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Dwyane Wade's Son Zaire Neighbors Report Screaming, Stomping Before DV Arrest Published July 1, 2026 3:50 PM PDT Zaire Wade's domestic violence arrest was preceded by neighbors calling 911 and reporting loud screaming and stomping
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Malik Beasley Pleads Not Guilty In Gambling Case Published July 1, 2026 2:52 PM PDT NBA player Malik Beasley entered a not guilty plea at an arraignment in his gambling case on Wednesday ... and
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Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and his wife Michelle Bolsonaro attend a demonstration against Jair Bolsonaro's judicial process and to demand the amnesty of all accused of taking part in allegedly conspiring to overthrow the
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An 11-year-old boy drove his parents' truck into a Buddhist procession in Thailand Thursday, killing nine monks and seriously injuring around 10 others, police and local authorities said.A group of 35 monks and five lay followers were walking along a roadside in northeastern Mukdahan province during a pilgrimage when the incident occurred.'I saw a boy driving a pickup truck, approaching,' one monk, identified as Phra Sompong, said in a video posted online by local rescue workers.'Then suddenly the truck hit at full speed and crashed us,' he said.'Luckily another monk and I managed to jump out of the way in time,' he added.'The first nine monks in line survived. But others who were hit were thrown into the air.'Police said five monks died at the scene and three more in hospital. The Mukdahan provincial office later announced the death of a ninth monk.Health authorities had earlier said four monks were in a critical condition and 10 others were seriously hurt, while more were being treated for lighter injuries.Buddhist monks are highly venerated in Thailand, entrusted with preserving and passing on the Buddha's teachings.They often hold public processions and are widely seen receiving alms of goodwill from ordinary Thais.CCTV footage from a nearby property shows the monks walking along the road with multiple vehicles driving past. The sound of a loud crash can then be heard before the procession stops.Police said the boy had taken his parents' pickup truck without permission before losing control of the vehicle and crashing into the monks.'The suspect is a child. The vehicle has been taken for forensic examination to determine the cause,' Police Major General Pairoj Thaiphutsa, commander of the Mukdahan Provincial Police, told reporters.'We've asked the child's parents to come in so we can determine who is responsible for the child's care, so we can go on with legal process,' he added.Prayut Ruanthongkam, chief of Mukdahan City Police, told AFP by telephone that the child was a boy aged 11.In Thailand, children under the age of 12 have no criminal liability.Mukdahan Governor Worayan Bunnarat said the case should serve as a wider warning on road safety.Deadly transport accidents are common in Thailand, which has one of the worst road safety records in the world, with speeding, drunk driving and weak law enforcement all contributing factors.'We've been very strict on road safety in recent years. This case should be a lesson not just for our province, but for the public in general when it comes to preventing road accidents,' said the governor.'I think everyone involved, especially parents, needs to help, because no one wants something like this to happen.'
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A macabre darkness, the glare of spotlights, the droning of generators and jackhammers, and often the stench of decomposing corpses: eight days after the double earthquake in Venezuela, nighttime in La Guaira, once a festive seaside resort, has transformed into a grim scene of survival and despair.The vast majority of the nearly 2,300 dead and thousands missing from the tragedy of June 24 are concentrated on the coast of La Guaira, where entire neighbourhoods have been razed.Nearly 200 buildings have completely collapsed, according to official figures, but local people say the number is higher.Some 15,000 homeless people are sleeping in tents in the streets, sports facilities, parks, vacant lots after one of Latin America's worst ever earthquake disasters.Everywhere, relatives, volunteers, and rescue workers are racing to recover bodies with the slim chance of finding survivors.But there have been glimmers of hope. Hernan Gil, 43, was astonishingly rescued from the rubble Thursday, eight days after the earthquakes, in Playa Grande, a neighbourhood of Catia La Mar."Sandwich of slabs" On a neighbouring plot of land, under the glare of floodlights, about 10 people are working to excavate a six-metre-high mountain, the remains of an eight-story building that collapsed "like a sandwich of slabs," explained Manuel Alejos, a crane operator."We're breaking slab by slab to free the bodies... Their families need the bodies to say their goodbyes," said the crane operator, who has already pulled seven bodies from the building."We still have the basement to do," he said, still hoping to find survivors.The stench of corpses filled the air.Angelo Gonzalez, a 27-year-old motorcycle taxi driver, and his friends arrived with water and pasta: "We're helping