The French competition authority has imposed a €40 million fine on Chinese fashion company Shein for allegedly misleading business practices, including fake discounts and vague claims about environmental impact.
The company was founded in October 2008 in China.
The spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, the Dalai Lama, has directly challenged China by announcing that the centuries-old spiritual institution bearing his name will continue after his death, and that only his close circle—not Beijing—will have the authority to choose his successor.
According to The Guardian, in a video message aired on Wednesday during a prayer ceremony ahead of his 90th birthday this weekend, the 14th Dalai Lama said that the Gaden Phodrang Trust, which manages his affairs, will oversee the search for “his reincarnation.”
“No one else has the authority to interfere in this matter,” he said in Dharamshala, a hillside city in northern India that serves as the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile. “In accordance with past tradition, the search for my reincarnation and the appointment of the 15th Dalai Lama will be carried out.”
The Gaden Phodrang Trust is a nonprofit organization founded by the Dalai Lama. It supports his spiritual and humanitarian work, reports Reuters.
The Dalai Lama had previously suggested that he might be the last in the line of succession, but said consultations with senior spiritual leaders and appeals from the Tibetan public—including from Tibet under Chinese rule—convinced him otherwise.
“In light of all these requests, I confirm that the institution of the Dalai Lama will continue,” he told senior Buddhist monks. He said clear written instructions will be left, but did not go into further detail.
The selection of the Dalai Lama’s successor, the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhists, is a matter of great interest not only to millions of his followers but also to China, India, and the United States for strategic reasons.
The Nobel Peace Prize winner, who turns 90 this Sunday, is considered one of the world’s most influential figures, with followers that extend far beyond Buddhism, explains Reuters.
China annexed Tibet in 1951 and has since maintained tight control over the region, The Guardian recalls. China has declared that only Beijing has the right to choose the next Dalai Lama, and that state approval is required by law for all high-ranking Tibetan religious leaders.
China insists that the “Golden Urn” – a Qing dynasty ritual in which names are drawn by lot from a ceremonial vessel – is the only legitimate method for identifying reincarnated lamas. The Communist Party must approve the final choice.
Beijing has already used this method to assert control. After the death of the 10th Panchen Lama, Tibet’s second-highest spiritual authority, in 1995, the Dalai Lama recognized a six-year-old boy as his reincarnation.
The boy and his family disappeared into Chinese custody just days later and have not been seen since. China appointed its own candidate, who was largely rejected by Tibetans. According to Chinese state media, the Panchen Lama approved by Beijing met with President Xi Jinping last month and pledged loyalty to the Communist Party.
The Dalai Lama has stated that his successor will be born in a free country, opening the possibility that the next reincarnation may appear among the Tibetan diaspora—about 140,000 people worldwide, half of whom live in India. He also said the next Dalai Lama could be an adult and not necessarily male.
“The message is that the institution of the Dalai Lama will continue,” said Lobsang Tenzin, the Dalai Lama’s foundation’s second highest-ranking leader, known by his religious title Samdhong Rinpoche, at a press conference in Dharamshala. “There will be a 15th Dalai Lama. There will be a 16th.” He said the Dalai Lama will issue detailed instructions on how to continue the search for the next reincarnation.
Beijing quickly dismissed the Dalai Lama’s statement.
“The reincarnation of the Dalai Lama, the Panchen Lama, and other major Buddhist figures must be chosen by drawing lots from the Golden Urn and be approved by the central government,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning.
“Tibetan Buddhism was born in China and is a religion with Chinese characteristics,” she said at a press briefing.
The conflict highlights the long-standing power struggle between Beijing and the Dalai Lama over control of Tibetan Buddhism’s most sacred role. Most Tibetan Buddhists, both in Tibet and in exile, oppose China’s strict control over the region.
Tibetan Buddhists believe the Dalai Lama is the earthly manifestation of Avalokiteshvara, a revered figure in Buddhism known as the Bodhisattva of Compassion – a spiritual being who remains in the world to guide others toward enlightenment.
Traditionally, only the current Dalai Lama—or those he designates—can identify his successor, using visions, signs, and consultations with senior lamas and religious guardians.
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, was born Lhamo Thondup on July 6, 1935, to a farming family in today’s Qinghai Province in far northwestern China, reports Reuters.
He was identified as the reincarnation by a search team sent by the Tibetan government when he was just two years old. The decision was based on several signs, including a vision revealed to a senior monk, according to the Dalai Lama’s website, as quoted by Reuters. The searchers became convinced they had found the reincarnation when the child identified items belonging to the 13th Dalai Lama with the phrase: “This is mine, this is mine.”
