Global Pulse

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大洋洲

  • South Africa coach Erasmus wary of struggling Argentina

    South Africa coach Erasmus wary of struggling Argentina

    As world rugby champions South Africa prepare to face Argentina in a one-off Test in Buenos Aires this Saturday, Springboks head coach Rassie Erasmus has warned his squad against underestimating their opponents, dismissing the idea that the match is a mere warm-up ahead of their upcoming series against New Zealand.

    Erasmus, the mastermind behind South Africa’s back-to-back Rugby World Cup titles in 2019 and 2023, stressed that the Pumas, despite their inconsistent results in the recent Nations Championship, will pose a bruising, high-stakes test for his side in the iconic Estadio Jose Amalfitani. “Argentina are a quality outfit and we are preparing for a physical and gruelling battle,” Erasmus told reporters ahead of the clash. “They are a well coached team who have tested us in the last few years, so it will be a good challenge for us. They gave us one of the biggest hidings we have suffered since I became involved with the Springboks in 2018.”

    The lead-up to the match has been marked by mixed results for Argentina in the inaugural Nations Championship. The Pumas secured a solid win over Wales but fell to Scotland and England in a controversial, ill-tempered closing clash. In that match, Argentina thought they had scored a late game-tying try, only for referee Angus Gardner to disallow the score following a lengthy VAR review. The call sparked an angry reaction from Pumas fly-half Tomas Albornoz, who had to be restrained by teammates and staff while confronting the official. Albornoz has since received a four-match suspension, ruling him out of Saturday’s clash against the Springboks.

    Even with the absence of their star playmaker and primary goal-kicker, Erasmus said he has not eased off preparation for the match, rejecting growing narratives that the game is a warm-up for South Africa’s four-Test home series against New Zealand, set to kick off on August 22. “This match was not planned with that reason in mind — it was always about honouring our relationship with Argentina,” he insisted. This year, the annual Rugby Championship, which traditionally includes two regular matchups between the Springboks and Pumas, has been canceled to accommodate the All Blacks tour schedule.

    South Africa has named an experimental starting XV for the Test, with only five players penciled in as probable starters for the opening New Zealand clash. The match marks the long-awaited return of several key stars from injury, including fly-half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, locks Eben Etzebeth and Lood de Jager, and captain and flanker Siya Kolisi. Only two players from the Springboks’ dominant 43-0 win over Wales in Durban retain their starting spots: full-back Aphelele Fassi and scrum-half Cobus Reinach.

    For Argentina, head coach Felipe Contepomi has handed a starting Test debut to tighthead prop Francisco Moreno. Three other players — hooker Leonel Oviedo, and back-rowers Juan Penoucos and Juan Martin Scelzo — are in line to earn their first international caps if they come off the substitutes bench on Saturday. English referee Christophe Ridley has been named to officiate the cross-hemisphere clash.

  • Meta ordered to pay US state $567 mn to abate ‘public nuisance’ and child harm

    Meta ordered to pay US state $567 mn to abate ‘public nuisance’ and child harm

    In a landmark ruling that adds to growing legal pressure on social media platforms over youth safety, a New Mexico judge has ordered tech giant Meta to pay $567 million in penalties and remediation funds to resolve claims that the company created a public nuisance and inflicted widespread harm on children across the state. The decision marks a major escalation of a legal battle that first reached a jury verdict earlier this year, and it sets a clear precedent for dozens of similar pending cases against the company across the United States.

    The case dates back to 2023, when New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez filed a lawsuit against Meta, the parent company of major platforms Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, accusing the firm of systemic failures to protect minor users from a range of online dangers. In March 2025, a jury already found Meta liable for endangering children, including leaving young users vulnerable to predation, and awarded $375 million in damages to the state. Thursday’s ruling finalizes additional penalties and outlines required changes to Meta’s platform operations in the state.