our brothers. We all have the same blood."On the docks, people wait on plastic chairs. A makeshift morgue has been set up to meet the demand.Owuar Herrera and 12 members of his family have been waiting since 5pm. He brought the bodies of his granddaughter, 10-year-old Dasleidy Herrera, and her grandmother, 50-year-old Mildred Moreno, both killed in the earthquakes."After a week of work, we found them today. They were embracing," he says.In Caraballeda, the other hardest-hit area, only a pile of rubble remains of the upscale Coral Beach residence.At the top, men were also working with spotlights to recover the body of Dennis Velasquez, 26, the son of their friend.Plastic bottles had been placed over the protruding metal to prevent injuries. The men worked like ants, forming a chain to pass buckets of small concrete blocks."We went past the penthouse, the 12th floor, and on the 11th we pulled out a family of six with a six-year-old child. On the 10th, there's my son," one of the rescuers, Carlos Velazquez, said."I've been here since day one. Even if I have to pull him out with my own fingernails, my son will rest in a proper cemetery," Velazquez said, his eyes filled with sadness but determination.His son's body was recovered shortly afterward.Cesar Gonzalez, 54, a Mexican firefighter and veterinarian, gives his two dogs, Zeus and Bom, water: "One is for detecting the living, the other for the dead. The more time passes, the less hope there is. Just two days ago, hope was much greater. Now, it would be a miracle," he explains.Already looted Police and soldiers are patrolling to prevent looting. Sergeant Yonder Maita, 24, is patrolling to protect rescue workers but especially to prevent theft: "There are people who break into houses to steal. Sometimes they pretend to be relatives. They take advantage of the situation."On many walls, the words "Already looted" are painted in black.On a soccer field, Maria Arteaga, 33, a mother of four, is preparing to sleep in an improvised shelter made of tarpaulins and a Venezuelan flag.On the floor, dirty mattresses found in the street will serve as sleeping quarters for nine people."The house... Everything, we've lost everything... Except our lives! We're even barefoot.""We didn't have much to begin with, but we've lost everything," adds a neighbour, Alexis Ramirez, 25, a tyre repairman.He lives with his two-year-old daughter, Mia, his wife, Fabiola, who is seven months pregnant, and his disabled mother-in-law.Is he afraid of becoming homeless? Of more aftershocks? Of thieves?"We've lost our fear." Related Story
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The Arabian Peninsula is at the forefront of climate change, experiencing some of its most visible and consequential effects. The challenges are serious: rising temperatures, heat waves becoming more prolonged, and sea level rise affecting coastal infrastructure, all of which impacts the well-being of people and the economy. By prioritising long-term resilience, Qatar could lead global innovations for living in arid environments. Doing so requires innovation, evidence, and strategic planning. Research to ImpactOver the last 25 years, the Gulf Cooperation Council states have invested in climate change-related research, with output increasing from virtually no published papers in 2000 to over 300 annually by 2023. While welcome, much of the research is technical and insufficiently studies the systems responsible for translating evidence into action. Our review of climate change studies across the Gulf identified three blind spots: people, policy, and price. The next phase of the region’s research agenda needs to advance evidence-to-impact pathways, which requires studies on governance, legal frameworks, public attitudes, and economic incentives. While the best models will help us understand the risks, failure to integrate the social sciences into these research agendas may leave the results sitting on the shelves. This requires new ways of working, specifically by breaking down disciplinary barriers and working beyond borders. Much of the Arabian Peninsula shares similar challenges and areas of interest. We share coastlines and aquifers, air quality transcends borders, and urban heat islands are a feature of cities across the region. Climate change is not a national issue, but research has been. Working together has the double benefit of reducing duplication of effort and enabling faster implementation of solutions. The region has the human capacity and financial resources to invest in research and innovation, ensuring that the outcomes lead to meaningful changes in policies, practices and people’s lives. We are already on the adaptation pathway, from emerging smart cities, expanding public transportation networks, and investment in cooling infrastructure, what comes next should be coordinating efforts to meet the scale of the challenge. Going ForwardHow can we move the next agenda ahead? The current research landscape is fragmented. Water experts, energy researchers, and policy leaders often work separately. In reality, these systems are deeply interconnected. Cooling demand affects desalination needs, which in turn influences grid stability and carbon emissions, all of which shape governments policy choices. Translating technical evidence into real adaptation requires systems thinking that treat the region’s