Milan opens public viewing for late designer Giorgio Armani’s coffin

September 6, 2025

Public viewing of Giorgio Armani's coffin in Milan begins — Hundreds of people queued up before the opening of the viewing at which will last two days ahead of a private funeral on Monday

A City in Quiet Mourning: Milan Pays Tribute to Giorgio Armani

The morning air in Milan tasted faintly of espresso and roses. Outside the Armani Theatre, wreaths leaned against iron railings like a congregation of petals. Hundreds — students in wool coats, elderly women with polished handbags, young designers clutching sketchbooks — formed a slow, respectful line before the doors opened at 9am.

They had come to stand for a moment beside the coffin of Giorgio Armani, the man who for half a century reimagined what elegance could mean. A two-day public viewing precedes a private funeral, but for many the pilgrimage was already a ritual: to look, to remember, to place a flower or a handwritten note on smooth marble.

Scenes from the Queue

“He dressed my mother for her wedding; she still talks about the shoulder line,” said Maria Rossi, 68, smoothing the sleeve of her coat as she waited. “She always said she felt important for the first time. That’s what Armani did.” Her hands trembled slightly; her voice was steady enough to carry a lifetime of gratitude.

Nearby, Luca Bellini, 47, who spent years in the Armani ateliers in the 1990s, watched the procession with a mix of pride and private loss. “He taught us craftsmanship and restraint. You could hear him before you saw him — a soft voice, but firm. ‘Less is more, but do it precisely,’ he’d say,” Luca recalled. “He worked until he could no longer. That dedication was terrifying and beautiful.”

These personal recollections are threaded through with public testimony. Italy’s Culture Minister, Alessandro Giuli, called Armani “a leading figure in Italian culture, who was able to transform elegance into a universal language.” The minister praised a lifetime that connected fashion, cinema and Italian identity in ways that reached far beyond boutique windows.

From Piacenza to the World Stage

Giorgio Armani was born in Piacenza in 1934, the middle child of Ugo and Maria Armani. The family was not wealthy; style, it seems, was an inheritance of temperament. Maria sewed for her children and instilled a quiet discipline of taste that would later bloom into a global aesthetic. Armani himself once said he and his siblings “looked rich even though we were poor” — a line that captures his lifelong talent for making simplicity look like splendor.

He studied medicine briefly, then spent time in the army. His entry into fashion came almost by accident: a job dressing the windows of La Rinascente — Milan’s great department store — and later a position with Nino Cerruti where he began what would become his signature experiment: stripping the jacket of padding and structure and tailoring it to human movement.

By 1975 he had launched his own label. Within a few years he had turned new ideas about femininity and masculinity into a style that felt at once modern and timeless. In 1980, a crisp Armani suit on Richard Gere in American Gigolo announced a love affair with Hollywood that would last decades. Bergdorf Goodman in New York, among other luxury houses, embraced him and helped carry his clean lines across the Atlantic.

Key Milestones

1934 — Born in Piacenza, Italy
1975 — Founded the Giorgio Armani fashion house in Milan
1980 — Designed iconic looks for American Gigolo; entry into the U.S. market
2010 — Opened Armani Hotel in Dubai’s Burj Khalifa
2025 — Passed away aged 91; public viewing in Milan ahead of a private funeral

More than a Look: A Global Brand and Cultural Force

Armani never confined himself to a singular canvas. Emporio Armani, Armani Exchange, fragrances, and luxury hotels expanded the brand into lifestyles and experiences. The Armani Hotel in Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, which opened in 2010, became emblematic of his capacity to translate a design philosophy into architecture and hospitality. He was credited with inventing “red-carpet fashion” — a bespoke system that made cinema’s glamour accessible to the media machine of celebrity.

Yet Armani’s legacy is also about how clothes fit into the rhythms of life. He created workwear that respected the body and eveningwear that allowed a person to breathe. For a generation of women entering offices and boardrooms from the 1980s onward, his designs offered both authority and ease. “He made power dressing humane,” said Dr. Elena Moretti, a fashion historian at the University of Milan. “Armani softened the armor and, in doing so, broadened who could wear it.”

Grief, Reflection, and a Brand That Mattered

There is a particular melancholy in saying goodbye to an icon just weeks before a golden anniversary. The Armani house was inches away from celebrating 50 years — a half-century of men’s and women’s tailoring that remade a city and influenced wardrobes across continents. Instead, Milan pauses to remember a designer who, by many accounts, worked until the end. The company said he “passed away peacefully, surrounded by his loved ones” and noted he was “indefatigable to the end.”

He had cancelled shows in Milan and Paris this year for health reasons; the absence was felt as an ominous hush in the calendar of fashion weeks. For younger creatives, Armani’s mortality forces a question: what do legacies look like in an industry obsessed with the new? How do we remember craftsmanship in an era of rapid trends and fast fashion?

Local Color and Global Threads

Outside the theatre, shopkeepers turned off radios and lowered awnings in a small, improvised salute. A florist wrapped a bundle of white orchids in brown paper and tied it with twine — a modest offering that matched the understated elegance the designer championed. Tourists stopped to take photographs, then put phones away, as if aware they were intruding on a private act of civic mourning.

“He made Milan speak the language of the world,” said Paolo Ricci, who runs a small atelier in the Navigli district. “People come to us because here—here—there is history and craftsmanship. Armani is part of that story. His jackets taught me how to cut a shoulder so a woman could move freely and still be commanding.”

