Global Pulse

标签： Oceania

大洋洲

  • US pins hopes on mediator Pakistan in push to end Iran war

    US pins hopes on mediator Pakistan in push to end Iran war

    Nearly three months after the United States and Israel launched large-scale military strikes on Iran that opened a full-scale conflict reshaping the Middle East, Washington is pinning its latest hopes on Pakistani mediation to break a months-long negotiation deadlock and reach a lasting peace agreement.

    The conflict, which began on February 28, triggered widespread regional instability, sent global energy and commodity prices soaring, and pushed the international economy to the edge of new turmoil. A ceasefire agreed on April 8 paused large-scale open fighting, but repeated rounds of talks have failed to produce a permanent deal that can fully end the crisis. On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that Washington expected new diplomatic momentum from Pakistani mediators, who were set to travel to Tehran the same day to advance talks.

    Pakistan has already emerged as a key third-party broker in the conflict, hosting the only direct face-to-face negotiations between U.S. and Iranian officials last month that were facilitated by Pakistan’s powerful Army Chief Asim Munir. Those high-stakes talks ultimately collapsed after Iran rejected what it called Washington’s “excessive demands.” In a sign of continued diplomatic push, Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi — a figure widely seen as close to Munir — made his second visit to Tehran in as many weeks on Wednesday. Iranian state media has cited anonymous sources suggesting Munir could travel to the Iranian capital as soon as Thursday, though Pakistani officials have so far offered no confirmation of the army chief’s travel plans.

    Beyond Pakistan’s mediation, China — another actor that has participated in regional efforts to end the war — announced Saturday that Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will visit Beijing for discussions linked to the diplomatic process.

    The current standoff remains razor-thin, with U.S. President Donald Trump confirming Wednesday that negotiations are balanced on a “borderline” between a final deal and a resumption of full-scale attacks. “If we don’t get the right answers, it goes very quickly. We’re all ready to go,” Trump told reporters, adding that a deal could be reached “very quickly” or within days, but insisted Iran must provide “100 percent good answers” to U.S. demands to avoid renewed hostilities.

    Trump’s fresh pressure on Iran comes as the president faces growing domestic political pressure to resolve the conflict, as U.S. consumers face soaring energy costs tied to the ongoing regional disruption. Rubio also publicly criticized U.S. NATO allies this week for declining to back the U.S.-led campaign against Iran, saying “We were very upset about that” after allies refused to take even non-military action in support of the effort.

    For its part, Iran has remained firm in its own demands and warned it will respond aggressively if hostilities resume. Iranian chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Wednesday that “The enemy’s movements, both overt and clandestine, show that despite economic and political pressure, it has not abandoned its military objectives and is seeking to start a new war,” adding that Iran would launch a “forceful response” to any new attack. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei confirmed Tehran is still reviewing latest proposals from Washington, but repeated Iran’s core demands: the full release of billions of dollars in Iranian assets frozen abroad and an end to the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian territory.

    The most critical unresolved sticking point remains the ongoing blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic global waterway that carries roughly one-fifth of the world’s daily oil and liquefied natural gas supplies, and one-third of global fertilizer shipments. While the April ceasefire paused open fighting, it did not reopen the strait, which Iran closed as a retaliatory measure after the war began. Only a tiny volume of shipping has been allowed through in recent weeks under a new Iranian toll system, and Iran’s new regulatory body for the strait has claimed territorial control extending into Emirati waters — a move that drew an immediate sharp rebuke from Abu Dhabi. Tensions between Iran and the United Arab Emirates have remained severely strained since the war began, after Iran launched missile and drone strikes on Gulf states in retaliation for the U.S.-Israeli offensive.

    As global pre-war oil stockpiles continue to deplete, fears are growing that the prolonged closure will trigger further increases in energy and food prices, worsening existing strains on the world economy. In addition to the core Iran-U.S. standoff, conflict continues to simmer on a second front in Lebanon. Lebanese state media reported Thursday that an Israeli strike damaged a hospital in southern Lebanon, where Israeli forces have continued to carry out operations, demolitions and evacuation orders even after an April 17 truce. Israel says its strikes target Hezbollah, which has continued to launch its own attacks on Israeli territory in turn.

    Hezbollah entered the war after the killing of Iran’s supreme leader in U.S.-Israeli strikes, launching retaliatory rocket fire that dragged Lebanon into the broader regional conflict. Lebanon’s health ministry says Israeli attacks have killed at least 3,089 people in the country since March 2. On Thursday, the U.S. announced new sanctions targeting nine individuals with alleged links to Hezbollah, accusing them of “obstructing the peace process in Lebanon.”

  • ‘Dread’: coral scientists fear bleaching El Nino could bring

    ‘Dread’: coral scientists fear bleaching El Nino could bring

    As climate change continues to push ocean temperatures to record highs, leading coral researchers around the globe are sounding the alarm: a potentially powerful El Nino weather pattern forecast for this year could deliver a fatal blow to reef ecosystems already reeling from repeated mass bleaching.

