Global Pulse

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大洋洲

  • UK eases sanctions on Russian jet fuel and diesel imports

    UK eases sanctions on Russian jet fuel and diesel imports

    In a politically charged move that has drawn sharp criticism from domestic opponents and global allies alike, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s newly elected Labour government has moved to ease sanctions on imports of Russian-derived jet fuel and diesel, framing the policy as a necessary buffer to shield British consumers from skyrocketing energy costs amplified by ongoing Middle East conflict.

    The newly approved indefinite trade licence, which permits imports of Russian crude oil processed through refineries in third countries like India, is set to undergo periodic reviews, according to the UK’s Department of Business and Trade. Alongside this, the government issued a temporary licence that relaxes existing sanctions on liquefied natural gas originating from specific Russian production facilities. This adjustment comes as the government prepares to fully implement a previously announced ban on Russian crude-derived imports, first unveiled in October 2024.

    Starmer defended the adjustment during a press briefing Wednesday, stressing that the targeted changes do not represent a rollback of existing sanctions against Moscow. “This is not a question of lifting existing sanctions in any way whatsoever, and we will continue to work with our allies on further sanction packages,” he stated, adding that the two short-term licences are designed to phase in the full ban gradually while avoiding sudden price shocks for UK households and businesses.

    The decision has immediately ignited fierce domestic political pushback. Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch condemned the move, accusing Starmer of “choosing to buy dirty Russian oil” and arguing that revenue from these fuel sales will directly fund Moscow’s military offensive against Ukraine, where thousands of Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since the 2022 full-scale invasion.

    The controversy also extends to the international stage. The policy aligns with a similar decision from the United States, which last Monday extended a sanctions waiver for Russian oil cargoes already in transit for a second time. That waiver was put in place after escalating Middle East tensions — driven by the conflict between Israel and Iran that has disrupted global energy supplies — pushed crude prices to multi-year highs. However, the EU has openly criticized the US waiver extension, with EU economics commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis noting at a recent G7 finance ministers meeting that the current moment is not the time to reduce economic pressure on Russia. The UK was a participant in that meeting, where the policy drew international scrutiny.

    UK officials have offered conflicting framing of the change in recent days. Treasury minister Dan Tomlinson defended the adjustment to Sky News, framing it as a step to protect core UK national interest amid the current global energy crisis. “The government has announced this time-limited change to the rules around oil and refining given the extremes of the impacts of the conflict in Iran, and the impact of it washing up on our shores,” he said. That framing was later echoed by trade minister Chris Bryant, who apologized to Members of Parliament for the government’s “clumsy” rollout of the new policy, and committed to keeping the approved licences as “temporary as possible.”

    The current energy market volatility traces back to Iran’s decision to effectively close the Strait of Hormuz — a critical chokepoint that carries roughly 20% of the world’s daily oil supplies — in retaliation for US-Israeli strikes launched in February. While commercial traffic has slowly resumed in the waterway during a recent ceasefire, market uncertainty has kept prices elevated. As of Wednesday, Brent North Sea crude, the global benchmark for oil prices, was trading close to $110 per barrel, a level far above pre-Middle East conflict averages.

    The UK first imposed a sweeping sanctions regime against Russia shortly after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Those measures included restrictions on Russian oil and energy exports, alongside sanctions targeting more than 3,000 Russian individuals and business entities. Wednesday’s policy adjustment has reopened fierce debate over how Western nations balance energy security for domestic consumers with the goal of maintaining collective pressure on Russia over its war in Ukraine.

  • DR Congo Ebola risk high regionally, low worldwide: WHO

    DR Congo Ebola risk high regionally, low worldwide: WHO

    The World Health Organization (WHO) announced Wednesday that the ongoing deadly Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has likely been spreading undetected for months, updating its official risk assessment as high for the DRC and neighboring regions but low for the entire globe.

    Current investigations into the origins of the outbreak — which was formally declared last Friday — are still ongoing, but WHO officials say early evidence points to the virus circulating unreported for a significant period. “Given the scale, we are thinking that it has started probably a couple of months ago,” Anais Legand, a WHO technical officer specializing in viral haemorrhagic fevers, told reporters during a press briefing in Geneva.

