Former Australian rugby and NFL player Jarryd Hayne has been found guilty of raping a woman in 2018.

It is the third time Hayne has faced a jury for the incident. In his first appearance, a retrial was ordered after it ended in a hung trial. He was then tried a second time and, in March 2021, Hayne was found guilty of two counts of sexual intercourse without consent.

The court found that he had traveled to the woman’s house on September 30, 2018, and while his taxi waited outside, Hayne assaulted the woman while she told him “no” and “stop.”

According to the court’s findings, Hayne’s “actions were forceful and rough.” The victim was said to have “felt overwhelmed by the physical disparity and the speed with which the offender assaulted her.”

As a result of Hayne’s actions, the victim suffered injuries and bleeding in her groin area, according to the court.

At the time, he was sentenced to five years and nine months in prison, with a minimum time served of three years and eight months before being eligible for parole.

After Hayne had spent nine months in prison, an appeals court overturned his convictions and ordered a third trial.

But on Tuesday, after seven days of deliberations, Hayne was again found guilty of rape. He will be sentenced at a later date, according to 7News.

Hayne has indicated that he would appeal the decision.

Outside court, Hayne maintained his innocence “100 percent.”

“I never lied to the police. I never deleted evidence. I never hid witnesses,” he said, per 7News.

Hayne is one of the National Rugby League’s most famous players, having won numerous awards for his success on the field.

He also had a brief spell in the NFL in the US, playing as a running back for the San Francisco 49ers in 2015.

The NBA has announced that BTS star SUGA has been named as a brand-new NBA Ambassador for the rest of the 2022/23 season.

The rapper, songwriter and producer is a huge basketball fan and his love for the game has been widely publicized throughout his music career – he can even be seen on the basketball court and wearing a ‘Tune Squad’ jersey in the BTS smash hit ‘Dynamite.’

The 30-year-old’s stage name is also inspired by the sport. Part of the reason for adopting his stage name is the result of being a shooting guard for his basketball team, so he opted to merge the first syllable of each word to form SUGA.

In its official statement, the NBA said: “As an NBA Ambassador, SUGA will engage NBA fans around the world through the remainder of the 2022-23 NBA season and beyond.

“SUGA, an avid NBA fan, will participate in several league initiatives that will be featured on the NBA’s and his personal social media channels, including attending NBA games and events in the U.S. and Asia, and participating in the league’s promotional activities.”

The partnership will also extend to SUGA’s projects.

The statement continued: “Additionally, the NBA will have a presence throughout SUGA’s first solo world tour, collaborating around select concerts in celebration of the release of SUGA’s debut solo album, D-DAY.”

SUGA said: “Music and basketball have been shared passions of mine since my youth, and it’s a dream to be named an NBA Ambassador.

“I’m excited to formalize my relationship with the NBA, and I can’t wait to share some exciting collaborations I have planned with the league over the coming months.”

The BTS star has previously attended NBA games and, when the Golden State Warriors and the Washington Wizards played a preseason game in Japan, SUGA sat courtside and met NBA stars such as Steph Curry and Klay Thompson.

“We’re thrilled to join forces with SUGA – a superstar musician, fashion icon, and passionate NBA fan,” added NBA Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer Mark Tatum.

The DP World Tour, previously known as the European Tour, has won in arbitration against members of the LIV Golf series, after players had appealed following the European Tour’s decision to discipline them for wanting to play in the inaugural event of the breakaway golf league.

Sport Resolutions, a UK-based arbitration and mediation group, upheld the DP World Tour’s conflicting tournament release regulation and its ability to sanction members who breached it.

The decision was made Monday, and the result was announced Thursday. The case was heard by a three-person panel. Appeals brought by the players have been dismissed, and the £100,000 fines originally imposed must now be paid within 30 days.

Ian Poulter and two other players had appealed when they were denied a release to play in the first LIV Golf event in London in July last year. More players subsequently had joined the appeal.

Sport Resolutions said the panel “ultimately found that the Appellants committed serious breaches of the Code of Behaviour of the DPWT Regulations by playing in the LIV Golf Invitational (London) and LIV Portland events respectively, despite their release requests having been refused.”

DP World Tour chief executive Keith Pelley said in a statement released Thursday: “We welcome today’s decision by Sport Resolutions which upholds our regulations and our ability to administer them.

“We are delighted that the panel recognised we have a responsibility to our full membership to do this and also determined that the process we followed was fair and proportionate.

“In deciding the level of these sanctions last June, we were simply administering the regulations which were created by our members and which each of them signed up to.

