Global Pulse

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  • Hungary’s Orbán declares resistance movement against Magyar government’s ‘tyranny’

    Hungary’s Orbán declares resistance movement against Magyar government’s ‘tyranny’

    BUDAPEST, Hungary — In a striking public move Wednesday, former Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán announced that his far-right Fidesz party will spearhead a peaceful national resistance campaign against the newly installed center-right administration he accuses of exercising tyrannical power. The announcement comes three months after Orbán’s 16-year unbroken grip on national governance came to an abrupt end, following a landslide April election loss to Prime Minister Péter Magyar and his pro-European Tisza party, a defeat that has left Fidesz grappling with plummeting support and internal upheaval.

    Speaking outside Fidesz’s Budapest headquarters, Orbán centered his attack on a recent constitutional amendment passed last week by Tisza’s parliamentary supermajority. The amendment, which removed the Orbán-aligned sitting president of Hungary and introduced a 12-year cumulative term limit for members of parliament, has, in Orbán’s view, dismantled the country’s rule of law and eliminated the system of checks and balances that underpinned Hungarian democracy.

    Orbán went further, arguing that the retroactively applied term limit pushes Hungary back to the authoritarian conditions of the late 1980s, the final years of the country’s Soviet-backed Communist dictatorship, when free democracy and independent rule of law did not exist. He added that the new regulation would bar roughly half of Fidesz’s sitting parliamentary caucus members from running in the 2030 national election, cementing what he labeled an undemocratic power grab. “This new political system is not a democracy, it is tyranny,” Orbán declared.

    Since taking office in May, Magyar’s administration has moved rapidly to roll back the institutional changes Orbán put in place during his tenure, framing the effort as a crackdown on what the prime minister calls Orbán’s corrupt “mafia state.” The new government has removed hundreds of political appointees installed by Fidesz, ousted leaders of state institutions that Magyar’s allies say enabled Orbán’s autocratic shift, suspended Hungarian public broadcasting’s news division — which Magyar argues operated as a state-funded propaganda factory for Fidesz — and shut down the controversial Sovereignty Protection Office, a body widely criticized by Orbán’s opponents as a tool to intimidate government critics and suppress independent media.

    Fidesz has pushed back against these moves, framing them as unconstitutional attacks on democratic opposition and warning that Magyar’s government is building its own authoritarian system. Tisza, by contrast, argues that the administration is acting on the overwhelming electoral mandate it won in April to deliver on campaign pledges to root out systemic corruption and restore the rule of law eroded during Orbán’s 16-year tenure.

    Wednesday’s announcement formalized Fidesz’s opposition: Orbán said the party considers all officials appointed by Tisza to replace Fidesz-era appointees illegitimate, and publicly released the party’s pre-planned “Declaration of Resistance” against the new administration. The declaration, published by Fidesz late Tuesday, states that “from this day forward, our mission is to restore the democratic rule of law” and asserts that “every citizen has the right to stand against tyrannical rule.” Orbán emphasized that the movement will rely exclusively on peaceful tactics, both within the parliamentary system and through public action outside the legislature, to oppose what he calls arbitrary state power. The declaration provides few concrete details on what the resistance will entail, beyond noting that the party will offer support to people it describes as “victims of the authoritarian regime” and document alleged violations of Hungarian law.

    Polling data from recent weeks illustrates the dramatic slide Fidesz has experienced since its election defeat. A June survey conducted by independent pollster Medián and published by Hungarian news site HVG.hu found that Tisza holds the support of 60% of Hungarian adults, while Fidesz’s support has collapsed to just 18%.

    The pressure on Fidesz ramped up even further just ahead of Orbán’s announcement: on Tuesday, Hungarian prosecutors and tax authority investigators raided Fidesz office space that houses the party’s data servers, as part of an ongoing investigation into suspected embezzlement and other criminal activities that allegedly occurred during Orbán’s time in office. Orbán called the raid a politically motivated act Wednesday, saying such targeting of an opposition party “could occur only in severe dictatorships.”

    In addition to plummeting poll numbers and legal investigations, Fidesz has faced high-profile departures in recent weeks. Last week, Gergely Gulyás, the party’s long-serving parliamentary caucus leader, stepped down from his leadership role, while Péter Szijjártó, who served as foreign minister throughout Orbán’s final terms in office, announced he would resign from parliament to take a senior executive role at Chinese electric vehicle manufacturer BYD.

