It comes as tensions between the US and NATO over Greenland have added to growing concerns about financial and geopolitical uncertainty.

US President Donald Trump’s trade policies have also worried markets. On Saturday, he threatened to impose a 100% tariff on Canada if it strikes a trade deal with China.

Gold and other precious metals are seen as so-called safe-haven assets that investors buy in times of uncertainty. On Friday, silver topped $100 an ounce for the first time, building on its almost 150% rise last year.

Demand for precious metals has also been driven by a range of other factors, including higher-than-usual inflation, the weak US dollar, buying by central banks around the world and the expectation that the US Federal Reserve will cut interest rates again this year.

Wars in Ukraine and Gaza, as well as Washington’s seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, have also helped push up the price of gold.

One of the biggest appeals of gold is its relative scarcity. Only around 216,265 tonnes of the metal have ever been mined, according to the World Gold Council trade association.

That’s enough to fill between three and four Olympic-sized swimming pools. The majority of that was only extracted from the earth since 1950, as mining technology advanced and new deposits were discovered.

The US Geological Survey estimates that another 64,000 tonnes of gold can still be mined from underground reserves, although the metal’s supply is expected to plateau in the coming years.

“When you own gold, it’s not attached to the debt of somebody else like a bond is or an equity where the performance of a company will drive performance,” said Nicholas Frappell, global head of institutional markets at ABC Refinery.

“It’s a really good diversifier in a very uncertain world,” he added.

‘People go to gold’

Gold saw a blockbuster year in 2025, with its biggest annual gain since 1979 as investors flocked to precious metals.

With financial markets spooked by concerns including Trump’s tariffs and fears that artificial intelligence-related stocks are overpriced, gold repeatedly hit new record highs.

“I think a large part of that is the extreme uncertainty we have around US policy,” said Nikos Kavlis from research consultancy Metals Focus.

While economic concerns can help to push up the price of gold, it also tends to rise when investors expect interest rates to be cut.

Lower rates typically mean smaller returns for investments such as bonds, so investors look to assets like gold and silver.

The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut its main interest rate twice this year.

“It’s inversely correlated because the opportunity cost of keeping the money in a [government bond] is really not worth it anymore, so people go to gold,” said Ahmad Assiri, Research Strategist at Pepperstone.

It’s not just investors who have been buying up gold.

Last year, central banks added hundreds of tons of bullion to their reserves, according to the World Gold Council.

“There’s a very clear shift away from the US dollar, which is benefiting gold immensely,” said Kavalis.

The start of this year has seen gold continue to rally, but Frappell warns the “news-driven” market could also result in a fall in its price.

“There’s got to be scope for unexpected news that actually might be positive for the world and not necessarily positive for gold,” he said.

But not everybody is buying gold for purely investment reasons.

In many cultures, the metal is purchased during festivals or given as gifts at celebrations such as weddings.

In India, the annual Diwali festival is believed to be an auspicious occasion to buy precious metals in order to bring on wealth and luck.

According to the US investment bank Morgan Stanley, Indian households held $3.8tn of gold, equivalent to 88.8% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Neighbouring China is the world’s largest single consumer market for gold, with many believing that buying it brings good fortune.

“We often see a seasonal uptick in demand around Chinese New Year, which we are seeing at the moment to an extent,” said Kavalis, referencing the upcoming Year of the Horse, which begins in February.

President Trump has long criticised the WHO, accusing the organisation of being overly “China-centric” in its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is not the first time the U.S. has attempted to leave the global health body. In July 2020, several months after the WHO declared COVID-19 a global pandemic and as infections surged worldwide, President Trump announced a similar withdrawal. However, because WHO rules require a one-year notice period, the decision never took effect and was later reversed by President Joe Biden when he assumed office in 2021.

This time, however, the withdrawal has become official, severing one of WHO’s most significant funding relationships. Historically, the U.S. has been among the organisation’s largest donors, contributing between $160 million and $815 million annually over the past decade. For the 2024–2025 budget cycle, the U.S. was projected to contribute about $988 million, accounting for roughly 14 percent of WHO’s $6.9 billion budget.

Health experts warn that the loss of U.S. funding could severely undermine critical global health programmes. These include efforts to eradicate polio, maternal and child health initiatives, and research aimed at identifying and containing emerging viral threats. According to WHO documents, U.S. funding supports about 95 percent of the organisation’s tuberculosis work in Europe and more than 60 percent of TB programmes in Africa, the Western Pacific and at WHO headquarters in Geneva.

Since the executive order was signed, the WHO has attempted to draw down U.S. funds to cover previously approved expenditures. However, many of these efforts have been unsuccessful or delayed. Sources indicate that Washington has not paid its assessed contributions for 2024 and 2025, triggering widespread job losses within the organisation.

While WHO legal advisers argue that the United States remains obligated to settle arrears estimated at $260 million (£193 million), Washington has rejected this position. U.S. authorities say all government funding to the WHO has been terminated, American personnel and contractors have been recalled from WHO offices worldwide, and hundreds of official engagements with the organisation have been suspended or discontinued.

The U.S. exit is expected to have far-reaching consequences for developing countries, particularly in Africa. Several governments are already re-evaluating health and education programmes following cuts to USAID funding. Ghana, for instance, had expected to receive more than $150 million in USAID support last year.

The fear is that the U.S. withdrawal from the WHO further diminishes hopes of alternative funding for health interventions, potentially placing additional strain on already fragile health systems across the continent.

Schools and roads across the country have been closed, and flights have been cancelled as “life-threatening” conditions stretched from Texas to New England, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).

At least two people died of hypothermia in Louisiana, with state health officials linking their deaths to the storm, and another death was reported in Texas.

As of Sunday afternoon, about 900,000 households had lost power, according to poweroutage.us. Meanwhile, more than 10,000 flights were cancelled, FlightAware reported.

Widespread heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain, which is a dangerous phenomenon where cooled rain droplets freeze instantly on surfaces, could last for days and could affect around 180 million Americans – more than half the population.

“The snow and the ice will be very, very slow to melt and won’t be going away anytime soon, and that’s going to hinder any recovery efforts,” Allison Santorelli, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, told the BBC’s US media partner CBS News.

Louisiana’s Department of Health confirmed on Sunday that two men had died of hypothermia.

The mayor of Austin, Texas, said there had been an “exposure-related” death.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani wrote in a post on X that at least five people in the city had died on Saturday, but added their cause of death was yet to be determined.

He said, however, “It is a reminder that every year New Yorkers succumb to the cold”.

New York State Governor Kathy Hochul warned residents to stay inside and off roads.

“This is certainly the coldest weather we’ve seen, the coldest winter storm we’ve seen in years,” she said on Sunday.

“A sort of arctic siege has taken over our state and many other states across the nation.”

Hochul said the “brutal” conditions were expected to bring the longest cold stretch and the highest snowfalls in years.

“It is bone-chilling, and it is dangerous,” she said.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said on Sunday that the state was seeing more ice and less snow than was originally predicted.

“That is not good news for Kentucky,” he said.

Weather experts have warned that one of the biggest dangers of the storm is ice, which can damage trees, down power lines, and make roads unsafe.

More than 200 car crashes were reported in Virginia as the storm moved into the state, according to local media.

Emergencies declared

Nearly half the states have declared emergencies, and schools across the country are already cancelling classes in anticipation of the storm continuing into Monday. The US Senate has also scrapped a scheduled vote for Monday evening.

In declaring an emergency in the nation’s capital, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said: “We’re experiencing the biggest snowstorm in a decade in DC this weekend.”

While places in the north, such as the Dakotas and Minnesota, are used to below-freezing temperatures in winter, it is unusual to see such extreme cold in states like Texas, Louisiana, and Tennessee, where temperatures are around 15-20 °C below the seasonal average.

Those states could also see ice accretions of about an inch from freezing rain.

The polar vortex – a ring of strong westerly winds that form above the Arctic every winter, containing a pool of very cold air – led to the powerful storm, according to weather experts.

When the winds are strong, they stay in place, when the winds weaken, the vortex loops further south and cold air plunges toward the US. As the cold air meets mild air in the south, the air rises and storm fronts form.

In this case, the winter storm is pushing northwards and eastwards, clearing the Canadian maritime by Tuesday but leaving more cold air in its wake. It is forecast to stay dangerously cold into the start of February.

Some experts contend climate change could influence the behaviour of the polar vortex due to changes in sea surface temperatures in our warming world.

The 70 personal items include a cell key from Robben Island, where Mandela was imprisoned for 18 of the 27 years he was locked up, a pair of Aviator sunglasses and one of his signature floral shirts. They were due to be exported to the US for auction.

The objects belong to his eldest daughter, Makaziwe Mandela and Christo Brand, a Robben Island warden during Mandela’s incarceration.

In trying to stop their sale, the authorities said they were part of the country’s heritage and were therefore legally protected from export.

The South African Heritage Resources Agency (Sahra) first found out about the potential sale in a British newspaper article from late 2021, claiming that the key would go for more than £1m ($1.35m).

The agency then wrote to the US auction house, Guernsey, that was planning the sale to ask it to suspend the auction and return the assets to South Africa.

Other items in the lot were a copy of the 1996 South African Constitution personally signed by Mandela, one of his charcoal drawings, an ID card, a tennis racquet he used on Robben Island and gifts from world leaders, including one from former US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle.

Mandela’s daughter wanted to use the proceeds from the sale to build a memorial garden at the late former resident’s grave in Qunu, in Mthatha, Eastern Cape province.

In its ruling, the Supreme Court of Appeal argues that Sahra’s interpretation of what items fell under the National Heritage Resources Act was overly broad.

The ruling also states that whereas Makaziwe and Brand explained in detail why their respective assets were not heritage objects, Sahra made no attempt to explain on what grounds it believed they were.

It is not yet clear whether the authorities will seek other legal avenues to block the sale. The BBC has contacted the sport, arts and culture department for comment.

Makaziwe, Mandela’s only daughter with his first wife, welcomed the Supreme Court’s judgment, blasting the heritage agency for presuming “to know my father’s last wishes better than those who were beside him at the end – his family”.

“Nobody is more invested in ensuring Tata’s [Mandela’s] legacy endures in the way he would want to be remembered than those who carry his name,” she said.

She added that no decision had yet been made on what would happen to the items meant to go on auction.

Some supporters of the government’s position argued that items connected to Mandela should not be sold or exported but instead kept in South Africa for future generations.

Others believe that Mandela’s family should decide what happens to the objects.

Mandela died in 2013 at the age of 95. He led the African National Congress in its struggle against apartheid – a system of legally enforced racism – and was released from prison in 1990.

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 along with then-President FW de Klerk.

Mandela became South Africa’s first democratically elected president in 1994.

Twelve-year-old Nico Antic had been jumping off a rock ledge with friends on 18 January when he was attacked by what authorities suspected was a bull shark.

“We are heartbroken to share that our son, Nico has passed away,” his parents Lorena and Juan said in a statement. 

The incident was one of four reported shark attacks along the New South Wales coast over two days.

“Nico was a happy, friendly, and sporty young boy with the most kind and generous spirit. He was always full of life and that’s how we’ll remember him,” his family, who were originally from Argentina, added.

Nico’s friends were praised for their bravery after jumping into the water to help him after he was attacked last Sunday afternoon.

However he suffered serious leg injuries and was taken to Sydney Children’s Hospital in a critical condition. He was placed in an induced coma after undergoing surgery.

An online fundraiser set up for Nico’s family has raised $240,000 (£121,308).

There has been a spate of reported shark attacks along Australia’s east coast in the past week, three of them in Sydney. 

On Monday, a surfer on Sydney’s northern beaches escaped a lurking shark without physical injury, while hours later a 27-year-old man suffered “life-changing” injuries in a shark attack at a nearby beach. 

One day later, a man on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales was pulled from the water after surviving a shark bite.

The man, 39, sustained a chest wound and was taken to hospital. 

The attacks followed several days of heavy rain, which experts say created a “perfect storm” of conditions for bull sharks who prefer murky water. 

They also say rain flushes nutrients into the water, which can draw sharks closer to shore.

Beaches across Sydney were closed to protect the public until weather improved, many of which have reopened for the Australia Day public holiday long weekend.

Recently, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army in Opposition (SPLA-IO) has attacked and captured several areas in Jonglei state, a local journalist told the BBC, though this could not be independently verified. The latest fighting has threatened Jonglei’s capital, Bor, two hours’ drive from Juba.

SPLA-IO’s leader, suspended First Vice-President Riek Machar, is currently on trial on charges of murder, treason and crimes against humanity, which he denies.

There are fears that the fighting could re-ignite a full-blown civil war in the country.

Conflict in South Sudan, the world’s youngest nation, broke out in 2013, two years after independence, when President Salva Kiir accused Machar of plotting to overthrow him.

A 2018 peace deal ended the civil war that had killed nearly 400,000 people, but it has never been properly implemented and the relationship between Kiir and Machar has become increasingly strained amid ethnic tensions and sporadic violence.

Reinforcements from the South Sudanese army have now been deployed to Bor, which was the first place to be captured by opposition forces in the 2013-2018 conflict. The town is seen as a strategic staging post on the way to the capital.

“We brought you here for a mission,” chief of the defence force Gen Paul Nang Majok told his troops.

“I am giving you seven days only to finish the mission – to crush the rebellion in those areas and recapture them.”

The South Sudanese army is being supported by soldiers from Uganda. Their exact number is not known. One report put the figure at 4,000, but this has not been confirmed.

The soldiers are now preparing to advance into the areas held by SPLA-IO forces, national broadcaster SSBC has reported.

Analysts believe the threats by the SPLA-IO forces to advance towards Juba with the aim of occupying it are meant to put pressure on the government to release Machar.

Earlier this week, Kiir sacked Machar’s wife, Angelina Teny, from her position as interior minister in the unity government and replaced her with someone from his own party. The move sparked criticism and worries that it could escalate the conflict.

The UN’s peacekeeping mission in South Sudan, Unmiss, has called for an immediate cessation of hostilities in Jonglei and other areas experiencing violence in the country.

Unmiss acting head of mission Kiki Gbeho urged the leaders of South Sudan to commit to “immediately ceasing hostilities, de-escalating tensions, and advancing reconciliation and peace through inclusive dialogue under the framework of the peace agreement”.

The UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan also expressed alarm at the deteriorating political and security situation and had a similar message to Unmiss.

Commission chair Yasmin Sooka expressed deep alarm at the reports of repeated airstrikes in parts of Jonglei, which have killed and injured civilians, destroyed homes, markets and medical facilities, and triggered large-scale displacement.

Earlier this month, SPLA-IO acting chief of staff, Lt Gen Peter Thok Chuol Luak, issued a warning to Juba’s residents, saying its forces would launch attacks near the city.

“This warning precedes imminent military confrontations in Juba. We strongly recommend that all South Sudanese citizens in areas on the outskirts of Juba either evacuate or remain indoors,” Gen Thok wrote.

The governor of the state that includes Juba, Emmanuel Adil Anthony, has urged residents to ignore the threats made by the SPLA-IO.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the “brutal” attack – “cynically” ordered by Russian leader Vladimir Putin -had “hit not only our people, but also the negotiation table”.

Delegations from Russia, Ukraine and the US have been meeting in Abu Dhabi for the first trilateral talks since the Kremlin launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbour in 2022.

A source told the BBC that some progress had been made but the key issue of territory remains unresolved.

The mayor of Ukrainian capital Kyiv said one person had died and four had been wounded while Kharkiv’s mayor reported that 19 people had been hurt during a sustained assault on the city in the early hours of Saturday morning.