“It is, of course, regrettable that resources, both financial and staffing, which could have been otherwise deployed across our organisation, have been impacted by this lengthy arbitration process.

“However, with the clarity provided by today’s decision, we look forward to continuing to focus on our 2023 global schedule, whilst also continuing to plan for 2024 with the valued support of our many partners and stakeholders.

“We will now carefully consider the details of today’s decision with our Board, our Tournament Committee and our legal advisors and take the appropriate action in due course.”

Following the decision, LIV Golf’s counsel, Matthew Schwartz of Gibson Dunn, issued a statement.

“We disagree with the procedural opinion from the DP World Tour’s arbitral body, which has failed to address in reasonable substance why competitive forces must be upheld. By punishing players for playing golf, the DPWT is seeking to unreasonably control players and it is the sport and fans that suffer. There are no winners.

“This is a sacred week in the global sports calendar and the on-course competition is what matters. LIV remains focused on its decades-long vision to enhance the game and is looking forward to its upcoming tournament in Australia in front of 70,000 fans.”

Sport Resolutions said that Poulter, Adrian Otaegui and Justin Harding made the initial appeal in July, and the three received a stay pending the outcome.

Appeals were later issued by Lee Westwood, Sam Horsfield, Richard Bland, Shaun Norris, Laurie Canter, Wade Ormsby, Patrick Reed, Bernd Weisburger, Graeme McDowell, Sergio Garcia, Charl Schwartzel, Branden Grace and Martin Kaymer.

In January, Garcia, Schwartzel, Grace and Otaegui withdrew their appeals. The hearing was held in February in London.

Honey-glazed ham, garlic mashed potatoes and fluffy dinner rolls might be staples at American Easter meals, but around the world, there are many distinct ways to savor the holiday – ones that incorporate both local ingredients and unique cultural traditions.

“Italians go all out,” said Judy Witts Francini, creator of the Italian food blog Divina Cucina. She’s from California but has lived in Florence and Tuscany for decades.

Witts Francini’s Easter lunch starts with an assortment of antipasti. For the first course, she serves a savory tart called torta pasqualina, which has 33 layers of phyllo dough to symbolize the 33 years of Christ’s life. The second course includes roast lamb, fried artichokes, peas with pancetta and roasted potatoes. Dessert is chocolate eggs (which can be up to 3 feet tall) with a gift inside and a dove-shaped cake, called colomba.

And that’s just lunch.

Other countries take a similar “more is more” approach to Easter meals, but a few dishes really stand out. Here are just five.

Italy: Pizza rustica

Before you roll your eyes at the mere mention of this circular classic, know that the pizza Italians crave on Easter bears little resemblance to what you find on most US delivery menus.

Pizza rustica, also known as pizzagaina, is stuffed with meat and cheese and enclosed in a flaky crust. Like most Italian recipes, pizza rustica varies from region to region, town to town and chef to chef. It originally comes from Naples, which is known as the birthplace of pizza.

“It’s basically a ricotta cheesecake, but it’s super savory – to the max,” said Rossella Rago, an Italian American author and host of the popular online cooking show “Cooking with Nonna” who wrote a cookbook with the same name.

To make the pie, first, you need to make the pastry dough, which includes flour, eggs, salt, milk and lard.

“Everybody always asks me, ‘Can I make this with shortening?’ And the answer is always: ‘No,’” Rago said. “If it’s any other time of year, I will say, ‘Yes, fine, use shortening,’ but when it’s actually Easter you have got to use lard.”

Inside, the pie – at least Rago’s version – contains ricotta, provolone, mozzarella, soppressata (an Italian dry salami), prosciutto, eggs and more.

“Everybody has their own combination that they swear by. If you want Italian people to fight right now, ask them, ‘What’s the real pizzagaina?’ That’s what everybody is obsessed with in Italian America,” Rago said. “It makes me laugh every single time, because there is no right way. It’s ridiculous to think that.

“Italy had 600 languages until its unification,” Rago added. “So, you think we have one recipe for anything? Absolutely not.”

Rago’s recipe is from her grandma, Nonna Romana, and is a true Italian American story. Romana is from Puglia, a region in southern Italy where they don’t make the dish. She learned about it from other Italian Americans while she was working at a clothing factory in Brooklyn, New York. She took their version and made some additions and subtractions. After years and years of tweaks, she created her own Italian American tradition.

“She swears it’s the best,” Rago said. Her secret is extra-sharp provolone. Rago said it’s one of the most popular dishes on her website, and everyone who tries it says they have success their first try.

