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  • Historic moment for One Nation as Farrer MP David Farley sworn in

    Historic moment for One Nation as Farrer MP David Farley sworn in

    Australia’s right-wing populist One Nation party has marked a defining new chapter in its federal political history, as its second lower house Member of Parliament was officially sworn into the House of Representatives this week, capping off a dramatic poll surge that has put the party in national spotlight and reignited talk of a potential prime ministerial bid from party leader Pauline Hanson.

    On Tuesday shortly after midday, David Farley, who secured his seat in the rural New South Wales electorate of Farrer at a May by-election, walked into the chamber alongside former Nationals leader and One Nation’s only other sitting lower house MP Barnaby Joyce. The by-election was called after former opposition leader Sussan Ley stepped away from politics earlier this year, following an internal leadership challenge. Farley’s election victory was a major rebuke to the ruling Coalition, with the new MP claiming almost 40% of the primary vote to win the seat.

    Following the traditional swearing-in ceremony, where Farley swore allegiance to King Charles III with guidance from Joyce on the required signing procedures, Hanson welcomed the new MP with a warm embrace. The Queensland senator was joined at the event by One Nation’s upper house representatives Malcolm Roberts, Tyron Whitten and Sean Bell. In a post-event social media statement, Hanson noted that Farley’s swearing-in brings One Nation’s total federal parliamentary caucus to six sitting members. A visibly nervous Farley completed his formal obligations before shaking hands with Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, and exchanging greetings with across-bench colleagues including Liberal MPs Tom Venning and Leon Robello, independents Dai Lei and Monique Ryan, and former deputy prime minister Michael McCormack, who offered the new MP well wishes. Farley ultimately took his seat on the crossbench alongside Joyce and Lei.

    The milestone comes as One Nation is experiencing its most sustained popularity surge in recent history. A new joint poll conducted by the Australian Financial Review, Redbridge Group and Accent Research released earlier this week found the party has overtaken the center-left Labor Party to become the most popular political force in the country. This growing electoral support has emboldened Hanson to increasingly openly discuss a potential run for the office of prime minister, a bid that would require the party leader to move from her current Senate seat into the lower house of parliament.

    When asked by 2GB on Monday whether she would be prepared to contest the next federal election for the top job, Hanson downplayed concerns over her health, saying: “It will come down to my health. I’ve got nothing wrong with me. I take no medication, nothing. I’ve got more energy in me than a lot of these other people.”

    Not all political figures have accepted Hanson’s claims of fitness for office, however. Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie quickly pushed back against the suggestion, pointing to Hanson’s age and her low attendance record at Senate estimates hearings to argue she lacks the capacity for the role. Speaking to the ABC, Hastie said: “Up until this point, she has been running a political party, but she is now talking about being prime minister. For that you need drive and commitment and energy, and I think the attendance record shows otherwise.”

  • Forty-two jobs lost as James Boag closes its iconic Launceston brewery

    Forty-two jobs lost as James Boag closes its iconic Launceston brewery

    After nearly a century and a half of brewing one of Australia’s most iconic beer brands in Tasmania, parent company Lion Australia has confirmed it will shutter all James Boag production at the Launceston site by November 2026, relocating all operations to mainland Australia. The decision, which comes as a major economic blow to northern Tasmania, will cut 42 local roles, and marks the end of a legacy that stretches back to 1881, when the brewery first opened its doors. Scottish brewer James Boag and his son assumed control of the facility just two years after its founding, and for 145 years, the brand has leaned into its Tasmanian roots, marketing its signature brews as crafted from the state’s famous pure water.

    Lion’s leadership has framed the move as an unavoidable response to long-running industry challenges and cost pressures that have rendered the Launceston facility no longer financially viable. Anubha Sahasrabuddhe, Lion’s chief executive and managing director, emphasized that the closure is no criticism of the site’s current and former workforce, who have maintained efficient operations even amid years of declining output. “This proposal is no reflection on the incredible capability, passion and commitment of our brewery team members, and the many more who have come before them, who have worked hard to operate the brewery as efficiently as possible despite decreasing volumes,” she said in a formal statement.