On the second day of the three-way talks in Abu Dhabi, Sybiha said the “barbaric” overnight assault proved “that Putin’s place is not at the board of peace, but at the dock of the special tribunal”.

US President Donald Trump said last week that Putin had accepted an invitation to join his Board of Peace – an organisation focused on ending global conflicts. Putin has not confirmed this.

Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram that three of the four people who had been injured had been hospitalised.

He added that the capital’s critical infrastructure had been damaged, leaving 6,000 buildings without heating.

Temperatures have fallen to around -12C in parts of Ukraine. In a statement following the assaults, President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “The main target of the Russians was the energy infrastructure.”

Last week, Russia attacked Kyiv’s power infrastructure, forcing Zelensky to initially call off his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

In Kharkiv, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said 19 people had been injured during the strikes in the early hours of Saturday morning. A maternity hospital and a hostel for displaced people were damaged.

Russia occupies roughly 20% of Ukraine, including parts of the eastern Donbas region. The Kremlin wants Ukraine to hand over large areas of the territory, but Ukraine has ruled this out.

In Davos, Zelensky said: “It’s all about the land. This is the issue which is not solved yet.”

He said that he had reached an agreement with Trump on future US security guarantees for Ukraine in the event of a deal.

He gave no detail but said it would need to go before US Congress and the Ukrainian parliament before signing.

The day before the talks in Abu Dhabi began, US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner met with Putin in Moscow.

After the four-hour meeting, Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said: “Vladimir Putin has emphasised Russia’s sincere commitment to settling the Ukraine crisis by political and diplomatic means.”

But he said “bringing about a lasting settlement would be unlikely without addressing the territorial issue based on the formula as agreed in Anchorage”.

Last August, Trump and Putin met in Anchorage, Alaska to discuss ending the war, resulting in an agreement to allow Russia to take the Donbas region and keep control of the Crimean peninsula, which it allegally annexed in 2014.

Zelensky ruled out giving up the Donbas which is made up of Luhansk and Donetsk and has been partly occupied by Russia for 12 years.

Following the first day of talks in Abu Dhabi, Rustem Umerov, who is leading the Ukrainian delegation, said on social media: “The meeting focused on the parameters for ending Russia’s war and the further logic of the negotiation process aimed at advancing toward a dignified and lasting peace.”

Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile, the MP argued that the intense politicisation of Ofori-Atta’s case has inadvertently strengthened the former minister’s defense against extradition and risks making Ghana’s request appear “a foolish case” in the eyes of U.S. authorities.

“We have politicised the case so much so that we have even fortified this case in the US,” Mr Tampuli stated. “I would not be surprised that this case, you know, becomes a foolish case, especially really, regarding the extradition, a foolish case.”

This comes in the wake of agitation, including a days-long demonstration at the US Embassy in Accra demanding his return.

Mr Tampuli framed the attempt to bring Ofori-Atta back to Ghana as one of only two such efforts in the Fourth Republic to hold a high-profile political figure accountable for their stewardship after leaving office.

However, he suggested that the political noise surrounding the process is jeopardizing its legitimacy.

“One of two exceptions since this Fourth Republican Republic started yesterday that we are seeing are being requested to come and account for their political, you know, stewardship, and then we are having these challenges before we were able to do this case,” he noted.

He suggested that this domestic political drama is being watched closely internationally and could influence the judicial process abroad. By framing the extradition request within a context of apparent political vendetta, Ghana may be weakening its own legal arguments.

“You have made the case so political that even the US government will be thinking twice before they allow him to come,” he cautioned.

Mr. Tampuli’s warning implies that the public and political discourse in Ghana may be providing Ofori-Atta’s legal team with material to argue that the extradition attempt is politically motivated, thereby “fortifying” his immigration case in the United States.

ALSO READ:

• Prejudicial remarks against Ofori-Atta shameful, hypocritical – Frank Davies

• Extradition request moves Ofori-Atta case beyond immigration matter – Edudzi Tamakloe

Speaking during a farewell call from the outgoing Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, H.E. Tong Defa, on Thursday, January 22, 2026, in Accra, the Minister said the initiative aims to promote and strengthen bilateral trade and investment cooperation.

Madam Ofosu-Adjare also highlighted Ghana’s readiness to sign a Zero-Tariff Agreement with China, noting that trading in local currencies could help strengthen the Ghanaian cedi, given the volume of trade between the two nations.

She expressed appreciation to Ambassador Tong for his collaboration with the Ministry during his tenure and wished him well in his future assignments, adding that she is confident Ghana–China relations will continue to grow stronger.

In response, Ambassador Tong Defa commended the Minister for her efforts to enhance bilateral cooperation, noting that Chinese businesses have thrived in Ghana under President Mahama’s administration.

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Labour MP Emily Thornberry, the chair of the foreign affairs committee, called it an “absolute insult” to the 457 British service personnel killed in the conflict, while Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: “How dare he question their sacrifice?”

Conservative MP Ben Obese-Jecty, who served in Afghanistan, said it was “sad to see our nation’s sacrifice, and that of our Nato partners, held so cheaply”.

The UK was among several allies to join the US in Afghanistan from 2001, after it invoked Nato’s collective security clause following the 9/11 terror attacks.

The US president told Fox News on Thursday that he was “not sure” the military alliance would be there for America “if we ever needed them”.

“We’ve never needed them,” he said, adding, “We have never really asked anything of them.”

“They’ll say they sent some troops to Afghanistan,” he said, “and they did, they stayed a little back, a little off the front lines”.

He said the US had “been very good to Europe and to many other countries”, adding: “It has to be a two-way street.”Thornberry told the BBC’s Question Time that the remarks were “much more than a mistake”.

“It’s an absolute insult… How dare he say we weren’t on the front line, how dare he?

“We have always been there whenever the Americans have wanted us,” she said, calling Trump “a man who has never seen any action” but was now “commander in chief and knows nothing about how it is that America has been defended”.

She said the US was the UK’s “friend” but its leader had “behaved in a way that is bullying, rude, that has deliberately been trying to undermine us, which has been trying to undermine Nato.”

On the same programme, Conservative shadow cabinet member Stuart Andrew also called the comments “disgraceful” and “appalling”.

“There are many people in this country who served both in Iraq and Afghanistan, many of whom lost their lives, but also many more who came back with life-changing injuries and we should say thank you to them.”

He added that the UK-US special relationship was important for both defence and security, and that in recent weeks Trump had directed conversation to the security of the Arctic – where he said there was a “very serious threat”.

Sir Ed wrote on social media that Trump had “avoided military service”, adding: “How dare he question their sacrifice?”

Speaking to BBC’s Newsnight programme, Dutch foreign minister David van Weel rejected Trump’s remarks as “false”, saying “Europeans shed blood” in support of US troops in Afghanistan.

He said Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte had rebuffed similar comments Trump made earlier, during a joint press conference the pair held at Davos on Thursday.

Asked about the US president repeating the claim, van Weel, said: “We should speak out for the truth as Mark Rutte did. And if he repeated it, we need to repeat it again because that’s not how history went.”

Meanwhile, former British Army officer Obese-Jecty said it was “sad to see our nation’s sacrifice, and that of our Nato partners, held so cheaply by the president of the United States”.

“I saw firsthand the sacrifices made by British soldiers,” he wrote on X.

“I don’t believe US military personnel share the view of President Trump; his words do them a disservice as our closest military allies.”

Calvin Bailey, a Labour MP and former RAF officer who served alongside US special operations units in Afghanistan, said the president’s claim bore “no resemblance to the reality experienced by those of us who served there”.

“As I reminded the US Forces I served with on 4 July 2008, we were there because of a shared belief, articulated at America’s founding, that free people have inalienable rights and should not live under tyranny,” he told the PA news agency.

“That belief underpinned the response to 9/11, and it is worth reflecting on now.”

The BBC approached the Ministry of Defence for comment.

A spokesperson pointed to comments made by Defence Secretary John Healey while visiting Nato ally Denmark on Wednesday – before Trump’s comments.

He said: “In Afghanistan, our forces trained together, they fought together, and on some occasions, they died together, making the ultimate sacrifice.”

The US invaded in October 2001 to oust the Taliban, whom they said were harbouring Osama Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda figures linked to the 9/11 attacks. Nato nations contributed troops and military equipment to the US-led war.

More than 3,500 coalition soldiers had died as of 2021, when the US withdrew from the country – about two-thirds of them Americans.

The UK suffered the second highest number of military deaths in the conflict behind the US, which saw 2,461 deaths.

The US is the only country to have invoked the collective security provisions of Nato’s Article 5, which states that “an armed attack against one Nato member shall be considered an attack against them all”.

Trump notified the United Nations health agency a year ago when he signed an executive order on the first day of his office in 2025. There’s a one-year waiting period before the withdrawal is finalized.

The US president cited the organization’s alleged “mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic” and “other global health crises” among reasons to quit the body. He also said that US membership in the organization required “unfairly onerous payments.”

“Today, the United States withdrew from the World Health Organization (WHO), freeing itself from its constraints,” said a joint statement from US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., published Thursday. 

A dispute over US-owed fees

Washington’s withdrawal appears to be messy.

The US owes more than $130 million to the global health agency, according to WHO, but there is uncertainty and disagreementover it. 

Member states are also set to discuss the US departure and how it will be handled at the WHO’s executive board in February, a WHO spokesperson said.

Trump administration officials acknowledge that they haven’t finished working out some issues, such as lost access to data from other countries that could give America an early warning of a new pandemic.

Over the last year, many global health experts have urged a rethink, including most recently WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Experts worry about weakened global health security

Over the course of last year, experts have warned that the US withdrawal stands to  severely impact  the abilities of both the US and the WHO to address disease outbreaks and global health threats.

The US has historically been the largest funder of the organization. The specialized health agency is mandated to coordinate preparedness when it comes to disease outbreaks like mpox, Ebola and polio. 

It also provides technical assistance to poorer countries, helps distribute scarce vaccines, and sets guidelines for hundreds of health conditions, including mental health and cancer.

“I hope the US will reconsider and rejoin WHO,” Ghebreyesus said at a press briefing earlier this month. “Withdrawing from the WHO is a loss for the United States, and it’s a ‌loss for the ⁠rest of the world.”

Sarah, not her real name, was in church in a village in northern Nigeria on Sunday morning when attackers raided the compound to abduct the worshippers and take them away on foot.

The 60-year-old was whacked on the skull with a rifle to encourage her to move.

“Blood was all over,” she said, her fingers brushing the area where the wound was.

“I suffered,” she added, clearly still traumatised by what happened three days earlier.

“They kept dragging me even when I told them I couldn’t walk. Then I hid somewhere until I couldn’t see them anymore. I was so weak I had to crawl back to the village.”

Dozens of others were taken away from her branch of the Cherubim and Seraphim Movement Church and two other churches in Kurmin Wali, a village 135km (84 miles) north of the capital, Abuja.

Although 11 people managed to escape, including Sarah, more than 160 people are still unaccounted for, according to the local branch of the Christian Association of Nigeria.

The remaining villagers have been left devastated and fear more attacks.

Authorities have not released any figures for those missing.

Kurmin Wali is near Kaduna state’s Rijana forest, a hideout for armed gangs, known here as “bandits”, who have been carrying out raids and abductions in the region.

No group has said it was behind Sunday’s raid, but the attack is part of a wider security crisis in Nigeria, with kidnapping for ransom becoming more common.

Paying kidnappers is illegal in Nigeria, but it is often suspected that money has been handed over to free those who have been abducted. In this case, no ransom demand has been reported.

There has been an increasing international focus on the issue after US President Donald Trump alleged last year that Christians were being targeted and killed in record numbers. Last month, the US military carried out air strikes on camps of suspected Islamist militants in Nigeria’s north-west.

Nigerian officials have denied that Christians were being singled out because of their faith, and have said Muslims, Christians and those with no religion have all been affected by the insecurity.

There is an air of tension and anger in Kurmin Wali.

The village head said people had been living in fear for a while. Local residents have been urging authorities to improve security and have accused them of trying to suppress information in the wake of Sunday’s raid.

Forty-eight hours of confusion followed the attack as officials initially denied anything had happened, despite eyewitness reports, only to finally confirm events on Tuesday evening.

“They told us not to give out any information; they want to intimidate us, but we must tell our story. They have also been stopping some journalists from coming to the town,” said a young man in his 20s, who wished to remain anonymous.

It is not clear why the authorities may have been reluctant to let the news get out, but Kaduna state governor Uba Sani told the BBC that officials wanted to confirm details before making any statements.

However, that does not explain why the local police chief and a state official initially denied that an attack had occurred, describing the reports as a “mere falsehood which is being peddled by conflict entrepreneurs who want to cause chaos”.

The BBC also faced difficulties reaching Kurmin Wali after a politician and security personnel attempted to block access to the village.

But we managed to get through, and once inside, we found a scene of chaos at the Cherubim and Seraphim Movement Church. Colourful plastic chairs were on their sides, prayer books scattered on the floor and musical instruments broken, as if the moment after the attack had been frozen in time.

Nearby, Christopher Yohanna was looking forlornly at his two-year-old daughter. He said he managed to escape from the attackers with his child.

“We were in the church when we heard shouting. When we came out and tried to run, we saw that gunmen had already surrounded the village.”

He was lucky not to be caught, but he is devastated because his two wives and other children were not so lucky.

“If my family is not with me, then my life is worthless and free of any joy,” he said.

Governor Sani was in Kurmin Wali three days after the attack, pledging to establish a military base, a hospital and a road in the area. He also announced relief measures for affected residents, including medical support.

“We cannot relocate them because they have to farm… but to ensure that we protect them going forward, we need to have a military base around that area between that village and Rijana forest,” he told the BBC.

He also said efforts were underway to work with security agencies to rescue those still in captivity.

“When we met [the villagers], I affirmed that we are with them and… we will not let any of them down.”

As residents of Kurmin Wali anxiously await the return of their family members, they hope the governor keeps his word.

The assurance was given during a meeting with executives of the PhD Scholars’ Cohort in the UK, after the students raised concerns over unpaid scholarship funds that had led to plans for a two-day protest.

The scholars had warned that the demonstration could cause reputational damage to Ghana if the issue was not urgently resolved, citing prolonged delays despite government assurances of full tuition support and monthly stipends ranging from £1,023 to £1,200.

They explained that some beneficiaries have gone for months, and in some cases years, without receiving financial support, resulting in withdrawals from academic programmes. Others, they said, are facing hunger, homelessness, mental distress, and being classified as inactive by their universities due to unpaid fees.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, January 22, 2026, High Commissioner Benson acknowledged the challenges and appealed for patience, noting that the accumulated debt is substantial and requires careful coordination to resolve sustainably.

She reassured the students that government is committed to addressing the concerns of all Ghanaian scholarship beneficiaries abroad.

Following the meeting, the executives of the PhD Scholars’ Cohort, in the spirit of cooperation and good faith, agreed to suspend their planned protest.

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In a statement on Tuesday, the Malawi Energy Regulatory Authority (Mera) said the fixed pricing system of the previous government was “unsustainable” and had led to “significant” losses.

President Peter Mutharika, who returned to power last year, has been trying to revive Malawi’s ailing economy.

However, local commentators said Tuesday’s fuel increase could harm the president’s efforts and worsen the cost-of-living crisis for many Malawians.

“Fuel is not a luxury commodity. Any increase has a cascading effect on the cost of living,” the Human Rights Defenders Coalition, a Malawian civil society group, said.

In its statement, Mera said it was increasing diesel prices by 41.3% and petrol prices by 41.9%.

