Global Pulse

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  • Ryan Fox wins the British Open with birdie on the final hole

    Ryan Fox wins the British Open with birdie on the final hole

    On a sun-battered, tension-filled Sunday at Royal Birkdale in Southport, England, 39-year-old New Zealand golfer Ryan Fox etched his name into golf history, surviving a chaotic back-nine rollercoaster to sink a career-defining 12-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole and claim his first-ever major championship at the British Open.

    The final round was defined by shifting momentum, with five different golfers holding a share of the lead at various stages. American contender Cameron Young sat atop the leaderboard for nearly two full hours without hitting a single stroke, having carded a blistering 6-under 64 in his morning round more than 120 minutes before the final groups teed off the back nine.

    Fox, the son of a former All Blacks rugby player, refused to let a late pair of bogeys derail his bid for the Claret Jug. He pulled even with Young at the top of the leaderboard with a birdie on the par-4 16th, then delivered a stunning closing birdie on Royal Birkdale’s toughest finishing hole to secure victory. The win made him just the third golfer from New Zealand to claim a major men’s championship.

    Finishing the round at 2-under par for a 68, Fox threw his powerful arms into the air in elation immediately after the ball dropped into the cup. Within moments, he was on a call with his family back home, telling them with a shaky, excited voice: “You asked me to bring a trophy home, and I am, aren’t I?” His name will now be added to the base of the iconic silver Claret Jug, joining New Zealand golf legend Bob Charles, who won the event at Royal Lytham & St Annes in 1963.

    For Young, the dramatic finish added another chapter of near-misses in major championship play. The American already finished one stroke shy of victory at the 2022 British Open at St Andrews, and he held a third-round lead at the Masters Tournament before Rory McIlroy overtook him on Sunday.

    Fifth-ranked Sam Burns, the 54-hole leader entering the final round, saw his chances fade over the closing holes. Burns had only planned to compete in the 2025 Open after his wife gave birth to the couple’s first daughter earlier than expected, forcing him to rearrange his tournament schedule at the last minute. He held a two-shot lead heading into the back nine but failed to record a single birdie over his final 12 holes, ultimately finishing two strokes off Fox’s winning pace.

    Defending champion Scottie Scheffler stayed in contention through most of the day, but two costly bad bounces sapped his momentum. A late lucky break gave him an unlikely birdie to stay in the hunt, but he failed to convert a birdie opportunity on the 18th, closing with a 67 to tie for fourth. He shared that spot with local favorite Tommy Fleetwood, the Southport-born golfer who fell back early in the round but sent the thousands of fans lining Royal Birkdale’s dunes into a frenzy with back-to-back closing birdies for a 68.

    In a surprising turn of events, fan-favorite contender Bryson DeChambeau was largely absent from the final-round drama. After losing his tee shot on the 11th hole, he carded a triple bogey that knocked him far down the leaderboard, and he did not record a birdie until he was well out of contention. A two-shot penalty assessed to him on Friday for improving his swing path never ended up impacting the final outcome, as he shot a 1-over 72 to tie for 14th place.

    Sunday’s victory marks Fox’s 10th career win across global professional golf tours. Prior to this major triumph, his most prestigious title came at the 2023 BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. At 39 years old, Fox is the oldest golfer to win his first major championship since Henrik Stenson won the 2016 British Open at Royal Troon at age 40.

  • England win toss, bat in series-deciding 3rd ODI against India at Lord’s

    England win toss, bat in series-deciding 3rd ODI against India at Lord’s

    One of the most anticipated men’s One Day International series of the northern summer has reached its decisive final chapter, with England winning the pre-match coin toss and choosing to take the batting crease first in the third and final ODI against India at London’s iconic Lord’s Cricket Ground on Sunday.

    The five-match? No, three-match series has already delivered plenty of drama, splitting the two sides one win apiece ahead of Sunday’s decider. England fell to defeat in the opening fixture at Birmingham’s Edgbaston, but mounted a crucial comeback in the second match in Cardiff, where veteran batsman Joe Root’s unbeaten knock of 99 runs proved the decisive difference between the two sides, securing England’s equalizing win.

    For England, this match also carries the weight of historical pressure: the home side has not claimed a series victory over India in ODI play since 2018, giving Sunday’s decider far more stakes than just a single match result.