    Prosecutors argued during the trial that Meta’s recommendation algorithms actively steered adult users toward content posted by teenage users, while the company intentionally suppressed internal research that documented significant mental health and safety risks that its platforms posed to young people. The jury ultimately agreed that Meta violated New Mexico’s Unfair Practices Act by misleading consumers about the child safety standards of its products.

    Under the terms of the new ruling, roughly three-quarters of the $567 million payment will be allocated to fund long-term mental health treatment for children harmed by Meta’s platforms, with the full amount paid out over a five-year period. The remaining quarter of the fund will be distributed across targeted programs: public awareness and harm prevention, youth mental health screening and assessment, care referral and coordination, and ongoing compliance implementation and evaluation.

    Beyond financial penalties, the judge imposed sweeping operational changes on Meta for its New Mexico user base. The company is required to strengthen efforts to block users under the age of 13 from accessing Facebook and Instagram, a mandate that aligns with growing global regulatory momentum for age verification on social platforms, even as implementation of such policies remains technically and logistically complex.

    In his written ruling, Judge Bryan Biedscheid emphasized that adolescent brains are uniquely susceptible to the addictive platform features designed to maximize user engagement, including infinite scrolling, autoplay video, public like counts, push notifications and algorithmic content recommendations. While the ruling acknowledged that many of these design choices represent industry-wide practices that intersect with complex free speech debates, it ordered Meta to implement targeted restrictions for users under 18 in New Mexico: limiting monthly platform usage to 90 hours (an average of three hours per day), capping push notifications, and hiding public like counts from minor user accounts. Meta will also be required to submit bi-annual compliance updates to the court to ensure the changes are being implemented.

    In an immediate response to the ruling, Meta reiterated its intent to challenge the decision, saying, “We disagree with the ruling and will appeal.” The company added that it “works hard to keep people safe on our platforms and have been transparent about the challenges of identifying and removing bad actors and harmful content,” noting that it remains “confident in our record of protecting teens online and will continue to defend ourselves against claims that misrepresent the facts.”

    For New Mexico officials, however, the ruling represents a long-awaited win for families. “This case has always been about protecting children, standing up for families, and making sure that one of the world’s largest technology companies cannot profit from practices that endanger young people without consequence,” Torrez said in a statement Thursday. “Today’s decision is a victory for every parent who has worried about what social media is doing to their child and every child who deserves to grow up safer online.”

    The New Mexico ruling is part of a much broader wave of legal action against social media companies across the U.S. Thousands of individual and state-level lawsuits have been filed holding platforms liable for alleged youth mental health harms, with more than 30 states bringing similar cases against Meta. The next major bellwether trial is scheduled to begin in August in Oakland, California, which will set a key framework for resolving thousands of remaining pending claims across the country. Recent prior bellwether proceedings have produced mixed outcomes: a July 2025 trial against Meta ended when the teenage plaintiff dropped the case days before opening arguments, after reaching confidential settlements with other major platforms including TikTok, YouTube and Snap. The first bellwether trial concluded in March 2025, when a Los Angeles jury ordered Meta and Google to pay $6 million in damages to a 20-year-old woman who alleged social media addiction caused her lasting harm. In May, Meta, Snap, TikTok and YouTube reached confidential settlements with a Kentucky school district that had sued over youth social media harms.

  • Greens’ plea for $4bn for homelessness as women’s ministers meet

    Greens’ plea for $4bn for homelessness as women’s ministers meet

    As Australia’s federal, state and territory women’s ministers gather for the national Women’s Safety Ministers Council, the Australian Greens have issued a stark warning: a $4 billion-plus funding gap is putting thousands of women and children fleeing domestic violence at grave risk of returning to abusive situations due to a critical shortage of accessible, affordable housing.

