Global Pulse

标签： Oceania

大洋洲

  • Ingebrigtsen delivers masterclass for seventh European athletics gold

    Ingebrigtsen delivers masterclass for seventh European athletics gold

    Norwegian distance running icon Jakob Ingebrigtsen etched his name deeper into European athletics history on Monday, storming to victory in the men’s 5,000m final at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium to secure his seventh individual continental championship gold medal. The milestone win cements his status as the most decorated male athlete in the history of the European Athletics Championships.

    The 25-year-old crossing the finish line in a tight 13 minutes 15.29 seconds, edging out Germany’s Florian Bremm who took silver just 0.31 seconds behind at 13:15.60. France’s Etienne Daguinos rounded out the podium with a bronze medal in 13:16.09, a result that left the young Frenchman visibly honored to share the stage with Ingebrigtsen.

    This win extends Ingebrigtsen’s extraordinary unbeaten streak at the European championships, a run that stretches all the way back to the 2018 Berlin championships, where a 17-year-old Ingebrigtsen announced his arrival by claiming a historic 1,500m/5,000m double. He repeated that double-double feat at both the 2022 Munich championships and the 2024 Rome edition, building an unmatched legacy of continental dominance.

    Monday’s victory is all the more remarkable given Ingebrigtsen’s turbulent lead-up to the event. He sat out the entire 2025 season prior to Birmingham recovering from an Achilles tendon injury that required surgical intervention. The competition marked his first return to top-level racing after a disappointing 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, where he was unexpectedly knocked out of the 1,500m heats and could only manage a 10th-place finish in the 5,000m.

    Ahead of the Birmingham championships, Ingebrigtsen chose to only contest the 5,000m to manage his comeback, and he showed no visible signs of rust or ring rust upon stepping onto the track. Sticking to his signature race strategy, he spent the opening laps tucked comfortably at the back of the tight leading pack, letting other runners set a blistering early pace. The field included Tokyo Worlds medalists Jimmy Gressier of France and Isaac Kimeli of Belgium, plus 2024 Rome European champion Dominic Lobalu of Switzerland, who entered the race fresh off an impressive Diamond League win in Monaco.

    As laps ticked down, Lobalu surged to the front, splitting the dense pack into a single line and ratcheting up the speed. With five laps remaining, Gressier moved past Lobalu into the lead, leaving Ingebrigtsen still biding his time at the back of the field. When the pace dipped, the pack bunched up, with runners lining up four wide at multiple points, but Ingebrigtsen glided effortlessly into the top six, even exchanging brief words with Gressier as the race approached its climax.

    With two laps left, Gressier held the lead, with Ingebrigtsen sitting right on his shoulder and Lobalu stalking the group from the outside. The trio pulled away from the rest of the field, with Bremm surprising many by bridging the gap to the front group by the final bell. With just 200 meters remaining, the race was still wide open, with any of the four front-runners in position to claim gold.

    Gressier hit the home straight first, but faded quickly as Bremm powered past him into the lead. Boxed in briefly behind the pair, Ingebrigtsen made a neat, precise step to the right to open up running room, before exploding past Bremm in a perfectly timed final sprint that sealed the win. Speaking after the race, Ingebrigtsen reflected on the emotion of his comeback.

    “I dreamt of this moment two weeks ago when I put my name on the list,” he told reporters. “It was just enough.” He added: “With 600 metres to go I knew I was going to win. I doubted myself every minute leading up to the last lap. Being healthy again, back racing, feeling something like myself… I am happy.”

    When asked about his seven gold medals, Ingebrigtsen made clear he has no plans to slow down any time soon. “Hopefully it’s not halfway,” he said. “I’m still extremely young, so I think I’ll be back in coming years.”

    Other competitors were quick to praise the Norwegian’s legacy after the race. Bronze medalist Daguinos said: “He’s a legend of our sport. We knew if he’s here tonight it was because he is good shape. He’s so strong. He showed that tonight. I am so proud to share a podium with him.”

    Fourth-place finisher Gressier echoed that sentiment, calling Ingebrigtsen “a champion” and “the best runner of all time.” “He has humility, class,” Gressier added. “Everything he has shown in athletics, everything he still continues to show while being maybe even at 75% of his abilities.”

