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Kolisi urges Boks to channel spirit of Soweto to beat All Blacks

The most anticipated decider in this year’s Rugby Championship test series between South Africa and New Zealand is set to kick off this Saturday at Johannesburg’s 94,736-seat FNB Stadium, located on the doorstep of the iconic township of Soweto. For Springboks captain Siya Kolisi — the first Black man to lead South Africa’s national men’s rugby team — the historic setting is far more than just a match venue: it is a source of profound motivation, rooted in the struggles and triumphs that shaped modern South Africa.

Heading into Saturday’s clash, the series is tied at one win apiece. Last weekend, Kolisi overcame pre-match injury concerns to score a crucial try that secured South Africa’s series-levelling victory in the second test. Now, with the series title on the line, Kolisi has called on his squad to draw inspiration from Soweto’s central role in South Africa’s fight against apartheid.

Beyond its place in sporting history — FNB Stadium hosted the opening match of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the only time the men’s football World Cup has been hosted on African soil — Kolisi highlighted the 1976 Soweto Uprising as a turning point that changed South Africa forever. That student-led protest against apartheid-era education policies, which forced Black students to learn through English and Afrikaans (the dominant languages of the country’s white minority population), ended with hundreds of protesters killed by state security forces. The massacre sparked global condemnation of the apartheid regime, accelerating the movement that ended state-enforced racial segregation in 1994 with South Africa’s first fully democratic elections.

“So many things that happened in Soweto helped shape the South Africa we have today,” Kolisi told reporters ahead of the match. “So many heroes have come from there, and a lot of the football history of this country is from Soweto, so we know how special that is. We’re not going to act like it’s not a special ground in a significant area. All of that gives us more to play for. We are also thankful for the people who came from there and fought for people like me and [assistant coach Mzwandile] Stick to be sitting here today. They fought for the freedom we have now and never got to experience it, and giving our best tomorrow is part of us saying thank you.”

For the visiting All Blacks, a win on Saturday would give them a 2-1 series lead heading into the fourth and final test of the rivalry series, scheduled for 12 September in Baltimore, USA. New Zealand has never lost a test match at FNB Stadium, winning both of their previous encounters at the venue. A victory this weekend would replicate the 2-1 series score the All Blacks secured during their legendary 1996 tour, the first they won on South African soil, a milestone that earned that squad the nickname the “Incomparables.”

Saturday’s fixture will also mark a historic moment for New Zealand rugby off the pitch. The men’s and women’s tests between the two nations are being held as a double-header, a repeat of the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup quarter-final where New Zealand’s Black Ferns defeated South Africa 46-17. In a rare milestone, brother-sister siblings Wallace and Amarante Sititi have both been named as replacements for their respective All Blacks and Black Ferns sides, both wearing the number 20 jersey.

If both take the field during their matches, they will become only the second brother-sister pair to represent New Zealand in international rugby on the same day. The first was Xavier and Annaleah Rush, who faced Australia at Sydney Football Stadium in August 1998. The pair’s father Semo Sititi, a former international captain who led Samoa and played club rugby for Borders and Newcastle in England, traveled to Johannesburg to watch the historic match.

“Representing this country is a privilege but doing it alongside my brother is something special. I will always hold it in my heart,” said Amarante ahead of the fixture. “It’s pretty surreal. I’m still buzzing out that I get to be here with my brother but it’s really cool and I’m so grateful.”

Full team lineups are as follows:
– South Africa: Kolbe; Arendse, Kriel, de Allende, Hooker; Feinberg-Mngomezulu, Reinach; Nche, Marx, Louw, Etzebeth, Nortje, Kolisi, PS du Toit, Wiese. Replacements: Fourie, Steenekamp, T du Toit, De Jager, Esterhuizen, Hanekom, Van den Berg, Libbok
– New Zealand: McKenzie; Jordan, Tupaea, J Barrett, Carter; Love, Roigard; Bower, Aumua, Lomax, Vaa’I, Darry, Lakai, Jacobson, Savea. Replacements: Taukei’aho, Numia, Newell, Holland, Sititi, Preston, Lienert-Brown, Moorby

4 9 月, 2026
Examining US official’s claim that data centres ‘don’t use water’

A recent public statement by United States Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has sparked widespread fact-checking scrutiny after he incorrectly asserted that data centers operate without consuming any water. The claim, which contradicts decades of industry data and environmental research, has drawn attention to the often-overlooked water footprint of the global digital infrastructure that powers cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and internet services worldwide.

Data centers, the centralized facilities that house thousands of servers to process, store, and distribute digital data, rely heavily on water for cooling purposes. Even the most advanced air-cooled data center designs require water for periodic system maintenance, while the more common water-based cooling systems used by large-scale hyperscale data centers pull millions of gallons of water annually to regulate the heat generated by running server equipment. Industry analysts note that as demand for AI computing and cloud storage surges, the water consumption of data centers has become an increasingly pressing environmental and community issue, particularly in regions facing chronic drought and water scarcity.

Fact-checking organizations and technology policy experts have quickly debunked Lutnick’s claim, pointing to public sustainability reports released by major tech companies that operate large data center networks. Companies including Google, Amazon, and Meta regularly disclose their annual water withdrawals for data center operations, acknowledging the industry’s significant water use and outlining plans to reduce consumption through efficiency improvements and alternative cooling technologies. The incorrect statement has also reignited debate over regulatory transparency for digital infrastructure development, as many local governments approving new data center projects face growing pushback from community groups concerned about strained local water supplies.

