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  • Toxic algorithms wouldn’t let them go – now Australia wants an off switch

    Toxic algorithms wouldn’t let them go – now Australia wants an off switch

    For decades, unregulated recommendation algorithms on social media have faced growing backlash over their role in amplifying harmful content that damages user mental health, fuels extremism, and erodes public discourse. Now, Australia is pushing forward with ambitious new legislation that could rewrite the rules of global social media design, giving users the explicit power to opt out of algorithmic feeds entirely and only view content from accounts they choose to follow.

    The story of this reform begins with the personal stories of harm that pushed lawmakers to act. Varsha Yajman, now 24 and recovering from anorexia, first encountered dangerous eating disorder content as a 13-year-old new to social media. Her feed became flooded with endless workout clips promising unachievable body standards, strangers promoting lethal calorie challenges, and public profiles that turned shared hospitalizations for eating disorders into a toxic competition. Every night before bed, she would scroll through daily food diaries posted by strangers, convincing herself she did not need to eat because she could watch others do it instead. Even now, years into recovery and with every safety setting activated and hundreds of harmful keywords blocked, Yajman says weight loss content still appears on her feed on a regular basis.

    Flynn Martin, a Melbourne resident who was pulled out of the misogynistic “manosphere” after a psychotic break and hospitalization, shares a similar experience. Four years ago, at the age of 20, Martin was struggling with bipolar disorder and deep life insecurity when algorithmic recommendations began pushing content from self-described misogynist influencer Andrew Tate and other extremist manosphere figures onto his feed. He quickly became trapped in an echo chamber of radicalizing rhetoric, buying into the idea that society was stacked against men and that the only path forward was to embody an aggressive “alpha male” persona. Like Yajman, Martin acknowledges social media was not the sole cause of his struggles, but says it was a critical accelerating factor that pushed him into a dangerous place he struggled to escape.

    These are not isolated incidents. Research from across the globe has linked algorithmic content curation to a range of harms: studies show social media use triggers brain responses similar to gambling and drug addiction, unsolicited recommended content regularly pushes content that worsens user mental health, and algorithms amplify disinformation and political polarization that can lead to offline violence. Whistleblower testimonies and court documents have repeatedly alleged that big tech companies are fully aware of these harms, but choose to overlook them because algorithmic amplification drives higher user engagement and bigger profits. As consent education activist Chanel Contos, who led the grassroots campaign for reform, explains: “The result is that they promote content that is outrageous or that invokes strong emotions from people – so it might be anger or fear or desire or lust or insecurity, whatever it is, it’s going to keep us scrolling.”

    Contos, who successfully pushed for reform of Australian sexual consent education, launched the “Fix Our Feeds” campaign in 2021 after identifying algorithmic harm as a systemic public issue. Her original proposal called for algorithmic recommendation to be turned off by default, with users required to actively opt in if they wanted personalized feeds, a return to the early 2010s model of social media where feeds only showed content from accounts users chose to follow. More than 15,000 Australians signed her petition, and the campaign earned backing from two former prime ministers, dozens of sitting MPs, mental health advocates, and leading online safety experts. In September, the Australian government announced it would adopt a modified version of Contos’ proposal as part of a broader package of online safety reforms introduced to parliament this week.

    At the core of the new Digital Duty of Care bill is a mandate that would force all major social media platforms to offer users a clear “algorithm switch” that lets them disable recommended content entirely, restricting their feed to posts only from accounts they actively follow. The bill also imposes a broad legal duty of care on all major online services — including social media platforms, gaming sites, and chatbots — requiring them to maintain “as safe as reasonably practicable” online environments for users. Under the law, children must be protected from all harmful material, including content that promotes eating disorders, violence against women, and pornography, while adults must be protected from a narrower set of seriously harmful illegal content. Companies found in breach of the law face maximum fines of up to 100 million Australian dollars, roughly 70 million USD.

    Communications Minister Anika Wells argues the new law shifts responsibility for online safety from harm survivors to the big tech companies that profit from Australian users, filling gaps left by earlier child social media bans. “The digital duty of care answers a lot of the ‘what abouts’ of the social media minimum age law because it’s much broader; it captures all online services and it shifts the onus of responsibility from the shoulders of victims onto the shoulders of the big tech operators who seek to make money off Australian users,” Wells told the BBC.

    Prime Minister Anthony Albanese emphasized that the reform is about putting power in the hands of users, not the government. “This is not about giving government control, it is about giving people control,” Albanese said. “If people want to doom scroll… that’s fine, that’s up to them.”

    The proposed law has faced criticism from multiple sides. Right-wing groups, including the Trump administration, have claimed the bill will encourage over-moderation and censorship of free speech. Supporters of the reform reject this argument, noting that users can still follow any accounts they want and share any views they choose, regardless of whether they opt into algorithmic recommendations. “If adults listen to manosphere podcasts, or people post their views about the government, or make memes, or want to say the moon landing was fake – they can continue to do so without restriction,” Wells said.

