Global Pulse

标签： Oceania

大洋洲

  • New Victorian Premier Ben Carroll hints at changes to state’s WFH laws in potential upset to new reforms

    New Victorian Premier Ben Carroll hints at changes to state’s WFH laws in potential upset to new reforms

    Just 72 hours after being sworn in as Victoria’s newest Premier, Ben Carroll has already opened the door to potential adjustments to a landmark work-from-home law that has divided workers’ advocates and business groups across the Australian state. The controversial legislation, which was originally brought forward by former Premier Jacinta Allan just weeks before her unexpected resignation from the top job, is now up for review as the new leadership weighs competing demands from labor and industry.

    Carroll confirmed this week that the core provision of the bill — a legal guarantee allowing eligible workers to work from home for up to two days per week when the arrangement is reasonable — will remain in the draft text. However, he has signaled a willingness to consider sensible amendments during the upcoming parliamentary debate, responding to weeks of fierce pushback from Victorian business associations.

    “Work from home does work for families, and now it will go through that parliamentary process, and we will consider anything that is sensible,” Carroll told reporters on Thursday. “Sensible changes will always come up in any debate, and like any other debate, they will be considered.” “That’s the plan,” he added, confirming the two-day right remains on the table.

    Under the original framework outlined by Allan, the right to two days of remote work per week would apply to full-time employees, with pro rata entitlements extended to part-time and regular casual workers. Exclusions are already built in for workers on probation, apprentices, trainees, interns, and participants in entry-level graduate programs. When Allan first introduced the bill in June, she framed it as a pro-worker reform that would save the average employee more than AUD 5,000 annually in commuting costs, cut urban road congestion, and cut down on daily travel time for thousands of workers across the state.

    “We know that working from home works, it works for families, it works for parents,” Allan said at the time, framing the policy as a key priority for the state Labor government ahead of the upcoming election.

    But the proposal quickly drew sharp criticism from peak business groups across Victoria, who argue the new rules would impose unmanageable burdens on small and medium-sized businesses already struggling with economic headwinds. The Victorian Congress of Employer Associations has repeatedly called for a full overhaul of the legislation, warning the original timeline to bring the law into effect by September — which would require rapid processing through the state parliament after the bill passed the lower house earlier this week — is far too compressed.

    “The proposed commencement timetable is also dangerously compressed,” a congress spokesperson said earlier this month. “This would leave employers scrambling to rewrite policies, establish new processes, assess safety obligations, understand cost liabilities, train managers and respond to employee notices under an entirely new legal regime.”

    The group has also warned that the new regulations would add unnecessary complexity, extra operational costs, and economic uncertainty at a time when the state is already seeing a decline in the number of small employing businesses. Business leaders have called for a clearer hard limit on remote work entitlements and a six-month delay to the implementation timeline to give businesses enough time to adjust.

    The sudden review of the work-from-home law follows a rapid leadership shakeup in Victoria’s state Labor government that saw Allan step down from the premiership earlier this week. The leadership contest began after Carroll, who had previously served as Allan’s deputy and had publicly pledged not to challenge her leadership, confirmed he would run for the top job. Allan announced her resignation on Tuesday, arguing that a prolonged internal leadership contest so close to the upcoming state election would waste critical time and government resources.

    “I was prepared to put my record and my plan to a ballot of members as our rules allow,” Allan said in her resignation statement. “I believe I would have won but doing so this close to an election takes up valuable resources including the most important one: time.”

    Now, just days after taking office, Carroll’s decision to open the bill to amendment has signaled a potential shift in the government’s approach to the contentious policy, as the new premier works to balance the expectations of working Victorians and the business community ahead of the upcoming election.

  • Meet the astronomer digging into the Milky Way’s ‘fossils’

    Meet the astronomer digging into the Milky Way’s ‘fossils’

    For decades, Argentine-born astronomer Amina Helmi has dedicated her career to unearthing the hidden origins of the Milky Way, treating ancient stars as cosmic time capsules that hold the keys to our galaxy’s chaotic birth. Now, her groundbreaking work rewriting long-held theories of galactic formation has earned her one of the highest honors in the field: the prestigious Kavli Prize, often referred to as the Nobel Prize of astrophysics.