4 9 月, 2026
Eben Etzebeth roars back into form to help South Africa level All Blacks rugby series

Just one month ago, South African rugby critics were already writing off Eben Etzebeth, the most capped player in Springboks history. They called for the veteran lock to hang up his boots and step into early retirement, with plenty of fuel for their skepticism: ahead of New Zealand’s historic, highly anticipated tour of South Africa this August, Etzebeth had played only a single match all year, with his 2024 season disrupted by an eye-gouge suspension, a nagging hip injury and a painful head knock. Doubts about his match fitness and form swirled across rugby circles.

Etzebeth’s 2024 campaign got off to a rocky start when he took the field for his second game of the year against a relentless Argentina side in hostile Buenos Aires on August 8. While the lock put in significant work on the pitch, he lacked his signature sharpness, but the match still served its purpose: it shook off the months of inactivity rust that had built up. Next came the first test against the All Blacks at Johannesburg’s Ellis Park, where Etzebeth started slow and never found his top form, turning in what many called an unremarkable performance as South Africa suffered a shocking 16-33 defeat.

That underwhelming outing only amplified calls for Etzebeth to be benched. But last weekend in Cape Town, for the second test against the world-famous All Blacks, Etzebeth showed the world why he has been a core of South African rugby for 14 years. Turning in a vintage performance that bore all the hallmarks of his best form, Etzebeth wreaked havoc on New Zealand’s lineout, disrupting three of the visitors’ attacking throw-ins and securing five clean catches of his own. He added 18 tackles to the tally, two of which were dominant defensive stops, forced a fumble from an All Blacks carrier, competed aggressively for a loose ball and got a finger to a pass that nearly resulted in an interception. By the final whistle, South Africa had claimed a thrilling 33-26 win, leveling the three-test series.

Veteran former Springbok lock Victor Matfield, who held the record for most Springbok test appearances before Etzebeth broke it earlier in 2024, sang Etzebeth’s praises on the *Rugby Rivals* podcast. “He was under immense pressure in South Africa – everyone was saying ‘He hasn’t played much, he’s not in good form’ – but he stood out when it mattered most,” Matfield said. “At the lineout he was incredible, his work rate was just unbelievable, and that’s the Eben Etzebeth we all know. For me, it meant so much that our most experienced player stepped up in a week with so much on the line.”

The deciding third test is set for this Saturday at Johannesburg’s iconic FNB Stadium, with the series trophy on the line.

Despite the patchy start to his 2024 season, Etzebeth has never questioned the strategy of Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus, whom he has supported fully since Erasmus took charge of the national side in 2018. Etzebeth served as South Africa’s captain in 2017, and willingly ceded the role to close friend Siya Kolisi – a friendship that dates back to their teenage years – without any resentment. Etzebeth credits Erasmus with rebuilding the Springboks’ winning culture, telling *The Verdict* podcast: “Being a Springbok became special again. We were willing to go to the dark places, put in the hard work necessary to get wins and results. In the past, it almost felt like just being selected as a Springbok was enough. Rassie brought back that belief, that hunger and that excitement for winning.”

That cultural shift has delivered major silverware, with back-to-back Rugby World Cup titles in 2019 and 2023 – achievements that Etzebeth was central to, starting in both final matches.

### Far from Retirement Plans

Far from planning to hang up his boots any time soon, the 34-year-old Etzebeth says his career is being extended by the Springboks’ famous “Bomb Squad” impact substitution strategy. Of his 144 test appearances to date, Etzebeth has started 133, though he comes off the bench more frequently than he did earlier in his career. The lock says he has no issue with the reduced minutes, noting that not being selected at all hurts far more than being called on to contribute off the bench. He says he wants to keep playing for as long as his body allows, and has not set a retirement date. He will turn 35 next month, and will turn 36 the day before a potential 2027 Rugby World Cup quarterfinal clash between South Africa and New Zealand in Sydney – a match he is already targeting.

“Every year the younger lads are bigger, better and faster than the cohort before them,” Etzebeth said. “They push me to keep improving, and that’s exactly how it should be.”

Etzebeth has spent his career breaking records: he became the youngest Springbok ever to hit 50 test caps at 24 in 2016, and the youngest to reach 100 caps at 30 in 2022. That 100th cap was intentionally scheduled for a Cape Town match so that his father Harry, who was battling cancer at the time, could attend the milestone match. On that historic day, Etzebeth’s then-fiancée Anlia performed the South African national anthem, and Etzebeth was named man of the match. Harry died the following year, while Etzebeth was in New Zealand with the team. The lock chose to stay and captain the side, saying it was what his father would have wanted.

Etzebeth was born into a family of professional wrestlers, a background that gave his family a reputation for toughness and grit. He did not find his place in rugby until age 15, when he experienced a dramatic growth spurt that added 20 centimeters in height and 20 kilograms in weight. He was moved from the wing to the lock position, and has grown into the 2.03-meter, 120-kilogram enforcer that opposes scrumhalves now fear. He made his Springbok debut at just 20 years old in 2012, filling the gap in the second row left by legends Matfield and Bakkies Botha. When the two veteran stars returned to the national side, they fit seamlessly around the rising young talent, who carried on the post-apartheid legacy of fearsome Springbok enforcers who wear the iconic No. 4 jersey, a line that includes Adri Geldenhuys, Kobus Wiese, Mark Andrews and Botha.

Matfield, who partnered Botha for a world-record 62 tests together in the second row, was on hand when Etzebeth broke his 127-appearance Springbok record earlier this year. He says he has long marveled at Etzebeth’s unique combination of relentless work rate and uncompromising on-pitch attitude.

“You always want that one guy that, when you run out onto the field, the opposition’s forward pack knows they don’t stand a chance going up against him,” Matfield said. “That’s what Eben has been giving our pack for the last 14 years.”

