce pushback in Misrata, a key Mediterranean coastal city with a large, influential network of independent business families. Libya’s highest religious authority, Grand Mufti Sadiq al-Ghariani, publicly came out against any power-sharing agreement between the two families in late April.
Even within the rival clans, internal divisions threaten to derail the deal: while Saddam Haftar has consolidated control over the eastern military, he is locked in a bitter power struggle with his brothers, most notably Belqasim Haftar, who controls the lucrative Benghazi-based Fund for Development and Reconstruction.
“Neither the Dbeibeh family nor the Haftar clan currently operate as cohesive, unified political blocs,” said Jalal Harchaoui, a Libya expert at the Royal United Services Institute. “That fragmentation could actually make this change possible. The status quo is completely unsustainable, so if a new unified government is announced, it would mark the start of a new political process for the country.”
A former U.S. official familiar with the Libya initiative noted that the Trump administration is building on gradual reconciliation efforts first launched by the Biden administration, but the current White House’s willingness to negotiate unlocking frozen assets and approve new commercial deals has accelerated diplomatic progress. “This is not just a personal initiative from Boulos—it is a whole-of-government effort designed to open Libya up to U.S. oil companies and create new economic opportunities for Libyan stakeholders,” the former official said. “Let’s be honest: the UN-led election process never delivered on its promises.”
Negotiators have already notched limited tactical wins: in early April, Libya’s Central Bank announced the country’s first unified national budget in more than a decade. Last month, eastern and western Libyan military units conducted joint training exercises in Sirte as part of the U.S.-led Flintlock security drills, a surprise development for many long-time Libya analysts.
U.S. energy firms had already begun scouting investment opportunities in Libya before the outbreak of the Iran war: Chevron won an exploration license for Libya’s Sirte Basin back in February, and Exxon Mobil signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Oil Corporation to re-enter the Libyan market by August 2025. Libya’s National Oil Corporation reported oil exports hit 1.2 million barrels per day in April, a 10-year high, though some analysts question the accuracy of those figures and argue the Iran conflict has not meaningfully altered the country’s long-term investment climate.
Most of Libya’s oil infrastructure is more than 50 years old, and official national data remains notoriously unreliable due to the lack of transparent governance across the country. Jason Pack, founder of Libya-Analysis and author of *Libya and the Global Enduring Disorder*, argues that Washington and its allies will be disappointed if they expect Libya to replace the oil volumes lost from global markets amid the Iran conflict.
“Libya’s inability to ramp up oil production stems from deep internal governance failures, not a lack of U.S. or external support,” Pack explained. “The idea that Libya can deliver globally significant volumes of additional oil over the course of the Iran war is completely unrealistic.” Pack noted that a similar debate emerged after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, when policymakers claimed Libya could replace Russian natural gas supplies to Europe— a goal Libya never came close to meeting. “At the start of the Ukraine war, everyone claimed Libya would become the new Algeria for European energy, and they failed to deliver. They will fail again this time,” he said.
That said, most experts agree that a power-sharing deal that unites the two ruling families under U.S. mediation to divide Libya’s current energy profits is a far more achievable short-term goal, in large part because the external powers that once turned Libya into a proxy battleground have significantly reworked their regional alliances. Saddam Haftar has actively courted Turkey and has begun receiving new weapons shipments from Pakistan under Saudi auspices, while Egypt—once a staunch backer of Haftar and opponent of the Tripoli government—has built closer ties with the western administration and mended relations with Turkey, its former rival in Libya.
“Turkey and Egypt are both willing to support a deal between the two sides because the regional political context is completely different than it was even a few years ago,” Pack said. “This dynamic has nothing to do with the current U.S. administration.” Harchaoui added that the U.S. already has formal backing from Turkey, which remains one of the most influential military actors on the ground in Libya. “There are clear signs that Turkey is comfortable with whatever major announcement is coming, and that carries a lot of weight,” he said. “Saudi Arabia will likely back whatever Turkey agrees to, largely because of shared strategic interests in Sudan.”