    At 55, Helmi is a professor at the University of Groningen in the northern Netherlands, where her passion for the Milky Way is impossible to miss in her compact office. Family snapshots and towering stacks of dense, jargon-heavy academic dissertations share space with a bowl overflowing with Milky Way chocolate bars – a playful, sweet nod to the star system that has consumed her professional life.

    Helmi is a pioneer in galactic archaeology, a specialized subfield that treats stars as “cosmic fossils” to reconstruct the Milky Way’s ancient history and project its long-term trajectory. Unlike the popular image of astronomers hunched over telescopes scanning the night sky, Helmi’s work centers on parsing enormous astronomical datasets, some of which contain more than two billion lines of stellar data.

    “Stars carry chemical fingerprints that act just like DNA,” Helmi explained in an exclusive interview with AFP. “These chemical compositions preserve irreplaceable information about where a star formed and what environment it originated in, letting us trace billions of years of galactic history.”

    A transformative turning point for Helmi’s research came from the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission, an ambitious project to map the Milky Way in three dimensions, to which Helmi herself contributed. “Gaia measured the motion of nearly 1.5 billion stars across a far larger volume of space than any previous mission,” she noted. “It wasn’t just the sheer number of stars we were able to track – it was the unprecedented accuracy of those motion measurements that changed everything for our field.”

    Armed with Gaia’s unprecedented dataset, Helmi and her collaborators pieced together a cataclysmic event that reshaped the Milky Way forever some 10 billion years ago – hundreds of millions of years before our own Sun formed. At that time, a small dwarf galaxy named Gaia-Enceladus collided and merged with the young proto-Milky Way. The leftover stars from the crashed dwarf now form the diffuse halo that wraps around our galaxy, and the collision triggered a wave of new star formation that created the Milky Way’s signature “puffed up” galactic disk.

    This discovery upended the long-standing scientific consensus that the Milky Way formed through slow, steady, continuous growth. Instead, Helmi’s work confirmed that our galaxy assembled itself incrementally through a series of violent collisions and mergers with smaller cosmic bodies, a process called hierarchical accretion.

    Helmi shares the 2024 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics with two fellow researchers: Vasily Belokurov of the University of Cambridge and Rodrigo Ibata of the University of Strasbourg. The three scientists will split the $1 million prize fund, receive a gold medal, and be honored at a formal ceremony hosted by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters in Oslo this coming September. The award committee recognized the trio for “uncovering the fossil evidence of past mergers proving that the Milky Way galaxy was built through hierarchical accretion.”

    Helmi told AFP she was completely stunned when she received the news of the award. “I was totally speechless. To me, this is the biggest honor there is in our field – it’s just absolutely unbelievable,” she said. “This is also wonderful recognition for galactic archaeology as a whole. It’s a relatively young field, but it’s exploded in growth over the last decade, and this award puts that work on the map.”

    Looking ahead, Helmi plans to continue diving into new data releases from the Gaia mission, while developing more robust statistical models to process the field’s increasingly massive datasets. When asked what the Milky Way’s violent youth means for its future, she offered a reassuring take: “Nothing major has happened to our galaxy since that early collision. You could say it had a wild, turbulent youth, and now it’s enjoying a quiet, restful adulthood.”

  • South Korea’s women web sleuths fight AI deepfake porn

    South Korea’s women web sleuths fight AI deepfake porn

    As a global leader in advanced technology manufacturing, South Korea has built its international reputation on cutting-edge innovation in smartphones and semiconductor production. But behind this widely celebrated tech success story lies a devastating underbelly: a growing epidemic of digital sexual violence against women, with AI-generated deepfake pornography emerging as the newest and fastest-spreading threat. Today, a team of dedicated women digital investigators are on the front lines of this fight, working tirelessly to remove illegal non-consensual content from the internet and support survivors of this abuse.

    Based in a sunlit Seoul office, the National Center for Digital Sexual Crime Response employs 23 trained specialists who scour the web to identify exploitative deepfake content, spycam footage, and non-consensually shared intimate imagery, then file formal removal requests backed by the threat of legal prosecution. Founded in 2018 in response to mass anti-spycam protests that drew tens of thousands of women demanding government action, the center expanded to 17 regional branches, offering additional support including legal guidance, emotional counseling, and evidence collection for criminal prosecutions.