4 9 月, 2026
The moment judge declares a mistrial in Lindsay Clancy case

In a dramatic turn of events that has left communities across Massachusetts reeling, a judge has declared a mistrial in the closely watched case of Lindsay Clancy, the 32-year-old mother charged with murdering her three young children early last year. The proceeding, which had drawn intense public scrutiny over its troubling allegations and complex legal questions, concluded without a verdict after weeks of testimony and deliberation.

Clancy stands accused of killing her 5-year-old daughter Cora, 3-year-old son Dawson, and 8-month-old son Callan in their family home in Duxbury, a quiet coastal town south of Boston, in January 2023. Prosecutors alleged that Clancy used a belt and knife to harm the children before attempting to take her own life by jumping from a second-story window of her home. She survived the fall but was left partially paralyzed, and has remained in custody since her recovery.

During the trial, the defense argued that Clancy was experiencing severe postpartum psychosis, a debilitating mental health condition that distorted her perception of reality and left her unable to form the criminal intent required for a murder conviction. They presented extensive testimony from mental health experts detailing her history of anxiety and postpartum depression after the birth of her third child, and contended that she believed harming her children was the only way to save them from what her delusions told her was impending danger. Prosecutors, by contrast, pushed back against that narrative, arguing that Clancy acted intentionally when she killed the children, pointing to text messages and other evidence they said demonstrated premeditation.

After days of jury deliberation, the jury informed the judge that they were hopelessly deadlocked and unable to reach a unanimous verdict on any of the three murder charges Clancy faced. Following the jury’s announcement, Judge Beverly Cannone granted the motion for a mistrial, bringing the two-week trial to an abrupt and unresolved end.

The decision has left both the Clancy family and the broader community searching for answers. The case has reignited fierce public conversations about the gaps in mental health care for new parents, the dangers of untreated perinatal mood disorders, and how the criminal justice system handles defendants with severe mental illness. Many advocates for maternal mental health have pointed to the case as a tragic example of systemic failure, arguing that more accessible screening and treatment for postpartum conditions could prevent similar tragedies from occurring.

Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz has indicated that his office intends to retry Clancy, though no date has been set for the new proceeding. In a statement to reporters outside the courtroom after the mistrial was declared, Cruz emphasized that “the families of the victims and the community deserve a resolution,” and that his office will move forward to prepare for a second trial. Legal analysts note that retrials in high-profile murder cases are common when juries deadlock, but that the process could take months to organize given the complexity of the case and the need to seat a new impartial jury.

4 9 月, 2026
Watch: What is a mistrial and what does it mean for Lindsay Clancy?

When a high-profile criminal case concludes without a final, unanimous verdict from the jury, the legal process hits an unexpected pause — and that is exactly what has unfolded in the case of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother charged with murdering her three young children. After days of deliberation, the jury failed to reach a consensus on a guilty or not guilty verdict, prompting the judge to declare a mistrial. For many following the case closely, this outcome has raised a critical question: What exactly is a mistrial, and what comes next for Clancy?

In an explanatory breakdown for the BBC, correspondent Ione Wells has broken down the complex legal mechanics behind this procedural outcome and outlined the potential paths forward for all parties involved. A mistrial is defined as a trial that is terminated prematurely before a verdict can be delivered, triggered most commonly when a jury cannot reach the required level of agreement to render a binding decision — a scenario often referred to as a hung jury. In criminal cases like Clancy’s, many U.S. jurisdictions require a unanimous verdict from the jury to convict or acquit a defendant of serious felony charges. When jurors remain deadlocked, split between competing positions with no path to consensus, the judge has little choice but to dismiss the jury and declare the trial invalid.

Contrary to some common misconceptions, a mistrial does not equal an acquittal. It also does not automatically mean the charges against Clancy will be dropped entirely. Instead, it leaves the door open for prosecutors to choose whether to refile the charges and retry the case before a new jury. Prosecutors typically weigh a range of factors when making this decision, including the strength of existing evidence, the level of public interest in the case, the wishes of the victim’s family, and the likelihood that a second jury will reach a definitive verdict. They may also opt to negotiate a plea deal with Clancy’s defense team, though neither side has publicly indicated that such a step is currently on the table.

The Clancy case has gripped public attention across the United States since the 2022 deaths of her three children, ages 5, 3, and 8 months. The trial has raised urgent broader conversations about maternal mental health, postpartum psychosis, and the criminal legal system’s approach to defendants who struggle with acute psychiatric illness at the time of an alleged crime. Now, the mistrial outcome has extended the period of uncertainty for all involved, leaving the community and the public waiting for the next step in the legal process. As Wells emphasizes, every mistrial is unique, but the procedural rules surrounding Clancy’s case follow a well-established legal framework that will dictate how the case moves forward from this point.

4 9 月, 2026
Top Reform officials filmed allegedly plotting to break law on foreign donations

A major political controversy has erupted in British politics just as Reform UK opened its annual national conference in Birmingham, after undercover reporting exposed alleged attempts by two senior party officials to circumvent UK electoral law to secure an illegal £500,000 foreign donation from an individual based in the United States.

The bombshell investigation, broadcast Thursday night on Channel 4 News and conducted by independent investigative group Verbatim Investigations, captured damning on-camera conversations showing the party’s head of policy — James Orr, a serving associate professor at the University of Cambridge — outlining a scheme to disguise a donation from a U.S. national. Under UK electoral regulations, political parties may only accept financial contributions from individuals registered on the UK electoral roll or companies formally registered and operating within British borders, which rules out direct or indirect donations from overseas actors.

In the filmed exchange, Orr proposed a workaround to an undercover reporter posing as a UK-based donor: the reporter’s American father, played by an actor working with the investigation team, would transfer the full £500,000 to the reporter, who would then officially register as the donor to the party. The plan first centered on an initial £18,000 payment to fund an opinion poll supporting Reform’s general election campaigning, before expanding to the larger six-figure donation.

