European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen survived a no-confidence vote in the European Parliament on Thursday, brought by mainly far-right lawmakers who alleged she and her team undermined trust in the EU through unlawful actions.

As expected, the motion failed to get the two-thirds majority it needed to pass. Only 175 members of parliament backed the motion, while 360 voted against and 18 abstained.

Romanian nationalist Gheorghe Piperea, the lead sponsor of the motion, had criticized among other things the Commission’s refusal to disclose text messages between von der Leyen and the chief executive of vaccine maker Pfizer during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The decision-making has become opaque and discretionary, and raises fears of abuse and corruption. The cost of obsessive bureaucracy of the European Union such as (tackling) climate change has been a huge one,” Piperea told the parliament on Monday.

During the debate on her leadership, von der Leyen defended her record in parliament, rejecting criticism of her management of the pandemic and asserting that her approach ensured equal vaccine access across the EU.

Although the censure motion had little chance of success, it was a political headache for von der Leyen as her Commission negotiates with US President Donald Trump’s administration to try to prevent steep US tariffs on EU goods.

It was the first time since 2014 that a Commission president has faced such a motion. Then President Jean-Claude Juncker also survived the vote.

Rescuers pulled six crew members alive from the Red Sea after Houthi militants attacked and sank a second ship this week, while the fate of another 15 was unknown after the Iran-aligned group said they held some of the seafarers.

The Houthis claimed responsibility for the assault that maritime officials say killed four of the 25 people aboard the Eternity C before the rest abandoned the cargo ship. Eternity C went down Wednesday morning after attacks on two previous days, sources at security companies involved in a rescue operation said.

The six rescued seafarers spent more than 24 hours in the water, those firms said.

The United States Mission in Yemen accused the Houthis of kidnapping many surviving crew members from Eternity C and called for their immediate and unconditional safe release.

“The Yemeni Navy responded to rescue a number of the ship’s crew, provide them with medical care, and transport them to a safe location,” the group’s military spokesperson said in a televised address.

The Houthis released a video they said depicted their attack on Eternity C. It included sound of a Yemen naval forces’ call for the crew to evacuate for rescue and showed explosions on the ship before it sank. Reuters could not independently verify the audio or the location of the ship, which it verified was the Eternity C.

The Houthis also have claimed responsibility for a similar assault on Sunday targeting another ship, the Magic Seas. All crew from the Magic Seas were rescued before it sank.

The strikes on the two ships revive a campaign by the Iran-aligned fighters who had attacked more than 100 ships from November 2023 to December 2024 in what they said was solidarity with the Palestinians. In May, the U.S. announced a surprise deal with the Houthis where it agreed to stop a bombing campaign against them in return for an end to shipping attacks, though the Houthis said the deal did not include sparing Israel.

Leading shipping industry associations, including the International Chamber of Shipping and BIMCO, denounced the deadly operation and called for robust maritime security in the region via a joint statement on Wednesday.

“These vessels have been attacked with callous disregard for the lives of innocent civilian seafarers,” they said.

“This tragedy illuminates the need for nations to maintain robust support in protecting shipping and vital sea lanes.”

Rescue search

The Eternity C and the Magic Seas both flew Liberia flags and were operated by Greek firms. Some of the sister vessels in each of their wider fleets had made calls to Israeli ports in the past year, shipping data analysis showed.

“We will continue to search for the remaining crew until the last light,” said an official at Greece-based maritime risk management firm Diaplous.

The EU’s Aspides naval mission, which protects Red Sea shipping, confirmed in a statement that six people had been pulled from the sea.

The Red Sea, which passes Yemen’s coast, has long been a critical waterway for the world’s oil and commodities but traffic has dropped sharply since the Houthi attacks began.

The number of daily sailings through the narrow Bab al-Mandab strait, at the southern tip of the Red Sea and a gateway to the Gulf of Aden, numbered 30 vessels on July 8, from 34 ships on July 6 and 43 on July 1, according to data from maritime data group Lloyd’s List Intelligence.

Oil prices rose on Wednesday, maintaining their highest levels since June 23, also due to the recent attacks on ships in the Red Sea.

Multiple attacks

Eternity C was first attacked on Monday afternoon with sea drones and rocket-propelled grenades fired from speed boats by suspected Houthi militants, maritime security sources said. Lifeboats were destroyed during the raid. By Tuesday morning the vessel was adrift and listing.

