Yemen’s Houthis have released a video showing their attack on the Magic Seas, a commercial ship they said had sunk in the Red Sea. The group says it’s targeting vessels linked to Israel in support of Palestinians in Gaza.
Published On 9 Jul 2025
Wife finally lays to rest remains of Srebrenica victim three decades after Bosnia genocide
Wife buries remains of Srebrenica victim 30 years after Bosnia genocide
National Rally Headquarters Raided by French Police Prompts Outrage from Party Leader
France’s far-right National Rally party has accused authorities of a “new harassment campaign”, after police raided its headquarters in an inquiry into its campaign finances.
Party president Jordan Bardella said the “spectacular and unprecedented operation” was a “serious attack on pluralism and democratic change”.
Prosecutors said they were investigating potential acts of “fraud committed against a public figure” and alleged violations involving loans and donations during election campaigns in 2022 and 2024.
Wallerand de Saint-Just, the party’s former treasurer, said National Rally (RN) had done nothing wrong.
“This process that looks completely unacceptable and outrageous. We’re being persecuted on a daily basis,” he told reporters outside the party’s Paris headquarters.
“All our campaign accounts have been approved and reimbursed.”
Despite a series of legal setbacks, RN are ahead in French opinion polls, and Bardella, its 29-year-old president, has topped one recent poll as the most popular political figure in the country.
Earlier this year, RN leader Marine Le Pen was convicted by a French court of helping to embezzle European Union funds. She was barred from running for office for five years, in a blow to her ambitions to run for the presidency for a fourth time.
She has appealed the conviction, which she has condemned as a “witch hunt”, but last month accepted she may have to hand the baton to her young lieutenant ahead of the 2027 presidential vote.
Bardella was not present during the police raid as he was attending a European Parliament session in Strasbourg, but he said 20 finance brigade police had used the search as an excuse for seizing internal party documents and to raid his office.
There was no immediate comment from Le Pen.
Police also raided the head offices of several companies and their bosses.
The raids were linked by Paris prosecutors to an inquiry launched exactly a year ago into allegations of embezzlement, forgery and fraud centring on Le Pen’s party.
Prosecutors said on Wednesday that the inquiry should establish whether the party’s 2022 presidential and parliamentary election campaign and its 2024 European election campaign were funded by “illicit payments by individuals that benefited the National Rally party or candidates.
They said they would also investigate whether inflated or fictitious invoices had been submitted as campaign expenses to be paid back by the state.
RN said the allegations of illicit campaign financing are based on the fact that no French bank was prepared to help with funding. It previously secured loans from banks in Russia and Hungary.
In another setback for National Rally, the European Union public prosecutor’s office formally launched an investigation this week into a former political grouping at the European Parliament that RN was part of.
Identity and Democracy was dissolved last year and is suspected of misusing Parliament funding. RN is now part of the Patriots for Europe group, which includes far-parties from Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Spain and Portugal.
Bardella said on Tuesday that the inquiry was a “new harassment operation by the European Parliament”.
Departure of Hershey CEO Results in Fortune 500 Losing Female Leadership
– Sweet and sour. The Fortune 500 will soon be down one female CEO after Hershey’s announced yesterday that longtime chief Michele Buck will hand over the reins of the $11.2 billion-in-revenue chocolate-maker Aug. 18.
Buck had already announced her plans to retire, but moved up the timeline by almost a year. Her successor is Kirk Tanner, a PepsiCo alum-turned-CEO of Wendy’s who led the fast food chain’s collabs with brands from Spongebob to Takis.
When the 2025 Fortune 500 was published a month ago, 55 companies on the list were led by female CEOs. Buck was one of the longer-tenured among that group; she’d led Hershey since 2017. She well outlasted the average tenure of a female Fortune 500 chief, which has hovered around four years for a decade. (For men, it’s seven—which Buck also beat.)
But Buck has said, per the Wall Street Journal, that she stayed in the CEO job for longer than she planned, after being asked by her board. In her recent months on the job, she dealt with a tough environment for the candy-makers, from high cocoa prices to slowed consumer spending to “Make America Healthy Again”‘s criticism of artificial dyes and processed foods.