    Both sides made key tactical changes to their starting lineups ahead of the opening innings. England made one swap, calling up pace bowler Josh Tongue to replace Saqib Mahmood in the 11-man squad. India opted for a more extensive reshuffle, making three total changes to their side: KL Rahul, rookie spinner Prince Yadav, and left-arm pace bowler Arshdeep Singh earned starting spots, stepping in for pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, all-rounder Washington Sundar and batting all-rounder Shivam Dube.

    The full confirmed starting lineups for the decider are as follows:
    England: Ben Duckett, Jacob Bethell, Joe Root, Harry Brook (captain), Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Gus Atkinson, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Josh Tongue
    India: Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill (captain), Virat Kohli, Ishan Kishan, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, Axar Patel, Gurnoor Brar, Prince Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Prasidh Krishna

  • Former China Development Bank president is under anti-corruption probe

    Former China Development Bank president is under anti-corruption probe

    BEIJING – China’s top anti-corruption oversight body revealed Sunday that Ouyang Weimin, the former president of the state-owned China Development Bank, is facing formal investigation over allegations of severe violations of Communist Party of China discipline and national law. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) released a brief initial statement confirming the probe, which is being carried out jointly by the CCDI and the National Commission of Supervision, with no further details on the specific allegations disclosed in the initial announcement.

    State-run publication China Daily has shared key biographical details of Ouyang’s decades-long career in public finance and government. Ouyang entered the workforce and joined the Communist Party of China in 1986, with the majority of his early professional tenure spent at the People’s Bank of China, China’s central monetary authority. He later went on to serve as vice-governor of Guangdong Province, China’s dynamic southern economic hub bordering Hong Kong, before being appointed president and deputy Communist Party secretary of the China Development Bank in 2019. He retired from the presidency of the bank in 2023.

    Established in 1994, the China Development Bank is a fully state-owned development finance institution operating under the direct supervision of China’s State Council. Per its official public mandate, the bank focuses on financing projects that support national economic growth, strategic development of key industries, and expansion of infrastructure and services in less developed regions of the country.

    Ouyang’s investigation comes amid a years-long national anti-corruption campaign launched under Chinese President Xi Jinping, which has targeted thousands of current and former officials across all levels of government, state-owned enterprises, and the People’s Liberation Army, including high-ranking generals and senior political leaders. While the campaign frames itself as a crackdown on systemic graft, external critics have argued that it also functions in part as a mechanism to remove political opponents of President Xi from positions of power.

  • Chinese company demands compensation from the UK over British Steel nationalization

    Chinese company demands compensation from the UK over British Steel nationalization

    In a formal statement released Sunday, China’s Jingye Group, the former owner of British Steel, has launched a formal challenge against the United Kingdom government, demanding financial compensation for billions in investment losses one week after the U.K. seized the historic steel manufacturer into public ownership. The dispute has escalated into a bilateral diplomatic flashpoint that risks shaking confidence in the U.K.’s reputation among global cross-border investors.

    The sequence of events that led to nationalization began in 2020, when Jingye purchased struggling British Steel out of insolvency, an acquisition the Chinese firm frames as pulling the iconic industrial brand back from the brink of collapse. Tensions flared last year, however, after Jingye warned it was considering shutting down the blast furnaces at British Steel’s Scunthorpe facility—currently the last remaining site in the U.K. that produces virgin steel from raw iron ore and other primary inputs. The British government responded by assuming full operational control of the company, a move formalized by the Department for Business and Trade on July 17. Officials framed the nationalization as a necessary step to protect 2,700 local jobs at the 130-year-old plant, which traces its industrial roots to the U.K.’s Industrial Revolution when British innovations revolutionized global steelmaking. The government added that maintaining domestic steel production is critical for national security, ensuring a steady supply of material for large public construction projects and the country’s defense sector.

    In its statement posted to China’s WeChat social platform, Jingye Group launched a scathing critique of the U.K.’s actions. The company accused the British government of offering “almost zero compensation” for its asset seizure, despite years of sustained investment and major contributions from Jingye to the British steel sector. The nationalization, the firm claimed, has damaged the British government’s global credibility, sown uncertainty among international investors, and caused severe financial harm to both Jingye’s operations and public funds held by British taxpayers. It further called on the U.K. to end its “trampling on international investment rules.”

    Jingye confirmed it has already activated negotiation procedures under the China-U.K. bilateral investment treaty, and has reserved all legal rights, including the option to pursue binding international arbitration. The firm also says it will advocate on behalf of British taxpayers to pursue legal action against both the U.K. government and former British Steel management, though it did not release further details on its planned legal strategy. A spokesperson for the U.K. government noted last week that an independent assessment will be conducted to evaluate if any compensation is owed to Jingye, with no figure or timeline publicly confirmed to date.