  • Turkey MPs back historic law on reintegrating Kurdish militants

    Turkey MPs back historic law on reintegrating Kurdish militants

    In a historic legislative vote that marks a turning point for Turkey’s decades-long armed conflict with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Turkish lawmakers on Monday approved a controversial bill that offers a limited legal path for PKK militants to reintegrate into civilian life. The vote, which drew 468 votes in favor, 88 against, and six abstentions, comes 18 months after jailed PKK founder Abdullah Öcalan issued a landmark call for his followers to lay down their arms and pursue Kurdish minority rights through democratic political channels.

    Supported by both President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the pro-Kurdish DEM Party, the legislation does not grant a blanket amnesty to PKK members. Instead, it suspends prosecutions and custodial sentences for qualifying offenses for a period of five to 10 years. If beneficiaries avoid criminal activity during this suspension window, all related investigations will be dismissed and their sentences will be considered fully served. Notably, individuals convicted of severe violent crimes such as murder are explicitly excluded from the program’s protections. Lawmakers estimate that approximately 3,500 PKK-linked detainees, roughly one-third of all such prisoners currently held in Turkish correctional facilities, could be released in the program’s initial phase.

    The most striking omission from the new law is any explicit reference to the status of 77-year-old Öcalan, who has been held in solitary confinement on Istanbul’s Imrali Prison Island for 27 years. Öcalan’s 2025 disarmament call laid the groundwork for the current peace process, and he has remained a central figure in negotiations between the PKK and the Turkish state. Last week, Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz confirmed to CNN Turk that Öcalan’s case does not fall under the scope of the new legislation, though he added that the aging leader would still be able to contribute to ongoing peace efforts without offering additional specifics.

    The legislative debate, broadcast live on public broadcaster TRT, exposed deep divisions within Turkish politics over the peace initiative. For millions of Turkish citizens who lost loved ones to PKK violence over 40 years of conflict, Öcalan is viewed as a violent terrorist responsible for widespread bloodshed. Conversely, many of Turkey’s 15 million-plus Kurdish residents see Öcalan as a heroic champion of Kurdish political and cultural rights, adding a layer of visceral public division to the policy debate.

    Nationalist opposition lawmaker Turhan Çömez of the İyi Party fiercely criticized the legislation during debate, challenging the government: “How can you negotiate with terrorists? … You said they would be laying down their weapons unconditionally.” Despite opposition from nationalist blocs, the bill secured cross-bloc support: Özür Özel, leader of Turkey’s new main opposition force the Republican People’s Party (CHP, referenced in the original text as Yeni Parti), backed the bill, arguing that “only peace, democracy and justice will serve as a remedy” for Turkey’s long-running ethnic conflict.

    The DEM Party has been instrumental in backchannel negotiations, shuttling between Öcalan on Imrali Island and Turkey’s ruling political establishment since diplomatic outreach restarted in October 2024, with party delegations making regular trips to the prison to facilitate dialogue. Following Öcalan’s disarmament call earlier this year, the PKK formally announced its dissolution in May, and in July, PKK militants held a public historic disarmament ceremony in the mountains of northern Iraq, where they symbolically destroyed stockpiles of weapons.

    Even with the legislative breakthrough, significant hurdles remain for the peace process. The PKK leadership has repeatedly stated that excluding Öcalan from the reform is a non-negotiable red line. On the eve of the parliamentary vote, the PKK warned that nearly all of the bill’s provisions would remain a “dead letter” if Öcalan is not granted release from his decades-long solitary confinement.

  • Colombia quake leaves 69 dead, with more trapped under rubble

    Colombia quake leaves 69 dead, with more trapped under rubble

    A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake has devastated western Colombia on Monday morning, leaving at least 69 people dead, dozens more trapped beneath collapsed building debris, and triggering panic across multiple neighboring countries.

    The tremor struck at 7:34 a.m. local time, centered 100 kilometers deep beneath the San Jose del Palmar municipality in the coastal Choco region, a low-income area where full damage counts have yet to be confirmed. The highest death toll has been recorded in Risaralda, where 40 people lost their lives. An additional 27 fatalities were reported in the Valle del Cauca department, and two more people died in Manizales, a major hub in Colombia’s famed coffee-growing region.

