Global Pulse

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  • Israel calls for police to replace military in handling West Bank settlers

    Israel calls for police to replace military in handling West Bank settlers

    Five days into a disruptive siege that has trapped three Palestinian households in the northern West Bank village of Qusra, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced a controversial policy shift Friday: he has ordered the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to draft a plan that would transfer all civil law enforcement authority over Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank to the national police.

    The proposal, which comes amid sustained right-wing criticism of the military for repeated attempts to eject violent, harassing settlers from Palestinian land, would reconfigure security governance in the territory Israel has occupied since the 1967 Six-Day War. Under the new framework, the IDF would retain full security control over Palestinian residents, while refocusing its official mandate on counterterrorism operations and border defense, rather than policing unruly settler groups.

    “The IDF’s role is to fight Palestinian terrorism, focus on defending borders and communities against threats… and not chase boys on the hilltops,” Katz stated in an official release, referencing the Hilltop Youth, a radical settler faction widely accused of systemic violence against Palestinian civilians. “The police will prepare and establish an appropriate force to handle civil matters, and will be granted all necessary powers and budgets.” The statement used “Judea and Samaria,” the Biblical terminology preferred by pro-annexation Israeli politicians, to refer to the West Bank.

    Analysts widely view the proposed transfer of power as a major step toward de facto Israeli annexation of the occupied Palestinian territory, a policy goal openly endorsed by multiple senior members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right governing coalition. However, Israeli media reports indicate the policy shift is extremely unlikely to be finalized before the country’s national parliamentary elections scheduled for October 27, which current polling projects will be highly competitive.

    The announcement arrives against the backdrop of an ongoing siege that began Sunday, when Israeli settlers blockaded access to three Palestinian homes in Qusra, near the city of Nablus. Palestinian residents have reported being completely cut off from food, clean water, and essential medical supplies for nearly a week, even after the IDF made multiple attempts to disperse the blockading settlers. The siege has drawn unusual international backlash, including rare public criticism from the United States, a longstanding ally of Israel.

    Even Mike Huckabee, the U.S. Ambassador to Israel and a decades-long outspoken supporter of Israeli settlement expansion, condemned the blockade Thursday. “There is no excuse for such thuggish behaviour,” Huckabee wrote on the social platform X, adding that “Actions by those who carried out this horrific act of terror meant to intimidate and harass this family are disgusting.” Notably, one of the three besieged properties is owned by a U.S. citizen.

    On Friday, a small delegation of left-wing Israeli activists and lawmakers managed to deliver critical supplies to the trapped families, after dropping the donations outside the siege zone for Israeli military inspection. “We have succeeded in bringing water, food and medicine to the besieged homes in the village of Qusra,” said Ofer Cassif, a member of Israel’s parliament from the far-left Hadash party. AFP reporters on the ground observed that while settlers were present at the site early Friday, most had left the immediate perimeter of the homes by midday; a new settler tent erected near the properties Friday morning was also removed by the afternoon.

    Many participating activists voiced public condemnation of the siege and the Israeli government’s response. “I’m so ashamed of what my people do here to the Palestinians,” 72-year-old retired Israeli prosecutor Naomi Granot told AFP, who joined the aid delivery. “I would like us both people to get together, to get an agreement. What my people are doing here is just awful. It’s unlawful.”

    Anton Goodman, acting director of the Israeli human rights NGO Rabbis for Human Rights, accused the IDF of enabling settler violence in the area. “The military has let settler terrorists go wild in this area, take over houses, injure people, stop their livelihoods, enforce no freedom of movement,” Goodman said. In response to the criticism, the IDF said Thursday that it had deployed troops to Qusra “to protect the residents and maintain security in the area.”

    Currently, more than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in West Bank settlements, which are widely recognized as illegal under international law, alongside an estimated 3 million Palestinian residents. Since Netanyahu’s right-wing government took office, settlement construction and expansion have accelerated dramatically, while incidents of settler violence against Palestinian civilians have spiked sharply following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack from Gaza.

  • Europe wildfires: latest developments

    Europe wildfires: latest developments

    As a brutal summer heatwave continues to grip the European continent, nations across the region are locked in an urgent battle against a rapidly spreading wave of wildfires that have forced mass evacuations, destroyed residential property, and put irreplaceable cultural heritage sites at risk. Scientists have already labeled this summer as one of the hottest in recorded history for Europe, which is warming faster than any other continent on Earth — a trend that has exacerbated drought conditions, turned landscapes into tinderboxes, and created the perfect environment for uncontrollable blazes to ignite and spread. This extreme weather event has already been linked to thousands of heat-related deaths across the continent, and the wildfire risk shows no sign of abating.