  • Further infant remains uncovered at former mother-and-baby home

    Further infant remains uncovered at former mother-and-baby home

    A decades-long chapter of Irish historical injustice continues to unfold as archaeological teams working at the site of a defunct mother-and-baby institution in Tuam, County Galway, have recovered 22 additional sets of infant remains. This latest discovery pushes the total number of infant bodies recovered at the former facility to 99, according to the latest official update from the excavation oversight body.

    The home, which was established to house unmarried mothers and their children, operated from 1925 through 1961. Its existence and the grim fate of hundreds of infants who died within its walls only captured global public attention in 2014, when local historian Catherine Corless made a chilling discovery: official records listed 796 death certificates for children and infants who died at the institution, but no formal documentation existed to show where the bodies had been buried.

    The current full excavation work launched one year ago, and this latest update covers findings from a six-week window ending July 15 of this year. The 22 newly recovered remains were found inside coffins in a section of the site’s southwestern edge, an area mapped in historical archives as an official burial ground.

    All recovered remains are now being transported to a purpose-built mortuary and analytical laboratory in Toghermore, near Tuam. The facility was specifically outfitted for this project by the Office of the Director of Authorised Intervention, Tuam (ODAIT), the government-aligned agency leading the excavation work.

    Per ODAIT’s official statement, a team of specialist experts will undertake a rigorous process to clean, preserve, and analyze each set of remains. The core goal of this work is to reconstruct key details about each infant’s short life and death, including their approximate age and biological sex. Advanced analytical techniques will be used, including medical radiology and high-resolution 3D scanning to document the remains in detail.

    These forensic details are expected to help narrow the pool of possible matching identities, bringing researchers closer to the goal of connecting each set of remains to a name documented in historical death records. To support this identification effort, 62 family members with ties to infants who died at the home have already donated DNA samples for cross-referencing.

    Not all sections of the site have been fully excavated yet: work has not commenced in the area of the existing memorial garden, where preliminary investigations in 2017 uncovered large quantities of human remains in hidden underground septic chambers.

    Historically, the Tuam institution was owned by Galway County Council and managed by the Bon Secours Sisters, a Catholic religious order. The order has previously issued a formal public apology, acknowledging that the children and infants who died at the home were “buried in a disrespectful and unacceptable way.” It has also contributed €2.5 million (£2.14 million) to cover the costs of the excavation and forensic work. Galway County Council similarly issued a public apology in 2021 following the release of an official inquiry report, saying it “failed mothers and children” held at the institution.

    Excavation work at the site is scheduled to continue through 2027, with additional years of follow-up forensic analysis and identification work expected to be completed after fieldwork concludes.

  • Modelling scout linked to Epstein found dead in Paris suburbs

    Modelling scout linked to Epstein found dead in Paris suburbs

    A 69-year-old modelling scout with deep documented connections to the deceased convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein has been found dead at his residence in the Paris region, French law enforcement officials have confirmed. Daniel Siad was discovered at his home in Colombes, a quiet northwest suburb of the French capital, on Monday, according to a formal statement from the Nanterre prosecutor’s office shared with the BBC.

    Following the recovery of Siad’s body, local authorities have launched a full investigation to pinpoint the exact cause of his death, with a scheduled autopsy planned to gather critical forensic evidence, the prosecutor’s office added.

    Siad’s connections to Epstein have been a focal point of ongoing scrutiny in the wake of Epstein’s crimes, with thousands of mentions of Siad’s name appearing in the trove of Epstein-related court documents unsealed and released to the public by the U.S. government. Siad had long maintained that he had no awareness of the dangerous criminal activity Epstein was engaged in, a stance he held through the years of growing public attention to his ties with the convicted offender.

    One of Epstein’s accusers, who spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity under the pseudonym Anya, previously alleged that Siad was the person who first introduced her to Epstein, placing him directly at the center of the network that enabled Epstein’s sex trafficking scheme.

    Ahead of a BBC investigative report published on July 18, Siad’s legal representative confirmed that Siad would not be making any public statements or responding to media queries. That marked a continuation of his long-held position denying any knowledge of Epstein’s harmful, illegal conduct before Epstein’s arrest and death in 2019.