Traditionally, this dish is made on Good Friday and served at room temperature on Easter Sunday.

Mexico: Capirotada

When you think of authentic Mexican cuisine, there are many things that come to mind: rice, beans and tortillas, to name a few.

Now, you can add capirotada to the list.

Capirotada is a Mexican dessert that’s similar to bread pudding. It’s made from bread drenched in syrup and layered among nuts, cheese, fruit and sometimes sprinkles.

“If you are into salty, sweet, soft, crunchy, spongy mixed all together with a dash of spice, this is for you,” said Mely Martinez, creator of the blog Mexico in My Kitchen. “Yes, this concoction sounds really weird, but it is an explosion of flavors in your mouth.”

Martinez was born and raised in Tampico, Mexico. She serves this dish for dessert every Easter.

To make Martinez’s traditional capirotada, layers of sliced white bread are baked with butter and then dipped in syrup made from piloncillo (an unrefined type of sugar), cinnamon and cloves. The bread is placed in a ovenproof dish between layers of cotija cheese, roasted peanuts and raisins. It’s baked and then topped with bananas and sprinkles.

Capirotada is usually served at room temperature on Easter Sunday, but many serve it throughout Holy Week.

Brought to Mexico by the Spaniards, capirotada became popular in Mexico because it’s easy to make and uses ingredients people have on hand.

It was originally a savory dish using beef broth, but evolved into today’s sweet version using syrup, according to Martinez. Some believe the bread represents the body of Christ and the syrup represents his blood.

There are many variations of capirotada all over Mexico.

My Latina Table blogger Charbel Barker makes hers with milk. Her recipe was created by her “abuelita,” meaning grandma.

“My abuelita would always say, it’s good but something is missing. It needs more sweetness,” Barker said. So she added two types of milk: evaporated milk and sweetened condensed milk.

Barker said the milk adds more flavor and creates a pudding-like texture.

“It tastes like a Snickers,” Barker said.

Poland: Żurek

In Poland, a dish that takes center stage on Easter is żurek. It’s a creamy and smoky fermented soup made from rye flour starter. This soup is often served with a boiled egg and sausage, and then garnished with spicy horseradish.

Żurek is regarded as something of a national treasure in the Central European country.

“It’s sour, tangy and meaty,” said Anna Hurning, the creator of the blog Polish Your Kitchen. Hurning was born and raised in Poland and now lives in the city of Szczecin.

She makes żurek every Easter and serves it as an appetizer.

To make the soup, first, you need to make a rye starter: Mix flour and cold water with aromatics (including garlic, allspice, peppercorns, marjoram and bay leaves). Then, let it sit on your counter for several days to ferment. Hurning said this is how it gets its “funky” flavor. Don’t be intimated by this step – she said it’s supereasy. You just let nature do the trick.

Next, the sour starter is boiled with the soup base. Hurning’s version consists of bacon, carrots, parsnip and onion.

This soup is served all over the country year-round and on Easter with many variations. Some have it with sauerkraut and smoked goat cheese. Others add potatoes and wild mushrooms.

Singapore: Beef murtabak

The cuisine in Singapore is truly a mélange of cultures: Chinese, Malay, Indian, Eurasian and Peranakan. Pinpointing dishes authentic to Singapore might seem like an impossible feat, but that’s exactly the endeavor chef Damian D’Silva has chosen.

“If I don’t do anything to preserve the cuisine of our heritage, one day it will all disappear,” said D’Silva, the head chef at Restaurant Kin in Singapore. He has been cooking heritage cuisine professionally for more than 20 years.

“The cuisine is very unique. You can have one dish in Singapore, but you have five different ways of preparing it,” he said. “And no one is wrong because every ethnicity puts in their own story and ingredients.”

D’Silva grew up in Singapore, and one of his childhood favorites was beef murtabak. His granddad made it on Easter and served it after Mass – marking the end of Lent. D’Silva remembers looking forward to the savory dish after going 40 days without meat.

“When Easter happened, it was a celebration and, of course when it’s a celebration, the thing that comes to mind is meat,” he said. “We only ate beef on very, very special occasions.”

Beef murtabak is an egg crepe wrapped around ground beef. The beef is marinated in curry powder, then cooked with an onion and garlic paste and spices (star anise, cinnamon and nutmeg). The dish is served with fresh lime, chili sauce and raita.

“The aromatics are the one that lifts the entire dish and bring it to another level,” D’Silva said.