What Armani Leaves Behind

Armani’s influence will ripple through the industry — in patterns, in the proportion of suits on red carpets, in the language designers use when describing restraint and proportion. But beyond fabric and thread, there is a broader cultural footprint. He helped knit Italian design into global identity, creating jobs and reputational capital that fed into tourism, hospitality, and luxury retail. Milan remains one of the world’s fashion capitals; designers, buyers, and journalists still travel here to see the latest statements of taste. Armani helped make that ecosystem possible.

So we stand, a city and a world that loved a man for making simplicity sing. We remember a tailor who turned the ordinary into something quietly exalted. And we ask ourselves: as fashion becomes faster and more fleeting, what does it mean to create something built to last — in garments and in memory?

There will be private words at the funeral on Monday, and public echoes in the months ahead: retrospectives, exhibitions, perhaps debates about preservation, craft and commerce. For now, Milan lines up in the cold, places a flower, and whispers thanks.

Why Robert Fico Is Pushing to Normalize Ties with Russia

hanad

September 6, 2025

Why Robert Fico wants normal relations with Russia — Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico (L) and Russian President Vladimir Putin before their bilateral meeting in Beijing last Tuesday

One Leader, Two Meetings, and a Country Caught Between Pipelines

On a humid morning in Beijing, amid the fanfare of an 80th-anniversary commemoration for the end of the Pacific War, a curious scene played out: among presidents and prime ministers who shook hands with Xi Jinping, only one leader from the European Union took his seat at the guest table.

He was Robert Fico, Slovakia’s controversially pragmatic prime minister, and he did not come alone in spirit. Alongside the formal ceremonies, he slipped into private corridors of power, where the politics of energy, memory and national identity were being negotiated with a clarity that left little room for ideology.

A Triad of Meetings: Putin, Zelensky, and the Voter Back Home

On the sidelines of the Beijing event, Fico managed what he has made into a signature diplomatic pattern: a brief, deliberate meeting with Vladimir Putin. It was the third time the two had met since late last year. Then, back in Central Europe, he sat across from Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky in Uzhhorod for what both leaders described as a “meaningful” exchange.

To the outside observer these were more than photo-ops. They were a snapshot of a foreign policy aimed as much at domestic audiences as at foreign capitals. “He wants to show voters he can stand up to Brussels and still keep lights on and heating bills low,” says Alexander Duleba, a senior political scientist at the Slovak Foreign Policy Association. “That’s powerful in a country where memories, friendships, and trade routes run both East and West.”

Politics of Protectionism — and Popularity

Fico’s coalition promised low energy prices and a straightforward message: Slovak interests first. For many voters, that translates into preserving cheap Russian gas and oil, even as Brussels pushes to decouple from Moscow. “You can’t tell a pensioner that prices will rise because of politics,” a Bratislava shopkeeper told me, shrugging as she stacked bottles of sunflower oil. “They’ll blame the politician, not the pipeline.”

That political calculus partly explains why Fico has cut military aid to Ukraine, stalled EU sanctions packages against Russia and vowed to keep importing Russian energy. It also explains why he has kept Slovakia out of the so-called Coalition of the Willing — a group of 31 countries formed to safeguard a post-war settlement in Ukraine — a club that still counts Hungary and Malta among a few European holdouts.

The Numbers That Do the Talking

Behind the slogans are hard statistics. Until last January, Slovakia imported roughly two-thirds of its natural gas from Gazprom, totaling about three billion cubic meters a year transported via Ukraine. Much of that winter fuel didn’t just warm Slovak homes — it passed through, re-exported to neighbours such as Austria, generating transit fees now sorely missed.

The loss of those fees has a tangible price tag: Bratislava estimates the shortfall at about €500 million annually. Meanwhile, around 80% of Slovakia’s crude oil still arrives through the venerable Druzhba pipeline from Russia — a flow that, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), is valued at roughly €178 million.

“Energy is not abstract here. It’s cash in municipal budgets, diesel in tractors, and gas for school boilers,” says Géza Tokár, an analyst of Slovak politics. “When the numbers are this big, the argument becomes less about geopolitics and more about immediate survival — political survival included.”

Alternative Routes — But at What Cost?

European policymakers are pushing a timeline: phase out Russian gas by 2028. Studies, including one by CREA, argue Slovakia and its neighbours could source non-Russian oil from the Adriatic via Croatia and access other suppliers on the open market.

Yet the transition would come with wrinkles. Infrastructure upgrades, new bilateral contracts, and short-term price spikes are all real threats. “If your entire logistics chain runs one way for decades, re-routing isn’t plug-and-play,” says an EU energy specialist. “It’s expensive and politically risky — especially for an incumbent leader who promised stability.”

History, Nationalism, and the Long Shadow of Memory

To understand why many Slovaks are willing to tolerate a government stretching towards Moscow, you must walk the streets of smaller towns where statues, cemeteries, and family tales blur the line between geopolitics and lineage.

“My grandfather fought in the Red Army,” said an elderly woman I met at a café in Prešov. “We have family in Russia. You cannot simply erase those ties.”

That cultural memory fuels a strain of Slovak national sentiment that is more receptive to Russia than many Western capitals assume. Fico, historian turned politician turned populist, has long traded on that sentiment. His SMER party weaves together center-left economic populism with conservative stances on immigration and social issues — a mix that has proven electorally resilient.

The Post-Shooting Prime Minister and the Limits of Political Theatre

There are dramatic personal notes to this political story too. Fico survived a near-fatal shooting some 16 months ago and made a remarkable recovery. He returns to diplomacy with the aura of a leader who has stared down violence and come back determined. That image helps him brandish independence on the international stage with an almost theatrical flair.