  • France’s environment minister resigns over emergency bill allowing 2 banned pesticides

    France’s environment minister resigns over emergency bill allowing 2 banned pesticides

    PARIS – In a high-profile move that lays bare deep divisions over France’s environmental and agricultural policy, Monique Barbut, the country’s Minister for Ecological Transition, has announced her resignation in protest of emergency legislation that carves out temporary legal exemptions for two restricted pesticides widely linked to harm in bee populations.

    Barbut, who assumed her cabinet role just nine months ago in October 2023, confirmed she would formally submit her resignation to President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday. The controversial bill, which was approved by French national legislators on Tuesday, grants France’s public health agency for food, environment and occupational safety the authority to approve limited use of the two neonicotinoid-derived pesticides — acetamiprid and flupyradifurone — for agricultural sectors facing acute production challenges.

    In a public statement shared via social media, Barbut framed her tenure as a fight for underrepresented environmental priorities. “Over the past nine months, I have defended those who do not march, who do not vote, and who do not shout: the silence of our forests, the quality of our water, the purity of our air, the richness of our soils, and the diversity of life,” she wrote. “Today, I must acknowledge that the forces opposing these goals have become so powerful that I no longer have the means to carry this ambition through.”

    The two pesticides at the center of the debate fall under the neonicotinoid class of agrochemicals. While they are permitted under broad European Union regulatory frameworks, France has enforced a full national ban on their use for years. The new exemptions will allow their application on four high-value crops: sugar beets, apples, hazelnuts, and cherries.

    Barbut added that the government had blocked all attempts to amend or debate the pesticide exemption provision, breaking explicit commitments made to her when she took office. This political clash comes exactly one year after France’s Constitutional Court struck down a similar provision in a broader agricultural reform bill that would have reauthorized acetamiprid. The pesticide has been banned nationwide since 2018, after research confirmed its toxic impact on bees and other critical pollinator species. In its 2023 ruling, the high court found the proposed reauthorization violated legal obligations to protect the environment and the interests of future generations, setting the stage for the current standoff.

  • Louvre reopens Apollo Gallery after a brazen heist, but no jewels on display

    Louvre reopens Apollo Gallery after a brazen heist, but no jewels on display

    Nearly one year after a brazen daylight heist stole priceless crown jewels worth an estimated 88 million euros, the Louvre Museum’s historic Apollo Gallery has once again opened its doors to visitors from around the world. This reopening marks a dramatic shift in the gallery’s purpose, moving away from its former role as a display space for the French monarchy’s precious gem collections to return to its original 17th-century function as a grand ceremonial hall. All the jewel collections that were previously on exhibit have been permanently relocated ahead of the reopening.

    The high-profile heist, which unfolded over a weekend, shocked the global cultural community. Thieves completed their break-in and theft in under eight minutes, forcing entry through a glass window before escaping with the historic artifacts. The audacious crime exposed significant gaps in the museum’s existing security infrastructure, prompting urgent reforms across the institution.

    In response to the vulnerabilities revealed by the heist, the Louvre has implemented sweeping security upgrades at the Apollo Gallery. New high-resolution surveillance cameras and advanced anti-intrusion detection systems have been installed across the entire space, forming a layered security network designed to prevent similar incidents in the future.

    This security overhaul is not an isolated project, but part of the museum’s ambitious decade-long transformation initiative called the “Louvre New Renaissance” plan. Launched last year with a total projected budget of up to 800 million euros, the initiative aims to comprehensively modernize the museum’s aging infrastructure, reduce dangerous overcrowding in high-traffic wings, and create a dedicated, standalone gallery for Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa by 2031. Museum leaders frame the reopening of the Apollo Gallery as a key milestone in this multi-year project, balancing the preservation of the Louvre’s historic architectural legacy with the need for updated safety and visitor experience.

  • Police station opens at Hitler’s birthplace in bid to rid site of Nazi link

    Police station opens at Hitler’s birthplace in bid to rid site of Nazi link

    After more than a decade of public debate, legal battles, and extensive renovations, Austria has formally opened a new police station in the 17th-century building where Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler was born in the small border town of Braunau am Inn. The completion of this project marks the end of one of the most politically fraught legacy projects in modern Austrian history, as officials have long worked to block the site from becoming a shrine for neo-Nazi sympathizers and far-right extremists.