    The dispute drew a formal response from China’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday, which warned that how the U.K. resolves the compensation issue will directly shape how Chinese investors evaluate the British investment environment and the reliability of government commitments there. “China urges the UK to earnestly respect market principles and the spirit of contract, and find solutions on compensation and other issues acceptable to both sides,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that Beijing fully supports Chinese companies in defending their legitimate legal rights through formal legal channels.

  • A centuries-old festival in Japan brings Shinto traditions and towering floats to the streets

    A centuries-old festival in Japan brings Shinto traditions and towering floats to the streets

    In the heart of Kyoto, Japan’s former imperial capital, a 1,000-year-old tradition draws thousands of visitors each July, blending ancient spiritual belief, centuries of religious evolution, and tight-knit community bonding. This is the Gion Matsuri, a festival born from a desperate plea to ward off deadly disease that endures today as one of the country’s most iconic cultural events.

    For participants like Katsushi Horikawa, who rides atop one of the procession’s towering, hand-built floats, the experience is inherently sacred. The 12-ton wooden structures, pulled through Kyoto’s crowded streets by teams of organizers, create an unmatched feeling of closeness to the divine. “I am conscious of [the gods] when I’m riding on top,” Horikawa says. “When we’re assembling it as well, but I think the main time is when I’m riding on it.”

    Many casual visitors see the Gion Matsuri as a vibrant public celebration, filled with traditional dance, folk music, and street performances. But religious scholars emphasize the festival’s core purpose remains deeply spiritual, not recreational. “Those performances are not meant primarily for the entertainment of people,” explains Fabio Rambelli, a religious studies professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “They are offerings to the gods.”

    Rooted in the late 9th century, the festival originated as a Shinto ritual to appease supernatural spirits believed to cause devastating epidemics. It takes its name from Kyoto’s historic Gion District, with “matsuri” being the Japanese word for festival. At its center is the Yasaka Shrine, a religious site whose history traces centuries of overlapping religious change in Japan. Until 150 years ago, the site operated as a Buddhist temple, a reflection of the long-standing syncretism, or blending, of Shinto and Buddhist traditions that shaped Japanese religious life for millennia.

    In its earliest forms, the shrine centered worship of Gozu Tennō, an ox-headed syncretic deity thought to hold power over epidemics, able to either spread or halt disease. Scholars note the deity drew influences from Indian religious traditions, Korean belief, and local Japanese folklore, a common trait for many Japanese gods that emerged from centuries of cultural exchange. Early processions carried the deity’s image through Kyoto’s streets to demonstrate divine protection from evil forces — a practice that evolved into the parades seen today.

    Japan’s dramatic religious restructuring in the 19th century reshaped the shrine and the festival permanently. In 1868, during the Meiji Restoration, the national government formally separated Shinto and Buddhism, bringing Shinto shrines under state control and centering the emperor — believed to be a direct descendant of the Shinto sun goddess — as the core of Japan’s new national identity. “Because the emperor was the direct descendant of the goddess of the sun, they purified the whole system creating what now we see as Shinto,” says Andrea De Antoni, professor of anthropology and religious studies at the University of Kyoto. The policy sparked a widespread anti-Buddhist movement that saw thousands of Buddhist temples, artworks, and statues destroyed across the country. While Shinto was formally separated from state control after World War II, its modern institutional form still carries the marks of this 19th century restructuring. Today, Shinto is organized around worship of kami, or deities and spirits, a belief system rooted in ancient animist traditions shared with many indigenous cultures across Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

    Beyond its religious history, the Gion Matsuri remains a vital force for bringing Kyoto’s neighborhood communities together, even for long-time foreign residents. Jacques Garrigues, a French resident of Kyoto who has lived in the city for 30 years, attended the 2024 procession with his son, calling it a unifying experience for local residents. “This is the festival of all the people in the neighborhood,” Garrigues explains. “We also come together through a certain sense of religion, although the religious significance is not the same as in France.”

    Many core traditions remain unchanged after centuries. One key custom selects a young boy to serve as a sacred messenger to the gods; during the parade, he sits atop a float with his feet never touching the ground, a sign of his sacred status. Neighborhood teams spend months building and preparing their floats, with many participants holding the belief that the structures ward off evil spirits. Atsushi Matono, who is tasked with installing the shingi — a sacred tree placed at the top of a float, believed to be the point where a deity descends to join the procession — shares the same sense of divine presence felt by riders like Horikawa. “I always carry out my work with great care and respect,” Matono says. “Feeling the presence of the gods.”