Yet symbolism can only carry a leader so far. After his meeting with Zelensky, Fico publicly endorsed Ukraine’s EU membership bid — a point of divergence from Hungary, which opposes Kyiv’s accession. “Support for integration is not the same as unconditional endorsement of every Ukrainian policy,” Fico said, attempting to balance Brussels and Moscow in a single breath.

What Does This Mean for Europe — and for You?

For citizens across the continent, the Slovak case raises uneasy questions. How much sovereignty should be sacrificed for energy security? When is pragmatism mere expedience? And how do democratic societies navigate the tension between voters’ immediate needs and long-term strategic goals?

If the EU’s 2028 target holds, the transition away from Russian energy will reshape supply chains, trade balances, and geopolitical alliances. Yet leaders like Fico demonstrate that domestic politics will remain the decisive force: parties that can tie international policy to household budgets will always hold leverage.

So I ask you, reader: would you accept short-term price hikes if it meant reducing dependence on an autocratic supplier? Or is it fair to prioritize immediate economic relief over uncertain, distant strategic gains?

Looking Ahead

Slovakia’s path forward is neither predetermined nor simple. The country sits at the crossroads of pipelines and histories, of EU ambitions and old friendships that travel via rail and radio across borders. Fico’s diplomacy — meetings in Beijing, handshakes in Uzhhorod, and conversations with Moscow — is part show, part strategy, and entirely rooted in the pressures of voters paying their utility bills.

What happens next will depend on whether the alternatives the CREA study and Brussels advocate become politically feasible and economically bearable. It will depend on whether Slovak industry and households can absorb the costs of re-routing supply. And it will depend, in the end, on the stories politicians tell at kitchen tables and in cafes — stories that decide whether national interest means choosing comfort today or security tomorrow.

Israel destroys Gaza City high-rise in targeted airstrike

hanad

September 6, 2025

Israel destroys high-rise building in attack on Gaza City — Smoke and dust rise from the Mushtaha Tower in Gaza City after it was hit by Israeli airstrikes

When a Tower Falls: Gaza City’s Mushtaha Tower and the Anatomy of a Collapsed Refuge

When the Mushtaha Tower came down, it sounded like a city losing its memory.

One instant, windows glittered against a washed-out Mediterranean sky; the next, a 14-storey block folded into itself in a dull, violent rumble. A great, dirty cloud rose and swallowed the sun for a moment. People who live by the sound of the sea and the cadence of daily prayers found themselves counting rubble instead of blessings.

The scene

It was the Al-Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City — a part of the strip where the urban grid runs up close to the shoreline, where apartment towers and narrow alleys mark lives layered upon lives. Video circulating online shows the Mushtaha Tower shudder, a violent bloom at its base, and then collapse, floor by floor, like a house of cards knocked by a single, terrible hand.

“We saw people on the balconies throwing things down,” said Arej Ahmed, a 50-year-old displaced woman who now sleeps in a tent southwest of the city. “They were trying to save what little they could. Less than half an hour after a call came through to leave, the explosion hit.”

Across the city, the fear was palpably new, even to those who had lived through months of bombardment. “Everyone is scared and doesn’t know where to go,” said Ahmed Abu Wutfa, 45, who is sheltering in a damaged fifth-floor flat. “There is no safe place — we only hope that death comes quickly.” His words carry the bleak humour and raw exhaustion of many here: defeatist, desperate, human.

Orders, denials, and collapse

Israel’s military said it targeted tall buildings believed to be used by Hamas, and that some civilians had been ordered to evacuate prior to strikes. A spokesman suggested that the strikes are part of a broader push to seize Gaza City, and officials have said they will not announce operations in advance to retain “the element of surprise.”

Still, the building’s management denies the claim that Mushtaha Tower housed fighters, and says it opened its doors to displaced families. “This was a refuge for people who had nowhere else,” a manager told an Arabic network. “There were children inside, families who fled other attacks.”

Such contradictions are now a daily rhythm: warnings that are too short, denials that never reach the middle of the rubble, and a cascade of images that are impossible to reconcile.

Numbers and realities

Among the figures that must be named: Gaza’s civil defence reported at least 19 people were killed today in and around Gaza City. The United Nations estimates that the parts of Gaza under the fiercest assault are home to nearly one million people and has declared a famine in the area.

Other markers of the human toll are staggering: according to Gaza’s health ministry — figures the UN considers reliable — some 64,300 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023, most of them civilians. The October 2023 Hamas attacks that ignited this round of violence killed roughly 1,219 people in Israel, according to AFP’s tally based on Israeli figures.

Today’s reported fatalities in and around Gaza City: at least 19 (Gaza civil defence)
Total deaths in Gaza since Oct 2023: approximately 64,300 (Gaza health ministry; UN considers reliable)
People living in the besieged areas of Gaza City: nearly one million (UN estimate)
The Global Hunger Monitor (IPC): currently classifies Gaza’s situation as a man-made famine

These are not just numbers. Each is a name erased, a market stall that never reopens, a child who learns fear before the alphabet.

A war of towers: the urban battlefield

Towering apartment blocks, once symbols of modern Gaza life, have become contested terrain. For residents who fled to these tall buildings from ground-level devastation, the towers were a horizontal refuge turned vertical trap.

“We sought shelter higher up because bombing had taken the streets,” a local teacher who asked to be called Samir said. “Higher floors felt safer until they didn’t. The lines of sight changed; the city became a chessboard, and we are the pieces.”