    Meteorological forecasters have grown increasingly confident that the cyclical climate phenomenon, which emerges every two to seven years, will return in 2025 with unusual strength. El Nino disrupts established global weather patterns, triggering severe drought in some regions and catastrophic flooding in others. For coral reefs, the most dangerous impacts stem from El Nino’s tie to elevated ocean temperatures and reduced cloud cover across many tropical basins—two conditions that directly trigger mass bleaching.

    “Every single global coral bleaching event in recorded history has coincided with an El Nino year,” noted Clint Oakley, a coral biologist at Victoria University of Wellington. He shared that he feels “dread, though not surprise” at the prospect of a strong event, which he says could prove “serious and devastating for reef systems across the world.”

    To understand why warm water poses such an existential threat to corals requires looking at their symbiotic biological relationship: corals rely on tiny algae called zooxanthellae that live within their calcium carbonate structures. The algae use photosynthesis to produce nutrient-rich food for their coral hosts, and in exchange gain a stable habitat and access to the sunlight needed for photosynthesis. The algae are also responsible for the vivid, distinctive colors that make reefs so iconic. When ocean temperatures rise too far above historical averages, however, this delicate partnership breaks down. Researchers have not yet pinpointed the exact biological mechanism that triggers this collapse, but the outcome is consistent: the algae either leave the coral tissue voluntarily or are expelled by the coral itself. Without their algae symbionts, corals are left stark white, a state called bleaching, and slowly starve because they no longer receive the nutrients the algae provide.

    If ocean temperatures drop back to safe levels quickly enough, corals can survive on stored energy reserves until the algae return. Even then, surviving bleaching leaves corals weakened, malnourished, far more susceptible to disease, and unable to allocate enough energy to reproduce. If heat stress persists or reaches extreme levels, the coral will starve to death before temperatures cool, explained Jen Matthews, a coral scientist at the University of Technology Sydney.

    Occasional localised bleaching is a natural part of reef ecosystem dynamics, and can even help cull weaker corals to make space for hardier individuals. The modern crisis stems from repeated mass global bleaching events, which have become the new normal as climate change drives steady long-term ocean warming. When reefs are hit by bleaching before they have fully recovered and had time to produce new juvenile corals to replace lost individuals, the ecosystem enters an irreversible downward spiral, Oakley said.

    The most recent global mass bleaching event was officially declared in 2024, and its impacts have already been devastating. In the Caribbean, multiple key coral species are now classified as functionally extinct, meaning they can no longer reproduce enough to sustain stable populations. Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest reef system and the only living structure visible from space, has already lost between 15 and 40 percent of its total coral cover across different regions since 2024.

    A powerful “super El Nino” this year would add new heat stress to ocean temperatures that are already far above the safe threshold for most corals. Oakley pointed out that average global ocean temperatures over the past five years are already equal to the peak temperatures recorded during the 1998 global bleaching event, the first major mass bleaching event in modern history.

    While a small subset of coral species and individual colonies have shown natural resilience to warm water, these hardier corals are not abundant enough to replace the massive losses caused by repeated bleaching. Scientists have pursued a range of experimental interventions to protect vulnerable reefs, from nutrient gels that feed starved corals to solar shading that cools reefs during heatwaves, and even genetic engineering to breed more heat-tolerant coral strains. These innovative strategies are important, Matthews said, but ultimately they only “buy time” for reefs rather than solving the core crisis.

    Researchers emphasize that key details about this year’s El Nino remain uncertain: while an event is very likely, its exact strength and duration are still unpredictable, said Kimberley Reid, an atmospheric science research fellow at the University of Melbourne. El Nino is just one factor shaping regional ocean conditions, she added, with local ocean temperature anomalies and regional wind patterns also playing major roles in how much heat stress reefs will face.

    Even if an unusually strong El Nino does not materialise this year, the long-term outlook for global coral reefs remains grim. Roughly half of the world’s total coral cover has already been lost over the past few decades. These ecosystems are not just tourist attractions: they provide critical spawning and nursery habitat for commercial fish species that feed billions of people around the world, and act as natural sea walls that absorb storm energy and protect coastal communities from flooding and erosion.

    Matthews called the current trajectory a sobering reality. “If we don’t get our act together on climate change, then all we’re doing is buying time until our reefs, as we know them, disappear.”

  • Gibraltar monkeys eat soil in junk food detox: study

    Gibraltar monkeys eat soil in junk food detox: study

    Gibraltar’s famous colony of Barbary macaques, a top draw for international visitors to this British overseas territory on southern Spain’s border, have developed an unexpected adaptive behavior: they deliberately eat soil to counteract gastrointestinal distress caused by consuming large amounts of human junk food, according to groundbreaking new research published by an international team of biologists.