    In 2023 alone, the organization removed more than 318,000 pieces of illegal exploitative content on behalf of 10,600 survivors, 75% of whom are women and girls. Center director Kim Mi-soon told AFP that South Korea’s faster policy response compared to other nations stems from two key factors: digital sex crimes became widespread earlier here, and South Korean women mobilized quickly and forcefully to demand change.

    For survivors, the center’s support has been life-changing. A 33-year-old military service member, who requested to be identified only by her surname Kim, said deepfakes of her were shared on encrypted messaging apps that were initially outside the center’s reach. Even so, she said the center’s help made an enormous difference for someone navigating abuse alone. The organization provided financial assistance to obtain a formal trauma diagnosis for court proceedings, a support that left her feeling validated and relieved. “Navigating the whole legal procedure alone while suffering trauma would have been impossible,” she explained.

    The threat of digital sexual violence has evolved rapidly over the past five years. The 2020 “Nth Room” scandal shocked the nation when it was revealed that hundreds of men were exploiting dozens of women and girls in paid “sextortion” chatrooms, where victims were coerced into producing extreme explicit content. After that crackdown, sexual deepfakes emerged as the dominant new threat. Global data from web safety firm Security Hero shows that circulation of deepfake content surged 550% between 2019 and 2023, with nearly 98% of all deepfake content being non-consensual pornography of women, and more than half of all global victims located in South Korea.

    While high-profile K-pop idols have been among the most high-profile targets, police data shows digital sex crimes now account for 40% of all sexual offenses in the country, and ordinary women are increasingly targeted. Deletion specialist Kim Yun-hee noted that the trend has shifted sharply: “Since last year, we’ve seen more and more deepfakes of ordinary women and girls — with the images becoming way more sophisticated than before and victims getting younger and younger.” To keep pace, the center has developed its own AI tools, including a continuous monitoring system that can detect exploitative material and grooming messages targeting children.

    For the specialists who do this emotionally heavy work, the impact makes the effort worthwhile. “This job is not easy,” 31-year-old Kim Yun-hee said. “But it feels really rewarding whenever our clients say our service is a true life-saver.”

    South Korea has implemented strict legal penalties to curb the crisis: deepfake pornography is explicitly illegal, with creators facing up to seven years in prison and even possessors can be sentenced to up to three years behind bars. Penalties were strengthened in 2024, after a major scandal uncovered a network of Telegram chatrooms where users shared deepfakes of female classmates, colleagues, acquaintances, and relatives, often made by stealing photos from victims’ public social media profiles.

    International experts say South Korea’s holistic response has positioned it as a global leader in addressing this emerging harm. Clare McGlynn, a law professor at Durham University in the UK and a leading expert on image-based sexual abuse, called South Korea’s approach a model for the rest of the world, noting that it “is leading the way on providing holistic support services and investing in the latest technology to try to reduce the harm.”

    Even with these advances, campaigners warn that technical and legal responses alone cannot solve the crisis. Activists point to patriarchal cultural norms that frame women as sexual objects without inherent dignity as the root cause of the epidemic. Kim Yeo-jin, head of the nonprofit Korea Cyber Sexual Violence Response Center, argues that online harm requires offline change. “Unless we tackle this fundamental cause by fostering more gender equality in wider society and strengthening gender equality education at school, no amount of removal efforts will be enough,” she said.

  • Tickets for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey cancelled by IMAX after reseller discovery

    Tickets for Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey cancelled by IMAX after reseller discovery

    When Christopher Nolan’s latest blockbuster *The Odyssey* landed in cinemas, it sparked unprecedented demand for a very special screening experience that can only be found one place in the entire Southern Hemisphere: IMAX Melbourne, the only venue down under equipped to project the film on pristine 70mm IMAX film. That exclusive access has turned into a ticket frenzy, with fans traveling from as far as Europe just to secure a seat at the iconic venue, and has now led to a major crackdown on unauthorized ticket scalping that has left hundreds of resold tickets void.

    The saga began earlier this week, when a Reddit user sparked widespread joking and frustration by posting a screenshot of a massive Facebook resale listing, quipping that Melbourne IMAX had effectively “outsourced ticket sales to a fella on FB.” The listing revealed a staggering cache of almost 100 tickets for September screenings, including blocks of two, four, and six seats, and an eye-popping 88 seats reserved for the 1:50 pm showing on Monday, September 14 – nearly an entire auditorium held by resellers looking to flip tickets at marked-up prices.