  • Rescuers in China search the rubble for survivors of landslide that killed 8 and left 34 missing

    Rescuers in China search the rubble for survivors of landslide that killed 8 and left 34 missing

    On a rainy Friday morning in Pengshui County, a mountainous suburban district of southwest China’s Chongqing municipality, a catastrophic natural disaster unfolded: a massive landslide, carrying roughly 18,000 cubic meters of rock, soil and debris including a single 3,000-cubic-meter boulder, surged down a steep slope along the Wujiang River, completely burying more than 10 residential structures. As of Sunday, the disaster has been confirmed to have claimed at least eight lives, left 34 people unaccounted for, and left local emergency response teams working around the clock to locate any remaining survivors trapped under the rubble.

    By Sunday, heavy machinery including excavators had been brought in to systematically clear debris at the disaster site, with search and rescue teams methodically combing through broken concrete and shifted earth. Witnesses at the scene observed a team of nine rescuers carrying a sealed orange body bag away from the active search zone, though official confirmation of the bag’s contents had not been released as of Sunday afternoon.

    In a statement released via Chinese social platform WeChat on Sunday, Chongqing municipal authorities outlined proactive safety measures taken after the landslide. All residents from 21 at-risk buildings within a 1-kilometer radius of the disaster site, including structures on unstable adjacent slopes and low-lying flood and landslide-prone areas, have been successfully evacuated, relocating more than 1,100 local residents to safer temporary accommodation to protect them from potential secondary disasters.

    Ten people have already been pulled alive from the rubble since the disaster struck. Officials confirmed that one of those rescued has already been discharged from medical care, while the remaining nine survivors remain in stable condition as they receive treatment for their injuries.

    Just a day prior on Saturday, search teams working with trained sniffer dogs and specialized life detection equipment picked up clear signs of life under the debris, confirming at least one person was still alive and trapped in the rubble. Rescue commanders noted that work had to proceed with extreme caution, as hasty or reckless excavation could dislodge the massive boulders scattered across the site and trigger a secondary landslide that would put both trapped survivors and rescue personnel at greater risk.

    More than 120 technical experts have been deployed to the disaster zone to support rescue efforts, providing geological assessment, search planning and engineering guidance to emergency response teams. The landslide was confirmed to have been triggered by sustained rainfall, striking a river-adjacent stretch of karst mountain terrain crisscrossed by small rural towns and agricultural terraces, in Pengshui County which borders China’s Hubei and Guizhou provinces. Reporting for this story was contributed by Leung from Hong Kong, with additional support from Associated Press video producer Wu Jia.

  • Rescuers in Indonesia find mother and son survivors from sunken passenger boat

    Rescuers in Indonesia find mother and son survivors from sunken passenger boat

    Rescue teams working across the choppy waters off eastern Indonesia have pulled a mother and her son from the remote area where the KM Nurul Salsa passenger vessel sank earlier this week, extending a streak of small glimmers of hope amid a devastating maritime disaster. As of Sunday, search operations continue for 18 people still unaccounted for, following the vessel’s sinking off South Sulawesi Province.

    Local emergency officials confirmed that the 46-year-old woman and 24-year-old son were discovered stranded on Balaloho Island, a small populated island part of the Selayar island chain, by local fishermen who were assisting in the search effort. The pair joins seven other survivors already pulled from the sea or surrounding coastlines, after five survivors including a 7-year-old child were recovered Saturday evening. That group was found clinging to an anchored fish trap after spending three days adrift following the sinking. At least one casualty has been confirmed so far.

    In total, the stricken boat was carrying 78 passengers and crew members when it suffered catastrophic engine failure Wednesday. The sinking occurred roughly 43 nautical miles (79 kilometers) from the main port servicing the Selayar Islands. The massive search operation that followed has mobilized more than 200 professional rescuers across dozens of search vessels, with additional support from the Indonesian national military, local police forces, independent commercial fishermen, and volunteer residents from nearby island communities.

    Andi Sultan, the lead coordinator for emergency response based in Makassar, told reporters that search crews have been pushed to their limits by brutal environmental conditions. Search teams have had to operate through consistent rough seas, with waves reaching heights of 2 to 3 meters paired with persistent strong gusting winds that have complicated detection efforts and slowed search progress.