    Originating from North Africa, the population of roughly 230 macaques holds a unique status as the only free-ranging colony of wild monkeys in all of Europe, per data from the Gibraltar Ornithological and Natural History Society. For millions of tourists who flock to the territory’s iconic Rock of Gibraltar each year, seeing these charismatic primates is often the highlight of their trip. “We came here specifically for the monkeys, because this is the only place in Europe you can see wild populations of them,” 29-year-old Danish visitor Elish told Agence France-Presse. But the tourist attention comes with a hidden cost: despite repeated warnings, many visitors either feed the macaques directly or leave food waste accessible, and the animals regularly raid snacks from unaware guests.

    Local authorities have long enforced a ban on feeding the macaques, with posted warning signs across the territory and fines for violations reaching as high as £4,000 ($5,350). But enforcement remains a major challenge: thousands of tourists visit the Rock daily, and the macaques, which can grow up to 15 kilograms, are bold, independent, and skilled at snatching ice cream, cakes, crisps, chocolate and other processed treats from unguarded bags, picnic baskets and public waste bins. Over time, this steady access to unhealthy human food has drastically altered the macaques’ natural diet, which originally consists of wild fruits, leafy vegetables, seeds and native vegetation.

    The new study, conducted by researchers from the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Paris-Sorbonne and Gibraltar’s local environment department between August 2022 and April 2024, documents this soil-eating behavior — formally called geophagy — for the first time in this Gibraltar macaque population. The research team found that geophagy occurs at far higher rates among this colony than it does among other macaque populations around the world, and that the behavior spikes in summer, when tourist numbers to Gibraltar reach their annual peak. Critically, the behavior was not observed at all in a separate group of Gibraltar macaques that have no regular contact with tourists and do not access human junk food.

    “That is a strong argument for the direct association between soil-eating and the consumption of human food,” explained Sylvain Lemoine, co-author of the study and assistant professor of biological anthropology at the University of Cambridge. Lemoine noted that the processed junk food the macaques consume is extremely high in sugar, salt and dairy — ingredients that the primates’ digestive systems are not evolved to process properly, leading to frequent stomach discomfort and disrupted gut microbiomes.

    The research team classifies the behavior as an early form of self-medication. They hypothesize that the soil the macaques consume carries beneficial microfungi and natural microorganisms that help rebalance the disordered gut microbiome after a junk food binge, in addition to absorbing toxins to reduce gastrointestinal distress. Bethany Maxwell, technical officer at the Gibraltar Botanic Gardens, pointed out that while primate geophagy is already well-documented in scientific literature, the link to excess junk food consumption from human tourism is an entirely new finding. “We already know primates eat soil mostly to detoxify or to supplement missing nutrients, but this study shows that this behavior is also being driven here by eating too much unhealthy human food — that’s something quite novel,” Maxwell said.

  • ‘There’s a narrative’: Daniel Atkinson rubbishes halfback theory as he welcomes Luke Metcalf’s 2027 arrival

    ‘There’s a narrative’: Daniel Atkinson rubbishes halfback theory as he welcomes Luke Metcalf’s 2027 arrival

    The currently winless St. George Illawarra Dragons of the National Rugby League (NRL) have secured one of the biggest off-season recruitment coups of 2027, locking in dynamic playmaker Luke Metcalf on a three-year contract from the New Zealand Warriors. But the high-profile addition of the 2025 standout, whose season was cut short by a career-threatening knee injury, has ignited fresh discussion over who will fill the starting halves spots when Metcalf makes his debut for the Red V.

    Metcalf’s arrival marks the latest in a string of promising off-season additions for the rebuilding club, which has also poached Scott Drinkwater, Keaon Koloamatangi and Phil Sami from rival franchises ahead of the 2027 campaign. The roster overhaul signals the Dragons’ clear ambition to climb out of their current on-field slump and re-establish themselves as title contenders in coming seasons.

    However, the signing has thrown up a tricky selection puzzle for the head coach that will replace departing mentor Shane Flanagan ahead of 2027. Current Dragons playmaker Daniel Atkinson, who joined the club from Cronulla Sharks on a three-year deal earlier this year, was initially framed as the franchise’s long-term starting halfback. But after shifting to five-eighth in 2026, he now faces stiff competition for a starting halves spot alongside Metcalf, with young gun Kade Reed and incumbent Kyle Flanagan (son of outgoing coach Shane Flanagan) also in the mix for a role.

    Appearing this week ahead of his Round 12 start at five-eighth – his first game back after sustaining a fractured hand – Atkinson pushed back on the narrative that he joined the Dragons with the sole aim of securing the starting halfback job. The versatile playmaker argued he is solely focused on turning the club’s 2026 season around rather than worrying about selection battles 12 months away.

    “Everyone here’s got to earn the number on their back, but that’s a long time away,” Atkinson told reporters. “There’s a narrative there that I came here to be a halfback. I came here to be in the halves and to play my game, which is running, kicking, and tackling well. So all I’m thinking about is how I can benefit this team at the moment. I’m not thinking (about) 2027. Obviously, it’s very exciting for him coming here, but I’ve got a job to do for this club first in 2026.”