    New data from the 2024-25 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) underscores the severity of the crisis. Women and children escaping family and domestic violence make up the single largest group of people seeking support from specialist homelessness services across the country, with more than 100,000 survivors reaching out for help annually. Despite this overwhelming demand, the system is failing to deliver: nearly 12,000 women and children are turned away from life-saving short-term accommodation each year, and roughly 60% of survivor-victims leave crisis housing without securing stable long-term housing. For many of these people, the only available option is to return to live with their abusive perpetrator.

    Greens leader Larissa Waters emphasized that the national housing and homelessness crisis is not just an economic issue—it is a core women’s safety issue. “When politicians ask ‘why didn’t she just leave?’ they’re ignoring that unaffordable housing, skyrocketing rents, and widespread shortages of crisis and transitional housing leave women and children with nowhere to go,” Waters said in a statement released ahead of the council meeting.

    Waters noted that soaring housing costs have pushed more survivors to seek help from crisis accommodation and frontline support services, but the overstretched sector is on the brink of collapse. “The sector is breaking at the time it is needed most, forcing services to turn away women and children every day,” she said. “This is something that the government can, and must, fix by investing in public housing and frontline services.”

    Speaking directly to the ministers gathering for Friday’s summit, Waters called on national and state leaders to step up and address the unmet need. She pointed out that the $4.6 billion the Greens say is needed to close the housing gap amounts to less than a quarter of the annual revenue that would be raised by a tax on gas exports, and a tiny fraction of the billions the Australian government has committed to the AUKUS nuclear submarine program, a project Waters argued wastes public funds on defense assets that may never be delivered.

    Waters also criticized the ruling Labor government for dragging its feet on responding to the crisis. “Labor knows there is massive unmet need, but even their pilot project to collect data on that need is years overdue and just got another extension,” she said. “The sector, and the women and children who rely on it, cannot wait any longer. Labor must start prioritising people over corporate profit and investing in the things that people need to survive and live a good life.”

    To date, government commitments have fallen far short of what is required. The Albanese Labor government has allocated $100 million for new crisis, transitional and youth housing as part of its $1 billion Housing Australia Future Fund, launched in 2023. The fund’s stated goal is to deliver 55,000 new social and affordable homes by mid-2029, but the broader program has faced ongoing implementation delays and challenges, and independent analysis suggests it is unlikely to hit its target.

    At the state level, the New South Wales government committed $130 million last year to expand crisis accommodation beds for people experiencing homelessness, on top of a $6.6 billion state housing program that aims to deliver 8,400 new public homes, with at least half reserved for women and children escaping violence. Even with these investments, Greens and frontline service providers agree that national collective action and far greater public investment are needed to end the preventable crisis putting survivors’ lives at risk.

  • AFL 2026: Carlton to reintroduce Jacob Weitering back through the VFL on managed minutes

    AFL 2026: Carlton to reintroduce Jacob Weitering back through the VFL on managed minutes

    Ahead of one of the most high-stakes matches of Carlton’s AFL season this Sunday against St Kilda, the club’s coaching hierarchy is prioritizing long-term player health over short-term results, confirming star defender Jacob Weitering will not be rushed back into the senior side.

    Weitering, the Blues’ vice-captain, has endured a nightmare 2024 campaign marked by a string of debilitating injuries. A rib fracture sustained during the State of Origin clash, followed by a concussion and repeated calf setbacks, have sidelined the key defender since Carlton’s round 12 matchup against Geelong. He has only managed to take the field for 10 senior games this year, leaving the gap in Carlton’s backline to be filled by emerging young talent Harry Dean.

    While a victory over St Kilda would push Carlton significantly closer to locking in a top-eight finish (corrected from the original report’s top-10 framing, consistent with AFL finals structure) and keep its finals momentum building after last weekend’s stunning upset over reigning premier Brisbane Lions that shook up the entire finals race, interim head coach Josh Fraser says a gradual return through the reserves competition is the only responsible path forward.