    Ebola, a severe viral haemorrhagic fever first documented in 1976 and linked to bat reservoirs, has claimed more than 15,000 lives across Africa over the past 50 years. This marks the 17th Ebola outbreak recorded in the DRC, and already, health officials are tracking roughly 600 probable cases with 139 suspected deaths. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that these numbers are almost certain to rise in the coming weeks, noting that the extended undetected circulation of the virus gives it a head start on containment efforts.

    Multiple challenges are complicating the global health body’s response to the crisis. The outbreak is centered in hard-to-access regions of Ituri province, an area long disrupted by armed conflict that limits access for medical teams and contact tracers. Additionally, the outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo Ebola strain, which is not detected by standard diagnostic tests designed for the more common Zaire strain, delaying confirmation of cases.

    Over the weekend, Tedros declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), the second-highest alert level under the binding International Health Regulations (IHR) that triggers coordinated international emergency response. Despite this escalation, Tedros emphasized that the outbreak does not qualify as a pandemic at this stage. “There are several factors that warrant serious concern about the potential for further spread and further deaths,” he noted, but confirmed the WHO’s formal risk assessment: high at national and regional levels, low globally.

    The European Commission echoed this assessment, stating that the risk of Ebola transmission within the European Union remains “very low” and that no special protective measures are currently recommended for EU residents. So far, the WHO has not implemented mandatory international travel restrictions, only advising that confirmed cases and known contacts avoid travel. However, a number of countries have moved independently to implement border controls and screening. The United States announced this week that it would begin screening air passengers arriving from affected regions and suspend routine visa services, though it granted an exception for the DRC national football team ahead of their World Cup qualifying match in the U.S. Bahrain has gone further, enacting a 30-day entry ban on visitors arriving from the DRC, South Sudan and Uganda.

    As of Wednesday, just 51 cases have been confirmed via laboratory testing, as the remote location of most outbreaks limits access to sample collection and processing. Two confirmed cases have been recorded in the Ugandan capital Kampala, one of which ended in death, and an American citizen working in the DRC tested positive before being transferred to Germany for treatment. Retracing the outbreak’s origins, the first reported symptomatic case was a nurse who presented at a Bunia, Ituri health facility on April 24, but the epicenter of the outbreak is now confirmed to be roughly 90 kilometers away in Mongbwalu, where public health officials believe the virus first began spreading. The WHO first received an alert about an unusual cluster of lethal illness on May 5, and the first positive Ebola test was returned on May 15.

    In Wednesday’s briefing, Tedros pushed back against criticism from United States officials over the speed of the WHO’s response. The U.S., which initiated withdrawal from the WHO during the Donald Trump administration, had faced accusations from Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the organization was “a little late to identify this thing.” Tedros countered that the criticism stems from a “lack of understanding of how IHR work, and the responsibilities of WHO and other entities. We don’t replace the countries’ work, we only support them,” he explained.

  • Rubio offers Cubans ‘new path’ in special video address

    Rubio offers Cubans ‘new path’ in special video address

    In a pre-announcement video address delivered Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a second-generation Cuban-American, laid out a purported “new path” for the Cuban people, just hours before the U.S. Department of Justice was scheduled to unseal criminal indictments against former Cuban President Raul Castro.

    Speaking directly to Cuban citizens in Spanish, Rubio launched sharp criticism at Cuba’s ruling communist government, leveling accusations of systemic theft, deep-seated corruption, and widespread political oppression. As the child of Cuban immigrants who built a life in the United States, Rubio framed the proposal as an initiative backed by the Trump administration: “President Donald Trump is offering a new path between the U.S. and a new Cuba, a nation where you will hold the real power to choose your leaders, and vote them out if they fail to deliver for you.”

    Worsening bilateral friction has defined relations between Washington and Havana in recent months, sparked by two key escalations: a U.S.-backed military operation that ousted long-time Cuban ally Nicolas Maduro from Venezuela’s presidency, followed by a sweeping U.S. energy blockade that has compounded already severe economic struggles on the Caribbean island. Trump has repeatedly hinted that the current Cuban government is the next target for regime change, and earlier this month made an extraordinary public statement claiming the U.S. would “take over” the island — located just 90 miles off the coast of Florida — “almost immediately.”

    Per an official English translation of the speech released by the State Department, Rubio emphasized that Washington was prepared to reset relations between the two countries. “In the U.S., we are ready to open a new chapter in the relationship between our people and our countries, and currently, the only thing standing in the way of a better future are those who control your country,” he said.

