Global Pulse

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  • US pauses construction of border project in Texas national park

    US pauses construction of border project in Texas national park

    A high-stakes border infrastructure project in one of America’s most ecologically diverse national parks has been put on hold, after days of bipartisan local pushback and growing legal challenges over its potential environmental harm. The $1.7 billion project, pushed forward by the Trump administration as part of its broader border security initiative along the U.S.-Mexico boundary, broke ground earlier this month at Big Bend National Park in southern Texas. On Monday, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Rodney Scott announced the construction pause in a video posted to social platform X.

    Big Bend National Park draws visitors from across the globe for its dramatic, one-of-a-kind landscape: it blends arid desert ecosystems, the winding Rio Grande, and towering mountain ranges, including the iconic Santa Elena Canyon. The protected area hosts extraordinary biodiversity, home to hundreds of native bird species, bobcats, black bears, and dozens of other threatened and endemic wildlife. The administration’s plans call for new vehicle barriers, expanded patrol roads, enhanced lighting, and high-tech detection systems to be built across the park’s public lands. Official project maps show the proposed patrol route and technology corridor cutting across the rugged slopes of Mariscal Mountain, a stretch that critics warn would require widespread dynamite blasting to clear, leaving irreversible damage to the fragile terrain.

    In his announcement, Scott confirmed that all construction activity within the park has been halted pending an on-site review. “Last night, I put a pause on all activity in that park as far as construction goes, until I get down there and do a personal evaluation,” Scott said, noting he would meet with local stakeholders and share additional updates later this week.

    The project has sparked unified, cross-party opposition from local communities and officials since it was first unveiled. All 14 Texas border county judges signed an open letter affirming their support for responsible border security while rejecting the current proposal, calling for more practical, less environmentally destructive alternatives. Data from CBP itself undermines the project’s core security justification: between January 2024 and July 2026, just 9,624 migrant apprehensions were recorded in the Big Bend Sector, a fraction of the 23,080 apprehensions recorded over the same period in the Swanton Sector along the far less contested U.S.-Canada border.

    Local opponents emphasize that the rugged, remote terrain of Big Bend is already nearly impossible to traverse from Mexico, making the new barriers unnecessary. “It’s quite literally impossible to traverse, whether on foot or in a vehicle, from the other side into this area. Furthermore, this is not the will of the people of this region,” Jake Knight, executive director of the Big Bend Protection Alliance, told reporters during on-site protests.

    Critics have also raised alarms over the procurement process and the scope of environmental rollbacks used to approve the project. The Trump administration has waived dozens of longstanding federal environmental protection laws to greenlight the construction, which was awarded through a no-bid, non-competitive contract – a provision that has drawn anger from local residents. “There’s a no-bid contract for $1.7 billion in our national park. And that’s an awful lot of money to spend. So we know that they will destroy things. They’re already in there right now,” 63-year-old local teacher Bernadette Devine said at a recent protest against the plan.

    Legal challenges are already moving forward to block the project permanently. The Center for Biological Diversity, a national nonprofit conservation group, has filed a lawsuit against the federal government arguing the sweeping environmental waivers violate the U.S. Constitution. The group plans to submit an emergency injunction request Monday to halt construction permanently if the pause is lifted.

    Laiken Jordahl, a national public lands advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity, noted that local opposition has reached an unprecedented level of unity. “I’ve never seen communities so outraged and unified on a single issue, this has become a serious force to be reckoned with,” Jordahl told AFP. While activists have welcomed the temporary halt to construction, they have cautioned that the fight to protect the park is far from over. “And while it’s certainly welcome news that the bulldozers aren’t carving in the national park today, it is very likely that the pause will be lifted, we’re not considering this a victory yet,” Jordahl added.

