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  • Renowned Nepali climber among 10 missing after Pakistan avalanche

    Renowned Nepali climber among 10 missing after Pakistan avalanche

    A devastating avalanche has left 10 climbers, including world-famous Nepali mountaineer Nirmal Purja, unaccounted for on Pakistan’s 8,047-meter Broad Peak in the Karakoram mountain range, the Alpine Club of Pakistan (ACP) confirmed in a statement released late Thursday. No contact has been established with the entire climbing team since the snow slide occurred, leaving mountaineering communities around the world on edge.

    The expedition team caught in the avalanche is made up of climbers from six nations: five Nepalese, one Pakistani, one Omani, one American, one Chinese, and one additional foreign national, according to the ACP’s official confirmation. All communication devices carried by the group have remained silent since the incident, triggering an urgent large-scale search and rescue response.

    Purja, 43, is one of the most accomplished high-altitude climbers of his generation. Before transitioning to full-time mountaineering and expedition guiding, he built a 16-year career in British military service, serving first in the Brigade of Gurkhas and later in the Royal Marines’ elite Special Boat Squadron. Since turning his focus to climbing, he has redefined the limits of high-altitude mountaineering, breaking multiple world records that stood for decades.

    In 2019, Purja made global headlines by summiting all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter-plus peaks, known as “eight-thousanders,” in just six months and six days — a feat that shattered the previous record by years. In 2021, he led the first team to successfully summit K2, the world’s second-highest peak, in the harsh winter season, a milestone many thought impossible for decades.

    Just days before the avalanche, Purja shared his latest expedition goal on social media platform X: he was attempting to become the first climber in history to summit all 14 eight-thousanders twice without using supplemental oxygen. In his final post before losing contact, he shared a reflective message about his approach to high-altitude climbing: “Broad Peak, I ask for nothing but safe passage up and back down. I take zero mountains for granted. Not one. The moment my foot leaves basecamp, it’s 100%. Always has been. Always will be. My purpose has never been about me. It’s about what I represent. It’s about showing YOU that your own mountains — whatever they are — are climbable.”

    Broad Peak, the 12th highest mountain on Earth, is widely regarded as one of the most technically challenging of all 8,000-meter peaks, with unpredictable snow conditions and high avalanche risk that deter even experienced climbers. It was first successfully summited by an Austrian expedition team in 1957.

    In response to the incident, Pakistani authorities have mobilized emergency rescue resources: two Pakistan Army helicopters outfitted with specialized high-altitude rescue gear and experienced search personnel have been deployed to the area to support ground teams, who face extreme conditions in the high-altitude search zone. The ACP noted that the helicopters are intended to boost the capacity of on-the-ground teams operating in the harsh, remote environment of the Karakoram, as rescuers work against the clock to locate the missing climbers.

  • Banking giant HSBC sells $36bn mortgage portfolio to Blackstone, announces retail banking arm will close

    Banking giant HSBC sells $36bn mortgage portfolio to Blackstone, announces retail banking arm will close

    Global banking giant HSBC has unveiled a landmark deal that will end its four-decade-long retail banking operations in Australia, confirming it will offload its $36 billion domestic home and personal loan portfolio to private equity leader Blackstone. The transaction, announced publicly on Friday, forms the core of a planned 18-month wind-down of HSBC’s Australian retail banking division, a process that will wrap up with the deal’s expected closure in the first half of 2027.

    Under the terms of the agreement, non-bank lending specialist Pepper Money Ltd has been tapped to serve as the portfolio’s servicer once the sale is finalized, with the firm tasked with delivering consistent, uninterrupted support to both borrowers and mortgage brokers throughout the transition. HSBC stressed that for the immediate future, existing retail customers will face no disruption to their everyday banking services, and no immediate action is required from account holders. The company confirmed it will proactively reach out to customers in coming months with detailed updates on upcoming changes to their product terms and access.

    HSBC officials framed the decision as the outcome of a full strategic review of the Australian retail business, noting it aligns with the HSBC Group’s broader global push to simplify its operations and streamline its core focus areas. The local review launched shortly after George Elhedry took over as chief executive of HSBC Australia at the end of 2024, with internal leadership signaling the bank’s intent to exit the Australian market more than 12 months ago.

