More than 200 lawmakers voted in favour of the draft legislation on Thursday, surpassing the vote threshold required for a two-thirds majority to amend the constitution.

The bill also scraps direct presidential elections, with future presidents chosen by parliament.

Mnangagwa, 83, took power in 2017 after ousting long-time ruler Robert Mugabe with the backing of the military, and went on to win disputed elections in 2018 and 2023.

The bill now heads to the senate, where it is also expected to secure approval, before being enacted by the president.

This is the culmination of a campaign by the ruling Zanu-PF party – in power since independence in 1980 – to amend the constitution and extend presidential terms, a plan that received cabinet backing in February.

The president had previously described himself as a constitutionalist and pledged to respect term limits.

During Thursday’s vote, Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda announced that 216 lawmakers had backed the legislation, surpassing the 187 votes required to amend the constitution. Forty-two lawmakers voted against it.

The amendment contains several provisions:

• Presidential elections – held since 1990 – are scrapped
• Parliament elects the next president
• Parliamentary and presidential terms extended from five to seven years
• Parliamentary elections scheduled for 2028 delayed to 2030
• President Mnangagwa, whose second and final term is due to end in 2028, remains in office until 2030.

Opposition parties, civil society groups and constitutional lawyers have argued that such fundamental changes should be put to a national referendum rather than being approved solely through parliament.

Initially hailed by supporters as a reformer who would restore economic growth and democratic governance, Mnangagwa’s presidency has instead been marked by economic challenges, disputed elections and growing concerns over democratic backsliding.

The latest constitutional changes have intensified debate over Zimbabwe’s political future, with opponents warning that the amendments could weaken democratic accountability, while supporters maintain they are necessary to ensure continuity and stability.

A new constitution adopted in 2013 restricted a president to serving a maximum of two terms, adding that any move to extend term limits would need to be endorsed by voters in a referendum and that a sitting president cannot benefit from any extension unless voters give their approval in a second referendum.

However, on Wednesday, the country’s Constitutional Court dismissed a legal challenge seeking to block the bill.

Cambridgeshire Police said it was called to Johnson’s of Old Hurst, near Huntingdon, at 13:24 BST.

The boy was taken to Addenbrooke’s Hospital with serious injuries and is in a critical but stable condition, the force said.

A 30-year-old man from Norfolk has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and officers added that they do not believe the man and child were known to each other.

The force said it was investigating whether the child was attacked by the animals.

A spokesperson for Johnsons of Old Hurst said its thoughts and prayers were with the boy and his family.

“Out of respect to the family, our Tropical House will remain closed until further notice,” they added.

“If you have any questions about the incident, please direct inquiries to Cambridgeshire Police Constabulary.

“The rest of the site will remain open as normal.”

Det Insp Verity McCann, from Cambridgeshire Police, said: “At this stage we are speaking to people who were at the zoo at the time of this distressing incident to understand more about the circumstances.

“We do not believe the man arrested and the child are known to each other. Officers are supporting the boy’s family at hospital, and our thoughts remain with them.”

Huntingdon MP Ben Obese-Jecty wrote on social media that his “thoughts were with the young victim and his family during a hugely traumatic and difficult time” and he urged people to “refrain from speculation online”.

He said he was “liaising with senior officers at Gold Command who are treating this as a critical incident”.

Darryl Preston, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough’s police and crime commissioner, said he had been briefed by Chief Constable Simon Megicks.

“My thoughts go out to the family of the little boy involved in this truly horrific incident,” he said.

“I can only begin to imagine the trauma those involved are going through.”

A spokesperson for the East of England Ambulance Service said an ambulance, a rapid response vehicle, an ambulance officer vehicle and Magpas Air Ambulance attended the scene.

“A child was transported by road to hospital for further care,” they added.

A Magpas Air Ambulance spokesperson said a critical care team attended the incident at 13:42 and “treated one patient at the scene before taking them to hospital”.