    Big tech companies have largely stayed silent on the legislation, with all major firms including Meta, TikTok, X, Google, and Snap declining to comment on the bill to the BBC. Instagram head Adam Mosseri did argue against the change during a recent press briefing in Sydney, claiming that non-algorithmic feeds would reduce the number of posts from friends that users see and rejecting claims that Instagram is addictive — despite a recent U.S. jury ruling that found the platform is designed to be addictive.

    Critics of the policy also point to major questions about enforcement. Australia has already struggled to implement its existing ban on social media for children under a certain age, with surveys showing most underage users who were on social media before the ban still use the platforms, and no fines have ever been issued for breaches. International experience also offers a cautionary tale: after the EU introduced algorithm control requirements in 2023, most platforms implemented the following-only feed option in a deliberately clunky, low-functionality way that discourages use. On Instagram, for example, turning off algorithmic recommendations means users lose access to direct messages and their own profile settings, and the app automatically resets to the algorithmic default every time a user closes and reopens the app. Only in the Netherlands, after a court ruled Meta violated the EU’s Digital Services Act, is a fully functional following-only feed available to users.

    To avoid these pitfalls, the Australian draft legislation explicitly requires that following-only feeds cannot be less functional than algorithmic feeds, that the option to switch algorithms must be obvious and easy for users to find, and that settings cannot be changed without a user’s explicit permission, even if they leave the app.

    Buoyed by the success of her campaign in Australia, Contos is now taking the Fix Our Feeds push global, targeting Canada and the United Kingdom first. If the three aligned jurisdictions all adopt similar rules, Contos says it could create enough regulatory critical mass to drive global change in how social platforms are designed.

    For the people whose stories helped drive the reform, opinions on the policy are mixed. Yajman is skeptical that Australia can actually enforce the rules against powerful big tech companies, but says even having the option is a comfort. “On a bad day I’m still susceptible to all of the things that I was at 17. To know that, if I’m having a bad day, I can opt out makes me feel really good,” she said. Martin argues lawmakers need to be realistic about the limits of the reform, noting that most people use social media for entertainment, and algorithms are designed to keep users engaged. Recent polling bears this out: two-thirds of Australian Gen Z users say they would keep algorithmic recommendations enabled, while nearly half of all Australian adults say they would turn algorithms off entirely.

    As the bill moves through Australia’s parliament, the fate of the reform could set a global precedent for how governments hold big tech accountable for algorithmic harm, and whether users will finally get real control over what they see on the social platforms they use every day.

  • Berlin: Social Democrats and Greens want pro-Israel stance for coalition with The Left

    Berlin: Social Democrats and Greens want pro-Israel stance for coalition with The Left

    Berlin’s post-election coalition building has erupted into a major political standoff, centered on competing positions toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that have thrown plans for a left-led city government into disarray. After the September 20 regional election, the left-wing Die Linke party emerged as the largest bloc in the capital’s parliament, claiming 25.7% of the vote and putting its leading candidate Elif Eralp in position to become Berlin’s next governing mayor. But to form a governing majority, Die Linke must secure a coalition partnership with two larger center-left parties: the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens. Those talks have now ground to a halt over non-negotiable preconditions set by the SPD and Greens that demand Die Linke codify explicit commitments to Israel before any policy discussions can advance.

    The clash was triggered this week when Die Linke moved to admit pro-Palestinian politician Vanessa Emde into its parliamentary caucus, prompting the SPD and Greens to suspend negotiations that had already been paused once earlier in the process. Emde, who won her Neukölln constituency with 46% of the vote, has stood by comments made during her campaign stating, “There is no right to exist for states – people have a right to exist.” On Thursday, she reaffirmed that this position is rooted in core principles of international law, saying she would not retract a single word of her original statement. Green leaders have claimed that excluding Emde from the caucus was a precondition for talks, a claim Die Linke rejects, noting no such requirement was included in the formal written framework of conditions.

    Back in early October, the SPD and Greens forced Die Linke to sign a joint document as a prerequisite for even opening exploratory negotiations. The text declares “Israel’s right to exist” as non-negotiable, rejects broad boycotts of the Israeli state, and formally condemns the 7 October 2023 attacks led by Hamas while acknowledging the widespread suffering, hardship and destruction endured by Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the West Bank. Critically, however, the agreement stops short of affirming the right of a Palestinian state to exist, even as it endorses Palestinian self-determination and a two-state solution. It also does not name Israel as the party inflicting harm on Palestinian civilians, and includes provisions for disciplinary action up to expulsion for any Die Linke member who violates the document’s principles.

    Die Linke is unique among German national political parties for its unflinching criticism of Israeli actions against Palestinians over the past three years. In June of this year, the party formally designated Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as genocide, while its national executive has previously condemned Israeli actions as crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. Regional party branches have also publicly denounced the system of Israeli apartheid in the occupied Palestinian territories. These positions have drawn fierce backlash from establishment political and Jewish groups: Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, has argued that left-wing anti-Zionism is just thinly veiled antisemitism, while Andre Bock, a lawmaker from the federal ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has called on Germany’s domestic intelligence service to place Die Linke under formal surveillance as a suspected extremist organisation.