Two security sources told Reuters that the vessel was hit again with sea drones on Tuesday, forcing the crew and armed guards to abandon it. The Houthis stayed with the vessel until the early hours of Wednesday, one of the sources said.

Skiffs were in the area as rescue efforts were underway.

The crew comprised 21 Filipinos and one Russian. Three armed guards were also on board, including one Greek and one Indian, who was one of those rescued.

The vessel’s operator, Cosmoship Management, has not responded to requests for confirmation of casualties or injuries. If confirmed, the four reported deaths would be the first fatalities from attacks on shipping in the Red Sea since June 2024.

Greece has been in talks with Saudi Arabia, a key player in the region, over the latest incident, according to sources.

Australian universities may lose funding if they’re not judged to be doing enough to address anti-Jewish hate crimes, according to new measures proposed by the country’s first antisemitism envoy.

Jillian Segal was appointed to the role a year ago in response to a surge in reports of attacks against Jewish sites and property in Australia, following Israel’s invasion of Gaza, and was tasked with combating antisemitism in the country.

Standing alongside Prime Minister Anthony Albanese Thursday, Segal released a report nine months in the making proposing strong measures, including the university funding threats and the screening of visa applicants for extremist views.

“The plan is not about special treatment for one community; it is about restoring equal treatment,” Segal said. “It’s about ensuring that every Australian, regardless of their background or belief, can live, work, learn and prosper in this country.”

Like in the United States, Australian campuses were once the hub of pro-Palestinian protests led by students who pitched tents demanding action to stop Israel’s assault on Gaza.

The campus protests dwindled after restrictions were tightened and some protesters were threatened with expulsion, a move condemned by the activists as an infringement on free speech.

Segal’s report said antisemitism had become “ingrained and normalised” within academia and university courses, as well as on campuses, and recommended universities be made subject to annual report cards assessing their effectiveness in combating antisemitism.

Universities Australia chief executive Luke Sheehy said the organization had been working “constructively” with the special envoy and its members would “consider the recommendations.”

“Academic freedom and freedom of expression are core to the university mission, but they must be exercised with responsibility and never as a cover for hate or harassment,” he said in a statement.

Surge in antisemitism

Antisemitic attacks in Australia surged 300% in the year following Israel’s invasion of Gaza in October 2023.

In the past week alone, the door of a synagogue was set on fire in Melbourne, forcing 20 occupants to flee by a rear exit, as nearby protesters shouting “Death to the IDF” – using the initials of the Israeli military – stormed an Israeli-owned restaurant.

A man is facing arson charges over the synagogue attack, and three people were charged Tuesday with assault, affray, riotous behavior and criminal damage over the restaurant raid.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry, which Segal once led and is the umbrella organization for hundreds of Jewish community groups, said the report’s release “could not be more timely given the recent appalling events in Melbourne.”

However, the Jewish Council of Australia, which opposes Israel’s war in Gaza, voiced concerns about Segal’s plan, saying it carried the overtones of US President Donald Trump’s attempts to use funding as a means of control over institutions.

In a statement, the council criticized the plan’s “emphasis on surveillance, censorship, and punitive control over the funding of cultural and educational institutions,” adding that they were “measures straight out of Trump’s authoritarian playbook.”

Max Kaiser, the group’s executive officer, said: “Any response that treats antisemitism as exceptional, while ignoring Islamophobia, anti-Palestinian racism, and other forms of hate, is doomed to fail.”

Education, immigration and the arts

The envoy’s 20-page plan includes sweeping recommendations covering schools, immigration, media, policing and public awareness campaigns.

Segal wants Holocaust and antisemitism education baked into the national curriculum “as a major case study of where unchecked antisemitism can lead,” according to the report.

Arts organizations could be subject to the same restrictions as universities, with threats to pull public funding if they’re found to have engaged in, or facilitated, antisemitism.

“While freedom of expression, particularly artistic expression, is vital to cultural richness and should be protected, funding provided by Australian taxpayers should not be used to promote division or spread false/ distorted narratives,” the report said.

Under the recommendations, tougher immigration screening would weed out people with antisemitic views, and the Migration Act would enable authorities to cancel visas for antisemitic conduct.

Media would be monitored to “encourage accurate, fair and responsible reporting” and to “avoid accepting false or distorted narratives,” the report added.