A near neighbour of the zoo, who did not wish to be named, described hearing a “lot of sirens” then an air ambulance arriving.

He said the incident was “shocking”.

Mike Annicelli, 52, who also lives close to the zoo, said he had previously visited the attraction.

He said there was a “raised platform” in the enclosure and estimated the crocodiles were about 15ft (4.5m) below. He said there was fencing along walkways which he estimated was around 4ft (1.2m) high.

According to its website, Johnson’s of Old Hurst is a family-run farming business that now features a butchers, a farm shop, tea room, steakhouse and zoo.

It says it “houses over 100 fascinating animals” including crocodiles, African lions and a Bengal tiger.

The crocodiles are kept in a converted cattle barn, which has metal-fenced elevated walkways looking down on large pools of water surrounded by tropical vegetation.

Charlotte Lowe, who represents Old Hurst on Huntingdonshire District Council and Cambridgeshire County Council, said she was “shocked” when she heard about the incident.

“To have something like this happen here is just incredible,” she said. “You don’t expect this to happen in a rural village.”

The enclosure had safety measures in place, she added, including Perspex glass and secure walkways, and the zoo was a popular attraction to visitors from all over the country.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of the young boy suffering in this,” she added.

The students staged a peaceful demonstration outside the High Commission on Monday, claiming they have not received tuition payments and living stipends promised by the Government of Ghana for more than 18 months.

According to the group, they are owed a total of £238,852 in tuition fees and stipend arrears, a situation they say has prevented them from graduating despite successfully completing their academic programmes.

Speaking on Accra-based Citi FM, the group’s convener, Noah Krah, expressed disappointment over what he described as a lack of engagement from officials at the mission.

“In four hours, not a single official of the Ghana High Commission came outside to speak with us. There was no acknowledgement, no engagement, and no response of any kind through any formal channel,” he said.

Mr. Krah alleged that tensions escalated after two students entered the High Commission premises in an attempt to seek answers.

“They started verbal abuse on my colleagues, saying ‘kwasiafo’ and using words like useless people, and Bridget Bonney even said we don’t deserve taxpayers’ money,” he alleged.

According to him, the situation worsened when one of the students, Abena Fosuah, attempted to record the exchange.

“My colleague, Abena Fosuah, decided to pull out her phone to record the incident. So Bridget Bonney and other members, whose identities we have yet to establish, forcibly took Abena Fosuah’s phone and deleted all her recordings, including interviews she took for her academic work,” he claimed.

Mr. Krah further disclosed that a formal complaint had been submitted to the Head of Education and Recruitment at the High Commission.

“I sent an update of the protest and the resulting incident of assault to the Head of Education and Recruitment at the Ghana High Commission. As of now, I’m speaking with you, they have not responded,” he stated.

The students are demanding an investigation into the alleged incident, the immediate payment of all outstanding scholarship funds, and a formal apology from those involved.

Mr. Krah said medical personnel who examined the affected student confirmed she had sustained soft tissue injuries that could take up to two weeks to heal.

“The victim has been given prescriptions and also advised to report the matter to the Police, Citizens Advice and the Ombudsman,” he said.

He added that the student had undergone an X-ray examination and had been offered mental health support, as she remains traumatised by the alleged incident.

Meanwhile, the Ghana High Commission is yet to publicly respond to the allegations.

ALSO READ:

• Ghanaian Students in UK demand immediate payment of scholarship arrears

• “Don’t even try” – UK PhD Cohort President tells prospective gov’t scholarship applicants

• Death toll from the outbreak that began in early May rose from ​74, with about 7,800 ​infections reported.
  
• OCHA said aid agencies were ‌scaling ⁠up treatment, surveillance and access to clean water to support government efforts to contain ​the ​outbreak.
  
• A $4 ⁠million injection from OCHA-managed funds was bolstering ​the emergency response, but ​more ⁠resources were urgently needed to strengthen prevention and treatment, ⁠OCHA ​said.

