Global Pulse

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大洋洲

  • Olympic breakdancer Rachael ‘Raygun’ Gunn loses lecturing gig at Macquarie University amid staff redundancies

    Olympic breakdancer Rachael ‘Raygun’ Gunn loses lecturing gig at Macquarie University amid staff redundancies

    The Australian breakdancer who became a global viral sensation after her zero-score performance at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games’ inaugural breaking competition has reportedly lost her long-held academic position amid sweeping cost-cutting at one of Australia’s top higher education institutions.

    Rachael Gunn, professionally known by her stage name Raygun, catapulted to worldwide notoriety last summer when her routine at the Paris Games — which included novelty moves inspired by hopping kangaroos, wriggling snakes, and the popular 20th-century party dance the sprinkler — earned no points from judges. The clip of her performance spread rapidly across social media, spawning thousands of memes and turning the relatively little-known breakdancer into a household name overnight.

    Before her Olympic debut, Gunn had built a 10-plus-year academic career at Sydney’s Macquarie University, where she worked as a lecturer in media and popular culture. She earned her PhD from the institution in 2017, with a doctoral thesis examining the gender politics of Sydney’s underground breaking culture. Her research agenda has long centered on the cultural politics of street dance, including a commissioned study for the City of Sydney analyzing the experiences of street dancers performing in public urban spaces.

    According to new reporting from the *Australian Financial Review*, Gunn is among the staff cut in Macquarie University’s latest round of program redundancies, which is part of broader cost-saving initiatives sweeping Australia’s higher education sector. The report notes that widespread declines in international student enrollment — a key source of revenue for Australian universities — have pushed dozens of institutions to eliminate roles to balance their budgets, with Macquarie’s Arts department the latest to undergo restructuring.

    A spokesperson for Macquarie University declined to confirm or comment on details of Gunn’s employment status, citing longstanding institutional policy to protect the privacy and legal rights of individual staff members. “This is our standard practice for legal and privacy reasons,” the spokesperson reiterated to media.

    Gunn’s redundancy comes months after her Olympic performance drew public criticism from Australian Senator Gerard Rennick, who used her profile to attack publicly funded academic programs he deemed unproductive. In a public Facebook post following the Games, Rennick questioned how many “obscure and pointless courses” Australian universities offered with taxpayer subsidies, adding, “It also goes to show just because you have a PhD in something doesn’t mean you are any good at it.”

    In the months following her viral Olympic moment, Gunn capitalized on her newfound global fame by launching a venture on the celebrity personalized content platform Cameo, where she charges fans approximately AU$70 for custom greeting videos. The platform allows supporters of public figures from sports, entertainment, and politics to purchase one-of-a-kind personalized messages directly from creators.

  • Tropical forest loss eases after record year: researchers

    Tropical forest loss eases after record year: researchers

    A new report from joint research teams at the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the University of Maryland has delivered a mixed assessment of global tropical forest conservation: while the pace of primary tropical rainforest destruction dropped 36% in 2025 from the previous year’s all-time high, loss rates remain alarmingly elevated, and climate-worsened wildfires have emerged as a persistent, dangerous new threat to decades of conservation progress.

    Researchers documented 4.3 million hectares (10.6 million acres) of primary tropical rainforest lost in 2025, a decline that equals 11 football fields of forest cleared every minute. By area, that total is roughly the size of Denmark, and it remains 46% higher than average annual loss rates recorded a decade ago. When compared to the benchmark needed to hit the global 2030 goal of halting and reversing forest loss, current deforestation rates are still 70% above the required target.

    Elizabeth Goldman, co-director of WRI’s Global Forest Watch platform, called the single-year drop of this scale an encouraging sign of what targeted policy can achieve. But she cautioned that part of the decline stems from a natural lull after 2024’s unprecedented extreme fire season. That note of caution is echoed by broader warnings from the research team: climate change-fueled wildfires have become a “dangerous new normal” that could erase recent hard-won conservation gains, especially as a new El Niño event is forecast to arrive in the second half of 2026, which is expected to push global temperatures even higher and amplify the risk of extreme drought, heatwaves, and large-scale wildfires.

    Matthew Hansen, director of the University of Maryland’s GLAD Lab, which analyzes satellite forest data, emphasized that one year of progress is not enough to secure long-term tropical forest conservation. “A good year is a good year, but you need good years forever if you’re going to conserve, for example, the tropical rainforest,” Hansen said during a media briefing on the report.