    Rubio reserved particular criticism for GAESA, the military-linked business conglomerate that analysts estimate controls roughly 40 percent of Cuba’s total economic activity. He described the entity as a “state within the state” that operates with no accountability to the Cuban public, hoarding profits from its vast commercial holdings to benefit a tiny ruling elite while ordinary Cubans bear the cost. Rubio added that the nominal Cuban government’s primary function is to force continued public sacrifice and crack down on any dissenting voices that speak out against the status quo.

    The 94-year-old Raul Castro, who succeeded his older brother Fidel Castro as Cuba’s head of state and oversaw the landmark 2015 normalization of diplomatic relations with Washington under the Obama administration — a deal Trump reversed after taking office — was set to face criminal charges announced by the U.S. Justice Department Wednesday. According to reporting from CBS News, which cited unnamed U.S. officials briefed on the investigation, the pending indictment centers on the 1996 downing of two civilian aircraft flown by anti-Castro activists.

  • Worried and under-equipped, Ebola-hit east DR Congo awaits medical aid

    Worried and under-equipped, Ebola-hit east DR Congo awaits medical aid

    A deadly Ebola outbreak has spread across hard-to-reach regions of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, leaving local communities and healthcare workers severely underprepared and facing a growing crisis as aid efforts move at a glacial pace. Rwampara, one of the outbreak’s current epicenters, illustrates the crippling gaps in the early response: at the area’s main hospital, a flimsy plastic strip is the only marker for a planned isolation ward that has yet to be constructed.

    This outbreak marks the 17th recorded flare-up of the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever in the DRC, and it has hit a region already destabilized by decades of armed conflict and widespread displacement. Even though Rwampara sits just 7.5 kilometers from Bunia, the largest city in violence-ravaged Ituri province, critical supplies for isolating and treating Ebola patients only began arriving on Monday, several days after the outbreak was officially declared.

    At the hospital entrance, a single masked guard struggles to monitor all visitor traffic. A small number of handwashing basins have been set up outside the blue-painted facility, which a local official confirms is already caring for around 100 suspected Ebola cases. Before Friday, even nursing staff on the front lines lacked full personal protective equipment (PPE) — and local residents performing high-risk tasks are far more exposed. Salama Bamunoba, a local youth organization representative, explained that community members have been digging and filling graves for Ebola victims without gloves or any protective gear at all.

    The current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola, for which no targeted vaccine or specific antiviral treatment exists. Congolese authorities have reported that over 130 people are already suspected to have died from the virus, with containment efforts relying almost entirely on basic preventive measures and rapid case identification. Bamunoba called the government and its international partners out for significant delays, noting that establishing a proper triage and isolation zone has been the community’s top priority for days, with little action to show for it.

    Despite the escalating crisis, daily life continues on the dusty streets of Rwampara for the moment: markets remain open, motorcycles move through crowds, and schools have not been closed. But anxiety is rapidly spreading across Rwampara and surrounding villages, which are already home to more than a million permanent residents and tens of thousands of people displaced by ongoing conflict. Local resident Gims Maniwa said many residents initially dismissed the outbreak as a minor threat, but the situation has deteriorated quickly. “Here, in Congo, a lot of things are done carelessly and that’s not good,” he told reporters.

    Congolese officials have pushed back against criticism, with Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamaba claiming authorities already have all the supplies frontline healthcare workers need. The government’s spokesperson also emphasized this week that the DRC has decades of experience responding to Ebola outbreaks, most of which have been managed without widespread vaccine access. The country’s deadliest recent outbreak, which struck eastern DRC between 2018 and 2020, killed nearly 2,300 people out of more than 3,500 confirmed cases.

    In recent days, aid has finally begun moving into the affected region. At Bunia’s airport, dozens of World Health Organization (WHO) staff in high-visibility vests have been unloading 12 tonnes of medical supplies from cargo planes, including protective kits and temporary isolation tents, which the organization confirmed had arrived this Tuesday. Aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has also stockpiled tonnes of supplies, including critical PPE for frontline teams, in its Bunia warehouses.

    The response effort is facing headwinds from broader aid cuts, however. International funding for humanitarian work in the region has dropped sharply over the past year, particularly from the United States following Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Even with the new supply delivery, Trish Newport, MSF’s emergency programme manager, said the situation remains extremely strained. “Every facility our team called said: ‘We are full of suspect cases. We don’t have any space’,” Newport explained. “This gives you a vision of how crazy it is right now. What is really important is that we get material on the ground as quickly as possible,” she added, noting that the arrival of PPE will be a huge relief for overstretched staff.