    According to calculations from Agence France-Presse, Friday offered no reprieve from the sweltering conditions, with an estimated 150 million people across France, Germany, Spain, and Italy forecast to face temperatures exceeding 35 degrees Celsius. Below is a breakdown of the latest wildfire developments across the most affected regions:

    In coastal Croatia, firefighting teams are confronting what the nation’s fire chief Slavko Tucakovic described as one of the most destructive wildfires in the country’s modern history. The fast-moving blaze has already consumed dozens of residential homes, left 19 people injured, and forced the evacuation of approximately 2,000 residents from nearby hilltop villages. When access to the area reopened mid-morning, AFP reporters on the scene witnessed the charred remains of multiple burnt-out vehicles along roads near the town of Omis, with some reduced to pools of melted silver metal from the fire’s extreme heat.

    In northeastern Spain, a blaze that ignited earlier this week in the Aragon region has already forced 850 people to flee their homes, and is now encroaching on the iconic San Juan de la Pena monasteries. The older of the two 10th-century sites is considered a defining cultural symbol of Aragon, and holds the remains of the medieval kingdom’s first monarchs. As a precautionary measure, all royal remains and historic artifacts have already been moved to safety ahead of the approaching flames.

    Western Germany has also been hit hard, with local officials confirming that a single wildfire near the town of Huertgenwald, close to the Belgian and Dutch borders, forced roughly 1,800 residents to evacuate overnight. The blaze exploded in size from just 25 hectares to more than 300 hectares by Friday morning, prompting authorities to deploy military equipment and helicopters to support firefighting efforts. Witnesses reported thick plumes of smoke with ash falling steadily from the sky, describing an overwhelming sense of alarm. Further east in North Rhine-Westphalia, another 100 emergency workers were battling a separate large wildfire near the popular Moehnesee lake.

    France, which has already faced dozens of major wildfire outbreaks throughout the 2023 summer season, is now tackling a new blaze in its southwestern Landes department that has burned more than 1,100 hectares of land and forced more than 500 people to evacuate as it approaches the village of Luglon.

    The Balkan region is also grappling with expanding blazes, as the record heatwave worsens long-running drought conditions across Montenegro and Albania. Montenegrin emergency crews have been fighting coastal wildfires for several consecutive days, while new blazes were reported just outside of Albania’s capital city of Tirana on Thursday.

    In the United Kingdom, National Fire Chiefs Council leadership warned that British firefighters are operating under significant pressure, with multiple simultaneous wildfires spreading across the country amid soaring temperatures and widespread drought. On Thursday, the UK’s hottest day of the year to date, a large blaze near Stourbridge in central England left fields scorched and multiple homes destroyed, and sent three firefighters to hospital for treatment.

    In northern Greece, a forest fire approaching two popular coastal tourist resorts prompted a mass evacuation on Thursday, with roughly 500 beachgoers and tourists rescued by a fleet of small fishing and recreational boats. Many evacuees were still wearing swimwear as they were transported to safer nearby beaches, while around 200 people were taken to a larger waiting ship offshore. Hundreds of firefighters remain on the ground working to contain the blaze.

  • Zambia suspends vote counting nationwide citing violence

    Zambia suspends vote counting nationwide citing violence

    The Electoral Commission of Zambia announced a nationwide suspension of presidential and parliamentary vote counting on Friday, just one day after the country held its general election, following widespread reports of election-related violence across multiple districts. The copper-rich southern African nation, which has been grappling with deep-seated economic hardship that dominated the election campaign, now faces an unexpected delay in finalizing official results that were originally scheduled for release by Monday.

    Fourteen candidates contested the presidency, with incumbent Hakainde Hichilema, who has held office since 2021, facing off against main opposition challenger Brian Mundubile, a 55-year-old former minister from the previous Patriotic Front administration. Brown Kasaro, Zambia’s chief electoral officer, explained the abrupt suspension, noting that the violence has specifically targeted election workers, and in several cases, perpetrators have stolen marked ballots from sealed ballot boxes. Kasaro added that the electoral commission will re-evaluate the suspension within a 24-hour window to determine next steps for resuming the counting process.