    The bulk of 2025’s slowdown can be traced to aggressive policy action in Brazil, home to the world’s largest tropical rainforest, the Amazon. Under the administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who took office in 2023, Brazil has reinvigorated national anti-deforestation enforcement, relaunched a comprehensive anti-deforestation action plan, and increased penalties for illegal environmental activity. Data shows Brazil’s non-fire related forest loss dropped 41% from 2024 levels, hitting the lowest rate recorded since tracking began. Even so, agriculture remains the single largest driver of deforestation globally, and Brazil’s forests still face pressure from clearing for soy cultivation and cattle ranching, while several Amazonian states have recently passed local legislation that weakens federal environmental protections.

    Other nations have also seen success from strong policy intervention. Neighboring Colombia recorded a 17% drop in forest loss, hitting its second lowest annual rate since 2016, driven by new government policies and land-use agreements that limit unregulated clearing. In Indonesia, forest loss rose 14% in 2025 but remains far below the peak levels seen 10 years prior, while government action in Malaysia has stabilized deforestation rates. However, tropical forest loss remains critically high across other regions, including Bolivia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, and Madagascar, where weak policy enforcement and unregulated land clearing continue to drive widespread destruction.

    Across the globe, total tree cover loss fell 14% in 2025, but fires remain a growing driver of destruction. Fires accounted for 42% of all tropical tree cover loss last year, and over the past three years, fires have burned twice as much tree cover globally as they did two decades ago, according to the report. While most tropical fires are human-caused for land clearing, climate change has intensified natural fire cycles in northern and temperate forest regions. Last year, Canada experienced its second worst wildfire season on record, with blazes consuming more than 5.3 million hectares of forest.

    “Climate change and land clearing have shortened the fuse on global forest fires,” Hansen said. “They are turning seasonal disturbances into a near-permanent state of emergency.”

  • Cheaper, cleaner electric trucks overhaul China’s logistics

    Cheaper, cleaner electric trucks overhaul China’s logistics

    An hour’s drive from central Beijing, a gritty open-air charging lot hums with nonstop activity: heavy-duty trucks roll in, top up their batteries in minutes, and pull out again to deliver goods across northern China. This small stop is just one thread in a fast-expanding web of electric truck infrastructure that is upending China’s $500-billion logistics industry, and poised to reshape global road freight in the coming years.

    While China’s global leadership in electric passenger cars has been well documented for over a decade, the transition of heavy-duty commercial trucks to zero-emission powertrains is a far more recent shift, one that has accelerated sharply over just the past four years. Industry analysts and market data show the transition is moving far faster than many predicted, driven by falling battery costs, aggressive policy support, and a growing network of public charging and battery-swapping stations that solve the core range concerns that long held back adoption.

    Experts mark last year as the turning point for heavy-duty electric vehicle adoption in China. “Last year was the breakthrough for heavy electrified vehicles in China,” explained Lauri Myllyvirta, co-founder of the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air and a leading analyst of China’s energy transition. “If the infrastructure is there, the economics are there for an increasing number of logistics routes and requirements.”

    Market data bears this out: new energy (predominantly electric) truck models accounted for 29% of all new truck sales in China in 2025, up from just 14% in 2024, according to Commercial Vehicle World, a Beijing-based market intelligence firm. As recently as 2021, electric trucks made up less than 1% of total sales. Manufacturers and analysts widely expect the electric share of sales to cross 50% within the next three to five years, a milestone that would lock in the end of diesel truck growth in China.

    For the drivers who operate these trucks every day, the shift to electric models has brought immediate quality-of-life and cost improvements. At the Miyun District charging station, 43-year-old truck driver Wang, who switched to an electric rig last year, described the difference from his old diesel model as night and day. “It’s such a breeze!” he told AFP while connecting his truck to a fast charger. “My old vehicle had over 10 gears, and its operation was so cumbersome. But with this one, you don’t have to do a thing — it’s all automatic.”

    Wang added that the push toward electric trucks is driven by both national policy incentives and basic market economics that make zero-emission models more profitable for logistics companies and independent drivers alike. “It’s just survival of the fittest. Now, with freight expenses and everything, people are trying to earn a bit more, and this one has lower operating costs.”

    Another driver at the station, Zhang, switched to an electric Howo-branded truck, built by state-owned manufacturer Sinotruk, two months ago after years driving a natural gas-powered rig. Hauling sand and gravel for short-haul construction trips around Beijing, Zhang noted that his new truck has a maximum range of 240 to 250 kilometers, which works for his daily route but is not yet suited for long-haul cross-country trips. “The power is pretty strong, the acceleration is fast. It’s all about speed, but the range is a bit lacking,” he said.

