Global Pulse

标签： Oceania

大洋洲

  • India opposition leader Gandhi detained after calling for PM resignation

    India opposition leader Gandhi detained after calling for PM resignation

    India’s political landscape has been roiled by escalating mass protests in New Delhi this week, centered on widespread public anger over repeated government failures to secure national examinations and address a broken education system. What began as a small grassroots online movement has exploded into the largest challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third-term Hindu nationalist administration since it took office in 2024.

    The unrest traces its roots to a string of high-stakes testing scandals that have eroded public trust in India’s education assessment system. Most recently, 2.2 million aspiring medical students were forced to retake their entrance exam under heavy security last month after the original test was cancelled over a widespread question paper leak. That incident followed a separate scandal involving flawed online marking for nearly 2 million high school students, amplifying youth frustration that has been simmering for months.

    These grievances coalesced into the fast-growing Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), a grassroots movement that launched in May and has already gained millions of followers across Indian social media platforms. On Monday, the CJP called for mass demonstrations in the capital, demanding the immediate resignation of Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and sweeping structural reforms to India’s education system. Thousands of protesters flooded New Delhi’s streets, igniting the largest public clashes in the city in five years.

    Tensions boiled over on Monday when security forces deployed tear gas and baton charges to disperse crowds, prompting protesters to respond by throwing stones at officers. Official police figures put the injury toll at 60 civilians and 118 police personnel, but CJP organizers claim hundreds of protesters were hurt, a far higher number than the official count. The violence prompted condemnation from opposition parties, with senior Congress Party leader Sandeep Dixit telling Agence France-Presse that “our Constitution got trampled upon” and that no responsible citizen could stand aside in the wake of the crackdown.

    On Tuesday, protests entered a second day, with thousands of demonstrators remaining camped at New Delhi’s iconic Jantar Mantar protest site, vowing not to leave until their demands are met. Congress Party leader and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi joined the demonstrations Tuesday morning, calling directly for Prime Minister Modi to step down over the damage the crisis has inflicted on India’s young people. “Modi must resign for destroying the future of India’s youth,” Gandhi told the crowd before staging a peaceful sit-in directly outside the prime minister’s official residence. He accused the ruling government of refusing to accept accountability for the scandals or allow a parliamentary debate on the crisis.

    Footage captured by Agence France-Presse shows uniformed security personnel, some wearing body armor, forcibly detaining Gandhi and several other opposition lawmakers. Officers carried Gandhi by his arms and legs through crowds of demonstrators before bundling him into a waiting police bus. Chaotic scenes followed as protesters attempted to block the vehicle and climb aboard before it sped away from the site.

    Gandhi later shared images of his detention on social media, affirming that the protest movement would not be halted by government crackdowns. As of Tuesday evening, Modi has not issued any direct public comment on the protests or Gandhi’s detention. India’s Parliament was adjourned on Tuesday after opposition lawmakers walked out and demanded an urgent debate on what they call the “brutality unleashed on students” by security forces.

    CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke addressed supporters Tuesday from atop a lorry, urging protesters to maintain their resolve. “They want to break our spirit,” Dipke said. “Do not let them silence you.” CJP spokesman Ashutosh Ranka called the government crackdown a shameful moment for Indian democracy, noting that peaceful student protesters advocating for a legitimate grievance were brutally targeted by police. Ranka, who met with senior ruling party official JP Nadda on Monday, said the government has yet to offer any formal response to the movement’s core demands.

    Young protesters have shown no sign of backing down, with many saying the violent police response has only hardened their commitment to reform. “We have become even more fearless now,” 25-year-old law student Chandra Pratap Sishwi told reporters. “When I saw people being beaten up by the police like that, my blood boiled.”

    On Tuesday, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju defended the Modi administration’s response, saying officials had acted quickly to address the exam leaks by arresting multiple individuals implicated in the scandals. He also told reporters that Modi had called for the creation of a “foolproof system” to prevent future testing irregularities during a closed-door meeting with governing coalition allies.

  • Chelsea sign Rogers from Villa for reported UK record fee

    Chelsea sign Rogers from Villa for reported UK record fee

    In a landmark move that has shaken up the English Premier League summer transfer window, Chelsea have confirmed the signing of 23-year-old England attacking midfielder Morgan Rogers from Aston Villa, with the deal valuing at a new British transfer record of £117 million ($157 million).

    The London-based club announced on its official website Tuesday that Rogers, who just returned from the FIFA World Cup held in North America, has put pen to paper on a 10-year contract that will keep him at Stamford Bridge until 2033, after successfully completing his mandatory medical examination on Monday.