sustainability challenge as one integrated problem rather than separate technical puzzles. Building on this, four priority areas should be considered. First, technical projects should embed social scientists, government experts, and economists. This can be a requirement by research donors and supported by research institutions. Second, we need to build bridges beyond borders in research, which can accelerate regional development. Mutual environmental challenges call for shared solutions and enable countries to progress together. Third, we need to be strategic in funding research and innovation for lasting impact. Investments in carbon capture and green tech, can be paired with measures such as improved building codes and urban design. Fourth, focus should be on addressing structural vulnerabilities across the region. This includes developing heat- and salt-tolerant crops, regionalisng vertical farming, advancing water recycling, and improving aquifer management. It also means making the current system more efficient by cutting food loss, localising diets, and positioning the region as a testbed for pioneering breakthroughs in arid agriculture. We have the opportunity to turn the narrative around: The Arabian Gulf need not be viewed as a hotspot for climate change risks when it can be at the forefront of resilience. The talent, motivation and resources are in place. The next step requires coordinated, interdisciplinary, and region-wide efforts that connect evidence to policy and action. If that happens, the region won’t just adapt to a changing climate, it will export local knowledge and solutions to other vulnerable communities around the world. The Arabian Gulf was built on turning hostile environments into prosperity. Climate change is simply the next test. Pass it together, and the desert can teach the rest of the world how to live. About Hamad Bin Khalifa UniversityInnovating Today, Shaping TomorrowHamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), a member of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science, and Community Development (QF), is a leading, innovation-centric university committed to advancing education and research to address critical challenges facing Qatar and beyond. HBKU develops multidisciplinary academic programmes and national research capabilities that drive collaboration with leading global institutions. The university is dedicated to equipping future leaders with an entrepreneurial mindset and advancing innovative solutions that create a positive global impact.For more information about HBKU, its colleges, research institutes, and initiatives, please visit www.hbku.edu.qa.To stay up to date on our social media activities, follow our accounts on: LinkedIn, Instagram, X, and Facebook.For any media inquiries, please contact: [email protected]. Dr Logan Cochrane is Dean of Hamad Bin Khalifa University’s College of Public Policy and Professor in Public Policy.Dr Dhabia al-Mohannadi is Associate Professor at the same institution’s College of Science and Engineering.(This piece has been submitted by HBKU’s Communications Directorate on behalf of its author. The thoughts and views expressed are the authors’ own and do not necessarily reflect an official University stance).
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There is a kind of confidence that does not announce itself. It surfaces not in slogans but in ledgers — in the deliberate decision of a company to build something new in a place it has studied with care. Invest Qatar’s 2025 Annual Report, out this week, is written largely in that quieter register. Its headline figure — $3.4bn in foreign direct investment capital expenditure across 373 projects — is striking enough on its own. Yet the more instructive story lies in what those numbers reveal about how the world now reads Qatar. Consider the shape of the money, not merely its size. New projects rose 52% in a single year, and more than half of all capital expenditure went into greenfield ventures — investors building from the ground up rather than buying into what already exists. Close to half the projects fell into the medium-to-high-tech bracket. This is not simply more capital; it is a different quality of capital. Greenfield builders commit for the long haul, and high-tech ventures come looking for skills, research and a settled environment in which ideas can compound. That such investors chose Qatar in a year shadowed by regional conflict and global uncertainty is the report’s most eloquent line, though it is nowhere stated as such. The breadth is equally reassuring. Five sectors — consumer products, business services, food and beverages, software and IT services, and textiles — accounted for more than two-thirds of all projects, a spread that binds legacy industries to newer, knowledge-intensive ones. This is diversification in its truest sense: not a single audacious bet, but a widening base, precisely the ambition set out under the Third National Development Strategy. None of this, as HE the Minister of Commerce and Industry Sheikh Faisal bin Thani bin Faisal al-Thani rightly observed, was the work of fortune. Behind the figures sits a year of patient institution-building. Invest Qatar opened representative offices in London, New York, Paris, Mumbai and Istanbul, placing the country within reach of investors in the markets that matter. It launched