  • Discord suspends livestreams in Brazil after teen’s suicide

    Discord suspends livestreams in Brazil after teen’s suicide

    Less than three weeks after Brazil’s national data regulator ordered the US-based messaging platform Discord to restrict live broadcasting functions over systemic failures to protect minors, the company has confirmed it has fully complied with the government mandate, cutting off Brazilian users’ access to livestreaming, screen sharing and video calling as of Monday. The regulatory action was triggered by the horrific suicide of a 13-year-old girl in a small central-western Brazilian town, where a group of users allegedly goaded the teen into ending her own life during a live broadcast.

    According to Brazilian law enforcement details, the coordinated abuse unfolded over 45 minutes: the group first pressured the girl to harm an animal, and when she refused to complete the act, they turned their coercion toward convincing her to die by suicide. In the aftermath of her death, Brazilian authorities have arrested six people linked to the incident—five teenagers, including one just 14 years old, and one adult. A senior law enforcement official described the incident as a “real-life horror show”, laying bare the severe dangers of unmoderated harmful content on social and messaging platforms.

    Brazil’s National Data Protection Agency (ANPD) issued the suspension order on August 12, arguing that Discord had repeatedly failed to implement adequate safeguards to prevent minors from being targeted with violence, harassment, and incitement to self-harm and suicide on its platform. The regulator gave the company until Monday night to implement the restrictions, and Discord co-founder Stanislav Vishnevskiy confirmed compliance in an official blog post. “We’re complying with the order and working with the ANPD in good faith, which means that screen sharing and video calls will be unavailable for Brazilian users starting now,” Vishnevskiy wrote.

    In his statement, Vishnevskiy pushed back on the claim that Discord was solely responsible for the tragedy, noting that the “coordinated sadistic harm campaign…was carried out across multiple platforms.” He added that the company has already removed the private invitation-only group at the center of the case and is actively working to reverse the restrictions as quickly as possible while updating platform safety measures for teen users. “We are working hard to restore access to these important features as quickly as possible,” he wrote, adding that the company is committed “to make Discord safer for teens.” Brazilian users will retain access to core platform functions including direct messaging and audio calls while the suspension is in place.

    The incident has reignited fierce public and political debate over online platform regulation in Brazil, where authorities have ramped up efforts to protect children and crack down on harmful digital content in recent months. Rosangela da Silva, wife of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, called for a full permanent shutdown of the platform, urging “the judiciary to remove this horrible network from the Internet.” Meanwhile, many Brazilian users have expressed anger over the broad suspension of services, framing the action as an overreach by regulators. “Here in Brazil they allow mobile phones in prisons. This Discord case is a big joke,” one user wrote on social media in response to the restriction.

    Prior to this incident, Brazil had already passed new regulations requiring digital platforms to link the accounts of all users under 16 to parental accounts and implement mandatory age verification to protect minors online. The country’s Supreme Court has also led high-profile efforts to crack down on disinformation and harmful content, a campaign that has drawn fierce criticism from right-wing groups both in Brazil and abroad. Discord, which counts more than 150 million active monthly users and over 90 million active daily users globally, has previously said it was disappointed by ANPD’s order and rejects the regulator’s characterization of its platform’s safety record.

  • Elderly far more at risk from rising heat than thought: study

    Elderly far more at risk from rising heat than thought: study

    As the Northern Hemisphere grapples with a record-breaking summer of deadly extreme heat, a new modeling study from United States researchers has delivered a stark warning: the public health risk that rising global temperatures pose to elderly communities has been drastically underestimated for decades.

    Published in the journal *Lancet Planetary Health* and led by a team from Stanford University, the research addresses a critical gap in earlier climate and heat-related health studies. For years, researchers have relied on wet-bulb temperature — a metric that combines air temperature and humidity to measure how much heat the human body can tolerate before experiencing fatal heat stress. But the foundational data for this metric was collected exclusively from trials on young, healthy adults, failing to account for the biological vulnerabilities that come with age.

    Older adults over the age of 60 naturally sweat less than younger people, often live with pre-existing chronic health conditions, and frequently have weakened cardiovascular systems that make it far harder to regulate body temperature during heatwaves. To correct for this gap, the Stanford-led team used updated data from recent wet-bulb experiments that specifically tested heat and humidity tolerance among adults over 60. The researchers then integrated global population aging trends to model heat exposure risks for three separate age groups by the end of the 21st century, under multiple different global warming scenarios.