The logic of urban warfare is brutal and simple: control the heights, control movement. But what happens when the “heights” are also homes, markets, and shelters for displaced families? How does an attack that targets a building factor in the presence of thousands of civilians clustered inside and around it?

International alarms and legal questions

Beyond Gaza’s rubble, the diplomatic ripples are growing. International voices, including European Commission vice-president Teresa Ribera, have used the word “genocide” to describe the trajectory of the war — a label that has sharpened criticism of Israel and raised urgent calls for action. The world’s largest association of genocide scholars passed a resolution saying legal criteria have been met to establish that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

Meanwhile, UN human rights officials and humanitarian monitors warn that policies around access to food, medical care, and safe passage have created conditions described by the IPC and the UN as an entirely man-made famine. UN human rights chief Volker Türk said the famine was the direct result of policies blamed on the Israeli government.

These declarations move the debate from the field of military strategy to the courts of moral and legal responsibility. They force global citizens — not only strategists and diplomats — to ask: what is the responsibility of outside actors when an urban population is squeezed to the point of starvation?

Stories among the ruins

At a makeshift tent cluster near the sea, children play amid the half-eaten leftovers of a life interrupted. A vendor who once sold falafel near the Corniche walks through the dust, his hands empty. The morning call to prayer echoes differently now — quieter, interrupted by the diesel whispers of generators, the crackle of frayed radios, the language of alerts.

“We are exhausted of counting the dead and counting our food,” a young mother, Huda, whispered, hugging a toddler who refused to sleep. “We used to argue about rent. Now we argue about what to give the baby to eat.”

Stories like Huda’s are fragments of a larger narrative: one of displacement on an industrial scale, of families whose maps have been erased and redrawn daily. They are a human ledger against the sterile terms of “tactical advantage” and “military necessity.”

What are we to do — and to feel?

Look at the images: a tower collapsing, a cloud of dust, people sifting through concrete. Do you see strategy or tragedy? How do you reconcile an urgent call for security with the urgent needs of those whose daily reality is survival?

This is not a small question. It is the wound at the heart of modern urban conflict. As the international community debates labels and legal frameworks, the people of Gaza count the immediate costs — food, shelter, dignity.

In the end, the Mushtaha Tower is more than a fallen building. It is a mirror. It asks us to look at how war is waged in cities, what rights civilians truly hold when the ground beneath them is declared an “operational” zone, and what values the global community chooses to prioritize when the daily math of survival is so stark.

There are no easy answers. But the pictures, the names, the tolls — and the voices like Arej’s, like Huda’s — demand we do more than scroll past. They demand that we listen.

Gaza City residents urged to evacuate as Israeli offensive continues

hanad

September 6, 2025

Gaza City residents told to leave amid Israeli offensive — Palestinians fleeing south from Israeli attacks ride a truck with their belongings on the coastal road in central Gaza

Gaza’s Crossroads: A City Told to Move — and the World Holds Its Breath

There are moments when a single message feels like an earthquake: brief, unavoidable, reshaping the landscape of ordinary life. Earlier this week, residents of Gaza city woke to such a tremor — a directive from the Israeli army urging them to relocate south to an area it called a “humanitarian zone.” The order, shared on social media by an army spokesman, read like a blunt evacuation notice; its language promised safety and resources, and its timing was unclear.

“Take this opportunity to move early to the Al‑Mawasi humanitarian zone and join the thousands who have already gone there,” the message urged. For many in Gaza city, where families have been pushed from home to home for months, the message landed not as clarity but as a new, painful demand: leave again, with only what you can carry, because the next phase of a ground offensive may be coming.

One million people at the city’s gates

The UN estimates roughly a million people live in and around Gaza city — a figure that reads more like a density map of human vulnerability than a statistic. To put that in context: the Gaza Strip itself is home to just over two million people on roughly 365 square kilometers of land. When a major urban center like Gaza city becomes the focal point of military plans, the arithmetic of displacement becomes brutal fast.

“There is nowhere safe left for us,” said Amal, a teacher who has already fled her neighborhood twice and now shelters in a crowded warehouse. “We are tired of running. My children ask every night if we will sleep in a tent or in the street. They don’t understand why the world can’t make it stop.”

Al‑Mawasi: Promise and skepticism

The Israeli military described Al‑Mawasi as equipped with “field hospitals, water pipelines, desalination facilities,” and ongoing supplies of tents, food, and medicine — a logistical backbone designed, officials say, to receive those fleeing the city. They also claimed that humanitarian aid there would continue “in cooperation with the UN and international organisations,” even as ground operations expand.

Yet the history of Al‑Mawasi during this conflict complicates the picture. The area was previously declared a safe zone early in the war, but it has not been untouched by violence; residents and observers have reported strikes and bombings there too, often explained by military spokespeople as attacks on militants hiding among civilians.

“We were told once before that a place was safe,” said Youssef, a 54‑year‑old vegetable vendor who keeps his small stall half‑buried under a damaged awning. “We went. Then we had to go again. How many times can a family be moved before they run out of faith?”

The human calculus of survival

Humanitarian corridors and safe zones are meant to reduce harm. But in practice, when a million people are told to move — sometimes overnight, often with children, elderly, and the sick — logistics turn into moral puzzles. How do you guarantee water? Medical care? Privacy for women and girls in large, temporary camps? How do aid agencies continue vaccinations, chronic disease management, and maternal care when clinics are overrun or out of reach?