    Hitler, born in the building in April 1889, only stayed at the address Salzburger Vorstadt 15 for a few weeks before his family moved within the town, and they left Braunau permanently when he was three years old. He made only one brief return visit in 1938, shortly after annexing Austria to Nazi Germany, on his route to Vienna.

    For decades, Austrian authorities took a proactive step to prevent far-right tourism by renting the property from its long-time private owner, local resident Gerlinde Pommer, paying her above-market rent to block any extremist takeovers. For many years, the building housed a day center and workshop run by local disability charity Lebenshilfe, supporting people with special needs. That arrangement collapsed in 2011, when Pommer refused to approve government-led renovations and rejected repeated offers to sell the property to the state, leaving the building vacant for years amid ongoing negotiations.

    The stalemate broke in 2016, when Austria’s national parliament passed a special law allowing the government to expropriate the building, awarding Pommer €812,000 (approximately £690,000) in compensation. Pommer challenged the compensation sum in court, arguing it was far below the property’s market value, but ultimately lost her legal challenge. At the time, then-Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka called for the entire structure to be demolished and replaced with a new building, echoing an earlier provocative proposal from a Russian lawmaker who offered to purchase the site to destroy it. That plan sparked widespread public outcry, with critics arguing that demolishing the building would amount to erasing Austria’s complicit role in the Nazi era.

    In 2019, the government settled on a new plan: convert the property into a local police station, and launched a European-wide design competition for architects to reimagine the space. Millions of euros were invested in a full structural and cosmetic renovation, drastically altering the building’s original yellow-plaster facade to remove any visual connection to its historic association. The project opened to the public on Wednesday, with uniformed police posted permanently outside the building to monitor visitors.

    Not all stakeholders have supported the final plan, however. Critics argue that turning Hitler’s birthplace into a police station sends the wrong symbolic message, with many calling for a dedicated educational center focused on confronting Austria’s Nazi history. Even local historian Florian Kotanko, who previously supported a plan to let Lebenshilfe return to the site, acknowledged that the charity itself declined to come back, fearing it would be used as a political token to avoid harder conversations about the past.

    Today, there are no markers on the building itself noting its connection to Hitler. High-resolution security cameras are installed across the property to track any potential neo-Nazi pilgrims, and the only public reference to the site’s history is a memorial stone installed on the sidewalk outside in 1989. Quarried from the nearby former Mauthausen concentration camp, the stone bears the inscription: “For Peace, Freedom and Democracy – Never Again Fascism – Millions of Dead Warn,” and never mentions Hitler by name.

    Kotanko notes that even with the new police station and reduced extremist traffic, the site’s painful history can never be erased. “You have to deal with it, and so we all try to deal with it in an open and correct way. It’s not a matter of being proud, but it’s a matter of dealing with the fact,” he told the BBC.

  • Ukraine overhauls its military top brass for the fight against Russia

    Ukraine overhauls its military top brass for the fight against Russia

    KYIV, Ukraine — Less than a week after a sweeping wartime government shakeup that sparked mass public protests and fueled open tension within Ukraine’s defense leadership, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has installed a new top military commander to lead the country’s ongoing defense against Russia’s full-scale invasion. The leadership overhaul, finalized late Tuesday, closes a turbulent chapter of internal political friction that was widely celebrated in Moscow and threatened to distract from Ukraine’s battlefield gains this year.

    The shakeup traces back to last week, when Zelenskyy removed 35-year-old tech-focused Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov from his post, just six months after he took on the role. Fedorov, an entrepreneur credited with rapidly building up Ukraine’s cutting-edge drone program that has delivered key battlefield advantages against Russian forces, had clashed openly with then-Commander-in-Chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, a 60-year-old Soviet-trained veteran long viewed as part of Ukraine’s old-guard military establishment. Fedorov publicly accused Syrskyi of blocking critical defense reforms, arguing a leadership change was necessary for Ukraine to avoid failure in its resistance.

    Fedorov’s dismissal sparked immediate public outcry, with thousands of demonstrators gathering in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. Protesters framed the move as Zelenskyy siding with entrenched traditional military leadership over a popular reformer, and called for Syrskyi’s removal while demanding Fedorov be retained in a senior government role. To defuse tensions, Zelenskyy offered Fedorov a new senior position tasked with unifying the country’s entire defense technology sector; as of Wednesday, it remained unclear whether Fedorov would accept the role, and whether the latest leadership changes would satisfy protester demands.