In February 1940, Lhamo Thondup was officially installed as the spiritual leader of Tibetans in a ceremony at the Potala Palace in Lhasa, now the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region.
The Dalai Lama has lived in exile in northern India since 1959, after fleeing a failed uprising against the communist rule of Mao Zedong.
In his book “A Voice for the Voiceless,” published in March 2025, the Dalai Lama said his successor would be born outside China.
He wrote that details about his succession would be announced around his 90th birthday.
He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 “for his struggle for peaceful solutions based on tolerance and mutual respect,” The Guardian recalls.
“The purpose of reincarnation is to continue the predecessor’s work. The new Dalai Lama will be born in a free world,” he wrote in the book.
The deputy speaker of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile, Dolma Tsering Teykhang, said: “The world needs to hear directly from His Holiness. China tries to vilify him at every opportunity… They’re trying to set rules and regulations to take the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation process into their own hands.”
The succession dispute has also heightened tensions between China and India, which granted asylum to the Dalai Lama after he fled Tibet. According to The Guardian, over 100,000 Tibetans live in exile in India. New Delhi officially recognizes Tibet as part of China but also allows the Tibetan government-in-exile to operate from Dharamshala.
Many Indians express deep respect for the Dalai Lama, and international relations experts say his presence in India gives New Delhi a strategic edge over rival China, Reuters reports.
The reincarnation issue has drawn global attention. In 2020, the United States passed the Tibetan Policy and Support Act, threatening sanctions against Chinese officials who interfere in the selection process.
The U.S., facing growing competition from China for global dominance, has repeatedly affirmed its commitment to advancing the human rights of Tibetans.
In 2024, then-president Joe Biden signed a law pressuring Beijing to resolve the conflict over Tibet’s demand for greater autonomy.
The EU has expressed support for religious freedom in Tibet but has not taken a formal stance on reincarnation.
On August 8, 1960, King Mohammed V of Morocco awarded the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Throne to Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba during his official visit to Morocco.
Patrice Lumumba, born on this day one hundred years ago, was the first democratically elected Prime Minister of the Republic of Congo, a politician, and a national hero. He was also a father: his children are still fighting to shed light on his assassination.
Juliana Lumumba has been haunted for more than 60 years by questions about who killed her father, how the Americans helped in the assassination, and what the United Nations did. Did they just stand by and watch, even though he was under their protection? These are uncomfortable political questions. And Juliana will not rest until she gets answers, writes Deutsche Welle.
“You can't be Patrice Lumumba’s daughter and not have that define your life,” she says. Her gaze is calm. She doesn't look at the camera but off to the side, her chin slightly raised. She looks out the window of her home in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
On June 17 of this year, the murder of her father in 1961 was once again revisited in Brussels. It is clear that Belgium bears part of the responsibility: a parliamentary inquiry in 2001 found that then-King Baudouin of Belgium knew about the assassination plans and did nothing to stop them.
But that is not all. Juliana’s brother, François, a prosecutor, accuses the Belgian state not only of war crimes and torture but also of being part of a conspiracy aimed at the political and physical elimination of their father.
Patrice Lumumba freed Congo from Belgian colonial rule on June 30, 1960, and became the country's first prime minister. He promised democracy, prosperity, and an end to foreign exploitation of natural resources. But that never happened.
The West – especially Belgium and the United States – did not like Lumumba's plans to nationalize Congo’s natural resources. And they certainly did not like his closeness to the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
On January 17, 1961, six months after Lumumba was elected as the first prime minister of free Congo, separatists brought him to the hostile Katanga province with Belgian and American approval. There, he and two of his close associates were executed on orders from Belgian officers. The details only came to light through investigations like those of Belgian sociologist Ludo De Witte in his book *The Assassination of Lumumba*.
Another Belgian officer, Gérard Soete, dismembered the bodies and dissolved them in acid. Only two of Lumumba’s teeth remained. Soete kept them as trophies. Juliana Lumumba learned of this on TV in a 2000 German ARD report in which Soete himself recounted the details and held up the teeth in front of the camera. A horrifying memory that still enrages Juliana.
“How would you feel if you were told your father was killed, buried, exhumed, chopped into pieces, and that parts of his body were taken,” she asks. “For many, he was Congo's first prime minister, a national hero. For me, he was my father.”
The coffin of the murdered Congolese independence hero Patrice Lumumba was returned to his native region on June 22, 2022, for an emotionally charged tour and funeral – more than six decades after his assassination. A plane carried Lumumba's remains.