The hike means that since Mutharika came to power in October, the cost of petrol and diesel has gone up by 95% and 80% respectively.

Under previous President Lazarus Chakwera fuel shortages were a major source of public frustration, with motorists forming long, winding queues at depleted petrol stations. However, the supply has improved significantly over the past two months.

Mera said it is now operating under an “automatic pricing mechanism”, where petrol and diesel prices change in line with the expenses involved in shipping the fuel.

In the wake of the announcement, sharp increases in transport fares have already been reported in most parts of the country. Prices of other key services and goods, such as food, are also expected to rise.

Commodity prices had already started to go up following the previous fuel hike, which was implemented in October, and this month’s increase in the sales tax.

Mera’s acting CEO Dad Chinthambi said the hike in fuel prices was necessary “to ensure sustainable fuel supply, electricity services, and the proper remittance of levies to support road maintenance and rural electrification projects”.

The government is also trying to improve its finances and negotiate a new package of help from the International Monetary Fund.

Across social media and radio phone-in programmes, many Malawians voiced disappointment in Mera’s decision, saying they expected Mutharika’s administration to improve people’s circumstances and not produce the same economic outcomes as the previous government.

They will join Israel, which also publicly confirmed its participation earlier.

On Wednesday evening, Trump said Vladimir Putin had also agreed to join – but the Russian president said his country was still studying the invitation.

The board was originally thought to be aimed at helping end the two-year war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and overseeing reconstruction. But its proposed charter does not mention the Palestinian territory and appears to be designed to supplant the UN’s functions.

However, Saudi Arabia said that the group of Muslim-majority countries – Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan and Qatar – endorsed the aim of consolidating a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, supporting reconstruction and advancing what they described as a “just and lasting peace”.

At the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Trump told reporters that Putin had accepted his invitation to join. “He was invited, he’s accepted. Many people have accepted,” Trump said.

Putin responded quickly, saying the invitation was under consideration, Reuters reported. He said Russia was prepared to provide $1bn from frozen Russian assets and that he viewed the board as primarily relevant to the Middle East.

It is not clear how many countries have been invited to join Trump’s new body – Canada and the UK are among them, but have not yet publicly responded. The UAE, Bahrain, Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Morocco and Vietnam have already signed up.

On Wednesday, the Vatican also confirmed Pope Leo has received an invitation. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said the Pope would need time to consider whether to take part.

However, Slovenia’s Prime Minister Robert Golob said he had declined the invitation because the body “dangerously interferes with the broader international order”.

A leaked document says the Board of Peace’s charter will enter into force once three states formally agree to be bound by it, with member states given renewable three-year terms and permanent seats available to those contributing $1bn (£740m), it said.

The charter declared the body as an international organisation mandated to carry out peace-building functions under international law, with Trump serving as chairman – and separately as the US representative – and holding authority to appoint executive board members and create or dissolve subsidiary bodies.

Last Friday, the White House named seven members of the founding Executive Board, including US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and former UK prime minister Tony Blair.

Former UN Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov was appointed as the board’s representative in Gaza during a second phase of the plan, which includes reconstruction and demilitarisation, with the board authorised by a UN Security Council resolution running until the end of 2027.

On Saturday, Netanyahu’s office said the Gaza Executive Board’s composition “was not coordinated with Israel and runs contrary to its policy”.

Israeli media said the decision to include representatives of Turkey and Qatar – which both helped broker the ceasefire that took effect in October, along with Egypt and the US – had happened “over Israel’s head”.

Under phase one of the peace plan, Hamas and Israel agreed to the ceasefire, an exchange of living and dead Israeli hostages in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, a partial Israeli withdrawal, and a surge in deliveries of humanitarian aid.

Israel has said it can only move into the second phase after Hamas hands over the body of the last dead hostage.

Phase two faces major challenges, with Hamas having previously refused to give up its weapons without the creation of an independent Palestinian state, and Israel having not committed to fully withdrawing from Gaza.

The ceasefire is also fragile. More than 460 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since the ceasefire came into force, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, while the Israeli military says three of its soldiers have been killed in Palestinian attacks during the same period.

The war was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed, and 251 others were taken hostage.

Israel responded to the attack by launching a military campaign in Gaza, during which more than 71,550 people have been killed, according to the territory’s health ministry.

Speaking to JoyNews on Wednesday, January 21, Mr Ayine said he had monitored the recent immigration hearing but could not disclose confidential discussions with US authorities.

He clarified the distinction between the ongoing US immigration proceedings and any extradition request.

“The justice department is working on the extradition request. You have to understand that what is happening now is in relation to immigration law violations. That is separate and distinct from the extradition request,” he explained. “I am very hopeful. Extremely hopeful.”

His remarks come after Ofori-Atta appeared before Judge David A. Gardey at the United States Immigration Court on Tuesday, January 20, 2026, following his detention by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The hearing, conducted in private at the request of Ofori-Atta’s legal team, focused on his bail application.

State attorneys opposed the bail request, citing an alleged extradition request by the Ghanaian government. Judge Gardey, however, declined to make an immediate ruling, noting that no documentary proof of the extradition had been presented.

He directed the federal government to submit evidence on or before February 19, 2026, before any determination on Ofori-Atta’s release could be made.

“The court cannot act on assertions without proof,” Judge Gardey reportedly said.

Ofori-Atta, who served as Ghana’s finance minister from 2017 to 2023, was detained by ICE on January 6, 2026, amid questions over his lawful status in the US.

His legal team in Ghana and the US have indicated that the former minister is cooperating fully with authorities while efforts continue to resolve the matter.

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Speaking on the second day of the picketing, which is demanding Ofori-Atta’s return to face possible prosecution, Mr. Kpebu said Ghanaian authorities may have to mount strong diplomatic and legal pressure to secure cooperation from their U.S. counterparts.

According to him, accountability must apply to all public officials, regardless of status.

Kpebu noted that Ofori-Atta’s investments within the U.S. economy could present obstacles to any extradition process, stressing that the campaigners would not relent until concrete steps are taken.

“Ofori-Atta has businesses in America; he has very large businesses there, so we should not think that he can easily be deported,” Mr Kpebu said.

“Americans also take loans from Saudi Arabia, and they value foreign investment. They owe a lot themselves, so when you invest and bring your money there, you help the country develop. Later, if you run into trouble, they may see it as a reason to assist you,” he stated.

He added that he would continue to join the demonstrations until the group’s demands are addressed.

“This is why the demonstration is important, because it makes them understand that we know they depend on foreign investment. Saudi Arabia has significant investments in America, Japan also has substantial interests there, and Ghanaians too, there are influential individuals with major investments in the United States,” he said.

Meanwhile, a leading member and organiser of Arise Ghana, Listowell Nana Kusi-Poku, said the group remains determined to sustain the protest.

He explained that demonstrators have been divided into teams to carry out specific tasks aimed at intensifying pressure on the former finance minister to return home.

Mr. Kusi-Poku reiterated that the objective of the picketing is to ensure that no public official escapes accountability. He insisted that Arise Ghana would persist with the action until justice is pursued.

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The shutdown is scheduled for Thursday, January 22, 2026, at 5:00 a.m. and will affect water supply to several communities in the region.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, January 20, GWL said the decision followed the detection of a major fault on the raw water transmission line. The company described the situation as critical, citing a serious leakage that requires immediate attention.

As a result, water supply will be temporarily interrupted in Ho Township, Kpeve, Peki, and surrounding communities.

GWL explained that while the shutdown is unavoidable, it is necessary to prevent further damage to the system and ensure the long-term reliability of water delivery.

The company assured customers that water production would resume immediately after the repairs are completed, adding that engineers would work swiftly to restore supply.

Residents in the affected areas have been advised to make adequate preparations ahead of the shutdown. GWL apologised for the inconvenience and appealed for patience and cooperation as efforts are made to restore normal water supply.

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In a joint statement with local government officials on Monday, Kaduna state police commissioner Alhaji Muhammad Rabiu described the information as “mere falsehood which is being peddled by conflict entrepreneurs who want to cause chaos”.

Earlier, a local official in Kurmin Wali had told the BBC that gunmen had kidnapped dozens of people attending different churches.

There has been a series of mass kidnapping in Nigeria, where both Christians and Muslims have been targeted. Gangs frequently carry out such attacks to get ransom payments.

But referring to Sunday’s alleged abductions Kaduna’s police commissioner challenged “anyone to list the names of the kidnapped victims and other particulars”.

The chairman of Kajuru local government area, Dauda Madaki, said security forces were sent to Kurmin Wali after reports of an attack, but found “no evidence of the attack. I asked the village head, Mai Dan Zaria, and he said that there was no such attack.”

Police also quoted the state’s commissioner for internal security and home affairs saying religious leaders visited the area.

”They found out that what was pushed out to the public sphere was completely false,” he reportedly said.

However, a community leader in Kurmin Wali, Ishaku Dan’azumi Sarkin, had earlier told the BBC that armed men attacked the area on Sunday and kidnapped 177 people from three churches.

He said 11 people escaped, several others were injured, and no deaths were reported.

In November, more than 300 students and teachers were seized from a Catholic school. They were later released in two successive groups. It was among a spate of kidnappings that made international headlines.

Nigeria is facing numerous security challenges – including kidnappings for ransom by criminal gangs, an Islamist insurgency in the north-east, separatist violence in the south-east, and a battle between herders and farmers in the centre over access to land and water.

Experts say corruption, poor intelligence sharing and underfunded local policing have hampered efforts to tackle the various crises.

Nigeria’s defence minister resigned last month at the height of the kidnapping crisis, officially for health reasons, according to the president’s office.

The US has recently become militarily involved in Nigeria – launching airstrikes on Christmas Day on two camps run by an Islamist militant group in north-western Nigeria.

Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump warned of more strikes if Christians continued to be killed in the West African nation.

There are more than 250 ethnic groups in Nigeria, which is roughly divided into a mainly Muslim north, a largely Christian south, with intermingling in the middle – and the government says people of all faiths have been victims of attacks.

A Nigerian foreign ministry spokesman responded to Trump’s warning by saying that Nigeria would continue to engage constructively with partners such as the US.

”Nigeria remains committed to protecting all citizens, Christians and Muslims alike, without discrimination,” Alkasim Abdulkadir said.

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The hearing, which was conducted in private at the request of his legal team, focused on a bail application. However, state attorneys opposed the request, arguing that Mr Ofori-Atta should not be granted bail because Ghana has submitted an extradition request for him.

In his ruling, Judge David A. Gardey declined to make an immediate determination on the extradition claim, noting that no documentary evidence had been presented to support the assertion.

“The court cannot act on assertions without proof,” the judge indicated, directing the federal government to file any evidence of an extradition request on or before February 19, 2026.

The case has been adjourned to Thursday, April 27, at 1pm, when the tribunal is expected to hear both the bail application and any documents the government may submit. Until then, Mr Ofori-Atta will remain in ICE detention.

His detention was first announced on January 7 by his Ghanaian legal representatives, Minkah-Premo, Osei-Bonsu, Bruce-Cathline & Partners (MPOBB), who said he had been taken into custody a day earlier over concerns about his immigration status.

“The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as of January 6, 2026, detained the former Minister for Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, regarding the status of his current stay in the United States,” the firm said in a public notice signed by Justice Kusi-Minkah Premo, Esq.

According to the lawyers, Mr Ofori-Atta has a pending petition for adjustment of status, a legal process that allows individuals to remain in the US beyond the validity of their visa.

“Under US law, a change of status by this method is common,” the statement added, stressing that the former minister is “a law-abiding person” and is fully cooperating with ICE.

Official records from the US Department of Homeland Security indicate that Mr Ofori-Atta is currently being held at the Caroline Detention Facility in Bowling Green, Virginia.

The development has attracted attention in Ghana, especially given Mr Ofori-Atta’s recent legal and medical history.

He has been in the United States since January 2025, where he sought treatment for prostate cancer. He reportedly underwent a radical prostatectomy at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, on June 13, 2025, following tests that showed progression of the disease.

Sources close to the family say he had been under medical observation for weeks before the surgery. He is also said to be managing post-COVID multi-system inflammatory response syndrome, a condition he was diagnosed with in February 2021.

Mr Ofori-Atta served as Ghana’s Finance Minister from 2017 to 2023, steering the country’s economy through the COVID-19 pandemic, debt restructuring, and negotiations with the International Monetary Fund.

In November 2025, the Office of the Special Prosecutor charged him and several others with corruption and corruption-related offences. That case is currently at the case management conference stage.

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Mr. Ofori-Atta appeared before a U.S. immigration court in Virginia on Tuesday, January 20, 2026, dressed in a dark shirt and wearing a face mask.

The appearance follows his detention by officers of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over questions surrounding his legal status.

U.S. authorities maintain that his right to remain in the country lapsed after his visitor visa was revoked.

The case was heard at the Annandale Immigration Court before Immigration Judge David Gardey and focused on a bond review and a preliminary assessment of the matter. Court records indicate that Mr. Ofori-Atta is being held at the Caroline Detention Center while the proceedings continue.

He is being represented by a legal team that includes Christopher Chaisson of Whiteford Taylor & Preston, alongside his long-time immigration counsel, Kwao Amagashi.

During the hearing, his lawyers requested that both the bond proceedings and the master calendar hearing be held behind closed doors, citing the sensitive nature of the issues likely to be discussed.

Judge Gardey granted the request, instructing members of the public observing online via Webex to exit before the hearing continued in private.

Beyond the U.S. immigration matter, Mr. Ofori-Atta is also facing legal proceedings in Ghana. The Office of the Special Prosecutor has declared him wanted over alleged corruption and related offences, including issues linked to the Strategic Mobilisation Ghana Limited contract and other procurement dealings.

Ghanaian authorities are seeking his extradition, and the outcome of the U.S. immigration case is expected to play a key role in determining whether he will remain in the United States or be returned to Ghana to face charges.

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The ruling concludes a yearslong trial over an assassination that shocked Japan – where gun violence is rare – and put the spotlight on an influential religious sect.

Tetsuya Yamagami shot Abe in broad daylight with a gun he fashioned at home, while the former leader was giving a campaign speech on a street in the western city of Nara in 2022.

Abe had stepped down as prime minister in 2020 over health reasons. But he was still politically active and wielded enormous influence as Japan’s longest-serving premier.

Yamagami, now 45, was arrested at the scene and indicted the following year on murder and firearms charges.

Hundreds queued up outside the court in Nara for a chance to witness proceedings, with officials resorting to a lottery to assign limited seats.

Abe, whose premiership is seen as Japan’s last period of political stability, held office from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020. During his two terms, he transformed Japan’s security posture, raising questions over its status as a pacifist nation, and passed major security legislation in 2015 that expanded what Japan could do militarily to support the United States.

Sinzo Abe, whose premiership is seen as Japan’s last period of political stability, held office from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020. Kent Nishimura/Getty Images

He also was a prominent figure on the world stage, cultivating strong ties with Washington and seeking better relations with Beijing – while also trying to counter Chinese expansion in the region by uniting Pacific allies.

His killing sent shock waves through Japan, which has one of the world’s lowest rates of gun crime due to its strict firearms laws.

Since his resignation the national political landscape has been in disarray, with a revolving door of different leaders. Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party, which has ruled Japan almost continuously for the last 30 years, became mired in crisis – facing fallouts over a slush fund scandal, an inflation surge and a rightward political shift across the country.

The current prime minister, Abe’s protege Sanae Takaichi, has called snap polls next month to capitalize on her rising popularity while hoping to rebuild the LDP brand.