    Even before official results could be tabulated, both leading candidates made competing claims about the outcome of the vote. Mundubile, who ran under the banner of the newly formed National Restoration Party for Unity and Progress (NRPUP) backed by a coalition of opposition groups, declared an outright first-round victory on Friday. “We have won this election both at presidential level and majority seats in parliament,” Mundubile stated, adding that his campaign views the ongoing delay to the transparent announcement and verification of presidential results with grave concern. For his part, Hichilema said his campaign team has received encouraging early voting trends, and took to social media to urge all Zambian citizens to “remain peaceful, patient and patriotic as we await the official outcome from those entrusted with managing the vote.”

    Alongside the presidential race, Zambian voters also cast ballots for 226 parliamentary seats, and counting for that contest has also been suspended. Around 8.7 million voters were registered to participate in this election cycle.

    The election comes against a backdrop of both Zambia’s long democratic history and growing concerns over political space. Zambia has a proud track record of peaceful democratic power transfers, with every change of the presidency since the return of multi-party politics in 1991 achieved through free and fair elections. However, the Hichilema administration has faced increased international scrutiny over claims that it has narrowed space for political dissent, even as it pursues commitments to robust economic recovery. On the eve of voting, Zambia’s Human Rights Commission announced it was “actively monitoring arrests and detentions involving political candidates, supporters, journalists and other actors” to prevent election-related rights abuses.

    In pre-election security operations, Zambian interior ministry confirmed that security forces had already arrested multiple suspects accused of plotting to interfere with the electoral process. While authorities did not disclose the total number of arrests, they confirmed three former senior government officials are in custody, charged with providing technical services aimed at disrupting the electoral system. A 56-year-old Kenyan national was also detained in connection with the plot. Additionally, three other individuals, including a former provincial minister, were found in possession of more than 7.3 million kwacha (approximately $388,000) in unaccounted funds and have been summoned to assist with ongoing investigations.

    Economically, Zambia remains one of the world’s richest countries in mineral reserves, holding abundant deposits of not just copper but also cobalt, nickel and manganese, yet it continues to face persistent systemic challenges including widespread poverty, chronic unemployment, and skyrocketing food prices. According to World Bank data, more than 70 percent of Zambia’s 22 million population survives on less than three U.S. dollars per day. The previous administration under late former president Edgar Lungu left the country in sovereign default after years of unsustainable heavy borrowing. Since taking office, Hichilema’s government has secured a landmark international debt restructuring deal, restored a suspended International Monetary Fund lending program, and returned the country to positive economic growth, earning broad praise from global lenders and international investors. Hichilema, a 64-year-old former business tycoon who won the presidency on his sixth electoral attempt, campaigned on a platform of continued job creation and an ambitious national infrastructure expansion drive to secure a second and final five-year term. Mundubile entered the presidential race only in May, a late entry that injected significant uncertainty into a contest that long been viewed as likely to end in an incumbent victory, as his party draws its core support from the ranks of the former ruling Patriotic Front.

  • Latest developments: Europe battles wildfires

    Latest developments: Europe battles wildfires

    On Friday, nations across the European continent launched coordinated emergency responses to a surge of uncontrolled wildfires, fueled by record-breaking high temperatures and parched, flammable vegetation that has created near-ideal conditions for catastrophic blazes to spread. As the world’s fastest-warming continent, Europe has long faced growing gaps in infrastructure and preparedness to handle the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme heat events, a crisis that climate scientists overwhelmingly link to anthropogenic climate change.

    This summer of unrelenting heat and rampant wildfires has already entered the history books as one of the most deadly on record, with thousands of heat and fire-related fatalities recorded across the region. AFP analysis drawing on data from Germany’s national weather service and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre reveals that on Friday alone, roughly 150 million people across France, Germany, Spain, Italy and other high-risk nations faced air temperatures exceeding 35 degrees Celsius. Even more startling, around 350 million European residents – three out of every five people living on the continent excluding Turkey – experienced temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius.

    In France, which has already endured a string of massive, destructive blazes already this wildfire season, a new outbreak ignited in the country’s southwest on Friday. Local officials confirmed that the fast-moving fire forced more than 500 residents to evacuate their homes immediately. The blaze has already consumed 1,100 hectares (approximately 2,700 acres) of land in the Landes department, and was advancing toward the small village of Luglon as of Friday afternoon. Regional fire chief Arnaud Fabre noted that the spread of the fire had slowed, but warned that forecasted local temperatures as high as 36 degrees Celsius created a high risk of dangerous flare-ups in the coming hours. This new emergency comes as the vast majority of France remains in the grip of a prolonged, extreme heatwave.