    Local officials across affected areas have described a catastrophic situation. In Manizales, an AFP correspondent on the ground confirmed that a historic tower of the city’s iconic cathedral collapsed, and dozens of other structures sustained severe damage. “A great many buildings in the city sustained damage,” said 50-year-old local administrator Jaime Zuluaga. “Traffic is paralyzed and people don’t want to go back to their homes for fear of an aftershock.” In Cali, Colombia’s third-largest city, 20 structures have crumbled, leaving an unknown number of residents trapped under rubble, according to Mayor Alejandro Eder. In the epicentral region’s capital Quibdo, Choco Governor warned of extensive destruction, with amateur footage showing multiple buildings reduced to piles of rubble.

    The shaking was powerful enough to be felt hundreds of kilometers away, in the Colombian capital Bogota, as well as in neighboring Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela. In Bogota, where only minor damage was reported, AFP reporters witnessed thousands of residents, many still in their pajamas, fleeing multi-story buildings into the streets in panic when the tremor hit. “The quake was very, very strong,” said 29-year-old local content creator Valeria Polo.

    In the wake of the disaster, authorities have enacted emergency measures across western Colombia. The country’s civil aeronautics agency announced the immediate suspension of operations at six regional airports, and the national football governing body has postponed all upcoming scheduled matches out of caution. Emergency response teams have been deployed to affected regions to conduct search and rescue operations for survivors trapped in rubble.

    The disaster comes just four days after Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella was sworn into office. The new head of state announced he was convening an emergency meeting of government officials in Bogota to coordinate the response, and addressed the nation in a televised message. “To the Colombians who are going through difficult times today, I want to say: You are not alone,” he said.

    International offers of support have already poured in from across the globe. De la Espriella, who campaigned on a platform of closer ties with the United States and Israel, has received public messages of solidarity from both nations. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on social media platform X that Washington was “closely monitoring the large earthquake that struck Colombia and stands ready to support the people of Colombia.” Israel also offered assistance, along with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa.

    The disaster comes just months after a pair of large earthquakes, measuring magnitude 7.2 and 7.5, hit neighboring Venezuela in June, killing more than 6,000 people and leaving a trail of widespread destruction across the country’s northern regions.

  • Major quake rocks Colombia and neighbors, 18 confirmed dead

    Major quake rocks Colombia and neighbors, 18 confirmed dead

    A devastating 7.4-magnitude earthquake shook western Colombia and nearby Latin American nations early on Monday, leaving at least 18 people dead and widespread structural damage across multiple urban centers in its wake. According to geological surveys, the earthquake struck at a depth of 100 kilometers, with its epicenter located in Colombia’s Choco province, triggering immediate emergency response deployments to pull survivors from collapsed infrastructure. The tremors were strong enough to be felt as far as Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela — a country still reeling from a pair of major deadly quakes that struck in late June. On-site reporting from Agence France-Presse correspondents confirms that thousands of residents in the Colombian capital Bogota fled multi-story buildings in panic immediately after the shaking began, many taking to the streets in their sleepwear as emergency sirens blared across the city.

    Early casualty reports put the highest death toll in Pereira, where Mayor Mauricio Salazar told local broadcaster Caracol Radio that 18 lives had already been lost in the city, describing the overall situation there as critical. Choco province, which lies directly over the quake’s epicenter, has reported severe structural damage to the provincial capital Quibdo, with circulating video footage showing multiple fully collapsed buildings. Full casualty counts for the region have not yet been released, as downed communication lines have slowed damage assessments. In Cali, Colombia’s third-largest city, Mayor Alejandro Eder confirmed that at least 20 buildings have collapsed, with reports of people still trapped under rubble. Emergency officials are using drone surveys to map the full extent of the damage across the metro area. Additional damage has been documented in other western Colombian cities, including Manizales, where local news outlets have broadcast images of leveled structures.

    Residents across the affected region described the intense shaking that caught many off guard in the early morning hours. “There is no electricity or cell phone coverage. It was strong, really strong. Things fell in my house,” 66-year-old Martha Estrada, a resident of Colombia’s major coffee-growing region Eje Cafetero, told AFP. Valeria Polo, a 29-year-old content creator based in Bogota, echoed that account, saying “The quake was very, very strong.” Colombia’s civil aeronautics agency has announced that six regional airports in the western part of the country have suspended all operations to assess runway and terminal damage for safety. In Bogota, Mayor Carlos Galan told Blu Radio that damage in the capital was largely limited to minor cracks in building facades, with no major casualties or collapses reported as of yet. Colombian President Abelardo de la Espriella has announced he will travel to the impacted region in the coming days to oversee emergency response efforts and meet with affected communities. Emergency management officials have stated there is no risk of a tsunami triggered by the earthquake, easing concerns of additional hazards for coastal communities. The disaster comes just six weeks after twin 7.2 and 7.5-magnitude earthquakes hit Venezuela on June 24, killing more than 6,000 people and causing billions of dollars in property damage across that country.