The killing also brought scrutiny to the link between the LDP and the Unification Church. Yamagami blames the sect for bankrupting his family through excessive donations from his mother, a member. He had claimed he targeted Abe because he believed the former leader was associated with the church, which originated in South Korea.

A subsequent government investigation found that the group had violated Japanese regulations by allegedly pressuring followers to make exorbitant donations – prompting a court to order the church to dissolve last March. The sect is appealing that decision.

The Unification Church, formally known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, rose to prominence in the late 1950s and became a global organization by the 1980s.

It continues to make international headlines for its mass weddings, where thousands of couples tie the knot at the same time.

The LDP has borne much of the public backlash after an investigation found that more than half its lawmakers had ties to the church. Several high-ranking officials, including the former defense minister, said they had received help in past elections from church members.

Then Prime Minister Fumio Kishida purged those officials and pledged to cut his party’s ties to the group – but the damage was done, sowing deep public suspicion toward the LDP. Voters delivered a clear rebuke at the ballot box, handing parliamentary seats to opposition parties and stripping the LDP of its majority.

Prosecutors in Yamagami’s trial had sought a life sentence, calling the assassination an “extremely grave incident that is unprecedented in post-war history,” Reuters reported. His lawyers argued for a more lenient sentence, pointing to the harm caused to his family by the Unification Church.

In a post on X, the second lady said she is looking forward to welcoming a boy in late July.

“Usha and the baby are doing well,” a statement posted on Tuesday to the second lady’s social media account read.

Vance and his wife, Usha, 40, have three young children: Ewan, Vivek and Mirabel.

Usha Vance (née Chilukuri) was born and raised in the working-class suburbs of San Diego, California, to a mechanical engineer father and a molecular biologist mother who had moved to the US from Andhra Pradesh, India.

She met JD Vance as a student at Yale Law School in 2010, when they joined a discussion group on “social decline in white America”.

Before becoming second lady, Usha Vance had a legal career, including a job as a corporate litigator at firm Munger, Tolles & Olson in San Francisco. She also worked for conservative judges, Chief Justice John Roberts on the Supreme Court and appeals court judge Brett Kavanaugh, before he was appointed by Trump to the Supreme Court.

Usha Vance is the first to have a baby as second lady, though other first ladies have had children while their husbands were in office.

First lady Frances Cleveland, wife of President Grover Cleveland, gave birth to daughter Esther in the White House in 1893, followed by a second child, Marion, who was born outside the White House.

JD Vance has been one of the most vocal members of the Trump administration in calling for higher birth rates in the US.

“Let me say very simply: I want more babies in the United States of America,” he said in 2025.

The court appearance follows his detention on January 8 by officers of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). U.S. authorities argue that Mr. Ofori-Atta no longer holds valid permission to remain in the country after the cancellation of his visitor visa.

The case was heard at the Annandale Immigration Court, where Immigration Judge David Gardey presided over a bond reconsideration and an initial review of the matter.

Court records indicate that the former minister is being held at the Caroline Detention Center while proceedings continue.

Mr. Ofori-Atta was represented by attorneys including Christopher Chaisson of Whiteford Taylor & Preston, alongside his long-time immigration counsel, Kwao Amagashi.

During the hearing, his lawyers requested that both the bond session and the master calendar hearing be closed to the public, citing the sensitive nature of the issues expected to arise.

Judge Gardey approved the request, ordering that the proceedings be held privately and instructing non-parties who had joined via Webex to leave before deliberations resumed.

The outcome of the case will determine whether Mr. Ofori-Atta is allowed to remain in the United States or faces removal, a development that could also have implications for related legal matters in Ghana.

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Kuong Li, a 50-year-old Cambodian national, was charged with illegal recruitment for exploitation, aggravated fraud, organised crime and money laundering relating to alleged offences committed in Cambodia and elsewhere since 2019.

On 15 January, a Phnom Penh court ordered him to be remanded in custody pending further proceedings.

Kuong Li was featured in The Pig Butchering Romance Scam, a BBC Eye investigation into allegations of human trafficking and fraud within scam compounds in Southeast Asia.

That programme, broadcast in March 2023, focused in part on the Huang Le compound, a venue under Kuong Li’s ownership in the coastal city of Sihanoukville.

The documentary followed the account of ‘Didi’, a Chinese man who said he left home after being promised a well-paid job, but was trafficked into Cambodia and forced to work inside the walled compound.

Didi said he was made to work from 20:00 to 08:00 local time (13:00 to 01:00 GMT), targeting victims in Europe and the United States, and was not permitted to leave the complex.

He also shared secretly recorded footage with the BBC and the Global Anti-Scam Organisation (Gaso), a volunteer-run group that helps rescue and support trafficked victims.

In a video diary recorded inside his dormitory, Didi said he was told to “keep scamming as long as you’re alive”, and that he’d witnessed another victim being beaten and dragged out of the office after making a mistake.

In desperation, Didi attempted to escape by jumping from the third floor. He later took shelter in a safe house in Phnom Penh, before eventually returning to China.

Three years after the documentary was broadcast, he is now working in a factory in southern China.

The investigation also featured testimony from another Chinese man, Mi Lijun, who said he became seriously ill while being held at the compound. He was found abandoned on a highway and taken to hospital. The BBC obtained footage of his final hours before he died from organ failure.

The documentary identified Kuong Li as the owner of the Huang Le compound and reported that his business empire covered real estate, casinos, hotels and construction companies. He had previously been awarded the royal honorific title ‘Oknha’ and had been pictured alongside senior officials at public and private events.

The BBC put these allegations to Kuong Li and the Sihanoukville province police. Neither responded to the request for comment before the documentary was broadcast.

In April 2023, however, the Cambodian authorities issued a letter in response to the programme, confirming Kuong Li as the owner of the Huang Le compound but dismissing the allegations as “groundless”.

The letter said an investigation led by the Department of Anti-Commercial Gambling Crime on 8 February 2023 had “found no sign of forced captivity or torture”, and claimed the documentary did not reflect what it described as the authorities’ “utmost efforts” to prevent and eliminate all forms of human trafficking.

Kuong Li also rejected the allegations in interviews with Cambodian media.

In June 2023, Kuong Li was granted the title ‘Neak Oknha’, one of Cambodia’s highest royal honorifics, a rank above his previous title of ‘Oknha’.

While Kuong Li remains in pre-trial detention, Cambodian authorities say investigations are continuing into wider networks linked to organised online fraud.

The Secretariat of the Commission for Combating Cybercrime said Cambodian courts handled 37 major cases between 2025 and mid-January 2026, resulting in the conviction of 172 ringleaders and accomplices.

One high-profile case involved the extradition of Chen Zhi earlier this year. The Chinese businessman and billionaire is accused of masterminding a vast online scam network, trafficking workers into forced labour camps to defraud victims globally.

The move was widely seen as a signal that Phnom Penh was responding to mounting international pressure to address scam compounds and related financial crime operating within its borders.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Hun Manet said on Facebook that Cambodia considers “fighting tech-savvy crimes” a priority and aims at “eliminating all negative issues related to online scam crimes”.

The United Nations estimates that hundreds of thousands of people have been trafficked to South East Asia – in many cases to Cambodia – with promises of well-paid jobs, before being forced to run online scams in harsh conditions inside confined compounds.

Across the region, governments have launched parallel crackdowns on online scam operations and the financial networks that support them.

In Thailand, authorities have intensified investigations into money-laundering linked to scam centres, seizing assets and arresting suspects accused of moving illicit funds through banks, cryptocurrency platforms, and shell companies.

Meanwhile, in Myanmar, authorities have carried out raids on several high-profile scam hubs, detaining thousands of people and dismantling facilities accused of running large-scale online fraud schemes.

Many of these sites had been linked to transnational criminal networks operating across multiple countries in the region.

Police in Lower Paxton Township, Pennsylvania, say the incident occurred around 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, January 17, 2026, along Mayfair Drive.

According to a report by abc27.com, first responders rushed the injured woman to hospital, where she is said to be in stable condition. Police also clarified that the incident did not pose any danger to the general public.

Nortey, 41, who resides in Harrisburg, has been charged with attempted homicide, possession of an instrument of crime with intent to use, and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.

Court records indicate that he was arraigned before Magisterial District Judge David Judy, who denied him bail. He is currently being held at the Dauphin County Prison and is expected to appear for a preliminary hearing on January 26, 2026.

Investigators say inquiries into the circumstances surrounding the incident are ongoing, and more details are expected to emerge as the case progresses.

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The visit, aimed at fostering mutual learning and strengthening cooperation in mining sector governance, was officially received by the Commission’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Isaac Tandoh, alongside the executive leadership team.

During the welcoming session at the Commission’s headquarters, Mr. Tandoh highlighted the value of peer-to-peer learning among African nations. He reiterated Ghana’s commitment to transparent, efficient, and sustainable mineral resource management, emphasizing the country’s focus on local content and community participation as key pillars of its mining policy.

“Our sector reforms are centered on maximizing in-country value, ensuring environmental stewardship, and promoting responsible mining,” Mr. Tandoh stated. He further outlined the Commission’s core mandate, stressing the strategic integration of technological systems to enhance regulatory oversight, licensing transparency, and compliance monitoring.

The visiting delegation, led by Dr. Theresia C. Numbi, Chairperson of Tanzania’s Local Content Committee, participated in technical presentations by various departments of the Commission. Key focus areas included Ghana’s legal and regulatory framework, strategies for effective implementation of local content and local participation, the digitized Mining Cadastre Administration System (MCAS), and initiatives for formalizing the artisanal and small-scale mining sub-sector.

The programme, which will extend beyond Accra to include mine site visits and further engagements with institutional stakeholders, is expected to deepen collaboration between the two nations.

Both Ghana and Tanzania expressed confidence that the exchange will strengthen local content regulation, compliance, and sustainable mining governance across the continent.

Also in attendance were Madam Victoria Awuni, DCEO, Policy Planning, Mineral Titles & Local Content, and Mr. Maxwell Klu, DCEO, Small-Scale Mining and Industrial Minerals.

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The three-month-old and the other about six months old were pronounced dead at Hadassah Mount Scopus hospital and Shaare Zedek Medical Centre after medics were unable to resuscitate them.

The hospitals did not specify the cause of the deaths.

Local media initially reported that one possible cause was toxic gas coming from the heating system. But the Fire and Rescue Authority said no hazardous or toxic substances had been detected.

First responders were also cited as saying conditions in the daycare were overcrowded, and one picture appeared to show an infant sleeping on a bathroom floor.

Israeli police said forensic experts were “conducting all necessary investigative measures to locate evidence and clarify the circumstances that led to the injuries of the infants”.

“Three caregivers who were at the daycare at the time of the incident were detained for questioning,” it added.

The private nursery was reportedly located in an apartment building in the predominantly ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood of Romema.

Paramedics, ambulances and fire trucks could be seen outside. Anxious parents gathered too as the news spread.

Zalmi Neufeld, a resident of Romema, told AFP news agency that he saw “emergency personnel pulling kids out of the building”.

“I saw parents crying, a lot of kids crying, kids all over the place,” he said. “It was like a war zone.”

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said it had received a report on Monday afternoon about two unconscious babies at a daycare centre.

Paramedics attempted to resuscitate the two babies and evacuated them along with 53 other babies and toddlers to hospitals for further medical examinations and treatment, it added.

The director of emergency medicine at Shaare Zedek Medical Centre said the three-month-old baby was “brought to us after undergoing advanced resuscitation efforts” but died. “At this stage, we still do not know exactly what the circumstances of the incident are,” Dr Gal Pachys stressed.

Education Minister Yoav Kisch said: “Helpless infants lost their lives in a private facility that operated without a licence and without oversight, in violation of the law.”

He added that he had instructed his ministry and other authorities to formulate a plan to shut down unlicensed daycare centres in the wake of the “tragic incident”.

The January 11 election came just over one month after soldiers attempted to topple Talon in a failed coup bid and three months before the West African nation holds a presidential election that will end his 10-year tenure.

The Progressive Union for Renewal will hold 60 of 109 seats in the National Assembly, having won 41.15% of the vote, according to provisional results yet to be validated by the Constitutional Court. The Republican Bloc will hold 49 seats, having won 36.64% of the vote.

The Democrats, the main opposition party linked to President Patrice Talon’s predecessor and rival, Thomas Boni Yayi, received 16.14% of the vote, falling short of the 20% threshold for parliamentary representation. That threshold was increased from 10% as part of electoral code reforms passed in 2024.

The Democrats previously held more than 20 seats.

The election outcome “deepens political exclusion and reduces institutional checks on the executive,” Consultancy Signal Risk said in a note.

Nadin Kokode, a member of the Democrats, said last week that pro-Talon parties had done everything in their power to exclude the opposition from the political scene for the next seven-year term.

He complained of electoral irregularities, including the late opening of polling stations, a lack of voting equipment, and the exclusion of party supervisors from the vote-counting process.

The electoral commission reported a few minor logistical challenges during the poll but said incidents were promptly brought under control.

It said voter turnout was 36.73%.

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European allies have rallied around Greenland’s sovereignty. Denmark’s foreign minister emphasised that the US president cannot threaten his way to ownership of the semi-autonomous Danish territory.

UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper reiterated the UK’s position that the future of Greenland is for “Greenlanders and for the Danes alone” to decide.

On Monday, Trump declined to rule out the use of force and insisted he would press ahead with the threatened tariffs on goods arriving in the US from the UK and seven other NATO-allied countries.

Asked by NBC News if he would use force to seize Greenland, Trump answered: “No comment”.

The US president said he would charge Britain a 10% tariff “on any and all goods” sent to the US from 1 February, increasing to 25% from 1 June, until a deal is reached for Washington to purchase Greenland from Denmark.

Trump said the same would apply to Denmark, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland – all of whom are members of the defence alliance Nato which was founded in 1949.

Asked if he will follow through on the tariff threat, Mr Trump told NBC News: “I will, 100%.”

Trump added: “Europe ought to focus on the war with Russia and Ukraine because, frankly, you see what that’s gotten them… That’s what Europe should focus on – not Greenland.”

Denmark has warned that US military action in Greenland would spell the end of Nato. In recent days, Greenland has received support from European members of the alliance – some even sent a handful of troops to Greenland last week in a move seen as symbolic.

However, Trump followed that deployment with an announcement to impose tariffs on the eight Nato allies.

Danish foreign minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said that Europe had to show President Trump that tariff threats were “not the way forward”.

“We have red lines that can’t be crossed,” he told Sky News. “You can’t threaten your way to ownership of Greenland. I have no intention of escalating this situation.”

Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte said the alliance will continue working with Denmark and Greenland on Arctic security.

The European Union is to hold an emergency summit in Brussels for its leaders on Thursday, where they will discuss how to respond to Trump’s latest threat to take over Greenland.

Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said the bloc has “no interest in picking a fight, but we will hold our ground”.

“But trades threats are not the way to go about this,” Kallas added. “Sovereignty is not for trade.”

It comes as text exchanges between Trump and the Norwegian prime minister were released – showing that on Sunday, the US president blamed Norway for the fact he didn’t get the Nobel Peace Prize.

In his reply – seen by the BBC – Jonas Gahr Støre explained that an independent committee, not the Norwegian government, awards the prize, which last October went to Venezuela’s opposition leader María Corina Machado.

“Norway’s position on Greenland is clear. Greenland is a part of the Kingdom of Denmark, and Norway fully supports the Kingdom of Denmark on this matter,” Støre added.

Trump also addressed the text message exchange in Monday’s interview and said: “Norway totally controls it [the Nobel Prize] despite what they say.