The initiative also gives Washington an opportunity to push Russia out of its foothold in eastern Libya: Russia has deployed private mercenary forces to support Haftar for years and has long sought permanent port access in the country. With a Russian-backed military regime in neighboring Mali on the brink of collapse amid an advance by al-Qaeda-linked militants, U.S. officials see an opening to shift Haftar away from Moscow. “It is not just energy money drawing U.S. policymakers to this initiative. Russia is already retreating in Mali, so it is not unreasonable to think they could be pushed out of Libya too,” Harchaoui said.
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100 years on Earth: Iconic naturalist Attenborough marks century
As the clock ticks toward Friday, the global community is preparing to mark a historic milestone: the 100th birthday of David Attenborough, the legendary naturalist, broadcaster, and climate advocate whose decades of work have redefined how humanity understands the planet we call home. For nearly 80 years, Attenborough has been the guiding voice leading audiences into the most isolated, awe-inspiring corners of the Earth, turning far-flung wild landscapes into familiar fixtures in living rooms across every continent.
Attenborough’s lifelong connection to the natural world took root in childhood, growing into an academic foundation with university studies in geology and zoology before he joined the BBC in the early 1950s to launch what would become an unparalleled broadcasting career. His 1979 magnum opus *Life on Earth* — which alone has drawn an audience of more than 500 million viewers worldwide — remains one of the most watched nature documentaries in history. It was in this series that Attenborough shared one of his most iconic personal encounters: a close, unplanned meeting with a family of mountain gorillas in the Rwandan wilderness, an experience he still calls “bliss” and “extraordinary” decades later. Recalling the moment ahead of his centenary, Attenborough described how an adult female gorilla gently twisted his head to meet his gaze, while two young gorillas settled on his lap as cameras rolled: “I was simply transported,” he said.
Over the decades that followed, Attenborough built a catalog of landmark series including *Planet Earth II*, *Blue Planet II*, *Life in the Freezer*, and *Paradise Birds*, each capturing the fragile, extraordinary beauty of ecosystems from polar ice caps to tropical rainforests. Peers across academia and science communication say his impact extends far beyond entertainment. Sandra Knapp, research director at London’s Natural History Museum, told Agence France-Presse that Attenborough’s work “has expanded people’s horizons” and gifted global audiences access to places “we would never otherwise go” — a gift that has inspired generations of scientists, conservationists, and nature lovers. Jean-Baptiste Gouyon, a professor of science communication at University College London, notes that Attenborough achieved what few thought possible: he turned natural history programming into a cultural phenomenon as popular as mainstream football, fostering a widespread, unmatched sense of wonder and passion for the natural world among the general public.
His influence has crossed generational and national boundaries, earning acclaim from figures across public life, royalty, and entertainment. Britain’s heir to the throne Prince William has hailed him as a “national treasure,” and the late Queen Elizabeth II knighted him in 1985. American pop star Billie Eilish, whose praise underscores Attenborough’s cross-generational appeal, has celebrated his “deep love and knowledge of our planet,” noting that “The animal kingdom brings out the childlike curiosity within us all.”
In recent decades, Attenborough has pivoted from simply documenting the natural world to sounding the alarm about the existential threats it faces. In 2006, after waiting for conclusive scientific proof of human-caused climate change, he publicly dropped his earlier skepticism and joined the global movement calling for urgent action. Even well into his 90s, he continued to make hard-hitting, unflinching documentaries: his 2025 film *Ocean* saw him condemn the industrial fishing practices of wealthy nations, calling the exploitation “modern colonialism at sea.” Most recently, in early 2026, he released *Wild London*, which explores the unexpected wildlife thriving in his native British capital, from urban foxes and reintroduced beavers to tiny harvest mice and hedgehogs. At the 2021 UN Climate Summit in Glasgow, he shared a message of cautious hope that remains central to his public advocacy: “Perhaps the fact that the people most affected by climate change are no longer some imagined future generation, but young people alive today… will give us the impetus we need to rewrite our story, to turn this tragedy into a triumph. We are, after all, the greatest problem-solvers to have ever existed on Earth.”
Now 100 years old, Attenborough no longer treks through remote jungles or crosses scorching deserts to film new content, but he has not stepped away from storytelling. After a lifetime of global travel, he still resides in the quiet, leafy southwest London suburb of Richmond — his favorite place on Earth, he has confided — in the family home he shared with his late wife Jane, where he raised their two children. Rejecting the label of celebrity even as he became a global household name, Attenborough has always focused attention on the natural world rather than his own fame, a trait Gouyon says has been key to his enduring connection with audiences.