    The company pointed to two core factors driving the decision: a years-long slump in national beer consumption that has left the Launceston brewery running at just 20 percent of its total production capacity, and persistent cost inflation that has squeezed margins. Shipping costs have also been a growing burden for the business: as early as 2024, James Boag already shifted a portion of its production off-island to cut the $1.5 million in annual shipping fees it incurred transporting product from Tasmania to mainland markets. Moving all production to the mainland will eliminate these ongoing high logistics costs, the company confirmed.

    Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff described the announcement as “extremely disappointing”, noting that the state government’s top immediate priority is supporting the 42 affected workers. “We will engage closely with Lion, the union, workers and the hospitality industry to support those impacted,” Rockliff said.

    To mitigate the impact of the closure on workers and the local community, Lion has outlined a series of mitigation measures. The company has allocated $500,000 to a dedicated reskilling fund designed to help displaced employees transition into new roles across different industries. It has also committed $500,000 to a five-year community fund to support local partnerships and grants in Launceston and northern Tasmania, and will repay the $1 million the Tasmanian government previously contributed to redevelop the Boags Brewhouse. The Tasmanian government has acknowledged these commitments, welcoming Lion’s pledges to support workers and honour existing financial agreements. While production will move off-island, Lion says it will continue to brew the James Boag brand, and maintains that Tasmania remains an important part of the brand’s identity.

  • Hanoi curbs kerb culture as city clamps down on pavement vendors

    Hanoi curbs kerb culture as city clamps down on pavement vendors

    For decades, the iconic streetscape of Vietnam’s capital Hanoi has been defined by its chaotic, beloved kerb culture: colorful food stalls line narrow lanes and wide boulevards, groups of locals and tourists huddle on low plastic stools sipping cold bia hoi and iced tea, and scooters weave between crowds of hawkers selling everything from fresh flowers to haircut services. This informal, spontaneous way of life has drawn millions of visitors, captivated global figures from former US President Barack Obama to celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, and sustained tens of thousands of working-class vendors who rely on footpath trade to make a modest living. But in recent months, a sweeping new enforcement campaign to clear illegal pavement occupation has upended this centuries-old tradition, splitting public opinion across the rapidly growing city of 8 million.

    Unauthorized vending, parking and footpath obstruction have long been informally tolerated by local authorities, a quiet compromise that allowed informal commerce to flourish even as the city expanded. Today, however, that compromise is over: municipal officials have rolled out a sustained crackdown, installing nearly 2,000 new surveillance cameras to track violators, issuing more than 3,000 fines since December, and currently debating a proposal to double existing penalty amounts. Under current rules, businesses that block pedestrian space face fines as high as 6 million Vietnamese dong ($230), while unregistered street vendors pay penalties of 250,000 dong. Many unauthorised vendors have already been relocated to underused vacant lots far from the dense, high-foot-traffic downtown areas that made their businesses viable.

    For long-time vendors like 58-year-old Nguyen Thi Hoan, who sold flowers from the same downtown pavement spot for 10 years, the crackdown has gutted her livelihood. Relocated to a low-traffic vacant lot, her daily turnover has fallen by roughly half. “Without vendors, I don’t think Hanoi is Hanoi anymore,” Hoan said, acknowledging that she supports the goal of clearer pedestrian space but adding she has no alternative way to make ends meet. “Street vending is the tradition of people in Hanoi.”

    The debate over the crackdown cuts across all segments of Hanoi’s population. The kerb culture that draws vendors and tourists has long come with well-documented downsides: chronic traffic congestion, frequent noise complaints from local residents, and ongoing public concerns over food safety and sanitary conditions. Many city residents welcome the new order, saying the cleared footpaths have eliminated the daily danger of being forced into active roadways to get around. Le Trung Chien, a marketing professional working in downtown Hanoi, recalled for years being forced to walk in moving traffic because vendors and parked scooters blocked the entire sidewalk. “I completely support the city’s efforts to make the sidewalks clear and tidy,” he said. “I don’t like my city to be a mess as it has always been.”