“They like to say they have nothing to do with it, but they have everything to do with it.”

Meanwhile, the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) on Monday announced that multiple aircraft are on their way to Pituffik Space Base in Greenland.

The joint US-Canada military defence organisation stressed they are part of a routine operation “to support various long-planned NORAD activities”, and said they had been coordinated with Denmark and that the government of Greenland had been informed.

Similar Norad operations at the base took place in 2022, 2023, and last year.

A solar radiation storm, ranked at a level four out of five on a severity scale, is being tracked by the National Weather Service’s Space Weather Prediction Center, or SWPC.

“An S4 severe solar radiation storm is now in progress – this is the largest solar radiation storm in over 20 years,” SWPC shared on X, formerly known as Twitter. “The last time S4 levels were observed was in October, 2003. Potential effects are mainly limited to space launch, aviation, and satellite operations.”

The Halloween space weather storms of October 2003 resulted in power outages in Sweden and damages to power transformers in South Africa, according to SWPC.

When solar radiation storms reach Earth, they can cause increased radiation exposure risks for astronauts in low-Earth orbit, like those aboard the International Space Station, as well as passengers on flights that are traveling polar routes.

SWPC has notified airlines, NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation and other operators to prepare for the storm.

“We’ve been making all these phone calls to ensure that we are keeping all the critical technological infrastructure operators in the know of what’s happening,” said SWPC forecaster Shawn Dahl.

During increased radiation risk events, astronauts can move to parts of the space station that are better shielded, as they have during previous solar storms, like an extreme geomagnetic storm that occurred in May 2024.

Heightened radiation can also pose risks to satellites we rely on for communications and navigation.

During the May 2024 geomagnetic storm, tractor company John Deere reported that some customers reliant on GPS for precision farming experienced a disruption. But for the most part, power grid and satellite operators kept satellites in order and properly in orbit and managed the buildup of intense geomagnetic currents on the grid systems.

While satellite operators will likely need to take action Monday night, widespread technology impacts for the general public are not expected, said Ryan French, a solar physicist at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Anticipating auroras

A severe geomagnetic storm also reached Earth Monday at 2:20 p.m. ET, Dahl said. Such storms also have the ability to disrupt the electric power grid, according to SWPC.

While a solar radiation storm marks the release of intense, rapidly-moving charged particles toward Earth, slower moving geomagnetic storms are caused by a coronal mass ejections (CMEs), or explosions of plasma and magnetic fields from the sun’s outer atmosphere.

When these outbursts are directed at Earth, they can cause major disturbances of Earth’s magnetic field, resulting in geomagnetic storms.

The coronal mass ejection, which launched from the sun on Sunday, was triggered by an X-class flare, the most intense type of solar flare. This marks the first major solar flare of the year, French said.

Increased solar activity causes auroras that dance around Earth’s poles, known as the northern lights, or aurora borealis, and southern lights, or aurora australis. When the energized particles from coronal mass ejections reach Earth’s magnetic field, they interact with gases in the atmosphere to create different colored lights in the sky.

Auroras may be visible over much of the northern half of the US, and potentially as far south as Alabama and northern California, according to SWPC.

Parts of the Midwest, including much of Minnesota, will have clear skies for aurora viewing, said CNN Meteorologist Chris Dolce.

“Clouds might clear enough by tomorrow early AM over northern Illinois and Wisconsin to possibly see, too,” Dolce said. “The Pacific Northwest might have decent conditions west of the Cascades. The Northeast is a mix. The interior looks pretty cloudy, but conditions closer the coast it might clear out enough to make visible late tonight and early tomorrow.”

Even if the colorful displays don’t seem apparent to the naked eye, sensors in cameras including cell phone cameras can pick them up.

“For aurora chasers, your best bet is to find somewhere with a clear and dark view north, without interference from light pollution,” French said. “Aurora will likely be strongest as soon as it is dark enough to see them at your location.”

Auroras experience short 20-minute bursts in activity called substorms. During these periods, the northern light are visible much further south than during the rest of the night, French said.

More flares from an active sunspot region are possible and any occurring within the next week have a good chance of producing further Earth-directed eruptions, French said.

Speaking in an interview on JoyNews Today on Monday, January 19, Mr Davies disclosed that the hearing will be conducted virtually.

“Ken Ofori-Atta is happy. Our counterpart lawyers in America are happy. We are all waiting for the hearing tomorrow, which will be virtual,” he said.

He confirmed that Mr Ofori-Atta is currently being held at the Caroline Detention Centre, adding that immigration officials will determine the exact location from which he will join the virtual proceedings.

Mr Davies then clarified that the hearing has nothing to do with any extradition process, stressing that it is purely an immigration matter.

“What is happening tomorrow is a purely immigration matter. It has nothing to do with any extradition process, whether they call it revocation of visa or whatever,” he said.

“Tomorrow is an immigration hearing for an adjustment of his immigration status in America, simply nothing more, nothing less. After tomorrow, we will all know the position.”

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The ceremony, held on Saturday, January 17, formed part of Ghana’s broader engagement with Guinea as the country moves to complete its transition to constitutional governance.

Prof. Opoku-Agyemang’s presence underscored Ghana’s support for regional stability and cooperation, particularly at a time when West Africa continues to navigate political and economic reforms.

The Vice President’s visit also reflected Ghana’s commitment to sustained dialogue and collaboration with Guinea in areas including trade, security, democratic governance and regional integration.

The mission carried historical significance, renewing ties that date back to the post-independence era when Ghana’s first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, and Guinea’s first leader, Ahmed Sékou Touré, championed Pan-African unity.

Following his overthrow in 1966, Dr. Nkrumah was hosted in Guinea and named Co-President by President Sékou Touré, a gesture that symbolised the deep friendship between the two nations.

According to officials, Prof. Opoku-Agyemang’s participation at the ceremony reaffirmed that shared legacy and signalled a renewed commitment to the partnership envisioned by the two Pan-Africanists decades ago.

The investiture ceremony, held at the Stade Général Lansana Conté, attracted several African and international leaders who gathered to witness Guinea’s new chapter of governance.

Ghana’s delegation included the Chief of Staff at the Office of the Vice President, Alex Segbefia; the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa; and the Spokesperson to the Vice President, Maame Ama Pratt, among other officials.

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More than 30 are being treated for serious injuries in the hospital, Spain’s transport minister Oscar Puente said.

The incident happened near the town of Adamuz, close to the city of Cordoba, when a high-speed train travelling from Malaga to Madrid derailed and crossed over onto another track, the rail network operator Adif said.

The derailed train then collided with an oncoming train, travelling from Madrid to Huelva. Andalusian emergency services said at least 73 people in total were injured in the collision.

The incident appeared to be “extremely strange”, Puente added, because the train derailed on a straight stretch of track, which had been refurbished in May last year.

The official cause is not yet known. An investigation is not expected to determine what happened for at least a month.

Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, said the country will endure a “night of deep pain”.

Iryo, a private rail company that operated the journey from Malaga, said around 300 passengers were on board the train that first derailed, while the other train – operated by Renfe – had around 100 passengers.

The mayor of Adamuz, Rafael Moreno, was among the first on the scene of the accident. He described it as like “a nightmare”.

In a post on X, the Emergency Agency of Andalucía urged any crash survivors to post on social media that they are alive.

The twisted wreckage of the train made it difficult to recover survivors and bodies, rescue crews said.

Cordoba fire chief Francisco Carmona told Spanish public broadcaster RTVE: “We have even had to remove a dead person to be able to reach someone alive. It is hard, tricky work.”

According to Adif, the crash happened about ten minutes after the train left Malaga at 18:40 local time (17:40 GMT). The company said it was setting up spaces for relatives of victims at Atocha, Seville, Cordoba, Malaga and Huelva stations.

All rail services between Madrid and Andalusia were suspended following the accident and will remain closed on Monday. The company said it will keep terminals open overnight for impacted passengers.

The type of train involved in the crash was a Freccia 1000, which can reach speeds of up to 400 km/h (250 mph), a spokesperson for the Italian rail company Ferrovie dello Stato told Reuters.

The Spanish Red Cross has deployed emergency support services to the scene and is also offering counselling to families nearby.

Miguel Ángel Rodríguez from the Red Cross told RNE radio: “The families are going through a situation of great anxiety due to the lack of information. These are very distressing moments.”

Salvador Jimenez, a journalist with RTVE who was on one of the trains, said the impact felt like an “earthquake”.

“I was in the first carriage. There was a moment when it felt like an earthquake and the train had indeed derailed,” Jimenez said.

In his latest update on X, he said he was among a group of passengers waiting in the “freezing cold night” for buses to transport them to a local sports centre.

King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia said they were following news of the disaster with “with great concern”.

“We extend our most heartfelt condolences to the relatives and loved ones of the dead, as well as our love and wishes for a swift recovery to the injured,” the royal palace said on X.

French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen have both offered condolences in statements.

“My thoughts are with the victims, their families and the entire Spanish people. France stands by your side,” Macron wrote on social media.

In 2013, Spain suffered its worst high-speed train derailment in Galicia, north-west Spain, which left 80 people dead and 140 others injured.

“You can see your money there on the public blockchain, but there’s nothing you can do to get it back,” says Helen, who lost around $315,000 (£250,000) to thieves.

She likens it to watching a burglar pile up your prized possessions on the other side of an impassable chasm.

For seven years, Helen and her husband Richard (not his real name), both UK residents, had been buying and stacking up crypto coins called Cardano.

They liked the idea of investing in a digital asset that had the potential to rise dramatically in value, unlike funds saved in more conventional ways. They knew it was riskier, but they were careful to keep their digital keys safe.

But somehow hackers got into their cloud storage account, where they kept information about their crypto wallets and how to access them.

In February 2024, after a small test transfer, the criminals swiftly and silently transferred all the couple’s coins to their own digital wallets.

The couple then watched for months as their money was moved from one wallet to another, powerless to do anything. (The inherent contradiction with cryptocurrency is that all transactions are publicly trackable, but users can be publicly untraceable if they choose.)

Helen and Richard are not wealthy. She is a personal assistant, he is a composer, and they had high hopes for their Cardano investments.

“We’d been buying these coins for so long… We used every scrap of money we could find to buy more,” says Richard. “Aside from my parents’ deaths, this theft is the worst thing to happen to me.”

Ever since, Helen has been on a mission to recover their money. She obtained detailed reports from various police forces and the Cardano developers. Now, even though she has the criminals’ wallet addresses, there is nothing anyone can do to unmask them.

Their plan is to save up enough to engage private investigators to try to trace the hackers.

“It leaves you with a feeling of helplessness,” she says, “but I am going to keep trying.”

An explosion in crypto crime

A survey carried out for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in August 2024, suggested that approximately 12% of British adults owned crypto-assets – equivalent to about seven million people.

Globally, it has been estimated that 560 million people are now crypto owners. But as ownership rose, so did theft. The pandemic ushered in a surge in the value of crypto coins and, with it, an explosion in attacks on the industry.

And 2025 was another bumper year for crypto criminals, with total thefts standing at more than $3.4bn (£2.5bn), according to investigators at blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis. The annual figure has remained in the same ballpark since 2020.

Most of the money is being stolen through massive cyberattacks on crypto companies. For example, North Korean hackers swiped $1.5bn (£1.1bn) from crypto exchange Bybit in February 2025.

The losses in this case and the vast majority of others are covered by the deep-pocketed crypto firms, with little impact on individuals. But 2025 also saw an increase in the number of attacks on individual crypto investors.

Chainalysis research says these individual attacks rose from 40,000 in 2022 to 80,000 last year.

Hacking, scamming or coercing of individuals accounted for an estimated 20% of all crypto value stolen – estimated at $713m (£532m).

But the company adds that the number could be far higher, as not all victims will choose to report thefts publicly. When this happens, you could be left on your own.

Many thefts or scams in traditional finance are covered by banks or card companies. In the UK, you can complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service and may be compensated by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

“Crypto remains largely unregulated in the UK and high-risk,” says the FCA. “If something goes wrong, it is unlikely you will be protected so you should be prepared to lose all your money.”

A stark reminder of this comes if you search online for “Binance account hacked” – Binance is the world’s largest crypto exchange with a reported 1.4m UK users – but the page on its website offering advice to victims of theft is blocked in the UK.

The company has not been accepting new UK clients since 2023 because it is not authorised by the FCA to operate. Yet criminals don’t care where victims are, and people are being targeted all over the world indiscriminately.

Chainalysis has described these attacks on individuals as the “under-documented frontier for crypto crime”.

They put the volume of crimes down to the number of people entering the crypto world as investors, as the value of coins has risen, and argue that improved security practices at major services could have pushed “attackers toward individuals perceived as easier targets”.

Then there is the fact that the more crypto you hold and the more public you are about it, the more likely you are to be targeted – small-time holders (or hodlers, as the community calls them) are far less likely to be affected.

Burglaries, muggings and ‘wrench attacks’

As for the thieves, they could be anywhere.

In October, blockchain researchers from Elliptic, a crypto analysis company, warned that North Korean state-sponsored hackers are increasingly targeting wealthy cryptocurrency owners. There are plenty of young scammers and hackers from other countries, too.

In December in the US, 22-year-old Evan Tangeman pleaded guilty to being part of a group of crypto thieves calling themselves the Social Engineering Enterprise, who are accused of stealing more than $260m (£194m) between October 2023 and May 2025.

Prosecutors allege they targeted the crypto-rich using hacked databases, tricking victims into thinking they were cryptocurrency exchanges, and persuading them to transfer coins.

Members of the gang, who were all young men mostly in the US, are said to have spent the stolen coins on private jets, expensive cars and luxury handbags that they would give away at nightclubs.

In some cases, prosecutors say, the gang organised home break-ins to steal hardware containing the keys to crypto stashes.

Burglaries and muggings have become so common that there is now a term for them in the crypto community – “wrench attacks” – so called because criminals have been known to threaten victims with spanners.

Last April, crypto criminals in Spain tried to force a man and woman to part with their cryptocurrency.

Spanish police said the man was shot in the leg and he, along with his partner, were held captive for several hours while the criminals tried to access their crypto wallets. Eventually, the woman was released, but her partner remained missing, with his body later found in woodland.

Five people were arrested in Spain in connection with the case, while four others in Denmark were charged.

There have been several similar cases in France, including one when an attempted kidnap was captured on video.

Another case in early 2025 saw David Balland, co-founder of Ledger, a cryptocurrency security company, abducted with his wife from their home in central France.

Days later, police rescued them – but Balland’s finger was cut off during the extortion attempt.

Then, last month, UK police arrested six people after masked men stopped a car travelling between Oxford and London and forced one of the occupants to transfer cryptocurrency valued at £1.5m.

Phil Ariss, director of UK Public Sector Relations at blockchain intelligence firm TRM Labs, has previously said that criminal groups already comfortable with using violence to achieve their goals were always likely to migrate to crypto.

“As long as there’s a viable route to launder or liquidate stolen assets, it makes little difference to the offender whether the target is a high-value watch or a crypto wallet.

“Cryptocurrency is now firmly in the mainstream, and as a result, our traditional understanding of physical threat and robbery needs to evolve accordingly.”

It’s difficult to determine exactly how prevalent “wrench attacks” are, as few are publicly reported. But it appears as though these types of thefts are a small part of the growing issue of personal crypto thefts.

And many criminals rely on tried-and-tested hacking or scam techniques that are becoming easier thanks to the abundance of data stolen in massive cyberattacks on companies.