    Having spent the early years of his professional career rotating between the bench, reserve grade and five-eighth, Atkinson said he has embraced the pressure of being a starting playmaker at one of the league’s most high-profile clubs, even amid the team’s current winless drought. Entering Round 12, the Dragons hold the worst attacking record in the NRL, but Atkinson says the playing group is not shying away from the challenge of turning their form around.

    “I love it. It’s what I signed up for,” he said. “Obviously I’m not loving the circumstances we’re in at the moment, but then again, I’ve put myself in this circumstance and I’m going to face it head-on. I want us to be the ones who get us out of here, and I’m not going to shy away from that. I’m not proud of where we are. It’s a very passionate club with passionate fans, and everyone inside those doors are trying their arses off. The coaches, everyone from the top down, the players, we don’t want to be in this circumstance. Nobody does, so you can put money that we’re trying our arses off and we’re trying to turn the tide.”

    On Saturday, Atkinson will partner Kyle Flanagan in the halves, as Flanagan looks to rebuild form following a turbulent month that saw his father Shane step down as head coach and the young playmaker temporarily dropped from the starting side in favour of Reed. Atkinson praised Flanagan’s mental toughness through the upheaval, noting his halves partner’s relentless work ethic and on-field leadership that has remained consistent despite poor team results.

    “We started the season there and played well in Vegas. Obviously, results didn’t go our way after that, but we don’t like where we are at the moment,” Atkinson said. “We obviously want to be winning games, and he’s his own harshest critic. He tries there relentlessly. He’s been training well for a couple weeks now. I think he just knew what his job was and he’s a good defender and a good communicator on the field. His effort is second to none and I think he just focused on his job, his role for the team.”

    Atkinson will be aiming to add to his five try assists from nine opening matches this weekend, as the Dragons chase their first win of the 2026 NRL season.

  • ‘Filter of fantasy’: Japan trials anime therapy to treat depression

    ‘Filter of fantasy’: Japan trials anime therapy to treat depression

    Across the globe, mental health care systems are grappling with persistent barriers to access — from deep-rooted social stigma to widespread discomfort with opening up to human therapists. In Japan, where cultural norms have long kept rates of formal psychological help-seeking far lower than in Western nations, a team of researchers is testing an unconventional solution: turning the world of Japanese anime into a therapeutic tool to reach underserved groups struggling with depression.

    The brainchild of psychiatrist Francesco Panto, a researcher based at Yokohama City University, the experimental approach draws from Panto’s own personal experience with anime as a lifeline during adolescence. Growing up as a queer teen in rural Sicily, Panto faced rigid cultural stereotypes around gender identity and self-expression that left him feeling isolated. It was through popular titles like *Final Fantasy* that he found male protagonists who defied narrow gender norms, resonating with his own identity and offering life-changing emotional support. “They were so masculine and cool, but in their own way,” Panto recalled of the characters that shaped his understanding of self. That experience led him to wonder if anime could do the same for others, particularly those too intimidated to reach out for traditional mental health care.

    Panto’s six-month pilot study of what he calls “character-based counselling” wrapped up in March, testing the core hypothesis that a “filter of fantasy” can ease anxiety for people navigating mental health struggles and help them open up about their challenges. For the trial, his team designed six custom anime avatars based on iconic Japanese manga archetypes, each crafted with a subtle backstory tied to common mental health struggles: one character, Kuroto Nagi, lives with bipolar traits, while others navigate post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and alcohol use disorder. Rather than framing these struggles explicitly upfront, the avatars were designed to feel approachable and fun, allowing participants to connect with them on their own terms. Each participant was able to select the avatar that felt most aligned with their own experience, and counselling sessions were delivered online by a licensed psychologist who appeared to participants as the chosen avatar, with a digitally modified voice to match the character.

    The trial recruited 20 participants aged 18 to 29 who were already experiencing symptoms of depression. Researchers tracked participants’ physiological markers including heart rate and sleep patterns to measure changes in their mental health over the course of the program, with the primary goal of this first phase being to test whether the approach is feasible for larger-scale trials. Already, early anecdotal feedback from participants suggests the model strikes a chord with many who avoid traditional therapy. One 24-year-old anime fan and game developer, who joined the study after connecting with an avatar described as “searching for true strength,” noted that the concept immediately felt relevant to their own unaddressed struggles: “That made me feel like it might help me get closer to the answer to my own problems,” they said. For many anime fans, the medium has already offered life-changing emotional support: the participant added that anime has long given them the “will to live, seeing characters who are full of life as they work hard toward their dreams.”

    This trial is just one of dozens of emerging interventions targeting Japan’s growing unmet mental health needs, particularly for people experiencing ikizurasa — a Japanese term describing the profound struggle of feeling unable to cope with societal expectations and survive in everyday life. As assistant professor Mio Ishii, who co-leads the project, explained, large swathes of young people in Japan are unable to attend school or maintain employment due to untreated mental health struggles, and stigma around seeking care remains a crippling barrier. Data from 2022 cited by the World Economic Forum illustrates the scale of this gap: just 6% of people in Japan have ever accessed psychological counselling for mental health concerns, compared to far higher rates in the United States and Western Europe.