    Western Germany also faced a rapidly escalating wildfire crisis Friday, with local officials ordering the evacuation of approximately 1,800 residents from their homes overnight. Firefighting operations deployed military equipment and helicopter support to contain the blaze, which originated near the town of Huertgenwald, close to Germany’s borders with Belgium and the Netherlands. By Friday morning, the fire had expanded dramatically from an initial 25 hectares (around 60 acres) to 300 hectares, prompting the full evacuation of one of the town’s districts. Southwestern Germany has been one of the hardest-hit regions across the continent this summer, with sustained high temperatures and record low rainfall drying out farmland and pushing river levels to dangerous multi-decade lows.

    Across the English Channel, the United Kingdom’s firefighting infrastructure was pushed to breaking point, according to the head of the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC). NFCC leadership confirmed that firefighters were operating under “significant pressure” as multiple concurrent wildfires spread across the country against a backdrop of soaring temperatures and widespread drought conditions. On Thursday, which marked the UK’s hottest day of the year to date, a large blaze in the central English town of Stourbridge left a trail of destruction that included charred agricultural fields and destroyed residential properties. Three firefighters responding to that blaze, located southwest of Birmingham, were admitted to hospital for treatment of injuries sustained while fighting the fire.

    Croatia is confronting what national fire chief Slavko Tucakovic described as one of the worst wildfires in the country’s modern history. The coastal blaze has already destroyed multiple residential buildings and left 19 people injured, according to local reports. At least 1,000 people displaced by the fire near the coastal town of Omis, located south of the major coastal city of Split, were relocated to a temporary shelter set up in a local sports hall. Tucakovic mobilized additional firefighting teams from across the country to reinforce frontline crews working at the scene, while four Canadair water-bombing aircraft were placed on standby to support containment operations. The same air fleet helped bring a separate wildfire on the nearby island of Brac under full control by Thursday evening.

    In northern Greece, a fleet of civilian small craft carried out a dramatic evacuation of roughly 500 tourists from coastal beaches on Thursday, after a large forest fire advanced toward two popular tourist resorts. Hundreds of firefighters, two of whom sustained injuries while battling the flames, worked alongside water-bombing aircraft for hours to contain the blaze on the Halkidiki peninsula, located south of the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, successfully stopping the fire from spreading across the entire peninsula. Local officials and Greece’s public broadcaster ERT reported that tourists, many still wearing their bathing suits and carrying small children, were ferried to safe nearby beaches, while approximately 200 evacuees were brought to a waiting passenger ship anchored offshore for shelter.

  • Thousands of Australians to receive official government letter on dementia risk in new prevention push

    Thousands of Australians to receive official government letter on dementia risk in new prevention push

    In a landmark public health initiative targeting one of Australia’s fastest growing chronic neurological conditions, the federal government is set to mail personalized dementia risk awareness letters to nearly 350,000 Australians turning 50 over the coming 12 months, backed by leading dementia researchers and aged care officials calling for urgent national action on prevention.

    Starting July 1, the outreach campaign will reach all citizens hitting the 50-year milestone between July 2025 and June 2026. Crafted in consultation with leading dementia clinical and research experts, the letters outline evidence-based steps people can take to cut their dementia risk, from reducing alcohol consumption and adopting nutrient-dense eating patterns to quitting tobacco use. Recipients are also encouraged to schedule regular screenings for cardiovascular disease and diabetes, two conditions linked to elevated dementia risk, and to prioritize ongoing cognitive stimulation through lifelong learning and mentally engaging activities. To help people understand their individual risk profile, all recipients will also gain access to a complimentary personalized dementia risk assessment.

    The campaign comes as 2026 Senior Australian of the Year Professor Henry Brodaty AO, a world-leading dementia researcher, throws his weight behind national prevention efforts, drawing a parallel to Australia’s successful public health campaigns that cut rates of skin cancer, smoking-related illness and heart attack deaths. “We are now ready to tackle dementia prevention,” Brodaty said. “Many trials internationally, including our own Maintain Your Brain trial, have shown that addressing modifiable risk factors for dementia can improve cognitive abilities and delay cognitive decline. Let’s do the ‘Slip, Slop, Slap’ of brain health” — a reference to Australia’s iconic sun safety campaign that became a model for public health outreach globally.

    Current data paints a stark picture of dementia’s growing impact on Australia’s aging population: around 469,000 Australians are currently living with the condition, and that number is projected to surge to more than 1.1 million by 2058 as life expectancies rise and population aging accelerates. However, peer-reviewed research consistently shows that as much as 45 percent of all dementia cases could be delayed entirely, or prevented outright, by addressing known modifiable risk factors — a statistic that has underscored the urgency of the government’s new midlife outreach campaign.