    But critics of this backlash argue that accusations of antisemitism are being deployed as a political weapon to sideline left-wing opposition to Israeli policy. Wieland Hoban, chair of Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East, framed the attack on Die Linke as an effort to distract from pressing domestic issues facing Berlin residents, including a growing affordable housing crisis and persistent cost-of-living struggles. “There are people who have a vested interest in avoiding a discussion of those actual problems and would rather have ridiculous debates about whether the word ‘intifada’ is antisemitic,” Hoban told Middle East Eye. He added that the goal of the campaign is to force Die Linke onto the defensive, pressuring the party to water down its platform to gain coalition acceptance or collapse negotiations entirely.

    Hoban pushed back on the conflation of criticism of Israel with antisemitism, noting that Emde’s comment about statehood is a widely accepted principle in international law. “No state has a ‘right to exist’. But the political and media establishment insists on this mantra because it’s central to the moral narrative with which Germany justifies its support for Israel and its participation in US-led imperialism,” he explained. Emde has also earned support from within her own party: Jorinde Schulz, Die Linke’s Neukölln district chair, rejected all claims that Emde’s statements qualify as antisemitic, affirming that “We naturally assume that Vedi Emde will be part of the future Left parliamentary group.” More than 120 Die Linke politicians and officials have signed a joint statement criticizing the party’s own negotiators for agreeing to the preconditions set by the SPD and Greens, accusing the two center-left parties of inserting “mechanisms of discipline and division into Die Linke from outside.”

    Hoban drew a clear distinction between antisemitism and legitimate political opposition to Israeli policy: “antisemitism is directed at Jews simply for being Jews, while Israel is a state – an occupying apartheid state that has been committing genocide for three years.” He warned, however, that the ongoing conflation of criticism of Israel with antisemitism carries severe risks: as Israeli atrocities mount, public anger is increasingly being directed at Jewish communities globally, many of whom are incorrectly tarred with collective responsibility for Israeli actions.

  • Algeria bans foreign curricula in private schools and makes Arabic mandatory

    Algeria bans foreign curricula in private schools and makes Arabic mandatory

    Algeria has taken a landmark step in its decades-long push to decolonize and indigenize its national education system, with a sweeping new regulation that ends all foreign curriculum instruction at privately operated educational institutions across the country.

    Officially labeled Decree 26-310, the new policy enforces far stricter regulatory frameworks for the accreditation, daily operation, and government oversight of all private schools operating within Algerian borders. Its most transformative provision is a complete ban on the delivery of foreign-developed curricula, a move that directly targets the French education programs that have operated informally at dozens of Algerian private establishments for decades.

    Under the updated rules, Arabic is now mandatory as the language of instruction for every core subject, with the only exception being dedicated foreign language classes. All private schools are required to use only state-endorsed Algerian textbooks, and their students must exclusively prepare for national Algerian government examinations, rather than international or foreign credentialing tests. The decree also adds a new requirement that any partnership or cooperation agreement between a local private institution and a foreign educational entity must receive explicit, prior written approval from Algeria’s minister of education to move forward.

    Private schools have been granted a three-year transition period to bring their operations into full compliance with the new regulation. Institutions that fail to meet the requirements by the end of this window will face escalating penalties, up to and including permanent closure.

    This tightening of state oversight over private education forms part of a broader national strategy to reassert Algeria’s linguistic sovereignty and roll back the lingering cultural and educational influence of France, a legacy of 132 years of French colonial rule. France occupied Algeria from 1830 until 1962, when the North African nation gained independence following a brutal eight-year war of independence that claimed an estimated 1 million Algerian lives. During the colonial era, native Algerian Muslims faced systemic discriminatory policies under French administration, which framed Algeria as an official extension of metropolitan France and encouraged large-scale European settlement.

    Algerian authorities have been gradually tightening rules around foreign curricula since 2021, when education inspectors began conducting unannounced spot checks at private schools to crack down on institutions that prioritized or even taught exclusively the French curriculum. In 2023, all Algerian schools connected to the French Agency for French Education Abroad (AEFE) were ordered to cut ties with the AEFE labeling network, under threat of immediate closure and legal action.

    The new curriculum ban also aligns with a broader national linguistic shift underway in Algeria. Just one month before the decree was announced, the government formalized a policy that makes English the primary foreign language taught to all public and private school students starting in third grade, a change implemented three years after it was first rolled out to primary school classrooms.

    Debate over the role of French in Algeria’s education system has grown increasingly heated in recent years, amplified by escalating diplomatic tensions between the Algiers and Paris governments. Critics of the ban have raised urgent concerns about the disruption it will cause for students and families. Thousands of middle-class Algerian households have long relied on French curriculum programs as a pathway to access higher education at French universities, a route that is now thrown into uncertainty. Many educators report that students who have completed nearly all of their schooling through French instruction are already struggling to adapt to the Arabic-language Algerian national syllabus.