    Panto and his team are already exploring future expansions of the model, including the possibility of delivering anime-based therapy entirely through artificial intelligence, eliminating the need for a human psychologist to mediate sessions and making the tool far more accessible at scale. Outside experts not affiliated with the trial have praised the approach for addressing key gaps in traditional care. Jesus Maya, a family therapy specialist at the University of Seville, noted that integrating pop culture mediums like anime into treatment can remove significant barriers to emotional expression: “It can facilitate the expression of emotions… (and) identification and communication between the patient and the therapist,” he said.

    For the research team, the potential impact extends far beyond Japan. Ishii says she hopes the model will one day provide an accessible low-stigma option for people of all ages across the globe, wherever cultural barriers keep people from seeking the help they need. “Because usually people have stigmas and psychological barriers to ask for help about their mental health,” she said. “But anime or technology can decrease them.” The team is currently analyzing pilot trial data, with results expected to guide future larger-scale studies on the effectiveness of anime therapy for reducing depression symptoms.

  • Enhanced Games: the ‘Steroid Olympics’ hit Las Vegas

    Enhanced Games: the ‘Steroid Olympics’ hit Las Vegas

    The first iteration of one of the most controversial sporting events in modern history, the Enhanced Games — widely nicknamed the “Steroid Olympics” — is set to launch this Sunday at Las Vegas’ Resorts World arena. The unconventional competition brings together 42 elite sprinters, swimmers, and weightlifters who are permitted to use performance-enhancing substances banned from traditional international sport, with athletes vying to break existing world records for unprecedented cash payouts.

    Opinions on the event are deeply divided: supporters frame it as a groundbreaking experiment pushing the boundaries of human physical potential and technological integration in sport, while critics dismiss it as an irresponsible publicity stunt designed to market unregulated biohacking products to mainstream audiences. Long before the first starter pistol fires, the Enhanced Games has sparked heated global debate across the sporting and medical communities.

    Backed by high-profile deep-pocketed investors including Donald Trump Jr., Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel, and Middle Eastern financiers, the competition has drawn decorated Olympic athletes away from traditional clean sport with life-changing prize incentives. Any athlete who breaks an existing world record will claim a $1 million bonus, while individual event winners take home $250,000 each — sums far outstripping what most elite competitors earn in years of traditional Olympic competition.

    Among the athletes lured by the payouts is former Irish Olympic swimmer Max McCusker, who retired from competitive swimming after the 2024 Paris Games. McCusker told AFP he was shocked to learn the top prize at the Enhanced Games is 25 times the total $10,000 he earned over his entire professional clean swimming career. Over the past four months, he has trained in Abu Dhabi under medical supervision, where he has taken anabolic steroids, testosterone, and human growth hormone, with clinicians closely tracking his body’s response via regular biomarker testing. McCusker says the results have been extraordinary: his body fat has dropped by nearly half to 6.4%, and he is posting faster swim times than he achieved at the peak of his Olympic career. He is confident multiple world records will fall during the Las Vegas event.

    Not all competitors are using enhanced substances: a small handful are competing clean, and organizers have not publicly disclosed the exact drug regimen for each athlete. Event organizers stress that all substances administered are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the entire process is overseen by an independent medical board. They also note athletes will receive long-term health monitoring to track any adverse effects.

    However, the event has faced fierce condemnation from global sporting and anti-doping bodies. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has called the competition dangerous and demanded it be called off entirely. World Aquatics has issued a permanent ban from all its sanctioned events for any athlete participating in the Enhanced Games, while World Athletics president Sebastian Coe famously dismissed the entire project as reckless and unethical. Medical experts also warn of severe unaddressed health risks.

    Ian Boardley, a professor of sport science at the University of Birmingham, explained that while biomarker tracking can reduce the risk of immediate acute harm, the long-term health impacts of sustained performance-enhancing drug use remain largely unstudied in this context. Even anabolic steroids alone, he noted, carry well-documented risks of life-shortening conditions including heart disease, liver and kidney failure, and permanent cognitive decline. Testosterone use can trigger dependency and clinical depression, while many of the peptides used in athletes’ regimens are an unregulated “Wild West” with even less data on long-term outcomes.

    Athletes like McCusker acknowledge the risks but argue they are taking all possible precautions to mitigate harm, drawing a comparison to the well-documented risks of common lifestyle choices like excessive caffeine consumption. Many participating athletes also share McCusker’s skepticism that traditional Olympic sport remains entirely clean, arguing the Enhanced Games simply brings open transparency to a practice they claim is already widespread behind closed doors.