    Speaking following the completion of his transfer, Rogers expressed his long-held admiration for one of London’s most iconic football institutions. “I’m so excited,” he told Chelsea’s media team. “For me, Chelsea are the biggest club in London and a club I’ve always admired since I was a kid. I’m really excited about the project with the new manager, the players we’ve got and where the club is heading. That’s why I’m here and I can’t wait to get started.”

    This historic transfer breaks two major records in English football. It surpasses the previous record for the highest fee paid for a British player, which was set just weeks earlier when Manchester City purchased Elliot Anderson from Nottingham Forest for £116 million earlier this July. It also becomes the most expensive signing in Chelsea’s 119-year club history, outstripping the £107 million the club paid to acquire Enzo Fernandez from Benfica back in 2023.

    The high-profile capture of Rogers represents a clear statement of ambition from Chelsea, who pulled off the signing despite the club failing to qualify for next season’s UEFA Champions League – a competition that Aston Villa will compete in after their strong top-five finish last campaign. The west London side had been tracking Rogers for more than two years, and eventually won the race for his signature by meeting Aston Villa’s steep asking price, beating out fellow Premier League giants Arsenal, who declined to match the valuation.

    For Villa, Rogers’ exit marks the third high-profile departure of this transfer window for manager Unai Emery, following Youri Tielemans’ recent move to Manchester United and an expected outgoing of left-back Lucas Digne to Paris Saint-Germain. The Midlands club issued a warm farewell to their former star, saying in an official statement: “A player with impeccable behaviour and commitment, Morgan leaves Aston Villa with the best wishes of everyone at the football club for both his service to the club and for for his future career. He will always remain a core part of our recent great moments and memories.”

    Championship club Middlesbrough, who sold Rogers to Aston Villa back in 2024, will net a 20 percent cut of the transfer fee thanks to a sell-on clause inserted into the original deal, a windfall that will reportedly go towards their new stadium project.

    Rogers enjoyed a breakout 2023/24 season with Villa, scoring 14 goals and providing 11 assists across all competitions, and notching up a total of 21 goals in 85 league appearances for the club. He was also a key part of Villa’s successful Europa Conference League run, scoring in the club’s May final victory over SC Freiburg.

    Now, new Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso faces the exciting challenge of integrating Rogers into a revamped attacking line that already includes Cole Palmer, Pedro Neto, Estevao Willian, and fellow recent signing Geovany Quarda. To free up space in the squad and the wage bill, Chelsea are expected to offload Argentine winger Alejandro Garnacho before the summer transfer window closes.

    Off the pitch, Rogers shares a long-standing personal connection with Palmer, having come through the youth academy at Manchester City together. It was Rogers, in fact, who inspired Palmer’s famous ‘cold’ celebration – the pose was first popularized by Rogers during his time as a Middlesbrough player.

    The signing is widely viewed as proof that Chelsea remain a huge draw for top-tier talent even after a disappointing 2023/24 campaign that saw the club finish 10th in the Premier League and miss out on all European competition. Rogers will join up with his new Chelsea teammates after taking a planned post-World Cup break, having helped England reach the semi-finals of the 2024 tournament in North America.

  • Hormuz, Malacca and other key straits spawn tensions throughout history

    Hormuz, Malacca and other key straits spawn tensions throughout history

    For more than 500 years, narrow maritime straits across the globe have stood as the unshakable backbone of international commerce, and equally as persistent flashpoints for great power rivalry that shape global geopolitics to this day. Today, growing friction around two key Middle Eastern waterways underscores just how much these small stretches of water continue to hold the global economy hostage to political conflict.

    As Iran increasingly asserts unilateral control over the Strait of Hormuz, the primary maritime gateway to the Persian Gulf, its Yemeni allied faction the Houthi movement has launched repeated disruptions to commercial shipping transiting the Red Sea en route to and from Saudi Arabian ports. Experts warn this unrest could easily spill over to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the mandatory passage for all vessels traveling between the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, one of the world’s most vital man-made trade routes.

    Hormuz, Bab el-Mandeb, and roughly 10 other straits globally are classified as critical strategic chokepoints for international trade. Every year, thousands of vessels—from oil and liquefied natural gas tankers to bulk cargo ships and container carriers carrying consumer goods and raw materials—pass through these narrow natural maritime corridors, their operations critical to keeping global supply chains moving and energy prices stable.