    City authorities frame the campaign as a necessary step to bring order and cleanliness to Hanoi as it undergoes rapid economic development, a priority for Vietnam’s national leadership that has overseen years of breakneck growth. This is not the first time Hanoi has launched a footpath clearing initiative—previous campaigns often fizzled out after a short period of enforcement—but this iteration has been far more sustained and better resourced, with digital surveillance to ensure consistent compliance. As part of the new regulatory plan floated this month, officials are also considering a scheme that would allow vendors to pay to rent officially authorized kerb space, combining order with limited preservation of the traditional street trade.

    For registered businesses that built their model around outdoor sidewalk seating, the crackdown has already hit bottom lines. Tran Trung Van, manager of a three-story downtown coffee shop, says around a third of his customers prefer to sit outside, especially during cool mornings, evenings and winter months. Now, he has to turn away those customers, and has lost business as a result. “Culture and habits mean people want to be outside,” he explained. That sentiment is widely shared among young, local patrons: office worker Dinh Tung says he misses lingering with colleagues at outdoor tables that once spilled into the street, echoing Hoan’s view of what makes Hanoi unique. “I hope things will return to normal soon,” he said. “Hanoi is only Hanoi if we can have sidewalk iced tea.”

    Hanoi’s kerb culture gained global fame after a 2016 visit where former President Barack Obama shared a bun cha meal with the late chef Anthony Bourdain for Bourdain’s CNN travel show Parts Unknown. While the pair ate their $6 meal indoors, the Hanoi episode of the show was widely seen as a love letter to the city’s streetscape, highlighting everything from outdoor pavement Zumba classes to street food vendors to the local cheap draft beer tradition that draws visitors from across the globe. In recent years, Hanoi has hit record numbers of annual tourist arrivals, many of whom come specifically to experience the iconic street culture that is now at the center of the city’s regulatory shift.

  • Missing lab worker found dead in New Mexico nearly a year after disappearing

    Missing lab worker found dead in New Mexico nearly a year after disappearing

    Nearly a full year after 53-year-old administrative assistant Melissa Casias vanished from her post at Los Alamos National Laboratory, authorities have confirmed that human remains discovered in a northern New Mexico forest last month belong to the missing lab employee. The long-awaited identification has reactivated public discussion around a groundless yet widely circulated online conspiracy theory that has linked a string of unrelated deaths and disappearances of U.S.-based science sector workers to a coordinated cover-up.

    Casias was first reported missing to law enforcement on June 26 of last year. According to New Mexico State Police accounts, she had been en route to visit her daughter, and never showed up to work or returned to her own home after the trip. When family members checked her belongings, they found all of her critical personal items — including her purse, identification documents, and both of her cell phones — left behind at her residence, which triggered an immediate missing person investigation.

    It was not until May 28 of this year that a passing hiker stumbled upon the unidentified remains in Carson National Forest, with a handgun located close to the site. State police confirmed in an official statement this week that the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator completed positive identification of the remains as Casias’. As of the latest update, the cause and manner of her death remain undetermined, with an active investigation still ongoing. Notably, Casias’ remains were located in a section of the forest that had already been searched by authorities during the initial investigation, a detail that has been highlighted by her family.

    In a public statement posted to the family’s dedicated Facebook page for the search for Casias, her relatives shared their grief over the long-awaited discovery: “This is a lot to process, our hearts are heavy and we fully intend to continue to pursue answers for justice.”

    Los Alamos National Laboratory, where Casias worked as an administrative staff member, is one of the most high-profile scientific research facilities in the United States. It was the site where the world’s first atomic weapons were developed during the Manhattan Project in World War II, and today remains a leading center for U.S. defensive nuclear research. That connection turned Casias’ disappearance into a central talking point for conspiracy theorists earlier this year, who began framing a loose collection of roughly 10 unrelated deaths and disappearances of people with ties to scientific research as evidence of a hidden plot targeting scientists working on sensitive projects.