    As domestic adoption grows increasingly rapid, Chinese electric truck manufacturers are now setting their sights on international markets, following the same expansion path that turned Chinese passenger EV brands into global competitors. “Similar to passenger vehicles, China’s heavy truck manufacturers are beginning to view export markets as an inevitable strategy due to rising competition and the eventual saturation in the Chinese market,” said Christopher Doleman, an energy analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

    Doleman added that recent global energy market volatility sparked by the ongoing Middle East war has acted as an unexpected accelerant for this global transition. “There is likely to be higher demand for electric heavy-duty vehicles as fleet owners try to minimise their vulnerability to volatile diesel costs,” he explained. Han Wen, founder of Belgium-based electric truck startup Windrose Technology, confirmed that the shift has already boosted demand for zero-emission models globally.

    Founded in 2022, Windrose leverages China’s world-leading EV supply chain to compete in the emerging global long-haul electric truck market, going head-to-head with Tesla’s Semi. Han notes that range remains the biggest technical barrier to full adoption, but his company’s current models already deliver up to 700 kilometers on a full charge, with plans to push that to 1,000 kilometers by 2030. With road approval already secured across Europe, the U.S., China and South America, Windrose is ramping up production rapidly: it targets building 1,000 trucks this year, 10,000 in 2026, and 100,000 annually by 2030.

    For industry insiders like Han, the economic case for electric trucks is already settled, and the end of diesel dominance is not far away. “Economically, there is no more question at all that electric is superior,” he said. “I think we’re right on the cusp of a total obliteration of diesel trucks as a product category.”

  • An experimental cafe run by AI opens in Stockholm

    An experimental cafe run by AI opens in Stockholm

    In a quiet residential neighborhood of Stockholm, a new experimental cafe is turning heads by putting an artificial intelligence in full charge of daily operations. Dubbed Andon Cafe, this minimalist space—outfitted with soft gray walls and small potted plants dotted across sparse tables—looks indistinguishable from any other trendy local coffee shop at first glance. Avocado toasts sit on the menu, and frothy lattes are pulled by hand by human staff. But behind the scenes, every major and minor decision is made by Mona, an AI chatbot built on Google’s Gemini large language model.

    The innovative project is the brainchild of Andon Labs, a 10-person startup based in San Francisco. The company’s goal is not just to open a coffee shop, but to proactively explore the future of AI integration in workplaces and society before autonomous AI management becomes widespread. When the venture launched, the startup handed the AI a lease for the space, a small amount of starting capital, and one simple directive: run the cafe profitably.

    Mona hit the ground running immediately. The AI handled all administrative groundwork, from securing required operating permits to designing the full food and drink menu, sourcing suppliers, and managing ongoing inventory restocking. Recognizing that AI could not physically prepare beverages or serve customers, Mona also took charge of the entire hiring process for front-of-house and back-of-house staff: she posted job listings on major recruiting platforms Indeed and LinkedIn, conducted 30-minute phone interviews with candidates, and made final hiring decisions independently.

    One of the two human employees Mona hired is barista Kajetan Grzelczak, who initially thought the unusual job posting was an April Fools’ prank when he first came across it. After completing his interview with the AI, he received a job offer, and now works behind the cafe’s counter. Grzelczak notes that while Mona set a competitive salary for the role, the AI has notable flaws in management: it texts him at all hours of the night, repeatedly overlooks his holiday requests, and often requires him to cover unexpected inventory purchases out of his own pocket. The AI also struggles with accurate inventory ordering, a shortcoming Grzelczak has leaned into by creating what he calls a “wall of shame” — a set of shelves displaying some of Mona’s most unnecessary over-orders, including 10 liters of cooking oil and 15 kilograms of canned tinned tomatoes that do not fit any menu item and cannot be used.

    Visitors to the cafe can interact with Mona directly via a dedicated phone placed in one corner of the space, and a large wall-mounted screen updates the cafe’s real-time revenue and balance for anyone to see. The project is designed explicitly to probe the ethical and practical questions that come with AI in management roles. “We think that AI will be a big part of the society and the job market in the future,” explained Hanna Petersson, a member of Andon Labs’ technical team. “We want to test that before that’s the reality and see what ethical questions arise when, for example, an AI employs human beings.” Petersson added that the startup has so far been surprised by how well Mona has handled core responsibilities, noting that the team would only intervene if the AI made unethical decisions around pay or benefits, which it has not.