  • Arsenal players in dawn celebrations after winning Premier League

    Arsenal players in dawn celebrations after winning Premier League

    For 22 long years, Arsenal football club and its global fanbase waited in the wings, enduring near-misses, criticism, and the weight of a title drought that stretched across generations. On Tuesday night, that wait finally ended, sending thousands of jubilant supporters flooding to the gates of Emirates Stadium before dawn to celebrate a historic Premier League crown that has eluded the club since the legendary Invincibles side of 2004.

    The title was secured in dramatic fashion, as Manchester City — the four-time defending champions who needed a victory at Bournemouth to keep their title hopes alive — dropped crucial points. While City fought back from an early Bournemouth lead to equalize in stoppage time, the final 1-1 draw left them one point short of Arsenal, handing the North London side the league trophy. Even as the match played out, fans began gathering outside Emirates Stadium, with crowds swelling as Bournemouth held on to their lead, and exploding in celebration when the final whistle confirmed Arsenal’s victory.

    By 5 a.m. Wednesday, Arsenal’s first-team players joined the throng of supporters to mark the occasion, after holding an initial private celebration with manager Mikel Arteta at the club’s London Colney training ground. Teammate Eberechi Eze shared early-hours images of star players Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka and Jurrien Timber celebrating with the crowd, while another video posted by Saka showed 19-year-old academy graduate Myles Lewis-Skelly brandishing a champagne bottle, poking fun at years of criticism that labelled Arsenal as “bottlers” for choking late in title races. “They called us bottlers,” Lewis-Skelly said in the clip. “And now we’re holding the bottle.”

    For Saka, the title win marks a full-circle moment for a side that finished as Premier League runners-up in each of the past three seasons, capping years of incremental progress under Arteta. Addressing critics who had mocked the club’s long drought, the England international stated, “Twenty-two years, 22 years. There was laughing, there was joking, they’re not laughing anymore.”

    Long-time supporters described the moment as surreal, decades in the making. “It doesn’t feel real. It feels like I’m going to wake up tomorrow and be like, yeah, it was a dream, but we did it. We actually did it. Wow. It’s going to be the best summer ever,” said 32-year-old fan George Owusu-Afriyie. Twenty-year-old supporter Julia Szumilas recalled the chaotic rush to the stadium after the final result was confirmed: “Everyone was running from all the pubs. We started running down to here. (Taking) bikes, running, driving their cars down… It was insane.”

    The celebration drew congratulations from Arsenal icons of the past. Arsene Wenger, the French manager who led the club to its last title in 2004’s undefeated Invincibles season, shared a heartfelt video message to the current squad posted on the club’s social media channels. “You did it! Champions go on when others stop. This is your time. Now, go on and enjoy every moment,” Wenger said. Club legend Ian Wright, who scored 185 goals during his time with the Gunners and was part of the 1998 domestic double-winning side, was mobbed by fans as he joined the celebrations outside the stadium.

    The side will formally receive the Premier League trophy on Sunday following their final regular season match against Crystal Palace. Beyond domestic glory, Arteta’s squad will now turn their full attention to a historic opportunity: the chance to claim the club’s first-ever UEFA Champions League title, when they face Paris Saint-Germain in the competition’s final in Budapest on May 30.

  • Whale of a time: Humpbacks set new distance record

    Whale of a time: Humpbacks set new distance record

    Marine biologists have announced an extraordinary discovery that rewrites our understanding of humpback whale migration: two individual humpbacks have completed unprecedented transoceanic journeys between Brazil and Australia, setting new world records for the longest recorded travel distance in the species. The international research team, whose findings are published in *Royal Society Open Science*, pieced together the whales’ multi-decade odysseys using unique identifying markings on their tail flukes, with contributions from both professional scientists and recreational amateur photographers who snapped photos decades apart. The study’s lead author, Cristina Castro, a marine biologist with the Pacific Whale Foundation based in Ecuador, shared that these open-ocean crossings are entirely unlike any movement previously documented for the species. While individual whales have occasionally been spotted straying slightly outside their established migratory paths, the scale of these journeys far exceeds any previously recorded deviation, Castro explained.