    Unlike standard film releases, IMAX Melbourne classifies these 70mm *The Odyssey* screenings as special limited events, with no discount vouchers accepted for entry. Tickets are priced as high as $70 per seat, and the venue has already sold more than 88,000 tickets across the run, racking up over $3.95 million in gross box office revenue. Every single screening through September 23 is currently sold out, a level of demand that has created the perfect conditions for scalpers to attempt to profit off desperate fans who missed out on official sales.

    After the viral Reddit post brought the large-scale unauthorized resale operation to the venue’s attention, IMAX Melbourne moved quickly to shut down the scheme. In an official update posted to Instagram, the cinema confirmed that all tickets purchased through third-party platforms are invalid, have been canceled, and will be considered fake on the day of the screening. “All tickets sold on third-party websites have been cancelled or are fake tickets and are not valid for any session,” the statement read.

    The extreme difficulty of securing official tickets has already drawn comparisons to some of the most competitive live event sales in recent memory, with one commenter online noting, “Why was it easier to get Eras tour tickets than it was to get tickets to this movie?” For now, the venue’s crackdown has blocked the scalpers’ profit scheme, though the intense demand for the exclusive 70mm screening experience leaves many fans still waiting for a chance to see Nolan’s blockbuster on the format it was made for.

  • ‘The next year or two’: Craig Bellamy drops major coaching hint as Cameron Munster responds to PNG rumours

    ‘The next year or two’: Craig Bellamy drops major coaching hint as Cameron Munster responds to PNG rumours

    One of the National Rugby League’s most high-profile player-coach relationships has taken center stage this week, with Melbourne Storm star Cameron Munster confirming his long-term club future hinges entirely on the tenure of legendary head coach Craig Bellamy. The bombshell update comes just months after Bellamy gave the star five-eighth full permission to explore a potential move to the newly-formed Pacific Tigers (formerly Chiefs), who are building out their roster ahead of their NRL debut in 2028, most recently adding established St George Illawarra star Zac Lomax.

    Munster, who is set to turn 32 in the coming weeks, was originally scheduled to travel to Papua New Guinea with Lomax last weekend to meet with expansion franchise officials, but pulled out of the trip. Citing a current injury and Melbourne’s uncharacteristic poor season form that is all but guaranteed to end the club’s 13-year streak of NRL finals appearances dating back to 2010, Munster said the moment was not right for off-contract talks.

    Speaking at a sporting event in Brisbane this week, the Storm veteran opened up about what will drive his next contract decision, revealing his deep loyalty to the only NRL head coach he has ever played for. “Craig has been the only NRL coach that I’ve had,” Munster said. “I don’t want to say too much about it, but I’m not sure what his coaching future looks like. If he stays, I’ll stay, so there’s a bit of pressure on your back, ‘Bellyache’.”

    While Munster stressed that family and long-term financial security will ultimately guide his choice – noting he has already taken multiple salary cuts throughout his career to stay with the Storm – he made clear his desire to remain in Melbourne as long as Bellamy is in charge. “I’ve got to make sure it’s right for me and my family,” he explained. “If he’s not sure what he wants to do, sometimes you’ve got to make decisions for your family and you can’t wait for someone else when you’re making decisions for your family. I love Craig and I love the Melbourne Storm. I’m not saying I’m not going to stay, but November 1 comes around and I’ve got to make sure I do the right thing for me and my family. Footy’s not everything, and it’s not always a long-term prospect. I’ve got to work after footy, so I want to make sure I’m financially stable for myself and my kids.”

    Bellamy, whose own future has been uncertain after he revealed a diagnosis of a neurodegenerative disorder earlier this year, responded to Munster’s pledge with a clear timeline for his own departure from the game. The Hall of Fame-bound coach confirmed he expects to retire from coaching within the next one to two years, and said he would fully support whatever decision Munster makes for his family and career. “The next year or two is when I’ll be finishing up, so he’ll end up older than me if I stop counting my age,” Bellamy joked. “I’d love to go through my entire coaching career with him ending at the same time, but he’s got a decision to make. He’ll make the right decision for what’s right for his family, and he’s got the right do to that.”