  • What next for beleaguered FIFA president Infantino?

    What next for beleaguered FIFA president Infantino?

    Gianni Infantino’s bid to weather growing criticism and retain control of global football’s governing body suffered a fresh blow this week, after three of FIFA’s six regional confederations launched an unprecedented coordinated attack on the FIFA president’s leadership just days after he backed away from a controversial commercial restructuring plan.

    It has been more than seven days since Infantino was forced to abandon his proposal for FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE), a private-investment-backed commercial subsidiary that would have taken over management of World Cup commercial operations. The plan drew fierce pushback from member associations and confederations over its lack of transparency and concentrated power in the hands of senior FIFA leadership.

    Infantino had gambled that a combative public statement decrying a “concerted and ongoing effort” to undermine his authority would calm tensions and win time to shore up support. Instead, the move backfired spectacularly on Monday, when UEFA (European football’s governing body), CONCACAF (North and Central America and the Caribbean), and the AFC (Asian Football Confederation) published an open letter that laid bare their complete lack of confidence in Infantino’s leadership. While all sides publicly pay lip service to the need for unity within FIFA, deep divides over how the organization should be governed have made any compromise unlikely for the foreseeable future.

    AFP Sport has broken down the current state of play, mapping out where blocs of support stand and what possible outcomes could unfold in the coming months:

    ### Who Stands With Infantino?
    The 56-year-old Swiss incumbent has built a solid base of support over 10 years in office, largely through expanded development funding distributed to FIFA’s 211 member associations—a strategy that has paid dividends in loyalty.

    The Confederation of African Football (CAF), whose member Morocco will co-host the 2030 men’s World Cup, has remained unwavering in its backing. Last week, CAF’s executive committee issued a statement “unanimously reconfirm[ing] its support for FIFA President Gianni Infantino and thanked him for his support for African football, over the years.”

    South America’s governing body CONMEBOL has also retained its support, though it did join critics in condemning the sloppy planning and lack of consultation around the scrapped FFE plan. CONMEBOL has insisted that Infantino’s future should only be decided at the scheduled presidential election in Rabat next March, rather than through any early intervention.

    A number of individual member associations have even broken ranks with their own regional confederations to back the incumbent. These include Mexico (a 2026 World Cup co-host that belongs to CONCACAF), and Kuwait and Qatar (AFC members that have both publicly voiced support for Infantino).

    ### The Growing Opposition Bloc
    UEFA, CONCACAF, and AFC doubled down on their scathing rejection of Infantino’s leadership in Monday’s open letter, branding the scrapped FFE plan a “shabby, opaque, backroom deal.”

    UEFA’s explicit threat to boycott all FIFA competitions—including the men’s and women’s World Cup—is widely credited as the decisive pressure that forced Infantino to abandon the FFE plan in a humiliating climbdown. The confederation reiterated that boycott threat last week, just one day after the FIFA senior leadership issued a statement of full backing for Infantino. At that time, CONCACAF and the AFC had not yet joined the public criticism, leaving UEFA isolated. Monday’s open letter made clear that the opposition is now a coordinated three-confederation bloc.

    “When trust is broken through deception, when an individual places himself above the collective that entrusted him with authority, that duty has been abandoned,” the three confederations wrote in their joint statement.

    UEFA’s boycott threat will face its first real test as early as September, when the Women’s Under-20 World Cup is scheduled to kick off in Poland.

    The calls for Infantino to step down immediately have grown louder in recent days: Lise Klaveness, the outspoken president of the Norwegian Football Federation and one of Infantino’s most prominent critics, publicly called for his resignation last Friday. A growing number of European national associations have also publicly withdrawn their backing for his re-election, including Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Serbia and Wales.

    ### What Could Happen Next?
    Infantino is currently standing for a fourth and final four-year term as president, with the election scheduled to take place at the FIFA Congress in Rabat on March 18 next year. The deadline for any rival candidate to officially register their candidacy is November 18.

    Historical precedent favors incumbents in FIFA presidential votes: the last time a sitting president was unseated was in 1974, when Brazil’s Joao Havelange defeated incumbent Stanley Rous of England. That means unseating Infantino at the scheduled ballot would be an uphill battle for opponents.