    First entering the Australian market in 1986, when then-treasurer Paul Keating opened the domestic banking sector to foreign competition, HSBC never managed to capture a substantial share of the country’s competitive retail and mortgage market despite decades of operation. This exit is the latest in a string of global downsizing moves for the London-headquartered bank: in July, it completed the $2.1 billion sale of its Singaporean insurance business to European financial firm Allianz.

    For Blackstone, the acquisition builds on the private equity firm’s rapidly expanding footprint in Australia, coming less than a year after it purchased data center operator AirTrunk for $23.5 billion in 2024. Mike Culhane, Blackstone’s Head of International Business Development, said the firm was eager to add the high-quality Australian home loan portfolio to its assets, while committing to delivering a seamless transition for all stakeholders. “This investment is a testament to the power of our franchise and our conviction in the growing opportunities in credit,” Culhane noted in a statement following the deal’s announcement.

  • UK rapper Yung Filly found not guilty of raping woman after Australian show

    UK rapper Yung Filly found not guilty of raping woman after Australian show

    A high-profile British content creator and rapper has walked away cleared of the majority of serious sexual assault charges against him following a criminal trial in Western Australia, after a jury delivered its mixed verdict this week. Andres Felipe Valencia Barrientos, 30, who performs and creates content publicly under the stage name Yung Filly, faced six counts of sexual penetration without consent, one count of assault causing bodily harm, one count of strangulation, and two additional assault charges connected to an alleged incident in August 2024. The allegations stem from an encounter between Barrientos and a then-20-year-old fan, which occurred in the creator’s hotel room after he performed a live set at a nightclub in Hillarys, a coastal suburb located just north of Perth.

    After deliberating on the case, the 12-person jury delivered a verdict of not guilty on three of the six non-consensual sexual penetration charges, as well as full acquittal on the strangulation charge and the single count of assault occasioning bodily harm. However, the jury was unable to reach a unanimous decision on the remaining three sexual penetration charges, resulting in a hung jury for those counts. Barrientos was also found guilty on the two lesser assault charges brought by prosecutors.

    The UK-based creator, who rose to widespread fame as a core member of the popular YouTube collective Beta Squad, has expanded his career to mainstream British television: he has appeared on Channel 4’s celebrity edition of *The Great British Bake Off* and fronted original programming for BBC Three. Following the verdict, Barrientos has been granted continued bail ahead of his next court appearance, scheduled for 21 August. That hearing will set a formal date for sentencing on the two assault convictions. Prosecutors are also expected to announce their next steps regarding the hung jury charges in the coming weeks, deciding whether to proceed with a retrial or drop the remaining counts entirely.

  • Richmond coach hits back at ‘outside noise’ over securing top draft pick

    Richmond coach hits back at ‘outside noise’ over securing top draft pick

    As the AFL regular season enters its final stretch, the Richmond Tigers find themselves caught between two competing priorities heading into their Sunday clash with the West Coast Eagles: the short-term goal of winning to avoid the wooden spoon, and the long-term prospect of holding onto the number one overall draft pick that could help them land star talent. Head coach Adam Yze has made his stance unequivocally clear: the team will be playing to win, no matter the consequences for their draft position.

  • Ferrand-Prevot bids to defend Tour de France Femmes title

    Ferrand-Prevot bids to defend Tour de France Femmes title

    The 2026 edition of the Tour de France Femmes is set to get underway this Saturday in Lausanne, Switzerland, and all eyes are on defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prevot as she chases a historic repeat victory. The French rider, who claimed the 2025 title to end a 36-year drought for home-grown winners of the race, has built her entire 2026 campaign around this nine-stage showdown, and says she is ready to fight for the yellow jersey.

    Ferrand-Prevot, an Olympic champion in mountain biking, made the deliberate choice to return to full-time road racing just two years ago, with the Tour de France Femmes as her sole top priority. That gamble paid off 12 months ago, when she crossed the line in Paris to become the first French rider to win the women’s Tour since 1989. This year, she has stuck to a carefully planned racing schedule tailored to peak in August: she notched up strong results at the spring classics, taking second at the Tour of Flanders and third at Paris-Roubaix, before stepping back from competition after finishing 35th overall at the Vuelta Femenina in May.