    What makes this tracking possible is the fact that every humpback whale bears a one-of-a-kind pigment pattern on the underside of its tail fluke, a natural marker as distinct as a human fingerprint that allows researchers to identify individual animals across decades and vast distances. To trace the two whales’ paths, the team analyzed more than 19,000 photos collected between 1984 and 2005 from locations across eastern Australia and Latin America, running the images through a custom image recognition algorithm to find potential matches, then manually verifying each candidate to confirm the identities of the wandering whales. The first of the two record-breaking whales was first photographed and documented in 2007 in Hervey Bay, a well-known humpback habitat on Queensland’s east coast, and spotted again at the same location in 2013. Six years after that second sighting, the same whale was photographed off the coast of São Paulo, Brazil’s most populous coastal state. The straight-line distance between the Australian and Brazilian sighting points measures approximately 14,200 kilometers, or 8,800 miles; researchers note that the whale’s actual total travel distance is likely even longer, as its exact route between the two points remains unknown. The second whale took the reverse route across the South Pacific: it was first photographed swimming alongside eight other adult humpbacks off the coast of Bahia, Brazil in 2003. Nearly 25 years later, in 2025, the same whale was spotted and confirmed in Hervey Bay, Australia, with a straight-line distance of 15,100 kilometers between the two sightings. This journey surpasses the previous record for the longest recorded humpback migration, which was set by a whale that traveled more than 13,000 kilometers from Colombia’s Pacific coast to Zanzibar off the eastern coast of Africa.

    For Southern Hemisphere humpback whales, migratory routes are deeply entrenched cultural behaviors. Most populations live in distinct, well-separated pods and follow the same fixed route year after year, moving between cold, nutrient-rich feeding grounds in polar waters and warm tropical breeding grounds where they give birth and mate. Castro notes that these routes are passed down socially: mother humpbacks teach the traditional migratory paths to their calves when they are young, cementing the patterns across generations. That makes these extraordinary deviations all the more surprising, and researchers are now exploring multiple potential explanations for why the two whales strayed so far from their expected paths. One leading hypothesis ties the unusual movement to human-driven climate change, which is altering ocean conditions, food availability, and traditional migration corridors in ways that are still not fully understood. Castro explains that increasing environmental pressure or disturbance to the whales’ original feeding and breeding habitats could push more individual animals to venture far beyond their traditional ranges in search of more suitable conditions, while changes in the distribution of their prey could also encourage long-distance exploration.

    Beyond rewriting what we know about humpback migration capacity, these long-distance crossings also carry ecological benefits for the species. After being hunted to the brink of extinction by commercial whaling in the 20th century, humpback whale populations have made a remarkable rebound across much of their global range over the past 50 years. When whales travel between previously isolated breeding populations, they introduce new genetic material that boosts overall genetic diversity, strengthening the long-term resilience of the species. The wandering whales may also drive cultural exchange among humpback populations: male humpback whales are famous for their long, complex songs, which spread rapidly through populations as individuals copy new melodies. If a male from one isolated breeding population travels to a new region and sings his native song, he can introduce entirely new musical themes that spread through the local population, creating a lasting cultural shift. Researchers say the discovery highlights the value of long-term photo identification projects that combine scientific data with contributions from citizen scientists, to reveal unexpected behaviors in one of the ocean’s most iconic inhabitants.

  • Families of Beirut strike victims vow to fight for justice

    Families of Beirut strike victims vow to fight for justice

    In the shadow of a shattered nine-story residential building in central Beirut’s upscale Tallet al-Khayat district, two childhood neighbors bound by shared grief have made a solemn promise: they will not rest until those responsible for the death of their families are held accountable. The April 8 Israeli airstrike that reduced their family home to rubble came just hours after a U.S.-Iran ceasefire was announced, part of a broad wave of air attacks across Lebanon that killed over 350 people on a day now etched into Lebanese collective memory as Black Wednesday.

    Wael Sabbagh, a 52-year-old businessman based in Mexico, lost his mother Afaf and brother Hassan in the attack. Ghida Krisht, a 41-year-old aid worker based in another Beirut neighborhood that was also hit that day, saw her parents – 70-year-old renowned poet Khatoun Salma and 72-year-old Mohammed – and a relative who had fled earlier bombardment in southern Lebanon’s Tyre killed alongside them. For decades, their families had lived in the quiet building, believing they were far enough from conflict zones to be safe.