The footage also captured party leader Nigel Farage joining a lunch meeting with Farage’s senior personal aide Dan Jukes, the undercover reporter and the actor posing as the American donor. In the meeting, Farage can be seen celebrating the poll’s results, which showed strong public support for Reform, calling the survey “amazing” and praising it for delivering strong “bang for buck.” When the reporter laid out the proposed scheme to channel the American father’s money into the party through his own UK registered donor status, Farage responded simply: “Thank you. Well, both of you. Thank you.”

By Friday morning, just 24 hours after the report aired and on the first full day of Reform’s conference, both Jukes and Orr stepped down from their official party positions pending the outcome of an internal party investigation. The opposition Labour Party and the centrist Liberal Democrats have already formally reported Reform UK to the Metropolitan Police over the allegations. The Electoral Commission, the UK’s independent elections regulator, confirmed Friday that it is reviewing all available evidence related to the case and has been in direct contact with Metropolitan Police leadership, who announced Thursday night they would launch a formal assessment of the claims to determine whether a criminal investigation is warranted.

In an official statement released Friday morning, a Reform UK spokesperson confirmed the internal probe had been launched, noting: “Reform UK has launched an investigation following the broadcast of a Channel 4 News programme. Both individuals involved have stepped down from their respective positions pending the outcome of the investigation. The party believes it is important that the investigation is allowed to proceed independently and without prejudice. No further comment will be made while the investigation is ongoing.”

Party leaders have pushed back aggressively against the claims, however. Deputy leader Richard Tice told BBC Radio 4 Friday that the party had already received a formal legal opinion from a senior King’s Counsel asserting no electoral rules had been broken, and he accused Channel 4 of orchestrating entrapment to damage the party’s reputation. Speaking to LBC radio, Farage himself also insisted no wrongdoing had occurred.

The controversy comes as Farage already faces an ongoing parliamentary investigation over an undeclared £5 million gift he received ahead of his election as a Member of Parliament in 2024, which Farage has repeatedly denied was any violation of parliamentary rules. The latest allegations also add to growing public scrutiny of Reform’s long-rumored ties to foreign political actors, a topic that has drawn increasing media and regulatory attention over the past six months.

Independent outlet Middle East Eye has previously documented the growing close relationship between Reform, a hardline anti-immigration party, and the government of the United Arab Emirates. Farage made an official trip to Abu Dhabi last December, with all travel and accommodation costs covered by the Emirati government, during which he held meetings with multiple senior Emirati cabinet ministers, including the country’s foreign minister. In April 2025, reporting revealed that senior Reform officials had been actively exploring fundraising from wealthy foreign donors based in low-tax jurisdictions including Monaco, Switzerland and the UAE.

Notably, multiple Emirati diplomats are scheduled to attend Reform’s Birmingham conference Friday, alongside diplomatic representatives from other major nations including the United States, Israel and India. Political analysts note that the UAE and Reform share a common public opposition to political Islam, a longstanding policy priority for Abu Dhabi that it has advanced across the Middle East since the 2011 Arab Spring, and increasingly in European and North American political circles in recent years.

4 9 月, 2026
To sustain global influence, Gulf economies recalibrate foreign investments as war drains revenues

The six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates – are grappling with severe economic turbulence spurred by the ongoing US-Israeli war on Iran, a conflict that has upended long-standing investment strategies across the region. The escalation of hostilities has injected unprecedented uncertainty into critical maritime trade chokepoints, including the Strait of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandeb, triggering a sharp collapse in cross-border capital flows. Data shows foreign direct investment into the GCC has plummeted by as much as 67 percent since the war commenced in February, eroding a core pillar of regional economic growth.

Beyond the drop in inbound capital, the long-standing capacity of GCC states to deploy large volumes of outbound investment – a tool that has shaped their global financial and political influence over the past 40 years – has come under intense strain. This fiscal pressure has forced widespread strategic recalibration across both cross-border investment portfolios and domestic budget allocations, forcing governments to scale back previously ambitious development targets, most notably in Saudi Arabia.
Justin Alexander, an economist focused on GCC economic dynamics, told Middle East Eye that the conflict has triggered immediate downward pressure on government fiscal revenues. As a result, he explains, some regional governments are no longer able to allocate new capital to their sovereign wealth funds, and a growing number are even drawing down existing SWF assets to cover ongoing public spending obligations.
Kuwait became the first major state to take this step this week, announcing it would borrow from its $1 trillion-plus Future Generations Fund, the country’s primary sovereign wealth vehicle, to close widening gaps in its public budget. Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported earlier this week that Saudi Arabia is actively pursuing up to $8 billion in new loans through its central debt management office, as part of efforts to expand non-oil revenue streams and cover budget shortfalls.

At the core of the growing fiscal squeeze is the near-total disruption of GCC oil and natural gas exports stemming from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, forcing governments to reallocate billions of dollars to emergency domestic infrastructure projects designed to bypass the chokepoint. The most high-profile of these projects is a second oil pipeline the UAE has commenced construction to connect its inland oil fields to the port of Fujairah on the Arabian Sea, which would allow exports to bypass the Strait of Hormuz entirely.
Ben Cahill, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Atlantic Council think tank, notes that these large-scale infrastructure projects have historically been driven more by geopolitical priorities than pure economic efficiency, with collective price tags expected to run into the tens of billions of dollars. “These pipelines are expensive and geopolitically complicated, but the Gulf states will spend serious money for back-up options,” Cahill explained.