On the Fortune 500, women are still running more than 10% of companies, if not quite the 11% that stat hit in June. The 71-year-old ranking of America’s largest companies first crossed the 10% mark for female CEOs in 2023. One CEO’s retirement is hardly a problem for female CEOs writ large, but when dealing with numbers this small, every hire or exit matters. Hershey conducted a search for Buck’s replacement and went with an external candidate. That’s where men seem to have an advantage—between 2024 and 2025 no female executives were hired into Fortune 500 CEO jobs, only promoted to them from within.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Fortune’s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Today’s edition was curated by Sara Braun. Subscribe here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
– ICC charges. The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague issued arrest warrants for both the Taliban supreme leader and the head of Afghanistan’s Supreme Court, on charges of persecuting women and girls since returning to power in 2021. Associated Press
– LA ICE raids. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass slammed the Trump administration’s latest immigration enforcement sweep, which took place at MacArthur Park in the city’s Westlake District on Monday. ICE officers on horseback moved from one end of the park to the other. “To me, this is another example of the administration ratcheting up chaos by deploying what looked like a military operation in an American city,” Bass said. CBS News
-No more NDAs. Government leaders in the U.K. are set to add a provision to employee-rights legislation that would ban the use of non-disclosure agreements by employers to silence victims of workplace harassment. The legislation would void existing NDAs used by businesses for this purpose and allow witnesses to speak out without risk of legal retribution. Bloomberg
– Another pivot. WeightWatchers emerged from bankruptcy and announced a new program designed to support women going through menopause. The program is set to launch later this year, and will provide resources for women in perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopause. MarketWatch
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
Conga, a revenue process platform, appointed Celia Fleischaker as its new chief marketing officer. She most recently served as CMO at Isolved.
EnGene, a clinical-stage, non-viral gene-based immunotherapy company, promoted Jill Buck to chief development officer. She most recently served as senior vice president of clinical development operations at the company.
UniUni, a last-mile delivery company, announced the appointment of Sheila Berry as its new chief revenue officer. She most recently led logistics product partnerships globally at Shopify.
The University of St. Thomas appointed Dr. Sinda K. Vanderpool as the institution’s tenth president. She most recently was the president and vice chancellor of St. Mary’s University.
Weidner Apartment Homes, a real estate and investment and property management company, appointed Lonna Torchia to the company’s executive leadership team. She currently serves as executive vice president.
ON MY RADAR
They’re calling her an influencer. She’s calling it campaign strategy The 19th
Melinda French Gates reveals she’s refusing to fund her Gen Z daughter’s new startup—despite being worth nearly $31 billion Fortune
Meet the women of Wall Street Bloomberg
PARTING WORDS
“I have been in Hollywood at every size. I have been a sample size, I have had my body change because of life, illness, aging, menopause. And it is merciless wherever you are.”
—Lena Dunham, whose Netflix show Too Much is premiering, on beauty standards in the entertainment industry
This is the web version of MPW Daily, a daily newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Sign up to get it delivered free to your inbox.
US mercenaries connected to GHF fund implicated in heinous acts
“There have been whistleblowers reporting that these individuals … Americans are firing upon Palestinians seeking aid.”
KPop Demon Hunters’ Fictional Groups Take Over Streaming Charts on Netflix
Two fictional K-pop groups from Netflix’s animated film KPop Demon Hunters are seeing significant streaming success, with their songs occupying multiple spots in global music charts.
The Saja Boys, a virtual boy band from the film, currently have two songs sitting on the No.4 and No.8 spots on Spotify’s daily Top 50 – Global chart as of Tuesday (July 8).
The tracks — Your Idol and Soda Pop — have also made it to No. 15 and No. 17, respectively, on Apple Music’s Top 100: Global daily chart.
Saja Boys’ Your Idol is also currently No.1 on Spotify’s US Daily Top Songs chart, while Golden by Huntr/x, the film’s fictional girl group, is in the second position on the US chart and No.2 on Spotify’s daily Top 50 – Global chart.
As noted by the BBC, the US chart performance makes the Saja Boys the highest-charting male K-pop group in US Spotify history, topping heavyweights BTS. Huntr/x, meanwhile surpassed Blackpink’s previous peak performance on the chart.
Huntr/x have attracted 13.9 million listeners per month on Spotify. Saja Boys currently have 11.4 million monthly listeners on Spotify.
Huntr/x’s Golden also landed at No. 4 on Apple Music’s Top 100: Global daily chart. How It’s Done currently sits at No. 9 on Spotify and No. 25 on Apple Music.
The chart placements position these fictional groups alongside “real” artists like Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter, Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars.
Variety reports that Golden has experienced a 2,000% increase in streams since the film produced by Sony Pictures Animation debuted on June 20.
The film, directed by Maggie Kang and Chris Appelhans, stars the voices of Arden Cho, Ahn Hyo-seop, May Hong, Ji-young Yoo, Yunjin Kim, Daniel Dae Kim, Ken Jeong, and Squid Game’s Lee Byung-hun.
Ian Eisendrath, who produced Golden, told Variety: “I find K-Pop to be the most theatrical genre of music today, and that obviously lends itself to the story and the screen.”
“Our goal from day one was to have the songs double-function as songs that forward or comment on the action story, because I do not believe you can take up screen time and not have it do something for the story.”