    Beyond contract talk, the Storm are facing immediate pressure this weekend as they prepare for a must-win round clash against the Canterbury Bulldogs, without their star captain and hooker Harry Grant. Grant is set to miss the next several weeks with a hamstring injury, forcing Bellamy to turn to fringe forward Trent Toelau and rookie utility Hayden Watson to fill the gap left by the club’s leader. “Any team losing their captain, that’s a big loss,” Bellamy said. “But Harry especially is always in the middle of the play, whether it’s with the ball or without the ball. He’ll be a loss for us, but when someone misses out, someone else gets a chance. We’ll deal with that tomorrow night, and hopefully some of the young blokes can do a good job for us.”

  • Up to 23 feared dead in Japan quake

    Up to 23 feared dead in Japan quake

    Two days after a powerful 7.1-magnitude tremor rocked Japan’s southwestern Kyushu island, disaster response authorities warned Thursday that as many as 23 people may have lost their lives to the disaster. As rescue teams continue combing through the flattened rubble of a destroyed shopping mall for trapped survivors, four bodies have already been recovered from the wreckage, where a massive suspected gas explosion tore through the structure shortly after the initial quake.

    According to the latest official update from Kumamoto’s disaster management office, 17 people have already been confirmed dead, with an additional six showing no vital signs. Five more people remain in critical condition across the affected region.

    Hundreds of rescue workers spent a second consecutive day Thursday working to reach potential survivors trapped under the debris of the Aeon shopping mall, located in the city of Kashima, Kumamoto Prefecture. A disaster management official confirmed to Agence France-Presse that 10 people have been pulled from the mall so far: four confirmed dead, one with no vital signs, and five others with injuries ranging from severe to minor.

    The 7.1-magnitude quake, which struck Tuesday, left a trail of widespread destruction across Kyushu: dozens of residential structures have been flattened, critical transport infrastructure including bridges sustained heavy damage, multiple fires were triggered by shifting ground, and tens of thousands of local residents have been cut off from power and clean water supplies. A 35C heatwave forecast for Thursday has prompted official heatstroke warnings, and repeated aftershocks have compounded the fear and disruption for already displaced local communities.

    Though the mall was evacuated immediately after the initial earthquake, a massive explosion gutted the entire building roughly 50 minutes later, when an unknown number of employees were still inside the facility. For 56-year-old local resident Fumihiko Matsuura, the destruction hits close to home — he had watched the latest *Toy Story* film at the mall just one week before the disaster. “I was here. I was just here,” he told AFP. “It’s like I narrowly escaped the danger.”

    Drone and on-site footage captured by news outlets shows rescue crews in orange overalls and white helmets navigating a chaotic landscape of twisted steel framing, dangling electrical cables and fallen chunks of concrete ceiling to search for signs of life. Separate damage at a Nippon Paper Industries factory in Yatsushiro City has added to the death toll: a government official confirmed Wednesday that five people were killed at the site when a large red-and-white smokestack collapsed, with four more still unaccounted for.

    As of Thursday morning, more than 22,600 households and public facilities remain without electricity. Water service disruptions were still affecting roughly 84,000 homes as of Wednesday, and broadcast footage has shown local residents queuing for hours to access emergency supplies of bottled drinking water and petrol.

    Notably, the U.S. Geological Survey recorded the quake’s magnitude at 6.8, a lower reading than the 7.1 magnitude officially reported by Japanese seismic monitoring agencies.

    Japan sits at the intersection of four major tectonic plates along the Pacific Ocean’s geologically active “Ring of Fire, making it one of the most seismically active countries on Earth. The country of 125 million people experiences roughly 10 percent of the world’s total seismic activity every year, with hundreds of small to medium tremors recorded annually. While most quakes are mild, the risk of catastrophic large events remains a persistent national threat. Kumamoto Prefecture itself experienced two devastating major earthquakes in 2016 that killed 273 people and injured more than 2,800. The worst modern disaster in Japanese memory remains the 9.0-magnitude undersea quake of 2011, which triggered a massive tsunami that killed or left missing nearly 18,500 people and caused the catastrophic meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

  • AstraZeneca reverses decision to pull lifesaving cancer and endometriosis drug Zoladex

    AstraZeneca reverses decision to pull lifesaving cancer and endometriosis drug Zoladex

    Following intense public and patient advocacy that gathered tens of thousands of signatures, pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has reversed its plan to fully pull the monthly 3.6mg dose of lifesaving drug Zoladex from the Australian market, announcing Friday it will provide the hormone-suppressing treatment free of charge to eligible patients starting November 2026.