Securing capital for these urgent domestic projects has become far more challenging amid a 30 percent drop in hydrocarbon export revenues across the bloc, the same fiscal pressure that pushed Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to pursue emergency borrowing this week. Experts note that while Saudi Arabia has regularly taken on debt to fund its large-scale megaprojects in recent years, the current urgency of its borrowing is atypical. For Kuwait, the move to draw down its flagship sovereign wealth fund is nearly unprecedented: the only other time the country pursued such a step was in 1990, immediately after Iraq’s invasion that devastated the country’s economy.
Alexander projects that the ongoing shift from outbound global investment to urgent domestic spending will persist for the foreseeable future. “The demand for domestic spending for recovery and in new infrastructure will compete to some extent with foreign investment priorities,” he said.

Not all GCC member states are facing identical pressures or adopting identical responses, according to Robert Mogielnicki, a leading independent researcher and consultant focused on Gulf political economy. While Saudi Arabia has simply accelerated the strategic budget shifts it already had underway before the outbreak of the war, Mogielnicki notes the UAE has prioritized efforts to restore pre-war economic normalcy, while Qatar is still working to manage growing fiscal strains driven by its extensive exposure to trade routes through the Strait of Hormuz.

For years, GCC economies have systematically pursued economic diversification strategies designed to reduce their reliance on volatile hydrocarbon exports, investing heavily in emerging sectors from logistics and tourism to competitive e-sports. Alexander notes that this pre-conflict diversification has provided a critical buffer for regional economies amid the current downturn. While the war has disrupted almost all sectors, broader, more diversified domestic economic bases have softened the blow of collapsing hydrocarbon production.
That said, many of the sectors that were at the core of GCC diversification strategies have also been hit hard by the conflict. Regional tourism arrivals have dropped sharply, delivering record losses to domestic airline and hospitality industries, while returns on foreign tourism investments held by states like Qatar have not been enough to offset lost hydrocarbon export revenues. Other key sectors targeted for diversification, including heavy manufacturing, have also faced major disruptions from the Hormuz closure, with some aluminium processing facilities and digital data centres sustaining direct damage from cross-border strikes, Alexander added.
While economic diversification remains a core long-term policy objective for all GCC states, the war has pushed many planned diversification initiatives down the list of immediate priorities, Mogielnicki explained. He cites the example of the new UAE Fujairah pipeline, a project that was originally framed as a long-term diversification asset but is now primarily a tool to mitigate immediate Hormuz-related export disruptions. These emergency infrastructure projects pull capital away from diversification for growth, creating long-term tradeoffs: “clearly, lots of excess infrastructure is not the most cost-efficient approach to economic diversification,” Mogielnicki said.

Outbound foreign investment has long served as a deliberate tool of soft power for GCC states, delivering geopolitical leverage, cultural influence, and structural economic power across the globe. That dual function of investment – delivering both commercial returns and geopolitical influence – remains central to the region’s recalibrated strategies, Alexander says. “Gulf investments often have dual objectives of commercial returns and cementing bilateral relationships.”
Despite the widespread shift to domestic priorities, GCC investors have still closed a number of record-breaking large-scale outbound deals in recent months, though most of these deals had been negotiated and had momentum before the war began. In early August, a Saudi-led consortium completed the $55 billion leveraged buyout of American video game developer Electronic Arts, the studio behind global hit franchises *FIFA* and *The Sims*, marking the largest private buyout of a technology company in corporate history.

Even more recently, on August 24, the governments of France and Saudi Arabia announced a joint partnership to build three new theme parks just outside of Paris, including one attraction themed around the global manga franchise Dragon Ball Z. The project is backed by a $7 billion investment from Saudi Arabia’s state-affiliated Qiddiya Investment Company, and was formally announced by French President Emmanuel Macron during an official visit by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – a high-profile public display of how Gulf states continue to use outbound investments to advance their geopolitical standing on the global stage.

Kristian Alexander, a Gulf security analyst at the Middle East Institute, explains that these high-profile outbound investments are designed to deliver both financial returns and expanded cultural influence for Saudi Arabia. “The EA acquisition provides access to global franchises and digital audiences, while the Paris project potentially gives Saudi-owned Qiddiya an international operating platform and European visibility,” he said.

These large outbound deals come as Saudi Arabia faces major setbacks to its domestic megaproject agenda, most recently announcing a full halt to construction on The Line, the 170-kilometer flagship smart city project at the core of the kingdom’s $1 trillion Neom development initiative, with construction not expected to resume until at least 2030. The project has already undergone extensive restructuring after projections showed original costs could balloon by as much as 800 percent, and shrinking oil revenues and logistical challenges have forced the kingdom to pivot its domestic focus to AI data centers and digital infrastructure instead. Even the large-scale domestic investments that once defined the Gulf’s economic boom are now feeling the war’s fallout, forcing rapid reprioritization across government budgets.

For Qatar, global soft power influence continues to be anchored in strategic investments in the international luxury tourism sector, a low-friction path to expanding geopolitical influence that avoids the political scrutiny that comes with investments in sensitive sectors like defense or energy. Over the past three decades, Qatar has accumulated a sprawling portfolio of luxury hospitality acquisitions across major global hubs including New York, London, Paris, Barcelona, Singapore, Rome, and Zurich, giving the small emirate a strategic foothold at the intersection of global luxury and finance. “A tourism project is easier to present as employment, environmental tourism and economic development,” Kristian Alexander explains, making these investments far less politically controversial than alternative forms of influence-building.
The most recent example of this strategy is a new ultra-luxury resort project on Seychelles’ Assomption Island, where a Qatari-led consortium acquired development rights for the high-end property. The site is located adjacent to the Aldabra Atoll, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the project has already drawn fierce criticism from global environmental groups concerned about the ecological damage of construction in the sensitive protected ecosystem.
More significantly, Assomption Island was previously selected by the Indian military for development as a new naval outpost, part of New Delhi’s “necklace of diamonds” strategy to counter China’s growing “string of pearls” military and economic presence across the Indian Ocean. The Qatari luxury hotel investment allows Doha to establish a permanent economic and political foothold in this strategically critical region, at a time when Gulf states are increasingly competing with China and India for influence across the Indian Ocean littoral. This project perfectly embodies Qatar’s “luxury diplomacy” model, Kristian Alexander says: “Qatar can consequently obtain presence, relationships and reputational visibility in a strategically important location without requesting the explicit sovereign privileges associated with a military base.”