However, it warned that more resources are urgently needed to strengthen prevention measures and expand treatment capacity as the situation worsens in the conflict-hit region.

He made the remarks on Thursday, June 18, 2026, at the High-Level Consultative Conference on “Next Steps” under the UN Resolution on enslaved Africans, held in Accra.

Addressing delegates, President Faye commended Ghana for leading efforts to address historical injustices linked to slavery and reaffirmed Senegal’s commitment to supporting the global initiative.

He stressed that the time had come to move beyond declarations and translate commitments into tangible actions that engage all sectors of society.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, our duty today is to actualise these resolutions and move with concrete action; actions which attract the people, actions which speak to the youth, artists, intellectuals and civil society.

“Action that reinforces cooperation between Africa, the Caribbean, the Americas and all stakeholders involved in this move,” he said.

President Faye further outlined Senegal’s ongoing efforts to strengthen people-to-people links, promote historical research, and advance education aimed at building a more just and equitable future.

“Senegal has convincingly rolled out a dynamic agenda constantly fostering a link between the people to support historical research, promote education and prepare a future more just and equal,” he added.

He expressed hope that the Accra conference would mark a significant milestone in the collective journey toward justice, dignity, and a shared future for descendants of enslaved Africans.

The conference brought together world leaders, policymakers, and stakeholders to discuss practical steps toward implementing the UN resolution and advancing reparative justice globally.

No outstanding arrears under ‘No Fee Stress’ policy – Education Minister

Deploying divers won’t solve flood deaths; tackle illegal building first —..

“I heard the first gunshots at 06:00 local time (05:00 GMT) while I was at the mosque. But the current situation is under control,” one person said.

The gunfire, which lasted for two hours, came from the entrance at the Diori Hamani international airport, a witness told the AFP news agency.

Niger has been fighting an Islamist insurgency for a decade and in January suspected jihadists launched an attack on the same airport.

Like its neighbours, Burkina Faso and Mali, Niger is run by a military junta that came to power in part because of a failure to deal with the violence.

Residents have told the BBC that Thursday’s attack was repelled by the army, which is now hunting down the fleeing assailants who reportedly abandoned their weapons.

The authorities have not yet commented and no group has said it was responsible but an affiliate to the Islamic State group said it had carried out January’s assault.

Niger’s defence ministry said that in January’s attack, four military personnel were injured and 20 attackers killed.

At the time, the head of Niger’s military government, which has been in power for three years, thanked Russia for its help in foiling the attack. Abdourahamane Tiani also accused the presidents of France, Benin and Ivory Coast of backing those responsible.

He did not give details of what help Russia had provided, or provide any evidence to support his accusations against the other countries.

In recent weeks, authorities in Niger have demolished neighbourhoods near the airport, citing “terrorist risks”.

They have also extended the airport’s perimeter fence and installed more than 350 surveillance cameras, AFP reports.

The three-day conference, convened by President John Dramani Mahama, is scheduled to take place from June 17 to June 19, 2026.

Among the high-profile dignitaries attending are the presidents of Senegal, Namibia, Liberia and São Tomé and Príncipe, the Prime Minister of Barbados, the Vice Prime Minister of Equatorial Guinea, the Speaker of the Algerian Parliament, as well as ministers and senior government officials from across Africa, the Caribbean, the Americas and other parts of the world.

French President Emmanuel Macron is also expected to attend the event.

Speaking ahead of the conference, Minister for Foreign Affairs Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said the gathering is expected to strengthen international efforts toward achieving reparatory justice and foster collaboration among political leaders, policymakers, academics and advocates.

According to him, discussions will focus on practical pathways for addressing both the historical and present-day consequences of the transatlantic slave trade.

The conference comes three months after the adoption of United Nations Resolution A/RES/80/250, which declared transatlantic enslavement the gravest crime against humanity.