To celebrate the centenary of the British icon, the BBC is spearheading a week-long slate of special programming dedicated to Attenborough’s life and decades of work. Classic episodes of his most beloved series are being rebroadcast, with an extensive catalog of his work available to stream on the BBC’s iPlayer service. The celebration will culminate on his birthday with a 90-minute live event hosted at London’s iconic Royal Albert Hall, bringing together fans and admirers to honor the life and legacy of the man who taught the world to love the natural world.
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Strasbourg on verge of European final amid fan displeasure at owners BlueCo
As RC Strasbourg Alsace prepares to write what could be the most iconic chapter in its 118-year history this Thursday, the historic French club finds itself caught between the thrill of a once-in-a-generation European achievement and simmering discontent over the ownership structure that got it here.
Strasbourg, which shares its BlueCo consortium ownership with English Premier League giant Chelsea, hosts La Liga side Rayo Vallecano at its recently upgraded Stade de la Meinau for the second leg of the UEFA Conference League semi-finals. Needing to overturn a narrow 1-0 deficit from the opening fixture in Madrid, Patrick Vieira’s side? No, Gary O’Neil, the English manager appointed earlier this year, will lead the squad out for the biggest match the club has ever contested on the continental stage. The winner of the tie will advance to the May 27 final in Leipzig, where they will face either England’s Crystal Palace or Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk — neither of which have secured a European final spot before this tournament either.
For long-time supporters of the Strasbourg-based club, located on France’s eastern border with Germany and home to the European Parliament, even the prospect of reaching a continental final would have been unthinkable not long ago. The club has only ever claimed one Ligue 1 title, back in 1979, and its prior best European run came a year later, when it bowed out to Ajax in the European Cup quarter-finals. A memorable 1997 upset over Liverpool in the UEFA Cup remains the only other high-profile continental win in the club’s history, putting Thursday’s opportunity in stark context.
The road to this semi-final has not been an easy one. Just 15 years ago, Strasbourg was on the brink of extinction, forced into liquidation after catastrophic financial mismanagement that sent it tumbling down to the amateur regional fourth and fifth tiers of French football. After a painstaking rebuild led by club president and former Strasbourg player Marc Keller, the club fought its way back to Ligue 1 in 2017, nearly a decade after its relegation, and cemented its place as a steady top-flight outfit. But competing at a continental semi-final level remained out of reach with the club’s small, fan-aligned operating model — which is what led Keller’s board to approve BlueCo’s takeover in June 2023, one year after the American consortium purchased Chelsea.
“We were conscious that we had gone as far as we could with our existing model,” Keller explained to French broadcaster RMC after Strasbourg knocked out German side Mainz 05 in the quarter-finals. Since the takeover, significant investment has poured into the first team, allowing the club to bring in talented young players, many loaned in from Chelsea, and qualify for the Conference League on the back of a strong 2023-24 league campaign under former manager Liam Rosenior.
But that investment has come with a steep cost that has alienated the club’s core supporter base. Fans have grown increasingly frustrated by a clear pattern emerging under BlueCo: any player or coach that posts strong results at Strasbourg is quickly poached by the consortium’s flagship club, Chelsea, turning the French side into little more than a development feeder team. The anger boiled over in September 2024, when starting striker and fan favorite Emmanuel Emegha confirmed he would move to Stamford Bridge at the end of the season. Then, in January 2025, Chelsea poached Rosenior himself to take over as their first-team manager, a move that left supporters furious. Rosenior did little to defuse tensions, telling reporters he hoped Strasbourg fans would be proud that his work at the club earned him a job at a Champions League-winning side.
Rosenior was replaced by O’Neil, who has already guided Strasbourg to a French Cup semi-final defeat this season. Ahead of Thursday’s make-or-break tie, O’Neil has called for the full-throated support of the home crowd, saying: “Thursday’s game is the biggest in the club’s history. We will need the same support and energy that we got against Mainz.”