    The conspiracy theory aggregated cases ranging from a retired U.S. Air Force general and a pharmaceutical researcher to an MIT physics professor who was publicly confirmed to have been murdered by a former classmate. Some family members of the people named in the conspiracy have repeatedly pushed back against the unfounded speculation, noting that most of the deaths have already been explained by routine causes. One researcher died from pre-existing heart disease, another died by suicide following extreme grief after both of his parents passed away within hours of one another, and a third case involved an open murder charge against a neighbor unrelated to any large conspiracy.

    Louise Grillmair, the widow of researcher Carl Grillmair, previously told the BBC that the online speculation was “absolute nonsense”, adding “there’s the facts, and they’re out there.” Other relatives have called the rumors “disgusting”, noting that the baseless speculation compounds the grief their families already face after losing their loved ones.

    Despite the lack of evidence supporting the conspiracy theory, public interest grew so intense earlier this year that the U.S. House Oversight Committee and the Federal Bureau of Investigation launched formal reviews of the cluster of cases. Former U.S. President Donald Trump also publicly commented on the claims, calling the string of events “pretty serious stuff”. With the identification of Casias’ remains, the investigation into her death is ongoing, and her family has made clear they will continue pushing for a full accounting of what led to her disappearance and death.

  • Tasmania senator Jacqui Lambie fire up over veterans’ reforms, asks how many more will ‘drop dead’

    Tasmania senator Jacqui Lambie fire up over veterans’ reforms, asks how many more will ‘drop dead’

    A fiery parliamentary grilling has erupted over the Albanese government’s newly announced 2026–27 federal budget measure that imposes a $5000 annual cap on allied health services for Australian veterans, with independent Tasmanian senator and veteran herself Jacqui Lambie launching a blistering attack on the policy.

    During Tuesday’s Senate inquiry, Lambie delivered a passionate, personal tirade against the cap and an accompanying fee increase for healthcare providers, pressing Disability Minister Jenny McAllister and senior Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) officials to publicly admit how many aging Vietnam veterans and war widows the government expects to pass away before needing access to more funded care.

    Drawing from her own lived experience as a veteran managing chronic complex pain, Lambie revealed she had exhausted the full $5000 annual allowance in just 10 weeks, even after turning down free informal care from friends to offset official costs. She outlined that weekly physiotherapy alone costs her $450, and she has turned to experimental peptide treatments after exhausting standard covered care options. Lambie also slammed long-standing systemic delays in DVA processing that already block veterans from accessing timely hospital care, arguing the new cap will only push more vulnerable former service members into life-threatening health risk. She questioned where the government plans to extract its projected $94 billion in savings from the measure, calling on officials to be transparent about the human cost of the budget cut.

    “The government is scaring the hell out of us,” Lambie said during the inquiry. “Just as veterans are trying to get back on their feet, you are mucking around with our lives.”

    In their defense of the policy, Minister McAllister and departmental leaders framed the cap and fee adjustment as a reform designed to improve treatment consistency and reduce unnecessary administrative burdens for veterans. McAllister said the changes directly address longstanding veteran frustrations, particularly the requirement for frequent repeat GP referrals to continue ongoing care. Officials emphasized that 90% of veterans currently use less than $5000 in allied health services annually, and veterans with complex, high-level needs will still be eligible for additional care after crossing the annual threshold.

    A public consultation process for veterans requiring more than $5000 in annual support is scheduled to take place in August, with officials confirming they will refine the eligibility process for extra support based on feedback from the veteran community, aiming to make accessing additional care as streamlined as possible.

    But Lambie rejected these assurances, demanding an urgent formal response from the government within 24 hours for all affected veterans, saying incremental delays and vague promises amount to a miserable failure of the government’s duty to veterans.