D’Silva has tried to find the origin of the dish. But like many Singaporean dishes, it goes so far back that nobody knows where it started.

This Easter, D’Silva is making beef murtabak at Restaurant Kin to celebrate Singapore’s heritage.

“Singapore is a lot more than chili crab and chicken rice. It’s a lot, lot more than that,” D’Silva said. “If you have an opportunity to go to a restaurant that serves Singapore’s heritage cuisine, go, because it’s mind-blowing: the flavor, the ingredients. Everything about it.”

Nigeria: Jollof rice

Loud, large and plentiful – that’s how Lola Osinkolu, who’s behind the blog Chef Lola’s Kitchen, describes Easter in Nigeria.

Osinkolu, who was born and raised in Nigeria, said after church Easter Sunday morning, her family would go home and start cooking.

“We cook, cook and cook. We would cook for hours.”

The dish that was the star of show: Nigerian jollof rice.

Osinkolu compares the tomato-based rice dish – which likely originated in Senegal and spread to West African countries – to jambalaya. It’s a party staple in Nigeria.

“It’s spicy and delicious,” she said.

Jollof contains long-grain rice and Nigerian-style curry powder for seasoning, and there are many ways to cook the dish that involve endless permutations of meat, spices, chiles, onions and vegetables.

Osinkolu’s recipe, called The Party Style With Beef, comes from her mom. But Osinkolu added her own secret step: roasting the bell peppers, tomatoes, onion and garlic.

“At home, whenever we are having parties, we don’t cook our jollof rice on the stovetop. We use open fire, so the jollof rice has a smoky taste, which makes it more delicious,” Osinkolu said. “So, I roast the bell peppers to achieve a similar, or very close, taste. It makes a lot of difference.”

This year, Osinkolu’s Easter version will include goat meat and chicken. Her jollof is so popular that she now knows to always make extra for her guests to take home.

“I get the same comment over and over about how delicious it is,” she said.

Tiger Woods admitted he was in “constant” pain during his opening round at The Masters on Thursday.

The 47-year-old could be seen wincing at various points across a turbulent start, carding a two-over 74 on his 25th appearance at Augusta National.

It saw the five-time Masters winner finish nine shots adrift of Norwegian playing partner Viktor Hovland, who returned to the clubhouse tied for the lead after a scintillating seven-under opening round.

Woods said Tuesday that he was unsure if this week would be his final appearance at the tournament. The fifteen-time major champion’s competitive appearances have been sporadic since he suffered severe leg injuries in a serious car crash in 2021.

A dramatic comeback at the 2022 Masters saw Woods shock many by making the cut, but his physical struggles to navigate a hilly Augusta terrain were evident, compounded by surgery that had put a rod and pins in his right leg.

One year on, he closed his opening round hopping on his left leg after an awkward escape shot from a bunker at the 18th hole. Quizzed on the condition of his leg after his round, Woods was candid.

“Sore,” he told reporters.

“Hop on the left leg is fine. If I did it on the other one, not so fine,” he added.

A sluggish start saw Woods open with three bogeys across his first seven holes, but the five-time Masters champion rallied with a birdie at the eighth.

Followed en masse throughout the day, the crowd almost erupted as Woods chipped a spectacular approach, only to be denied eagle by mere inches.

A fourth bogey at the 11th dropped him back to three over, but Woods looked to be putting together a final flourish with back-to-back birdies at the 15th and 16th holes. Yet having narrowly missed a birdie putt to lift him to even-par at the penultimate hole, Woods’ closing bogey compounded a frustrating afternoon.

Woods has missed the cut just once in his previous 24 appearances at Augusta and would tie Fred Couples and Gary Player for most consecutive cuts at the major should he make it to the weekend.

However with a host of players making strong starts, Woods will likely require a resurgent second round to achieve the feat.

“I felt like I drove it good. I just didn’t do the job I need to do to get the ball close,” Woods said. “Today was the opportune time to get the ball – get the round under par, and I didn’t do that today.

“Most of the guys are going low today. This was the day to do it. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be a little bit better, a little bit sharper, and kind of inch my way through it.

“This is going to be an interesting finish to the tournament with the weather coming in. If I can just kind of hang in there, maybe kind of inch my way back, hopefully it will be positive towards the end.”

Woods is scheduled to tee off for his second round on Friday at 1:24 p.m. ET (6:24 p.m. BST).

We all know the routine by heart: “Please ensure your seats are in the upright position, tray tables stowed, window shades are up, laptops are stored in the overhead bins and electronic devices are set to flight mode”.