    Maritime passenger transport is an essential lifeline across Indonesia, a sprawling archipelagic nation made up of more than 17,000 separate islands that connect hundreds of distinct communities. Unfortunately, the sector is plagued by systemic safety gaps: lax enforcement of international and national safety standards, combined with frequent overloading of passenger and cargo capacity, makes frequent deadly accidents an ongoing public safety challenge across the country.

  • World Cup 2026: Palestinian flags become a target at US-based games

    World Cup 2026: Palestinian flags become a target at US-based games

    As the 2025 World Cup hosted in the United States heads into its highly anticipated final match at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium, a simmering debate over the display of Palestinian flags has emerged as one of the tournament’s most contentious off-pitch stories, drawing new attention to inconsistent political policies within global football governance. What has become clear over the course of the competition is that the Palestinian flag has become both one of the most widely visible symbols of solidarity in stadium stands and one of the most frequently targeted by venue security personnel.

    Multiple supporters who brought Palestinian flags to matches have told Middle East Eye that they were stopped by security officials during venue entry and ordered to remove the flags or face confiscation, a move that directly contradicts FIFA’s own public regulations that permit all national flags to be brought into World Cup stadiums. These confrontations have occurred amid a groundswell of grassroots solidarity from fans of Arab nations competing in the tournament, who have turned out in large numbers to display Palestinian flags throughout the stands, even though Palestine is not a participating team in this year’s competition.

    For pro-Palestine activists and organizers, these repeated incidents are not isolated mistakes, but rather a reflection of what they frame as growing systemic scrutiny of Palestinian identity in public spaces across the U.S., even as popular global support for Palestinian statehood and an end to the war in Gaza has become increasingly visible. As the tournament prepares for its final showdown, two major questions remain unanswered: whether venue authorities will allow Palestinian flags to be displayed openly in the stands of MetLife Stadium, and whether Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – who faces widespread accusations of war crimes for his government’s military campaign in Gaza – will attend the final as previously rumored.

    Maisa Morrar, a Palestinian-American community organizer based in Oakland, argues that FIFA itself bears ultimate responsibility for the clashes between security guards and flag-bearing fans. She explains that conflicting pre-tournament messaging from the global football governing body over whether Palestinian flags would be allowed created unnecessary confusion, which in turn emboldened security staff to confront supporters displaying the symbol. “We were seeing reports that FIFA was allowing the Palestine flag in stadiums, and my first thought was, why was that even a question?” Morrar said in an interview. “People bring their national flags to World Cup matches all the time; it was bizarre that there was ever any question over whether Palestinians could fly their flag.”

    For many attendees, those unclear policies quickly turned into on-the-ground conflict. Omar Dreidi, a Palestinian-American from Southern California and an NBA player agent with past connections to FIFA through the FIFA Masters program, was confronted by security while attending a match at California’s Levi’s Stadium. He told Middle East Eye that security approached him directly and said he was not permitted to display his Palestinian flag.

    Dreidi, who is familiar with FIFA’s official rules and maintains connections within the organization, refused to comply. A viral video he posted to the social platform X immediately after the confrontation shows him draped in the Palestinian flag, challenging security: “If you’re going to make me take down my Palestinian flag, then make that person take off their keffiyeh,” he says in the footage, pointing to another supporter who had stepped in to defend him. After an extended back-and-forth, the security guard radioed his supervisors before returning to inform Dreidi he could keep the flag. “When he told me I could keep it, he said ‘you can chill now’ – and I told him, you were the one who came and harassed me,” Dreidi recounted.

    The incident drew immediate solidarity from nearby spectators, with two Algerian fans stepping in to support Dreidi, and another attendee beginning to record the interaction. “It shows acts of solidarity and pride and love, and I was really grateful for those two guys,” Dreidi said. After he shared his experience online, Dreidi received dozens of messages from other fans across the tournament reporting identical confrontations, many of whom had their Palestinian flags confiscated by security. “I felt bad because I wish they knew their rights under FIFA rules,” he said. He has since urged all Palestinian supporters attending matches to familiarize themselves with tournament regulations, document all interactions with security if possible, and says he has connected with FIFA’s legal team to offer support to fans facing similar harassment.

    Middle East Eye reached out to FIFA for official comment on the incidents ahead of publication, but did not receive a response before the article went to press.

    The disputes over Palestinian flags are unfolding against a backdrop of broader criticism of the current World Cup and FIFA’s leadership on multiple human rights fronts. While FIFA markets the tournament as a global celebration of football and cross-national unity, campaigners and activists have accused the governing body of failing to uphold those stated principles when confronted with ongoing war, human rights abuses and political expression.