    Zoladex, generic name goserelin, is a core treatment for multiple serious conditions: it lowers sex hormone levels to slow the growth of prostate cancer in men, and treats breast cancer and severe endometriosis in women. The 3.6mg monthly implant, which delivers a steady dose of the drug via a small pellet injected under the skin, was previously listed on Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), the federal government’s subsidized drug program that makes critical medications affordable for patients.

    In a statement explaining the original planned withdrawal, AstraZeneca noted that the current pricing structure of the PBS made continued supply of the 3.6mg dose through the scheme financially unsustainable, as the subsidized price offered by the program was too low to support ongoing production and distribution. The company had initially scheduled the dose to be removed from both the PBS and the private Australian market entirely this November, a decision that sparked immediate and widespread outrage from patients, clinicians and cancer advocacy groups.

    Patients launched a public Change.org petition demanding AstraZeneca reverse its withdrawal and create a clear transition plan for people relying on the drug for ongoing care. The petition quickly went viral, racking up more than 40,000 signatures and more than 20,000 shares across social media. “No one should find out through the news that a medication forming part of their treatment plan may be taken away,” the petition read. “No patient should be left wondering whether their care will be interrupted. No doctor should be forced into rushed treatment changes because of a corporate decision.”

    The pressure campaign pushed AstraZeneca to revise its plan. Under the new continuity program, patients who do not have a suitable alternative treatment pathway will still be able to access the 3.6mg monthly implant for free starting November 2026. While the reversal has been welcomed by patients, key cancer advocacy groups and clinical leaders warn the arrangement is not a permanent or sustainable solution.

    Breast Cancer Network Australia (BCNA), one of the country’s leading patient advocacy organizations, issued a statement noting that critical questions around long-term access, administrative practicality and long-term cost stability remain unanswered, creating ongoing uncertainty for thousands of vulnerable patients. “While this update offers some guidance on how eligible patients might continue accessing the monthly option once it is off the PBS, it isn’t a long-term fix,” the group said.

    Currently, a higher 10.8mg dose of Zoladex, which only needs to be administered once every three months, is available on the private market, but it is not covered by PBS subsidies. Following the public backlash over the 3.6mg withdrawal, AstraZeneca has submitted an application to add the higher 10.8mg dose to the PBS scheme. Even so, clinical leaders argue that the entire situation highlights the risk of allowing global corporate commercial decisions to undermine evidence-based best practice care for Australian patients.

    Jenny Gilchrist, an experienced breast oncology nurse, praised the unified advocacy efforts of clinicians and BCNA that pressured AstraZeneca to revise its plan, but emphasized the changes remain unacceptable for patients. “After the announcement that Zoladex 3.6mg was being withdrawn from the market, clinicians and Breast Cancer Network Australia stood together, moved quickly and spoke with one clear united voice. This is unacceptable,” Gilchrist said. “Global commercial decisions must not be allowed to undermine best practice care here in Australia.”

  • US actor Jared Leto denies latest accusations of sexual assault

    US actor Jared Leto denies latest accusations of sexual assault

    Oscar-winning actor and Thirty Seconds to Mars frontman Jared Leto has issued a firm denial of a fresh round of sexual assault and sexual harassment claims brought by 10 women, which were first revealed in a new BBC documentary. The accusations, which date back to a 14-year period stretching from 2002 to 2016, include serious allegations of underage misconduct that add new weight to long-simmering concerns about the 54-year-old celebrity’s behavior.

    According to accounts shared in the documentary, two of the accusers say they were sexually assaulted by Leto when they were just 17 years old. A third woman alleges that Leto threatened to sexually assault her when she was 19, while a fourth claims that as a 16-year-old, she received repeated sexually explicit phone calls from the star, who she says propositioned her for sex. The remaining four accusers detail separate experiences of unsolicited sexual harassment during phone communications with Leto.

    Nine of the 10 women have chosen to share their stories publicly for the first time through the documentary, which is titled *Jared Leto: Hollywood’s Dark Secret*. This is not the first time Leto has faced such serious allegations: earlier in 2025, multiple other women brought sexual assault claims against him in an investigative report published by U.S. digital outlet Air Mail. Leto likewise denied all claims of inappropriate behavior at that time.