    In an online media briefing with reporters this week, the 34-year-old laid out her season-long strategy, emphasizing that her focus has never wavered from the Tour. “My goal, since the beginning, is to be able to be 100% for the Tour de France, so I never really had in mind to win other races,” she said. “I know that I need a specific preparation to be able to win races, so I just pick my battle, and I choose the Tour de France as the battle. I’m not the kind of rider who can and who wants to perform all season long; I just want to have a big goal in the season and to commit to it.”

    Ferrand-Prevot will have strong support from her Team Visma-Lease a Bike squad, which has been constructed specifically to support her bid for a second yellow jersey. The roster includes one of the most decorated riders in women’s cycling, triple Tour stage winner Marianne Vos, adding depth and tactical flexibility to the team’s campaign.

    But the defending champion will face one of the strongest fields in the young race’s history, with bookmakers and pundits marking in-form Dutch rider Demi Vollering as the pre-race favorite. Vollering has enjoyed a stellar 2026 season, claiming overall victory at the Giro d’Italia Women and winning multiple top-tier one-day races, bringing the best current form into the race among all contenders.

    A host of other top riders are also expected to challenge for the overall title: Swiss time trial specialist Marlen Reusser, reigning Vuelta Femenina winner Paula Blasi, and 2024 champion Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney are all considered legitimate podium contenders, while veteran contenders Elisa Longo Borghini and Anna van der Breggen cannot be counted out of a top result.

    This year’s route, which wraps up with a finish in Nice on August 9, has already been labeled the most difficult edition of the women’s Tour since the race’s modern revival. Riders will tackle nearly 19,000 meters of total climbing over the nine days, including an individual time trial in Dijon and the first-ever appearance of the iconic Mont Ventoux climb in the women’s race. The legendary mountain is set to host a potentially decisive summit finish that could shake up the general classification before the race’s final day. If Mont Ventoux does not sort out the battle for yellow, the demanding hilly final stage around the French Riviera will provide one last opportunity for contenders to attack.

    Race director Marion Rousse highlighted the challenges of the new route when it was unveiled last October, noting that the increasing depth of the women’s peloton called for a tougher, more dynamic course. “This is the toughest women’s Tour so far,” she said. “We’ve made it a little harder because the peloton is stronger. It’s a clever route – every stage has a potential trap.”

  • Major oil companies reap massive profits as US and Iran fighting drives energy prices higher

    Major oil companies reap massive profits as US and Iran fighting drives energy prices higher

    Six months of escalating conflict between Iran and the United States has upended global energy markets, triggering sky-high fuel prices, widespread supply shortages, and historic windfall profits for major American and European oil and gas producers. The disruption has completely choked off most commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the critical Persian Gulf chokepoint that historically carried roughly 20% of the world’s daily oil and natural gas supplies.

    With global energy supplies sharply constrained, benchmark Brent crude prices surged from a pre-conflict level of around $70 per barrel to trade consistently above $100 throughout the second quarter of this year, peaking at $126 per barrel. This market upheaval has delivered extraordinary financial gains to large Western energy firms, even as households and businesses across the globe grapple with soaring fuel costs and emergency supply measures.

    In recent quarterly earnings reports, two of America’s largest energy producers posted staggering results. Texas-based Exxon Mobil announced Friday that its second-quarter net profit doubled year-over-year to $14.53 billion, with total revenue jumping 42% to $116.02 billion, driven in large part by record high diesel production. Houston-based Chevron reported even stronger relative growth, with net profits nearly quadrupling to $12.07 billion and revenue rising 56% to $70.06 billion. Across the Atlantic, six of Europe’s biggest oil companies recorded a combined $22 billion in first-quarter profits, a more than 40% increase from the same period last year.