  • Trump says he ‘had a very good call with Hezbollah’ to end ‘shooting’ in Lebanon

    Trump says he ‘had a very good call with Hezbollah’ to end ‘shooting’ in Lebanon

    On a chaotic Monday marked by shifting military threats and diplomatic posturing, former President Donald Trump announced that backchannel negotiations had produced a tentative agreement for a ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, even as top officials from both Israel and key Hezbollah figures pushed back on the details of the deal. The announcement came hours after Israeli military authorities renewed forced evacuation orders for residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs, triggering a fresh wave of civilian displacement and stoking widespread fears of an imminent full-scale assault on the densely populated capital district known as Dahieh.

    In a post to his Truth Social platform, Trump laid out his version of the agreement, saying he had held two separate sets of talks to broker the truce: first with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and second, through intermediaries, with Hezbollah leadership. “I had a very productive call with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, of Israel, and there will be no Troops going to Beirut, and any Troops that are on their way, have already been turned back,” Trump wrote. “Likewise, through highly placed Representatives, I had a very good call with Hezbollah, and they agreed that all shooting will stop – That Israel will not attack them, and they will not attack Israel.”

    When Middle East Eye reached out to the White House press office to request clarification on which US official had spoken with Hezbollah as part of the backchannel, officials declined to comment beyond confirming that no additional information would be added to Trump’s public Truth Social post.

    In the hours following Trump’s announcement, key Lebanese and Israeli leaders offered conflicting accounts that undermined the claim of a finalized ceasefire. Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah released a statement Monday confirming the group’s support for a full, nationwide ceasefire across all of Lebanon, which he said must be followed by a full withdrawal of Israeli military forces from all occupied Lebanese territory. Fadlallah explicitly rejected any proposal for a partial truce that would spare Beirut from Israeli airstrikes in exchange for Hezbollah halting attacks on northern Israel, a framework that aligned closely with the deal Trump described.

    Shortly after Fadlallah’s statement, the Lebanese presidency issued a confirmation that Hezbollah had agreed to a US-brokered proposal for a mutual halt to attacks across all of Lebanese territory. But Netanyahu immediately pushed back, asserting that Israel’s core policy toward Hezbollah remained unaltered. “I spoke with President Trump and told him that if Hezbollah does not cease attacking our cities and citizens—Israel will attack terror targets in Beirut. This stance of ours remains unchanged,” Netanyahu wrote on his X account, adding that the Israel Defense Forces would continue all planned operations in southern Lebanon as planned.

    Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz reinforced this hardline posture, issuing a fresh warning Monday that “there will be no calm in Beirut” if Hezbollah continues its attacks on Israeli troops and communities in northern Israel. That warning triggered a new exodus of residents from Beirut’s southern suburbs, just days after many had returned to their homes following previous rounds of evacuation orders. Since Hezbollah launched cross-border attacks against Israel in October 2023 in support of its ally Hamas, Israeli military operations have killed more than 3,200 people across Lebanon. The 2024 November ceasefire brokered by the Biden administration has already been violated by Israeli forces more than 1,000 times, and the broader US-Israeli campaign against Iran that launched in late February has only intensified Israeli pressure on Lebanon, with Jerusalem demanding the full disarmament of Hezbollah.

    Monday’s diplomatic chaos also unfolded against the backdrop of ongoing US-led negotiations between Israeli and Lebanese officials, a process that launched earlier this year with military-to-military talks hosted by the Pentagon last Friday. US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby led the meeting, which the Pentagon described as the opening of a “security track” to support ongoing political negotiations between the two sides. “The delegations engaged in productive, military-to-military talks focused on building practical frameworks for regional security and stability,” a Pentagon statement read, adding that outcomes from the security track would inform political talks led by the US State Department set to reconvene this week as the third round of such negotiations.