    Aged Care Minister Sam Rae explained that the initiative is designed to be more than just a warning: it is intended to spark critical conversations about brain health that many people delay until it is too late. “These letters are a simple prompt to start a conversation every Australian should be having with loved ones and their doctor,” Rae said. “The science is clear that the choices we make in midlife matter. Staying active, eating well and keeping on top of your heart health can help reduce your risk of developing dementia. Together we can bring dementia numbers down and give more older Australians longer, healthier lives.”

    Dementia Australia chief executive Professor Tanya Buchanan echoed that sentiment, emphasizing that it is never too early or too late to prioritize brain health. “While we cannot change getting older, our genetics or family history, scientific research shows that looking after our brain health can make a big difference to reducing the risk of developing dementia,” Buchanan said. She also noted that many lesser-known modifiable risk factors often surprise the public: addressing hearing and vision loss, treating clinical depression, and maintaining consistent social connection all contribute to lower dementia risk. “Making sure there are services and support to help people address risk factors is vitally important,” she added.

    The national letter campaign aligns with a string of recent advancements in dementia care in Australia, including the recent launch of the nation’s first locally accessible Alzheimer’s blood test, a breakthrough tool that enables far earlier detection of the disease than traditional diagnostic methods.

  • Exiled Putin critic says push for peace put him in danger

    Exiled Putin critic says push for peace put him in danger

    For 63-year-old veteran Russian politician Boris Nadezhdin, exile in Paris was never part of the plan. Speaking to Agence France-Presse from a suburban Paris hotel, the one-time Kremlin insider-turned-peace advocate says he remained in Russia as long as he possibly could, carefully navigating shifting unwritten rules around dissent until even his mild criticism of Moscow’s ongoing military campaign in Ukraine crossed an uncrossable line.

    Once a little-known token figure in Russia’s liberal opposition, Nadezhdin carried deep ties to the current Russian leadership: he has met President Vladimir Putin in person, sharing tea on multiple occasions shortly after Putin rose to power 25 years ago. He previously collaborated with Sergei Kiriyenko, now one of Putin’s most influential senior advisors, and spent years appearing on state-aligned Russian political television programming. Following the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, however, the Kremlin erased even the smallest hints of domestic political pluralism, outlawing all public criticism of the war and forcing leading government critics into exile, prison, or an early grave.

    Nadezhdin initially believed he could avoid repression by sticking to the state’s evolving rules. But his public calls for a negotiated peace and measured criticism of what the Kremlin calls its “special military operation” — now in its third year — made him a target. In 2024, he launched a long-shot bid for the Russian presidency, quickly becoming a rallying point for widespread hidden anti-war sentiment, with viral images of long lines of his supporters circulating across the globe. The Kremlin ultimately blocked his candidacy.

    By July this year, Nadezhdin learned that any further challenge to the Kremlin could result in a lengthy prison sentence. When he attempted to register for September’s tightly controlled parliamentary elections, authorities labeled him a “foreign agent” — a designation widely used to silence dissenting voices. Citing his pre-existing heart condition, Nadezhdin said he feared he would not survive incarceration, so just days after receiving a summons for official questioning, he slipped out of Russia via Kazakhstan, leaving his elderly parents and children behind. Within days of his escape, Russia’s only registered anti-war party, Yabloko, was also blocked from contesting the September polls.

    Nadezhdin says his campaign before it was shut down revealed extraordinary pent-up demand for political change and an end to the war. “I met with hundreds, perhaps thousands of young Russians. They all say they want peace, and they all want a return to normal life,” he explained. “That is why they did not let me or Yabloko run. Putin is convinced that the entire country supports him and that victory for the Russian military is just around the corner.”

    His comments echo growing visible impacts of the war inside Russia itself, as Ukraine escalates drone strikes on Russian energy and logistics infrastructure to bring the conflict home to ordinary citizens and disrupt Moscow’s war economy. “Every day Ukrainian drones fly over Russian territory and people die — even children,” Nadezhdin said. “There are gasoline shortages, internet outages, and prices keep climbing. If you walk through any cemetery in a Russian city, you will see immediately how many young men have been killed.”

    While independent polling on public opinion in Russia is heavily constrained by strict censorship laws, recent data from the Levada Center — Russia’s last major independent pollster, itself labeled a foreign agent by Moscow — shows 62 percent of Russian respondents support immediate peace talks with Ukraine, compared to just 28 percent who back continuing the military campaign. Nadezhdin added that even many members of Russia’s ruling elite are privately frustrated with the war, but fear repression too much to speak out. “They all toe the official line, and they tell me: ‘Boris, you understand. One wrong step, and we are ruined,’” he said.