Yet the club’s most passionate and vocal supporters have no plans to set aside their grievances, even for a historic European night. Since the start of last season, leading supporters group Ultra Boys 90 has organized a silent protest for the first 15 minutes of every home match, holding their cheers to demonstrate their opposition to BlueCo’s ownership model. In an open letter published earlier this year, the group warned that Strasbourg’s current situation is a warning sign for football globally: “What is happening at Strasbourg is what the future could look like for the vast majority of clubs. They will be relegated to the role of feeder teams, without their own resources, with no soul and no link to where they come from.”
While the group is urging fans to gather outside the stadium ahead of kick-off to welcome the team bus, the 15-minute silent protest will go ahead as planned on Thursday. Despite the discontent, the recently renovated Stade de la Meinau — which expanded its capacity to 32,000 after the construction of a new main stand — is sold out once again for the semi-final. For many fans in the stands, the day will bring a complicated mix of emotion: the chance to cheer their club to a historic first European final, but a growing unease about whether the club they have supported for generations will retain its identity under its new American owners, even if it lifts a trophy that was won by BlueCo’s Chelsea just 12 months ago.
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Ukraine reports strike as Kyiv’s ceasefire due to begin
Hours before Kyiv’s unilateral ceasefire was scheduled to take effect on Wednesday, a wave of coordinated Russian strikes across multiple Ukrainian regions left at least 28 people dead and more than 120 wounded, marking the deadliest assault on Ukrainian territory in weeks and derailing temporary hopes for a lull in fighting.
Ukraine’s Interior Minister Igor Klymenko confirmed the strikes targeted civilian and infrastructure sites across 10 regions, stretching from the northeastern Chernigiv and Sumy to the southern coastal region of Odesa and the frontline Zaporizhzhia. By late Tuesday, the official death toll climbed one additional fatality in Kramatorsk, the last major Ukrainian-held city in the embattled Donetsk region. The attack on Kramatorsk’s city center killed six people, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemning it as a deliberate strike on civilian targets. Four people also died in a strike on the central city of Dnipro, carried out just hours before Kyiv’s ceasefire deadline, while 12 were killed in frontline Zaporizhzhia, an attack Zelensky called “absolutely without military justification.”
Moscow’s actions drew sharp condemnation from senior Ukrainian officials, who accused the Kremlin of deliberate cynicism just days after both sides announced separate unilateral ceasefire plans tied to Russia’s annual May 9 World War II Victory Day commemorations. Russia first called for a pause in fighting to mark the holiday, which the Kremlin has framed in recent years as a ideological extension of the 1945 Soviet victory over Nazi Germany to justify its 2022 full-scale invasion. Kyiv later announced its own separate 36-hour ceasefire set to begin Wednesday, just ahead of Russia’s planned celebrations.
“With mere hours until Ukraine’s ceasefire proposal comes into force, Russia shows no signs of preparing to end hostilities. On the contrary, Moscow intensifies terror,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiga wrote on social media platform X early Wednesday. Zelensky similarly denounced Moscow’s actions as “utter cynicism” for launching deadly attacks while publicly seeking a pause in hostilities. As of early Wednesday, Russian officials had not reported any new Ukrainian strikes in the first hours of Kyiv’s proposed truce, but Ukrainian authorities in southern Zaporizhzhia confirmed that Moscow had targeted local infrastructure overnight.
In a surprising development that broke a months-long period of quiet diplomatic contact, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke by phone Tuesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the Russian side’s request. A State Department spokesperson confirmed the two discussed U.S.-Russia relations, the ongoing war in Ukraine, and relations with Iran, but neither side released further details on the substance of the conversation. Russia’s foreign ministry confirmed the call added that the pair had discussed scheduling future bilateral contacts, offering no additional context.
This year’s May 9 Victory Day celebrations in Russia have been significantly scaled back, a shift widely attributed to growing concerns over potential Ukrainian strikes on parade sites. For the first time since the full-scale invasion began, no military hardware will be displayed during Moscow’s main parade, and Russian authorities cut mobile internet access across the capital on Tuesday, with restrictions set to remain in place through Saturday. Ukraine has stepped up long-range retaliatory strikes in recent weeks, targeting Russian oil infrastructure and residential and government sites in Moscow, strikes Kyiv frames as justified retaliation for Russia’s regular missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities.