    This diplomatic process began in late April, when US Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosted direct talks between Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors in Washington, with a second, longer round of discussions held last month. The meetings marked the first high-level face-to-face engagement between the two countries in four decades, though Hezbollah has not been included in the talks: the US designated the group a foreign terrorist organization in 1997. Founded in 1982 to oppose Israeli occupation of Lebanon, Hezbollah remains the most powerful military actor in the country and holds representation in Lebanon’s parliament. Rubio has framed the negotiations as more than just a bid for a temporary ceasefire, saying they aim to resolve decades of destabilization caused by Hezbollah’s influence. “This is a lot more than just about that. This is about bringing a permanent end to 20 or 30 years of Hezbollah’s influence in this part of the world and the – not just the damage that it’s inflicted on Israel – [but] the damage that it’s inflicted on the Lebanese people,” Rubio told reporters in April.

    Many regional policy experts have expressed skepticism about the prospects for these talks to end the violence. “It’s certainly a good thing that the conversation took place, and it’s a good thing that the United States agreed to host it, even though it was…at a low level, purely exploratory,” Steven Simon, a former National Security Council official in the Clinton administration, told Middle East Eye earlier this year. “It’s really difficult to see how these talks will alter the course of combat operations, which are what shape the diplomatic environment and the diplomatic possibilities.”

    Monday also brought fresh friction around ongoing talks between the US and Iran, which has provided training and support to Hezbollah since the group’s founding and remains its closest strategic partner. After Iranian state news agency Tasnim, which has close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, reported that Iran had suspended all talks with US mediators to protest Israel’s escalating attacks in Lebanon, Trump quickly pushed back on the claim in another Truth Social post. “Talks are continuing, at a rapid pace, with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” he wrote. According to Tasnim’s report, Iran suspended negotiations because Israeli violations of the ceasefire in Lebanon violated a core precondition for talks, and Tehran is demanding an immediate end to all Israeli military operations in both Gaza and Lebanon. The report also warned that Iran and its allied militias are prepared to block the Strait of Hormuz and open new front lines of conflict at the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the entrance to the Red Sea if the Israeli offensive continues.

  • AI unearths football talent beyond scouts’ radar

    AI unearths football talent beyond scouts’ radar

    For many young aspiring footballers around the world, especially those from smaller clubs and under-served regions, breaking into professional football has long been a pipe dream. Traditional scouting networks focus heavily on established youth academies and known talent pools, leaving thousands of skilled players unseen and their professional dreams unfulfilled. Now, a new wave of artificial intelligence-powered football apps is upending this system, opening unprecedented pathways for hidden talent to catch the eye of top clubs across Europe and South America.

    The story of 18-year-old Brazilian Leonardo “Leo” Veiga perfectly illustrates this revolution. Stuck playing for a little-known local club in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, Veiga had all but abandoned his hope of going pro. Out of options, he decided to take a chance on Footbao, a AI-powered football talent scouting app developed by a Swiss startup. The app invites young players to upload phone-recorded videos of their match and training performances, which AI algorithms then analyze, score, and share with professional scouts and club officials. Footbao had partnered with Italian club Lecce to offer a multi-day training opportunity with the club’s youth side to the app’s highest-scoring players. Veiga earned a spot in the invite group, impressed on-site Lecce scouts with his skill, and today holds a contract with the youth academy of Serie B club Spezia. “AI opened a new door,” Veiga told AFP from his new base in Italy. “I thought, I’m going to download the app and give it a try. If nothing happens, it doesn’t matter because nothing else is working out for me. But what if something does happen?”

    Veiga is far from the only young player whose career has been transformed by this technology. Footbao, founded just two years ago in 2023, has already been used by roughly 120,000 players worldwide, the vast majority of them based in Brazil — the world’s largest exporter of elite football talent. According to Footbao chief executive Nick Rappolt, the company’s data suggests between 14,000 and 15,000 currently active users have the raw ability to earn spots at professional clubs or youth academies. After launching in Brazil, the firm has expanded operations to Colombia and Argentina, with plans to enter additional South American markets in the coming year. For Rappolt, the core mission of AI-powered scouting is to democratize access to professional football: traditional scouting networks are limited by geography and network, meaning huge pools of talent fly entirely under the radar of top development programs. AI removes those barriers by giving any player with a phone a shot at being discovered.