    Just one week after opening, the experimental cafe has already become a popular attraction for curious locals and tech industry professionals, drawing between 50 and 80 visitors every single day. Among the early guests is Urja Risal, a 27-year-old AI researcher who visited with a friend. Risal pointed out that while public discourse often focuses on broad claims that AI will displace human workers, few people have had the chance to see what AI management actually looks like in practice. “I hope more people interact with Mona and think about the actual risks of having an AI manager,” she said, pointing to unaddressed questions like how an AI would respond if an employee was injured on the job.

  • Australian mother who faked son’s cancer to fund ‘lavish’ lifestyle jailed

    Australian mother who faked son’s cancer to fund ‘lavish’ lifestyle jailed

    In a case that has shocked communities across South Australia, a 45-year-old local mother has been handed a four-year and three-month prison sentence for orchestrating an elaborate scam that saw her fake her six-year-old son’s terminal eye cancer to steal thousands of dollars in charitable donations for her own extravagant spending.

    The court outlined how the deceptive scheme began shortly after the young boy received a routine visit to an ophthalmologist for a minor accident-related eye checkup. Rather than sharing the benign outcome of the appointment, the mother wove a lie that her child had developed aggressive eye cancer, spreading the false narrative to her husband, extended family, friends, and members of the local school community.

    To sell the hoax, she took deliberate steps to physically fake the symptoms of a child undergoing cancer treatment: she shaved the boy’s head and eyebrows, wrapped his head and hands in unnecessary bandages, and administered regular medication to mislead observers. She even confined her son to a wheelchair and restricted his normal daily activities, convincing everyone around them that he was receiving ongoing radiation therapy. Prosecutors told the court these actions were not reckless mistakes, but a cold, calculated plan that selfishly turned a vulnerable child into a prop to exploit the kindness of others.

    Over the course of the scam, the mother collected tens of thousands of dollars in donations, which she used to fund a luxury lifestyle beyond her income, including purchases of high-end brand-name goods to match what she claimed her family “needed.” Her defense team told the court that the woman developed a severe gambling addiction in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which left her in crippling financial stress. They argued that the crime was a catastrophic lapse in judgment, not a premeditated plan to harm her child, and added that she had been formally diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and had taken responsibility for her actions by entering a guilty plea.

    The woman pleaded guilty to 11 total charges: one count of intentional conduct likely to cause serious harm to her child, and 10 counts of fraud and deception. Her husband was initially charged as an accomplice in the case, but prosecutors later dropped all charges against him after clearing him of any involvement. In his emotional victim impact statement, the husband described how his wife’s betrayal had completely destroyed his family’s life. “I had complete trust in you as my wife and I never doubted you. I was devoted to our family. Now I feel like a pawn in a chess game,” he wrote. Speaking to reporters outside the District Court following the sentencing, he added that no amount of prison time could ever repair the harm done to his two children.

    Judge described the mother’s actions as exceptionally cruel, manipulative, and premeditated during the sentencing hearing on Wednesday. While the woman will serve a total of four years and three months behind bars, she is set to become eligible for parole in April 2025. The case has sparked widespread debate across Australia about the need for tighter regulation of community fundraising, and the long-term harm that fraudulent charity scams can inflict on both donors and the children exploited in these schemes.

  • AFL 2026: Essendon coach Brad Scott goes into bat for under-siege defender Ben McKay

    AFL 2026: Essendon coach Brad Scott goes into bat for under-siege defender Ben McKay

    As AFL’s Essendon Bombers navigate a fresh mid-season injury setback, head coach Brad Scott has launched a passionate defense of his under-pressure key defender Ben McKay, hitting out at what he calls unfair and lazy public criticism of the player’s recent form.

    McKay came under widespread fire after his underwhelming performance in the high-profile Anzac Day clash against Collingwood. The most heavily criticized moment came when McKay celebrated a spoil that stayed in play, ultimately setting up the Magpies for a match-changing goal. In a media address Wednesday, Scott pushed back against the targeted criticism of McKay, arguing that the 26-year-old defender and the Essendon club as a whole have become easy, convenient punching bags for external commentators.

    “I get it’s an easy target. The ability to individualize [externally] is easy, bordering on lazy,” Scott told reporters. “But it’s not him in isolation. We had situations in that game where every player would like moments back.” Scott acknowledged earlier that McKay has not hit his personal best form this season, but added that lapses in confidence are a universal experience for every player competing at the top level of the sport.