Looking ahead, GCC states recognize that they will need to continue investing abroad to sustain the economic and political influence built up through decades of cross-border dealmaking, particularly as the region takes on an increasingly central diplomatic role in global negotiations over the future of the Strait of Hormuz. But sustaining that outbound investment will become far more challenging in the coming months, as the closure of Hormuz and the war’s broader fiscal toll squeeze government budgets at the worst possible moment. Persistent uncertainty over when hydrocarbon exports will return to pre-war levels adds to the pressure, as urgent domestic infrastructure spending consumes available capital, leaving GCC economies increasingly financially stretched.

4 9 月, 2026
Meloni celebrates her Italian government’s longevity during party rally in Bari

On a Friday rally in the southern Italian city of Bari, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni marked a unprecedented political milestone for her right-wing administration, celebrating that her government has become the longest-serving single cabinet in Italy’s post-war republican history. Crossing the 1,414-consecutive-day mark in office, Meloni’s coalition has officially surpassed the previous 1,412-day record set by Silvio Berlusconi’s second administration, which held power from 2001 to 2005.

Addressing thousands of cheering supporters who chanted her name through the event, Meloni framed the longevity record as clear proof of the unity and resilience of her center-right coalition. “It is no coincidence that the three longest-serving governments in the history of the Italian Republic are all center-right governments,” she told the crowd. Framing political continuity as her government’s foundational achievement, Meloni added: “Stability is our first great reform.” She argued that the unusual stretch of unbroken governance has allowed her administration to advance economic and foreign policy priorities that would have been impossible to pursue under Italy’s historic pattern of short-lived, frequently collapsing administrations.

In a vulnerable, personal reflection on her time in office, Meloni opened up about the steep obstacles she has faced while pushing forward her policy agenda and pushing back against political opposition to change. “There were days when it felt like I was swimming through glue, but I never gave up and I do not intend to start now,” she said, a comment that drew loud, sustained cheers from attendees. The Bari rally also laid out the core narrative Meloni is expected to center in the lead-up to Italy’s next national election, scheduled for 2027: that consistent, stable governance has delivered tangible results and rebuilt Italy’s global credibility.

Political analysts note that the milestone caps a remarkable political transformation for Meloni, who made history as Italy’s first female prime minister when she took office in 2022, rising from a fringe political outsider to a central figure in Italian and European politics. When her government first took power, many international and European observers raised alarms over her party’s historical roots in post-war neo-fascism, widely predicting she would adopt a confrontational stance toward EU institutions in Brussels. To date, those fears have not materialized.

Vera Capperucci, a professor of the history of European political parties at Rome’s LUISS University, described the Bari celebratory rally as a “necessary act” to cement the government’s narrative, adding that foreign policy credibility has been the defining success of Meloni’s term. “Meloni has built credibility with European partners while maintaining Italy’s Atlantic alliances, defying concerns when she took office that her government would pursue a more confrontational course toward Brussels,” Capperucci explained. Since taking office, Meloni has stayed consistent in Italy’s military and political support for Ukraine, worked within existing European regulatory and institutional frameworks, and built close, cooperative ties with key Western allies across the globe.

Meloni and her supporters credit the government’s political stability for a string of tangible domestic achievements: they point to the creation of more than 1 million new jobs, a steady drop in national unemployment, more disciplined management of Italy’s public finances, and a sharp reduction in irregular migrant arrivals along Italian coasts. For many attendees at the Bari rally, the longevity record alone counts as a major win for Italian politics, which has been plagued by fragmented coalitions and early government collapses for decades. Marco Macrì, a 34-year-old Forza Italia supporter from the small southern town of Alliste, near Lecce, noted that Meloni has successfully held the center-right coalition together in the period following Berlusconi’s death. “Now, with Giorgia, we are all united under one roof … with different symbols but part of one family,” he said.

Still, the milestone has drawn sharp pushback from political opponents, who argue that Meloni’s government has failed to address Italy’s most persistent long-term challenges. Critics point out that deep structural issues including stagnant productivity growth, chronically low wages, and widespread inefficiencies in public administration and services remain largely unresolved. Opposition leaders also accuse the coalition of cutting critical funding for public health and education services, and argue that the government’s only economic achievements have been limited to controlling public debt and deficit levels, with no actionable plan to boost sustained long-term economic growth.

It is worth noting that while Meloni leads the longest-serving single uninterrupted government in Italian republican history, Berlusconi still holds the record for the longest total cumulative time in office across multiple separate administrations. No Italian government has ever completed a full five-year parliamentary term without collapsing or being replaced early. As Meloni’s administration basks in the glow of its record-breaking milestone, the national political conversation has already begun to shift: the question is no longer whether Meloni’s coalition can survive, but whether Italian voters will decide it has delivered enough to earn another term in 2027.