    Beyond the on-field competition, the Enhanced Games is tied to the growing global biohacking movement, which has gained particular traction among Silicon Valley circles seeking experimental treatments for improved physical performance and longevity. The event’s official website already sells a range of supplements including peptides and testosterone directly to consumers, allowing members of the public to pursue their own “enhancement” alongside competing athletes. Organizers do not depend on a traditional lucrative television broadcast deal to turn a profit, instead leaning into direct-to-consumer product sales and online streaming. The competition will be available to view globally for free via streaming platforms including YouTube and Roku, with no major traditional broadcaster attached to the inaugural event.

    Medical experts warn that the event’s mainstream visibility is sending a dangerous message to the public that unregulated performance-enhancing treatments can be used safely, a claim they strongly reject. For proponents like McCusker, however, the Enhanced Games represents a shift in what modern audiences want from sport. “We’re living in a different age,” he said. “People want to see more excitement. People want to see faster times. And people want to see people break the world record and have incredible athletic bodies.”

  • Middlesbrough face Hull in football’s richest game after ‘spygate’ row

    Middlesbrough face Hull in football’s richest game after ‘spygate’ row

    Wembley Stadium is preparing to host what is widely known as the richest game in global football this Saturday, as Middlesbrough and Hull City go head-to-head in the English Championship play-off final for a coveted spot in the Premier League. But the build-up to this high-stakes fixture has been entirely overshadowed by the unfolding ‘spygate’ controversy that has rocked English football this week.

    The drama began earlier this month when Middlesbrough accused Southampton of sending an individual to covertly film their training session ahead of the first leg of their play-off semi-final. A photo soon circulated publicly showing a man positioned behind a tree, apparently capturing footage on his mobile phone. What followed was a swift investigation by the English Football League (EFL), which concluded this week with Southampton being expelled from the play-offs after the club admitted to multiple breaches of EFL rules prohibiting unauthorized filming of opposing teams’ training sessions. Southampton also confessed to carrying out similar spying operations against Oxford United and Ipswich Town earlier in the 2023-2024 campaign. As a result, in addition to their expulsion from the play-offs, the club has been handed a four-point deduction that will take effect when they compete in the Championship next season.

    Beaten semi-finalists Middlesbrough, who lost 2-1 on aggregate to Southampton before the ruling, have subsequently been reinstated into the final to face Hull. The off-field chaos has taken a visible psychological toll on both sides, whose managers have spoken out about the disruption to their preparations. Middlesbrough head coach Kim Hellberg joked about the impact of the scandal at his pre-match press conference on Thursday, saying, “I don’t sleep. I haven’t slept for one and a half weeks, I think, so there are no dreams. Hopefully, I get a good night’s sleep today, and then I will tell you about the dreams tomorrow.”

    For Hull City, the uncertainty over who their opponent would be throughout multiple legal hearings has left the club caught in the middle of a scandal they had no part in. Hull manager Sergej Jakirovic described his side as “collateral damage” in the saga, telling reporters that Southampton had clearly “crossed a line” while also questioning the actual benefit of the spying operation. “I know everything about every team, and this is my first season here, I know every player — but this is my job,” Jakirovic said, expressing confusion over why Southampton would need to resort to covert filming.

    The stakes of Saturday’s match could not be higher, with a massive financial reward on the line for the winner. According to analysis from Deloitte’s Sports Business Group, the promoted club, which will join already promoted Coventry City and Ipswich Town in the top flight next season, is guaranteed to earn at least £205 million ($275 million) over the next three years from increased broadcast, matchday and commercial revenue. That figure can jump to as much as £365 million if the club avoids relegation in its first season back in the Premier League. Tim Bridge, lead partner of Deloitte’s Sports Business Group, noted that even with the recent chaos, the Championship play-off final remains one of the most anticipated fixtures on the football calendar, as it carries the single biggest financial prize in the sport.

    Middlesbrough and Hull City share a recent shared history in the top flight, having both been relegated from the Premier League back in 2017, adding an extra layer of narrative to their clash at Wembley. Southampton, meanwhile, has pushed back hard against the sanctions: the club’s appeal against their expulsion was rejected by the EFL on Wednesday, but chief executive Phil Parsons maintains that the penalties are “manifestly disproportionate”. Southampton’s player of the season Leo Scienza described the ruling as “heartbreaking” in an Instagram post, writing, “For me, the dream of playing in the Premier League was something I fought for with everything I had. That’s why this pain cuts so deep.” The future of Southampton manager Tonda Eckert is now hanging in the balance, with unconfirmed reports suggesting that first-team players are already considering taking legal action against the club for the scandal. On Thursday, the Football Association announced it had opened its own separate investigation into Southampton’s conduct and is currently considering whether to bring additional charges against the club.

  • FIFA’s huge World Cup to generate unprecedented cash and CO2

    FIFA’s huge World Cup to generate unprecedented cash and CO2

    As the world prepares for the 2026 men’s FIFA World Cup — the first iteration of the tournament expanded to 48 competing nations, and the first co-hosted by three North American countries, the United States, Canada and Mexico — new research from environmental experts at the University of Lausanne (Unil) paints a stark dual picture: this edition will deliver unprecedented commercial revenue to FIFA, but it will also leave the largest carbon footprint of any international sporting event in history.