    Sylvain Domergue, a geography lecturer at Sciences Po Bordeaux and author of *Geopolitics of Maritime Spaces*, explained the international legal framework governing these waterways in an interview with AFP. The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), signed in Montego Bay and widely described as the global constitution for the world’s oceans, formally enshrines two core rules for natural straits: they cannot be subject to commercial tolls, and the principle of free and unrestricted navigation for all vessels is guaranteed under international law. This stands in contrast to man-made waterways such as the Suez Canal and Panama Canal, where the nations that control the infrastructure have the legal right to charge transit tolls for passage.

    Domergue noted that while Iran has never formally ratified the UNCLOS convention, it has abided by its free navigation principle for decades as a matter of customary international law—something that is changing as Tehran escalates its geopolitical posturing.

    The struggle for control over strategic straits dates back centuries. As early as 1507, Portugal, whose explorers pioneered European sea access to South Asia and the East Indies, attempted to seize full control of Hormuz to lock in a monopoly over trade in spices and other valuable commodities from the Orient. That early attempt at control sparked a centuries-long debate over maritime sovereignty, which eventually settled on the *Mare Liberum* doctrine put forward by Dutch jurist and philosopher Hugo Grotius in the early 17th century. Grotius’ core thesis—that the sea is the shared property of all nations, belonging to no single state—became the foundation for modern international rules on navigation, with straits recognized as critical to enabling long-distance global trade.

    “To guarantee freedom of navigation across the world’s oceans, one had to start by guaranteeing freedom of passage through straits,” Domergue explained. The Netherlands championed this doctrine, and was later joined by Britain, and eventually the United States. While the U.S. has also never ratified UNCLOS, it adheres to almost all of the convention’s provisions to this day.

    However, the principle of free navigation did not stop European powers from shaping their colonial expansion around control of strategic straits. Britain built its global naval empire around key military outposts along critical waterways: its largest Asian colonial naval base was built in Singapore, which gives it direct oversight and control over the Strait of Malacca, the chokepoint that today carries the largest share of global maritime trade bound to and from China. Britain also established a key outpost on Socotra Island, located just off the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the southern entrance to the Red Sea.

    In Europe, the Danish straits (the Oresund and Kattegat), which connect the Baltic Sea to the North Atlantic, were a major 19th century flashpoint. For centuries, Denmark charged transit tolls for passage through the waterways, and they remain strategically critical today, as they control all Atlantic access for Baltic nations, most notably Russia.

    The only major global straits where tolls are still legally collected today are the Turkish Straits—the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. They are governed by the 1936 Montreux Convention, an earlier international agreement that predates UNCLOS and preserves Turkey’s right to charge for transit.

    Looking ahead, Domergue warned that new tensions over strategic straits are already emerging in other parts of the world. The Taiwan Strait has become an increasing flashpoint amid China’s rising territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific, while the Strait of Malacca—shared by Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia—carries its own set of unresolved sovereignty and economic disputes.

    Domergue pointed to growing low-level friction in the Taiwan Strait, where he noted there is already an ongoing “sand war”: Chinese vessels regularly travel into waters claimed by Taiwan to dredge marine sand for China’s construction sector, a move widely viewed as deliberate provocative encroachment.

    More recently, when Iran announced plans to introduce a new transit toll for the Strait of Hormuz, the Malaysian prime minister initially publicly praised the idea and suggested Malaysia could follow suit for the Strait of Malacca, before quickly walking back the comment. If tolls were introduced for Malacca, Domergue argued, Singapore would suffer a major blow to its status as the premier logistics and trade hub for East Asia.

    Today, as geopolitical tensions rise across the Middle East and Indo-Pacific, these centuries-old disputes over control of the world’s most critical maritime chokepoints remain as relevant to global trade and security as they were 500 years ago.

  • US readies new tariffs as Trump’s 10% global levy to expire

    US readies new tariffs as Trump’s 10% global levy to expire

    Just days before President Donald Trump’s temporary 10% global import tariff is set to expire, a top U.S. trade official has confirmed that new targeted duties against dozens of nations are imminent, launching a renewed push to advance the administration’s trade agenda after a series of high-profile legal setbacks.

    U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer told CNBC on Tuesday that “we expect to see some action soon” on fresh tariffs crafted to penalize 60 U.S. trading partners over their alleged insufficient action to curb forced labor in global supply chains. The outgoing temporary tariff was implemented earlier this year after the Supreme Court struck down a broader set of Trump administration tariffs in February, and it is scheduled to expire at the end of this week. Industry and policy analysts broadly expect the new forced labor-linked tariffs, which will carry rates between 10% and 12.5%, to replace the expiring temporary measure.