    The study’s core conclusion upends previous projections: “Intolerable heat will be experienced at much larger scales and for longer durations, affecting far more people than previously estimated.”

    Breaking down the projected risks, the team found that if the world limits average global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels — the more ambitious target set by the Paris Climate Agreement — 22 percent of all people over 60 globally will be exposed to unsafe levels of heat for at least one month every year. For every additional 1°C of warming above this threshold, roughly an extra one billion older people will face at least one additional month of heat and humidity that exceeds their body’s ability to cope.

    In a worst-case scenario where global average temperatures rise by 3°C by 2100, elderly populations in the hardest-hit regions — including South Asia and the Arabian Gulf — could face round-the-clock dangerous heat for three consecutive months each year. The nations at greatest overall risk are those with high poverty rates and limited access to affordable cooling technology: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Niger top the list of most vulnerable countries.

    Beyond the immediate public health death toll, the study warns that widespread unmanageable heat could trigger a new wave of global displacement. “These results suggest that uncompensable heat could increasingly drive internal displacement and transboundary climate migration, raising new policy and humanitarian challenges,” the authors noted.

    To avoid these grim outcomes, the research team issued two key calls to action. First, nations must accelerate deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions to slow the pace of global warming. Second, local and national heat action plans must explicitly prioritize vulnerable older populations, particularly since the majority of heat-related deaths occur indoors. Expanding access to affordable air conditioning and other cooling solutions for low-income and elderly households is a critical public health intervention, the team emphasized.

    The findings come as the world already sees the deadly impacts of extreme heat: this summer, a record-breaking heatwave across the Northern Hemisphere has already contributed to tens of thousands of deaths, with Europe — the world’s fastest-warming continent — facing devastating concurrent wildfires, drought, and sustained high temperatures that are on track to make this the hottest summer the continent has ever recorded. Climate scientists project that 2025 will be even hotter than 2024, as rising greenhouse gas concentrations continue to push global average temperatures higher.

  • Signings tracker: Kelma Tuilagi heading to the Storm in 2027 as the Warriors re-sign star half

    Signings tracker: Kelma Tuilagi heading to the Storm in 2027 as the Warriors re-sign star half

    The NRL 2027 off-season player market is already picking up steam, with two major roster announcements shaking up the competition this week. The Melbourne Storm have continued their strategic squad building for upcoming campaigns, securing the return of Victorian-developed forward Kelma Tuilagi from the Parramatta Eels on a deal starting in the 2027 season.

    Tuilagi’s rugby league journey has deep roots with the Storm. Born in Samoa and raised in New Zealand, he moved to Melbourne at a young age and rose through the club’s famous youth development pathways. Though he did not take the field for the Storm in 2020, he was a member of the club’s premiership-winning squad that year, and stayed with the entire team throughout their pandemic relocation to Queensland.

    After leaving the Storm’s development system, Tuilagi made his senior NRL debut with the Wests Tigers in 2021, before moving to the Parramatta Eels three seasons ago. At the Eels, he cemented himself as a consistent regular starter on the right edge of the forward pack, earning a reputation as a physical and reliable contributor.

    The signing makes solid strategic sense for Melbourne, which is set to lose starting edge forward Shawn Blore to the Brisbane Broncos ahead of next season. With the club currently grappling with a long-term absence of key forward Eli Katoa this year, mid-season recruit Oryn Keeley has already stepped up to fill the gap, and Tuilagi’s arrival will further boost back-row depth for the coming years.