The film’s chart performance extends beyond Saja Boys and Huntr/x’s individual songs. The soundtrack for the Kpop Demon Hunters debuted at No. 8 on the Billboard 200, marking this year’s strongest debut for a film soundtrack, with Golden serving as the most-streamed track from the soundtrack globally.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=/AzCAwdp1uIQ
Republic Records released Golden as an official single with instrumental and a cappella versions last Friday (July 4), according to Variety. The song will also reportedly be submitted by Netflix for awards consideration.
When it debuted, the film had 9.2 million views, reaching Netflix’s Top 10 in all 93 countries tracked, reaching No. 1 in 33 countries including South Korea, Brazil, France, Mexico and the Philippines, Variety said.
The chart success of the virtual K-pop groups come amid the rise of digital artists, particularly in K-pop. In September last year, K-pop powerhouse SM Entertainment partnered with South Korean mobile network operator LG Uplus to develop AI-powered content for its first virtual artist, Naevis, including music videos, short-form videos, goods, and other content using images and videos generated by the AI platform.
HYBE, another K-pop giant, is also actively involved in the virtual artist space, having launched a virtual girl group called SYNDI8 and virtual artist MIDNATT last year.
Kakao Entertainment, the entertainment subsidiary of Korean internet company Kakao, also has a virtual K-pop girl band called MAVE, which debuted in January 2023. MAVE has so far garnered over 583,300 followers on TikTok and over 328,000 followers on Instagram.
Kakao launched MAVE in 2023 through Metaverse Entertainment, a joint venture with South Korean mobile game maker Netmarble.
Music Business Worldwide
Megabatteries: The Connection Point for Renewable Energy
Discussing renewable energy encompasses not only the technologies facilitating its generation but also its distribution, storage, and utilization. This includes everything from solar panels and wind turbines to innovative approaches like V2G technology, which enables electric vehicles to feed energy back into the grid from their batteries, as well as the deployment of home-based battery systems. When we scale up this concept, we encounter the emergence of megabatteries, a key component in the evolving sustainable economy.
Transitioning from coal and gas plants to wind and solar installations is only part of the equation. Equally critical is reconfiguring the electrical grid to seamlessly integrate a substantial influx of clean energy sources, which are inherently variable. Unlike fossil fuels, wind and solar power generation is immune to geopolitical tensions and supply disruptions, solely reliant on natural phenomena like wind patterns and sunlight.
Energy storage systems are the solution here, offering a suite of technologies designed to stockpile energy when surplus is available and dispatch it when demand spikes, ensuring the electrical grid remains stable and operational. This involves balancing energy input and output in real-time to maintain essential grid parameters such as voltage and frequency, preventing outages and other disruptions, even in times of insufficient wind or sunlight.
Megabatteries: A paradigm shift in storage
Historically, pumped-storage hydroelectric facilities have dominated energy storage, using off-peak electricity to elevate water for later energy generation. However, this piece highlights an emerging and rapidly expanding technology: large-scale stationary battery systems (BESS) that interface directly with the power grid, either absorbing or supplying energy based on systemic needs.
Predictions by S&P Global anticipate a 57% surge in grid-connected battery storage capacity by 2023, reaching 40 gigawatts (GW), with expectations of continued robust growth to approximately 70 GW by 2030. China and the US are spearheading this expansion. Bloomberg NEF’s projections extend further, estimating global energy storage installations will hit 1,091 GW/2,850 GWh by 2040 — a substantial increase from the 9 GW/17 GWh recorded in 2018, necessitating an investment of $662 billion.
The role of megabatteries
The hallmarks of a reliable electricity system — flexibility, stability, reliability, and security — have traditionally been met with fossil fuel generation. The new challenge lies in achieving these standards within a renewable-dominant grid without CO2 emissions, ensuring power is available whenever and wherever needed.
Electricity storage is pivotal for maximizing the integration of variable renewable sources like wind and solar into the grid. It enables rapid absorption, storage, and redistribution of energy, aiding in the smooth operation of the electrical system. Megabatteries connected to the grid provide numerous services, enhancing efficiency and offering economic benefits. These include:
1. Operating reserve
Megabatteries can quickly respond to any potential technical imbalance in the system, such as frequency variations due to unexpected surges in electricity demand. Given that wind and solar generation possess less inertia or kinetic energy compared to traditional energy technologies, they are more susceptible to sudden mismatches between supply and demand. Despite significant advancements in forecasting wind or solar generation, these predictions are less precise than those for conventional technologies. Megabatteries offer essential reserve capacity to swiftly restore balance in such situations.