    This latest tariff push comes as the Trump administration doubles down on using import duties as a negotiating tool to extract concessions from U.S. trading partners, a strategy that has already stoked widespread fears of retaliatory measures and escalating diplomatic friction across major global economies. In just the past week, the administration has rolled out two new unilateral tariff measures: a 25% duty on select Brazilian goods set to take effect Wednesday, and a 50% levy on most Canadian imports scheduled to enter into force in 30 days.

    In response to the Canadian tariff announcement, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed Tuesday that Ottawa is examining “all options” to respond, but noted that he and Trump had agreed to ramp up bilateral discussions over the coming weeks to work toward a potential negotiated settlement. Alongside the country-specific measures, Trump also announced Tuesday a phased 100% to 200% sector-specific tariff on imported generic pharmaceuticals, set to take full effect by 2029. To incentivize domestic production relocation, the administration will keep the tariff at zero for all imports through August 2026, giving companies a three-year window to onshore generic drug manufacturing to the U.S.

    Greer emphasized that the new forced labor-linked tariffs will cover the vast majority of all U.S. goods imports, a scope that almost guarantees renewed friction in global trade relations. Countries found to have taken at least some action to address forced labor – including Canada, the European Union, Mexico, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom – will face a 10% tariff, while more than 40 other major economies including China, India, and Japan will face a higher 12.5% levy. The European Union has already publicly rejected the tariffs as unjustified on legal and policy grounds.

    The 50% Canadian tariff comes as negotiations over the future of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) enter a critical phase. Washington recently rejected calls to extend the existing trade deal in its current form, and Greer is scheduled to travel to Mexico this week for official talks tied to the required joint review of the trilateral pact. Negotiations with Canada have progressed far slower than with Mexico, leading many trade legal experts to conclude that the new tariffs are a deliberate leverage play to force Canadian concessions.

    Many legal analysts point out that Trump is relying on Section 338 of the 1930 Tariff Act, a largely untested legal provision, to justify the new measures. “Higher tariffs appear to be aimed at encouraging an agreement between Canada and the United States, or in retaliation for the failure to reach such agreement, or both,” explained Dave Townsend, a trade attorney at Dorsey & Whitney. The core open question, Townsend noted, is whether both sides will spiral into a “cycle of escalation and retaliation.” A critical detail that amplifies this risk is that no Canadian goods entering under USMCA rules are exempt from the new 50% levy. Trump pushed back Tuesday against suggestions the tariffs are tied to earlier tensions over Canadian wildfire smoke drifting into the U.S., saying the two issues are unrelated.

    For Brazil, the incoming 25% tariff over alleged unfair trade practices has already drawn fierce pushback from South America’s largest economy. The measure is set to take effect just months before Brazil’s presidential election, making it a major flashpoint in the country’s national campaign. While a handful of sensitive products – including beef, coffee, certain aircraft parts, and goods that cannot be sourced domestically in the U.S. – are exempt from the duty, the measure still covers more than $11 billion in annual Brazilian exports to the U.S. The American Chamber of Commerce for Brazil has warned that the new rules place Brazil among the nations facing the most restrictive access to the U.S. market.

  • Zelensky sacks army chief Syrsky after days of protests

    Zelensky sacks army chief Syrsky after days of protests

    In a major shakeup to Ukraine’s top military leadership that follows days of public unrest, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has announced the dismissal of Oleksandr Syrsky, the country’s Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. The 60-year-old Soviet-trained commander, who had held the post only since early 2024, will be replaced by Mykhailo Drapaty, the current head of Ukraine’s Joint Forces Command, Zelensky confirmed via an official post on Telegram Tuesday.

    Syrsky is one of Ukraine’s most seasoned military figures, best known for leading the successful defense of Kyiv during the opening weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. But his tenure became increasingly contentious following Zelensky’s removal of 35-year-old Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov earlier this month, a young reformer who had gained widespread public popularity for his work modernizing Ukraine’s fighting forces. Fedorov, who was ousted just six months after taking on the defense portfolio, directly accused Syrsky of undermining his reform agenda, blocking his policy initiatives, and pressuring Zelensky to remove him from office – claims Syrsky rejected outright.