    Observers note that while Putin’s public approval has declined from its peaks, his hold on political power remains unchallenged. But Nadezhdin argues that further escalation of the conflict will continue to erode public support over time. “After three years of war, Russian voters understand very well the real human and economic cost of these so-called great victories,” he said.

    Nadezhdin, a trained physicist who previously served in Russia’s parliament and 1990s federal government, says he has no regrets about his past cooperation with Russian authorities. “I would have made a good European politician,” he joked. “A European politician knows how to seek compromise, find common ground, read the public mood and adapt.”

    Though he has received offers of assistance from diplomats in multiple countries, Nadezhdin chose to settle temporarily in France. The father of four still has no clear long-term plans: he does not know where he will live, how he will support himself, or when he will be able to return to Russia. He remains hesitant to force his family to uproot their lives to join him in exile. “I don’t have a clear plan for the coming weeks or months,” he said. “But I will keep working until I can go home to Russia again.”

  • Man accused of murdering Ballarat mum Samantha Murphy hospitalised after suspected suicide attempt

    Man accused of murdering Ballarat mum Samantha Murphy hospitalised after suspected suicide attempt

    The high-profile disappearance case of a Ballarat mother has taken a shocking new turn, as the 24-year-old man accused of her murder has been rushed to hospital following an alleged suicide attempt behind bars.

    Patrick Orren Stephenson, son of former Australian Football League player Orren Stephenson, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Samantha Murphy, who disappeared while out for a solo run near her Ballarat home in February 2024. The case has gripped regional Victoria for months, as extensive search efforts by police and community volunteers failed to locate the missing mother, leaving the community with unresolved questions.

    According to reporting from 9News, the alleged incident unfolded on Friday inside the Melbourne Assessment Prison, where Stephenson has been held on remand while awaiting his trial. A spokesperson for Victoria’s Department of Justice and Community Safety later confirmed the incident to media, confirming that an unnamed remand prisoner from the facility had been transported to a hospital for urgent medical assessment. The department did not officially confirm Stephenson’s identity in line with standard correctional protocols, but multiple sources have confirmed he is the prisoner in question.

    Murphy was last captured on closed-circuit television leaving her home in a maroon athletic top and black leggings, which was the last confirmed sighting of the 51-year-old mother. When she failed to return home as expected later that day, her family contacted police immediately, triggering what would become one of the largest missing person searches in recent Victorian history. Search efforts focused on dense regional bushland areas surrounding Ballarat, including Canadian State Forest, Enfield State Park and Buninyong Bushland Reserve, but no trace of Murphy was found for months after her disappearance.

    Approximately four weeks after Murphy vanished, Victoria Police arrested Stephenson and charged him with her murder. He appeared before a Ballarat court the day after his arrest and has maintained his complete innocence from the moment he was taken into custody. It was not until May 2024, three months after Murphy disappeared, that investigators announced they had recovered several “items of interest” from a local dam, including Murphy’s mobile phone. No other substantial evidence has been released to the public as the case progresses through the court system.

    As of the latest update, Stephenson’s murder trial remains ongoing, and his court case is still active before the Victorian judiciary. No new court date has been announced following this week’s alleged suicide attempt, and the community continues to wait for answers in the case that has left a regional community heartbroken.

  • Farage wins UK by-election as Count Binface claims ‘moral victory’

    Farage wins UK by-election as Count Binface claims ‘moral victory’

    In a widely watched UK parliamentary by-election that captured national attention for its unusual cast of candidates and political context, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage secured a decisive victory in Clacton on Friday, while surprise high-performing joke candidate Count Binface declared an unexpected moral victory for his campaign.

    The contest, which drew a historic 34 candidates — resulting in ballot papers nearly one meter long, one of the longest in British electoral history — was triggered by Farage’s resignation from the seat he had held since the 2024 general election. The hard-right politician stepped down amid an ongoing parliamentary watchdog investigation into allegations of undeclared financial gifts, a move that Britain’s major mainstream parties, including the incumbent Labour government, dismissed as a political stunt and opted not to contest.

    When official results were announced, Farage, founder of Reform UK, took a commanding 63 percent of the vote in the eastern English coastal constituency, a strong showing that confirmed pre-election predictions of his victory. Even before vote counting concluded, Farage declared victory at a rally for supporters in Essex, broadcast live on social platform X, telling cheering backers: “The verdict is in and it is a convincing and overwhelming win.” He declined to attend the official count venue, citing an Essex Police warning of a planned organized campaign to disrupt the electoral process. Local election officials later confirmed the vote proceeded safely and securely with police support.