Temporary unilateral ceasefires have been implemented occasionally during the four-year war, most recently a pause in long-range attacks during Orthodox Easter last month. However, there is little indication that either side is willing to move toward comprehensive peace talks. Moscow has issued non-negotiable demands that Kyiv withdraw all troops from the occupied Donbas region and permanently renounce any future military cooperation with Western allies, terms Kyiv has rejected as equivalent to unconditional surrender.
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AI boom drives a rally in buying of tech shares, pushing South Korea’s Kospi to a record
Global equity markets surged across multiple regions this week, led by a historic rally in South Korea’s benchmark index fueled by twin tailwinds: booming investor optimism around artificial intelligence-driven chip demand and growing hopes for de-escalation of the U.S.-Iran conflict.
When South Korean markets reopened Wednesday following a one-day national holiday, the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (Kospi) skyrocketed nearly 7% to hit an all-time closing high of 7,398.34. The rally was anchored by outsized gains in the country’s two leading semiconductor manufacturers, which supply the high-performance chips critical to powering generative AI and large language model applications. Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest memory chip producer, saw its share price jump almost 13% in early trading, while rival SK Hynix notched a 10% gain.
Market sentiment got an additional boost from geopolitical developments: Iranian officials confirmed they would travel to China for diplomatic talks ahead of the scheduled summit between former U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. This diplomatic movement helped ease fears of prolonged disruption to global energy supplies, pulling oil prices lower after the sharp volatility triggered by the outbreak of the U.S.-Iran war.
The upward momentum extended across most Asian markets, even as several major exchanges including Tokyo remained closed for public holidays. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 climbed 1.0% to 8,766.80 in morning trading. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index added 0.7% to reach 26,081.52, while China’s Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.0% to 4,152.68.
In global energy markets, oil prices extended the downward correction that began Tuesday, erasing the sharp spikes recorded earlier in the week as conflict erupted. Benchmark U.S. crude fell $1.37 to settle at $100.90 per barrel, and international benchmark Brent crude dropped $1.50 to $108.37 a barrel. Even with the decline, prices remain far higher than the pre-conflict level of roughly $70 a barrel. U.S. military officials have confirmed an unofficial ceasefire is currently in effect, though significant uncertainties persist. U.S. forces are currently working to re-open shipping lanes through the Strait of Hormuz, the critical chokepoint that carries roughly a third of the world’s seaborne oil exports out of the Persian Gulf, to allow commercial tanker traffic to resume.
The rally extended to U.S. markets as well, with all three major Wall Street benchmarks closing at record highs. The broad S&P 500 index gained 0.8% to close at 7,259.22, surpassing its prior all-time high set just the previous week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.7% to finish at 49,298.25, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 1% to hit a new record of 25,326.13.
U.S. economic data released alongside the rally painted a mixed picture. One report showed service sector growth slowed unexpectedly in the most recent month, with some businesses reporting that the ongoing Middle East conflict has started to dampen consumer spending. A separate labor market report offered more encouraging news, showing U.S. employers posted slightly more job openings at the end of March than analysts had forecast, signaling continued resilience in the national job market.
In foreign exchange markets, the U.S. dollar edged marginally lower against the Japanese yen, falling to 157.88 yen from 157.89 yen in the prior trading session. The euro appreciated slightly, rising to $1.1720 from $1.1693.
AP Business Writer Stan Choe contributed reporting from New York.
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The rapid embrace of AI in China, its biggest testing ground, may shape how AI is used globally
Across major Chinese cities from Beijing to Shenzhen, crowds of ordinary people and business professionals are gathering in droves to access hands-on support installing cutting-edge artificial intelligence tools, highlighting a sweeping, rapid shift toward mass AI integration in the world’s most populous nation. More than a year after Chinese AI developer DeepSeek stunned global tech circles with its high-performance advanced model, China has evolved into the world’s largest live testing environment for widespread consumer and enterprise AI use. While U.S.-built AI models still hold an edge in raw computational power, Chinese users and companies have embraced the technology at an unprecedented pace, embedding it into nearly every sector of daily life and economic activity.