    Fedotov’s dismissal sparked thousands of protests across Ukraine, with demonstrators voicing frustration over stalled military reforms and openly calling for Syrsky to step down. For a period, Zelensky, who has long been wary of potential political rivals within the military leadership, resisted growing pressure to remove Syrsky. Analysts speaking to Agence France-Presse note that unlike Syrsky’s predecessor Valery Zaluzhny, an extremely popular commander who posed a perceived political threat to Zelensky, Syrsky never represented a direct political challenge. Still, he faced widespread criticism from reform advocates over his reluctance to overhaul military procurement, equipment distribution, and mobilization systems, as well as accusations that he had not done enough to prevent excessive troop casualties.

    The incoming commander, 43-year-old Drapaty, is a decorated Major General with deep combat experience stretching back to the start of the Donbas war in 2014. He rose to national fame after a widely shared video showed him ramming an armored vehicle through a pro-Russian separatist checkpoint in Mariupol during the early 2014 skirmishes. Drapaty has previously commanded Ukraine’s Ground Forces and built a reputation as a combat-hardened, forward-thinking leader. In a Facebook post confirming his appointment, Drapaty emphasized the weight of his new role, writing: “Serving Ukraine has always been an honour for me, and during the war for independence it means absolute responsibility. Glory to the nation. Death to the enemies.”

    Fedorov, the ousted defense minister whose removal triggered the unrest, has welcomed Drapaty’s appointment, framing it as a positive shift for Ukraine’s war effort. “This is a breath of fresh air and a new hope in the struggle of free people for freedom and justice,” Fedorov said on social media.

    The leadership reshuffle comes at a pivotal moment in the war. In recent months, Ukrainian forces have successfully slowed Russian territorial advances to a near standstill, while long-range Ukrainian strikes have targeted key Russian oil infrastructure, including multiple refineries that Kyiv says directly fuel Russia’s invasion campaign. At the same time, both sides have ramped up aerial strikes across frontline and rear areas, with the United Nations reporting a sharp spike in civilian casualties in Ukraine over the past two months. Drapaty’s appointment makes him the third person to hold the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

  • South Africa’s anti-migrant unrest led over 160,000 to flee

    South Africa’s anti-migrant unrest led over 160,000 to flee

    A surge of xenophobic violence targeting undocumented migrants in South Africa has forced more than 160,000 foreign nationals to flee the country over the past two months, an Agence France-Presse tally compiled from repatriating government data confirms. Weeks of nationwide unrest, instigated by local groups demanding all undocumented migrants leave by the June 30 deadline, have devolved into deadly attacks that have claimed the lives of at least four migrants, with several foreign governments disputing that official death toll and reporting higher fatalities.

    Desperate to escape targeted violence, migrants from across the African continent have crowded into consulates and community gathering spaces to arrange transport home, many leaving with nothing more than the small belongings they could carry as they feared for their safety. Zimbabwe and Malawi account for the largest share of returnees, with hundreds more migrants fleeing from Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, Nigeria, Uganda and other African nations.

    By July 18, Zimbabwe’s cabinet reported 108,366 of its citizens had returned to the country, most organizing their own repatriation. Malawi, meanwhile, confirmed more than 46,890 of its people had arrived home since early June, with the government deploying 699 buses to facilitate the cross-border journey; six migrants died during the transit process. South African government data shows nearly 2,000 Mozambicans have also returned, after two Mozambican nationals were killed in late May during violence that followed a protest in the coastal town of Mossel Bay — the first fatalities of South Africa’s latest wave of anti-migrant unrest. South African authorities have since confirmed the additional deaths of an Ethiopian national and a Malawian national linked to anti-foreigner sentiment.

    Nigeria has reported two of its citizens killed in ongoing xenophobic attacks, while Ghana confirmed one of its nationals died in anti-immigrant unrest in a Cape Town township. South African officials have rejected both claims, warning that widespread disinformation is being spread across social media platforms. To date, Nigeria has repatriated roughly 1,490 of its nationals, and Ghana has evacuated at least 926 citizens via air. Both nations have called for the crisis, which they label “Afrophobia”, to be added to the agenda for the upcoming African Union summit, and Ghana has postponed a scheduled state visit by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa amid the tensions.

    As Africa’s most economically developed nation, South Africa has long drawn both documented and undocumented migrant workers from across the continent, who leave their home countries in search of employment opportunities unavailable where they live. Local vigilante groups behind the current unrest frame migrants as drivers of rising crime and competitors for limited jobs, stoking tensions in impoverished townships already grappling with systemic poverty, high unemployment and underfunded, ineffective policing. However, independent analysts argue that migrants are being scapegoated for deep-rooted structural failures in South Africa, including a national unemployment rate that exceeds 30% and widespread dysfunction in the delivery of basic public services.