    Farage framed the by-election as a battle between Clacton voters and the national political establishment, casting the financial investigation against him as a coordinated stitch-up to remove him from office. The parliamentary standards probe is examining a reported £5 million ($6.7 million) donation to Reform UK from cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne, with Farage and deputy leader Richard Tice denying any wrongdoing in failing to declare the gift. London’s Metropolitan Police also launched a separate investigation last year into party donations ahead of the 2024 general election.

    While Farage’s landslide was widely expected, the performance of Count Binface — the satirical alter ego of comedian Jon Harvey, who campaigns wearing a rubbish bin on his head and styles himself as an intergalactic space warrior from the fictional planet Sigma IX — far outstripped analyst predictions. Binface secured 9,455 votes, equal to 27 percent of the total vote share, turning the contest into a two-horse race after major parties bowed out.

    Speaking early Friday from the count venue at Clacton Leisure Centre, Binface claimed a moral victory, noting that with major mainstream parties declining to field a candidate, it fell to fringe candidates to offer voters an opposition choice. “If the other parties choose not to stand, somebody has to stand up and be the opposition. And so it’s my humble duty to actually be His Majesty’s official opposition,” he said, adding that he respected the result if voters chose to return Farage as their member of parliament.

    Voter turnout for the by-election hit approximately 44 percent, down from 59 percent in the 2024 national general election, a drop that is typical for off-cycle by-elections in the UK. Many voters in the seaside resort constituency expressed apathy toward the contest, with even some Reform UK campaign volunteers describing the election as unnecessary and ridiculous. “It’s all to make Nigel Farage look like an idiot, basically. But he doesn’t look like an idiot to me or his supporters,” local campaigner Jane Embleton told AFP ahead of the vote.

    Political analysts have characterized the by-election result as having limited wider ramifications for national British politics. Farage’s Reform UK led national opinion polls for 18 months before slipping in recent surveys, but the Clacton seat has long been a stronghold for pro-Brexit, right-wing politics, having backed Brexit by a large margin in the 2016 referendum.

    Stijn van Kessel, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, told AFP: “This by-election was ultimately of limited consequence. Farage successfully managed to mobilise supporters in a constituency where he is popular. But the result does not reflect Reform’s support across the country.”

    Stuart Fox, senior politics lecturer at the University of Exeter, noted that Farage’s return to parliament will now allow the parliamentary standards investigation to resume, potentially putting Farage back in the spotlight and forcing another by-election in the near future. “Now he’s back in Parliament, the standards commissioner will resume the investigation,” Fox said. “He could easily be forced to face another by-election in a matter of weeks.”

  • Perth teens accused of beating black swan and forcing it to inhale vape fumes face new charges after police confirm swan’s death

    Perth teens accused of beating black swan and forcing it to inhale vape fumes face new charges after police confirm swan’s death

    A disturbing case of animal cruelty in Western Australia has taken a tragic turn, with authorities confirming the black swan abused by two local teenage boys has succumbed to its injuries, leading to upgraded criminal charges against the pair.

    The incident unfolded earlier this month near Endeavour Island, located off the coast of the Mandurah region roughly 77 kilometers south of Perth. The two suspects — a 16-year-old and a 13-year-old from the Erskine suburb — reportedly took the swan out onto an inflatable watercraft before committing the brutal acts, which they recorded on camera to share on social media.

    Court documents and police reports detail the cruelty: the pair first removed a fishing lure tangled around the swan’s neck, then one of the teenagers held the bird’s beak open and forced a vape device into its mouth, forcing it to inhale large amounts of vape fumes. The second suspect repeatedly struck the swan on the head during the attack. Once the abuse was complete, the attackers uploaded the graphic footage to social platforms, where it spread quickly and sparked widespread public outrage.

    Police quickly identified the underage suspects after the video went viral, and initially charged both with one count of causing unnecessary harm to an animal. In a formal update issued Friday, Western Australia Police confirmed the critically injured swan had died from the abuse, clearing the way for additional legal action.

    “As part of ongoing investigations into the Mandurah animal cruelty incident earlier this month that ended with the death of a black swan, Mandurah Detectives have uncovered a second alleged offence,” a Western Australia Police spokesperson shared in an official statement.