4 9 月, 2026
UAE-linked networks supplying weapons and fighters for Sudan atrocities, UN finds

A United Nations-led independent international investigation has delivered a damning new assessment of Sudan’s 16-month-old civil conflict, concluding that cross-border flows of foreign weaponry, advanced military technology, and contracted mercenaries are prolonging the war and enabling widespread attacks on civilian targets that may rise to the level of war crimes. The long-awaited report from the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan, released publicly Thursday, confirmed there are reasonable grounds to believe a coordinated transnational network has provided the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Sudan’s main paramilitary opposition group, with a steady stream of arms, logistical backing, combat training, and foreign personnel.

Investigators traced the sprawling network, which includes private companies, middlemen, and individual actors, to operations based in or transiting through the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Colombia, Chad, Libya, and Somalia. While the UAE has repeatedly denied all accusations of supporting the RSF, extensive independent reporting from Middle East Eye and other open-source research has long linked the Gulf state to arms and supply shipments to the paramilitary group. In recent weeks, global human rights organizations have submitted two formal communications to the International Criminal Court, calling for investigations into the role of foreign actors—specifically senior UAE officials—in aiding and abetting alleged RSF atrocities.

Beyond the RSF’s foreign support, the UN mission also uncovered preliminary evidence that foreign-provided drone technology has drastically expanded the long-range strike capacity of Sudan’s official Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), allowing the military to hit targets deep in territory held by the RSF. “The consequences of this external support are being felt most acutely by civilians,” said Mohamed Chande Othman, chair of the fact-finding mission. “This external support has not brought greater protection for civilians. Instead, civilians are paying the price through attacks on homes, hospitals, schools, markets and places of refuge.”

The report’s casualty figures underscore the devastating human cost of these externally enabled attacks: between January and May 2026 alone, more than 1,000 civilians were killed in drone strikes across the country. Investigators documented deliberate strikes on protected civilian infrastructure by both warring parties, including an RSF attack on a kindergarten, displacement camp, and hospital in Kalogi, South Kordofan, in December 2025. Successive RSF drone strikes hit the Nabaa al-Hanan kindergarten, first responders who rushed to the scene, and a nearby rural hospital, killing 114 people—roughly 60 of whom were children—and wounding 35 more. The mission’s investigation found no evidence that either the kindergarten or the hospital was being used for military purposes, stripping the attack of any legal justification under international law. The RSF also carried out a lethal strike on a former International Organization for Migration building that sheltered displaced families in Kulba, killing at least five civilians including multiple children.

On the SAF side, the mission confirmed the military carried out a major strike on Ad-Da’ein Teaching Hospital in East Darfur on the first day of Eid al-Fitr in March 2026. The attack killed at least 70 people, injured 146 more, and completely disabled the only major referral hospital serving more than two million people in the region. Even after investigating claims that wounded RSF fighters were receiving care at the facility, the mission emphasized that providing medical treatment to injured combatants does not revoke a hospital’s protected status under international humanitarian law. The report also attributed strikes on the Abu Zaima market in North Kordofan and the Yabus market in Blue Nile to the SAF, finding no identifiable military targets at either impact site. Investigators noted that deliberate attacks on clearly civilian sites meet the legal definition of potential war crimes.

The report dedicated specific analysis to the RSF’s foreign supply lines for its operations in Darfur, where the mission previously found evidence of acts bearing the hallmarks of genocide against non-Arab communities. It traced weapons, personnel, and supplies through interconnected air, maritime, and land routes that pass through Bosaso in Somalia’s Puntland region, southeastern Libya, and Chad. Among the military equipment supplied to the RSF are Chinese-made NORINCO AH-4 howitzers, FK-2000 air defense systems, and CH-95 reconnaissance and strike drones. Investigators noted that much of this materiel matches specifications of equipment previously exported to the UAE, a finding that reinforces existing links between Emirati-linked entities and the RSF supply chain.

Witness testimony collected by the mission documented repeated cargo flights departing from the UAE, transiting through Chad, before moving supplies and foreign contractors into RSF-controlled territory. While investigators stopped short of holding the Emirati state officially responsible for the network’s actions, they concluded that individuals and entities registered, based, or linked to the UAE play a “significant role” in recruiting, financing, and transporting military contractors and delivering other critical support to the RSF. In its response to investigators, the UAE rejected all allegations of arms supplies or mercenary facilitation, insisting it has remained neutral in the conflict and that internal inquiries found no evidence linking entities under its jurisdiction to mercenary activity in Sudan. Even so, the fact-finding mission urged Emirati authorities to launch more robust investigations and take enforcement action against companies and individuals operating from its territory that support the RSF.

Colombian contractors emerged as a particularly critical component of the RSF’s advanced weapons operations, the report found. Investigators estimate that as many as 2,000 former Colombian military personnel have been recruited to support the RSF since August 2024. Multiple witnesses confirmed that some of these contractors received combat training at a military-style facility in Ghayathi, UAE, before traveling to Sudan via Somalia, Libya, or Chad. Contractors belonging to a unit calling itself the “Desert Wolves” were present in el-Fasher before, during, and after the RSF’s seizure of the city, operating drones, artillery, and other advanced weapons systems.

“This support fed into RSF operations in Zamzam camp and later during the takeover of el-Fasher, where the mission documented grave violations and international crimes, including conduct displaying hallmarks of genocide,” said Mona Rishmawi, a member of the fact-finding mission. The mission has previously confirmed that RSF forces and their allied militias committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during the el-Fasher campaign, and that their systematic targeting of non-Arab communities meets the criteria for potential acts of genocide.