    Footbao is not the only company chasing this opportunity. German startup CUJU, another player in the AI scouting space, takes a slightly different approach: instead of relying on user-uploaded match and training footage, CUJU guides users through structured in-app drills designed to test core technical skills, then analyzes footage of those exercises. Launched in 2023, the app has already been downloaded more than 160,000 times. CUJU marketing director Sven Muller explained that even top professional clubs maintain huge databases that only include players who have already been scouted. There is a massive gap in reliable performance data for young talent in the earliest stages of their development, and AI fills that gap by turning simple phone-recorded clips into actionable, standardized performance data that scouts can trust.

    The technology is already driving major progress for women’s football, a segment that has historically been far under-scouted compared to the men’s game. In Sao Paulo, 14-year-old Marcela Geremias de Lima worked through CUJU’s wall-kicking drill, designed to measure ball control and movement speed, and uploaded her footage to the app. After her high score earned her an invitation to a scouting tournament in front of top club representatives, she won a spot in the Under-15 side of Corinthians, one of the most successful women’s football clubs in South America, with six Copa Libertadores titles to its name. The exercises “help you improve” and mean “you can be seen from anywhere in the world,” de Lima said. With Brazil set to host the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup, industry leaders expect this AI-driven scouting to accelerate the growth of women’s football by unlocking a wave of new young female talent that would have otherwise gone unnoticed.

    Top Brazilian clubs are already starting to partner with these AI platforms to expand their own recruitment pipelines. Santos, the legendary Brazilian club that launched the careers of icons Pele and Neymar, announced a partnership with Footbao in late 2024 to identify new young prospects. Santos president Marcelo Teixeira called the partnership a key way to “expand our search for athletes” beyond the club’s existing scouting network. Even for clubs that have not yet formalized partnerships, the technology is changing how youth development leaders think about recruitment. Joao Paulo Sampaio, head of youth development at Palmeiras — the club that produced current global sensation Endrick and other top young talents — notes that top prospects are traditionally recruited at extremely young ages, locking out players who develop later or come from less connected regions. AI acts as a equalizer that gives overlooked players a second shot. While Palmeiras does not currently work with AI scouting firms, Sampaio says the pre-selection work these companies do provides a valuable new tool for overstretched scouts, who often receive dozens of unvetted talent videos each week that they lack the capacity to review.

  • Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen to form government after months of negotiations

    Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen to form government after months of negotiations

    Nearly three months after Denmark’s inconclusive general election held in March, Social Democratic Party leader Mette Frederiksen has finalized a deal to form a new centre-left minority coalition government, securing her third consecutive term as the country’s prime minister. The March election delivered a fragmented parliament, with 12 separate political parties securing seats – a result that left no bloc close to an absolute majority and triggered weeks of tense bargaining to put together a viable administration.

    Frederiksen’s Social Democrats emerged as the largest single party in the poll, but the result marked the party’s weakest electoral performance since 1903. The party captured just 21.9% of the national vote, translating to 38 seats in parliament – a loss of 12 seats from the previous legislature, and far short of the 90 seats required to form a majority government. The party’s main centre-right rival, Venstre, also suffered a historic defeat, posting its worst result in more than 100 years with only 10.1% of the vote, finishing behind the Socialist People’s Party (SF). Meanwhile, the far-right Danish People’s Party saw a major surge, more than tripling its vote share to 9% overall.

    Following a meeting with King Frederik X, which took place aboard the Danish royal yacht Dannebrog while the monarch is travelling, Frederiksen confirmed the coalition agreement had been reached after months of difficult negotiations. She announced she would officially unveil the full lineup of her new cabinet on Wednesday, with King Frederik X set to formally receive the new government at Copenhagen’s Amalienborg Palace, the official residence of the Danish royal family, on the morning of 3 June 2026. By the time the deal was struck, Denmark had operated without a permanent new government for 69 days, according to figures from national public broadcaster DR.