    However, critics who want to remove Infantino before next March do have a procedural path to force an early vote. The most likely option is a motion of no confidence, which requires support from 20 percent of FIFA’s member associations—equal to 43 national bodies—to trigger an emergency FIFA Congress to vote on the motion.

    Every member association holds one equal vote at FIFA congresses, meaning a small football federation like Gabon has the same voting weight as the German Football Association. It remains unclear whether a simple majority would be enough to remove Infantino from office early.

    ### Who Could Challenge Infantino?
    While Klaveness has been the most vocal critic of the incumbent, she is not seen as a likely candidate. FIFA’s electorate has historically favored a non-European president to balance the leadership of the global body, and no European has held the FIFA presidency only since 1998 (Sepp Blatter, followed by Infantino, with African football chief Issa Hayatou serving as caretaker between Blatter’s 2015 resignation and Infantino’s election). Even after Kirsty Coventry’s historic election as IOC president last year, the prospect of a woman leading FIFA remains remote for now.

    UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has repeatedly ruled himself out of the running, which narrows the field of credible potential challengers considerably. Two high-profile confederation leaders are seen as the most likely candidates to stand against Infantino:

    * **Victor Montagliani**: The president of CONCACAF was once viewed as a close ally of Infantino, but the two have fallen out completely over the FFE plan, with CONCACAF now calling for “a comprehensive reckoning with this presidency.” The 60-year-old Canadian is a charismatic administrator who played a key role in delivering the successful 2026 World Cup hosting process, and counts legendary football figure Carlo Ancelotti among his close contacts in the global game.

    * **Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim al-Khalifa**: The AFC president previously ran for the FIFA presidency in 2016, when the vacancy opened up after Blatter’s resignation. He finished second behind Infantino in that vote. Now 60, Sheikh Salman has led Asian football since 2013, and his fourth term as AFC president ends next year, leading to widespread speculation that he will launch a second bid for the top FIFA job.

  • Europe braces for another summer heatwave

    Europe braces for another summer heatwave

    As human-caused climate change continues to drive accelerated warming across the European continent, much of the region is gearing up to face yet another extreme heatwave, following a summer already marked by record-low river levels, devastating historic wildfires and thousands of heat-related deaths.

    Extreme heat warnings were already in effect for parts of Britain and France on Monday, with forecasters projecting peak temperatures will climb into the mid-30s Celsius in many affected areas. Unusually high temperatures are also on track to hit a broad swathe of central European nations unaccustomed to sustained extreme heat, including Switzerland, Austria and Hungary, in the coming days. According to Europe’s regional weather alert system MeteoAlarm, sweltering conditions have already settled across most of Italy and coastal Croatia as of Monday.

    The United Kingdom’s Met Office issued alerts over the weekend warning that the country’s fifth distinct heatwave of the summer would spread northward across most of the nation. Unlike many warmer climates, the UK’s built infrastructure is designed for the country’s historic temperate, cool conditions, leaving it particularly vulnerable to sustained heat. “Yet another spell of extremely hot weather is set to spread north across much of the UK with temperatures reaching the mid-30s Celsius in places,” the agency announced on social media platform X on Sunday.

    Already, half of England and the entirety of Wales are officially classified as being in drought, triggering hosepipe bans that impact roughly 23 million people. Additional English regions are expected to be added to the drought classification later on Monday, with no meaningful rainfall forecast for impacted areas through the coming week.

    In France, national weather service Meteo-France warned Monday that temperatures would climb as high as 35 degrees Celsius in the country’s southeast, before spreading across nearly the entire country between Wednesday and Friday. The agency also cautioned that under ongoing climate change, “future summers will generally be hotter than those experienced to date.” Both France and the UK have already recorded thousands of excess deaths during earlier heatwaves this summer.

    The combination of prolonged heat and parched conditions has already created tinder-dry fuel across much of southern Europe, spurring a series of large wildfires. On Monday, Greece reported its second major wildfire of the season near the capital Athens, and dispatched hundreds of firefighters and pieces of equipment to contain the blaze. A separate wildfire that broke out 10 days ago northwest of Athens has already burned more than 10,000 hectares of pine forest to ash. France and Spain have already faced unprecedented, historic wildfire seasons this summer, driven by record-breaking drought conditions across the Iberian Peninsula and western Europe.