As global AI integration accelerates across workplaces and personal routines, Chinese residents are leveraging generative AI tools for an extraordinary range of routine tasks, from travel planning and food delivery to ride-hailing and professional workflow optimization. Official data from the China Internet Network Information Center reveals that as of December 2024, over 600 million of China’s 1.4 billion people were active generative AI users — marking a 142% year-over-year surge in adoption. The recent boom in demand for agentic AI tools such as the popular OpenClaw, which can autonomously complete complex multi-step tasks, has driven a corresponding spike in AI data consumption. According to OpenRouter, an AI gateway platform that tracks usage across models, the weekly share of AI data tokens (the core units of processed AI data) consumed by Chinese-developed models has now surpassed that of leading U.S. models.
The trend of mass AI adoption cuts across all demographics, from working professionals to retirees. Sixty-four-year-old Jason Tong, a retired IT engineer based in Shanghai, has used domestic AI chatbots including Doubao and Kimi for daily queries since their launch, and recently began using an AI-powered personalized blood glucose monitoring service. Tong has found the tool’s fast, customized health advice invaluable, and he views widespread AI integration as an inevitable technological shift. “Just as carriages were eventually replaced by trains, this is bound to happen,” he explained.
Chinese AI-integrated products, from smart cars with voice-activated planning capabilities to humanoid robots with advanced cognitive functions, have also seen major technical leaps in recent months. Lizzi Lee, a fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis specializing in technology and economics, notes that global AI competition is rapidly shifting from standalone model development to building full integrated ecosystems. “Chinese users are basically acting as real-time testers at scale,” Lee observed.
Leading Chinese technology giants including Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu are now locked in a race to commercialize AI at scale. Tencent has already integrated OpenClaw into WeChat, China’s ubiquitous super-app that combines messaging, food delivery, mobile payments and dozens of other daily services into one platform, while Alibaba has embedded agentic AI into its internal business and merchant workflows.
OpenClaw, which was originally developed by Austrian software engineer Peter Steinberger in 2023, has exploded in popularity in China thanks to its ability to connect multiple digital tools to complete complex end-to-end tasks. For Zhao Yikang, a college student in Macao, the tool has transformed both his academic work and professional internship at a Zhuhai real estate agency, where he uses it to automatically generate promotional content and manage social media accounts. Zhao highlighted the tool’s low cost and high efficiency: he recently asked OpenClaw to build a fully functional website for his upcoming post-graduation photo services business, and the project was completed in 10 minutes for less than 0.70 U.S. dollars. “AI can understand things in a second,” Zhao said. “You just need to act as a commander and tell it what to do.”
While Chinese regulators issued temporary warnings over potential data security risks as OpenClaw installations skyrocketed, that has done little to dampen public enthusiasm for the tool. Across the country, domestic businesses are increasingly setting internal mandatory targets to scale AI adoption to boost operational efficiency. Janet Tang, a technology partner and managing director at global consultancy AlixPartners, notes that China’s unique market landscape offers an unmatched range of use cases for AI testing. Wang Xiaogang, co-founder of leading Chinese AI firm SenseTime and chairman of ACE Robotics, echoed that sentiment: “The industry is developing very fast and the people, they are very open and they are eager to try the AI in a lot of scenarios.”
Chinese policymakers have actively supported the AI boom, investing heavily in talent development and subsidizing low-cost electricity to power energy-intensive AI computing infrastructure. In the national five-year plan running through 2030, Beijing has pledged to deliver an average annual growth rate of at least 7% in national research and development spending, with AI as a core priority. A national “AI Plus” strategy lays out a roadmap to integrate artificial intelligence into every major sector from healthcare to education to public administration: a court in Shenzhen reported that it processed 50% more cases in 2024, in part thanks to AI tools that streamline judicial workflows.
However, U.S. export controls on advanced semiconductors remain a key bottleneck for China’s AI advancement. Samm Sacks, a senior fellow at New America focusing on Chinese technology policy, explained that U.S. restrictions on cutting-edge AI chips have slowed the expansion of Chinese chipmaking capacity and remain the biggest vulnerability for many Chinese AI research labs. Even so, Sacks added, the restrictions have also forced greater coordination across China’s domestic tech supply chain, uniting design, manufacturing and end-user adoption around a homegrown innovation agenda. “Over time this dynamic could fuel, not foil, China’s ambitions,” Sacks said.