Years later, Juliana wrote a letter to the Belgian king demanding the return of one of the teeth. No one knows where the second is. Soete claimed to have thrown the teeth into the North Sea. He died shortly thereafter. However, his daughter later showed a gold tooth to a journalist. Ludo De Witte sued her, and the Belgian authorities confiscated the tooth.
In 2022, then Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo returned the tooth to Lumumba’s children during a ceremony in Brussels and apologized – unlike King Philippe, a direct descendant of King Baudouin, who apparently could not bring himself to apologize. He merely expressed his “deepest regret” for the violence inflicted on Congo under Belgian rule.
But for Juliana, the apology is not enough. “This is not about excuses. It's about the truth,” she says.
Juliana was only five years old when her father was killed. She learned about it while in exile in Egypt. A few months before Lumumba’s assassination, she and her siblings were smuggled out of their home in Congo – where their father was already under house arrest – and brought to Cairo using fake passports. Patrice Lumumba knew he was going to die, Juliana says. He wrote this in his final letter to his wife.
In Cairo, Lumumba’s children were raised by Mohamed Abdel Aziz Ishak, a diplomat friend, his wife, and their children. Juliana calls them Papa Abdel Aziz and Mama Zizi. She describes a wonderful childhood: “We grew up with a lot of love and empathy.”
Still, Lumumba's children could not escape their identity. “We are a political family. We came to Egypt for political reasons, to be guests of President Nasser. Politics is the core of our lives, whether we like it or not.” It's no wonder that the children also got involved in politics. Juliana held several ministerial posts, and her brother François leads the Congolese National Movement – the party their father founded.
Juliana always knew her father's assassination was political, even as a child. She learned that in Cairo from Mama Zizi, who first told her eldest son François, and then the rest of the children. Mama Zizi and Papa Abdel Aziz were also the ones who taught the Lumumba children about their family story.
It wasn’t until 1994, when Mobutu's dictatorship was on the brink of collapse, that Juliana returned to Congo. Their father had instructed his children: “He told us, ‘No matter what happens, you must return home.’ When it became safe again for us, we returned to the home where we belong.”
Today, Juliana is less active in Congolese politics. She doesn’t want to comment on the current situation in Congo, the conflict between the Congolese army and the M23 rebel militia, or the ongoing exploitation of natural resources by Western powers, China, Rwanda, and others. Nor does she want to speak about the trial in Brussels, which is still ongoing. She only says this: “Nothing has happened in the last ten years. Eleven out of twelve accused have died.”
The inaction of the Belgian judiciary speaks for itself, Juliana believes, as reported by Deutsche Welle. She has little hope that anyone will ever be held accountable for her father’s murder. The last living defendant is over 90 years old.
For Juliana, it is a painful and frustrating experience: “No one has been held accountable. No Belgian, no European, no one from Congo. No white person, no black person. Everyone agrees it was a murder. But no one wants to admit they committed the murder.”
Today, July 2, 2025, Patrice Lumumba would have turned one hundred years old.
On Saturday, Budapest, the capital of Hungary, hosted Pride, where nearly 200,000 people marched according to the organizers — despite the ban by nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
In addition to the law passed in mid-March banning such gatherings, Hungary went so far as to amend its Constitution to “protect children” from LGBTQ.
“It’s hard to estimate the exact number because there have never been this many people at Budapest Pride,” said Pride President Viktoria Radvanyi to AFP, while Budapest Mayor from the Green Party Gergely Karácsony praised the record attendance.
“Thank you, Viktor Orban, for promoting a more tolerant society!” he wrote on Facebook.
The police, citing “child protection,” banned the event last week, marking a setback for LGBT+ rights in the European Union (EU).
However, the organizers and the mayor’s office decided to go ahead with the parade, claiming such an event does not require official approval.
After support was expressed from 33 countries for the gathering in Budapest, the justice minister warned diplomats in Hungary that if they participate in the banned event, they would “have to face consequences.”
Cameras were pre-installed in Budapest to enable facial recognition so authorities could fine participants up to 500 euros, while organizing or inviting participation could lead to one year in prison.
Goran Miletic, director of Civil Rights Defenders for Europe, attended the Pride March in Budapest. He told Danas that this year’s Pride in Budapest was clearly the most important one in Europe.
He added that Orban himself contributed to this by reacting not with compromise but with increased repression, after initially weak responses to the ban. In the end, the solidarity with the organizers, both within Hungary and across Europe, was unexpectedly large,” said Miletic.