    On Tuesday, Zelenskyy officially dismissed Syrskyi and appointed 43-year-old Maj. Gen. Mykhailo Drapatyi as the new Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s armed forces. Drapatyi is part of a rising generation of Ukrainian commanders who cut their teeth fighting Russian forces after Moscow’s 2014 illegal annexation of Crimea, eight years before the 2022 full-scale invasion. He first earned widespread recognition for his bold, courageous leadership on the battlefield in 2014, and has steadily risen through the military ranks over the past decade of ongoing conflict.

    Fedorov quickly endorsed Drapatyi’s appointment, describing the new commander as “a new hope in the fight of free people for freedom and justice” and “a voice for change that could not go unheard.” In a conciliatory gesture, Fedorov also acknowledged Syrskyi’s key wartime contributions, including the defense of the Kyiv region during the 2022 full-scale invasion and the successful 2022 Kharkiv counteroffensive, calling those achievements “already an important part of Ukraine’s history.” But he added that Ukraine “must move even faster and write new chapters, correcting all previous mistakes.”

    In his first public statement since his dismissal Wednesday, Syrskyi defended his tenure as top commander, claiming Ukrainian forces had reclaimed 287 square miles of Russian-occupied territory this year under his leadership. He added that he was handing over to Drapatyi an army that is not only holding defensive lines but also carrying out active offensive operations. The Associated Press was unable to independently verify Syrskyi’s territorial claim.

    Zelenskyy has laid out clear new expectations for Drapatyi and his team of senior commanders: they must deliver an updated, comprehensive defense strategy that includes accelerated reform of Ukraine’s military corps structure, faster procurement and delivery of weapons and drones, strengthened air defense networks to repel routine Russian missile and drone strikes, and a more transparent, effective national mobilization plan.

    Parallel to the political upheaval in Kyiv, Ukraine continued its campaign of long-range drone strikes against Russian logistics targets Wednesday. Wildberries, Russia’s largest online retailer, confirmed that overnight drone strikes hit two of its large warehouses in Russia’s southern Krasnodar and Stavropol regions. The attacks come four days after similar strikes on Wildberries warehouses in the Moscow and Tambov regions killed eight people and wounded dozens, according to Russian officials. Zelenskyy confirmed Saturday that the targeted facilities were being used by Russian forces to store sanctioned components for Russian drone production and military navigation equipment.

  • Ukrainian drones hit Russian online retailer Wildberries, media and governor say

    Ukrainian drones hit Russian online retailer Wildberries, media and governor say

    Fresh overnight drone attacks launched by Ukrainian forces have targeted logistics facilities owned by Wildberries, Russia’s largest e-commerce platform, marking the second assault on the retailer’s infrastructure in less than a week and leaving multiple people wounded, regional officials and Russian media have confirmed.

    The strikes hit two separate Wildberries warehouses located in Russia’s Krasnodar and Stavropol regions, according to comments the company’s owner shared on social media. The attack forced emergency evacuation of all on-site staff and left 10 people with injuries, local governor reports confirmed.

    The new attacks come just four days after earlier drone strikes against Wildberries warehouses in the Tambov and Elektrostal areas. That earlier assault left eight people dead and 62 others injured, marking one of the deadliest attacks on Russian commercial logistics infrastructure in recent months.

    Ukrainian officials have explicitly justified the targeting of Wildberries facilities, asserting that the warehouses have been repurposed to supply critical parts for Russian drone production and military navigation systems. Independent Ukrainian security analysts have expanded on this rationale, noting that the e-commerce platform has been used by Russian pro-war volunteers to source a wide range of military and dual-use goods.

    “The main goal of these strikes is to cut off Russian military forces and domestic arms producers from access to dual-use components, critical electronics, and sanctioned products that move through Wildberries’ extensive logistics network,” explained Serhii Kuzan, chairman of the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Centre, in prior comments to the BBC. Beyond disrupting military supply chains, Kuzan added that the collateral economic fallout from these attacks can create broader pressure on the Russian domestic economy, while also generating psychological shifts within Russian society that may erode public support for the ongoing full-scale invasion.