    “Jacob has progressed really well through his rehab, and he will be available to get some game minutes under his belt in the VFL this weekend,” Fraser told reporters this week. “Every decision we make around a player coming back from injury is always centered on what is best for that individual player in the long run. Weiters has put in an enormous amount of work to get himself back to this point, and all Carlton fans should recognize just how much effort he has invested in his recovery. This week, he will continue that progression through the VFL.”

    When asked whether previous coaching regimes at the club may have pushed Weitering back into the senior side earlier despite his lack of match fitness, Fraser declined to comment on past decisions, noting he was not part of the club’s setup in previous seasons. He did, however, double down on the club’s current approach to injury management.

    “It’s hard for me to speak about previous years, not having been here,” he said. “But my approach is always to gather all the available information from our medical and performance staff, and ultimately do the thing that is best for the player. He has missed a fairly substantial amount of game time, and he has been working incredibly hard to get back to full fitness. Logically, getting some minutes in the VFL is the right next step for his progression.”

  • 2 killed, 13 wounded in bus blast near Syrian capital: state media

    2 killed, 13 wounded in bus blast near Syrian capital: state media

    A deadly improvised explosive device detonated inside a civilian minibus on Thursday in the Damascus suburb of Jaramana, a multi-religious town home to large Druze and Christian communities, killing at least two people and injuring 13 others, Syrian state media has confirmed, citing official data from the country’s health ministry.

    Agence France-Presse (AFP) photographers on the scene documented the extensive damage caused by the blast: the minibus’s roof was completely blown off, its internal chassis was reduced to mangled wreckage, and scattered debris covered a major thoroughfare that was immediately closed to traffic by responding authorities. Multiple ambulances were spotted rushing emergency personnel and supplies to the blast site, while forensic medical teams have begun the process of recovering and identifying human remains, according to reports from Syria’s official state news agency SANA.

    Preliminary government investigations confirm the blast was a targeted attack, with the explosive device pre-planted on the vehicle before detonation, an official source told Syrian state television. As of Thursday evening, no armed faction had issued a claim of responsibility for the attack.

    This latest incident comes amid a sustained wave of instability across Syria, nearly 12 months after former long-time ruler Bashar al-Assad was toppled from power in December 2024. Since taking control of the country, Syria’s new Islamist-led administration has made restoring national security and extending full state authority across its territory a top policy priority, but the capital Damascus and its surrounding suburbs have emerged as a repeated flashpoint for attacks targeting both civilians and state security forces.

    Jaramana itself has already experienced sectarian violence earlier this year, in spring 2025, and this bombing fits a pattern of frequent attacks that have rocked the country in recent months. Just one month prior, during a historic visit to Damascus by French President Emmanuel Macron—the first EU head of state to travel to Syria since Assad’s ouster—two homemade bombs detonated, leaving one dead and 36 injured. Macron was unharmed, as he was not at his nearby hotel when the blasts went off, and Syrian security forces later announced they had captured an Islamic State (IS)-affiliated cell responsible for the attack.

    Just days before the Macron visit bombing, a separate explosion at a central Damascus cafe killed 10 people and wounded roughly 20 others. The deadliest attack to hit Syria this year occurred in June 2025, when a suicide bombing targeting a Damascus church left 25 people dead. While a Sunni Islamist faction initially claimed the attack, Syrian authorities have pinned the blame on IS.

    While current Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has repeatedly pledged to protect the country’s minority communities in Syria’s multi-ethnic, multi-sectarian society, the past year has seen widespread sectarian bloodshed: massacres of Alawite communities in their coastal heartland, and violent clashes involving the Druze minority in southern Syria. In a December address marking the one-year anniversary of Assad’s ouster, al-Sharaa called for national unity, saying all Syrians must work together to “build a strong Syria.”

    Syria joined the U.S.-led global coalition against IS last year, more than six years after the jihadist group was declared territorially defeated in Iraq and Syria in 2019. Despite the loss of all occupied territory, IS retains an extensive network of dormant sleeper cells across both countries, and continues to issue calls for armed attacks against the new Syrian authorities.