    Following the confirmation of the swan’s death, prosecutors have added an additional count of animal cruelty by causing unnecessary harm to the existing charges against the two teens. The case has sparked renewed debate around youth accountability for animal cruelty and the enforcement of animal protection laws across Western Australia, with animal welfare advocates calling for stricter penalties to deter similar violent acts against wildlife.

  • China’s viral ‘spicy strips’ take a bite of global snack market

    China’s viral ‘spicy strips’ take a bite of global snack market

    In a state-of-the-art production facility nestled in Pingjiang county, Hunan province — the birthplace of China’s iconic latiao, or spicy strips — uniformed workers with protective masks carefully season and sort through massive piles of the chewy, flavor-packed snack that is quickly winning over consumers far beyond China’s borders.

    A unique combination of spicy, sweet, and satisfyingly chewy, latiao are crafted by cooking wheat flour dough under controlled high temperature and pressure, resulting in the product’s signature spongy, reddish texture that resembles oil-coated flattened french fries. What began as an improvised emergency food source in the wake of a 1998 natural disaster has evolved into a massive Chinese domestic industry valued at over 60 billion yuan ($8.9 billion), and is now rapidly expanding into international markets fueled by rising global interest in Chinese culture, a trend dubbed “Chinamaxxing” online.

    The Hunan facility visited by Agence France-Presse, operated by leading domestic brand Mala Wangzi, produces nearly 700 tonnes of latiao daily — all currently sold within China. But across the industry, the snack has built a loyal global fanbase. According to Mala Wangzi Vice President Li Manliang, latiao from Chinese producers are now exported to more than 160 countries and regions, marking a clear shift toward full internationalization of the industry. Regional expansion in East and Southeast Asia has been particularly rapid, while consumers in North America, Australia and Europe are increasingly purchasing the snacks through specialty Asian grocery stores, cross-border e-commerce platforms, and viral social media content.

    Weilong, China’s largest latiao producer listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, reported overseas revenue of 117 million yuan last year, representing a nearly 50 percent jump from 2024. Social media platforms TikTok and Instagram are flooded with user-generated content of first-time foreign tasters reacting to the snack’s signature heat and texture. One influencer’s video of eating a full-scale model house constructed entirely from latiao racked up 1.5 million views, while an Australian food reviewer’s clip of testing an extra-large latiao gained 2.6 million views and earned a glowing endorsement: “If you can handle your spice, I think you would enjoy this. Highly, highly recommend.”

    The history of latiao stretches back to 1998, when devastating floods in Pingjiang destroyed the region’s entire soybean crop, wiping out the local industry for traditional dried tofu snacks. Local food producers improvised the first latiao using accessible wheat flour as a substitute, creating the emergency staple that would eventually become a national cultural snack. For decades, latiao carried a public reputation as an unhealthy, unhygienic “junk food” — a stigma that major brands have invested years of work to overcome through improved food safety practices and transparent production.

    “When I was young, my parents always said latiao had too many additives,” explained 22-year-old Beijing resident Wang Jingfei. “But as the industry has matured and major brands have prioritized food safety standards, most people don’t see it as a problem to eat occasionally now.” At the Mala Wangzi facility, production staff regularly livestream tours of the factory floor to showcase its strict hygiene protocols, which Li says follow standards similar to those used in the pharmaceutical industry. The brand has also reformulated its recipes to align with modern consumer preferences for healthier options, cutting back on oil, salt, sugar and artificial additives while shifting to more natural raw ingredients.

    To connect with its core consumer base of younger shoppers, Mala Wangzi has rolled out a range of creative marketing initiatives: pop-up latiao museums across major Chinese cities, over 4,000 official latiao-themed weddings for super fan couples, and sponsorships for e-sports tournaments, music festivals and anime conventions. For many young Chinese consumers, the snack remains a beloved comfort food. “I find latiao quite addictive and actually really stress-relieving,” said 24-year-old consumer Yang Xuhao. “If I don’t want a full meal, I’ll just eat latiao, and I always have a pack to snack on while I watch shows.”

    Still, the snack’s image rehabilitation is not complete. Some consumers have cut latiao out of their diets to prioritize healthier lifestyles. “I picked up the habit when I was in school, but I’ve quit now,” said 22-year-old Li Peng. “I want to keep a healthy routine and get in shape, so I stopped eating them.” Some international tasters have also voiced mixed feedback: one foreign reviewer’s viral video with 2.8 million views described latiao as “kind of like chewy tofu” and noted it was “very oily” compared to popular Western snacks. Even so, the ongoing global growth of latiao shows that Chinese snack culture is increasingly resonating with consumers around the world.