    In the wake of the latest attacks, Wildberries owner Tatyana Kim issued a public statement via Telegram expressing outrage over the targeting of civilian commercial operations and ordinary workers. “There are no words to describe all the feelings and emotions caused by the attacks on ordinary people, on our employees, on us, who are simply doing our jobs,” Kim wrote. Despite the repeated assaults, she reaffirmed the company’s commitment to continuing operations, saying: “But these situations demonstrate the most important thing: we must continue to do what we do for the benefit of people.”

    A video still verified by independent news outlet Reuters shows thick plumes of smoke rising from one of the targeted warehouses, following the overnight strikes that have once again highlighted the expanding scope of Ukrainian drone attacks deep into Russian territory.

  • 2,000 volunteers join a painstaking effort to restore massive skeleton of prehistoric predator

    2,000 volunteers join a painstaking effort to restore massive skeleton of prehistoric predator

    Deep inside a glass-walled laboratory at Warsaw’s iconic Copernicus Science Centre, an extraordinary public science experiment is unfolding. Unlike traditional paleontological digs that happen far from public view, this project invites everyday people to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with scientists and bring a 240-million-year-old giant back into the light.

    Armed with pneumatic chisels, soft-bristled brushes, and protective goggles, hundreds of volunteers from across Poland are slowly and carefully chipping away at solid rock that has encased the massive bones of a *Mastodonsaurus* — one of the largest amphibians to ever walk (or swim) the Earth. On the opposite side of the clear glass barrier, crowds of curious visitors watch every step of the painstaking work in real time: wide-eyed children press their palms to the glass to point at the emerging fragments, while adults marvel at the sheer scale of the creature that once dominated Triassic waterways.

    What makes this restoration project unprecedented is its reliance on non-professional labor. More than 2,000 volunteers from all walks of life — including office managers, hospital cleaners, professional tattoo artists, and retired teachers — have signed on to help, none requiring prior experience in paleontology or geology. Before they start their two-hour supervised chiseling shifts, every volunteer completes a hands-on training session and receives custom protective gear to keep them safe and ensure the ancient bones remain undamaged.

    The work itself requires extraordinary precision. Volunteers separate bone from surrounding rock one millimeter at a time, using a specialized pneumatic chisel with a thin needle tip that gently breaks away rock without damaging the fragile fossil. Ultraviolet lighting is used to clearly mark the boundary between fossilized bone and surrounding stone, eliminating the risk of accidental breaks that could destroy irreplaceable scientific data.

    For many volunteers, the experience has been life-changing. “I imagine that those bones were lying underground for 240 million years and I am the first human on earth to touch them,” said Tatyana Kozyk, who coordinates the volunteer teams. “I’m still trying to wrap my head around this experience.” Dorota Serafin, a 51-year-old Warsaw manager who has volunteered multiple times, described the work as both deeply calming and philosophically profound. “Working with the skeleton of an ancient animal is an experience that is at the same time relaxing and philosophical, even mystical,” she said, adding that she plans to bring her entire family to see the finished display when it opens to the public.

    The *Mastodonsaurus* itself was a fearsome aquatic ambush predator that ruled freshwater ecosystems during the Middle Triassic period, a time when the first dinosaurs were just beginning to emerge but had not yet become the dominant terrestrial vertebrates on Earth. Growing up to six meters (20 feet) in length, the creature had a broad flat skull, massive elongated jaws lined with sharp conical teeth, and a body shape that vaguely resembles modern crocodiles — though it belongs to an entirely separate branch of the vertebrate evolutionary tree. It fed primarily on fish and smaller amphibians, lying motionless in shallow water before launching surprise attacks on unsuspecting prey.

    The massive skeleton was first discovered in southern Poland in 2023 by paleontologist Tomasz Sulej, a professor at the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Paleobiology, and his colleague Wojciech Pawlak, a geologist from Warsaw University. It was the pair’s idea to open the restoration process to public volunteers, turning a purely scientific project into an unprecedented public outreach opportunity.

    When complete, the 1,300-kilogram (2,865-pound) skeleton will be the largest *Mastodonsaurus* specimen ever put on public display anywhere in the world. Sulej notes that while smaller *Mastodonsaurus* skeletons — most measuring between 2 and 3 meters long — have been found in Germany and Russia, this new specimen is far larger than any previously discovered, and promises to rewrite scientific understanding of the species.

    “The structure of the body is different from what we knew so far,” Sulej explained. “This is information that is completely new to the scientific world.” The finished skeleton is scheduled to go on public display at the Copernicus Science Centre in late 2024, most likely in October or November.