    “Every player in the competition has, quote-end-quote, confidence issues in their career,” Scott said. “That’s part of being in a cut-throat environment where you’re playing against the very best every week. When you’re a key defender, you play on very good players every week, so you’re right on the edge. Is he just feeling great about himself? Probably not. But does that matter, should that impact your performance? No, it shouldn’t. That’s what we work really hard on: trying to bounce back from difficult situations.” Scott added that McKay’s issue was simply a failure to execute basic fundamentals, not a systemic collapse in form.

    Off the back of the debate over McKay, the Bombers received a disappointing injury blow Monday: promising young small forward Isaac Kako has been ruled out of action for at least the next month with a back stress fracture, an injury the club has classified as medium-term. Scott said the club is unable to give a more exact return timeline at this stage, to avoid releasing inaccurate information to fans.

    “Medium term is the best we can do at the moment because we don’t want to put something out that’s false,” Scott explained. “The bottom line is that he won’t be playing in the next month or so, at least.” The Essendon coach also highlighted a worrying growing trend of stress fractures in young draftees across the entire AFL league, noting that the injury, traditionally associated with tall, high-impact athletes like 200cm fast bowlers, is now appearing more frequently in smaller players like Kako. Scott added that another Essendon draftee, Sullivan Robey, suffered the same injury before even joining the club’s training program.

    “These back stress fractures are unfortunately – not just at our club but across the board – becoming a little bit too common for young players coming into the system,” Scott said. “They’re almost like you expect them in 200cm fast bowlers but not in 180cm small forwards… I think probably the loads on young players prior to the draft is something we would be keen to have a look at.”

  • The loyal, lonely keepers of Sudan’s pyramids

    The loyal, lonely keepers of Sudan’s pyramids

    Three full years into Sudan’s devastating civil conflict between the national army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), one of the country’s most precious cultural treasures, the ancient Meroe Pyramids, stands protected only by a tiny band of caretakers bound by generations of legacy and devotion.

    Mostafa Ahmed Mostafa, 65, is the latest descendant in a family line of groundskeepers that has tended to these desert monuments for decades. Clad entirely in white, he walks as a near-solitary sentinel across the 2,400-year-old Bajrawiya necropolis, part of the Island of Meroe UNESCO World Heritage Site that holds 140 pyramids constructed during the peak of the ancient Kingdom of Kush. “These pyramids are ours, it’s our history, it’s who we are,” he says, standing in the shadow of the weathered dark sandstone structures.

    None of the Meroe pyramids remain fully intact. The first wave of destruction came in the 1800s, when European treasure hunters used dynamite to blast apart tombs in search of ancient artifacts. Two more centuries of wind-blown sand and erosive rain have reduced many structures to rubble, leaving broken remnants of the once-majoric Kushite burial monuments.

    A three-hour drive from Sudan’s capital Khartoum, Meroe was once the country’s most-visited heritage attraction. Today, the only sound cutting across the silent desert is the occasional grunt of a lone camel. Mostafa shares site duties with just two other people: Mahmoud Soliman, lead archaeologist and site director, and young archaeologist Mohamed Mubarak, who has worked at Meroe since 2018. The small team cobbles together what limited resources they can find to slow the damage caused by shifting sand and seasonal rainfall.

    Apart from a brief early-war influx of displaced people seeking distraction from the crisis, the site has remained largely abandoned. That reality is a stark contrast to Meroe’s pre-war revival, when Sudanese heritage enjoyed growing national attention following the 2018-2019 popular uprising that ousted longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir. Soliman recalls peak weekends bringing busloads of 200 tourists at a time from Khartoum, as young Sudanese embraced their ancient history and organized group trips to explore the site. A popular protest chant of the era even wove Kushite heritage into the revolution: “My grandfather Taharqa, my grandmother Kandaka,” referencing a legendary Kushite pharaoh and the title of ancient Kushite queens, who became symbols of the revolution’s women leaders.

    Local communities also relied on Meroe’s tourist trade. Nearby Tarabil village, named for the local word for “pyramids,” was home to dozens of artisans who sold handcrafted souvenirs and rented camels to visitors, with livelihoods entirely tied to the site. On a recent April visit, Khaled Abdelrazek, a 45-year-old local artisan, hurried to the entrance as soon as he heard visitors had arrived, displaying his hand-carved miniature sandstone pyramids and reminiscing about the days when dozens of vendors plied their trade at the site.

    Months before war erupted in the final days of Ramadan 2023, Meroe was gearing up for a busy season: documentary film crews had visited, a music festival had been hosted, and big plans were in place for post-Eid tourism. All of those plans were dashed the moment fighting broke out.