    Other opponents of the policy argue that the government has moved too quickly to implement the ban, arguing that the national education system lacks the infrastructure and resources to support a full transition away from foreign programs. They claim the policy is driven more by political goals to formally break with colonial-era influence than by a carefully planned, coherent education strategy designed to support student success.

  • Israeli guards ‘crushed’ Palestinian prisoner’s testicle with rubber bullet

    Israeli guards ‘crushed’ Palestinian prisoner’s testicle with rubber bullet

    Two leading Israeli human rights organizations have issued a damning new report documenting what they call a widespread, dangerous pattern of abuse: Israeli prison guards firing rubber-coated bullets at Palestinian detainees from close range inside correctional facilities, leaving many with serious, potentially permanent injuries.

    Physicians for Human Rights Israel and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel announced their findings Thursday, after collecting 21 firsthand testimonies from detainees who experienced or witnessed the attacks. The groups confirmed that the vast majority of these documented incidents took place within the last 12 months.

    One of the most severe cases involves a 45-year-old Palestinian prisoner who was transferred to Israel’s Soroka Medical Center in June following what official medical records labeled a “riot and rubber bullet shooting incident.” According to the testimonies, the man’s right testicle was completely crushed by the impact of the bullet, requiring full surgical removal. Prior to the shooting, the prisoner told attorneys that guards had already kicked him directly in the groin during a cell search one week earlier. He recalled that members of the Metzada Unit — the Israeli Prison Service’s specialized operational intervention team — fired what he described as “rubber bullets that looked like marbles” directly into his cell, striking him twice: once in the groin and once behind the knee.

    A second incident, recorded at Israel’s Ktziot Prison in July, left another detainee with a fractured tibia that required invasive surgical intervention. A third former Palestinian prisoner, who recently spoke with *Haaretz* following his release, described a chaotic mass detention incident where he and roughly 40 other detainees were ordered into a single cell, told to kneel facing the wall with their hands placed on their heads. “My back was to the door, and suddenly I heard a gunshot and felt pain in my left leg. At the same time, I heard prisoners screaming in pain,” he told the outlet. He estimated the shot was fired from no more than two meters away. “Right after that, they handcuffed us from behind and dragged us in a humiliating way, one by one, to the courtyard of the prison wing. There they threw us onto our stomachs, even though there were injured people bleeding.”

    Physicians for Human Rights Israel warned that firing rubber-coated bullets inside confined, crowded prison spaces drastically elevates the risk of life-altering harm, due to ricocheting bullets and flying fragments from the projectiles. The organization emphasized that the practice is not merely an isolated series of violent acts, but a sign of a worrying systemic shift in how Israeli prison authorities frame their role interacting with detainees.

    “Firing at prisoners at close range inside confined cells is not only a severe act of violence but also reflects a dangerous structural shift in how prison officers perceive their role,” the group said in its official statement. It noted that for a number of years, the Israeli Prison Service has recruited new officers under the formal title of “incarceration combatants” — terminology that the rights groups argue further militarizes the country’s prison system and encourages guards to view Palestinian detainees as enemy combatants on a battlefield, rather than incarcerated people in custody. This ideological shift, the groups add, comes against the backdrop of what they describe as the Israeli state’s “declared war on Palestinian prisoners,” which has lowered the threshold for excessive use of force and framed detainees’ lives as disposable.

    In a separate, related development released Friday, newly published data shows that Israeli prison authorities placed 351 Palestinian children in solitary confinement at least one time during 2025. The tally includes five boys between the ages of 13 and 14. The data was obtained via a freedom of information request filed by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel and advocacy group Parents Against Child Detention. Per *Haaretz*, children held in solitary are typically kept isolated for seven consecutive days, with some detained alone for up to two full weeks.

  • Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs moved to low-security facility in Pennsylvania

    Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs moved to low-security facility in Pennsylvania