‘Bitcoin millionaires are becoming so frequent’

“Data is a common problem as Bitcoin millionaires are becoming so frequent, and there are stolen databases that are enriching the target list all the time,” says Matthew Jones, founder of Haven, a crypto security firm.

A data breach at Kering, the parent company of luxury brands including Gucci and Balenciaga, is a case in point, according to one hacker interviewed by the BBC.

In addition to millions of customer names and contact details, the databases show how much money people had spent at the stores.

The hacker the BBC spoke to says he paid $300,000 (£224,000) to purchase the spreadsheets to target the biggest spenders.

He claims to have used the information along with details from another stolen database to scam multiple Coinbase users out of at least $1.5m (£1.1m) in crypto.

The criminal confirmed he was in possession of the stolen data and presented the BBC with $700,000 (£522,000) in Bitcoin, which he says came from one victim.

“I buy hacked databases and cross-reference them with others to check for rich people and for up-to-date phone numbers and emails. I’m still going down the list and tripled my money very fast,” he claimed.

The hacker wouldn’t give any details about himself, other than that he is a student at a US university.

When asked if he considered himself a hacker or a scammer, he said, “Neither, I am only interested in making money.”

Kering did not respond to a request for comment about this, but has previously told the BBC that its IT systems had been secured after the data breach and emphasised that no bank account numbers, credit card information, or government-issued identification numbers had been stolen in the attack.

Matthew Jones from Haven tells me that he himself has had crypto stolen and the experience prompted him to develop a crypto wallet with extra security features.

Features like continuous biometric checking to make sure that only the owner can send coins, and geofencing to block any transactions outside someone’s home or work, are now needed he says. He is also building a panic button into the digital wallet.

“People are walking around with millions of dollars in crypto these days and wallets have no ceiling on how much can be held – or how much can be stolen in one go,” he says.

Being ‘your own bank’

Matthew Jones’s crypto wallet is all about what the industry champions as “self custody”.

Haven’s app is similar to those of Metamask and Trustwallet. Other companies like Trezor and Ledger offer physical devices like USB memory sticks but the idea is the same: you can be your own bank.

But with that added freedom comes added risk as you don’t have any protections at all.

If your coins are stolen from your own self custody wallet, you can’t even go to a crypto exchange to complain.

Asked if the freedom of “being your own bank” outweighs the increasing risks, Jones insists it does.

“Banks aren’t truly answerable to their customers and they hold the power to freeze or close your account based on broad, often vague reasons,” he argues.

He also says he objected to being asked by traditional financial institutions things like why he was moving money out of an account.

Helen and Richard lost all their coins after choosing to be their own bank. The factor that made it particularly painful was the fact that much of the money came from the sale of Richard’s mother’s house, after her death.

“My mother’s money has gone,” Richard says. “All that grafting she had done for my future and it was stolen. We’ve had to sell musical instruments and our car, and we were briefly homeless.”

Yet they aren’t entirely giving up on cryptocurrency. If they get their lost money back, or accumulate enough in savings, they plan to get straight back into crypto investing.

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The rate fell to 5.63 births per 1,000 people in 2025, beneath 2023’s low of 6.39 per 1,000, China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported on Monday. The drop suggests that a slight uptick in births in 2024 was an outlier rather than a reversal of an otherwise steady decline since 2016.

China’s economy grew 5% in 2025, officials also reported, in line with the government’s annual goal of “around 5%.”

The annual expansion was buoyed by a surge in Chinese exports that offset trade tensions with the US and weak consumption at home. China racked up a record $1.2 trillion-dollar trade surplus last year, despite US President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again trade war with the world’s second largest economy.

But the data also showed an economic slowdown in the fourth quarter, with the country recording only 4.5% growth from a year earlier – the slowest quarterly increase since the end of 2022.

Officials hailed the “remarkable stability” of the economy, with statistics bureau chief Kang Yi saying this was achieved despite a “complex and severe situation marked by rapid changes in the external environment and mounting domestic challenges.”

“In 2025, China’s economy withstood pressure and maintained steady progress, achieving new results in high-quality development,” Kang said in a press conference.

Despite the on-target annual economic growth, the birth figures deal a blow to Beijing’s efforts to reverse the impact of decades of stringent, state-enforced birth control under the now-abandoned “one-child” policy, and persuade more young people to have children.

With the 7.92 million babies born in China last year outpaced by 11.31 million deaths, the overall population dropped by 3.39 million, the data shows. The country’s headcount – still the world’s second-largest, behind India’s – stands at 1.4 billion for 2025.

China’s demographic challenge

China’s changing demographics are seen as a stark challenge by officials, as the country’s labor force shrinks and its population of pension-drawing retired adults grows.

Years of stringent population control under the “one-child” policy, which was scrapped in 2016, have accelerated trends seen in other countries like Japan and South Korea, where falling birth rates have been seen as a result of rising education levels, changing views on marriage, rapid urbanization, and the higher cost of raising kids.

The aging of China’s society deepened in 2025, with the population of those aged over 60 standing at 323 million and making up 23% of the population, up one percentage point from 2024, the data shows.

A staggering half of the country’s population could be over 60 by 2100, according to United Nations projections – a reality with potentially far-reaching implications, for not only China’s economy but also its ambitions to rival the United States as a military power.

Half of China’s population could be over 60 by 2100, according to the UN. Go Nakamura/REUTERS/REUTERS

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has evoked the need for “population security” and made the “development of a high-quality population” a national priority. He’s also overseen a push to automate and upgrade the country’s manufacturing powerhouse, replacing human with robotic labor.

China’s central government last year began offering annual cash bonuses to families with children under the age of three, amended rules to streamline marriage registration, and kicked off a scheme for free public preschool.

Those add to a raft of incentives local governments have tried in recent years to boost birth rates – from tax breaks and financial assistance for buying and renting homes, to cash handouts and extended maternity leave.

Declining births last year relative to 2024 may also have been linked to the Chinese zodiac, with 2025’s “Year of the Snake” considered less desirable for offspring than the previous “Year of the Dragon.”

Analysts expect more policies or incentives to support births and marriage in the year ahead. But many believe it will be impossible to stem the decline, especially as young people struggle to find jobs and eye the high costs of raising children, while women say the uneven burden of childrearing discourages them from starting or expanding families.

Fewer babies may also have a more immediate economic impact.

“Children are ‘super consumers.’ With births at such low levels, China’s domestic demand is likely to remain weak, leaving the economy increasingly dependent on exports,” Yi Fuxian, a demographic expert and senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US.

Economic headwinds

China’s on-target GDP of 5% shows the resilience of its economy during a year when tariffs on Chinese imports into the US briefly reached triple-digit figures.

But the growth masks deeper challenges for the domestic economy that policymakers are under pressure to address in the year ahead, analysts say.

Expansion slowed to 4.5% in the fourth quarter, the lowest rate on record since economic reopening after the Covid-19 pandemic. The figure was slightly above the 4.4% figure forecast by analysts polled by Reuters, enabling the data to nail the 5% growth target in a year where economic growth started strong and lost momentum.

But while Beijing sought to project an image of resilience, economists remain concerned about weak household spending amid deflationary pressure and an overreliance on exports to drive growth – particularly at a time when governments globally have grown more alarmed by widening trade imbalances.

Chinese manufacturers and exporters made an agile pivot in 2025 to drive their goods deeper into markets across the world, including in Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America as their entry in the US market came under pressure from Trump’s levies. Those tariffs now stand at 20% imposed on top of pre-existing duties after a trade truce reached late last year.

Despite strong export-led momentum in the first half of 2025, the economy slowed in latter months, weighed down by tepid consumption growth, falling investment and plunging industrial profits.

In December, retail sales grew only 0.9%, compared with the 1.3% growth in November, highlighting the weakness in consumer spending.

Over the year, investment in housing, manufacturing and infrastructure slowed to a historic low, contracting 3.8%, according to the data released Monday – the first annual decline on record. Within that, real estate development declined by 17.2% amid a persistent property sector slum.

One bright spot for the economy was “strong AI & tech investments and robust financial market activities,” the Economist Intelligence Unit analysts said in a note Monday.

“Authorities did not rush a stimulus toward year-end because the 5% target was within reach, helped by strong exports,” they wrote.

In an apparent response to speculation that Donald Trump is considering an attempt to assassinate or remove Khamenei, Pezeshkian said in a post on X: “An attack on the great leader of our country is tantamount to a full-scale war with the Iranian nation.”

The Iranian president also blamed the US for the protests that have rocked Iran over the last two weeks and led to thousands of deaths among demonstrators.

“If there are hardship and constraints in the lives of the dear people of Iran, one of the main causes is the longstanding hostility and inhumane sanctions imposed by the US government and its allies,” Pezeshkian said.

Trump, in an interview with Politico on Saturday, called for an end to Khamenei’s nearly 40-year reign, calling him “a sick man who should run his country properly and stop killing people”.

The latest wave of unrest in Iran began on 28 December when widespread anger over soaring inflation, a collapsing currency and economic hardship spilled out of Tehran and into cities across the country, rapidly transforming demonstrations over living costs into broad anti-government protests demanding regime change.

As the movement grew, Iranian authorities responded on 8 January with a near total shutdown of internet and phone services, cutting off most global connectivity in an effort to suppress communication, obscure the scale of the unrest and stifle independent reporting, leaving many Iranians isolated from the outside world.

Last Tuesday, Trump urged Iranians to keep protesting and to “take over your institutions”, telling them “help is on its way”, as reports grew that a strike on Iran was imminent.

On Wednesday the US came close to launching military strikes on Iran but ultimately pulled back as Trump opted to pause amid mounting regional and diplomatic pressure.

The US news website Axios reported that Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had warned Trump that Israel was not prepared for Iranian retaliation and questioned the effectiveness of a US strike. Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, had also urged restraint, according to Axios, citing the risks to regional stability.

“It was really close,” a US official told Axios, adding that the order to strike never came.

In a social media post on Friday, Trump thanked Tehran’s leaders, claiming they had called off scheduled executions of 800 people, including that of Erfan Soltani, 26, the first Iranian protester sentenced to death since the unrest began.

Soltani, a clothing shop employee, was arrested in Karaj, a city north-west of Tehran, after participating in protests and was due to be executed on Wednesday, according to rights groups. Since his arrest, his family had received little news about his condition besides a brief, scheduled visit before his expected execution.

Over the weekend, Soltani’s family were able to visit him and establish that he was alive. “I am relieved to know my cousin Erfan is alive,” said Soltani’s cousin Somayeh, who lives in Germany. “However, I am worried because I received news that he has been tortured under custody and hasn’t received medical attention yet.

“I appeal to the international community to please bring attention to his detention conditions. I also appeal to European politicians to please sponsor his case to demand medical assistance for Erfan. I am also deeply worried for the thousands of other protesters in custody.”

At least 5,000 people have been killed in protests in Iran, including about 500 security personnel, an Iranian official in the region said on Sunday, citing verified figures and accusing “terrorists and armed rioters” of killing “innocent Iranians”.

During a speech on Thursday, Khamenei acknowledged for the first time that thousands of people had been killed, “some in an inhuman, savage manner”. He blamed the US for the death toll, railing against Trump, whom he called a “criminal” for his support of the demonstrations, and calling for strict punishment of the protesters.

On Sunday, monitors said some internet access had been restored in Iran. “Traffic data indicates a significant return to some online services including Google, suggesting that heavily filtered access has been enabled, corroborating user reports of partial restoration,” Netblocks said in a social media post.

An Iranian official who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue told Reuters some of the heaviest clashes and highest number of deaths had been in the Iranian Kurdish areas in the country’s north-west. Kurdish separatists have been active there and flare-ups have been among the most violent in recent periods of unrest.

The Human Rights Activists news agency said 24,348 protesters had been arrested in the crackdown.

No protests have been reported for days in Iran, where the streets have returned to an uneasy calm. Instead, some Iranians chanted anti-Khamenei slogans from the windows of their homes on Saturday night, the chants reverberating around neighbourhoods in Tehran, Shiraz and Isfahan, witnesses said.

AFP, Reuters and AP contributed to this report.

Trump granted a slew of pardons on Friday, including one for Adriana Camberos, who was convicted for a second time after Trump commuted her sentence during his first term. The latest pardon was for a 2024 conviction related to a scheme the Justice Department said involved deception in her resale of wholesale groceries and other goods. Camberos’ 2021 pardon centered around unrelated fraud.

While the move falls squarely within presidential clemency powers, it is unusual.

“A president absolutely does have the power to grant the same person two different pardons on two different cases, even if they’re sequential. The pardon power itself is essentially unlimited,” said CNN’s senior legal analyst Elie Honig.

While rare, Jeffrey Crouch, an associate professor at American University, pointed out that Trump, during his first term, “granted a form of clemency twice to the same person.”

There are two forms of clemency available to a president: a pardon and a commutation, both of which only apply to federal charges. A pardon fully erases a federal conviction while a commutation lessens the sentence.

“He commuted Roger Stone’s prison sentence in July 2020 and then granted him a full pardon in December 2020,” Crouch told CNN in an email. “And he commuted current Pardon Czar Alice Marie Johnson’s prison sentence in June 2018 and then granted her a full pardon in August 2020.”

Last year, Trump issued a second pardon to Dan Wilson, a militia member involved in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, covering separate firearm offenses that were not included in Trump’s initial sweeping pardon of January 6 rioters. The White House said the gun charges were ultimately related to the January 6 investigation.

President of pardons

More broadly, the acts of clemency for Camberos – pardoned for two unrelated crimes years apart – underscore an emboldened Trump who has escalated his use of clemency, far outpacing his first term and even his most recent predecessors. One year into his second term, Trump has issued roughly 1,609 pardons and clemencies, compared to 148 in four years during his first term.

Setting aside the approximately 1,500 January 6-related pardons, Trump has still granted a stunning 100 times more clemencies than he did at this point in his first term (just one in 2017).

Former President Joe Biden did not issue any pardons or clemency grants during his first year in office. But over the course of his presidency, Biden granted roughly 80 individual pardons, according to the Department of Justice, and granted a record 4,245 commutations, according to Pew Research Center. A large portion of those addressed non-violent drug-related offenses.

Trump has used his pardon power much more liberally than Biden – nearly 21 times as many pardons. Former President Barack Obama granted 212 pardons over his two full terms, according to the Justice Department’s official clemency records. While Obama issued more individual pardons than Trump did during his first term, Trump’s second-term actions, particularly the sweeping pardons tied to January 6, dramatically expand his overall use of the pardon power, surpassing Obama’s.

“It is unusual historically to see pardons granted this early and this frequently in a presidency,” Honig said. “Most presidents tend to wait until the very end of their presidencies, often, often granting the bulk of their pardons on their last day in office. Donald Trump is just granting pardons on a rolling basis.”

Doing so “might be actually a credit to him because it shows that he’s willing to take on whatever political consequences come with it,” Honig added. “You know, it’s always been seen as a little bit of a sneaking-out-the-door type phenomenon to drop your pardons on the last day.”

Trump’s pardon czar

One of the key officials leading the way for Trump has felt the firsthand impact of the president’s clemency. Trump named Alice Marie Johnson as White House pardon czar – a first-of-its-kind role – in February.

Johnson, a first-time nonviolent drug offender, served 21 years of a life sentence after she was convicted on drug-related charges. Trump commuted her sentence in 2018 and in 2020 granted her a full pardon. Johnson emerged as a top criminal justice reform advocate, and became close with the president’s daughter and former adviser, Ivanka Trump.

“You’ve been an inspiration to people and we’re going to be listening to your recommendation on pardons,” Trump told Johnson at a Black History Month event at the White House announcing her appointment.