The landmark resolution has intensified global calls for meaningful action to address the enduring effects of slavery and colonial exploitation.

President Mahama, who has positioned Ghana at the forefront of international reparatory justice advocacy, is expected to use the conference to promote greater global cooperation and encourage the development of concrete frameworks for reparations and restorative justice.

Organisers say the conference is expected to produce recommendations aimed at strengthening international advocacy, promoting historical accountability and advancing policies designed to address the legacy of slavery and colonialism.

The event is being closely watched by governments, civil society organisations and international institutions engaged in the growing global movement for reparatory justice.

READ ALSO:

Mahama hosts Bono Regional House of Chiefs at Presidency

Equatorial Guinea government resigns after failing to meet barely 10% of its targets

Mohammed Saidu was taken to court in the city of Kano after residents reported the foul smell to environmental officials.

Magistrate Halima Wali ordered that he be detained for 14 days and fined 100,000 naira (£55; $74). She described his actions as highly inconsiderate and a threat to his neighbours’ health.

Saidu, whose job is to empty sceptic tanks, is believed to have been selling the faeces to farmers to use as fertiliser – a common practice in the region, but which is rarely publicly acknowledged.

“I think he had close to 50 bags of faeces the first time the complaint reached me,” local chief Musa Abdullahi told the BBC.

Neighbours said the stench from the property had become so overwhelming that it was impossible to relax at home.

One of those who complained, Samaila Inuwa, told the BBC that they had initially tried to resolve the matter privately.

“We spoke to him about it but he didn’t stop,” Inuwa said.

In court, Saidu pleaded guilty to the charge of endangering public health.

Before delivering her ruling, Magistrate Wali visited the property to see the bags of faeces for herself.

She ordered Saidu to clear all the waste from the premises and promise never to repeat the offence.

Inuwa said life had already improved for residents since the case was brought to court.

“Finally, our neighbourhood is enjoyable once more without any bad smell,” he said.

The local chief said he had intervened when Saidu started storing the waste.

“When he first started it, I spoke to him about it and he packed them out [removed them] and stopped,” he said. “I did not know when he resumed.”

He added that neighbours had chosen to bypass him this time and go directly to the authorities.

Abdullahi said his own home was far enough away that he had not been affected by the smell, but he understood the residents’ frustration.

“My mission is for everybody in this area to live in peace,” he said. “When he is released, we will talk to him and the neighbours again.”

ALSO READ:

• Boy, 7, battling for life as poo is stuck in bowel

• Landlord found dead in his room in bizarre state [Photos]

Trump said it would take place “sometime in the future”, adding India and the US were close to agreeing a trade deal.

Relations between the two superpowers came under strain after Trump announced his plans to impose tariffs on India last year.

The killing of three Indian sailors by the US military last week further complicated the relationship.

The sailors were killed in the Gulf of Oman in a strike after the US military targeted a tanker which it accused of violating its blockade on Iranian ports.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the safety of Indian sailors working in the Strait of Hormuz with Trump during their meeting at the G7 summit.

The pair also discussed their efforts to reach a trade deal – negotiations which were set back by a recent US announcement that new import taxes on countries judged not to be doing enough to tackle forced labour, including India.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Trump called Modi a “tough negotiator”, and pledged to visit the country soon.

India has been pressing Trump to visit for several months now, potentially as part of a meeting with Japan and Australia.

Questioned on the US-India defence relationship, Trump said America would “help” India if they were “attacked”.

Referencing Modi, he said: “If anybody attacks that man, we’re going to be there… Now, if there’s a new leader, I’m not sure about it.”

The meeting followed a period of heightened tension between the two nations. Delhi summoned a senior US diplomat twice following the killings of the Indian sailors and strikes on other tankers with Indian crew.

Domestically, Modi has been criticised by opposition parties for not directly condemning the US’s actions and demanded that he raise the matter with Trump.