    Melbourne Storm’s director of football Frank Ponissi expressed clear enthusiasm about the homecoming signing in a statement this week. “We’re delighted to have Kelma returning to Melbourne Storm and Victoria in 2027,” Ponissi said. “Kelma has a strong connection to our club. He was part of our 2020 premiership-winning squad and came through the Victorian rugby league system, so it’s fantastic to bring him back after he’s established himself as a regular NRL player. He’s a powerful, athletic forward who has continued to develop over the past few seasons. He’ll add experience and physicality to our forward pack, and we’re excited to see him back in a Storm jersey.”

    In a separate announcement from across the Tasman, the New Zealand Warriors have locked in one of their star playmakers for the long haul, extending Chanel Harris-Tavita’s contract through to the end of the 2029 NRL season. The new extension comes just months after Harris-Tavita originally signed a one-year renewal that would have kept him at the club through 2027.

    Andrew McFadden, the Warriors’ general manager of recruitment, pathways and development, said the club jumped at the chance to secure the halfback for a longer tenure. “Initially Chanel renewed for just the one season but we couldn’t be happier to have him with us for a longer term,” McFadden said. “It secures his future and ensures he will continue to be a critical part of our plans for at least the next three seasons. He has worked so hard at improving his game and has become one of the game’s most accomplished halves.”

    The dual announcements round out an early flurry of off-season moves across the NRL, as clubs look to shore up their rosters long before the 2026 campaign gets underway.

  • ‘Not the right thing for me’: Cameron Smith rules himself out of contention for Maroons job as new favourites emerge

    ‘Not the right thing for me’: Cameron Smith rules himself out of contention for Maroons job as new favourites emerge

    Queensland Rugby League’s search for a new State of Origin head coach to replace the outgoing Billy Slater has suffered a major setback, after the early favorite for the position, rugby league legend Cameron Smith, confirmed he will not put his name forward for the role.

    Smith, who holds the record for the most State of Origin appearances with 42 caps for the Maroons, had received high-profile public backing for the job from Queensland’s most successful Origin coach, Wayne Bennett. The 42-game veteran had previously served as an assistant coach alongside Slater in 2022 and 2023, making him a widely tipped successor to his former Melbourne Storm teammate. But in an appearance on the Fox League program 100% Footy, Smith shut down speculation of a promotion to the top job.

    Smith explained that his personal commitments still prevent him from dedicating the full time required for a senior coaching role, a reason that prompted him to step away from his assistant position at the end of 2023. “I’ve heard comments from Wayne Bennett endorsing me and I really appreciate the sentiments, but it’s not the role for me at this current time,” Smith said. “I couldn’t fully commit to the role when I was assistant coach, and nothing in my life has changed since then. At this point in my life, it’s not the right thing for me and my family.”

    He also added that the rugby league community was caught off guard by Slater’s decision to step down after five consecutive series in charge of the Maroons. “We were all fairly surprised Billy made the decision to stand down. I thought he would have gone around another 12 months and I said as much to him,” he noted.

    Smith’s withdrawal follows a similar announcement from incumbent Australian Kangaroos head coach Kevin Walters, who also ruled himself out of the running earlier after the Queensland Rugby League confirmed Slater’s departure on Friday. Queensland assistant coach and another Maroons legend Johnathan Thurston has also distanced himself from the vacancy, leaving the QRL with a drastically shortened list of plausible candidates.

    Smith pointed to two remaining candidates who fit the mold of continuing the program Slater built over the past half-decade: current Brisbane Broncos assistant coach Matt Ballin and former Maroons forward Ben Te’o. Smith argues that promoting from within the existing Origin support staff is the most logical path forward for the QRL. “Logic would suggest taking guys from within that have been there with Billy to continue that path that he’s built over the last five years,” Smith said.

    For Ballin, taking the job would require stepping away from his current senior role with the Broncos, a precedent set by incoming New South Wales Blues coach Matt King, who will leave his position at the Sydney Roosters at the end of the year to take over the State of Origin role. Te’o, who has also worked within the current Maroons setup, remains another viable in-house option, while Thurston confirmed he cannot commit to the full-time demands of the head coaching post.