  • Thousands protest private property legislation in Argentina

    Thousands protest private property legislation in Argentina

    Thousands of Argentine demonstrators gathered outside the National Congress in Buenos Aires on Thursday, defying severe stormy weather to voice their fierce opposition to a divisive private property law pushed by libertarian President Javier Milei, in a demonstration that ended in violent scuffles between protesters and security forces. What began as a large-scale peaceful protest organized by left-wing political movements and national trade unions eventually erupted into clashes on Congress Square. Protesters threw stones and other projectiles at police officers, who responded by deploying tear gas, rubber bullets, and a high-pressure water cannon to disperse the crowd.

    The legislation in question, officially titled the Inviolability of Private Property Bill, is currently going through debate in Argentina’s Senate. The proposal includes a series of sweeping changes to the country’s existing property regulations: it would streamline lengthy eviction processes, revise rules governing rural land use, and impose new restrictions on the state’s ability to expropriate private property. Milei’s administration has framed the bill as a critical legal framework designed to unlock much-needed foreign direct investment and stimulate Argentina’s struggling economy.

    Even after Milei’s ruling party made a major concession last week — removing the most controversial provision that would have raised the cap on foreign-owned land from 15% of the country’s total territory to 25% — protesters refused to end their demonstration. Opponents of the legislation, including opposition political blocs and leading environmental advocacy groups, argue that the bill still poses a severe threat to national sovereignty. Many demonstrators carried Argentine national flags and held signs reading “The homeland is not for sale,” echoing widespread concerns that the legislation would open the door to what opponents call the “colonization, fragmentation, fracture and balkanization” of Argentine territory.

    Milei’s party currently holds just 20 out of 72 seats in the Argentine Senate, leaving it with little choice but to make concessions to win broader support for the legislation. A 2025 joint study from the University of Buenos Aires and independent research groups found that foreign entities already own roughly 5% of Argentina’s total territory — an area roughly the same size as the entire country of England. The report also noted that in multiple strategic regions, foreign ownership already exceeds the current 15% cap. This is particularly true in resource-rich territories with abundant water reserves, rich mineral deposits, and key logistical advantages such as major port districts.

    The protest highlights the deep political divides facing Milei’s administration just months into his term, as he pushes forward with a sweeping pro-market reform agenda that has faced widespread pushback from labor unions, left-wing groups, and environmental organizations across the country.

  • Paul Curtis earns comparison to AFL legends after four-goal performance

    Paul Curtis earns comparison to AFL legends after four-goal performance

    On Thursday night at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium, young North Melbourne forward Paul Curtis delivered a career-defining performance that will live long in the memory of Kangaroos supporters, producing a mark widely tipped as a contender for Mark of the Year, slotting four goals, and spearheading his side to a convincing 23-point victory over the Western Bulldogs.

    North Melbourne’s senior coach Alastair Clarkson could not hide his admiration for the 20-year-old’s breakout display, with only one playful criticism: the club only has one Paul Curtis. Curtis was everywhere on the ground, turning the game with his electrifying movement, and his standout individual play didn’t end with his four goals. His spectacular soaring mark over Bulldogs defender Michael Sellwood immediately drew gasps from the crowd and has dominated early conversations for the league’s annual Mark of the Year award.

    In a post-match press conference, Clarkson compared Curtis’ versatile game-changing ability to some of the biggest names in Australian Football League history, noting that the young talent has the rare flexibility to dominate both high up the ground and deep inside the forward 50. “When you have a special talent like this, you want to use him everywhere,” Clarkson explained. “If the Bulldogs had two Marcus Bontempellis, they’d play him both forward and in the midfield, just as Richmond did with Dustin Martin for years. We’ve already seen it with players like Kozzie Pickett, who made the jump from forward to elite midfield, and Zak Butters, who followed the same path to become one of the league’s best on-ballers. I expect Curtis will spend most of his career forward, but we saw tonight he has all the tools to go into the middle and produce magic when we need him to.”