The impact of that growing domestic coordination is already visible: when DeepSeek launched its highly anticipated V4 AI model preview last month, the system is partially powered by chips from Chinese tech giant Huawei, reducing the country’s dependence on leading U.S. chipmakers such as Nvidia. A recent report from Stanford University’s Institute for Human-Centered AI concluded that the performance gap between top U.S. and Chinese AI models has “effectively closed.”
While U.S. policymakers and leading AI firms including OpenAI and Anthropic have accused Chinese AI startups of intellectual property theft, Chinese officials have rejected those claims as unsubstantiated. Even with ongoing U.S. export controls and China’s domestic internet censorship regime, analysts believe the gap between the two global AI powers will continue to narrow. Lian Jye Su, chief analyst at global research firm Omdia, noted that barriers such as the Great Firewall have only had limited impact on AI development, as the technology has already been tested, integrated and scaled within China’s regulated domestic internet ecosystem. “It won’t be long before China moves from fast follower to parallel innovator,” Su predicted.
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Trump official insists overhauled visa system won’t scare away foreign investment
At the 2026 SelectUSA Investment Summit, the largest annual U.S. event dedicated to attracting foreign direct investment, a senior Trump administration official announced Tuesday that the federal government is undertaking a comprehensive overhaul of the country’s visa system. The reform effort comes in direct response to growing international anxiety over the administration’s harsh immigration policies that have chilled global business confidence.
Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau opened up about the administration’s regret over a high-profile 2025 raid that resulted in the detention and deportation of more than 300 South Korean business consultants and Hyundai employees at the company’s Georgia manufacturing facility. The incident sparked a significant diplomatic rift between Washington and Seoul, and amplified foreign fears that the United States has become an unpredictable and potentially unsafe destination for international business visitors and workers.
Addressing a foreign press briefing, Landau stated that the administration is committed to updating visa rules to directly address these widespread concerns. “Ultimately, we want to encourage and incentivize foreign countries to invest in the United States, and we need to make sure that our immigration laws and our visa laws, which we are very, very serious about enforcing, do not become an unnecessary impediment to such investment,” Landau explained. He added that while upholding border and immigration rules remains a non-negotiable priority, the administration sees balancing enforcement and investment attraction as a solvable challenge, not an irreconcilable conflict.
The 2025 Georgia Hyundai raid was not an isolated incident. Over the past term, the Trump administration has sharply ramped up anti-immigration rhetoric and expanded aggressive enforcement actions across the country. Masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have conducted widespread roundups that have even ensnared U.S.-born citizens with foreign accents or immigrant backgrounds. International student protesters demonstrating in support of Gaza have been targeted and arrested, while travelers from traditional U.S. visa-free partners including Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia have been detained at border crossings, had their digital devices seized, and held in overcrowded, unsanitary immigration detention facilities for weeks before deportation. The administration has also enacted sweeping travel bans targeting more than a dozen majority-Muslim countries and effectively gutted the U.S. asylum system.
Inside the summit’s exhibition hall, where every U.S. state and territory operates a booth pitching their regions as attractive hubs for tech, energy and manufacturing investment, anonymous economic development representatives from four southern Republican-led states — Kansas, Tennessee, Texas and Florida — acknowledged the internal contradiction at the heart of this year’s event: the administration’s openly unwelcoming messaging toward foreigners clashes directly with the government’s goal of attracting billions in foreign capital.
“There’s not a good answer,” one unnamed representative told Middle East Eye, which interviewed the officials on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the press. “We’re having to speak out of both sides of our mouths to try to make them feel safe and protected.” The representative added that while the United States still holds its global reputation as the gold standard for investment opportunity from an outsider perspective, domestic political uncertainty has created deep unease.
A second representative noted that their team had held roughly 200 exploratory conversations with potential international investors over the first two days of the summit, with overall interest remaining dynamic even though the total number of inquiries has dipped slightly compared to 2025. A third official, who works at their state’s European commerce office, emphasized that while foreign investors do raise concerns about current U.S. policy, many large-scale deals under discussion are valued in the billions of dollars and structured for multi-decade timelines that will outlast current sitting political leaders.