    Beyond wildfire risk, the ongoing heat and drought have pushed river levels across the continent to historic lows, disrupting critical transportation and energy infrastructure. German industry groups warned Monday that water levels on the Rhine River, which cuts through the industrial heartland of Europe’s largest economy, could drop low enough to halt commercial shipping entirely. While cargo vessels have continued moving goods along the river so far, they have been forced to operate with sharply reduced loads, driving up transportation costs for key industrial materials.

    In Poland, officials confirmed Monday that water levels on the Vistula, the country’s longest river, matched the all-time record low recorded in the capital of Warsaw – a record that was first set just three days prior on Friday. In central and eastern Europe, extremely low levels on the Danube River have forced nuclear power plants in both Hungary and Romania to suspend operations since late July, as the facilities rely on Danube water for cooling reactor systems.

    An AFP analysis of data from national weather agencies and the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service found that nearly 120 million Europeans currently reside in regions where July 2022 marked the hottest July ever recorded, with the most extreme record warming concentrated in southern Britain, western France, and northern and eastern Spain. A separate analysis published last month by AFP found that at least 12,000 excess deaths occurred across nine European nations during a single major June heatwave, a toll that is expected to rise as additional mortality data is finalized.

    Even amid the widespread heat emergency, a rare astronomical event is drawing attention across the continent: a partial total solar eclipse will cross parts of Europe on Wednesday, and skygazers are still planning to view the event despite the extreme heat. The European Space Agency’s observatory in Teruel, Spain, is hosting a full day of public events leading up to the eclipse, which will begin at 1733 GMT and reach totality at 1823 GMT local time. Temperatures in Teruel already climbed above 30 degrees Celsius on Monday, and the eclipse’s path will cross regions that were devastated by major Spanish wildfires just last month.

  • Man allegedly armed with two knives arrested after police chase through Burwood

    Man allegedly armed with two knives arrested after police chase through Burwood

    A dramatic high-speed foot pursuit through busy commercial streets in inner-west Sydney ended with police using a Taser to subdue a 43-year-old man accused of carrying two concealed knives, with a second person also taken into custody following the Monday afternoon incident. Emergency services were first dispatched to the popular Belmore Street shopping complex just after 4:15 p.m., after multiple witnesses alerted authorities to suspicious behavior in the crowded urban hub. When responding officers approached two men to question them about the reports, the pair allegedly fled on foot, launching a chase that wound through surrounding streets crowded with shoppers and commuters. The pursuit came to a stop when officers deployed a conducted energy device (Taser) against the 43-year-old, who officers confirmed was carrying two knives at the time of his arrest. Eyewitness video filmed at the scene captures two officers moving in on the suspect, who was dressed in all black, standing on a marked pedestrian crossing as nearby motorists waited for the incident to end. One officer discharged the Taser, bringing the suspect to the ground. When the man attempted to stand back up, officers fired a second Taser shot before multiple additional officers swarmed the suspect to place him in custody. Following his arrest, paramedics with New South Wales Ambulance attended the scene to conduct an initial medical assessment of the 43-year-old. He was then transferred to a local hospital for further mandatory evaluation, under constant police guard. A 32-year-old man, who was the second person pursued by officers, was also taken into custody in connection with the incident. New South Wales Police have confirmed that investigations into the circumstances of the suspicious activity report and the alleged possession of weapons remain ongoing, with no further details released to the public as of the latest update.

  • Five more teens charged over alleged dating app attack spree as police say victims lured, then robbed and beaten

    Five more teens charged over alleged dating app attack spree as police say victims lured, then robbed and beaten