    Walters’ situation, Smith added, is also non-viable because of the conflicting time demands of the Kangaroos head coach and Queensland State of Origin roles in the modern calendar. “You can’t be Kangaroos coach and Queensland coach in this day and age,” he said. “The two that stand out are Ben Te’o and Matty Ballin.”

  • ‘Complete takeover’:Key detail locked in as massive week planned for State of Origin match in Auckland

    ‘Complete takeover’:Key detail locked in as massive week planned for State of Origin match in Auckland

    Rugby league fans across Australia and New Zealand now have a confirmed date to mark on their calendars, as the Australian Rugby League Commission (ARLC) has officially locked in details for the historic first State of Origin game to be hosted outside of Australia. Game two of the 2026 State of Origin series will be played at Auckland’s iconic Eden Park on Wednesday, June 16, marking the first time in the tournament’s long history that a fixture will be held across the Tasman Sea in New Zealand.

    The confirmation, announced publicly by the ARLC on Tuesday morning, paves the way for fans to book travel and hospitality packages for the groundbreaking event. Organizers have also planned a full week of rugby league-focused celebrations leading up to the main Origin fixture, kicking off with a National Rugby League (NRL) match hosted by the New Zealand Warriors at the same Eden Park venue on the Sunday three days before the Origin clash.

    This historic cross-Tasman move continues a growing trend in recent years of expanding State of Origin hosting beyond the traditional strongholds of Sydney and Brisbane. Over the past decade, Adelaide, Perth and Melbourne have all stepped in to host Origin fixtures, spreading the sport’s most high-profile rivalry to new audiences across the region.

    ARLC Chair Peter V’landys emphasized that the move to Auckland is a natural next step for the iconic tournament, which has carved out an unmatched reputation in Australian sport. “State of Origin is truly one of a kind,” V’landys said. “It delivers an atmosphere you cannot find anywhere else in Australian sport – brutal but respectful rivalry, unfiltered passion, and an intensity that you have to experience in person to understand. This is a bucket-list event for any rugby league fan.”

    He added that the week-long festival of rugby league will not only build excitement for the main match but also showcase the sport to New Zealand audiences and traveling international fans. “It’s going to be a complete takeover of Auckland, putting the very best of rugby league on display for everyone,” he said.

    Current State of Origin champions the New South Wales Blues will head into the fixture looking to extend their recent run of success, with organizers projecting that around 50,000 fans will pack into Eden Park for the historic clash. Growing interest in the match has been fueled by the surging popularity of rugby league across New Zealand, where the Warriors have consistently drawn record crowds at every home match in recent seasons. This strong fan base has also sparked growing speculation that New Zealand could be the home of the NRL’s 20th franchise in coming years.

    Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown called the first-ever Origin match to the city a major win for the region, noting the tournament’s status as one of the biggest sporting events in the Australasian region. “One of the biggest events in Australasian sport is coming to our city, and we can’t wait to put on an incredible experience for fans who live here and those traveling over from Australia,” Brown said. “Now that the date is locked in, fans can start planning their trips. We encourage everyone to stay for more than just the 80 minutes of play – make a full week of it, and experience our city’s take on State of Origin both inside the stadium and across Auckland.”

  • BHP posts largest dividend in four years on copper boom

    BHP posts largest dividend in four years on copper boom

    Global mining giant BHP has capped off a strong fiscal year on Tuesday, buoyed by a sharp uptick in global copper prices and strong production performance across key segments to post robust full-year financial results that deliver shareholders the company’s highest dividend payout in four years.

    The company reported a net annual profit of $9.8 billion USD, representing a 9% rise compared to the previous fiscal year. Along with this profit growth, total annual dividends jumped 57% year-over-year to reach $8.7 billion USD, equal to $12.24 billion AUD. Dividends per share total $1.72 USD for the full year, with a final payout of $0.99 USD per share scheduled to reach shareholders next month.

    In addition to expanding returns for investors, BHP also increased its capital expenditure and exploration budget by 5% to $10.3 billion USD for the coming fiscal cycle, enabling further investment in high-growth segments.