In a speech to G7 leaders on Tuesday, Modi mentioned the conflict in the Middle East, adding that “several Indian civilians” had lost their lives and that the safety of seafarers should be ensured.

“Today the world does not suffer from a shortage of resources; it suffers from a shortage of trust. And the future of our partnerships depends on building this trust,” the prime minister said in remarks that some commentators in India linked to the meeting with Trump.

India imports about 90% of its oil and has been badly hit by the war in Iran and the closure of the vital Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and gas supplies are normally transported.

Even if the strait reopens soon, global oil and gas supplies could take months to stabilise.

• Rubio meets Modi during India visit with energy high on agenda

The meeting at the G7 marked a significant tonal shift in the relationship between Trump and Modi.

In February last year, Modi travelled to Washington for a frosty meeting with Trump at the White House.

Officials are set to meet in Delhi next week to negotiate the “final touches” to the US-India trade deal, as described by India’s commerce secretary.

India was among the first countries to open trade talks with the US last year, but the process has proven complicated.

At one point, the US imposed tariffs of up to 50% on certain Indian goods before reducing them to 18% after the two countries agreed to an interim trade deal in February. The rates are currently at 10% after the US Supreme Court struck down many of Trump’s tariffs, ruling them “illegal”.

It is not clear when or if the proposed new tariffs concerning forced labour will come into effect.

Over the past year, Delhi was also irritated by Trump’s claims that he brokered an India-Pakistan ceasefire after a conflict and his offer to mediate on Kashmir, a disputed region claimed by both countries.

Delhi rejects third-party mediation on Kashmir, and Modi “strongly” communicated this to Trump last year. In the months since then, Pakistan has managed to keep Trump on side, even playing the role of an intermediary between Washington, Tehran and the Arab capitals.

Other sources of tension include the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration and restrictions on H-1B visas that have long been a pathway for skilled Indians to work in the US.

Brent crude futures were down 89 cents, or 1.12%, at $78.66 a barrel as of 0005 GMT, and U.S. West Texas Intermediate ​fell 98 cents, or 1.28%, to $75.81 a barrel.

The benchmarks resumed their decline, ​reversing gains made on Wednesday after U.S. President Donald Trump said ⁠he could resume his bombing campaign if Iran’s leaders “don’t behave”.

“The sell-off extended as ​energy markets continued to aggressively price in a faster-than-expected return of Iranian barrels ​following the recent U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding,” IG market analyst Tony Sycamore said in a note.

The 14-point memorandum begins a 60-day negotiation period during which Iran will allow toll-free passage through the ​Strait of Hormuz, a key oil and gas shipping lane. The deal ​calls for traffic through the strait to be restored to its full capacity within 30 days.

The ‌preliminary ⁠accord defers many of the more difficult issues such as Iran’s nuclear program, and also requires the U.S. and its partners to come up with a $300 billion plan to finance Iran’s recovery.

If the agreement is successfully implemented and the Strait ​reopened, this year’s ​supply crisis could ⁠turn into a significant supply glut in 2027, the IEA cautioned on Wednesday, forecasting in its monthly market report that supply ​will outstrip demand by 5.05 million barrels per day next ​year as ⁠Middle East oil returns to the market.

The U.S. Federal Reserve is also increasingly weighing whether it will need to raise interest rates later this year to rein in ⁠inflation, which ​could slow economic growth and suppress oil demand.

Nine of 19 Fed policymakers now think a rate hike will be needed, Wednesday projections showed, a departure from three months ago, when none of them held that view.

Diezani Alison-Madueke, 65, was found not guilty after a trial at London’s Southwark Crown Court of five counts of accepting bribes and a charge of conspiracy to commit bribery.

Alison-Madueke was Nigeria’s oil minister between 2010 and 2015 and the first female president of the oil exporters group Opec.

The verdict is a blow for the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), which had been investigating one of Africa’s most prominent political figures for 13 years.