    Melbourne law enforcement has taken five additional teenagers into custody as part of a sweeping crackdown on a coordinated criminal ring that lures male victims via dating platforms and social media, before carrying out violent assault, theft and verbal abuse. Victoria Police announced the latest arrests on Monday, noting the teens taken into custody range in age from 16 to 18 years old. Investigators from the Greater Dandenong Crime Investigation Unit executed the arrests last week, following 11 reported incidents of this targeted criminal activity in the Greater Dandenong region alone. According to official police allegations, the group of young offenders creates fake profiles to pose as genuine users on popular dating and social platforms, tricking men into agreeing to an in-person meeting. Once victims arrive at the arranged location, they are violently attacked, robbed of their belongings, threatened, and targeted with homophobic slurs, per the official account. Each of the five teens has been hit with a range of serious criminal charges, tailored to their alleged involvement in the ring. One 16-year-old faces counts of robbery, armed robbery, fraudulently obtaining property, and intentionally causing bodily harm. A second 16-year-old is charged with kidnapping, robbery, attempted robbery, and intentionally causing injury. A 17-year-old faces charges including armed robbery, fraud, intentional injury, and sexual assault. The two 18-year-old suspects, both residents of Dandenong, also face robbery charges: one faces additional counts of sexual assault and intentional injury, while the other is charged with kidnapping, armed robbery, attempted robbery, sexual assault, intentional injury, and fraudulently obtaining property. These latest alleged incidents are part of a much larger pattern of criminal activity: since January 2024, Victoria Police have received 113 official reports of dating app-related crimes matching this modus operandi. To date, a total of 50 people have been arrested in connection with these coordinated attacks. In 2026 alone, 11 additional incidents have already been reported across multiple local jurisdictions in the broader Melbourne area, including Manningham, Casey, Hume, Moorabbin and Knox. Acting Inspector Jarrod Dwyer of the Southern Metro Region Investigation & Response team emphasized that this pattern of harmful, predatory behavior will not be tolerated by law enforcement. “This would have no doubt been a distressing situation for the victims involved,” Dwyer said in an official statement. “These arrests show just how serious we are in holding offenders to account.” Dwyer added that investigators treat every report of this nature with the highest priority, and urged any person who has fallen victim to this scheme to come forward to file an official report to aid ongoing investigations. Victoria Police are able to collaborate directly with dating app and social media platforms to trace offender activity and identify suspects, making victim reports critical to shutting down the remaining criminal network. “It is never too late to make a report – so when you’re ready, please speak to us,” Dwyer said. “Everyone has a right to go about their lives, meet new people and start a relationship in safety.”

  • Record July heat in regions home to 900 mn people: AFP analysis

    Record July heat in regions home to 900 mn people: AFP analysis

    A new independent analysis conducted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) using data from Europe’s Copernicus Climate Change Service has delivered a stark warning about accelerating global warming: regions inhabited by nearly 900 million people around the world experienced their hottest July on record in 2026. The analysis, which drew on billions of data points from Copernicus’s widely respected ERA5 climate model, identified 33 nations that broke all previous historical temperature records for the seventh month of the year.

    Unlike many low- and middle-income nations that lack the infrastructure to publish regular, detailed climate data, major European countries including France and Spain were able to independently verify the record-breaking conditions through their national meteorological agencies: Meteo-France and Spain’s AEMET. To fill gaps in global reporting, AFP carried out its own independent assessment of the Copernicus dataset, which combines satellite observations from multiple countries, readings from land, sea and airborne weather stations, and advanced climate modelling to deliver consistent hourly global climate data dating back to 1950.

    The most heavily impacted region by population was Africa, where close to 400 million people lived through the unprecedented heat. The Sahel, a semi-arid belt stretching across the continent from west to east, was hit particularly hard, with 10 nations breaking July heat records. While temperature anomalies near the equator are typically smaller than those in temperate zones, multiple Sahel nations including Chad and Sudan saw average July temperatures climb more than 2 degrees Celsius above the 1981-2010 baseline. Long warned as one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change, many Sahel countries are already battling overlapping crises: armed conflict, widespread food insecurity, and entrenched poverty that leaves communities with little capacity to adapt to extreme heat. This trend aligns with warnings from the World Weather Attribution network, which noted in January that extreme heat events have become nearly 10 times more frequent since 2015, a shift directly tied to human-caused climate change.

    In the Americas, the ongoing naturally occurring El Niño pattern, which emerged in June 2026 and is projected to peak later in the year, amplified already soaring temperatures across Central America and northern South America. Around 110 million people from Mexico down to northern Brazil, stretching from the Pacific coast to the Guiana Highlands, recorded their hottest July on record. Three nations in Central America’s climate-vulnerable “Dry Corridor” — El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras — broke monthly heat records in both June and July, worsening already dire fears of widespread famine. The United Nations World Food Programme recently identified Central America, including the Caribbean, as the region expected to face the steepest relative increase in food insecurity, projecting that an additional 16 million people could slip into food insecurity by the end of 2027.