UN officials warn that another push into Gaza city risks a “disaster” on a catastrophic scale. The agency’s concerns are not abstract: large civilian populations in dense urban settings typically suffer the most in modern warfare. The UN’s pleas for restraint and protection are both humanitarian and legal—invoking the need to shield civilians and uphold international law.

Voices around the world — and at home

The international response has been a chorus of alarm and urgings for pause. Pressure mounts on Israel from foreign governments and human rights organizations to reconsider a full-scale assault on Gaza’s largest urban center. At the same time, inside Israel, political currents press in different directions, with some leaders urging decisive military action and others warning of the long-term costs of further escalation.

Hamas publicly accepted a ceasefire proposal last month that envisioned a temporary truce and a staged release of hostages. Israel, however, framed its demands differently — pushing for the immediate release of all hostages and stipulating the disarmament and political end of Hamas’ control over Gaza as part of any durable settlement.

“Nothing about a durable peace will come from more forced displacement,” said Leila Haddad, an analyst who has followed Gaza for years. “You can win a battle for territory and still lose the war for legitimacy. Populations matter. Their survival, stories, and rights matter.”

Regional echoes: The Arab League and the broader landscape

Beyond Gaza’s borders, the Arab League convened in Cairo and issued a resolution that read like a reminder and a rebuke: lasting coexistence in the Middle East, the bloc declared, is impossible without addressing the Palestinian question and ending what it called Israel’s “hostile practices.” The resolution—sponsored by Egypt and Saudi Arabia—reaffirmed support for a two‑state solution and the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, which offers full normalization in exchange for a complete Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967.

Experts view this as more than diplomatic posturing. “When regional actors say that peace cannot be built on occupation, they are signaling a set of red lines,” explained Omar Khalidi, a professor of international relations. “The Arab League’s position links Gaza’s present to an unresolved regional order, where normalisation without a just settlement for Palestinians risks being short‑lived.”

At the same meeting, delegates could not ignore the inflammatory rhetoric coming from certain Israeli political figures calling for annexation in the West Bank — language that, to many in the region, only deepens mistrust and fuels cycles of violence.

What does “safe” mean anymore?

Walk through any part of Gaza city today and the question is less rhetorical than urgent. “Safe” can mean a tent with running water. It can mean a clinic with insulin in the fridge. It can mean being able to bury your dead without waiting months. For thousands, it means holding on to a sliver of dignity amid the rubble.

Imagine being a child who has known nothing but shelters and checkpoints. Imagine the calculus in an elderly couple’s hands as they decide which photos to tuck into a small bag. Imagine an aid worker juggling satellite calls and dwindling supplies while the generator hums and the list of people needing help grows.

What do we owe the civilians at the heart of this story? How do international actors balance security concerns with a clearer commitment to human protection? And perhaps more intimately: how many times must ordinary people choose between staying and moving before the world acts to make such choices unnecessary?

Looking ahead

The coming days will test not only military strategy but the endurance of humanitarian systems and international diplomacy. If the Israeli military proceeds with plans to take Gaza city, the lives of hundreds of thousands will be reshaped overnight. If it pauses, the pause itself will be political, fraught with bargaining and the heavy burden of unaddressed grievances.

For now, families like Amal’s and Youssef’s continue to wait, pack, and hold one another close. They tell their children stories of olive trees and jasmine perfume to keep the past alive. In the whispered exchanges and the robust arguments at aid tables, the same question keeps surfacing: can humane policies be found amid the strategic calculus? The answer will determine not only the fate of Gaza city, but perhaps the contours of peace in the region itself.

As you read this, what would you do if the world told you to move — again? How far would you go to keep your family safe, and what would you bring?

Suspected large shark attack kills man off Sydney beach

hanad

September 6, 2025

'Large shark' kills man off Sydney beach — The fatal shark attack was the first in Sydney since 2022

Morning Calm Interrupted: A Surfer’s Death at Long Reef and the Tide of Questions It Raises

The sky over Long Reef Beach that Saturday looked like a painting—pale blue, streaked with high clouds, the ocean a slow silver-green. Surfers chased the offshore sets with the kind of quiet joy that stitches communities together along Sydney’s Northern Beaches. By midmorning, that calm had been torn open.

Emergency crews, lifeguards and neighbours watched in stunned silence as a man—pulled from the water by fellow surfers—was tended to on the sand. He died at the scene. Authorities said the wounds were consistent with a large shark attack; two pieces of a surfboard, cleanly separated, were taken for forensic examination. Within hours, patrol flags went up and stretches of shoreline closed. The routine of the beach—coffee, chatter, surf lessons—suddenly felt fragile.

What Happened at Long Reef

Witnesses say the man was surfing outside the patrolled area when the attack occurred. “A couple of us paddled him in as fast as we could,” one local surfer told a radio station. “It was chaos—people shouting, and then silence.” A lifesaver on duty waived the red flag as a desperate signal for everyone to come in. Nearby clubs cancelled all water activities for the weekend, and drones from the lifeguards swept the surf, their tiny cameras seeking a shadow beneath the swell.

New South Wales police confirmed the man had sustained critical injuries and died on the sand. “Our deepest condolences go to the family of the man involved in this terrible tragedy,” offered a representative from Surf Life Saving NSW. For a community built on waves and collars of sand, grief arrived not as a headline but as a weight on the chest of people who know every reef, current and swell like the back of their hand.

Evidence, Experts and the Board

Investigators recovered two separate sections of the surfer’s board and handed them to specialists to help identify the predator. While forensic analysis will be required to say whether it was a great white, tiger or bull shark—species commonly implicated in coastal incidents—experts caution against rushes to judgment.