During Thursday’s press conference, Albanese pointed to an interview on the country’s national broadcaster with a protester, saying the interviewee tried to justify the Melbourne restaurant attack.

“There is no justification for that whatsoever,” he said. “The idea that somehow the cause of justice for Palestinians is advanced by behavior like that is not only delusional, it is destructive, and it is not consistent with how you are able to put forward your views respectfully in a democracy,” he said.

Asked if the country had become less tolerant of different views and had, perhaps, lost the ability to have a debate, Albanese pointed to social media.

“I think there is an impact of social media, where algorithms work to reinforce people’s views,” he said. “They reinforce views, and they push people towards extremes, whether it be extreme left, extreme right. Australians want a country that is in the center.”

His comments came as Grok, X’s AI chatbot, was called out for spreading antisemitic tropes that the company said it was “actively working to remove.”

Albanese said, regarding antisemitic views, “social media has a social responsibility, and they need to be held to account.”

Asked whether anti-Israel protests were fueling the antisemitic attacks, the prime minister said people should be able to express their views without resorting to hate.

“In Israel itself, as a democracy, there is protest against actions of the government, and in a democracy, you should be able to express your view here in Australia about events overseas,” he said. “Where the line has been crossed is in blaming and identifying people because they happen to be Jewish.”

The words “Get out of Mexico” are still visible on one shop window as protestors violently kicked in the glass pane. In another clip, “Kill a gringo” is spray-painted on a wall in Mexico City as demonstrators carried placards demanding western foreigners “stop stealing our home.”

These were some of the striking scenes at a mass protest last week against gentrification and the rising cost of living in the Mexican capital city, which some have blamed on an influx of foreigners from the United States and Europe.

While the demonstration was largely peaceful and reflected growing anger about inequality in the Mexican capital, those who vandalized stores in the city’s wealthier neighborhoods and used anti-immigration language were criticized by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum as being xenophobic.

“No to discrimination, no to racism, no to classism, no to xenophobia, no to machismo, no to discrimination. All human beings, men and women, are equal, and we cannot treat anyone as less,” Sheinbaum said at a Monday press conference.

The US Department of Homeland Security, which has been carrying out an immigration crackdown in the US, reacted to Friday’s protests with an ironic post on X: “If you are in the United States illegally and wish to join the next protest in Mexico City, use the CBP Home app to facilitate your departure.”

The rallies in Mexico City mirror protests that have erupted in cities like Barcelona and Paris against skyrocketing costs, which have been blamed on overtourism, short-term home rentals, and an influx of people and businesses with higher purchasing power.

Frente Anti Gentrificación Mx, one of several groups that helped organize the protest on Friday, compared gentrification on its social media to a new form of colonization in which “the state, institutions, and companies, both foreign and local, provide differential treatment to those with greater purchasing power.”

Anti-gentrification activists say thousands of people in the Mexican capital have been forced out of their homes in recent years as tourists and remote workers, many of whom are believed to be American, take over popular neighborhoods like Roma and Condesa.

But a spokesperson for Frente Anti Gentrificación Mx pushed back against Sheinbaum’s suggestion that their campaign was xenophobic, saying the demonstration was meant to highlight the plight of those priced out of their homes and to demand reforms from the government.

“In Mexico, housing costs have risen 286% since 2005 … while real wages have decreased by 33%,” said Morales, citing data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography and the Federal Mortgage Society.

She acknowledged that many people have been moving to Mexico for a variety of reasons, from the appeal of its culture to the relative affordability of its houses. At the same time, she urged potential newcomers to consider how such a move could affect the local community.

Not a new phenomenon

Immigration is not the sole cause of Mexico City’s gentrification, which is a phenomenon that has happened for decades, say experts.

“In the debates, there’s a confusion about gentrification being when foreigners arrive. And that’s not true,” activist and lawyer Carla Escoffié said, noting that other causes include inequality, deficiencies in housing policy and land privatization.

“Not all foreigners gentrify, nor are only those who gentrify foreigners, nor is a significant migration process necessary for gentrification to occur. Gentrification is based on inequalities in such a way that it’s not the same thing,” she added.

But the arrival of short-term rentals like Airbnb, and remote work policies during the pandemic, have turbo-charged the gentrification debate in recent years.

“Since 2020, a new phase of gentrification has begun, one that has worsened,” said Escoffié. “It’s been driven by digital nomads and short-term rental platforms like Airbnb.”