    Unlike the Olympic Games, which have recorded consistent reductions in tournament emissions across recent editions, the men’s World Cup is moving in the opposite direction, according to Unil geographer David Gogishvili, who shared the findings of the research with Agence France-Presse.

    Expansion from 32 to 48 teams combined with the unprecedented geographic spread of tournament venues across three countries creates unavoidable massive emissions, the research confirms. Unil’s calculations place total projected carbon dioxide emissions from the 2026 tournament between 5 million and 9 million tonnes. For context, that figure dwarfs the 1.75 million tonnes projected for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, the 2.17 million tonnes estimated for the 2018 Russia World Cup (a 32-team event with 40 fewer matches), and the 3.17 million tonnes recorded for the 2022 Qatar World Cup, which was already criticized for its energy-intensive, hastily built, air-conditioned stadiums.

    While the bid organizers for United 2026 have emphasized that all 16 tournament venues already existed when hosting rights were awarded in 2018 — a point the bid framed as a sustainability advantage — experts say that pre-built infrastructure cannot offset the core problem: the enormous geographic distance between host cities. The straight-line distance between the southernmost host city, Miami, and the northernmost, Vancouver, measures more than 4,500 kilometers, forcing teams, officials, media, and an expected 5 million-plus fans to rely heavily on air travel, the single largest contributor to carbon emissions for major international sporting events. For example, Bosnia and Herzegovina, if it qualifies for the group stage, would need to travel a cumulative 5,040 kilometers across three group stage matches hosted in Toronto, Los Angeles, and Seattle.

    FIFA leadership, including President Gianni Infantino, has publicly framed the organization as committed to climate action: Infantino proclaimed his personal “determination” to fight climate change at the 2021 COP26 summit in Glasgow, and the body has long stated a policy to “measure, reduce and offset” World Cup-related emissions. However, FIFA’s environmental claims have faced significant regulatory and academic pushback. In 2023, the Swiss Fairness Commission reprimanded FIFA for misleading consumers by marketing the 2022 Qatar World Cup as “climate neutral,” and the organization has declined to issue any similar emissions guarantees for the 2026 tournament.

    Environmental analysts argue that the most effective step to cut the climate impact of mega-sporting events is to limit their scale — a change the International Olympic Committee has already implemented by capping the number of athletes at 10,500 for Summer Games. But FIFA has moved in the opposite direction: expanding the men’s World Cup from 32 to 48 teams just one year after expanding the Club World Cup from 7 to 32 teams.

    A 2025 report from the UK-based New Weather Institute think tank and Scientists for Global Responsibility underscores the outsized carbon cost of this expansion. The report notes that a single men’s World Cup group stage match generates between 44,000 and 72,000 tonnes of CO2 — an amount equivalent to the total annual emissions of 31,500 to 51,500 passenger vehicles in the United Kingdom. International tournament matches, the authors add, produce 26 to 42 times more emissions than top-tier national club matches.

    Gogishvili argues that this growing carbon footprint stems from FIFA’s “insatiable appetite for growth,” which creates a self-reinforcing cycle: larger tournaments require more matches, which draw more athletes and fans, demand more hotel infrastructure, and require more long-distance travel, driving emissions ever higher. Critics warn this pattern is set to continue for future tournaments: the 2030 World Cup will be spread across six host nations on three continents, opening with three opening matches in South America before moving to Morocco, Spain, and Portugal for the rest of the tournament, while the 2034 edition will be hosted by Saudi Arabia — a country with a similar hot climate to Qatar, but a much larger landmass and 40 more matches than the 2022 tournament. In 2024, Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant and the world’s largest oil producer, became a top-tier FIFA sponsor.

    Writing in the Journal of Management Research in 2024, Aix-Marseille University professor Gilles Pache concluded that “it would seem that FIFA’s environmental denial will continue” as the organization prioritizes commercial expansion over climate action.