    Newly installed chief executive Brandon Craig highlighted that copper has become the core growth engine for the global mining firm, marking the first time the commodity has contributed more than half of the company’s underlying earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA). “Copper is the engine that is driving BHP’s growth. For the first time, Copper contributed more than half our underlying EBITDA and generated significant free cash flow, which means our copper growth is self-funding,” Craig said in a statement accompanying the earnings release.

    Alongside the copper boom, the firm also delivered strong performance across other core asset portfolios, logging record iron ore production and shipment volumes at its Western Australia Iron Ore (WAIO) operation, maintained annual copper output of roughly 2 million tonnes for the second consecutive year, and posted an improved operating result in its coal segment. Craig added that the company met or exceeded performance guidance across most of its business lines and holds industry-leading cost positions across its operations.

    Looking ahead, BHP executives point to growing global demand for key mined commodities as a long-term tailwind for growth. The firm projects that global copper demand alone will surge from the current 34 million tonnes per annum to more than 50 million tonnes annually by 2050, driven by industrial and infrastructure investment across major global economies.

    “We expect China to continue producing around 1 billion tonnes of steel annually through this decade while it also invests heavily in its power grid, the United States is investing in copper-intensive technology, and India is importing more of the raw materials it needs as the fastest growing major economy,” Craig explained, outlining the divergent demand drivers across key markets.

    Market analysts note that BHP’s strong results stand out amid a recent stretch of underwhelming earnings releases from other large global firms. Tony Sycamore, an analyst with online trading platform IG, highlighted that the company achieved a 35% rise in realized copper prices while cutting unit production costs by 6% even amid broad global inflationary pressures.

    “After a tough run of earnings misses over the past week or so, BHP has stepped up and delivered a solid, if not perfect, set of numbers that should steady the ship,” Sycamore said. “Tight cost control, copper now contributing more than half of group earnings, and total shareholder returns hitting a four-year high are the standout features – and should be enough to see the Big Australian retest its mid-June record high of $65.98 in the sessions ahead.”

    Early trading on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) reflected positive investor sentiment, with BHP shares trading up 3.6% to $64.45 AUD shortly after the market open on Tuesday.

  • Colombian minister under fire over beach holiday post-quake

    Colombian minister under fire over beach holiday post-quake

    A fresh political firestorm has erupted in Colombia just one week after a catastrophic 7.4-magnitude earthquake rocked the country’s western region, leaving hundreds dead and thousands displaced. The disaster, which hit on August 10, marked the strongest seismic event Colombia has experienced in almost 50 years, and arrived just three days after newly inaugurated right-wing President Abelardo de la Espriella took office. With nearly 300 confirmed fatalities and more than 27,000 homes reduced to rubble, the quake has already become an unexpected and grueling first test for the first-term president. In the hardest-hit urban centers of Cali and Pereira, survivors whose homes were destroyed have been forced to sleep out in the open on makeshift beds and thin mattresses, turning entire neighborhood streets into informal open-air refugee camps one week after the tremor. Search and rescue teams have now formally wound down operations to find trapped survivors, with hopes of pulling anyone alive from the rubble all but extinguished, and emergency response efforts have shifted entirely to addressing the growing humanitarian crisis unfolding across affected regions. The latest controversy to engulf the new administration centers on Housing Minister Jaime Andres Beltran, who is facing widespread public backlash and a formal no-confidence motion from left-wing opposition parties after photos and videos circulated over the weekend showing the minister relaxing on a Caribbean coast beach in Santa Marta alongside his family. In a statement posted to the social platform X on Monday, Beltran attempted to push back against growing criticism, arguing that the trip was not an official vacation but rather a brief chance to reconnect with his family after days apart, and claiming he returned to work on post-quake reconstruction immediately after the short break. The controversy over Beltran’s trip is not the first criticism the new president has faced over his administration’s response to the disaster. During a visit to an area near the earthquake’s epicenter Sunday, De la Espriella drew fierce condemnation after his team distributed branded footballs emblazoned with his campaign slogan “Sign for the homeland” from his armored vehicle. Detractors have accused the right-wing populist leader of exploiting the national tragedy to advance his political brand and dismissing the urgent, life-sustaining needs of displaced survivors. Supporters of the president have pushed back against the criticism, framing the gesture as a small attempt to bring moments of joy to children and families affected by the disaster. So far, De la Espriella has unveiled initial emergency measures including rent subsidies for families who lost their homes in the quake, and has called on his political ally, former U.S. President Donald Trump, to suspend existing tariffs on Colombian exports in a bid to soften the economic blow of the disaster for the country.