    The massive windfalls have drawn intense public and political scrutiny, as consumers around the world face the fallout of constrained supplies. Some countries have already been forced to implement emergency measures: Australia has introduced sporadic fuel rationing, while Nepal and Sri Lanka shut down government offices to conserve fuel. In the United States, the average price of regular gasoline has climbed to $4.11 per gallon, up $1 from a year ago and well below the sub-$3 average seen before the conflict disrupted Hormuz shipping. For working households that rely on vehicles for commuting and work, the price spike has become a major financial burden.

    In response to public anger over the profiteering, Congressional Democrats have introduced legislation to impose a windfall profits tax on large oil producers, with the revenue targeted for direct redistribution to American consumers. “It’s fair to put a windfall profits tax on inordinate windfall profits rather than cut off children’s food programs,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, sponsor of the Senate bill. The legislation, paired with a House version introduced by Rep. Ro Khanna of California, would amend the U.S. tax code to place a per-barrel tax on any company that produces or imports at least 300,000 barrels of oil daily starting in 2025. The proposal follows similar measures adopted by the UK and other European nations, which implemented temporary windfall taxes on fossil fuel firms in 2022; the UK has since extended its tax through 2030.

    Oil industry leaders have pushed back hard against the proposal, arguing that they do not set global oil prices, which are determined by market supply and demand dynamics and trading activity. Exxon CEO Darren Woods argued that windfall taxes discourage future investment, telling investors on a Friday call that the company canceled planned European investments after the region introduced its first windfall tax, calling such policies “very short-sighted.”

    Energy analysts note that integrated energy firms that own both production operations and refineries have been the biggest winners of the current market crisis. Global refining capacity is already stretched thin, with key suppliers Russia and China having pulled back on exports, while many refineries in the Middle East have been damaged by the conflict. American refineries, which have secure access to crude supplies, are currently operating near full capacity, and their profit margins have exploded. Chevron reported that its second-quarter refinery profit was six times higher than pre-conflict levels, even as the company processed less crude and sold fewer finished products. “The return on refining, on a percentage basis, has skyrocketed,” said Tom Seng, assistant professor of energy finance at Texas Christian University. “Oil right now is priced what it is priced because of the Iran war. But in the meantime, the refineries are making money hand over fist.” Rob Thummel, senior portfolio manager at Tortoise Capital, added that global shortages of jet fuel, diesel, and gasoline are likely to persist, keeping refining profits high for the foreseeable future.

    Timothy Fitzgerald, a business economics professor at the University of Tennessee who studies the petroleum industry, explained that U.S. refiners with ample crude access are reaping extraordinary gains, particularly from jet fuel and diesel – which currently trade at a 41% premium to pre-blockade prices in the U.S. The higher energy costs ripple through every sector of the global economy, he noted, since almost all goods have embedded energy costs that get passed on to consumers. “Ultimately, users of the energy services pay,” Fitzgerald said. “Consumers, people like you and me buying retail motor gasoline or diesel fuel or airplane tickets. But it also means that almost everything else we buy has an embedded energy content to it … and this is where you start to worry about it driving increases in costs.”

    Analysts emphasize that not all oil and gas companies have benefited equally from the current crisis. U.S.-based producers and international firms with large production holdings outside the Persian Gulf have seen profits surge, as they sell existing supplies at elevated global prices. By contrast, Middle Eastern producers trapped by the Hormuz blockade and facing damaged infrastructure have seen sharp revenue declines, as their export volumes are drastically curtailed and they face much higher transportation and security costs. Additionally, the timing of price gains benefited different firms unevenly: European companies with large volumes of stored oil available for spot market sales were able to capitalize on March’s price surge, while U.S. majors like Exxon and Chevron only began capturing higher prices starting in April, due to standard oil trading timelines.

  • Trump hails a ‘unique’ Cabinet meeting at Camp David as he seizes on Spain’s migration crisis

    Trump hails a ‘unique’ Cabinet meeting at Camp David as he seizes on Spain’s migration crisis

    CAMP DAVID, Md. – In a break from regular Washington protocol, former President (current 2025 office-holder) Donald Trump brought his Cabinet’s weekly meeting to the wooded, historic presidential retreat of Camp David in northern Maryland on Friday, leveraging the iconic location’s symbolic weight to tout his administration’s policy wins and frame a looming immigration warning for midterm election voters.