  • Trump’s big arch approved by ally-controlled board

    Trump’s big arch approved by ally-controlled board

    A U.S. federal arts advisory body, now entirely staffed by appointees loyal to President Donald Trump, has given preliminary approval this Thursday to plans for the commander-in-chief’s proposed massive triumphal arch — a project already mired in legal battles and fierce public controversy. The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, whose entire sitting board was dismissed by the administration last year to make way for White House-aligned replacements, approved the design in a unanimous 4-0 vote. The proposed structure stands planned at 250 feet, or 76 meters, tall, and will feature gilded statues of an angel and American eagles at its peak. If built as currently designed, it will surpass Paris’ iconic Arc de Triomphe, which stands 164 feet tall, to claim the title of the world’s largest arch, per Trump’s own remarks. The proposed site for the monument sits just outside the boundaries of Arlington National Cemetery, one of the most sacred public lands in the United States, where hundreds of thousands of U.S. military veterans and service members are laid to rest. The arch project is one of several high-profile construction initiatives Trump has pushed forward in Washington D.C., part of his broader push to leave a lasting physical legacy on the U.S. capital before the end of his term. Created by an act of Congress in 1910, the Commission of Fine Arts is composed of professional architects and urban planners tasked with advising on design and historic preservation for federal buildings and monuments in Washington’s highly regulated core public spaces. Unlike most major public monument projects in the capital, the Trump arch initiative has moved forward without any consultation or approval from Congress, a choice that has sparked sharp criticism from opponents. When pressed by reporters on Thursday about the lack of congressional oversight, Trump pushed back firmly, telling journalists “We’re doing it… we don’t need anything from Congress.” The push for the arch follows a similar pattern to Trump’s ongoing renovation of the White House ballroom, which has already seen the historic East Wing gutted to make way for the changes. Multiple advocacy groups, including organizations representing Vietnam War veterans, have already filed lawsuits seeking to block the project entirely. Plaintiffs argue that the development violates federal procedural requirements for changes to land near Arlington National Cemetery, and would permanently disrupt the protected scenic viewshed around the hallowed burial ground. A second oversight panel, also controlled by Trump appointees, is scheduled to hold its own review of the arch proposal on June 4, which will mark the next key step for the controversial project moving forward.

  • SpaceX postpones highly anticipated Starship launch

    SpaceX postpones highly anticipated Starship launch

    Elon Musk’s SpaceX called off the first test flight of its upgraded Starship V3 megarocket on May 21, 2026, following repeated countdown holds and an unresolvable last-minute technical glitch, pushing the highly anticipated launch attempt to the next day at the firm’s South Texas launch facility.

    The aborted test comes just 24 hours after the private aerospace company submitted regulatory paperwork to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a blockbuster initial public offering, widely projected to be the largest IPO in history if it moves forward as planned in June. The IPO filing lays out full financial disclosures, risk assessments and long-term business strategy for potential investors.

    Company spokesperson Dan Huot confirmed during the official launch livestream that engineering teams could not resolve the identified issue within the narrow launch window available on Thursday. Within minutes of the scrub, Musk took to social platform X to clarify the root cause: a hydraulic pin designed to secure the launch tower arm failed to retract as planned. If technicians can complete repairs to the system overnight, the next launch attempt is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. local time (2230 GMT) on May 22 at the South Padre Island, Texas, launch pad.

    This test flight marks the 12th overall mission for SpaceX’s Starship program, and the first in seven months. The third-generation Starship is larger than earlier iterations, standing 407 feet (124 meters) tall when fully stacked. SpaceX’s long-term goal for the program is to develop a fully reusable heavy-lift launch system that can support deep space missions, including NASA’s Artemis program to return humans to the lunar surface.

    If the launch proceeds successfully on Friday, the mission will follow a carefully planned 65-minute suborbital trajectory. The Super Heavy first-stage booster will splash down in the Gulf of Mexico off the Texas coast, while the upper stage will deploy 20 dummy satellite payloads and two modified Starlink satellites fitted with cameras to collect data on the craft’s heat shield. The upper stage will ultimately splash down in the Indian Ocean if all systems perform as designed.

    While recent Starship test flights have been deemed partially or fully successful, earlier tests ended in high-profile explosions: three craft broke apart over the Caribbean and one reached space before failing, and a June 2025 ground test destroyed a Starship upper stage.

    The stakes for this test could not be higher, industry observers note. Beyond the upcoming IPO, SpaceX holds a multibillion-dollar NASA contract to adapt Starship into a human-rated lunar lander, a core component of the Artemis program’s goal to land the first woman and person of color on the Moon. The U.S. is racing against China’s independent lunar program, which aims to land its own crewed mission by 2030. Current U.S. leadership under the Trump administration has publicly expressed growing anxiety that American delays could cede the milestone of the first 21st-century lunar landing to Beijing.

    G. Scott Hubbard, a former director of NASA’s Ames Research Center, told AFP that the outcome of this test carries enormous consequences for public-private lunar exploration efforts. “The government made the decision to go with these arms-length contracts for the human landing system, and now these people have to perform,” Hubbard explained.

    SpaceX and its primary competitor, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, have both restructured their development roadmaps to prioritize lunar lander projects. NASA’s current timeline calls for testing in-orbit rendezvous between the Artemis crew capsule and lunar landers in 2027, with the first crewed landing targeted for late 2028. But industry analysts have repeatedly raised skepticism that both private firms will meet the accelerated benchmark schedule.

    One major unproven technical hurdle remains in-orbit refueling with super-cooled propellant, a critical capability required for any crewed lunar landing mission that has never been demonstrated successfully. “Let’s hope they succeed, but it’s a major engineering challenge,” Hubbard added. NASA is set to deliver a public update on its Artemis program timeline next Tuesday.