According to him, every major Pride in Europe, political groups, and institutions sent delegations, and nearly everyone made supportive statements or came in person to support the march.
“There were definitely more than 100,000 people in the streets (some say even 200,000), which no one expected. There were many older citizens of Budapest. The atmosphere was joyful and musical, even though the Pride was clearly a protest against Orban’s rule and laws,” Miletic noted.
He stated that the true star was the mayor, who after the ban declared the entire event a city gathering, opened the Pride Park on public grounds, and thus helped circumvent the ban.
“The atmosphere in Budapest was excellent, small right-wing groups looked rather ridiculous, especially since the police had to protect them. All in all, a very important day for the LGBT community in all homophobic countries in Europe — and certainly for Serbia, and a major own goal by Orban,” Miletic concluded.
Before Orban returned to power in 2010, Hungary was one of the strongest defenders of LGBT+ rights in the region: homosexuality was decriminalized in the early 1960s, and same-sex civil unions were recognized in 1996. But as prime minister, this advocate of “illiberalism” gradually reversed that progress.
More than seven decades have passed since the first explosions over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the world is still in the nuclear age. The latest conflicts in the Middle East have once again raised questions about nuclear weapons and which countries possess them.
The conflict between Iran and Israel began on June 13 this year, when Israel launched surprise airstrikes on key Iranian nuclear and military facilities. Iran responded by launching ballistic missiles at Israeli cities. The United States joined the conflict on June 22 with airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities. In retaliation, Iran launched missiles the next day at a U.S. military base in Qatar. A ceasefire was declared after 12 days of intense fighting.
One of the immediate causes of the attacks was Israel's claim that Iran had accelerated uranium enrichment and was nearing the capability to build a nuclear weapon – reports N1.
It all began during World War II. The U.S., with help from its allies, developed the first nuclear weapon through the Manhattan Project. The bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki marked the beginning of the nuclear age.
After the war, the Soviet Union detonated its first atomic bomb in 1949, starting the Cold War and an accelerated arms race. France, the United Kingdom, and China followed with their own nuclear programs. In an effort to curb further proliferation, the U.S. and other nations negotiated the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) in 1968 and the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 1996. These became the foundation for recognizing nuclear powers under the NPT framework.
At the time the NPT was signed, the nuclear stockpiles of the U.S. and the Soviet Union numbered in the tens of thousands. Starting in the 1970s, American and Soviet leaders negotiated a series of bilateral arms control agreements that helped limit and later reduce the size of nuclear arsenals.
Today, nine countries possess nuclear weapons: the U.S., Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom, India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel. Some countries are also suspected of secretly developing nuclear capabilities.
Countries with nuclear weapons fall into two categories: those recognized as nuclear-armed under the NPT, and those that possess nuclear weapons but are not NPT signatories.
The following five countries are permanent members of the UN Security Council and recognized as "nuclear weapon states" under the NPT:
Russia
About 5,580 warheads, with powerful ICBM systems (Yars, Sarmat), SLBM Bulava, and a large number of tactical warheads.
United States (USA)
About 5,200 warheads, including strategic intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM Minuteman III), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (Trident II), and B61 nuclear bomb aircraft.
China
Estimated at around 500 warheads, rapidly expanding its arsenal with new ICBM DF-41 and JL-3 submarine systems.
France
About 290 warheads, mostly deployed on submarines (M51 SLBM) and strategic aircraft with ASMP-A missiles.
United Kingdom
About 225 warheads, deployed exclusively on Vanguard-class submarines with Trident II missiles.
Some countries have developed nuclear weapons outside the NPT and do not officially acknowledge possessing them:
India and Pakistan – around 170 warheads each, with regionally focused ballistic and tactical systems (Agni, Shaheen, Babur).
North Korea – estimated up to 50 warheads, with new ICBMs Hwasong-17 and Hwasong-18.
Israel – a country that has never officially acknowledged possessing nuclear weapons but is estimated to have around 90 warheads, with Jericho III missiles and nuclear-capable submarines.
Countries suspected of pursuing nuclear weapons programs or possessing the capability to develop them covertly include Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Syria.
Countries that have voluntarily given up their nuclear arsenals include South Africa, Belarus, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan.
Nuclear weapons remain the ultimate guarantee of security for many regimes.
As the world enters a new phase of global insecurity and rising international tensions, the issue of nuclear arms remains one of humanity's greatest challenges.
Leading Western news agencies reported tonight on clashes in downtown Belgrade, stating that police used tear gas against anti-government protesters.
The American agency Associated Press reported that riot police “fired tear gas at thousands of anti-government protesters at a major rally against populist Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.”