“Board damage patterns can tell us a lot—depth, angle, even the type of teeth involved,” said a marine forensic technician (speaking on condition of anonymity). “But until you have biological samples or consistent sightings, it’s hard to be definitive.”

Counting Incidents, Measuring Risk

Shark encounters in Australia are not new. Records indicate more than 1,280 incidents since 1791, with over 250 ending in death. Yet in practical terms, the chance of a fatal shark attack for an individual visiting an Australian beach remains vanishingly low. Surfing, swimming and other ocean sports continue to carry far greater everyday risks—slippery rocks, rips and collisions among them.

Still, the emotional reaction to a shark attack is outsized. People imagine the ocean as an unknowable wild; a single headline can redraw the map of perceived safety. In Sydney, this was the first fatality from a shark attack since 2022, when a British diver, Simon Nellist, was killed off Little Bay. The city’s last earlier fatality was in 1963—a reminder that such events are rare, but not unprecedented.

Local Voices: Fear, Anger, Grief

“You grow up with the ocean; it’s part of you,” said Marina Lopez, who runs a surf school near Long Reef. “We tell the kids to respect it, to read the flags. But tonight parents are calling, asking if it’s safe to bring their kids to lessons.”

On the beach, conversation spun between condolence and debate. “We need more eyes in the sky,” a member of the surf club said. “But we also don’t want nets that kill turtles and dolphins. There’s no easy answer.”

A shopkeeper on the promenade, polishing the espresso machine, summed up the local pulse succinctly: “People are quiet. The coffee’s still flowing, but everyone is thinking about that person out there.”

Technology, Policy and the Old Conversations

In the hours after the attack, drones scanned the coastline and lifeguards updated closures. Across Australia, authorities use a patchwork of measures—shark nets, drumlines, spotter planes, drones and smart buoy systems—each bringing different costs and controversies.

Shark nets catch large predators but have non-target impacts on turtles, dolphins and other marine life.
Drumlines, including “SMART” models, can alert authorities to large animals without necessarily killing them, though debates remain over ethics and effectiveness.
Drone surveillance and sonar offer non-lethal detection tools but rely on line-of-sight and weather conditions.

“We’re balancing conservation with human safety,” said a marine policy advisor. “Everyone wants beaches to be safe, but measures that harm ecosystems aren’t sustainable. The long-term strategy needs to be smart, humane, and science-driven.”

Climate, Currents and Changing Oceans

Scientists point to warming seas and shifting prey patterns as factors that can alter where sharks are found. “As ocean temperatures change, so do the movements of fish and seals—the food that draws apex predators,” a marine biologist explained. “That can bring sharks into new areas or make sightings more frequent.”

Such shifts are subtle and complex. They don’t explain every incident, but they remind us that human choices—carbon emissions, fisheries management, coastal development—intersect with wildlife in ways we are still mapping.

Living With the Sea: Questions for the Beachgoing Public

What do communities want from public policy when it comes to rare but tragic events? How do we weigh the rights of marine animals against the safety of swimmers and surfers? And how do we prepare, emotionally and practically, for risks that are low in probability but high in consequence?

For now, Long Reef’s sand will hold a new memory—one that touches surfers who know the rhythm of waves and families who come for safe paddling. Clubs have called off training. Flags are up. The forensic work will take time. Grief will not.

Practical Steps for Beachgoers

If you’re headed to the coast, here are sensible precautions widely recommended by lifeguards:

Always swim at patrolled beaches and between the flags.
Avoid dawn and dusk activities when visibility is lower.
Don’t swim alone; stay in groups.
Avoid areas where fishers are active and where there’s a lot of baitfish or seals.
Follow lifeguard and signage instructions; they’re the people who see the day-to-day patterns.

Closing: Salt, Memory and Respect

Long Reef has always been a place of rituals—early morning surfers cutting across the lineup, children learning to paddle, families strolling the headland. A tragedy there reconfigures those rituals, for a time, into something quieter. People will debate technology and policy, science and ethics. They will light candles on the sand and ask how else we can protect both human lives and the wild creatures that share these seas.

When you stand on a beach, toes buried in the grain, listen to the surf. Can you hold both your love of the ocean and a respectful caution? How do you reconcile the thrill of the wave with the deep, ancient life beneath it? These are not easy questions, but they are the ones that ripple out from a day like this—far beyond the shoreline.

Lisbon crash debris cleared; three UK nationals among the dead

hanad

September 6, 2025

Lisbon crash wreckage removed, 3 UK citizens among dead — A preliminary report on the incident will take six weeks to complete, according to Portuguese authorities

The Morning After: Lisbon Stands Still as a Beloved Funicular Is Lifted from the Rubble

There are mornings in Lisbon when the city moves like a symphony—cable cars clack-clack up steep granite, street vendors hawk flaky pastel de nata, and the Atlantic breeze carries the first notes of fado from a nearby patio. This was not one of those mornings.

On a sun-bleached slope that runs from Restauradores Square up toward the bohemian terraces of Bairro Alto, workers hoisted a twisted hulk of metal and glass from the cobblestones. The carriage—once part of the 140-year-old Glória funicular that has ferried locals and tourists for generations—looked like a toy crushed underfoot. Cameras hummed. Families watched in stunned silence. Investigators sealed off the street and began the patient, painstaking work of trying to answer a question now pulsing through every Lisbon alleyway: how could something so familiar and so trusted hurtle into such catastrophic loss?