    The current wave of unrest has its roots in low-level demonstrations that began last year, when undocumented migrants were blocked from accessing public health care at clinics and hospitals. Protests grew dramatically in the lead-up to the June 30 departure deadline, and unrest has continued in the weeks following that date. One prominent anti-immigrant group, Operation Dudula, has vowed to hold weekly demonstrations until the country’s local government elections in November.

    Xenophobic violence is not a new crisis in South Africa: repeated waves of anti-migrant unrest have swept the nation over the past three decades. The 2008 anti-immigrant riots left 62 people dead and displaced thousands more, with further large-scale outbreaks occurring in 2015 and 2016. Deadly violence in 2019 saw armed mobs target foreign-owned businesses across Johannesburg, killing at least 12 people, 10 of whom were South African citizens. What makes the current crisis unprecedented, however, is that it marks the first time multiple foreign governments have coordinated to organize large-scale simultaneous voluntary repatriations for thousands of their trapped nationals.

  • Evenepoel wins ‘special’ Tour de France individual time-trial

    Evenepoel wins ‘special’ Tour de France individual time-trial

    The 2024 Tour de France delivered a dramatic day of racing on Tuesday, as Belgian cycling star Remco Evenepoel claimed a memorable individual time-trial victory on Belgium’s national holiday, capping off a second consecutive stage win while the peloton was left reeling from a hard crash that eliminated one of the general classification’s top contenders.

    Staged over a 26.1-kilometer route tracing the stunning shoreline of Lake Geneva, the 16th stage of the Tour saw Evenepoel – the reigning Olympic and world time-trial champion – deliver a masterclass in controlled power. The 24-year-old crossed the finish line a full 28 seconds faster than four-time Tour champion Tadej Pogacar, who retained his overall general classification lead but saw his advantage cut to 4 minutes 32 seconds after Evenepoel’s dominant performance. No other rider came close to challenging the top two: Denmark’s Mattias Skjelmose finished third, more than a full minute behind Evenepoel, at 1 minute 4 seconds.

    For Evenepoel, the win carried extra personal and national significance. The victory marked his fourth career Tour de France stage win and his third time-trial triumph at the race, coming just two days after he claimed the mountainous 15th stage to secure his first back-to-back stage wins at the event. Compounding the moment was its timing: the race fell on Belgium’s annual national holiday, a detail Evenepoel said made the victory even sweeter.

    “It’s amazing, it was a very nice TT, a lot of people on the side of the road,” Evenepoel told reporters after the finish. “My whole family from both sides being here, my parents came just today. My wife is here with her parents and the siblings as well. And also on the Belgian national day is pretty special — I read this morning it’s been a while since Belgium won on National Day, so I’m proud to be the one.”

    Beyond cutting into Pogacar’s lead, Evenepoel also extended his advantage over third-place overall rider Isaac del Toro, pushing the gap to more than two minutes.

    But the day’s celebrations were tempered by a devastating crash that forced Evenepoel’s Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe teammate Florian Lipowitz to abandon the race. Lipowitz, who sat fifth overall heading into the stage and had posted the fourth-fastest time through the route’s three intermediate checkpoints, crashed heavily on a sharp mid-route bend. Just 48 hours after former two-time champion Jonas Vingegaard was forced to withdraw from the Tour following a crash while sitting second overall, the German rider was helped into a medical vehicle clutching his injured left arm.

    Pogacar and del Toro both navigated the same bend moments after Lipowitz’s crash, escaping the incident without incident after a close call.

    From the opening kilometers of the time-trial, it was clear Evenepoel was riding at a level unmatched by the rest of the field. When the top 10 general classification contenders started their races, Skjolmose set an early blistering pace that put him well ahead of most competitors, with Lipowitz, del Toro and French teenage prospect Paul Seixas all within a handful of seconds through the first two checkpoints. But Evenepoel blew those times out of the water: by the first checkpoint, he was already seven seconds faster than Pogacar – the only rider who could stay within 30 seconds of his pace – and 22 seconds ahead of Skjelmose. That gap expanded to 14 seconds over Pogacar and 56 seconds over Skjelmose by the second checkpoint, with most of Evenepoel’s advantage built on the route’s uphill section, where his sustained power proved unbeatable. He held his lead through the final descent and flat finish to claim the win.