a $1bn incentives programme aimed at advanced industry, logistics, technology and financial services, and rebuilt its digital Gateway into a single channel that now guides more than 15,000 users and 900 companies from market entry to expansion. These are the unglamorous foundations of trust — the plumbing, not the facade — and they explain why the numbers moved. The external verdicts followed. Qatar entered the top 10 of the IMD’s global competitiveness rankings for the first time and vaulted 21 places to 12th on fDi Intelligence’s greenfield performance index. Invest Qatar’s chief executive, Sheikh Ali Alwaleed al-Thani, framed the year as one of purposeful progress, and the phrase is apt: what stands out is less the scale of the numbers than the sense of direction behind them. Such endorsements are welcome, but they are best read with a measure of restraint. Rankings describe a year already lived; they are a report on the past, not a guarantee of the future. The harder task, as the agency acknowledges, is to sustain the momentum once the applause fades. That is where reflection should settle. Foreign investment is, at its heart, a statement of belief in a country’s tomorrow — a wager that stability, talent and openness will endure. The 15,000-odd jobs created last year are the human measure of that wager, the point at which macroeconomic strategy becomes a livelihood. The challenge now is neither to celebrate the figures too loudly nor to take them for granted, but to keep faith with the confidence they express — to ensure that those who chose to build here find, year after year, that they were right to do so.
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Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer attends a meeting with campaigners to discuss historical forced adoption, at Downing Street in London Thursday. (AFP) British Prime Minister Keir Starmer formally apologised Thursday for the forced adoption of an estimated 185,000 babies born to unmarried mothers in England and Wales between 1949 and 1976, calling it "a stain on our history".The scandal saw the mothers, including many who were teenagers, coerced into giving up their children, with social, institutional and family pressures used to persuade them that adoption was their only option."We are deeply and profoundly sorry to the mothers who were told they were unfit, who were prevented from caring for the children they desperately wanted ... and who have carried this loss for decades," Starmer told parliament."The shame is not yours. The shame was never yours. The shame is ours," he insisted.The premier paid tribute to survivors who had campaigned for the apology and the "extraordinary courage with which they have shared their harrowing testimonies and fought for the truth time and time again".The expression of regret comes four years after a parliamentary committee recommended an official apology.Australia's government issued a landmark apology in 2013 for forced adoptions and Ireland's did so in 2021."What happened to them — and to tens of thousands of mothers, children and families — should never have happened," Starmer told UK lawmakers after meeting a group of survivors at his Downing Street office."It is a stain on our history. Mothers, many young, vulnerable and without support were coerced, bullied or misled into feeling that they had no choice but to have their children taken away from them."He said the removal of the children had been systemic.The practice, he said, was "embedded within systems across local authorities, across voluntary and faith-based institutions, and in health and social care services".'Punishment' "The state bears responsibility for the systems it funded and legitimised, which enabled these practices to occur... For this systemic failure, I am truly sorry," he added.Ann Keen, a former Labour health minister, said her newborn son was abruptly taken away after she gave birth in Wales in 1966 when she was 17."I went to see my baby on the eighth day because I was told I could have him for 10 (days) and they said: 'Oh no, he's gone now. You were getting far too close'," she told BBC Radio.Speaking before Starmer's announcement she said she looked forward to being "released from my shame" because "we have always been accused of giving up our babies and we didn't give them up".The parliamentary committee that investigated the scandal found mothers were abused in multiple ways.Painkillers would be deliberately denied as "punishment" in hospital during childbirth and afterwards, its report found.Babies were sometimes pulled from their sobbing mother's arms to be taken away for adoption."Have you learnt your lesson now?" one woman recalled a doctor telling her while she was in labour.Another told parliament's Joint Committee on Human Rights: "A doctor told me that I should be sterilised as I must be a nymphomaniac".Last month, the Church of England last month said sorry for its role in the forced adoptions.Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally apologised for the "pain, trauma and stigma" caused to those affected, saying there was deep shame it had happened to people "in the care of Christian communities".Abortion was legalised in England, Scotland and Wales in 1967.But even after then, women faced practical barriers, such as objections by their doctors.Apologies were also made in 2023 by the devolved administrations in Cardiff and Edinburgh to people affected in Wales and Scotland.An apology is also expected in Northern Ireland but not until after a public inquiry has been carried out, following a recommendation from a 2021 report on mother and baby institutions, Magdalene laundries and workhouses. Related Story