    Today, the team’s primary concern is constant vigilance against decay. Soliman walks the site scanning for new cracks, shifting sand dunes, and unstable scaffolding that needs repair ahead of each rainy season. Unlike the larger, more gradual-sloped pyramids of neighboring Egypt, Meroe’s smaller, steeper structures were originally engineered to shed rainwater and withstand sand movement, but every new crack opens the door to accelerated erosion.

    Queen Amanishakheto’s pyramid, the largest on site, built for the 1st century CE Kushite ruler, offers one of the most stark examples of the site’s history of destruction. In 1834, Italian adventurer Giuseppe Ferlini — who destroyed dozens of Meroe’s pyramids in search of treasure — completely levelled Amanishakheto’s tomb and stole her royal jewelry, which now remains on display in Egyptian museums in Berlin and Munich. Today, the queen’s tomb is little more than an empty sandbox, though the outer wall of her mortuary temple still stands, bearing a larger-than-life carving of the queen holding a spear and smiting enemy captives, a reminder of the power she held 2,000 years ago.

    Wandering past ancient reliefs of the Kushite lion god Apademak, Egyptian-derived deities Amun and Anubis, lotus carvings, and Meroitic hieroglyphs, Soliman shared his quiet hope for the future. For now, large-scale restoration and a return of tourism remains a distant dream, he says, but he cannot help but hold onto hope: “This place has so much potential.”

    For the small team guarding Meroe, even amid a national crisis that has left most Sudanese focused solely on securing food, water, and shelter, protecting this heritage for future generations remains a non-negotiable mission. “Now, everyone’s top priority is of course food and water and shelter. But this is also important,” Mubarak says. “We need to protect this for future generations, we can’t let it be destroyed or wither away.”

  • Europe climate report signals rising extremes

    Europe climate report signals rising extremes

    A landmark new climate report released on Wednesday has delivered a stark warning about the accelerating climate crisis unfolding across Europe, documenting a year of unprecedented extreme weather events in 2025 that spanned from the Mediterranean basin all the way to the Arctic Circle. Co-published by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the 2025 European State of the Climate report confirms that the continent, already the fastest-warming on Earth, continues to face worsening and more frequent climate extremes that touch every corner of the region.

    WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo emphasized in a public briefing that Europe’s warming trajectory has outpaced the rest of the globe by a significant margin since 1980. “Since 1980, Europe has been warming twice as fast as the global average, making it the fastest warming continent on Earth,” Saulo stated. “Heatwaves are becoming more frequent and severe. And in 2025, we saw long duration heatwaves from the Mediterranean to the Arctic Circle.”

    The report’s temperature data confirms that over 95 percent of Europe recorded annual temperatures above the long-term average, with the United Kingdom, Norway, and Iceland all setting new all-time records for their warmest years ever measured. One of the most striking findings came from the Fennoscandia region, which encompasses sub-Arctic Finland, Norway, and Sweden. In July 2025, the area endured a three-week heatwave of historic proportions, with temperatures pushing above 30 degrees Celsius inside the Arctic Circle. Large portions of the region experienced nearly two straight weeks of strong heat stress, where apparent temperatures climb above 32 degrees Celsius – a stark contrast to the typical two days of such conditions the region sees in an average year.

    Extreme heat was not limited to northern Europe. In southern Europe, Turkey recorded temperatures above 50°C for the first time in its history last July, while roughly 85 percent of Greece’s population was exposed to extreme temperatures at or above 40°C. Western and southern Europe faced two major back-to-back heatwaves in June, impacting most of Spain, Portugal, France, and southern parts of the United Kingdom, with a third intense heatwave hitting the same three countries in August. Looking ahead, climate officials warn that another extremely hot summer could be on the horizon for Europe and the globe, as the El Niño weather phenomenon – the same pattern that drove global temperatures to record highs in 2024 – is projected to return in the second half of 2026.

    Beyond record heat, the report documents dramatic ice and snow loss across the continent. Every European glacier experienced net mass loss in 2025, with Iceland recording its second-largest annual melt event on record. Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), which runs the Copernicus program, highlighted the scale of ice loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet: the massive ice body lost approximately 139 billion tonnes of ice in 2025 – equal to one 100 Olympic-sized swimming pools of ice lost every single hour. That single year of ice loss raised global average sea levels by 0.4 millimeters. Europe’s seasonal snow cover also hit its third-lowest level on record in 2025. The report notes that regardless of future carbon emission reduction scenarios, glaciers across Europe and the globe are projected to continue losing mass through the end of the 21st century.