2. Ramping
In conventional electricity systems, the daily demand curve resembles a camel’s hump, with peaks in the morning as people prepare for their day and in the evening when they return home. In a renewable-powered system, this curve morphs into a ‘duck curve,’ primarily because solar energy peaks during midday and drops sharply as night falls. Storage systems, including megabatteries, provide a quick response to these abrupt changes or ramps in electricity production, eliminating the need for additional generation capacity.
3. Arbitrage
Arbitrage involves supplying energy to the grid during high-demand, high-price periods and storing it during low-demand, low-price times. Megabatteries excel at this role, enhancing system flexibility and smoothing out fluctuations in electricity production. This process helps avoid the necessity of constructing new facilities solely to meet peak demand, thus moderating electricity price volatility.
4. Smoothing
Megabatteries can mitigate sudden voltage or frequency fluctuations in the grid, such as those occurring when solar output changes due to cloud cover or wind output varies with gust intensity. In doing so, they support grid operators in maintaining the system’s technical equilibrium.
5. Savings in transmission and distribution investments
By employing megabatteries, it’s possible to circumvent the need for new transmission and distribution infrastructure designed to handle congestion when production is high and existing networks lack the capacity to manage the load. This approach also results in a reduced environmental footprint compared to constructing new power lines.
6. Peak shaving
In renewable energy systems characterized by high variability in generation capacity, there may be a need to build new fossil fuel power plants solely to address potential peak power demands, ensuring reliability and security of supply. Megabatteries address this need by providing a viable alternative, thus obviating the requirement for new backup generation facilities.
Beyond the six key functionalities that megabatteries provide to power grids, they also offer significant benefits in various other settings such as off-grid locations, island environments, or smaller grids, enabling reliable system management without relying on fossil fuel solutions. Additionally, there are valuable applications behind the meter, where consumers can leverage these systems to decrease their reliance on the grid and even supply services back to it at certain times.
The largest battery in Texas
A prime example of the potential large battery technology holds for grid services is illustrated by the recent agreement by the Spanish company ACCIONA Energía. This deal involved the acquisition of the largest battery in Texas, alongside a portfolio of six other developmental projects totaling 1.23 gigawatts of power—equivalent to the output of a medium-sized nuclear power station.
The most advanced among these projects is Cunningham, located 21 miles from Dallas. Scheduled to become operational in the first quarter of 2023, it will stand as the largest grid-connected battery in Texas. With a capacity of 190 MW and an energy storage capability of 380 MWh, it occupies approximately 6 hectares. The other projects are slated for completion within the next three years, further enhancing the region’s renewable energy infrastructure.
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Three or more people killed in flash flooding in New Mexico
At least three people are dead in the village of Ruidoso, New Mexico after heavy rain caused flash flooding.
Up to 8.8cm (3.5in) of rain fell, causing the Ruidoso river to rise to an historic level. The floodwaters have now receded.
A man and two children died after being swept downstream, local officials confirmed on Tuesday evening.
The disaster comes after flooding in the neighbouring US state of Texas left at least 111 people dead, according to the latest toll published by US media. A further 161 people are still missing in one county alone, Governor Greg Abbott said on Tuesday.
In New Mexico, Ruidoso village spokesperson Kerry Gladden told the BBC’s US partner CBS News that search and rescue crews were still out in the field, and a hotline had been set up for people looking for missing family members.
Emergency crews in Ruidoso carried out at least 50 swift water rescues in the area, with residents urged to move to higher ground.
Three people had been treated for injuries at the local hospital, Ms Gladden said in a statement.
Social media footage captured by local artist Kaitlyn Carpenter showed at least one house being swept away by floodwaters, with Ruidoso Mayor Lynn Crawford unable to confirm how many homes had been lost.
Speaking on a local radio station, Mr Crawford said: “It got ugly really quick”.
The National Weather Service (NWS) had warned that two “burn scars” around Ruidoso were high risk for flash-flooding, as the charred soil left behind by last year’s wildfires would be “as water-repellent as a pavement”.
Southern New Mexico was hit by wildfires in June 2024. Ruidoso was evacuated as two fires burned approximately 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) of land on either side of the village.
Two people were killed and hundreds of homes were destroyed.
Subsequent reports said that the risk of flash floods would be increased for at least two years due to the fires, and the likelihood of significant flooding events in the area was “dramatically increased”.
News of the flash flooding in New Mexico came just hours after Texas Governor Greg Abbott gave an update on the aftermath of last Friday’s floods in his own southern state.
He said at least 161 people were still missing in Kerr County alone, some four days after devastating flash floods in his own state.
The missing include five campers and a counsellor from Camp Mystic, a Christian all-girls summer camp located on the banks of the Guadalupe River.
More than 90 of the at least 111 people known to have died in the disaster, according to Us media reports, were in the Kerrville area.
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Blaze Erupts Close to Marseille
Flames burned on the outskirts of the French city, injuring over 100 people and prompting evacuations.