  • Tupac Shakur’s accused killer was out for ‘revenge’, jury hears

    Tupac Shakur’s accused killer was out for ‘revenge’, jury hears

    Thirty years after the iconic rapper Tupac Shakur was gunned down in a Las Vegas drive-by shooting, one of the most high-profile cold cases in American entertainment history finally moved into a courtroom on Monday. Prosecutors opened the trial of 63-year-old Duane “Keffe D” Davis, a former leader of Los Angeles’ South Side Compton Crips gang, by laying out a narrative of planned gang retaliation that ended the life of one of hip-hop’s most influential figures at just 25 years old.

    Lead prosecutor Binu Pilal told the Las Vegas jury that the fatal attack was a direct act of revenge for a public, on-camera beating of Davis’ nephew, Orlando Anderson, earlier the same night. On September 7, 1996, Shakur and Death Row Records founder Marion “Suge” Knight were in Las Vegas to attend a boxing match featuring Mike Tyson. The pair confronted Anderson, a Crips member, after he was accused of assaulting a Death Row Records employee, resulting in a humiliating public beating that left Davis enraged, Pilal said. Just two and a half hours after the altercation, Shakur was shot dead when a white Cadillac pulled alongside his vehicle and opened fire.

    According to prosecutors, Davis did not fire the fatal shots himself. Instead, he provided the weapon to a passenger in the back seat of the Cadillac and explicitly ordered the attack on Shakur. Over the decades following the murder, Pilal noted, Davis repeatedly confessed to his role in the killing — to law enforcement, to media outlets, and even in his own 2019 autobiography. “Over the years, in private interviews, in public statements, and even in private calls, Duane Davis has repeatedly told us over and over again about the anger he felt, and his own role in the revenge drive-by shooting of Tupac Shakur,” Pilal told the jury. “And now, nearly 30 years later, we’re going to ask you to finally hold Duane Davis accountable.”

    The killing of Tupac Shakur has long been tied to the infamous 1990s hip-hop rivalry between the U.S. East Coast and West Coast. Born to a Black Panther activist and raised in Harlem and Baltimore, Shakur rose to fame as the face of West Coast hip-hop after signing with Los Angeles-based Death Row Records, delivering career-defining hits including *California Love* and *All Eyez on Me*. Death Row was affiliated with the Mob Piru Bloods gang, while East Coast label Bad Boy Records — founded by Sean “Diddy” Combs and home to rival rapper The Notorious B.I.G. — hired the South Side Compton Crips as personal security, setting the stage for escalating gang tensions that preceded the shooting. The Notorious B.I.G. was himself murdered in a drive-by shooting just six months after Shakur’s killing, deepening the legacy of violence tied to the rivalry.

    For nearly 25 years, the Shakur murder case stalled due to a lack of actionable evidence. The investigation was reignited only after Davis published his memoir in 2019, in which he confirmed he was in the front seat of the Cadillac the night of the shooting and handed the gun to the back-seat shooter, though he never named who pulled the trigger. All other occupants of the vehicle have since died. Davis has since walked back his memoir’s claims, arguing they were overstated bluster crafted by a ghostwriter to boost book sales. He has entered a full plea of not guilty to all charges against him.

    If convicted on the murder charge, Davis faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. The trial is expected to run for more than a month, revisiting decades-old gang ties, hip-hop industry rivalries, and one of the most enduring mysteries in modern American popular culture.