    Evenepoel acknowledged that the victory was mixed with worry for his injured teammate, calling the moment “bittersweet” and telling reporters he hoped Lipowitz’s injury was not serious. Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe sporting director Klaas Lodewyck echoed that sentiment, noting the team’s joy over Evenepoel’s performance was overshadowed by the loss of one of their top general classification contenders.

    “It’s mixed emotions, let’s say. We’re over the moon with the win from Remco, but the loss of Lipo was a big blow for the team,” Lodewyck said.

  • French lawmakers set to ban social media for under-15s in European first

    French lawmakers set to ban social media for under-15s in European first

    France is on track to make European legislative history this week, as lawmakers prepare to vote through a landmark bill that will ban all children under the age of 15 from accessing commercial social media platforms, marking one of the world’s strictest regulatory efforts to protect young people online.

    After weeks of negotiations between the country’s upper Senate and lower National Assembly to reconcile differing regulatory approaches, a final agreement on the bill text was reached last week. French Digital Minister Anne Le Henanff confirmed the milestone in a post on X, noting that France would become the first European nation to implement a formal age-based digital restriction to shield minors from online harms. President Emmanuel Macron has positioned the legislation as a flagship domestic reform for his final term in office, and has committed to rolling out enforcement by the start of September 2025.

    The ban will be rolled out in two staggered phases to give platforms time to adjust. From September 1 this year, social media services will be required to block all new account registrations from users confirmed to be under 15. Existing accounts held by under-15 users will be blocked starting in January 2027, giving platforms and families time to transition. Le Henanff has emphasized that the timeline is feasible because functional age-verification tools already exist, placing full regulatory responsibility for compliance on the platforms rather than children or parents. She also gave public assurances that strict safeguards will be put in place to protect users’ personal privacy data throughout the age-check process.

    The legislation also includes a complementary provision that will ban personal mobile phone use in all French high schools, which will go into effect in September to align with the start of the new academic year.

    Negotiations between the two legislative chambers focused on competing regulatory models. Senators initially proposed a two-tier system that would blacklist platforms confirmed to be harmful to child development, while allowing under-15s to access other platforms with parental consent. Ultimately, the National Assembly’s push for a blanket ban on under-15 access prevailed. The legislation still faces criticism from some left-wing politicians, who have raised concerns about flaws in the age-verification process, the speed of implementation, the risk that minors will find ways to circumvent the ban, and ongoing privacy risks.

    Carve-outs are included for non-commercial public interest platforms, including online encyclopedias and educational sites. Crucially, the bill does not impose any fines or legal penalties on under-15 users or their parents for accessing social media, placing all accountability for compliance on platform operators. Lawmaker Laure Miller told AFP that major global social platforms are already largely prepared to implement the new rules.

    Centrist Senator Catherine Morin-Desailly, who shepherded the bill through the upper chamber, explained that the original blacklisting proposal was abandoned because it would have required additional lengthy consultations with the European Commission to set criteria, and carried a small risk of violating existing EU digital regulations.

    France’s move comes as policymakers across the European Union increasingly back tighter age restrictions for social media. France, Greece and Spain have already pushed for EU-wide rules limiting minor access to these platforms, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated last week that children should only receive phased, gradual access to social media services. The European Commission has also developed a centralized age-verification app, which France and other member states have already begun testing in recent months.

    For Macron, the legislation comes as his last major planned domestic reform before he leaves office next year, after his government paused a controversial flagship pensions reform last year. If adopted, France will become the 21st country worldwide to propose or implement age-based restrictions on social media access for minors, and its policy will be closely watched by other European nations considering similar rules. Australia currently holds the title of the first country in the world to implement such a ban, requiring all major platforms to remove under-16 accounts or face heavy financial penalties starting in December 2024.

    The push for the French ban follows a 2023 warning from France’s national public health watchdog, which concluded that major platforms including TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram cause measurable harm to adolescent development, with disproportionate negative impacts on girls’ mental health, even as the watchdog noted social media use is not the sole driver of declining youth mental wellbeing.

  • Australia striker McNamara joins Everton

    Australia striker McNamara joins Everton

    In a high-profile summer transfer move that has caught the attention of women’s football across the globe, Everton Women have secured the signing of prolific Australian striker Holly McNamara on a free transfer. The 23-year-old forward joins the Women’s Super League side after her contract with hometown club Melbourne City reached its expiration.