    The U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons has confirmed that disgraced former hip-hop entertainment mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs has completed a transfer between federal correctional facilities, moving from a New Jersey prison to a low-security institution in rural Pennsylvania. The move, carried out on Friday, placed the 56-year-old music industry figure at FCI Allenwood Low, a facility designed exclusively for male offenders that sits roughly 155 miles west of New York City. Prison officials have declined to share details behind the transfer, citing long-standing policies that protect inmate privacy, safety and institutional security. A spokesperson for Combs emphasized that the transfer between two low-security facilities is a key detail to note, adding that the move aligns with administrative decisions centered on upholding safety and security standards across the federal prison system. Combs was convicted in 2025 on two felony counts of transportation to engage in prostitution following a high-profile public trial in New York, where federal prosecutors accused him of leveraging his wealth, celebrity influence and threats of violence to coerce multiple women into non-consensual sexual encounters. During the trial, two of Combs’ former romantic partners testified that he physically and sexually abused them, and forced them to participate in unwanted sexual encounters with third-party male escorts. A jury ultimately acquitted Combs of the more severe charges of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy, and he was sentenced to 50 months, or just over four years, in federal prison that October. Shortly after sentencing, Combs was moved to FCI Fort Dix in New Jersey, a large facility that holds more than 4,200 inmates across its two campuses, where he served his sentence until Friday’s transfer. In contrast, FCI Allenwood Low has a far smaller incarcerated population, holding approximately 1,044 inmates as listed on the facility’s official website. Medium and maximum-security facilities operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons are located adjacent to the low-security Allenwood campus. Since entering prison, Combs has appealed his conviction and sentence to a federal appeals court, asking the court to reverse the guilty verdict and order his immediate release from custody. Oral arguments in the appeal were heard this past April, but the court has not yet released a ruling on the case. As of current prison online records, Combs is scheduled for release from federal custody on March 2, 2028. The transfer comes amid unconfirmed circulating reports from media outlets, including an Associated Press account that claimed Combs enjoyed unusual, luxury accommodations during his time at the Fort Dix facility, as well as tabloid speculation surrounding Combs’ health and treatment in custody. Combs’ spokesperson Juda S. Engelmayer declined to comment on any of these unconfirmed reports, but stated that the defense team appreciates the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ commitment to prioritizing the safety and well-being of both Combs and all other people involved in facility operations. “We are grateful for the attention being given to his well-being and hope he can continue serving his time without unnecessary disruption,” Engelmayer said. Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesperson Donald Murphy reaffirmed the agency’s policy of not commenting on the specific conditions of confinement for any individual incarcerated person, regardless of their public profile. “For privacy, safety, and security reasons, we do not comment on the conditions of confinement for any incarcerated individual, including whether a particular individual is the subject of allegations, investigations, or disciplinary sanctions,” Murphy stated.

  • ‘Bibi’s Department’: NAZA shows how Israel used affairs and gay relationships to blackmail Palestinians

    ‘Bibi’s Department’: NAZA shows how Israel used affairs and gay relationships to blackmail Palestinians

    A bombshell new documentary produced in collaboration with The Guardian has pulled back the curtain on a covert Israeli intelligence operation targeting Palestinian survivors of conflict-related atrocities, revealing how the unit gathered compromising personal information to derail war crime petitions submitted to international legal bodies. Directed by filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, *NAZA* – whose title draws from a Hebrew military acronym for “collateral damage” – is currently screening in cinemas across the United Kingdom and United States, with planned screenings scheduled in more than 50 additional countries around the globe.

    The core of the film draws from anonymous on-camera interviews with 24 retired and current Israeli soldiers and intelligence operatives, who detail widespread practices that have resulted in the deaths of innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza. One of the most explosive revelations centers on a secretive special unit directly answering to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, referred to by insiders as “Bibi’s Department.” Netanyahu is currently the subject of an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant over allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity, a legal proceeding the unit was specifically designed to undermine.

    In their on-camera testimonies, operatives describe how the unit framed Palestinian survivors of war crimes in Gaza as national security threats, justifying broad invasive surveillance campaigns against these individuals and anyone connected to their legal efforts. “The more war crimes we committed, the more pressure there was” on the global diplomatic stage, one senior intelligence officer recalled in the interview. This growing international scrutiny created the problem that “Bibi’s Department” was created to solve, the operatives confirmed.

    According to interviewees, the unit’s core strategy was to disrupt and block legal petitions Palestinian survivors brought to the ICC, based in The Hague. To force survivors to abandon their legal claims, operatives used compromising personal information collected through surveillance, most notably private details about extramarital romantic relationships and same-sex partnerships, to pressure and blackmail witnesses. One intelligence officer confirmed that multiple ICC cases were ultimately withdrawn as a direct result of this pressure campaign. Any contact between Palestinian claimants and international legal officials was automatically flagged as a threat to Israeli interests, operatives added, with all collected intelligence funneled directly to the Prime Minister’s office. One interviewee also confirmed that the unit’s work aligned with Netanyahu’s long-stated overarching goal: preventing the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

    The documentary also reveals lax rules of engagement that permitted the deaths of as many as 20 civilian bystanders for every targeted individual. In one stunning account, an operative recalled that a military target was approved even though intelligence projected it would lead to 500 Palestinian civilian casualties – a claim the Israeli army has publicly denied.

    To protect the identities of the whistleblowers, all interviews were conducted after dark on concealed Tel Aviv rooftops, with the speakers’ faces hidden throughout filming. The revelations have triggered furious pushback from the Israeli government: earlier this week, Netanyahu ordered Israel’s attorney general and the head of Shin Bet, the country’s internal security service, to uncover the interviewees’ identities and pursue criminal prosecution, claiming their disclosures have caused severe damage to Israel’s diplomatic and national security interests. Israeli officials have also threatened to strip both directors of their Israeli citizenship over the film.

    Despite the government’s aggressive crackdown, the documentary earned international acclaim before its wide theatrical release. Last month at the Venice International Film Festival, *NAZA* took home the Special Jury Prize following the longest standing ovation in the festival’s history.