Now, the first four are reasonable, right? Window shades need to be up so we can see if there’s an emergency, such as fire. Tray tables need to be stowed and seats upright so we can get out of the row quickly. Laptops can become projectiles in an emergency, as the seat back pockets are not strong enough to contain them.

And mobile phones need to be set to flight mode so they can’t cause an emergency for the airplane, right? Well, it depends whom you ask.

Technology has advanced a great deal

Aviation navigation and communication relies on radio services, which have been coordinated to minimize interference since the 1920s.

The digital technology currently in use is much more advanced than some of the older analog technologies we used even 60 years ago. Research has shown personal electronic devices can emit a signal within the same frequency band as the aircraft’s communications and navigation systems, creating what is known as electromagnetic interference.

But in 1992, the US Federal Aviation Authority and Boeing, in an independent study, investigated the use of electronic devices on aircraft interference and found no issues with computers or other personal electronic devices during non-critical phases of flight. (Takeoffs and landings are considered the critical phases.)

The US Federal Communications Commission also began to create reserved frequency bandwidths for different uses – such as mobile phones and aircraft navigation and communications – so they do not interfere with one another. Governments around the globe developed the same strategies and policies to prevent interference problems with aviation. In the EU, electronic devices have been allowed to stay on since 2014.

2.2 billion passengers

Why then, with these global standards in place, has the aviation industry continued to ban the use of mobile phones? One of the problems lies with something you may not expect – ground interference.

Wireless networks are connected by a series of towers; the networks could become overloaded if passengers flying over these ground networks are all using their phones. The number of passengers that flew in 2021 was over 2.2 billion, and that’s half of what the 2019 passenger numbers were. The wireless companies might have a point here.

Of course, when it comes to mobile networks, the biggest change in recent years is the move to a new standard. Current 5G wireless networks – desirable for their higher speed data transfer – have caused concern for many within the aviation industry.

Radio frequency bandwidth is limited, yet we are still trying to add more new devices to it. The aviation industry points out that the 5G wireless network bandwidth spectrum is remarkably close to the reserved aviation bandwidth spectrum, which may cause interference with navigation systems near airports that assist with landing the aircraft.

Airport operators in Australia and the US have voiced aviation safety concerns linked to 5G rollout, however it appears to have rolled out without such problems in the European Union. Either way, it is prudent to limit mobile phone use on planes while issues around 5G are sorted out.

Ultimately, we can’t forget air rage

Most airlines now provide customers with Wi-Fi services that are either pay-as-you-go or free. With new Wi-Fi technologies, passengers could theoretically use their mobile phones to make video calls with friends or clients in-flight.

On a recent flight, I spoke with a cabin attendant and asked her opinion on phone use during flights. It would be an inconvenience for cabin crew to wait for passengers to finish their call to ask them if they would like any drinks or something to eat, she stated. On an airliner with 200+ passengers, in-flight service would take longer to complete if everyone was making phone calls.

For me, the problem with in-flight use of phones is more about the social experience of having 200+ people on a plane, and all potentially talking at once. In a time when disruptive passenger behaviour, including “air rage”, is increasingly frequent, phone use in flight might be another trigger that changes the whole flight experience.

Disruptive behaviours take on various forms, from noncompliance to safety requirements such as not wearing seat belts, verbal altercations with fellow passengers and cabin crew, to physical altercations with passengers and cabin crews – typically identified as air rage.

In conclusion – in-flight use of phones does not currently impair the aircraft’s ability to operate. But cabin crews may prefer not to be delayed in providing in-flight service to all of the passengers – it’s a lot of people to serve.

However, 5G technology is encroaching on the radio bandwidth of aircraft navigation systems; we’ll need more research to answer the 5G question regarding interference with aircraft navigation during landings. Remember that when we are discussing the two most critical phases of flight, takeoffs are optional – but landings are mandatory.

A slow-moving environmental catastrophe is unfolding in a marine ecosystem home to some of the world’s rarest species, including the critically endangered hawksbill turtle, as well as whale sharks, giant manta rays and dugongs.

It has been more than a month since the MT Princess Empress, carrying 800,000 liters (211,340 gallons) of industrial fuel, capsized near the Philippine island province of Oriental Mindoro – a rich fishing ground that provides food and livelihood to more than two million people.

Aided by a Japanese response team, Philippine maritime authorities located the wreck on March 21, but the vessel remains underwater and there are concerns oil continues to leak out, though precisely how much remains unknown.