  • Cambridge head slams ‘feeding frenzy’ over dead academic

    Cambridge head slams ‘feeding frenzy’ over dead academic

    The head of the University of Cambridge has publicly denounced what he calls a “racist feeding frenzy” targeting late Black academic Jason Arday, following the professor’s sudden death last week at the age of 41 amid swirling plagiarism accusations. The tragedy has sparked nationwide outrage, with vigils scheduled in London and Cambridge, growing calls for a public inquiry into the media harassment Arday faced, and heightened scrutiny over the university’s handling of the allegations against him.

    Arday made history in 2023 when he became the youngest Black professor ever appointed to Cambridge’s faculty, taking on the role of Professor of Sociology of Education at the globally renowned UK institution. His appointment was cut short on August 5, when he resigned in the wake of public claims that he had plagiarized sections of his doctoral thesis and exaggerated parts of his personal academic background, claims that ignited a ferocious media firestorm.

    In his public resignation statement, Arday wrote that he had “reached the limits of what any person should reasonably be expected to endure”, confirming the relentless pressure that had been placed on him in the weeks before his death. A week after stepping down, Arday was found dead, and a formal cause of death has not yet been released to the public.

    On Monday, Cambridge Chancellor Chris Smith spoke publicly about the controversy, acknowledging that any formal allegations against an academic require rigorous, thorough investigation, but emphasizing that the public response to the claims had crossed into unacceptable territory. He stated that the academic community was right to “refuse to join in a racist feeding frenzy over a particular academic”, a comment widely understood to refer to Arday, even without a direct naming.

    Arday’s family has already spoken out against what they describe as a “campaign of sustained abuse” that targeted the professor from the moment of his high-profile appointment in 2023. Anti-racism advocacy group Stand Up To Racism has organized two vigils to honor Arday’s legacy: the first will be held Monday evening at London’s Trafalgar Square under the banner “Stand against racist witch hunts”, with a second rally scheduled later the same evening in Cambridge.

    Political leaders have also weighed in on the tragedy: UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who is an alumnus of Cambridge University, described Arday’s death as “a tragedy on so many levels.” Prominent public figures from across the political spectrum have echoed concerns about racist motivation in the scrutiny Arday faced. Right-wing opposition MP James Cleverly, whose mother was born in Sierra Leone, told the BBC Monday that it is “quite possible” that some of the scrutiny of Arday was driven by racism. Cleverly also added that the situation would never have escalated to this point if senior university leadership across the sector, not just at Cambridge, had completed the robust background checks and due diligence required for any senior academic appointment.

    Public support for Arday’s family has surged in the days following his death. An online fundraising page launched by racial equality campaigner Patrick Vernon to support Arday’s next of kin had raised more than £163,000 ($218,000) by Monday afternoon. Separately, a petition organized by advocacy group Good Law Project calling for an immediate public inquiry into the media coverage of Arday had collected more than 83,000 signatures by Monday, with signatories including veteran MP Diane Abbott and Green Party leader Zack Polanski.

    The petition, addressed to Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Arts Minister Lisa Nandy, argues that Arday’s death was “the direct, foreseeable and foreseen result of press harassment” that came after two weeks of relentless, invasive scrutiny. The document also stresses that “racism lay at the heart of this story”, adding that “To be Black and a public figure is now enough to make you a target.” Downing Street has so far declined to confirm whether the UK government will move forward with the requested inquiry.

    Cambridge University itself is facing growing questions over its own handling of the allegations and its treatment of Arday throughout the controversy. Last week, shortly before Arday’s death was announced, Cambridge Vice-Chancellor Deborah Prentice launched an internal investigation into the circumstances of Arday’s appointment and his tenure at the university. Former students of Arday have also launched a tribute project, creating a website titled “Everything Good About Jason Arday” that invites people to share personal memories of the professor, pushing back against what they call the “single reductionist narrative” being circulated about a man they describe as the kindest person they knew.