    The win became even more impressive for North Melbourne after key defender Aidan Corr was forced off the ground halfway through the second quarter with a sudden back injury. Corr, who had been tasked with containing Bulldogs star spearhead Aaron Naughton, suffered a back spasm after an awkward landing during a marking contest. Clarkson confirmed that the injury is not believed to be serious, but the spasm left Corr unable to continue, as back spasms severely limit mobility at the elite level. “You ever had a sore back? They’re brutal,” Clarkson said. “It wasn’t critical long-term, but it never settled enough for him to get back out there. And when you’re going up against a player as big and strong as Naughton, you need every part of your body working 100%. It was really pleasing to see the group dig in when we went a man down and still find a way to get the win.”

    For the Western Bulldogs, the damaging loss has dealt a major blow to their already fragile finals hopes, with Bulldogs coach Bevo O’Connor offering no excuses for his side’s underperformance.

  • Airbnb grows bookings in key Aussie, UK markets, gains huge traction in India and Japan

    Airbnb grows bookings in key Aussie, UK markets, gains huge traction in India and Japan

    Against a backdrop of sweeping regulatory restrictions rolled out by state and local governments across Australia, home-sharing platform Airbnb has delivered surprisingly robust quarterly financial results, with domestic bookings and overall revenue both climbing well above expectations. The company published its second-quarter 2025 earnings to the Nasdaq exchange during Australian trading hours on Friday, reporting that strong, sustained global travel demand drove a 17% year-over-year rise in total revenue over the three-month period. Gross booking value, a key metric for platform-based hospitality services, also grew 12% to mark a 16% annual increase, outpacing many analysts’ projections.

    Beyond Australia, the platform’s expansion across key Asian markets has outperformed expectations. India recorded a dramatic 60% year-over-year surge in domestic bookings, while Japanese domestic bookings and overall Asia-Pacific regional growth both hit double-digit increases in the “high teens” percentage range, cementing Airbnb’s growing foothold in the fast-growing Asian travel market. “One of the most encouraging trends in Q2 was that we saw year-over-year growth accelerate not just in our expansion markets but in many of our largest core markets as well,” the company’s earnings report noted. The report added that net origin nights booked — a metric that counts total booked nights minus cancellations to measure where travelers originate, rather than their destination — grew at an accelerated pace in all of Airbnb’s four largest core markets: the United States, France, the United Kingdom, and Australia. The platform attributed this widespread growth to ongoing product innovation that continues to draw new users to the service.

    The strong domestic growth in Australia comes as no fewer than four state and local jurisdictions have rolled out new restrictions or crackdowns on short-term rental listings in a bid to free up more long-term housing for local residents struggling with sky-high rental prices and tight vacancy rates. In New South Wales, the state government already enforces a 180-day annual cap on short-term rentals, and the City of Sydney is currently investigating a potential ban on short-term stays in specific suburbs hit by critically low long-term rental vacancy rates. Councillors approved a research motion in April to develop a formal vacancy rate threshold that would trigger the local restrictions.

    In Victoria, the state government implemented a 7.5% levy on all short-term rental revenues starting January 1, 2025, projecting the new tax would raise approximately $75 million in its first full year. Final figures for the first year show the levy far outpaced projections, bringing in $85.8 million — $10 million more than official estimates. In Byron Bay, the local council introduced a stricter 60-day annual cap for unhosted short-term rental properties in 2024, a move Airbnb labeled as unprecedented. Independent research commissioned by Airbnb and using official state government data found that one year after the cap came into force, Byron Bay actually had fewer available long-term rentals than before the policy was implemented, and local long-term rents had hit a new all-time record high.

    In Queensland, Brisbane City councillors scrapped a controversial plan that would have effectively banned Airbnb and competing short-term rental platforms from low-density residential suburbs just hours before the federal 2025 budget was handed down in May. Unlike New South Wales and Victoria, Queensland has not adopted any statewide caps or taxes on short-term rentals.