    Sabbagh first learned of the strike through social media, scrolling through footage of destroyed buildings until he made the devastating confirmation that his childhood home had been targeted. “I lost my mother, my brother, my home, my childhood,” he told reporters, smoking one cigarette after another as he stood amid concrete rubble and splintered wood. “Nine people were killed in this building. They get talked about as if they were just statistics, but each of them was a loved one, a whole life cut short.”

    Among the ruins, the two grieving relatives have recovered small, devastating mementos of the lives lost. Sabbagh found a dented metal bracelet that belonged to his brother Hassan, who wore it the day he died; it took rescuers three full days to identify his brother’s remains, and Sabbagh now wears the bracelet on his own wrist. He also pulled a crumpled scrap of his mother’s bedspread, chunks of the family dining table, and a intact red sofa cushion from the debris, and later used a crane to reach a half-damaged upper floor and retrieve his mother’s photo album. Krisht, meanwhile, found her mother’s purse, holding the last poem Salma ever wrote by hand.

    Krisht recounted the agonizing hours after she learned of the strike: she called her parents repeatedly, only to get no answer. When she finally reached the site, rescuers would not let her see her parents’ disfigured remains – she identified them only by her mother’s signature red nail polish on her hand.

    Now, Sabbagh and Krisht are building a comprehensive legal case to pursue accountability through international justice channels, a path only one other person has taken so far this year: French-Lebanese artist Ali Cherri, who launched legal action in France after his parents were killed in an earlier 2024 Israeli strike on a Beirut residential building. The pair acknowledge the road ahead will be long and fraught with barriers, noting that hundreds of other victim families lack the financial resources, connections, or emotional capacity to pursue legal action.

    “We do have a voice, we are connected, and we are emotionally strong enough, despite everything we have lost, to demand accountability,” Sabbagh said. Krisht added: “We want to gather all the testimonies and evidence we can to document this and build a complete case. We cannot be silent about what happened. We want to pursue international justice and be an example for other families who have lost loved ones.”

    Israeli military officials stated shortly after the strike that they had targeted a Hezbollah commander in Beirut, later identifying the target as Ali Yusuf Harshi, who they claimed was the personal secretary and nephew of Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem. Hezbollah has never confirmed Harshi’s death. Sabbagh insists the building held no weapons, no military assets, and no political activity, giving no justification for the attack that killed nine civilians.

    The full casualty list from the Tallet al-Khayat strike tells the story of unintended civilian harm that has marked the months-long conflict: on the third floor, an elderly man, his son, and their Ethiopian housekeeper were killed. The pair shared a surname with Harshi, the target Israel claimed to have killed. The building’s owner, who lived on the eighth floor, was also killed. Krisht’s family and Sabbagh’s died on the sixth and seventh floors respectively, far from any alleged target location.

    Since cross-border conflict between Israel and Hezbollah reignited on March 2, Lebanese official data puts the total death toll from Israeli attacks at more than 3,000 people. For Sabbagh and Krisht, every step they take through the ruins of their family home, every memento they recover, and every piece of evidence they collect for their legal case is a step toward honoring the people they lost – and demanding that the world does not forget what happened here.

  • ‘Flaming flog’: Wild moment barefoot Aussie catches alleged fuel thief in the act, chases them off barefoot

    ‘Flaming flog’: Wild moment barefoot Aussie catches alleged fuel thief in the act, chases them off barefoot

    In a dramatic late-night incident captured on home surveillance cameras, a vigilant Gold Coast resident chased off an alleged fuel thief from his business property while responding barefoot to the crime, with the viral footage now being used to help police identify the suspect.

    James Longstaff, a 23-year-old who works out of Molendinar, was up working on an overnight video editing project around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday when he happened to check his live CCTV feed. What he spotted at first looked like a suspicious figure loitering near his work truck parked outside the building, but a closer look confirmed his worst fears: the stranger was actively siphoning diesel from the vehicle’s tank.

    Instead of waiting for police or backing away from the confrontation, Longstaff acted on instinct. Grabbing only his phone, he rushed straight out of his business and onto the street to confront the would-be thief—never stopping to put on shoes. The viral footage he later posted to his Instagram account shows him approaching the truck as the suspect scrambled into their waiting ute and attempted to make a quick escape.

    As the ute pulled away, Longstaff can be heard shouting in disbelief at the thief, who left the siphon pump hanging on the side of the road, leaking spilled diesel onto the pavement. In a moment of dry, dark humor after the suspect fled, Longstaff joked that he had ended up with a free new pump, before calling the alleged culprit a “flog”.