    Marine environments also faced unprecedented stress last year. 2025 marked the fourth consecutive year that Europe’s annual average sea surface temperature hit a new record high, with 86 percent of European ocean waters experiencing at least one day of strong marine heatwave conditions. Claire Scannell, report author and principal meteorologist at Ireland’s national weather service, explained that these extreme ocean heat events pose severe risks to critical marine biodiversity, particularly Mediterranean seagrass meadows. These meadows act as natural coastal flood barriers and serve as vital nursery habitats that support thousands of fish species per acre, making their protection critical to both ecosystems and coastal communities.

    On land, the total area burned by wildfires across Europe reached a new record high of 1,034,550 hectares in 2025. While extreme rainfall and widespread flooding were less extensive than in recent years, the report still recorded that storms and flood events killed at least 21 people and displaced or affected more than 14,500 residents across the continent.

    Against this grim backdrop, the report did note one positive trend: for the third year in a row, renewable energy sources produced more electricity than fossil fuels across Europe, accounting for 46.4 percent of total continental power generation. Solar power in particular hit a new record, contributing 12.5 percent of Europe’s total electricity. Even so, EU climate officials stressed that this progress is not enough to address the accelerating crisis. Dusan Chrenek, principal advisor at the European Commission’s climate office, emphasized that “that’s not sufficient. We need to speed up. We need to work on transitioning away from fossil fuels.” European Commission official Mauro Facchini echoed that urgency, noting that all the report’s key climate indicators are “quite worrying,” and another EU official added that the findings underscore an urgent need for European nations to both accelerate their clean energy transitions and invest in adaptation measures to cope with unavoidable warming already locked into the climate system.

  • ‘Security blanket’: Daniel Tupou won’t sign with another NRL club if he can’t secure a new deal with the Roosters

    ‘Security blanket’: Daniel Tupou won’t sign with another NRL club if he can’t secure a new deal with the Roosters

    For 14 seasons, Daniel Tupou has been a staple on the left wing of the Sydney Roosters, and as the veteran winger approaches two of the biggest milestones of his legendary National Rugby League (NRL) career, he has made his long-term future clear: he will not play for any other NRL club.

    At 34 years old, with his 35th birthday set for June, Tupou is showing no signs of slowing down, putting together the kind of consistent form that would allow him to extend his tenure with the Roosters through to the 2027 season if a new contract is finalized. When asked about the possibility of a move to a rival NRL side, the towering winger, who has represented New South Wales, Tonga, and Australia at the international level, ruled it out entirely.

    “I’m too mature to go to another team and start all over again. It’ll be hard on the body. We’ll see what happens and we’ll go from there,” Tupou told reporters, adding that contract talks with his agent and the club are ongoing, with a resolution expected in the near future. A switch to rugby union remains a vague alternative option, but Tupou’s priority remains locking in another deal to stay where he has built his entire first-grade career.

    Tupou’s NRL journey began back in 2012, when he announced himself with a stunning hat-trick in just his second senior appearance. When current head coach Trent Robinson took the helm the following year, Tupou faced a make-or-break battle for a starting wing spot opposite rising star Roger Tuivasa-Sheck, fighting off competition from fellow winger Michael Oldfield to hold his place. Looking back on that high-stakes pre-season contest, Tupou says his focused work ethic ultimately won out.

    “I think the pre-season I had was just me putting my head down and focusing on myself to put my best foot forward. I think I showcased that in the pre-season and I was lucky enough to get that starting spot and hold onto that,” he recalled. That opportunity led to a breakout 2013 campaign, where Tupou scored 14 tries, including a gravity-defying match-winning try in the grand final that has become the defining play of his career.

    Robinson has since described Tupou as a “security blanket” on the left wing, a reliable playmaker and lethal finisher who has been one of the most consistent outside backs in the entire competition over his 14-year tenure. Tupou says he remains grateful for the chance he earned back in 2013, which set the trajectory for his Hall of Fame-worthy career.

    “I’m definitely feeling it, but I guess I’ve got a mad poker face on. Fourteen years is a long time, so I’m blessed that I’m still playing and using this gift to play on the big stage with the boys. It’s truly an honour,” he said.