    Looking ahead, Airbnb is already preparing for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America, launching an early host recruitment drive across 16 major host cities that has already signed up 150,000 new homeowners willing to list their properties for the massive international sporting event. The company’s latest earnings confirm that despite growing regulatory pressure across multiple mature markets, the short-term rental model continues to gain popularity with both hosts and travelers, defying predictions that restrictions would erode the platform’s growth.

  • Venezuela’s political transition talks launch in Caracas

    Venezuela’s political transition talks launch in Caracas

    The first in-person round of US-backed political transition negotiations between Venezuela’s interim government and opposition delegates officially launched Thursday in the capital Caracas, a confirmed on-the-ground report from an Agence France-Presse photographer confirmed.

    This diplomatic process comes seven months after United States military forces detained former Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, leaving interim head Delcy Rodriguez to lead the country under Washington’s oversight. Across the crisis-stricken South American nation, ordinary Venezuelans are holding onto cautious optimism that these talks will clear a path to long-awaited, free democratic elections that can pull the country out of years of political and economic turmoil.

    A notable absence from the negotiating table is Maria Corina Machado, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning opposition figure who remains in exile after being barred from joining the discussions. Stepping into the opposition’s role is Dinorah Figuera, a veteran opposition leader who touched down in Venezuela Wednesday after years living abroad. Figuera leads the political coalition that secured a supermajority in the 2015 National Assembly election, the last legislative contest widely recognized as free and fair by the global international community.

    Representing the interim government on the negotiating team is Jorge Rodriguez, president of the current National Assembly and brother of interim leader Delcy Rodriguez. Speaking to local broadcaster Televen shortly after arriving at Caracas’s international airport, Figuera outlined the core goal of the opposition’s participation: “We are focused on the official opening this week of this dialogue process, which seeks the restoration of democratic institutions.”

    Figuera has already made clear that top opposition priorities include sweeping reforms to Venezuela’s Supreme Court of Justice and National Electoral Council, two bodies that drew widespread international condemnation for formally certifying Maduro’s widely disputed 2024 re-election victory. Opposition parties rejected the 2024 result outright, claiming they won the popular vote and accusing Maduro’s government of orchestrating widespread systemic electoral fraud.

    The US State Department issued a formal statement welcoming Figuera’s delegation to the opening of the in-person negotiations, calling the direct talks “a unique opportunity” for progress. The statement urged all stakeholders to back the process to deliver “tangible results for Venezuelans” and emphasized that Washington’s end goal is “stabilization, economic recovery and political reconciliation, and a peaceful transition” to a permanent democratic government.

    The talks are being held at the La Carlota military base in central Caracas, with only press photographers granted on-site access to the opening session. According to the joint official agenda published by both negotiating teams, discussions will cover three core areas: emergency response and recovery for the twin earthquakes that struck the country on June 24, which claimed more than 6,000 lives, strengthening of democratic frameworks, and the expansion of political civil rights across the country.

    Despite being excluded from the talks, Machado has publicly stated she will not obstruct the transition process. In a post on X, the former presidential candidate wrote, “A democratic transition in Venezuela will restore our freedom and our prosperity,” adding that a new democratic government would become “a vital and reliable ally for the national security of the United States and regional stability.” Closing her message, Machado wrote, “The Venezuelan people are eager and ready!”

    Recent reports have claimed that former US president Donald Trump, who received Machado’s Nobel Peace Prize as a symbolic gift, personally vetoed Machado’s request to return to Venezuela, a claim Washington officials have repeatedly denied. Trump has publicly and privately expressed repeated satisfaction with the leadership of Delcy Rodriguez, whose interim administration has opened Venezuela’s lucrative mining, electricity, and oil sectors to foreign investment and domestic private competition, a policy shift aligned with US economic priorities for the region.