    The tactics exposed in the film align with a long-documented pattern of Israeli efforts to undermine the work of the ICC. Middle East Eye, which provided additional reporting on the documentary’s claims, has previously published extensive investigations into an Israeli lobbying campaign aimed at removing ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan from office. Earlier this month, the United States also implemented formal sanctions against the ICC itself over its investigations into Israeli actions in Palestinian territories.

  • Spanish-built combat vehicles for Latvia to carry Israeli turrets despite arms embargo

    Spanish-built combat vehicles for Latvia to carry Israeli turrets despite arms embargo

    A surprising contradiction in Spanish policy has emerged this week, with Israeli business outlet *Globes* revealing that a Spanish-headquartered arms manufacturer has begun shipping infantry fighting vehicles fitted with Israeli-made weapons systems to Latvia – 12 months after the Spanish government implemented a full arms embargo against Israel over its military campaign in Gaza.

    The €800 million ($929 million) contract, which Latvia signed with General Dynamics European Land Systems-Santa Barbara Sistemas (GDELS-SBS) in 2025, calls for 84 custom-built Mednieks infantry fighting vehicles to be delivered by 2029. What makes the shipment controversial is that each vehicle is fitted with the UT30 MK2 unmanned turret system, produced by major Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems. The contract also reserves at least 30 percent of manufacturing work for Latvian domestic industries, and the vehicles have been designed specifically for interoperability with NATO alliance equipment, per GDELS-SBS’s official specifications.

    Latvian Defense Minister Raivis Melnis welcomed the first deliveries last week, framing the new vehicles as a critical boost for his country’s national defense. “The arrival of these Mednieks fighting vehicles is a major milestone in strengthening Latvia’s defense capabilities,” Melnis said. “They will reinforce our national armed forces and deepen military cooperation between our military and our NATO allies.”

    The controversy stems from Spain’s formal arms embargo against Israel, implemented by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s center-left government in 2025 in response to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. The embargo, which passed into law through the Spanish parliament, bans all imports and exports of military equipment, technology, and dual-use materials between the two countries, and the Spanish government already terminated three major Israeli arms contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars shortly after the embargo was announced. Yet the current shipment exposes a loophole: GDELS-SBS, originally a Spanish state-owned arms firm, was privatized and acquired by U.S. defense giant General Dynamics in the early 2000s, placing it outside direct government control over existing contracts.

    This is not the first time the Sanchez administration has faced criticism over inconsistent enforcement of its Israeli arms ban. Early in 2026, the government came under fire for considering a military procurement from a firm partially owned by another major Israeli defense manufacturer, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. Spanish defense officials have pushed back against criticism, saying they are working toward full “zero technological dependence” on Israel, with Defense Secretary of State Amparo Valcarce confirming in February that the country is systematically phasing out all remaining Israeli components from its domestic military supply chains.

    For Israeli defense contractors, the deal marks another milestone in a period of unprecedented commercial growth. Since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, Israeli arms firms have reported record revenues: Elbit Systems alone generated $7.9 billion in revenue in 2025, and posted a backlog of $32 billion in outstanding orders by the second quarter of 2026. Elbit president and CEO Bezhalel Machlis called the performance excellent, noting that strong demand for the company’s systems had sustained consistent growth through the first half of the year. The contract for the Latvian vehicle turrets was announced in April 2025, when Elbit secured a $100 million deal to supply the systems to GDELS-SBS for a NATO member country’s armored vehicle program. “This collaboration delivers advanced turret solutions that boost firepower, protection, and operational effectiveness for end users,” Yehuda Vered, general manager of Elbit Systems Land, said at the time.

    Beyond the commercial and policy implications, the deal also underscores shifting defense ties in the Baltic region. While diplomatic relations between Spain and Israel remain strained over the Gaza conflict, Latvia has moved to deepen its own defense cooperation with Israel: Melnis traveled to Israel in September 2026 to meet his Israeli counterpart, Defense Minister Israel Katz, with the Israeli defense ministry confirming the discussions focused on expanding bilateral military collaboration. Analysts quoted in *Globes* note that General Dynamics’ established position across European defense markets creates a reliable channel for Israeli defense components and technology to access the continent, supported by close U.S.-Israeli security ties.

    Gaza’s health ministry reports that more than 74,000 Palestinians, the majority of them women, children, and elderly people, have been killed in Israeli military operations in the strip since October 2023, with more than 175,000 others wounded. The 2024 University of Navarra analysis of Spanish arms trade found that despite repeated government pledges to suspend all military trade with Israel after October 2023, Spanish authorities awarded hundreds of millions of euros in new contracts to Israeli firms or their Spanish subsidiaries in the weeks following the start of the war, including a €697 million rocket launcher deal with an Elbit-led consortium and a €287 million anti-tank missile contract with a Rafael subsidiary.