Sixteen Lives, Many Nations

Authorities confirmed that 16 passengers were killed and more than 20 injured. The dead included five Portuguese citizens and visitors from across the globe: three British nationals; two each from South Korea and Canada; and one person each from France, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United States. Police said a German who had initially been presumed dead is, in fact, alive in hospital, and Germany’s foreign ministry confirmed at least three German nationals were receiving treatment.

Fatalities: 16 (nationalities confirmed by police)
Injured: More than 20
Line length: ~265 metres
Car capacity: ~40 passengers each
Annual ridership on the Glória funicular: roughly 3 million

“This is one of the greatest tragedies of recent times in Portugal,” Prime Minister Luis Montenegro told reporters, his voice cracking at times. “Our first duty is to the families—comfort, answers and justice.”

How a Vintage Icon Became an Emergency Scene

The Glória funicular is as much a part of Lisbon’s identity as the pastelarias and tiled façades. Opened in the late 19th century, it climbs a steep 265-metre incline and, like many funiculars, operates with two carriages that counterbalance each other—one ascent helping to pull the other down. Each carriage can carry roughly 40 people, making it both a commuter link and a tourist attraction: the line serves about 3 million passengers a year.

Initial technical observations by engineers who have reviewed footage and photos indicate that the traction cable—an invisible but essential lifeline that connects and controls the two cars—snapped, apparently near its connection to the top carriage. Without the cable to regulate descent, one car gathered speed on the steep slope, entered a sharp bend at what witnesses described as a terrifying clip, then vaulted off its rails and crashed into the cobblestones and a building.

“When a traction cable fails, you lose the brake that the system depends on,” explained Ana Ribeiro, a Lisbon-based transport engineer. “On such steep grades, everything happens quickly. Emergency systems can reduce risk, but they are not failproof—especially in heritage systems retrofitted over time.”

Maintenance, Trust, and the Limits of Heritage

Carris, the municipal transport operator, has vehemently stated that all maintenance protocols had been observed: monthly and weekly checks, daily inspections, and the most recent inspection was reportedly only hours before the collapse. Pedro Bogas, Carris’s CEO, told journalists: “We cannot assume that the problem was with the cable. We followed the protocols required of us.”

Investigators will not rush to conclusions. Portuguese authorities have said a preliminary report will take around six weeks. Police sources, speaking to local media, said they were not seeing immediate signs of foul play, but that all avenues remain open.

Voices from the Street: Grief, Anger, and the Quiet of Shock

On Rua da Glória, shop fronts that usually bustle with tourists now post hand-written notices offering prayers and practical help. Maria Santos, who runs a small ceramic shop just below the funicular’s route, stood with her hands wrapped around a paper cup of coffee, eyes hollow.

“I used to say hello to the drivers every morning,” she said. “They have been part of our days for decades. Today we are all asking why.”

Across the way, João, a bartender at a Bairro Alto tavern, wiped a tabletop with a shaky hand. “We are a city of people who like to put on a smile for visitors,” he said. “But this—this hurts. Families are calling. People are scared to climb the hills they used to love.”

A British tourist, who had been waiting for a friend at Restauradores, summed up the surreal mix of sorrow and disbelief: “You come to see the charm, the old cars, the views. You never think about an accident like this. We feel very sad and a bit afraid.”

Wider Questions: Heritage vs. Safety, Tourism vs. Trust

The accident spotlights a tension many cities with historic transport systems now face: how to preserve the romance and cultural value of century-old machines while meeting modern safety expectations. Lisbon’s funiculars are living museums, but they are also arteries of daily life and magnets for nearly 3 million riders a year. When those systems fail, the effects ripple outward—on grieving families, tourism-dependent businesses, and public trust in municipal institutions.

“This tragedy will force a reckoning,” said Miguel Silva, a safety consultant who has worked with transit authorities across Europe. “It isn’t just about one cable. It’s about procurement, inspection standards, the chain of responsibility. Cities must decide how much of their past they will keep and at what cost.”

What Comes Next?

Lisbon will take its time. For now, authorities will analyze the wreckage, study maintenance logs, interview drivers and witnesses, and assemble a timeline that families can use to find closure. The municipal transport company has already said the twin carriage at the bottom of the slope was removed and will be examined by experts.

Grief will take longer to clear. So will the question on everyone’s lips: can vintage charm coexist with strict, modern safety? That is a conversation for Lisbon—and for every city that treasures its historic trams, elevators and railways. As the city prepares memorials and authorities launch a formal investigation, one silent question lingers in the stone alleys: how do we protect both our past and our people?

Readers, when a beloved public artifact fails, what should we prioritize—preservation, modernization, or a rigorous rethinking of both? Lisbon’s cobbles bear the answer, and the world, watching, waits for it to be found.

David Lammy named UK deputy prime minister after Angela Rayner resigns

hanad

September 6, 2025

Lammy becomes new UK deputy PM after Rayner resigns — David Lammy has become the UK's deputy prime minister

When Power Shifts and Sunsets: The Day David Lammy Stepped Up and Angela Rayner Stepped Back

There are moments in politics that look small on paper but feel seismic on the ground. A tax form, a handwritten letter, a terse line in a prime ministerial note—these are the hinge points where careers tilt and cabinets rejig. Tuesday was such a day: David Lammy, famed for his brisk oratory and long parliamentary pedigree, was named deputy prime minister and justice secretary, and Angela Rayner, until then Labour’s deputy leader and housing secretary, resigned after a review into her stamp duty payments on a flat in Hove.