    In a formal statement released Wednesday responding to the new documentary, Leto rejected all allegations outright. “I have never sexually assaulted anyone in my entire life,” he said. “These claims are absolutely and categorically false.” Leto, one of Hollywood’s most recognizable A-list figures, earned an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2014 for his critically acclaimed performance in the Dallas Buyers Club, and has maintained a successful parallel career as the lead vocalist and founder of the globally popular rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars.

  • Principal reaction to FIFA’s private investor plan

    Principal reaction to FIFA’s private investor plan

    FIFA’s latest proposal to offload a minority stake in the commercial operations of the World Cup and other top FIFA tournaments, via the creation of a new semi-private subsidiary, has triggered a wave of widespread fury and disbelief across the global football community and political sphere. The plan, which was first made public via correspondence from FIFA president Gianni Infantino to member associations that gave stakeholders until September 19 to approve the deal, has drawn condemnation from every corner of the sport, with critics decrying a lack of transparency, exclusion from decision-making, and fundamental threats to the identity of global football.

    Leading the backlash among football governing bodies is UEFA, European football’s top administrative body, which issued a firm rebuke of the proposal this Wednesday. “The soul and governance of football are not assets to trade — especially with zero transparency as to who gains financially,” the organization stated. “None of us are the owners of football. It is not FIFA’s to sell.” UEFA added that FIFA has no right to leverage the sport for private financial gain for its own leadership and connected associates, arguing that growth of the game should instead center on prioritizing the needs of member associations, clubs, leagues, players and fans.

    CONCACAF, the governing body for North and Central American and Caribbean football whose member nations the United States, Canada and Mexico co-hosted the 2026 men’s World Cup, also echoed widespread concerns, noting it is “deeply concerned by the lack of due process” surrounding the proposal.

    The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) added that it was completely sidelined from the planning process, expressing disappointment that such a high-stakes proposal entered the public sphere before the confederation had the chance to review and debate the plan through formal governance channels. The European Football Clubs Association, which represents more than 850 top clubs across the continent that form the backbone of participation in FIFA’s international competitions, also confirmed it learned of the plan through public media, the same way most other stakeholders did, with no advance consultation on a proposal of massive significance to the future of the sport.

    Top club and federation leaders have also added their voices to the criticism. Hans-Joachim Watzke, vice-president of the German Football Association (DFB) and president of Bundesliga giants Borussia Dortmund, told German magazine Kicker that much of European football views FIFA’s plan as a direct attack on the sport’s core values, a position he shares. “A line has been crossed here,” Watzke said, noting that European teams accounted for six of the 2026 World Cup’s quarter-finalists and three of its semi-finalists, so unified opposition from European football would carry significant influence. Bayern Munich sporting director Max Eberl went further, saying he now believes FIFA exists solely to generate profit, with the only goal being to extract money from every possible angle. “I consider myself a child of football — I’ve been involved in the sport for decades — and even I find this disgusting,” Eberl said.

    Javier Tebas, president of La Liga, Spain’s top professional football league, called the plan another example of systemic governance failures under Infantino, arguing “Infantino is not the solution to FIFA’s governance. He is the problem. We are venturing deeper into the iceberg and what remains to surface.” The Football Association (FA), England’s governing body, also cited deep concern over the lack of proper process, governance and alignment with core football principles based on the limited information that has been made public. Norwegian FA president Lise Klaveness framed the latest controversy as part of a long-running pattern of eroding procedures under FIFA’s current leadership, noting that her organization has repeatedly raised alarms about “increasingly deficient procedures within FIFA’s leadership, particularly the lack of transparency, the insufficient involvement of the council, and the absence of the necessary distance from heads of state and external stakeholders who are seeking to influence the course of football.” French Football Federation president Philippe Diallo added that national federations have been left in the dark, with no access to specific details required to evaluate a proposal that will shape the future of the global game.

    Even Sepp Blatter, Infantino’s disgraced predecessor who stepped down amid a massive corruption scandal more than a decade ago, joined the criticism, pointing to widespread reports that one of the leading potential investors is Thrive Capital, an investment firm founded by Joshua Kushner, brother of Jared Kushner, former US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law. Blatter claimed the close ties between Infantino and Trump have now taken on a damaging financial dimension, arguing “No one has the right to sell our game.”