    Marking a first for the storied site, this gathering was the first-ever televised Cabinet meeting held at Camp David, a detail the White House prioritized in its morning communications leading up to the event. Opening the session, Trump emphasized the uniqueness of the setting, noting “It’s Camp David, and this room is a very, very special room.”

    After opening remarks, Trump moved through his standard campaign-season talking points, highlighting economic growth, border security policy and the administration’s approach to Iran before pivoting to a sharp political warning. Pointing to the recent dramatic surge of undocumented migrants arriving in Ceuta, a small Spanish overseas territory in North Africa, Trump framed the unrest as a cautionary tale for American voters ahead of the upcoming midterm elections.

    “You know I saw Spain yesterday, and I watched the catastrophe that took place. It looks like an invasion of a country by hundreds of thousands of people,” Trump told the assembled Cabinet. “And that same thing is going to happen to us if the Republicans don’t get elected. Except worse, much bigger.”

    Following Trump’s opening address, top administration officials including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered brief remarks, before the president opened the floor for questions from the press pool. Journalists exited the closed meeting after nearly an hour of questions and discussion.

    This gathering marked the first successful in-person Cabinet meeting at Camp David during Trump’s second term. A planned May meeting at the retreat was canceled entirely due to severe inclement weather, though Trump held one similar session at the site during his first term in office. Unlike the format used by many previous presidents, Trump has opened the full public portion of his Cabinet meetings to press access, a move his aides have framed as proof of his commitment to government transparency. In previous sessions, public portions of meetings stretched as long as three hours, with every Cabinet head offering department updates that often included personal praise for the president’s leadership. More recently, however, Trump has pushed for tighter time limits, urging brief remarks and cutting back on the number of oral department reports to avoid overly long sessions. “Everybody around here has got a lot to say. But we did that once, and it lasted for like four or five hours. It was a little much,” Trump explained during the scuttled May meeting.

    Beyond its role as a setting for Friday’s political gathering, Camp David has occupied a unique place in American presidential history for more than 80 years. First established in 1942 during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration, the retreat was created after military and Secret Service officials raised safety concerns about Roosevelt’s habit of relaxing aboard a presidential yacht on open water during World War II. Roosevelt asked the National Park Service to identify potential rest sites within 100 miles of the White House, and ultimately selected the Catoctin Mountain location, originally naming it Shangri-La after the fictional utopia from James Hilton’s novel *Lost Horizon*. President Dwight Eisenhower later renamed the retreat Camp David, in honor of his grandson and father.

    Every U.S. president since Roosevelt has used the 180-acre mountain retreat, which offers both a private escape from the pressures of Washington and a secure, discrete location for sensitive diplomatic negotiations. Its most iconic diplomatic moment came in 1978, when President Jimmy Carter hosted Egyptian and Israeli leaders for 13 days of closed talks that ultimately produced the landmark Camp David Accords, a historic peace agreement between the two nations. In 1979, Carter also gathered a cross-section of American civic leaders at the retreat for discussions ahead of a nationally televised energy policy address that later became known as the “malaise speech,” despite Carter never using the term in his remarks.

    In 2019, during his first term, Trump made headlines when he canceled a planned secret Camp David summit with Taliban and Afghan government leaders just days before the 18th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. The cancellation came after a Kabul bombing killed 12 people, including one U.S. service member.

    During his first term, Trump was a frequent visitor to Camp David, often spending multiple weekends a month at the retreat. In his second term, his visits have been far less frequent, with his most recent prior stay coming in June for a Father’s Day weekend break.

    Today, the Navy-operated, Marine-guarded retreat includes the presidential Aspen Cabin, roughly a dozen guest cabins, a main lodge with conference facilities, a presidential dining room and private office, and a wide range of recreational amenities, including a fitness center, bowling alley, movie theater, heated swimming pool, tennis and basketball courts, and an on-site chapel for religious services. Its core purpose, maintained across eight decades, remains to give sitting presidents a private, secure space to rest, recharge and meet away from the public spotlight of Washington.

    Superville and Kim contributed reporting from Washington, D.C.