Launched in 2013 under the Obama administration, SelectUSA has facilitated more than $400 billion in total foreign direct investment and supported over 270,000 domestic American jobs, according to U.S. Department of Commerce data. Last year’s summit drew more than 5,000 attendees from 96 international markets, alongside delegations from all 50 U.S. states and six territories.
The Commerce Department pitches the U.S. as a uniquely attractive investment destination, citing its $25 trillion GDP that makes it the world’s largest advanced consumer market, its stable democratic institutions, and a transparent, predictable legal framework that guarantees equal competitive footing for all companies regardless of country of origin.
Landau framed economic and commercial diplomacy as a core, “fundamental pillar” of U.S. foreign policy, noting that commercial ties create the most durable foundation for long-term international relations that outlast changes in political leadership. “Political leaders… will come and go,” he said. “I think there’s no more solid foundation for an enduring relationship between countries than commercial and economic ties.”
Still, the Trump administration’s policy choices have created significant disruption for global markets in recent months. Beyond immigration policy, the president’s broad tariffs on imported goods, and his administration’s backing of Israel’s military campaign against Iran that led to the blockading of the Strait of Hormuz, have added additional layers of uncertainty for international investors.
The 2026 SelectUSA Investment Summit is scheduled to run through Wednesday, May 6.
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Infantino defends World Cup ticket prices
As criticism from global football fan groups continues to mount over the exorbitant pricing of 2026 FIFA World Cup tickets, FIFA President Gianni Infantino has stepped forward to defend the governing body’s policies, pushing back against accusations of exploitative pricing during his appearance at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills this Tuesday.
The controversy surrounding World Cup ticketing erupted into a formal dispute earlier this year, when European fan advocacy group Football Supporters Europe (FSE) filed an official lawsuit with the European Commission, calling out FIFA for what it labels “excessive ticket prices” for the upcoming tournament. FSE has gone as far as branding the 2026 pricing structure “extortionate” and a “monetary betrayal” of the global football community.
Public anger reached a new peak last week, when four tickets for the 2026 World Cup final, scheduled to take place in New Jersey on July 19, were listed for more than $2 million apiece on FIFA’s official resale platform, FIFA Marketplace. The sky-high listing prices drew widespread condemnation from fans and sports commentators alike, who pointed to the stark contrast between 2026 pricing and the 2022 Qatar World Cup, where the most expensive face-value final ticket cost just around $1,600 — compared to the 2026 final’s $11,000 original price tag.
Addressing the backlash directly, Infantino pushed back against claims that FIFA is responsible for the exorbitant resale prices. He argued that the multi-million dollar listings do not reflect actual baseline ticket costs, and there is no guarantee any buyer will actually pay those extreme sums. In a characteristically blunt remark, Infantino joked that if any fan does actually purchase a $2 million final ticket, he will personally deliver a hot dog and a Coke to their seat to ensure they have an enjoyable experience.
Infantino defended the sharp rise in face-value ticket prices, framing the increase as a reasonable adjustment to market conditions. He noted that the 2026 World Cup is being hosted in the United States, the world’s most commercially developed entertainment market, where market-rate pricing is unavoidable. He added that U.S. regulations permit legal ticket resale, meaning if FIFA set lower original prices, scalpers would simply buy up large blocks of tickets and resell them for far higher margins, leaving FIFA with no revenue from the markup.
“Even though some people say our prices are high, the resale market still marks them up to more than double our original prices,” Infantino explained. He also pushed back on claims that all tickets are out of reach for casual fans, pointing out that 25 percent of group stage tickets are priced below $300, a rate that he argues is competitive for major live events in the U.S. “You cannot go to a U.S. college sports game for less than $300 these days, let alone a top-tier professional event, and this is the World Cup,” he said.
Infantino also highlighted unprecedented demand for the 2026 tournament as justification for the pricing model. He told the conference that FIFA has already received more than 500 million ticket requests for the 2026 World Cup, a figure that dwarfs the combined total of fewer than 50 million requests for both the 2018 Russia World Cup and 2022 Qatar World Cup.