    The new four-party coalition will bring together Frederiksen’s Social Democrats alongside the left-wing Socialist People’s Party, centre-left Radikale Venstre, and centrist Moderates. Speaking to reporters after the royal audience, Frederiksen emphasized the hard work that went into reaching the cross-party agreement, and later posted on her official Instagram that the new government’s agenda will focus on delivering policies that benefit current and future generations of Danes, as well as advancing animal welfare protections – a key issue for voters in the election.

    The new administration will immediately face a stacked policy agenda, both international and domestic. Most notably, the government will have to respond to repeated public comments from former U.S. President Donald Trump, who has openly stated he wants the United States to take control of Greenland, the large semi-autonomous Danish territory that holds major strategic importance for North Atlantic and Arctic security. On the domestic front, Frederiksen’s government will need to tackle widespread voter concerns including ongoing cost-of-living pressures, broader economic stability, and anxiety over the future of Denmark’s social welfare system. Other urgent priorities identified by voters include strengthening animal rights protections, addressing high levels of pesticide contamination in drinking water linked to the country’s large pig farming sector, and cutting the significant climate footprint of Denmark’s agricultural industry.

  • Four dead and several injured after massive Russian strikes across Ukraine

    Four dead and several injured after massive Russian strikes across Ukraine

    A wave of large-scale Russian overnight missile attacks across multiple major Ukrainian cities has left at least four civilians dead and more than a dozen others injured, just days after a separate strike hit an apartment complex in the eastern city of Dnipro, local administrative officials confirmed early Tuesday.

    The fatalities were all recorded in Dnipro, where the attack claimed the life of a 73-year-old woman among the four dead, and left five additional people wounded. In the northeastern hub of Kharkiv, eight people sustained injuries from the strikes, while the capital city of Kyiv reported four people hurt in the assault.

    In Kyiv, where ballistic missiles targeted locations across the city, thousands of residents rushed to underground shelters as thick plumes of dark smoke billowed from areas in the city center. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko issued an urgent alert via social media early Tuesday, writing, “Explosions in the city. Air defence forces are working! Stay in shelters!”

    Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv’s City Military Administration, confirmed that the attacking forces were using ballistic missiles for the assault. Klitschko later added that two separate high-rise apartment buildings had sustained direct hits in the strikes, and rescue teams are currently working to clear rubble amid fears that multiple people remain trapped beneath destroyed structures.

    The coordinated overnight attacks come less than 24 hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy publicly reiterated intelligence warnings of an impending massive Russian strike, urging all Ukrainian residents to take air raid alerts seriously and prepare for potential assaults. In his nightly Monday video address, Zelenskyy stressed that threat assessments remained active, noting, “Intelligence warnings regarding Russian strikes remain in effect. A massive strike is possible, they have prepared one.”

  • Nine-year-old boy rushed to hospital after being hit by police car in Sydney

    Nine-year-old boy rushed to hospital after being hit by police car in Sydney

    A 9-year-old child is recovering in a Sydney hospital after a collision with a marked police car that was en route to an emergency fire call on the city’s North Shore. The incident unfolded at approximately 7:20 p.m. on Monday along the Pacific Highway in St Leonards, just a short distance from the Christie Street blaze that officers were rushing to contain.

    Upon impact, first responding officers immediately provided on-site emergency care to the injured boy, before teams of paramedics arrived to upgrade treatment ahead of transport. After stabilizing the child at the crash site, medical teams transferred him to Sydney Children’s Hospital in Randwick, where he remains in stable condition as of Tuesday.

    The driver of the police vehicle, a male senior constable with New South Wales Police, underwent mandatory breath alcohol testing at the scene immediately after the collision, and the test returned a negative result, ruling out impairment as a factor in the incident.

    Authorities confirmed on Tuesday that formal investigations into the full circumstances of the crash are still ongoing. No further details about the child’s identity or the extent of his injuries have been released to the public at this time.