  • China’s factory activity unexpectedly slips into contraction in July

    China’s factory activity unexpectedly slips into contraction in July

    After a five-month streak of expansion, China’s manufacturing sector shrank unexpectedly in July, casting fresh uncertainty over the growth trajectory of the world’s second-largest economy, official data released Friday shows.

    The National Bureau of Statistics reported that the official manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) dropped to 49.2 this month, down from 50.2 in June. This reading fell far below economist forecasts, marking the first contraction in factory activity since February 2024.

    Breakdowns of the survey data show key underlying metrics also moved into contraction territory. The sub-index tracking new domestic and international orders fell to 48.5 in July, its lowest level since the start of 2023, down from 51.2 in June. Similarly, the production sub-index slipped to 49.9 from 51.4 over the same period.

    On the PMI scale, which ranges from 0 to 100, any reading above 50 signals expanding activity, while a figure below 50 indicates a contraction. The July downturn offers the first major insight into China’s economic performance for the second half of 2024, and experts warn the outlook remains challenging.

    “This latest PMI reading is an unpromising opening for the first wave of second-half economic data,” Lynn Song, chief economist for Greater China at ING Bank, noted in a recent analysis.

    Economists from Capital Economics point to multiple factors driving the unexpected contraction. Softening domestic demand, including a slowdown in construction-related manufacturing output, was the primary drag. Additionally, multiple severe typhoons that hit coastal and southern China in July disrupted port operations, factory production and supply chain logistics, exacerbating the monthly decline.

    The July manufacturing downturn comes as China’s broader economy has been grappling with persistent headwinds for months. A years-long downturn in the country’s massive property sector has eroded household consumer confidence, while stagnant wage growth and tight labor market competition have made consumers more cautious about discretionary spending. Sluggish domestic investment and consumer spending have further held back overall growth.

    In the April-June second quarter, China’s economy expanded at an annual rate of 4.3%, the slowest year-on-year pace in more than three years. This result falls short of the Chinese government’s official full-year growth target of 4.5% to 5%, putting additional pressure on policymakers to roll out new stimulus measures.

    Up to this point, robust export growth, particularly for high-tech goods such as semiconductors and electric vehicles, has been a key pillar supporting China’s overall economic momentum this year. But these sectors are highly capital-intensive, meaning they have generated limited new job growth to ease domestic labor market pressures.

    China’s strong export surge has also sparked international trade tensions. The U.S. and other major economies have criticized Beijing for supporting excess industrial capacity across sectors from solar panels to electric vehicles through large state subsidies. These countries argue that as domestic demand slows in China, heavily subsidized cheap Chinese exports are flooding global markets, threatening manufacturing sectors and employment in other economies. Beijing has repeatedly rejected these claims.

    Gary Ng, senior economist at French investment bank Natixis, noted that China’s current economic policy framework continues to prioritize productivity growth over expanding domestic household consumption, a structural dynamic that keeps the economy reliant on external demand.

    Most economists forecast that China will continue to lean on export growth to prop up overall output for the remainder of 2024. At the same time, top Chinese policymakers have signaled a new push to boost domestic consumption: the ruling Communist Party’s Politburo, the top decision-making body, pledged Thursday to introduce new measures to lift household spending and support sluggish sectors of the economy.

  • ‘Building something special’: Anthony Seibold to return to the NRL as an assistant coach at the Chiefs

    ‘Building something special’: Anthony Seibold to return to the NRL as an assistant coach at the Chiefs

    Papua New Guinea’s newest National Rugby League expansion franchise, the PNG Chiefs, has continued its aggressive off-season roster and staff recruitment drive by securing a major coaching addition: seasoned former NRL head coach Anthony Seibold has signed on as an assistant coach for the club’s highly anticipated debut season in 2028.

    Seibold will join existing assistant Luke Bert to support head coach Willie Peters, who has already pulled off a string of high-profile player signings ahead of the Chiefs’ first competitive campaign. Standouts among the confirmed playing squad include representative star Jarome Luai, standout outside back Zac Lomax and experienced utility Connor Watson, all of whom have officially committed to the expansion club.