    In a surprising twist, the suspect apparently circled back to the area just minutes after the first confrontation, only to flee a second time when Longstaff ran back outside to confront them again.

    Speaking to 7News after the incident, Longstaff said his response was purely impulsive. “It was just a one-second response really. I was like ‘screw this guy’,” he explained. He also noted that the rising cost of fuel, which has created widespread financial strain for motorists and businesses across Australia, makes targeted fuel theft even more unfair to hardworking owners. Longstaff uploaded the footage to social media with one clear goal: to help local police track down and identify the alleged thief, who remains at large. As of Thursday, the video has been viewed thousands of times, drawing widespread attention to the late-night encounter.

  • Iran Guards warn of war beyond Mideast as Trump repeats threats

    Iran Guards warn of war beyond Mideast as Trump repeats threats

    Tensions between Washington and Tehran have reignited this week, as top Iranian security officials issued a stark warning that any resumption of U.S.-Israeli military aggression would trigger a conflict that spills far beyond the Middle East. The new bellicose rhetoric comes just days after former President Donald Trump doubled down on threats of fresh military strikes against Iran if no negotiated settlement is reached, marking the latest volley in a war of words that has replaced open fighting since an April 8 ceasefire.

    The brief open conflict between the two nations sent shockwaves through global energy markets, disrupting trade and driving up fuel prices worldwide. While neither side appears eager to return to full-scale combat, the ceasefire that paused active fighting has failed to resolve core disputes, leaving diplomatic negotiations led by Pakistani mediators as the only active path toward a lasting formal end to hostilities.

    Trump, who has faced growing domestic pressure over surging U.S. energy costs tied to the conflict, doubled down on his hardline stance during remarks on Tuesday. Framing the current negotiating dynamic as one of U.S. dominance, he claimed Iran is desperate to reach an agreement because of battlefield losses. “You know how it is to negotiate with a country where you’re beating them badly. They come to the table, they’re begging to make a deal,” Trump said. He added that while he preferred to avoid renewed conflict, he remained open to ordering another major military strike if no acceptable deal materializes — a threat he has issued multiple times in recent weeks without following through.

    Even as diplomatic efforts continue, top U.S. officials have kept military pressure in the public discourse. On Tuesday, Vice President JD Vance told reporters that while “a lot of good progress is being made” in talks, the U.S. military remains “locked and loaded” and ready to act if needed.

    Iran’s Revolutionary Guards hit back with a forceful warning of their own in an official statement published Wednesday on their Sepah News website. The statement said that if U.S.-Israeli aggression against Iran resumes, a long-threatened regional war will this time spread far beyond Middle Eastern borders, and promised “devastating blows” to defeat attacking forces. “The American-Zionist enemy… must know that despite the offensive carried out against us using the full capabilities of the world’s two most expensive armies, we have not deployed the full power of the Islamic revolution,” the statement read.

    Diplomatic activity has ramped up in recent days as Pakistan works to keep negotiations on track. Iran’s official news agency IRNA, citing anonymous diplomatic sources, confirmed Wednesday that Pakistan’s interior minister will travel to Tehran for talks this week — his second visit to the Iranian capital in less than a week.

    The most intractable sticking point in ongoing talks remains the status of the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway that carries roughly one-fifth of the world’s daily oil and liquefied natural gas supplies. While the ceasefire halted active fighting, it has not restored full transit through the strait, leaving global markets in limbo. As countries draw down pre-conflict oil stockpiles, fears of prolonged supply disruptions and sustained high energy prices have grown, with ripple effects felt across the global economy.

    The impact of rising fuel costs is already being felt in vulnerable economies across the globe. In Kenya, which relies heavily on Gulf energy imports, public transport networks have completely shut down amid mass protests over fuel prices. Four Kenyan protesters were killed and more than 30 injured in Tuesday’s unrest, Kenyan Interior Minister Kipchumba Murkomen confirmed to reporters.

  • Kylie Minogue reveals she had second cancer diagnosis in 2021

    Kylie Minogue reveals she had second cancer diagnosis in 2021

    Global pop icon Kylie Minogue has dropped a deeply personal bombshell in her new self-titled Netflix documentary, sharing that she received a second cancer diagnosis in early 2021, nearly 16 years after her first battle with breast cancer in 2005. The 57-year-old Australian superstar opened up about keeping the diagnosis and subsequent treatment private for years, saying that she was not ready to share her struggle with the public until now.