  • Inside Ukrainian offensive pushing Russia back on front line where Starlink plays a key role

    Inside Ukrainian offensive pushing Russia back on front line where Starlink plays a key role

    Embedded with Ukrainian frontline units near Donbas, a BBC crew has pulled back the curtain on Operation Vivaldi, Kyiv’s months-long counter-offensive that has carved out significant territorial gains against Russian forces even as new geopolitical and technological risks threaten its momentum.\n\nThe on-the-ground reporting opens inside a Ukrainian command bunker, where commanders monitor the battlefield via real-time drone footage. When a Russian reconnaissance drone drifts into view over open ground, where a platoon of exhausted soldiers is rotating off the line after three months of combat, a commander immediately scrambles a interceptor drone to take it down, alerting the exposed troops to the incoming threat. This split-second interaction is a microcosm of the high-stakes, technology-driven conflict that defines today’s front lines in eastern Ukraine.\n\nNamed for Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Operation Vivaldi is structured in four sequential phases of assault. Since its launch, Ukrainian military officials confirm the offensive has retaken 277 square kilometers of occupied territory in the eastern Donbas region, successfully blunting a planned Russian pincer movement that aimed to encircle key Ukrainian-held “Fortress Belt” cities. Kyiv reports staggering Russian losses from the operation alone: roughly 8,000 Russian casualties, with nearly 50,000 total Russian casualties across the entire eastern front in September. Ukrainian casualties, by contrast, have been far lighter, military officials say. Even pro-Russian military bloggers have privately acknowledged Kyiv’s advances, according to the U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War, warning that the gains could open the door to further Russian collapses. Russian officials have not publicly confirmed the Ukrainian advances, only stating that their forces are \”repelling attacks\” near Lyman and \”tactically repositioning\” along the front.\n\nWhat sets Operation Vivaldi apart from earlier assaults is its heavy integration of unmanned systems and digital connectivity. Every layer of the operation relies on this new technology: reconnaissance drones spot enemy positions, attack drones neutralize enemy spotters before they can call in artillery, and even unmanned ground vehicles handle supply runs, casualty evacuation, and lead frontal assaults. At the heart of this digital network is Starshield, the military variant of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite broadband system, which keeps frontline units connected when traditional ground infrastructure has been destroyed. But just as the operation wrapped its main phases this week, Kyiv revealed that unannounced restrictions had been placed on Starlink access, a sudden change that has limited the military’s drone and communication capabilities. Multiple reports suggest the restrictions were ordered by the White House, a move that has sparked deep unease in Kyiv: while Starlink is not Ukraine’s only connectivity option, it remains a critical tool for the operation of interceptor and mid-range strike drones.\n\nEven with the uncertainty over Starlink, Ukrainian soldiers and commanders say the offensive has been a strategic success that paves the way for future advances. Over three months of fighting, the operation has forced 250 Russian soldiers to surrender and liberated 16 settlements from 12 months of occupation. In one retaken village, Karpivka, which had been under Russian control since April, reporters found just one remaining resident: 61-year-old Volodymyr Zamota, who survived eight months of total isolation after all his neighbors fled the invasion. The village is almost entirely destroyed, and Zamota says he never expected to witness such devastation in his lifetime. Still, he holds out hope for a Ukrainian victory, saying only \”I wish I knew when it will all end.\”\n\nFor Ukrainian commanders, the real victory goes beyond the territory retaken. \”The real value of this is securing advantageous positions, favourable lines, and a bridgehead that grants us a superior position,\” explained Andriy Hitt, chief of staff for the Revenge Brigade, which led elements of the offensive. \”This allows us to create the necessary conditions for subsequent successful operations, seize the initiative in battle, and plan future successful manoeuvres… each of these actions is a building block towards victory.\”\n\nThe progress of Operation Vivaldi comes as Russia has shifted its strategy to pummel Ukrainian civilian energy infrastructure across the country with mass missile and drone strikes, killing dozens of civilians in recent weeks and leaving millions without power. Even with these territorial gains, Russian drones remain a constant threat on the Donbas front: Commandant Phoenix, leader of the Revenge Brigade’s Silver Trinity unit, says his forces face an average of 10 Russian drone incursions every day. Still, after months of preparation that included full restructuring of units trained for defensive operations to adapt to offensive combat, morale among frontline troops remains high. Infantryman \”Dealer,\” who rotated off the line after 95 days of combat, says the operation has reinforced his belief that Ukraine can win the war.\n\nDespite the military momentum, growing diplomatic rifts between Kyiv and Washington threaten to undermine future progress. Relations between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and former U.S. President and current leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump have hit a new low, with Zelensky saying he feels \”betrayed\” by Trump’s recent comments, while Trump has declared he is \”not a fan\” of Zelensky and claimed the Ukrainian leader is harder to work with than Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump has blamed Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries for rising global energy prices, a claim Ukraine rejects, arguing that U.S. and Israeli military action against Iran is the actual cause of price hikes. Even so, for troops on the ground and the few remaining civilians in retaken territory, the success of Operation Vivaldi offers a rare moment of hope amid a grinding, brutal war.