    For Seibold, the appointment marks a fresh career opportunity following an early-season departure from his most recent head coaching role at the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles. He was relieved of his duties just three matches into the current NRL season after suffering three straight home defeats, opening the door for a new challenge with the ambitious PNG-based franchise.

    With a well-established coaching resume that includes senior head coaching roles at top NRL clubs South Sydney Rabbitohs, Brisbane Broncos and Manly Sea Eagles, plus coaching experience across multiple international sports, Seibold brings a depth of elite-level expertise few other candidates can match. In comments following the official announcement, he expressed enthusiasm for the project the Chiefs are building in Papua New Guinea.

    “I’m looking forward to working with Willie Peters and supporting the vision that this club has,” Seibold said. “The Chiefs are building something special with strong values and great people, and I’m excited to play my part in helping them succeed. The chance to make a positive impact on players, staff and the wider community was a big reason I wanted to join the Chiefs. Success on the field is important, but building something that inspires people across Papua New Guinea is just as meaningful.”

    Chiefs general manager of football Michael Chammas praised the signing, noting Seibold’s background will be an invaluable asset for Peters as he navigates the unique challenges of launching a new NRL franchise. Chammas emphasized that Seibold’s experience as a head coach will not only complement the existing coaching staff but also provide a trusted sounding board for the club’s first ever head coach.

    “We’re really excited about Anthony joining our coaching staff and believe that he will add a great deal to the playing group and football department as a whole,” Chammas said. “His experience in numerous roles across rugby league is a great benefit to us, and his time as a head coach in particular will help him be a trusted adviser to Willie. It will also complement the attributes that Luke brings as an assistant coach, and we believe they will work extremely well together alongside the rest of our football staff.”

    Chammas added that Seibold’s first-hand exposure to Papua New Guinea during a recent visit left him eager to contribute to the club’s growth, cementing his interest in the role. Seibold and his family will officially join the Chiefs organization in November 2027, as the club continues laying solid foundational structures ahead of its first NRL season kickoff in 2028. The signing of Seibold is the latest in a series of key personnel moves that have positioned the expansion franchise for a competitive debut in the league.

  • Death toll from southwestern Japan quake climbs to 34 as rescuers again search damaged mall

    Death toll from southwestern Japan quake climbs to 34 as rescuers again search damaged mall

    Four days after a powerful magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck Japan’s southwestern main island of Kyushu, local authorities confirmed Friday that the disaster’s death toll has climbed to 34, with an additional fatality still under investigation to confirm its link to the quake.

    The temblor, which hit Tuesday, triggered widespread destruction across the Kumamoto region: it caused a secondary explosion at a busy regional shopping mall, collapsed a massive industrial chimney at a paper factory, and leveled hundreds of residential homes. As of Thursday’s official update, more than 80 people have been injured, five of whom are in critical condition.

    In the aftermath of the disaster, thousands of local residents remain displaced. Official data shows more than 3,500 households are still without electricity, and over 9,000 people are currently taking refuge in emergency evacuation shelters. With high summer temperatures creating sweltering conditions inside temporary accommodations, disaster response teams have been rushing to install additional power capacity to run air conditioning, and public health officials have raised growing concerns about the spread of heat-related illnesses and other communicable diseases among displaced populations.

    On Friday, search and rescue teams continued combing through wreckage across Kumamoto prefecture, with the highest priority placed on the site of the collapsed Aeon Mall in the town of Kashima — one of the hardest-hit locations. When the earthquake struck, the popular shopping complex was packed with an estimated 3,000 shoppers. Mall management quickly evacuated most visitors to an open-air parking lot before an explosion hit a separate section of the building, where a small number of staff had remained to secure operations. The mall’s second floor collapsed during the quake, leaving multiple people trapped.

    During a press briefing in Tokyo Friday, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Minoru Kihara confirmed that seven people have been confirmed dead at the mall site, while 11 trapped people have been rescued successfully. Authorities have not yet released information on how many people may still remain unaccounted for at the location.

    Kihara also added that search operations have wrapped at another major disaster site: the Nippon Paper Industries factory in Yatsushiro, where a 100-meter factory chimney toppled during the quake. At that location, 11 workers were pulled out alive, but nine were confirmed dead in the collapse.