    Critics have repeatedly highlighted what they call FIFA’s deeply inconsistent approach to global conflicts. In 2022, Russia was fully suspended from international football within days of launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Yet repeated calls from the Palestinian Football Association and dozens of global human rights organizations to suspend Israel over its ongoing military campaign in Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians to date, the majority of them women and children, have not resulted in any similar action from FIFA.

    FIFA has also faced new scrutiny over its increasingly close public alignment with former U.S. President Donald Trump, who has made multiple high-profile appearances at tournament events. Rights groups have raised alarm over FIFA’s willingness to align itself with a political leader accused of undermining international law and domestic civil liberties, particularly after FIFA awarded Trump its annual FIFA Presidential Award earlier in the tournament.

    For many Palestinian supporters, these broader institutional controversies have framed the flag disputes as part of a larger pattern of institutional bias, rather than isolated errors by individual security staff.

    For Dreidi, however, the tournament has also highlighted football’s unique power to unite diverse supporters across national and political divides. “We have many problems with FIFA – the peace prize for Trump, the way they allow Israel to play without any sanctions, we have a lot of problems – but put that aside for a second,” he said. “The World Cup is a really unique sporting event because it brings people together. I see the pride and the joy it brings in people.”

    When asked what message he wants the global public to take from the widespread display of Palestinian flags at the tournament, Dreidi said it boils down to a simple demand for equality and inclusion. “I just want everybody to know that the Palestinian flag, like any other nation in the world, is allowed in stadiums,” he said. “We’re allowed to wear our jerseys, we’re allowed to fly our flag high, and be prideful. I knew that going in.”

    For Morrar, attending the tournament was about far more than watching football. She said it felt critical to be present at a major U.S.-hosted global event at this historic moment, and to witness the widespread grassroots solidarity firsthand. “It felt really important for me to go and see the camaraderie and the solidarity, not just for the games but also for us as Palestinians,” she said. She added that fans from dozens of competing nations repeatedly approached her to express solidarity, ask to hold her Palestinian flag, and join chants in support of Palestinian liberation. “Everywhere we’ve gone, people have been so receptive to the flag, and I think a large part of that has to do with the genocide in Gaza,” Morrar said. “The message I’ve fully received and witnessed is that the people are really standing with Palestine, and that at the end of the day it’s always about people’s struggles and their liberation.”

  • India’s Ganesh idol makers count the cost of devastating floods

    India’s Ganesh idol makers count the cost of devastating floods

    Weeks before the start of Ganesh Chaturthi, one of Hinduism’s most widely celebrated annual festivals, catastrophic monsoon flooding has unleashed unprecedented destruction across India’s Raigad district, wiping out thousands of finished Ganesh idols and crippling a regional industry that supports hundreds of thousands of working families. For seasoned sculptor Dilip Mhatre, the disaster erased six months of meticulous craft work in hours. The 40-year-old artisan had completed 500 clay idols of the elephant-headed deity Ganesha, valued at approximately 800,000 Indian rupees ($8,300), that were scheduled for delivery to communities and customers across Maharashtra in the lead-up to the festival. Standing amid the splintered remains of his inventory in his flood-ravaged workshop, Mhatre described the scale of his loss: “But the flood washed everything away. We have no idols, no moulds and no raw material. We don’t know how we’ll fulfil the orders now.”

    Mhatre’s devastation is far from an isolated case. It is part of a sweeping crisis that has shaken the core of Raigad’s economy, a region long known as the beating heart of India’s Ganesh idol production. Each year, roughly 20,000 local workshops craft up to 8 million clay idols for the festival, where millions of households and community groups install the idols for celebrations before carrying out a ceremonial immersion in water at the end of the event. The multi-billion-rupee industry provides seasonal work for 150,000 people across the district, and serves as the primary source of income for generations of artisan families. This year’s extreme rainfall has upended that entire ecosystem, damaging thousands of idols and inundating hundreds of workshops, putting the livelihoods of thousands of craftspeople at severe risk just weeks before the peak buying period.

    Sachin Patil, president of the regional idol makers’ association Ganesh Murtikar Utkarsh Mandal, estimates that nearly 1 million idols across Raigad have been damaged by the extreme downpour, with approximately 3,000 workshops impacted by flood damage. While local authorities have begun conducting damage assessments to qualify artisans for government financial assistance, the process is still in its early stages, leaving many craftspeople in limbo.