He continued: “You’re going to find people just like you. … You’re going to look and you’re going to make recommendations, and I’ll follow those recommendations, ok, for pardons.”

January 6 rioters, political allies and donors

Guided by Johnson in close coordination with the Department of Justice and White House counsel’s office, Trump’s second-term pardons have fallen into a few key categories.

There’s the January 6 pardons, granted on Inauguration Day, and in a category of their own. Trump issued a “full, complete and unconditional pardon” to nearly every person who was convicted of attacking the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, marking the end of a sweeping four-year Justice Department probe. That included Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the far-right Proud Boys, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to 22 years in prison, along with members of other far-right extremist groups like the Oath Keepers and those who violently attacked police officers.

Then there are other actions Trump’s taken to go after what has called injustice and politically-motivated persecutions.

In November, Trump pardoned a long list of political allies who supported or were involved in plans to overturn the 2020 presidential election, including former Trump lawyers Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and former chief of staff Mark Meadows, among dozens of others. It was framed, according to Justice Department pardon attorney Ed Martin, as “(ending) a grave national injustice.”

And the president granted clemency to Mark Bashaw, an officer who formerly served at the Army Public Health Center and was convicted by a special court-martial of violating lawful orders to comply with Covid-19 mitigation measures, per the Army Times.

Then there are the clemency actions that have shown a pattern of rewarding individuals with close ties to financing Trump’s political orbit.

For example, a family member of Julio Herrera Velutini, who received a pardon from Trump on Friday related to misdemeanor charges, has close financial ties to Trump-related political entities. Herrera’s daughter, Isabela Herrera, has donated millions of dollars to the Trump-aligned Super PAC, MAGA Inc., according to campaign finance filings.

There was also a pardon for Trevor Milton, the CEO of now-defunct hydrogen and electric truck firm Nikola, which the president said was in part because he believed Milton was persecuted for supporting Trump’s political ambitions. Milton and his wife notably donated more than $1.8 million to a Trump re-election campaign fund, according to public records.

Some of Trump’s actions have focused on tech and cryptocurrency deregulation. Trump, a former crypto skeptic who did a 180 on the alternative financial assets while running for a second term, has pledged to make the US the “crypto capital of the planet.”

Trump pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who pleaded guilty to a money laundering charge in 2023 – a prosecution that press secretary Karoline Leavitt said was part of the Biden administration’s “war on cryptocurrency.” The Trump family has also established direct financial links to Binance through its crypto empire.

He also granted a pardon to Ross William Ulbricht, the founder of the Silk Road dark web marketplace, who had been serving a life sentence on charges related to the e-commerce site that the Justice Department had once described as “the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the Internet today.”

And Trump pardoned a trio of founders of cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX: Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo, and Samuel Reed.

There’s also been a pattern of clemencies granted to political leaders and other VIPs.

Trump pardoned the former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was sent to prison on corruption charges surrounding his time in office. Blagojevich appeared on Trump’s reality show, “The Celebrity Apprentice,” in 2010.

Another contestant from that season, baseball legend Darryl Strawberry, received a pardon for a 1995 tax evasion charge.

There was a pardon for the billionaire British investor Joe Lewis, the former owner of Tottenham Hotspur, who had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud. And clemency for former New York congressman Michael Grimm, who served seven months in prison for tax evasion a decade ago.

In one of his more controversial moves, Trump pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been convicted on drug trafficking. Trump received bipartisan criticism for the action, which some lawmakers said was at odds with his administration’s efforts to take aim at drug cartels. But Trump cast Hernández’s conviction as a “Biden horrible witch hunt.”

Trump on Friday pardoned former Puerto Rico Gov. Wanda Vázquez, who pleaded guilty to a campaign finance violation last summer. Vázquez, along with two co-defendants whom Trump also pardoned, was facing time behind bars after the Justice Department brought bribery charges connected to the financing of her 2020 campaign.

CNN’s Kevin Liptak and Marshall Cohen contributed to this report.

This story has been updated with additional details.

Trump has in recent weeks insisted Greenland must come under the control of the United States, saying that “anything less” than that would be “unacceptable.” He argued the US needs the territory for national security purposes, which could in turn strengthen NATO.

His repeated statements have strained diplomatic relations between the US and Denmark, which owns the territory but gives the local population the right to self-determination, while also prompting condemnation from NATO’s European member states.

In Denmark, thousands turned out on Saturday in the cities of Copenhagen, Aarhus, Aalborg and Odense to stand in solidarity with the Greenlandic population.

A protest kicked off later in Greenland’s capital of Nuuk. Just before 2p.m. local time there was an estimated crowd of 5,000 – a large proportion of the island’s population of 56,000. People waved banners including “Yankee go home,” and “Greenland is already great.”

In Copenhagen many waved banners with slogans including “Hands off Greenland” alongside the territory’s red and white flag, according to Reuters. The protests across Denmark were organized by Greenlandic organizations in cooperation with the NGO ActionAid Denmark. A statement from ActionAid said the unrest was planned to coincide with a visit of US senators to Denmark.

“We are demonstrating against American statements and ambitions to annex Greenland,” Camilla Siezing, Chair of the Joint Association Inuit – one of the Greenlandic organizations involved in planning the protests – said.

“We demand respect for the Danish Realm and for Greenland’s right to self-determination. Hopefully, we can show that we are many who support Greenland.”

In Greenland on Saturday, protesters were similarly defiant. Asked what her message to the US president was, one female protester in Nuuk, who didn’t give her name, told CNN, “We are not for sale.”

Another protester named Patricia said, “We have seen what he (Trump) does in Venezuela and Iran. He doesn’t respect anything, he just takes what he thinks is his… He misuses his power.”

A male protester, who didn’t give his name, said, “We do not accept this kind of aggression,” referring to Trump’s threats on Greenland.

“My biggest fear is that the US military come here and try to take over our country. But I don’t think it will happen.”

Amid the escalating situation, a US delegation of bipartisan lawmakers were sent to Copenhagen to meet with leaders from Denmark and Greenland.

In a press conference on Saturday, Democratic Senator Chris Coons, who is leading the delegation, said the Trump administration’s “tempo of statements” around Greenland’s potential acquisition was not constructive.

Senator Coons also expressed his respect to the indigenous people of Greenland, telling journalists that it was a “remote and difficult place to live, and that the population of Greenland has managed to carve out of an exceptionally difficult environment, a culture and an approach to living that is worthy of deep respect.”

The US lawmaker sought to highlight the partnership between the US and Denmark, including in the military sphere, saying that the delegation would visit a cemetery later Saturday to lay a wreath for Danish soldiers who fell fighting alongside American troops in conflicts such as the war in Afghanistan.

Reporting from Greenland’s capital of Nook, CNN’s International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson said the visit by the US lawmakers was intended to signal how much Denmark’s military partnership with the US is appreciated. “The visit to that cemetery today to lay a wreath, really for them, will sort of encapsulate how much the United States has valued that partnership, valued the lives laid down by Denmark, by Danish troops,” he said.

Just 36 years old at the time, the broad-shouldered colonel, standing at well over six feet (1.8m), wearing military fatigues, mirrored sunglasses and a red beret certainly made an impression when announcing the coup.

A relatively unknown member of an elite army unit, he declared that the government of ousted President Alpha Condé had disregarded democratic principles and that citizens’ rights were being trampled on.

After more than four years of acting as interim president, and going back on a promise not to run for leadership of the country, Doumbouya, now 41, was sworn in as the elected head of state on Saturday.

The discreet, disciplined and private man won 87% of the vote in December’s election against a severely depleted field.

Ex-Prime Minister Cellou Dalein Diallo, now in exile, described the process as a charade which generated “fabricated” results.

While seemingly enjoying some popular support, critics have questioned Doumbouya’s democratic credentials as some political parties have been banned, activists have mysteriously disappeared and media outlets been shut down.

Scrolling back through the social media accounts from the president’s office there is a sense of a carefully curated image.

The army man, now a general, has, for the main, ditched the camouflage in favour of the baseball cap and tracksuit, or a boubou – traditional Guinean attire of loose-fitting robes with elaborate embroidery. The shades though are still at times in evidence.

Pictures show him at the opening of schools, or transport and mining infrastructure or cycling through the streets of the capital, Conakry. The message is clear: this is a man of action who is working on behalf of the people.

“This was presenting an image of someone who can be close to civilians, someone who is a civilian leader and can be representative of the people,” Beverly Ochieng, senior analyst with Dakar-based security intelligence firm Control Risks, told the BBC.

“In some ways this is distancing himself from what brought him to power – a coup – and the fact that his entire career has been in the military.”

In the 15 years before he took power, Doumbouya gained extensive international experience, including being educated to master’s level in France and serving in the French Foreign Legion. He was also in Afghanistan, Ivory Coast, Djibouti, Central African Republic and worked on close protection in Israel, Cyprus and the UK.

But the donning of civilian clothes may not be entirely sincere, according to some analysts.

“I’m not sure that he has transitioned from a military man. I think that the military costume will remain even if he is conducting the return to civilian order,” argued Aïssatou Kanté, a researcher in the West Africa office of the Institute of Security Studies.

She referred to a ban on political demonstrations, the exclusion of Doumbouya’s main challengers in December’s election and the suspension of key opposition parties.

Human rights campaigners have demanded to know the whereabouts of two activists – Oumar Sylla (known as Foniké Menguè) and Mamadou Billo Bah – who have not been seen since July 2024. They suspect the men were taken by the military.

Press freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders has also expressed concern that journalist Habib Marouane Camara has been missing for more than a year. It has described how journalists are now censoring themselves and are fearful about what might happen to them.

Nevertheless, the 2021 coup was widely welcomed in the country and since then Doumbouya appears to have remained a popular figure.

Polling organisation Afrobarometer found that between 2022 and 2024 the proportion of people who trusted the president either “partially” or “a lot” grew from 46% to 53%.

The president-elect may not have a clearly defined ideology guiding him but for Kanté his emphasis on Guineans being in control of their own destiny has become very important.

“It’s what keeps coming up in official speeches – this affirmation of political and economic sovereignty,” she told the BBC.

In his address to the nation a few days into the new year, he struck a conciliatory tone, calling on all Guineans to build a nation of peace and “fully assumed” sovereignty.

In a country that continues to grapple with high levels of poverty despite plentiful natural resources – including the world’s largest reserves of bauxite, which is used to make aluminium – this idea strikes a chord.

The government’s messaging on the development of the vast iron-ore resources in Simandou underscores the possible benefits for the people.

The three billion tonnes of ore available in a remote southern part of the country, which began to be exported last month, could transform the global iron market, as well as Guinea’s fortunes.

The authorities say earnings from the project, partly owned by Chinese miners as well as the British-Australian corporation Rio Tinto, will be invested in new transport infrastructure as well as health and education.

The success or otherwise of Simandou may define Doumbouya’s presidency.

He appears determined to keep some of the processing and added-value parts of the industry in Guinea to ensure greater benefits.

Across the broader mining sector, his government has cancelled dozens of contracts over the past year where it was felt that the companies were not investing in Guinea – a move that has led one UAE-based firm to take the country to an international court.

“This move towards resource nationalism makes him look like a local hero. He looks like he’s really fighting for the rights of his citizens, even if that means business disruptions,” said analyst Ochieng.

The emphasis on sovereignty has also led to a pragmatic approach to international relations, observers say. Unlike coup leaders elsewhere in West Africa, Doumbouya has not outrightly rejected the former colonial power France in favour of Russia.

Neither, despite his background in France and having a French wife, has he been accused of being a puppet of Paris.

Doumbouya very much wants to be seen as someone running things in the interests of the country.

The president has preached a message of national unity and will hope that he can usher in a new era of prosperity for Guinea.

A violent response to the unrest has claimed 3,090 lives, according to US-based Iranian Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), with some activist groups putting the death toll far higher. An internet blackout has made it extremely difficult to get clear information.

In a speech on Saturday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said thousands had been killed and blamed the US for the deaths.

US PresidentDonald Trump recently urged Iranian demonstrators to “keep protesting” and threatened military intervention if security forces kill them.

The protests, which began on 28 December over the economy, have turned into calls for the end of the rule of Iran’s supreme leader.

The Iranian government has called the demonstrations “riots” backed by Iran’s enemies.

Protesters have been met with deadly force and videos of security forces shooting at demonstrations have been authenticated by both BBC Persian and BBC Verify.

There has also been a near-total shutdown of the internet and communication services in Iran. On Saturday overall connectivity remained at about 2% of ordinary levels, according to cyber monitor NetBlocks.

There have been fewer reports of unrest in recent days but with internet access still restricted developments on the ground remain unclear.

A woman in Shiraz, south-western Iran, told BBC Persian that “security forces are still patrolling on motorbikes to keep the situation under control, but overall things have gone back to normal”.

During his speech on Saturday, Khamenei also said Iran considered President Trump to be a “criminal” and said the US must be “held accountable” for recent unrest.

He also claimed on social media that “America’s goal is to swallow Iran”.

Trump has not yet responded to the supreme leader and the BBC has approached the White House for a comment.

The US state department said on Saturday that it had “heard reports that the Islamic Republic is preparing options to target American bases”.

It said Iran would be met with “a very, very powerful force” if it launched such an attack and warned Tehran not to “play games with President Trump”.

The US president said on Wednesday he had been told “the killing in Iran has stopped”, but added that he had not ruled out military action against the country.

His comments came after the US and UK both reduced the number of personnel at the Al-Udeid air base in Qatar.

Officials told CBS, the BBC’s US partner, that a partial American withdrawal was a “precautionary measure”.

He gained 72% of the vote, the election commission announced, against 25% for his closest challenger Bobi Wine, who has condemned what he described as “fake results” and “ballot stuffing”. He has not provided any evidence and the authorities have not responded to his allegations.

Wine has called on Ugandans to hold non-violent protests.

Museveni, 81, first came to power as a rebel leader in 1986 but since then has won seven elections.

The election process was marred by violence and Wine, a 43-year-old former pop star, says that at least 21 people have been killed around the country in recent days.

The authorities have so far confirmed seven deaths.

Access to the internet has been cut in the country since Tuesday, making it hard to verify information.

The authorities say the blackout was necessary to prevent misinformation, fraud and the incitement of violence – a move condemned by the UN human rights office as “deeply worrying”.

Wine has demanded that the internet be restored.

Overnight, Wine’s party said that he had been abducted from his home in the capital, Kampala – a claim denied by the police.

Wine later issued a statement on Facebook saying that he had managed to evade a night-time raid by security forces and was in hiding.

He had previously said he was under house arrest.

This has not been confirmed by the police but spokesman Kituuma Rusoke said Wine’s movements were restricted because his home was an area of “security interest”.

“We have controlled access to areas which are security hotspots,” Uganda’s Daily Monitor paper quoted him as saying.

“We cannot allow people to use some places to gather and cause chaos,” he said.

Wine says he represents the youth in a country where most of the population is aged under 30.

During the campaign, he promised to tackle corruption and impose sweeping reforms, while Museveni argued that he was the sole guarantor of stability in Uganda, a country with a history of conflict.

There were six other candidates but none got more than 2% of the vote. Turnout was 52.5%.

The campaign period was marred by the disruption of opposition activities – security forces have been accused of assaulting and detaining Wine’s supporters.

Rusoke, the police spokesperson, dismissed these complaints, accusing opposition supporters of being disruptive.

That’s according to India’s Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), which presently grants over 4,000 scholarships annually across various schemes for students from around 130 countries. More than a quarter of the total, representing 1,100 slots annually, are dedicated to students from 54 African countries under the India-Africa Scholarship Scheme.