    In Europe, nearly 120 million people across southern Britain, western France, and northern and eastern Spain lived through the region’s hottest July ever recorded. In France, average temperatures hit a staggering 3.8 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 baseline — a reference period that is already significantly warmer than the pre-industrial climate of 1850-1900. Along with record heat, both France and Spain saw exceptional drought conditions that created tinder-dry fuel for catastrophic wildfires. In late July, a megafire in France’s Gironde department burned nearly 42,000 hectares of land and forced the evacuation of more than 220,000 residents. Around the same time, Spain faced its largest wildfire in modern history, which scorched almost 44,000 hectares in Avila province near the Spanish capital Madrid.

    Beyond these major concentrated regions, scattered areas across the globe home to more than 250 million additional people also saw unprecedented July heat. These included China’s Sichuan province, the U.S. states of Wyoming and Colorado, and the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Borneo, underscoring the widespread reach of the 2026 record heat event.

  • ASX 200 tumbles as big four banks slump on bleak mortgage forecast

    ASX 200 tumbles as big four banks slump on bleak mortgage forecast

    On Monday, a gloomy mortgage forecast from one of Australia’s biggest lenders triggered a sharp sell-off across the country’s top banking sector, dragging the benchmark ASX 200 into negative territory even as solid gains from mining and healthcare stocks softened the blow.

    The ASX 200 shed 31 points, or 0.33%, to close at 9232.60, while the broader All Ordinaries index fell 21.10 points, or 0.22%, to settle at 9424.00. Against the U.S. dollar, the Australian dollar strengthened to 70.66 US cents, lifted by market expectations that the incoming Reserve Bank of Australia governor will take a hawkish policy stance at Tuesday’s meeting. Despite the overall market dip, seven out of the 11 tracked sectors ended the trading day in positive territory.

    The sharpest losses were concentrated in the financial sector, which dropped 2.27% overall, driven by a negative reaction to Westpac’s latest operational update. The major Australian lender warned that domestic economic conditions are softening, and disclosed that mortgage applications have plummeted 20% in its latest reporting period. The decline is attributed to persistent interest rate hikes and recent federal government tax policy changes that have cooled housing market demand.

    By market close, Westpac shares had tumbled 5.88% to $35.70. The negative sentiment spilled over to all of Australia’s other big four banks: National Australia Bank fell 2.39% to $41.22, Commonwealth Bank dropped 2.10% to $174.27, and ANZ lost 1.70% to $37.09.

    Tony Sycamore, senior market analyst at IG, noted that heavy selling in the major banks is particularly impactful for the ASX 200 because the institutions act as the lifeblood of Australia’s national economy. “We are heading into a pretty volatile earnings season, with more negative surprises than positive earnings beats, and we got the first taste of that today with Westpac,” Sycamore explained. “Top-line results weren’t poor, but the downbeat mortgage outlook confirms the worst fears that market participants have held since the release of the federal budget.

    “This budget is not friendly to banks, nor is it friendly to the property market, and we are already seeing unintended consequences, because the big four banks are central to how this economy performs,” he added.

    Gains in two key sectors helped limit the ASX 200’s overall decline. Healthcare stocks posted broad upward movement: vaccine manufacturing giant CSL rose 1.72% to $134.47, sleep and respiratory technology firm ResMed jumped 4.23% to $30.09, and medical imaging technology provider Pro Medicus gained 0.30% to close at $176.61.

    Mining stocks also posted mixed but overall positive results. Diversified mining giant BHP added 0.87% to $63.52, and rival Rio Tinto gained 0.77% to $179.05, while iron ore producer Fortescue slipped a modest 0.17% to $17.99. Gold miners extended a recent rally, lifted by rising global gold commodity prices: Newmont surged 4.36% to $159.48, Evolution Mining climbed 2.39% to $13.72, and Northern Star Resources added 1.37% to $23.01.

    Several individual companies posted strong share growth outside of these core sectors. Treasury Wine Estates shares soared 4.23% to $5.66 even after the company announced a $558 million non-cash write-down, as the winemaker also updated guidance to show expected unaudited earnings before interest, tax and amortization of $492.3 million, which tops the previous guidance range of $480 million to $490 million.

    Gambling and entertainment firm Tabcorp gained 2.81% to $0.92 following its announcement of a $267 million deal to acquire wagering technology provider BetMaker. Digital automotive marketplace Car Group jumped 9.92% to $29.70 after reporting annual net after-tax profit of $314 million, a 14% increase from the previous year’s result.