The slick has since stretched across 250 kilometers (155 miles) of sea, polluting the shores of at least three provinces, costing the livelihoods of thousands of fishermen and threatening over 20 marine protected areas.

It was only on Monday, with assistance from the US Navy, that operations began to salvage the vessel and attempt to plug the leakage.

In the aftermath of the initial leak, the Coast Guard raced to clean up the slick and improvised spill booms made from cogon grass and coconut materials were used as floating barriers to contain the oil.

But the effort failed to stem the tide and campaigners say more needs to be done to contain the spill, remove oil from affected areas, and protect against future disasters by taking punitive action against polluters.

What’s at stake?

As much as 36,000 hectares (88,958 acres) of marine area could be affected by the oil slick as recovery efforts drag on, according to the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute.

The Coast Guard estimates cleanup teams have so far removed 60% of the oil that has reached the shores of a dozen towns in Oriental Mindoro, using booms and skimmer vessels.

A previous estimate, made by the Department of Environment and Natural Resource on March 14, suggested the sunken vessel was pumping out between 35,000 to 50,000 liters of oil a day and should be empty after 15 to 20 days, though this information has been contested.

Oil has now spread to the Verde Island Passage, a marine reserve home to dozens of endemic species, said Irene Rodriguez, an associate professor with the Marine Science Institute.

The passage, north of where the tanker sank, has the highest concentration of coastal fishes, corals, crustaceans, molluscs, seagrasses, and mangroves in the archipelagic country, and the spill could lead to long-term damage and declining population of these organisms, says Rodriguez.

“There are quite a number of marine organisms that have not yet been identified and are only present at the Verde Island Passage … and that’s something that we should protect. And hopefully, we do everything that we can to prevent the oil from causing damage in that area,” Rodriguez said.

The Verde Island Passage is particularly important as a breeding ground for native marine species, whose population may decline in the future because they are unable to mate in the polluted waters, Rodriguez said.

Mangroves that line the shores of affected communities prevent coastal erosion and also play a role in carbon sequestration – the process of reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, Rodriguez said.

The lack of protection from mangroves puts locals at risk from extreme weather events, especially typhoons that regularly hit the Philippines, she added.

And there are growing concerns the disaster could have a major, more immediate economic impact too.

According to the country’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, more than 170,000 people in shoreline communities have been impacted by the spill, and nearly 17,000 fishermen have lost their incomes after authorities imposed a temporary fishing ban.

The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources estimates the fishing sector is losing $900,000 (5 million Philippine pesos) per day, with potentially months to go before the spill is fully contained.

Who’s responsible?

The Philippines, an archipelago of more than 7,600 islands, has a poor maritime safety record, and oil spills and ferry accidents are not uncommon.

While affected and concerned Filipinos have been proactively engaging in the clean up and containment of the spill, the government has yet to take any punitive decision or action against polluters one month since the catastrophe, said Gerry Arances, executive director at the Center for Energy, Ecology,and Development (CEED).

“To date, there has been no clear effort to assess how badly marine and coastal ecosystems have been affected,” Arances added.

“We have yet to hear of policy reforms to ensure that a tragedy like this will not happen again, one of which would be the inclusion of the Verde Island Passage in the country’s protected areas system,” he said.

The environmental disaster has prompted a Senate probe centered on accusations that the MT Princess Empress operated without a permit.

The country’s justice minister, Jesus Crispin Remulla, has also called for criminal charges over the spill and said the department is building a case against the vessel operator.

Affected communities are also demanding transparency on the extent of damage from the oil spill and accountability from the vessel operator and its owners, said Greenpeace Philippines campaigner Jefferson Chua.

“Oil spills can never be cleaned up properly. There’s always going to be something stuck, something left behind, especially in this area which is one of the largest centers of marine biodiversity in the country,” Chua said.

He urged the government not to give in to pressure from powerful oil companies and marine agencies, calling for a national probe into lapses of due diligence across the maritime sector.

Little relief

Clearing the oil spill is taking time, and for fishers, it’s also draining their income.

Under a government program, fishers who aren’t able to work are being deployed to join cleanup efforts in exchange for compensation.

The government has allocated more than $1.5 million (84.4 million Philippine pesos) for the scheme, initially intended for 14,000 participants, and it has been extended to May.

However, the compensation is barely enough to cover their usual daily wage, according to Jennifer Cruz, mayor of Pola, one of the heavily affected municipalities in Oriental Mindoro.

And buckets and shovels aren’t enough to remove oil from affected shorelines given the massive scale of the spill.