From the start of the trial in January, defence lawyers questioned the fairness of the prosecution’s case, suggesting vital documents showing Alison-Madueke’s innocence had gone missing in Nigeria.

They also said the long delay in bringing the case to court was unjust and a sign of Britain’s “broken criminal justice system”.

Also cleared by the jury was Alison-Madueke’s older brother, Doye Agama, 69, an archbishop at a Pentecostal church in Manchester, who was acquitted of conspiracy to commit bribery.

Oil industry executive Olatimbo Ayinde, 54, was found not guilty of bribery and bribery of a foreign public official.

She had faced prosecution despite being an informant in an anti-corruption probe by the Nigerian authorities.

‘Madam due process’

Alison-Madueke portrayed herself in court as a role model for women, a tireless fighter against corruption, and someone so much of a stickler for the rules that she was nicknamed “Madam due process”.

She became the first female member of the Nigerian board of oil and gas giant Shell in 2006, and four years later was appointed oil minister, the country’s second-most senior politician. She became president of OPEC in 2014.

“In a very patriarchal society, to have a woman sitting at the helm was a major no-no,” she told the court, suggesting this had made her a target for unnamed male opponents.

Prosecutor Alexandra Healy KC said the former minister improperly allowed powerful men with lucrative government contracts in the oil business to bankroll her extravagant lifestyle.

Six of them were named on the indictment, although none were charged.

But the prosecution failed to provide evidence that she awarded contracts to any of the oil tycoons named because of bribes.

“At no time did I ask, take, ‌or ⁠seek a bribe or bribes of any sort,” Alison-Madueke told the court, saying many of the luxury items purchased were not for her, and that she had been with the oil men to offer advice on interior design in their own properties.

Alison-Madueke told the court that Nigerian ministers were not allowed to hold foreign bank accounts while serving overseas, and that her department’s office in London was in such disarray that she relied on wealthy businessmen to fund her living expenses.

She said they were always reimbursed in Nigeria, and evidence proving this had been seized from her home in Abuja, but never produced by the authorities there.

Former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan, who had appointed Alison-Madueke, did not appear as a witness. But he provided a statement in which he said that third parties would often pay for transport, accommodation, and other expenses for ministers on official overseas business.

Questions raised by the case

There were a number of unanswered questions that seem to have fatally undermined the prosecution.

Defence barrister Jonathan Laidlaw KC questioned why the Nigerian government had not sought to prosecute Alison-Madueke.

He said Alison-Madueke had “effectively been kept prisoner in this country for almost 11 years… unable to work, unable to travel” while the NCA had “done nothing to bring about the extradition” of the six oil men said to have paid bribes to her.

The jury was not told why they had not been charged.

The defence claimed the investigation had been compromised from the start because the NCA was denied access to the search of Alison-Madueke’s Abuja home in 2015.

They relied on work done on their behalf by Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

But while the prosecution told the jury to trust how the EFCC had gathered evidence against Alison-Madueke, at the same time it advised them to disregard the commission’s evidence in relation to a co-defendant in the trial.

The defence case of Olatimbo Ayinde, the oil industry executive who was also found not guilty by the jury, was that she had been working as an informant for the Nigerian authorities to expose corruption.

Ayinde, a Nigerian businesswoman with British citizenship, said she had been encouraged by the West African country’s security services to “play along” with those in government who were asking her for bribes.

An EFCC investigator, who had travelled from Nigeria to London, told the court that Ayinde had given “vital information that assisted the investigation”.

“Miss Ayinde’s plan was to help law enforcement, and now she’s there in the dock,” said her barrister, Jonathan Lennon KC, who had sought unsuccessfully to have his client’s case thrown out of court.

In a statement after the verdict, Alison-Madueke said her “nightmare is over”.

She said: “For 11 long, gruelling years this case has hung over my head and has tormented my family and me. But today, the past decade of relentless and unjust vilification, condemnation and scrutiny has finally come to an end.”