    McNamara brings an impressive goal-scoring track record to Merseyside, having claimed the A-League Women Golden Boot award twice in her young domestic career. The young forward first rose to prominence in 2022 when she was named the A-League Women Young Player of the Year, and most recently she played a key role in helping the Australian national team reach the final of the 2026 Women’s Asian Cup. To date, she has earned 20 senior caps for her country.

    Everton confirmed that the club fended off stiff competition to complete the signing, beating interest from what the club described as “a wide range of top clubs across Europe and the United States” to land the in-demand striker. McNamara is the fourth new addition to Everton’s senior squad this summer transfer window, following the earlier arrivals of Noemie Mouchon, Hannah Cain and Zara Kramzar, marking a clear statement of the club’s ambitions for the upcoming WSL campaign.

    Speaking after completing her move to Goodison Park, the Australian expressed her excitement at the new chapter of her career. “It is unreal to be here. Goodison Park is such a special stadium. I am very lucky to be here,” McNamara said.

    She went on to explain what drew her to the historic English club, saying: “Everton have such a rich history and that drew me to the club. It is a good club that has great ambitions and a great project for the next few years. A big thing was also the chance to play in the best league in the world. It is so competitive and any team can beat anyone. I can’t wait to try to do everything for this club in order to win and to do as well as we can.”

    The new signing will take on the iconic number nine shirt for Everton as she prepares to make her debut in the Women’s Super League, one of the most competitive top-flight women’s football competitions on the planet.

  • GB’s Richardson unfazed by any Australia animosity

    GB’s Richardson unfazed by any Australia animosity

    As the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow approach, track cycling star Matt Richardson is ready to set aside the public uproar that followed his high-profile switch of national allegiances from Australia to Great Britain, and focus on defending the two gold medals he won while competing for Australia four years ago.

    Born in Maidstone, Kent, Richardson moved to Australia with his family at age 9 and held dual Australian-British citizenship for decades. His career-altering decision to change his cycling registration to Great Britain came just days after he claimed two silver medals and one bronze for Australia at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. The Australian cycling federation responded with a permanent ban barring Richardson from ever rejoining the national team, a move that sparked widespread debate across the global cycling community.

    Now, 27-year-old Richardson says he has intentionally tuned out the criticism surrounding his switch and moved forward with his career. “I tried to block out all the negativity, and all the noise,” he told BBC Radio Kent in an exclusive interview. “I experienced the way they decided to handle it at the time, and moved on as quickly as I could. Ultimately, it has zero effect on me. If, for some reason, the British public didn’t take it well, that wouldn’t have been very good, but it wasn’t the case.”

    Since joining Team GB, Richardson’s on-track results have strongly validated his career choice, with a string of landmark performances that have cemented his status as one of the world’s top track sprinters. He followed his Paris Olympic success with two silver medals in the individual sprint and team sprint events at the 2025 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, before going on to claim both the European sprint and keirin titles later that year. Most notably, Richardson made history by breaking the men’s flying 200m time trial world record twice, becoming the first sprinter ever to clock a time under the nine-second barrier.

    Richardson attributes his rapid recent improvement to the enhanced support, resources and training infrastructure available through British Cycling. “No expense is spared when it comes to trying to achieve success, and it really feels like that,” he explained. “We fly with more bikes, and more equipment – anything we need to perform at our absolute best at a given race. I remember doing World Cups for Australia, and I would only fly over with my race bike. I fly to races now with about four or five bikes. I’ve got spares, I’ve got bikes for team sprint, I’ve got bikes for sprint, I’ve got a road bike, I’ve got a bike that I just warm up on for activations. Those things really make a difference, when a final comes down to a thousandth of a second.”

    Heading into the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, Richardson is not daunted by the target on his back as defending champion in both the individual and team sprint events, nor by the fact that he will now compete against his former Australian teammates. Instead, he channels that extra pressure into motivation. “I use it as fuel,” he said. “I always find motivation in something, whether it’s trying to hunt someone down, trying to be better than someone or trying to stay better than other people.”

    The only major uncertainty hanging over Richardson’s Commonwealth Games campaign is his tight competition schedule, which requires him to travel directly to Glasgow from a race event in Japan. This leaves his participation in the full slate of events he planned to enter in question. “It’s nip-and-tuck on which events I can actually make,” Richardson admitted. “If I was to race in the team sprint, I will fly in on the day and literally go straight to the velodrome and race. Whether or not that’s the best thing to be doing physically, I’m undecided yet, but there is theoretically time for me to race everything. My plan currently is to race in the team sprint, keirin and the sprint. The kilo is undecided. If I do race everything, the goal is to win everything.”