Tensions were high both before and during the rally, which was organized in support of demands for early parliamentary elections, AP noted.
The agency added that police were stationed around government buildings and near the “camp of Vučić loyalists” – in Pionirski Park in downtown Belgrade – where “clashes broke out between police officers and groups of protesters.”
The report also mentioned that students, at the end of the official part of the rally, told the crowd to “take freedom into their own hands.”
The French agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported that Serbian police used tear gas and stun grenades against protesters in central Belgrade, where tens of thousands of people had gathered demanding snap elections.
More than four hours after the start of the protest, clashes erupted between groups of demonstrators, some of whom threw smoke bombs, and security forces who responded with tear gas and stun grenades, according to AFP journalists in Belgrade.
The agency Reuters reported this evening that “Serbian police clashed tonight with anti-government protesters” who are demanding early elections and an end to President Vučić’s 12-year rule.
Dozens of riot police officers were deployed around government buildings, particularly the parliament and the nearby Pionirski Park, where crowds of Vučić supporters from across the country gathered for a counter-protest, Reuters stated.
The agency added that some protesters, who wanted to confront Vučić’s supporters, threw flares at police officers after the protest ended around 10:00 p.m., and that the police used pepper spray to disperse them.
The protesters chanted “Drop your shields!” calling on the police to halt their intervention, Reuters noted.
Source: Danas
Marius Borg Høiby, the 28-year-old son of the Norwegian princess, has been charged with 23 criminal offenses, including three counts of rape, the Norwegian police announced.
Høiby, the son of Princess Mette-Marit from a relationship prior to her marriage to Prince Haakon, has been under investigation since his arrest on August 4, 2024, reports "The Guardian."
After news emerged that he had been accused of assaulting his girlfriend, a wave of new allegations surfaced.
He is suspected of violating a criminal statute concerning “sexual intercourse with a person who is unconscious or otherwise unable to resist,” the statement said.
“What police can say about the rape is that it concerns a sexual act without consent. The victim, it is claimed, was not capable of resisting,” police added, according to the Daily Mail.
Borg Høiby was initially detained on August 4 following a nighttime altercation in the apartment of a woman he was in a relationship with. At that time, he was charged with causing bodily harm. Police found a knife embedded in the bedroom wall.
In September, he was arrested again for violating a restraining order. When arrested on Monday, he was in a car with the alleged victim from the August incident.
On Tuesday, police stated that the suspicions from the August incident have now been expanded to include domestic violence. It is still undecided whether Borg Høiby will remain in custody.
He was born in 1997 from a relationship prior to Mette-Marit's marriage to Crown Prince Haakon, the future king of Norway. He and his half-siblings – Princess Ingrid Alexandra (20) and Prince Sverre Magnus (18) – were raised together. Unlike them, Marius has no official public role.
Three weeks after a fire broke out on a cargo ship off the coast of Alaska, the vessel has sunk in the Pacific Ocean with thousands of cars on board, according to U.S. media reports. All 22 crew members were successfully evacuated, and the Coast Guard reports that there are currently no signs of pollution.
The fire broke out on June 3 aboard the Morning Midas, a 183-meter-long, 46,800-ton ship, but no crew members were injured, the U.S. Coast Guard stated earlier.
The ship, which was carrying around 3,000 vehicles including 800 electric cars, was sailing under the Liberian flag. It departed from China and was en route to Mexico.
🇨🇳 🇲🇽 BUQUE CON AUTOS ELÉCTRICOS SE HUNDE EN EL PACÍFICO 🚢
— México Ahora (@AhoraMex) June 26, 2025
Morning Midas, un buque con más de 3,000 vehículos eléctricos procedentes de China con destino a México, se hundió en el Pacífico tras incendiarse por fallas en las baterías.
El incidente ocurrió a 770 km de Alaska. La… pic.twitter.com/qYMMEIkoB2
The company operating the ship, “Zodiac Maritime,” stated that smoke was first detected on the deck and that the crew failed to bring the fire under control. However, the ship’s owner has not been disclosed.
The vessel was built by the Chinese company Xiamen Shipbuilding.
Liberia has announced it will launch an investigation into the cause of the fire, while “Zodiac Maritime” is conducting a separate internal investigation.
Both the company and the Coast Guard emphasize that it is too early to draw conclusions about whether the electric vehicles caused the fire.
Fires involving electric vehicles are often harder to extinguish and more dangerous, and on cargo ships, the cars are packed in ways that limit ventilation, which can accelerate the spread of fire, Bloomberg notes.
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