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Police escort Serhii K from a helicopter before a hearing with the German Federal Public Prosecutor in Karlsruhe, Germany. (Reuters/File picture) German federal prosecutors have charged a former Ukrainian army officer with being the co-perpetrator of a war crime over the 2022 Nord Stream gas pipeline blasts, accusing him of acting on behalf of Ukrainian state entities.Prosecutors said Thursday they had filed charges against Serhii K - identified under German privacy rules only by his first name and initial - before a regional court in Hamburg.They accuse him of acting as a co-perpetrator in a war crime involving an attack on civilian objects, causing an explosion, destroying infrastructure and disrupting public services.Authorities in Kyiv said Thursday that they did not have enough information about the case to respond in detail to German prosecutors' allegations.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that he had yet to receive full details of the indictment, which had been served that day. The list of charges was published on Thursday."The relevant authorities of our countries will get in touch, and when we receive more details, we will probably be able to respond. For now, it is too early to speak," he said.Russia and Western countries have described the September 2022 blasts, which followed Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine earlier that year, as sabotage.The explosions damaged the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, a vital route for Russian gas exports to Europe, as well as the Nord Stream 2 branch, which had yet to enter service.At the time of the alleged attack, Moscow had recently halted gas deliveries via Nord Stream 1, blaming Western sanctions and technical issues, though Europe accused it of weaponising energy supplies.According to the German indictment, Serhii K was an officer in the Ukrainian army in 2022 and, acting on behalf of Ukrainian state entities, helped develop a plan with other military personnel to destroy Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2.The aim, prosecutors said, was to permanently halt gas deliveries via the pipelines and prevent Russia from using revenue from the natural gas trade to finance its war efforts.The defendant, leading a team of professional divers, a skipper and an explosives expert, entered Germany on a forged Ukrainian passport in September 2022 and boarded a yacht rented using forged identification documents, they said.
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This illustration photograph taken Thursday shows the new upcoming Usernamer feature on US instant messaging software WhatsApp, displayed on a smartphone with the backdrop of India’s national flag in New Delhi. (AFP) India has asked Meta to hold off launching its username feature on WhatsApp in the world's most populous country, citing concerns over fraud and impersonation, media reports said Thursday.The move comes as authorities in India grapple with a spike in cybercrime, with scammers exploiting low digital safety awareness among millions of Internet users.WhatsApp, owned by US tech giant Meta, said Monday that users worldwide would be able to connect via unique usernames instead of sharing their phone numbers, an upcoming feature it said was designed to enhance privacy.India, WhatsApp's largest market with more than half a billion users, voiced concerns Wednesday that the change could make it easier for fraudsters to target victims.In a letter to Meta, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said the feature could lead to an increase in online fraud, phishing, digital arrest scams and impersonation attacks, the Indian Express newspaper reported."There is a possibility that bad actors may claim usernames... and message other users while pretending to be someone they are not," the English-language daily quoted a senior government official as saying."For those who may not be technologically aware to make out the difference, it could be a huge challenge."The ministry has asked Meta not to roll out the feature until consultation on the matter is over, the paper added.Last month, Meta appointed Indian fintech titan Kunal Shah as the new head of WhatsApp.Meta said the feature was not yet live in India and that it had already reserved usernames for public figures and verified accounts."To protect against impersonation, we've held the highest-profile names... so they can only ever be claimed by their legitimate owners," it said in a statement."Users still require a phone number to use WhatsApp and we've built multiple layers of defence against scams into usernames."Username feature is already available on another popular messaging platform WeChat, owned by Chinese tech giant Tencent.Online fraud has surged in India in recent years as rapid digitisation has outpaced awareness of basic internet safety among many users.Government figures show Indians lost nearly $3 billion to cyber fraud in 2025, almost 40 times more than in 2021. Related Story