    In the coming weeks, Tupou will hit two historic career milestones, achievements that cement his place among NRL greats. He currently sits on 189 career first-grade tries, just one behind Melbourne Storm legend Billy Slater for third place on the competition’s all-time try-scoring list. After bagging a double in the Roosters’ dominant Anzac Day win over the St. George Illawarra Dragons, Tupou is on the cusp of overtaking Slater, and is on track to become only the third player in NRL history to hit the 200-try mark. He joked that he would have already matched Slater’s tally if not for a dropped ball with a clear try line open earlier this season, a missed opportunity both he and Robinson have lamented.

    Tupou is also closing in on the 300-game milestone, a mark he is expected to hit when the Roosters face the Storm in Round 13. Roosters fans, who have watched Tupou dominate for nearly a decade and a half, have celebrated the veteran’s loyalty and historic run, as he continues to add to his legacy with one of the league’s most iconic clubs.

  • Jerome Powell: Fed chair who stood up to Trump set to finish tenure on top

    Jerome Powell: Fed chair who stood up to Trump set to finish tenure on top

    For a soft-spoken, careful-worded central banker, Jerome Powell has carved out an unexpected place in modern U.S. political history: one of the few public figures to stand firm against relentless pressure from former (and current) President Donald Trump, and emerge on top as he prepares to wrap up his tenure as Federal Reserve Chair. On Wednesday, Powell will take the podium for what is widely expected to be his final press conference as head of the world’s most influential central bank, closing out a turbulent term marked by repeated attacks from the Republican president that many observers now agree Powell ultimately prevailed against.

    The turning point came last week, when the U.S. Department of Justice announced it would drop the unprecedented investigation into Powell and the Federal Reserve over alleged cost overruns on a headquarters renovation project. The probe was first revealed by Powell himself in January, when he warned that the inquiry was part of a broader pattern of threats and pressure from the Trump administration. The investigation gained new traction amid Trump’s attempt to oust sitting Fed Governor Lisa Cook over unproven mortgage fraud allegations, but key Republican Senator Susan Collins (per internal reporting) vowed to block any Trump nominee to replace Powell unless the probe was terminated. Powell also hardened his position in March, announcing he would refuse to step down from the Fed’s Board of Governors — where his term as a member runs through January 2028, regardless of his chair tenure — as long as the investigation remained open.

    Now that the probe has been dismissed, all attention shifts to Powell’s next move: whether he will remain on the Fed Board after stepping down as chair, an unusual but not unprecedented move that would block Trump from filling the board seat with his own nominee. EY-Parthenon chief economist Gregory Daco argues that Powell is more likely than not to stay on, noting that the decision would be driven by a desire for institutional continuity, not partisan gain. “The rationale is institutional continuity, not politics,” Daco explained.

    Powell’s path to this moment has been marked by tumult from start to finish. A 73-year-old former investment banker with deep cross-partisan policy experience, he was first tapped to lead the Fed by Trump in 2018, replacing outgoing chair Janet Yellen. It did not take long for tensions to emerge: Trump attacked Powell repeatedly for raising interest rates to cool a overheating economy, hurling verbal insults that were unprecedented for a sitting president attacking an independent central bank.

    When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, Powell led the Fed in a dramatic, swift response, cutting benchmark interest rates to near zero and rolling out sweeping emergency support measures that are widely credited with preventing a far deeper global economic collapse. After President Joe Biden nominated Powell for a second term in 2021 — a nod to his commitment to central bank independence even from the opposite party — Powell oversaw another tough policy turn: a series of aggressive rate hikes starting in 2022 to curb post-pandemic inflation, followed by cautious rate cuts beginning in 2024 as inflation cooled and the Fed adjusted to the economic impact of Trump’s new sweeping tariffs.

    After Trump won re-election and returned to the White House, the attacks on Powell resumed, with Trump branding the Fed chair a “numbskull” and a “moron,” and even suggesting he could be dismissed over “fraud” linked to the $2.5 billion renovation project that formed the basis of the now-dismissed Justice Department probe. In recent months, Powell has shown willingness to compromise on certain policy priorities aligned with the Trump administration, most notably rolling back the Fed’s climate-related financial oversight work. But his refusal to back down on defending the Fed’s independence, experts say, has already cemented his legacy.

    “He will be seen as the guy who stood up for the independence of the Fed, and the rule of law,” Brookings Institution senior fellow David Wessel told AFP, adding that Powell’s resistance will leave a lasting mark as “a Fed chair with a spine.”

    Prior to joining the Fed as a governor in 2012, an appointment from then-President Barack Obama, Powell worked as a scholar at the Bipartisan Policy Center, and earlier in his career he served as a Treasury Department official under Republican President George H.W. Bush.