    While seasonal monsoon rains are a normal annual occurrence in western India, and Raigad’s sculptors have long adapted their practices to protect their work from seasonal flooding, this year’s rainfall has far outpaced any recent event. Between July 5 and 7 alone, the district recorded more than 548 millimeters (21.6 inches) of rain — nearly matching the 663 millimeters recorded across the entire month of July 2025, according to India’s official meteorological department. The relentless downpour overwhelmed local rivers and drainage infrastructure, triggering widespread flooding that rose several feet in low-lying workshop areas, overcoming the standard flood protections artisans have relied on for decades, such as plastic sheeting and raised storage platforms. “In the past, rainwater would collect in the village but never reach the workshop area,” Mhatre explained. “This time, everything was washed away.”

    The destruction extends far beyond finished idols. Many artisans lost critical tools, custom moulds, and raw materials including raw clay and plaster of Paris — supplies that are essential to restarting production even if they wanted to begin over from scratch. Crafting a Ganesh idol is a deeply labour-intensive process that requires multiple stages of moulding, casting, drying, sculpting, and hand-painting. Even small, affordable idols that retail for just $5 to $8 can take up to two weeks to complete, while large community idols can cost tens of thousands of rupees and require months of work. For many artisans, this means that even with additional supplies, it is impossible to replace the lost inventory in time for the upcoming festival, which is only weeks away.

    Mhatre, for example, estimates the floods have cost his family roughly 1.2 million rupees in lost inventory, materials, and revenue. Idol making has been his family’s only source of income for three decades, covering household costs and his children’s education. He has already been forced to notify customers he cannot fulfill their pre-placed orders, and plans to take on high-interest debt to refund advance payments he received months ago.

    For most craftspeople, the damage is effectively irreversible. Rain-soaked idols warp and degrade quickly, making them unsellable, and only a small share of idols with minor damage can be dried, repaired, and put back on the market. While a small number of workshop owners carry insurance, many say the policies provide negligible payouts that come with restrictive fine print that makes meaningful compensation nearly impossible. “If the actual loss is 1m rupees, the insurance payout may be only around 10,000 rupees,” explained Anita Patil, a 53-year-old workshop owner in Kalve village. “There are many conditions attached to these policies and getting meaningful compensation is not easy.” Patil added that the floods have disrupted the entire annual production cycle, leaving artisans unsure how many of their waterlogged idols can even be salvaged.

    The economic ripples of the disaster extend beyond Raigad, with artisans warning that international orders for Ganesh idols, already hit by slowing global demand, will face significant delays. Some artisans say they may need to rely on craftspeople outside Raigad to fulfill existing overseas commitments, as they do not have the inventory to meet demand.

    In the wake of the disaster, many Raigad artisans are already rethinking their approach to future monsoon seasons, with plans to invest in permanent flood protections including raised concrete platforms, water-proof roofing, and elevated indoor storage for finished idols ahead of the rainy season. But with the 2026 Ganesh Chaturthi festival just weeks away, all efforts are currently focused on damage control. Many artisans are scrambling to source replacement idols from unaffected neighboring workshops, though they admit the chances of finding enough inventory to meet demand are slim. “With the festival so close, it is impossible to remake the same number of idols,” said sculptor Mahendra Patil. “If we cannot source idols from elsewhere, we will have to refund the advance payments.”

    Slowly, workshops that were fully submerged just days ago are beginning to clear debris and dry out salvageable inventory across Raigad. While few artisans expect to fully recover from their financial losses anytime soon, nearly all say they have no plans to abandon the craft that has sustained their families for generations, as they work to salvage what they can of the 2026 festival season.

  • US and Israel used Karim Khan misconduct claims to ‘defang’ ICC, says former EU top diplomat

    US and Israel used Karim Khan misconduct claims to ‘defang’ ICC, says former EU top diplomat

    A former top European Union diplomat has leveled explosive accusations that the United States and Israel are leveraging unproven sexual misconduct claims against International Criminal Court (ICC) Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan to advance a long-held goal: disabling the global court from the inside out. In a Friday opinion piece published by Project Syndicate, Josep Borrell, the former EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, is calling on ICC member nations to defend fair legal procedure when they vote on Khan’s future next week.

    “Some institutional failures do not stem from public scandal, but from deliberate procedural sabotage, where acts of undermining are disguised under the rhetoric of good-faith investigation and accountability,” Borrell wrote in the piece. “By the time the true nature of what is unfolding becomes clear, irreversible damage has already been done. I fear this is exactly what we are witnessing in the coordinated attacks against Karim Khan. Recent developments align perfectly with objectives Washington and Jerusalem have spent months advancing.”