  • UN chief denounces Russia, Ukraine for civilian deaths

    UN chief denounces Russia, Ukraine for civilian deaths

    After more than four years of full-scale conflict between Russia and Ukraine, a sharp escalation in long-range mutual strikes has pushed civilian casualty numbers to new highs, prompting the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to publicly condemn attacks on population centers on both sides and call for an immediate end to violations of international humanitarian law.

    The cycle of violence accelerated this week. On Wednesday, a Russian ballistic missile strike hit a commercial warehouse complex on the outskirts of Kyiv, killing at least 17 people and destroying storage facilities held by multiple retail operators. The attack was widely interpreted as a direct retaliation for repeated Ukrainian strikes on assets linked to Wildberries, the Russian e-commerce giant often called “Russia’s Amazon” that has emerged as a recent target for Ukrainian forces.

    Overnight into Thursday, Ukraine launched one of its deepest cross-border drone attacks of the war, striking two key Russian oil refineries located hundreds of kilometers from the front lines. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that targets were hit in the Yaroslavl region, 700 kilometers from the conflict zone, and Bashkortostan, 1,300 kilometers inland from the front. The governor of Yaroslavl called the assault the “most massive” drone attack on the region since the war began, with Russian defense officials reporting that 92 of more than 600 total Ukrainian drones downed overnight were shot down over the region. A drone also struck a Wildberries logistics center in Russia’s Tver region, extending Ukraine’s recent campaign against the e-commerce firm.

    Russian forces responded quickly to the Ukrainian attack with new strikes across Ukrainian territory. Overnight strikes killed two civilians at a train station in Lozova, located in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region. In the Black Sea off Ukraine’s Odesa coast, a Russian strike hit a commercial cargo vessel carrying Ukrainian grain, leaving one crew member dead, according to Odesa’s regional governor. Kyiv’s air defense forces were unable to intercept any of the Russian missiles launched in this wave of attacks, intensifying Zelensky’s urgent pleas for additional air defense supplies from Western allies.

    Speaking through his spokesperson Farhan Haq on Thursday, Guterres highlighted the alarming pattern of escalating strikes on populated areas that has driven the rising civilian death toll. “Attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure are a clear violation of international humanitarian law, and must stop immediately,” Haq told reporters. Zelensky framed Ukraine’s deep strikes into Russian territory as a step toward eventual negotiations, saying in a social media post alongside footage of burning Russian infrastructure that “Russia must choose peace.” But four years into the full-scale conflict, diplomatic talks remain completely stalled, with both sides continuing to ramp up the intensity of long-range attacks.

    In a parallel development announced Thursday, Zelensky will make his first visit to Serbia since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion this coming Saturday. Serbia has long been a traditional ally of Moscow and is one of the few European countries that has refused to impose sanctions on Russia over the invasion. A senior Ukrainian official told Agence France-Presse that the visit amounts to a “slap in the face for the Russians,” while Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic confirmed the official visit, noting that talks will cover both countries’ EU accession bids, as well as economic and energy cooperation. Vucic emphasized that Serbia’s current policy toward the conflict will remain unchanged “until further notice” despite Zelensky’s upcoming visit.

    Separately on Thursday, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) issued an urgent warning over growing safety risks at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest nuclear facility. IAEA Director Rafael Grossi said that the plant has seen a sharp rise in unplanned off-site power outages, a trend that he called “deeply concerning and clearly not sustainable.” Plant personnel continue to report regular military activity and explosions close to the facility site multiple times every day, Grossi added, repeating the agency’s longstanding call for “maximum military restraint” around the plant. Located close to active front lines, the Zaporizhzhia plant has repeatedly lost external power, forcing it to rely on emergency diesel generators to maintain cooling for its nuclear reactors. The facility most recently lost off-site power briefly on Tuesday, though the cause of the outage remains unconfirmed as of Thursday.