It reads like an administrative tangle. And yet, for the people involved and the voters watching, it has texture, weight and consequence.

A seaside flat and a surcharge that changed everything

At the heart of this drama is an £800,000 flat in Hove, the pale-stoned neighbor to Brighton’s more flamboyant facades—gas-lit streets, Regency terraces, and a pier where, on any windy afternoon, kite-like umbrellas bob in the firm salt air. Angela Rayner told colleagues she had been advised she would not be liable for the additional 3% stamp duty surcharge that applies to purchases of a second home. That surcharge—imposed on top of the standard Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) bands—is designed to dampen the market for buy-to-let investors and second-home owners.

On an £800,000 purchase, the extra 3% typically translates into roughly £24,000 more in tax liability than for a primary residence. That’s not a trivial sum; it’s the kind of arithmetic that prompts accountants to triple-check spreadsheets and ministers to earnestly consult counsel.

Rayner’s account to Number 10 was this: she had sold her share in the family home in Ashton-under-Lyne to a court-instructed trust set up in 2020 to benefit her disabled son, and had been advised that this put her beyond the scope of the second-home surcharge. Later, “leading tax counsel” told her she was liable. She admitted she had been “mistaken” and referred herself for an ethics investigation.

From Downing Street corridors to kitchen-table conversations

Cabinet reshuffles are usually the prime minister’s way of signaling direction. Keir Starmer had planned changes to consolidate his economic team and to sharpen the government’s message as it heads into the autumn budget season. Instead, the afternoon’s announcements read as triage: Lammy brought in as deputy prime minister and justice secretary; Yvette Cooper moving to the foreign office; Shabana Mahmood taking the home affairs brief.

“It’s a storm we didn’t want today,” a senior Labour aide told me. “We’re trying to pivot, but events move faster than any plan.”

Outside the stationery-lined rooms of Westminster, conversations were more intimate. In Hove, a cafe owner on Church Road watched a steady stream of locals come in and out, many with an old familiarity with politics they felt had been blurred in recent years.

“She’s a figure folks around here recognised,” said Mohammed, who runs the cafe. “People were surprised—there’s a distance between national headlines and the neighbours down the street. I don’t want to judge on a tax mistake, but I do notice how quickly things unravel.”

In Ashton-under-Lyne, where Rayner’s roots and family are better known, there was a different cadence. “Angela always came back,” said Jo, who volunteers at the local community centre. “She talks about working people and her family. I can see why it hurts—this is personal to her.”

Resignations and reputations: the broader tally

This is not an isolated departure. Rayner is the eighth member of Starmer’s team to leave since he took office—five resignations were related to alleged wrongdoing—and that tally makes his premiership’s early months one of the most turbulent in recent political memory. Analysts note that no prime minister since 1979 has suffered as many ministerial exits at such an early stage outside of formal reshuffles.

That figure matters. It shapes investors’ nerves, gives media narratives a hunting ground, and furnishes opposition parties with theatre. Nigel Farage and others have pounced—arguing that the government is unstable, that its ethics policing is both necessary and inadequate.

What does this say about how we do politics now?

Is this merely a personal error amplified by celebrity? Or is it symptomatic of an era when politicians live under microscopes and private tax arrangements are instantly political? The truth sits somewhere in between.

On one hand, tax law is notoriously labyrinthine; solicitors and counsel offer different views, and honest mistakes do happen. On the other, the public trusts elected officials to be beyond reproach when it comes to the rules they help oversee. That dual expectation produces a harsh standard: competence plus impeccable optics.

“There’s a growing intolerance for ambiguity in public life,” said Dr. Elaine Mercer, a professor of political ethics. “Voters expect clarity, but legislators legislate complexity. When those two realities collide, reputations can be undone by relatively small technical errors.”

Lammy’s rise, Cooper’s return, Mahmood’s new brief: what it signals

David Lammy is a steady hand in Labour’s parliamentary ranks. His move from foreign secretary to justice secretary and deputy prime minister is not a demotion so much as a redeployment: Starmer is clearly putting trusted, experienced lieutenants in roles that will matter under pressure. Yvette Cooper’s return to the foreign office signals an emphasis on experience; her previous tenure across the Treasury and home affairs gives her a reputation for managerial steadiness. Shabana Mahmood at the home office signals a generational continuity in Labour’s front bench, blending legal expertise with a track record in constituency work.

“This is about credibility ahead of hard choices,” said an economist close to the party. “The autumn budget will be testing—markets will watch every signal. Starmer needs a team that can hold the line.”

Choices, consequence, and the wider conversation

What should we take away from this? First, personal decisions—about property, trusts, or counsel—can become public crucibles. Second, political leadership is fragile; a single misstep in private life can reshape public governance. And third, voters will soon be asked to weigh economic choices: tax rises, public spending, the question of housing policy that Rayner herself championed.

As you read this, ask yourself: how much should private financial complexity affect public trust? Are we demanding a level of purity that politics can’t realistically supply? Or is this a necessary enforcement of accountability?

Whatever your view, the reshuffle is a reminder that politics is as much about moments as it is about policies—moments that reveal the character of leaders, the resilience of institutions, and the anxieties of a public watching closely from cafes, council estates and the promenades of Hove.

In the coming weeks, the ethics inquiry will move at its own pace, the cabinet will settle into new routines, and Starmer will try to steady a government that needs both competence and calm. For now, the sea off Hove keeps turning its tides against the pebbled shore—an ordinary rhythm that belies the extraordinary personal and political tides it has set in motion.

1...565758...119 Page 57 of 119