    The 125-member Assembly of States Parties (ASP) to the Rome Statute, the governing body of the ICC, is scheduled to cast its decisive vote on Khan’s tenure at United Nations Headquarters in New York on 24 July. The vote follows a June decision by the ASP’s 21-member executive bureau, which voted by a two-thirds majority last month to find Khan committed “serious misconduct” — a ruling that directly contradicts the findings of an independent judicial panel appointed by the bureau itself. That panel concluded evidence compiled from a United Nations investigation into the allegations was insufficient to confirm any form of misconduct. Khan has forcefully denied all accusations of wrongdoing and breach of professional duty.

    Borrell points to a series of irregular procedural changes first exclusively reported by Middle East Eye that break the ICC’s own established rules. Originally, the removal process was structured as two separate votes: first, a vote to confirm whether serious misconduct occurred, followed by a second vote to decide on removal if misconduct was upheld. Under the Rome Statute’s Article 46, a finding of misconduct requires a two-thirds majority of states present and voting, while a final removal vote needs an absolute majority of 63 out of the 125 total ASP members. The ASP’s own March procedural guidance, seen by Middle East Eye, explicitly outlined this two-step process. Despite this, the bureau chose to merge the two votes into a single ballot that requires only an absolute majority to remove Khan immediately.

    The contours of the misconduct allegation have also shifted dramatically, Borrell argues. In a confidential June 8 bureau decision obtained by Middle East Eye, the body claimed it had found “beyond reasonable doubt” that Khan engaged in a sexual relationship with the complainant, arguing that such a relationship was inherently inappropriate due to the power imbalance between the two. This reframing directly deviates from the original non-consensual sexual misconduct allegations that formed the core of the investigation and subsequent media leaks. Both Khan and the complainant have denied the existence of any consensual sexual relationship.

    Borrell warns that this procedural manipulation lowers the bar for removal dramatically. “This is no trivial procedural change. Folding the second vote into the first — on an accusation that remains unproven — allows for removal based on an unsubstantiated claim, or even a completely new allegation no one ever raised, such as an abuse-of-authority consensual relationship,” he wrote.

    Tracing the origins of the campaign against Khan to a direct threat from U.S. lawmakers earlier this year, Borrell notes that in April 2024, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators explicitly warned Khan that moving forward with an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would make him a target for retaliation. Despite the threat, Khan proceeded to file applications for arrest warrants against Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three senior Hamas officials. This was not the first time Khan has pursued warrants against high-profile leaders who had long been considered untouchable: under his tenure, the ICC has also secured warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin, former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, and senior Taliban leadership.

    Borrell frames the attack on Khan as part of a broader, well-documented offensive to dismantle the ICC entirely. He points to a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who openly stated the current U.S. administration intends to dismantle the court “brick by brick.” Washington has already imposed harsh sanctions on 11 senior ICC officials, including Khan, two deputy prosecutors, and eight judges: the sanctions have frozen their personal bank accounts and restricted access to services provided by major global tech and finance platforms including Apple, Amazon, and PayPal.

    Citing reporting from The Financial Times, Borrell also revealed that former U.S. President Donald Trump, during a May 2025 meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, proposed that China and Russia — neither of which are parties to the Rome Statute — join the U.S. campaign against the court. Borrell argues this move directly undermines the U.S.’s official justification for its anti-ICC campaign, which it frames as a defense of national sovereignty. “That America’s chosen partners in this crusade are precisely the two countries with the greatest reason to fear the court says more about the real purpose of the operation against Khan than any official communique about sovereignty,” he wrote.

    “Both the Trump administration and Prime Minister Netanyahu want the same outcome: to ensure that no international court can hold soldiers, state officials, or their allies accountable, no matter how severe the allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity,” Borrell added. “Both see the so-called ‘Khan scandal’ as the perfect opportunity to defang the court permanently. They do not need to destroy it from the outside when they can convince its own member states to hollow it out from within, ignoring a formal judicial finding to stage a political vote against the man who issued the arrest warrants that most inconvenienced them.”

    Closing his argument, Borrell praised Khan for his willingness to pursue high-profile suspects that would have been off-limits in the court’s earlier history. “At a time when international criminal justice and the global rule of law are facing a full-scale frontal assault, not least from indicted war criminals themselves, he deserves the full recognition and support of the international community,” he concluded.