    The criticism has extended far beyond the football world to political leaders. European Union Sports Commissioner Glenn Micallef posted a clear message on social media platform X: “Hands off our game.” Micallef warned that the proposal raises major red flags around governance and conflicts of interest, noting “Particular concern arises when FIFA’s regulatory powers become aligned with the financial interests of private entities. When the value of investments depends on decisions made by FIFA. That raises profound questions about governance, independence and conflicts of interest.”

    Andy Burnham, the UK Prime Minister and lifelong supporter of Premier League club Everton who led the long fight for justice for families of Liverpool fans killed in the Hillsborough disaster, also weighed in, saying “Football does not belong to investors. It belongs to the people who fill the stands and who stand on the touchline week in, week out, rain or shine.” In the United States, Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee also attacked the proposed deal, linking it to previous controversies surrounding Infantino’s ties to Trump. “Apparently the fake Peace Prize and giant lease with Trump Tower weren’t enough, now Infantino performs a kickback hat trick by pursuing a multibillion-dollar deal with Jared Kushner’s brother to sell ownership stakes in the World Cup to private investors,” the committee members said.

  • ‘I can’t continue’: Corey Jensen forced into early retirement due to health issue

    ‘I can’t continue’: Corey Jensen forced into early retirement due to health issue

    At the age of 32, Corey Jensen’s decorated National Rugby League (NRL) career has been cut drastically short after medical specialists delivered a devastating ruling that the premiership-winning Brisbane Broncos front-rower must retire from contact sport effective immediately.

    Jensen first began experiencing unexplained illness after the Broncos’ Round 7 victory over the Wests Tigers earlier this season. Further diagnostic testing soon confirmed the serious diagnosis: multiple pulmonary embolisms, or blood clots, had developed in both of his lungs. In a bid to clarify his condition and explore paths back to the field, the prop consulted leading specialists across Australia and internationally, who ruled out any underlying autoimmune disorder as the root cause of the clots. The bad news, however, remained: Jensen will require lifelong treatment with blood-thinning medication, a regimen that rules out any future participation in high-impact contact rugby league.

    Jensen’s NRL journey began as a late-blooming prospect with the North Queensland Cowboys in 2017, where legendary coach the late Paul Green gave him his debut opportunity. After honing his craft for five seasons in Townsville, he made the switch to the Brisbane Broncos in 2022, and capped his career just one year later by helping the club secure the 2023 NRL premiership title.

    Reflecting on his sudden career end in an official statement, Jensen noted the bittersweet nature of his current situation. “Due to circumstances and medical advice from not just specialists here but from specialists internationally, the recommendation is that I can’t continue playing contact sport,” he said. “Since I’ve been able to train properly again, it’s been like a mini pre-season and I can do everything other than the contact which is the frustrating part. Overall, my health’s pretty good, I can continue training in the future and it’s not going to affect me in any way.”

    Jensen also paid tribute to the two clubs that shaped his career, singling out the Cowboys and the late Paul Green for giving him his breakthrough opportunity. “I was a bit of a late bloomer, so I’m grateful they took a punt on me and I have to acknowledge how much the Cowboys did for my career,” he added.

    Broncos senior leadership have been unanimous in their praise for the hard-working, selfless prop, who built a reputation as one of the league’s most reliable front-rowers and a key supporting foil for star forward Payne Haas, who is set to depart the club at the end of the 2024 season.

    Broncos head coach Michael Maguire highlighted Jensen’s outsized impact on the club’s culture and success. “Corey is an outstanding professional who lives the Broncos’ standards every day, he’s a high-quality individual and puts the team ahead of himself in everything he does,” Maguire said. “He is perfect for the culture here at the club and he helps build sustained success, his record shows that. His greatest qualities are his care for his teammates and his ability to always make someone else better.”

    Troy Thomson, Brisbane’s general manager of football operations, echoed those sentiments, saying Jensen’s legacy at the club will extend far beyond his playing days. “Corey is the definition of a professional, he has an incredible work ethic, humility and commitment to his teammates,” Thomson said. “Watching him fulfil his dream of winning a premiership last year was incredibly special. Even throughout this incredibly challenging period, Corey has continued to contribute to our football program, and has shown immense growth in that area while supporting staff and players with the selfless attitude he’s always shown. He will forever live on the walls of the Broncos from what he’s been able to achieve, and the players and staff members he’s been able to inspire.”