Response teams from Japan, South Korea and the US are assisting the Philippine Coast Guard with technical expertise and specialty equipment not readily available in the Philippines.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he hopes the clean up can be completed within four months. But Chua said that seems unlikely, as authorities were not equipped to handle the disaster to begin with and response efforts have dragged on.

“Now we’re seeing that it’s bigger than everyone thinks and it’s exploding in the faces of the government officials,” Chua said. “There is some progress [in the cleanup] but the lingering impacts are getting worse for those on the ground.”

Smoke from fires in northern Thailand is making it hard to breathe, and at least one hospital in Chiang Mai says it’s reached “full ward capacity” as people present with respiratory issues from breathing air pollution.

Air pollution has been a longstanding problem in Thailand, usually caused by heavy road traffic in the case of the capital Bangkok.

But this year, pollution levels spiked across the country as a result of forest fires and widespread crop burning during the annual slash and burn farming season between December to April.

For at least seven days straight, Chiang Mai ranked as the world’s most polluted city according to forecasts by the Air Quality Index (AQI), a Swiss company that tracks air quality worldwide. Chiang Mai is a major tourism and transport hub in Thailand attracting millions of international visitors a year – and April is near the end of peak tourism season.

“It’s already April but the situation has gotten worse – there’s no improvement and a lot of people have fallen so sick,” he said. “It’s scary to think (of) breathing in air that will kill you.”

Satellite images taken and released by the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA), Thailand’s space agency, in late March showed 5,572 fire hot spots – “the highest in 5 years,” the organization said.

According to a Thai government statement issued on 28 March, air pollution was now affecting 1.7 million people across the country, including people suffering from respiratory diseases, skin irritations and eye infections.

Thousands seeking medical help

In Chiang Mai, more than 12,000 patients sought medical treatment for respiratory issues between January and March, according to a statement from Maharaj Nakorn Hospital, part of Chiang Mai University.

But the hospital has been struggling to cope with the massive numbers of people seeking help for ailments, including asthma, upper respiratory infections, conjunctivitis and emphysema, a serious lung condition that causes shortness of breath.

For several days last week, fire tore through Nakhorn Nayok in central Thailand, engulfing two mountains and spreading to Khao Nang Dam, a forest park. Helicopters were sent to douse the flames, which were finally extinguished on Sunday.

“The smoke crisis has happened in every area in the north, especially in Chiang Mai where air pollution (levels) of PM 2.5 are continuously increasing and this has affected people’s health,” said the Maharaj Nakorn Hospital statement.

Fine particulate matter, or PM 2.5, is made up of microscopic particles, which are smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter. The particles, which include pollutants such as sulfate, nitrates and black carbon, are considered particularly harmful as they are small enough to enter deep into the lungs and cardiovascular system. Exposure to such particles has been linked to lung and heart disorders and can impair cognitive and immune functions.

“There are patients who can’t be admitted for medical treatment … due to continued full capacity of patients’ wards,” the Maharaj Nakorn Hospital statement added.

“We have not been overwhelmed, we can still receive more patients but the number of people receiving treatment related to air pollution is higher,” he said.

“According to statistics we have collected from past 3 years, the number should gradually decrease when we approach the end of April… (but) we will continue to be vigilant monitoring the situation.”

Medical experts and health bodies have documented harmful effects and the lasting impact of air pollution.

The WHO has said that air pollution remains a “concerning public health issue, with the potential to cause premature death.”

A study conducted in 2022 by scientists from the Francis Crick Institute in London also found that air pollution poses a greater threat to life expectancy than smoking.

Afghan men working for the United Nations in Kabul will stay home in solidarity with their female colleagues after the Taliban prohibited Afghan women from working for the global organization, according to a senior UN official.

Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN Deputy Special Representative, Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan, called the Taliban’s decision an “unparalleled violation of human rights.”

“The lives of Afghanistan women are at stake,” he said, adding, “It is not possible to reach women without women.”

International UN staff in Afghanistan will stay at their posts, he added.

The UN said on Wednesday that it had been notified by the Taliban that Afghan women were no longer permitted to work for the UN in Afghanistan and that the measure would be actively enforced.

The UN condemned the decision, calling the ban “unlawful under international law.”

Several female UN staff in the country had already experienced restrictions on their movements since the Taliban seized power in 2021, including harassment and detention – prompting the UN to order all its staff of Afghan nationality, of all genders, not to go into the office until further notice, said the statement.

The UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Roza Otunbayeva, is engaging with the Taliban at the highest level to “seek an immediate reversal of the order,” the statement added.

The UN said the Taliban’s move was an extension of a previous ban, enforced last December, that prohibited Afghan women from working for national and international non-governmental organizations.

“In the history of the United Nations, no other regime has ever tried to ban women from working for the Organization just because they are women. This decision represents an assault against women, the fundamental principles of the UN, and on international law,” Otunbayeva said.

Other figures within the organization also condemned the move, with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights calling it “utterly despicable.”

After the Taliban banned female aid workers in December, at least half a dozen major foreign aid groups temporarily suspended their operations in Afghanistan – diminishing the already scarce resources available to a country in dire need of them.

The Taliban’s return to power preceded a deepening humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, worsening issues that had long plagued the country. After the takeover, the US and its allies froze about $7 billion of the country’s foreign reserves and cut off international funding – crippling an economy heavily dependent on overseas aid.

More than 28 million people in Afghanistan – about two thirds of the population – need humanitarian assistance, the UN estimated in March. It added that many families are facing “catastrophic hunger” and the risk of famine, with food stocks having run out months before the next harvest is due.

Since the Taliban returned to power, they have imposed a brutal crackdown on women’s rights and freedoms, forbidding women from working in most sectors, accessing some public spaces like parks, or traveling without a guardian for long distances and other daily restrictions. Last December, it banned women from attending university, nine months after barring girls from returning to secondary schools.

Former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said farewell to politics Wednesday with a rousing speech that assured other nerds, criers, and huggers that they too could one day lead.

“You can be anxious, sensitive, kind, and wear your heart on your sleeve, you can be a mother or not, you can be an ex-Mormon or not, you can be a nerd, a crier, a hugger – you can be all of these things,” she said, tearfully.

“And not only can you be here; you can lead. Just like me.”

Ardern announced her shock resignation in January, saying she had “no more in the tank” after five years in power and would not seek reelection in the October polls.

When Ardern became prime minister in 2017 at the age of 37 she was New Zealand’s third female leader and one of the youngest leaders in the world. Within a year, she had become only the second world leader to give birth in office.

In her Wednesday speech, Ardern said the role was one “I never thought I was meant to have” when seven weeks out from a general election she was nominated leader of the Labour Party.

“It was a cross between a sense of duty to steer a moving freight train and being hit by one, and that’s probably because my internal reluctance to lead was matched only by a huge sense of responsibility,” she said.

Ardern’s time in power was defined by multiple crises, including the 2019 Christchurch terror attack – which killed 51 people at two mosques – a deadly volcanic explosion and a global pandemic that prompted unpopular lockdowns.

Ardern said she found herself “in people’s lives during the most grief-stricken or traumatic moments” and that “their stories and faces remain etched in my mind and likely will for ever.”

Her speech to parliament was also deeply personal. Ardern shared her anxieties in the job – of feeling like she would need to “harden up” and “change dramatically” to survive in politics.

She described herself as a “crier and hugger,” as well as a “worrier” but said “while I convinced myself that you cannot be a worrier and be in this place, you can.”

“I didn’t change. I leave this place as sensitive as I ever was, prone to dwell on the negative, hating question time so deeply that I would struggle to eat most days beforehand, and I am here to tell you, you can be that person and you can be here.”

Ardern also spoke about her struggle to conceive and “being afraid that I was choosing a path that meant I wouldn’t get to have children.” After experiencing a failed round of IVF treatment when she became leader of the Labour Party, she said she distracted herself by campaigning to become prime minister.

“Imagine my surprise when a couple of months later I discovered I was pregnant,” she said. “I leave knowing I was the best mother I could be. You can be that person, and you can be here.”

Ardern quickly became a progressive global icon, remembered for her empathy while steering New Zealand through its worst ever terrorist attack and taking her baby daughter to the United Nations General Assembly.

Though at home, her popularity ebbed amid the rising cost of living, housing shortages and economic anxiety. She faced violent anti-lockdown protests in the capital Wellington and had threats made against her.

Front and center in her speech was climate change and she referenced the deadly floods that devastated the country’s northeast earlier this year.

She called on parliament to “please take the politics out of climate change” to reduce the emissions necessary to limit global warming. “We have what we need to make the progress we must,” she said.

Looking back on her time in office and her legacy, Ardern pointed to the issues that made her join politics: “climate change, child poverty, and inequality.”

“The reasons I came here, they never left me either,” she said. “I’ve always believed this to be a place where you can make a difference. I leave knowing that to be true.”