Airbnb defended its activities in Mexico City on Tuesday, saying it helped generate more than $1 billion in the local economy last year, and arguing that guests who booked accommodations also spent money on shops and services in the capital.

Mexico City’s government signed an agreement with Airbnb and UNESCO in 2022 to promote the capital as “a global hub for digital nomads and creative tourism.” Sheinbaum, who was the mayor of Mexico City at the time, presented the initiative as a way to boost the local economy.

The appeal was especially attractive for US citizens, who can stay in Mexico without a tourist visa for less than six months before requiring a special temporary residency permit, according to experts. In 2022, 122,758 temporary residency permits were granted to foreigners for Mexico, according to the National Institute of Migration, up from 97,825 in 2019.

But for many residents, the Mexico City initiative was another sign of the displacement happening around them.

A global trend

Anger about gentrification is not unique to Mexico City. Local governments from tourist destinations in Europe, such as Spain’s Canary Islands, Lisbon and Berlin, have announced restrictions on short-term rentals in the past decade.

Barcelona’s leftist mayor, Jaume Collboni, said that by November 2028, the government will scrap the licenses of the 10,101 apartments currently approved as short-term rentals in the popular tourist destination.

Residents in the Catalan capital have documented how renting by the day is more profitable for landlords than renting by the month, which has triggered evictions and the transformation of homes into short-term tourist accommodations.

In Mexico City, Airbnb has over 26,500 listings, according to the rental platform, many of which are concentrated in the areas most affected by gentrification. These listings are concentrated in the central neighborhoods of Condesa, Roma, Juárez and Polanco, according to Inside Airbnb, a project that provides data about Airbnb’s impact on residential communities.

In response to mounting criticism and the protests of 2022, the local government introduced new regulations, but experts argue they fall far short.

Airbnb, meanwhile, says the city needs regulations that support home sharing, not prohibition. It argues that many people in Mexico City rely on the platform as a financial lifeline, with 53% of its hosts saying the service helped them stay in their homes and 74% of hosts saying it helped cover essential expenses.

Activists are now bracing for when Mexico opens its doors to soccer fans for the next World Cup in 2026, which Morales fears could result in the state prioritizing business dealings over residents. “Given the critical state we’re in, who would come up with this?” she asked.

The remains of a famous sycamore tree, which stood on Britain’s Roman-built Hadrian’s Wall in northern England for more than 200 years, has found a new home nearly two years after it was illegally felled.

The removal of the tree from its spot known as “Sycamore Gap,” a pronounced dip in Hadrian’s Wall, in September 2023 sparked global outrage. Sycamore Gap was considered one of the most photographed trees in England and was made famous to millions when it appeared in Kevin Costner’s 1991 blockbuster film “Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves.”

In May, two men were found guilty of criminal damage for felling the landmark tree.

Now, a section of it will be put on permanent display at The Sill: National Landscape Discovery Centre, about two miles (three kilometers) from where it once stood.

The UK’s National Trust gave the largest remaining piece of the salvaged trunk to the Northumberland National Park, where the tree was located.

“In the days and months after the tree was felled, The Sill became a place of celebration and memory. Visitors left post-it notes, letters, drawings and messages expressing grief, love, and hope,” the park said in a press release Thursday.

A public consultation was held in the aftermath of the felling on the future of the tree trunk. “The resulting exhibit honours the tree’s natural form while inviting people to engage with it in a deeply personal way,” The Sill said in a press release Thursday.

Tree trunk ‘is huggable’

The trunk is positioned upright, as it once was, and is surrounded by tree oak benches and streams of wood bent to form a canopy in the shape of a huge leaf – recreating the shelter the tree once offered for people to sit and reflect.

Some tributes from the local community have been carved into the wood.

“The original tree may be gone in the form we knew it, but its legacy remains, and what has come since has been endlessly positive, affirming our belief that people nature and place cannot be separated and are interdependent,” said Tony Gates, chief executive of Northumberland National Park Authority, in the release.

“This commission has been the biggest honour of my career,” said Charlie Whinney, the artist behind the new exhibition, in the release.

“I really hope what we’ve done in some small way allows the people of Northumberland and those who held this tree close to their hearts to process the loss they still feel from that day in September 2023, when the tree was illegally cut down,” he added.

“The work looks forward with hope, the tree is regrowing, and Sycamore Gap will always be a magical place to visit,” Whinney continued.