  • Man sentenced to 10 years for manslaughter of brother’s girlfriend

    Man sentenced to 10 years for manslaughter of brother’s girlfriend

    A shocking fatal violence case in County Cork, Republic of Ireland, has concluded with a definitive sentencing decision from the Central Criminal Court. In January 2025, 31-year-old Paula Canty, a mother of two young children, lost her life after sustaining a single deep stab wound to the chest during an altercation at her home in Mallow. The perpetrator, 43-year-old Joseph Butler — brother of Canty’s boyfriend — has been handed a 12-year prison term, with the final two years suspended contingent on future good behavior.

    Court documents outline the sequence of events that led to the tragedy. On the night of January 2, 2025, Canty hosted a casual social gathering at her apartment, where she drank alongside her boyfriend, Butler, and another guest. Tensions soon flared between Butler and Canty, escalating into a full argument that ended in unthinkable violence. Butler retrieved a kitchen knife from the home, plunged it 11.5 centimeters deep into Canty’s chest, and left her bleeding to death alone in the apartment before discarding the weapon in a nearby laneway.

    Butler was initially indicted on a charge of murder and entered a plea of not guilty, but later reversed his position to plead guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter. In statements to Irish national police (gardaí), Butler claimed the stabbing was an accidental incident, asserting that Canty was “family” and that she appeared unharmed when he left the property. However, presiding judge Ms Justice Eileen Creedon rejected this version of events outright, noting that multiple forensic investigations contradicted Butler’s inconsistent accounts.

    “The accused’s versions of events were inconsistent with the post-mortem and the blood spatter analysis by forensic scientists,” Creedon said in her ruling. “The blood pooling indicates that the deceased bled heavily at that location. Paula Canty was a vulnerable person, and was much smaller and physically weaker than Joseph Butler. It is not credible that she posed a danger to him that required him to plunge a knife 11.5 centimetres into her chest. He left the apartment and there was no call to the emergency services. This demonstrates a callousness.”

    The court also heard context about Butler’s personal history during sentencing proceedings. His defense counsel, Ray Boland, argued that Butler had faced extensive lifelong hardship, including growing up in a household marked by violence and substance abuse, and that the defendant expressed genuine remorse for his actions. Creedon acknowledged these mitigating factors alongside Butler’s guilty plea and formal apology, reducing the original 14-year recommended sentence by two years. She also noted that Butler’s prior criminal record included a pattern of violent offending, which informed the court’s final decision.

    In raw, emotional victim impact statements submitted to the court, Canty’s family detailed the irreversible harm her death has inflicted on their lives. Her mother, Sinéad, described losing her firstborn child as “gut-wrenching,” saying the tragedy has damaged her physical, mental and emotional well-being. “My heart breaks, but I will never receive just one phone call from her again,” she wrote. Canty’s younger brother Darragh called her death “brutal,” saying it has shattered their family permanently. Her younger sister Rianna echoed that grief, saying, “There have been so many moments where I wanted to call her to talk to her or share something with me only to remember she was no longer there.”

  • Pope pictured for first time since surgery and cancer diagnosis

    Pope pictured for first time since surgery and cancer diagnosis

    Nearly three days after undergoing a successful lung cancer surgery at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, the first official images of Pope Leo XIV have been released by the Vatican, offering the public a first look at the 71-year-old pontiff following his procedure. In the photographs shared Friday, the Chicago-born Pope is seen standing behind a temporary altar on the hospital’s 10th floor, clad in a green liturgical robe, as he celebrated Mass alongside the facility’s medical and nursing teams.

    During the service, the pontiff personally thanked the hospital staff for their dedicated care throughout his treatment, the Vatican press office confirmed in an official statement. Clinical updates from his medical team released the same day indicate the Pope’s recovery is progressing far better than initial projections. Testing has documented consistent, steady improvement in his overall health, and follow-up chest X-rays confirm the operated lung is healing well.

    The radical surgery, performed Tuesday afternoon, removed the entire lower lobe of Pope Leo XIV’s right lung — a step clinicians took to ensure all cancerous tissue was fully extracted. Per the Vatican’s initial post-operative updates, the pontiff woke from anesthesia without complications, spent a restful, peaceful night in his hospital room after a short observation period, and has not experienced any adverse events in the days since the procedure.

    Weeks before the operation, during his weekly Sunday address to crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Leo XIV publicly announced his upcoming surgery. He told attendees that clinicians had detected an early-stage, well-contained nodule on his lung during routine testing, and medical providers had recommended surgical removal as the best course of care. While lung nodules are extremely common and often non-cancerous, post-operative pathological analysis confirmed the nodule was malignant, matching findings from pre-operative diagnostic testing. The pontiff received a formal diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma. Notably, the Vatican has emphasized that Pope Leo XIV showed no symptoms of lung disease or cancer before the nodule was identified during screening.

    Per current recovery projections, the pontiff will remain under observation and care at Gemelli Hospital for approximately one more week to continue his recovery before any plans for discharge are finalized.