    Beyond its scientific value, the project offers a unique perspective on extinction, resilience, and the future of life on Earth. The *Mastodonsaurus* emerged after the Permian-Triassic extinction event — the most severe mass extinction in our planet’s history, which wiped out roughly 96% of all marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species — and paved the way for the rise of the dinosaurs millions of years later. As humanity grapples with the accelerating impacts of human-caused climate change, Sulej says the story of the *Mastodonsaurus* offers a message of cautious hope.

    “The Mastodonsaurus lived after the great extinction, which shows one thing, that nature always manages,” Sulej said. “It’s not true that humans can destroy life on this planet. Nature and life always find ways to survive.”

  • France passes law banning under-15s from social media

    France passes law banning under-15s from social media

    In a landmark move that sets a new precedent for youth digital protection across the continent, France’s national parliament has given final approval to a groundbreaking law that will bar all users under the age of 15 from accessing social media platforms, with full implementation scheduled for January 2027. The legislation, which comes amid growing global concern over the impact of social media on children’s mental health and development, mandates universal age verification for every social media user in France. This places France at the forefront of a growing global movement to regulate youth social media access, following similar action taken by Australia late last year. The bill secured final passage in both the French Senate and the National Assembly on Tuesday, overcoming criticism from left-wing political factions and digital rights advocates to become law. President Emmanuel Macron, who first pledged to introduce this regulation as a signature policy to cap his second and final term in office, publicly praised the approval of the ban this week.

    The new rules will roll out in two staggered phases to give platforms and users time to adjust. Starting this September, any new social media account created from France will require mandatory age verification, and users under 15 will be blocked from opening new accounts entirely. By January 2027, the age verification requirement will extend to every existing social media account, meaning every user based in France will need to prove they are over 15 to retain access to platforms. All age verification tools used by platforms must receive official approval from France’s independent national privacy regulator to ensure compliance with data protection standards.

    Despite the government’s enthusiasm for the policy, it has faced a wave of criticism from skeptics, who have raised a host of practical and ethical concerns. Key points of contention include the potential privacy risks associated with collecting age and identity data from millions of users, questions about how effective current age verification tools are at preventing circumvention, and criticism over the relatively fast timeline for drafting and rolling out the ban. Speaking ahead of the parliamentary vote, French Digital Minister Anne Le Hénanff pushed back against criticism of the quick rollout, arguing that functional, tested age verification tools are already available for platforms to deploy, eliminating the need for a longer waiting period.

    France is only the second country in the world to implement a nationwide full ban on underage social media use, following Australia’s December 2024 ban on social media access for users under 16. Early assessments of Australia’s policy have offered important lessons for France and other nations moving forward with similar regulations. As of March 2025, Australia’s eSafety Commission reported that seven out of 10 children under 16 who held social media accounts before the ban entered into force still retain some level of access to the platforms. Tama Leaver, a professor of internet studies at Curtin University in Western Australia, told the BBC that Australia’s ban has technically failed to meet its core goal of blocking underage access, though it has proven that nationwide regulatory action of this kind is politically and administratively possible, framing it as a valuable early policy experiment. Leaver noted that a key takeaway for other countries is the need to include young people in the policy design process, arguing that regulations work best when they are developed with input from youth rather than imposed on them.

    Leaver added that France’s policy may have a slightly higher chance of reducing underage access than Australia’s, thanks to its requirement for universal age verification covering all users, not just new accounts. But he also warned that the universal mandate brings greater privacy risks, as it requires every social media user in France to submit identity data for verification. He also pointed to additional unintended consequences that could emerge from the ban, including pushing underage users toward unregulated, less safe online platforms outside of mainstream social media, reducing young people’s access to news and public information, and weakening youth political engagement by cutting off their primary space for online civic discourse.

    France’s approval of the ban comes as legislative action to restrict youth social media access accelerates rapidly across Europe. In the United Kingdom, former Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced in June 2025 that the UK will implement its own ban on under-16 social media access, also scheduled to take effect in January 2027, alongside an optional midnight curfew for 16 and 17-year-old users. At the EU level, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed a policy of “social media delay” for underage children across the bloc in May 2025, confirming that new EU-wide legislation on the issue will be introduced in the coming months.