While investigators identified multiple unpublicized foreign individuals and entities linked to the support network, the report only publicly names individuals already sanctioned by the UN Security Council’s Sudan sanctions committee. That list includes retired Colombian colonel Alvaro Andres Quijano Becerra, founder of one of the main recruitment firms in the network, who was based in Abu Dhabi. His wife, Claudia Viviana Oliveros Forero, is accused of coordinating recruitment activities inside Colombia. Both were sanctioned by the Security Council in April for their role in recruiting and deploying former Colombian soldiers to Sudan. The mission confirmed it maintains confidential dossiers on other unnamed suspects, which it will share with international judicial and accountability bodies as needed.

Colombian authorities have acknowledged that Colombian companies and individuals have recruited contractors for deployment to Sudan, but the state has denied directing or supporting these activities, and the fact-finding mission made no finding of official Colombian state responsibility for the network. Under international criminal law, any individual who knowingly provides practical assistance that substantially contributes to the commission of international crimes can be held liable for aiding and abetting, even if their support was not strictly indispensable to the crime.

“Accountability cannot stop with those who carry out the attacks,” said mission member Joy Ngozi Ezeilo. Investigators are calling for full inquiries that trace accountability through the entire chain of command, including individuals who order, finance, supply, or otherwise facilitate international crimes in Sudan.

To curb the ongoing flow of weapons fueling the conflict, the mission urged the UN Security Council to expand the existing partial arms embargo covering only Darfur to the entire territory of Sudan. It also called on all UN member states to halt all transfers of weapons, drones, and military technology to any Sudanese party when there is a substantial risk the equipment will be used to facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.

Sudan’s ongoing civil war erupted in April 2023, triggered by a bitter power struggle between SAF chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti. The conflict has killed at least tens of thousands of people, displaced more than 13 million from their homes, and pushed more than 19.5 million Sudanese to the brink of famine. The UN and European Union have both described the crisis as the world’s largest humanitarian and displacement emergency currently unfolding. Both warring parties have faced widespread accusations of systematic atrocities, and repeated international diplomatic efforts to negotiate a lasting ceasefire have all collapsed to date.

4 9 月, 2026
UAE president pardons Egyptian poet Abdul Rahman Yusuf al-Qaradawi

In a move that follows widespread international pressure from human rights organizations and United Nations experts, the United Arab Emirates’ president Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan has granted a pardon to Egyptian dissident poet and activist Abdul Rahman Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who had been sentenced to a decade in prison in the Gulf state, Emirati state media has confirmed.

The pardon, issued Friday, comes less than three months after Qaradawi’s conviction on August 27 by the Cybercrime Circuit of the Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal, which handed down the 10-year custodial sentence alongside a fine of 200,000 Emirati dirhams (equivalent to roughly $54,450).

A dual Egyptian-Turkish national, Qaradawi was first apprehended by Lebanese security officials in January this year, before being extradited to the UAE to face charges of spreading “fake news” and “disturbing public security”. The charges stem from a social media video he recorded during a visit to Syria, in which he publicly criticized the governments of Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Both Cairo and Abu Dhabi submitted formal extradition requests for the activist, and Lebanese authorities ultimately moved to enforce the UAE’s warrant on January 8.

In the more than 200 days that followed his extradition to the UAE, Qaradawi was held in what human rights outlet Middle East Eye described as “forced disappearance”, with no public confirmation of charges or official indictment. The unacknowledged detention sparked fierce international pushback, with leading rights groups and UN experts repeatedly calling for his immediate release.

London-based Amnesty International, one of the most vocal organizations calling for Qaradawi’s freedom, warned early in the case that his extradition represented a “flagrant violation of due process guarantees and other international human rights obligations, notably the principle of non-refoulement”. By March, a coalition of UN independent human rights experts issued a public statement raising alarm over Qaradawi’s ongoing unacknowledged detention, calling on UAE authorities to immediately disclose his location and ensure fair legal process.

The experts also raised pointed concerns over the unusual legal mechanism that enabled the extradition: an arrest warrant issued through the Arab Interior Ministers’ Council (AIMC), a relatively obscure regional security body. The coalition argued the entire process was politically motivated rather than rooted in neutral legal criteria, warning that the AIMC’s cross-border arrest framework “is being abused by some states to silence criticism, shut down dissent, and pursue activists beyond their borders”.

Amnesty International further confirmed that during Qaradawi’s initial detention in Lebanon, he was interrogated over two separate cases: a 2017 in-absentia verdict from an Egyptian court that convicted him of spreading false information in a widely condemned politically motivated case, and the separate extradition request from the UAE. The 2017 verdict added a five-year prison sentence to Qaradawi’s record in Egypt.

Reaction to the news of the pardon has been largely positive among human rights advocates, though many have called for urgent action to complete Qaradawi’s release and allow him to reunite with his family. Samar Elhussieny, executive director of the Egyptian Human Rights Forum, welcomed the pardon in comments to Middle East Eye, urging Emirati officials to speed up final administrative procedures. “I hope the procedures will be finalised as soon as possible for him to be reunited with his family,” Elhussieny said. “Then he can live his life with his daughters in peace and safety, and heal from this traumatic experience.”

Qaradawi, a well-known figure in Arab political and cultural circles, was a prominent public supporter of the 2011 Egyptian revolution that ousted long-time authoritarian president Hosni Mubarak. He also worked on the presidential campaign of former International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohammed el-Baradei, who ran for Egypt’s highest office following Mubarak’s resignation.

In the years after 2011, Qaradawi was banned from publishing work and appearing on media outlets in Egypt, and joined hundreds of other Egyptian dissidents in self-imposed exile in Turkey. His family has also faced repeated pressure from Egyptian authorities: his sister Ola has been arbitrarily detained in Egypt for four years on unsubstantiated terrorism-related charges, widely seen as retaliation for the activist’s work. Qaradawi’s father, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, one of the most prominent and widely published Islamic scholars in the modern Arab world, died in Qatar in 2022.

4 9 月, 2026