    “My second cancer diagnosis was in early 2021. I was able to keep that to myself, not like the first time,” Minogue shared in the three-part docuseries, which dropped globally on Netflix Wednesday. “Thankfully, I got through it, again, and all is well. Hey, who knows what’s around the corner, but pop music nurtures me… my passion for music is greater than ever.”

    Minogue explained that she struggled for years to find the right moment to go public with her second diagnosis, especially as she experienced a massive career resurgence with her Grammy-winning 2023 hit single *Padam Padam* and the critically acclaimed album *Tension*. At the height of her comeback success, she said she was still grappling with the emotional aftermath of her treatment, and did not feel obligated to open up before she was ready.

    “I don’t feel obliged to tell the world, and actually I just couldn’t at the time because I was just a shell of a person,” she said. “I didn’t want to leave the house again at one point. Padam Padam opened so many doors for me but on the inside I knew that cancer wasn’t just a blip in my life. And I really just wanted to say what happened so I can let go of it. I’d sit through interviews and every opportunity I thought, ‘now’s the time’, but I kept it to myself.”

    While Minogue kept her second battle private, she left subtle clues for fans on her 2023 *Tension* album. The track *Story* includes lyrics that directly reference her hidden struggle: “I had a secret that I kept to myself / Turn another page, baby take the stage.” Minogue noted that the lyrical nod served as a quiet marker for a challenging period of her life that she was not yet ready to discuss openly. Directed by Michael Harte, the same filmmaker behind the hit 2023 David Beckham documentary series, the project gave Minogue the space to finally share her story on her own terms.

    The singer, who discovered her second cancer during a routine check-up, said she chose to go public now to encourage others to prioritize their regular health screenings. She hopes her experience will serve as a gentle reminder for people not to put off critical check-ups, noting that early detection was key to her positive outcome. “Early detection was very helpful and I am so grateful to be able to say that I am well today,” she added in promotional materials for the documentary.

    Minogue’s first breast cancer diagnosis in 2005 made global headlines, forcing her to cancel the remaining dates of her Showgirl greatest hits tour and withdraw from a headline slot at Glastonbury Festival’s Sunday legends stage to undergo chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Unlike her second diagnosis, her first battle was widely publicized, drawing an outpouring of support from fans around the world and public messages of encouragement from fellow public figures.

    As one of the first major female celebrities to speak openly about a breast cancer diagnosis in the 2000s, Minogue was widely praised for raising public awareness of the disease. Her openness triggered a surge in women booking breast cancer screenings, particularly in her home country of Australia, where the trend became widely known as the “Kylie effect”.

    In the documentary, Minogue also opened up about a little-known detail of her 2005 treatment: she postponed chemotherapy to undergo multiple rounds of IVF, in the hope of conceiving a child before starting cancer treatment. “I was 36 when I got my diagnosis so already it’s – you need to be thinking about children,” she explained. “So I did try, I even postponed my chemotherapy to try, which was quite scary at the time because you just want it out, gone. If it had happened it would have been just shy of a miracle. But it didn’t work out that way.”

    After receiving the all-clear following her first treatment, Minogue later revealed in 2008 that she had originally been misdiagnosed, with medical providers initially telling her she had no reason to worry. She would eventually make her long-awaited Glastonbury debut 14 years after her planned set, taking the Pyramid Stage in 2019 with a career-spanning greatest hits set that became the most-watched performance in the festival’s history. The iconic performance capped off a decades-long career that has seen Minogue evolve from a soap opera star on Australia’s *Neighbours* to one of the best-selling pop artists of all time, with global hits including *Can’t Get You Out Of My Head* and *Spinning Around*. Just last December, she extended her late-career resurgence by claiming a rare UK Christmas number one double, topping both the singles and album charts.

    The new documentary pulls together decades of never-before-seen archive footage and new interviews with close friends, family and collaborators, including Minogue’s sister Dannii, former *Neighbours* co-star and ex-boyfriend Jason Donovan, and long-time musical collaborator Nick Cave. At the documentary’s launch event this week, Minogue was joined by both Dannii and Donovan to celebrate the release of the project. For the pop star, opening up about her second cancer battle is about more than just closing a difficult chapter of her life – it’s about reminding fans that even global superstars face unspoken struggles, and she wants them to know she is not invincible.