In her briefing to a delegation of 27 distinguished journalists, mainly from West and Central Africa and Oceania as part of their familiarization programme in India, hosted by the XP Division of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Director General of ICCR Nandini K. Singla noted that fostering people-to-people ties through education remains core to India’s values and foreign policy position.

With India’s recent geopolitical rise as the world’s fourth-largest economy, Nandini Singla added that it was time for “brotherly civilisations” – Africa, whose partnership with India has evolved through shared historical experiences and a common development journey to further deepen collaboration to tap into the advancement of India for shared prosperity.

“We are not expecting anything in return..If one part of the world prospers while another remains poor, it eventually affects us all” the diplomat said.

She also explained that currently, amongst the top 10 countries availing the highest number of ICCR scholarships, five are from Africa with a total of 3,020 students from 45 African countries actively pursuing their studies in India under ICCR scholarships, including 727 at Andhra University and 188 at Delhi University alone.

“This is funded by the average Indian citizen,” Nandini Singla stated while adding that “India does not receive overseas development assistance. We stopped taking foreign aid many years ago. What we do in Africa and other developing regions is financed domestically.”

India’s Council for Cultural Relations ICCR has had a longstanding belief that Culture and education are powerful bridges. From its establishment until 1958, the ICCR was under the administrative jurisdiction of India’s Education Ministry.

In April 1970, the country’s Ministry of External Affairs assumed administrative and operational control of the Council in 1970-71 with a view to making the Council an effective instrument of India’s foreign policy.

With 37,000 Africans having received training and education in India over the years under scholarship and capacity-building programmes, this latest bid to support more Africa could lessen the cost burden for many of the countries across the continent which are facing a youth bulge.

Figures so far give Museveni 74% of the vote, with Wine on 23%, based on returns from 81% of polling stations.

Wine’s party said on social media that a helicopter had landed in the grounds of his house in the capital, Kampala, and “forcibly taken him away to an unknown destination”.

The son of the opposition leader said both his parents have been seized by the military, but difficulty accessing the internet in the country has made it difficult to verify this claim.

The local police told the BBC they were not aware of the incident.

Earlier, Wine said he had been placed under house arrest, with security forces surrounding his home, after he alleged fraud had taken place in Thursday’s election.

At that stage, police spokesman Kituuma Rusoke told local broadcaster NBS that as a presidential contestant, Wine was “a person of interest”, adding that the heavy security deployment around his home was for his own security.

Some local journalists said security forces had blocked them from accessing the opposition leader’s home in Kampala’s Magere area.

Wine told his supporters to ignore the “fake results” that have been announced, saying the authorities have been “stealing the vote”. He did not provide any evidence to back up his claim and the authorities have not responded to his allegations.

Late on Thursday, at least seven opposition supporters were killed in disputed circumstances in Butambala, about 55km (35 miles) south-west of the capital.

The internet shutdown imposed earlier in the week means news of the violence only emerged on Friday.

MP Muwanga Kivumbi, from Wine’s National Unity Platform (NUP) party, told the AFP news agency that soldiers and police fired tear gas and then live bullets at hundreds of people who were following early results announcements at his home.

“Ten were killed inside my house,” he said.

Human rights activist Agather Atuhaire confirmed this account to the Reuters news agency.

However, local police spokesperson Lydia Tumushabe disputes this, maintaining police fired in self-defence after “a group of NUP goons” had attacked a police station and planned to overrun a tallying centre.

She told Reuters they were carrying machetes, axes and boxes of matches and said at least seven people had been killed.

Later on Friday, the US embassy issued an alert to its citizens because of reports the security forces were “using tear gas and firing into the air to disperse gatherings”.

Following the 2021 election, in which he garnered 35% of the vote, Wine was confined to his home for several days by security forces.

Electoral chief Simon Byabakama said on Friday that the vote counting had not been affected by the internet blackout as the commission was using a “private system” to transmit results from districts to the national tally centre.

Asked about the timing of the final results announcement, Byabakama said: “We are on course to announce the winner of the presidential election within 48 hours. Before 5 PM [14:00 GMT] tomorrow, we shall have the final results.”

Thursday’s election followed an often violent campaign, with President Museveni, 81, seeking a seventh term in office. He first took power as a rebel leader in 1986.

Wine, a 43-year-old pop star-turned-politician, who says he represents the youth in a country where most of the population is aged under 30, has promised to tackle corruption and impose sweeping reforms, while Museveni argues he is the sole guarantor of stability and progress in Uganda.

Last week, the United Nation’s Human Rights Office said that the election would be marked by “widespread repression and intimidation”.

During Thursday’s vote, voting was delayed by up to four hours in many polling stations around the country as ballot boxes were slow to arrive and biometric machines, used to verify voters’ identity, did not work properly.

Some have linked the problems to the network outage.

Although there are six other candidates, the presidential poll is a two-horse race between Museveni and Wine.

The campaign period was marred by the disruption of opposition activities – security forces have been accused of assaulting and detaining Wine’s supporters.

Rusoke, the police spokesperson, dismissed these complaints, accusing opposition supporters of being disruptive.

Internet access was suspended on Tuesday, with Uganda’s Communications Commission saying the blackout was necessary to prevent misinformation, fraud and the incitement of violence – a move condemned by the UN human rights office as “deeply worrying”.

Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner will also sit on the “founding executive board”, the White House said in a statement on Friday.

Trump will act as chairman of the board, which forms part of his 20-point plan to end the war between Israel and Hamas.

It is expected to temporarily oversee the running of Gaza and manage its reconstruction.

Also on the founding executive board are Marc Rowan, the head of a private equity firm, World Bank chief Ajay Banga and a US national security adviser, Robert Gabriel.

Each member would have a portfolio “critical to Gaza’s stabilisation and long-term success”, the White House statement said.

Trump had said on Thursday that the board had been formed, calling it the “Greatest and Most Prestigious Board ever assembled at any time, any place”.

Further members of the board would be named in the coming weeks, the White House said.

Sir Tony was UK prime minister from 1997 to 2007 and took the UK into the Iraq War in 2003. After leaving office, he served as Middle East envoy for the Quartet of international powers (the US, EU, Russia and the UN).

It comes after the announcement of a separate 15-member Palestinian technocratic committee, the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), charged with managing the day-to-day governance of post-war Gaza.

Ali Shaath, a former deputy minister in the Palestinian Authority (PA) which governs parts of the occupied West Bank not under Israeli control, will head that new committee.

The statement also said that Nickolay Mladenov, a Bulgarian politician and former UN Middle East envoy, would be the board’s representative on the ground in Gaza working with the NCAG.

Trump’s plan says an International Stabilisation Force (ISF) will also be deployed to Gaza to train and support vetted Palestinian police forces and the White House statement said that US Major General Jasper Jeffers would head this force to “establish security, preserve peace, and establish a durable terror-free environment”.

The White House said that a separate “Gaza executive board” was being formed that would help support governance and includes some of the same names as the founding executive board as well as further appointees.

The US peace plan came into force in October and has since entered its second phase, but there remains a lack of clarity about the future of Gaza and the 2.1 million Palestinians who live there.

Under phase one, Hamas and Israel agreed a ceasefire in October, as well as a hostage-prisoner exchange, a partial Israeli withdrawal, and an aid surge.

Earlier this week Witkoff said phase two would see the reconstruction and full demilitarisation of Gaza, including the disarmament of Hamas and other Palestinian groups.

“The US expects Hamas to comply fully with its obligations,” he warned, noting these include the return of the body of the last dead Israeli hostage. “Failure to do so will bring serious consequences.”

However the ceasefire is fragile, with both sides accusing each other of repeated violations.

Almost 450 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since it came into force, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, while the Israeli military says three of its soldiers have been killed in attacks by Palestinian groups during the same period.

Humanitarian conditions in the territory remain dire, according to the UN, which has stressed the need for the unrestricted flow of critical supplies.

The war in Gaza was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 71,260 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

He noted that the absence of a substantive US ambassador in Ghana for the past year is a cause for concern.

Speaking on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen show, Mr. Jinapor said the situation “speaks volumes” about the current state of the bilateral relationship between the two countries.

He urged the government to tone down rhetoric and adopt a more measured approach to diplomacy, stressing the need to strengthen and deepen ties with the US through constructive engagement.

“Our bilateral relationship with the United States has a rich history. Currently, the US has not had a substantive ambassador in Ghana for about a year, which speaks volumes about our diplomatic relationship. This situation is concerning. Every foreign policy should promote national interests. Although we are a non-aligned country, it seems the government is leaning in another direction,” he said.

Mr. Jinapor emphasised that as a developing country, Ghana’s priority should be national development rather than involvement in global power rivalries.

He called on the government to focus on positioning Ghana in a way that promotes economic growth and long-term development, and to avoid being drawn into major geopolitical tensions.

“It is important for the government to take a step back, reduce rhetoric, and lower tension. We should engage in measured diplomacy to strengthen the bilateral relationship between Ghana and the US. As a developing country, our priority should be national development and positioning ourselves in a way that fosters progress and emancipation,” he said.

“We cannot afford to be preoccupied with conflicts involving major powers or larger geopolitical issues. Our utmost priority should be how we position Ghana to ensure that our national interests are promoted effectively,” he added.

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The development was disclosed in a Facebook post by the Ministry of Education on Thursday, January 15.

According to the Ministry, Burkina Faso’s Ambassador to Ghana, H.E. David Kabré, paid a courtesy call on the Minister for Education, Haruna Iddrisu, to discuss practical ways of deepening educational ties between the two countries.

Beyond student admissions, the discussions also addressed language barriers, with Burkina Faso proposing the training and deployment of teachers to improve English language instruction in the Francophone country.

In response, Minister Iddrisu assured the Ambassador of Ghana’s commitment to the initiative and announced plans for a Labour Exchange Programme. Under the programme, Ghanaian teachers will be deployed to Burkina Faso to teach English, while Burkinabè teachers will come to Ghana to teach French.

The initiatives are expected to boost cross-border academic exchange, promote bilingual education, and further strengthen regional integration between Ghana and Burkina Faso.

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The Uganda Communications Commission ordered mobile service providers to shut down public internet connections from 6 p.m. (1500 GMT) on Tuesday in order to curb “misinformation, disinformation, electoral fraud and related risks”, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

Security forces have detained hundreds of opposition supporters in the run-up to the election and repeatedly fired live bullets and tear gas at campaign events in support of Museveni’s leading challenger, pop star Bobi Wine.

REPORTS OF ARBITRARY ARRESTS

The U.N. Human Rights Office said in a report on Friday that Uganda’s police and military had used live ammunition to disperse peaceful rallies, carried out arbitrary detentions and abducted opposition supporters ahead of the vote.

A Ugandan government spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on the report.

Museveni’s government has defended the security forces’ actions as a justified response to what it called lawless conduct by opposition supporters.

“The UCC acknowledges the operational challenges this directive may impose and appreciates your full cooperation in upholding national stability during this sensitive period,” the UCC said in the letter dated Tuesday and addressed to Licensed Mobile Operators and Internet Service Providers.

The 81-year-old Museveni, who came to power in 1986 after leading a five-year rebellion, is Africa’s third-longest ruling head of state.

He has changed the constitution twice to remove age and term limits, and his dominance of Ugandan institutions means there is little prospect of an election upset in the East African country of 46 million people, political analysts say.

WATCHDOGS HAVE SPOKEN OUT ABOUT RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

Uganda’s internet went out at 6 p.m. local time, a Reuters witness confirmed.

The government also early on Tuesday ordered two local rights groups to cease operations before Thursday’s election, which the United Nations Human Rights Office says is taking place in an atmosphere of repression and intimidation.

The two groups had denounced the alleged arbitrary detention and torture of opposition supporters and journalists.

The state-run National Bureau for NGOs said in a letter to one of the groups, Chapter Four Uganda, that it was found to be involved in activities “prejudicial” to Uganda’s security and “should cease operations … with immediate effect”.

Robert Ssempala, who heads the Human Rights Network for Journalists-Uganda (HRNJ-U), told Reuters he had received the same letter ordering his organisation to stop operating.

Stephen Okello, head of the state NGO bureau, confirmed to Reuters that he had written the letters.

REPORTS OF ARBITRARY ARRESTS

The U.N. Human Rights Office said in a report on Friday that Uganda’s police and military had used live ammunition to disperse peaceful rallies, carried out arbitrary detentions and abducted opposition supporters ahead of the vote.

A Ugandan government spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on the report.

Museveni’s government has defended the security forces’ actions as a justified response to what it called lawless conduct by opposition supporters.

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Officials say Bello Turji leads one of many armed gangs which terrorise predominantly Muslim northwest Nigeria, killing and abducting residents, farmers, students and motorists for ransom.

Violence in Africa’s most populous country has attracted the attention of U.S. President Donald Trump, who has accused the government of failing to prevent the killing of Christians. Nigeria says gangs and militants target both Christians and Muslims and that Christians are not systematically persecuted.

Residents of the northwestern Tidibale community say Turji suspects a tip-off from the community to security forces led to recent military operations that killed one of his men.

Turji visited Tidibale three days ago and killed three people to enforce his order to the community to leave, said Basharu Altine Guyawa, Sokoto state coordinator of the Movement for Social Justice and Good Governance.

“He told them if anyone remains when he returns, they will be killed. He said he will not spare even a chicken,” Guyawa said.

Islamist militants from Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Boko Haram are also active in the region, where insurgency has persisted for 15 years. Last month, the United States carried out a strike against Islamic State militants in the northwest.

The Sokoto police spokesperson said residents were fleeing Tidibale community for fear of attack and that more police had been deployed to the area.

Local authorities have been evacuating people by truck to Isa, about 50 km (30 miles) away. Muhammad Ibrahim, secretary of the community security committee in Isa, said more than 3,000 people have been moved, including into the town’s schools.

“There is a humanitarian crisis. Educational activities have stopped,” Ibrahim said.

Tidibale lies about 100 km east of the state capital Sokoto. Local activists warn that dozens of villages have been abandoned as violence by armed gangs escalates in Nigeria’s northwest.

“The past three weeks were horrific. Killings and abductions have persisted,” said Usman Musa, a father of 15 who fled to Isa. “The government has ignored us. I want them to flush these bandits out.”

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Speaking on Channel One TV’s The Point of View during a discussion on geopolitics, global tensions, and Trump’s foreign policy posture, Professor Antwi Danso argued that the United States’ aggressive projection of power and democracy is increasingly undermining its own interests.

According to him, America’s long-standing reliance on diplomatic pressure, alliance politics, and sweeping sanctions to compel other nations has triggered a global backlash.

He noted that countries such as China and Russia, once sidelined in global decision-making, are now reasserting themselves and redefining their influence on the world stage — a shift he said has become a major source of frustration for Trump.

Professor Antwi Danso also highlighted the declining dominance of the US dollar, pointing out that more countries are exploring alternatives to dollar-based trade. He cited Saudi Arabia’s recent move away from exclusive dollar transactions, despite its historic 1974 agreement with the United States that entrenched the petrodollar system.

“The forceful nature of America’s thrust into the world with their democracy and domineering character is now balancing back at them in all facets,” he said. “They have relied on diplomatic cohesion and sanctions to cow the world, and the consequences are now evident.”

He added that China and Russia’s renewed confidence and strategic reassessment are unsettling Washington, especially at a time when the dollar’s dominance is being challenged globally.

“These are some of the issues itching Trump to want to bring America back to dominance,” Professor Antwi Danso concluded, “but the methodology being pursued is wrong — extremely wrong.”