Obiang, who is also the son of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, said the prime minister had presented the resignation of all members of the government because it had barely reached 10% of its targets.

He did not specify the targets, but a statement by the ruling party said the president had observed that the government fostered corruption and failed to diversify the economy.

President Obiang is the world’s longest-serving leader who has ruled the oil-rich West African country since 1979 with a strong grip, while naming family members to key government roles.

The president appointed the outgoing government in 2024, with Manuel Osa Nsue Nsua as prime minister.

On Tuesday, the vice-president said the resignation was in line with “the principle that responsibility in public management must be accompanied by results”.

“The degree of execution achieved is clearly insufficient in relation to the expectations and commitments undertaken,” he posted on X.

In a statement on Facebook, the ruling Democratic ‌Party ⁠of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE) said the president was dissatisfied with the management of the outgoing government. A new government is expected to be appointed.

The statement further cited the misuse of state resources for personal interests and stagnation in the implementation of development projects.

The president also noted that the government had not implemented policies to diversify the economy, especially in the agricultural sector, which would cut reliance on imported goods that can be produced locally.

Equatorial Guinea’s economy is heavily reliant on petroleum, with oil and gas accounting for most of its exports and revenues.

In spite of its oil wealth, much of its 1.8m population has not benefited, as poverty remains rampant. In recent years, the economy has been on a decline amid reduced production and demand for oil.

READ ALSO:

Russian artist and Putin critic shot dead in Poland

Israel launches fresh strikes on Lebanon despite US President Trump criticism

Mohammed Saidu was taken to court in the city of Kano after residents reported the foul smell to environmental officials.

Magistrate Halima Wali ordered that he be detained for 14 days and fined 100,000 naira (£55; $74). She described his actions as highly inconsiderate and a threat to his neighbours’ health.

Saidu, whose job is to empty sceptic tanks, is believed to have been selling the faeces to farmers to use as fertiliser – a common practice in the region, but which is rarely publicly acknowledged.

“I think he had close to 50 bags of faeces the first time the complaint reached me,” local chief Musa Abdullahi told the BBC.

Neighbours said the stench from the property had become so overwhelming that it was impossible to relax at home.

One of those who complained, Samaila Inuwa, told the BBC that they had initially tried to resolve the matter privately.

“We spoke to him about it but he didn’t stop,” Inuwa said.

In court, Saidu pleaded guilty to the charge of endangering public health.

Before delivering her ruling, Magistrate Wali visited the property to see the bags of faeces for herself.

She ordered Saidu to clear all the waste from the premises and promise never to repeat the offence.

Inuwa said life had already improved for residents since the case was brought to court.

“Finally, our neighbourhood is enjoyable once more without any bad smell,” he said.

The local chief said he had intervened when Saidu started storing the waste.

“When he first started it, I spoke to him about it and he packed them out [removed them] and stopped,” he said. “I did not know when he resumed.”

He added that neighbours had chosen to bypass him this time and go directly to the authorities.

Abdullahi said his own home was far enough away that he had not been affected by the smell, but he understood the residents’ frustration.

“My mission is for everybody in this area to live in peace,” he said. “When he is released, we will talk to him and the neighbours again.”

READ ALSO:

NPP defends record on Afari Military Hospital, says project is 98% complete

Three million gallons of palm oil ready for distribution to SHSs

Polish prosecutors said Robert K, known as the artist Semyon Skrepetsky, was shot dead on Monday morning in the Polish town of Biała Podlaska, about 40km (25 miles) from the Belarusian border.

The 44-year-old was shot five times in the head, chest and back in a car park in the town, located about 600m (2,000ft) from the Belarusian consulate.

Semyon Skrepetsky was the pseudonym used by Robert Kuzovkov. He was known for his caricatures of politicians, including Putin, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

Police have detained two Belarusian citizens, aged 33 and 37, near the Belarusian consulate in the town and their role in the incident is still being determined, says Marcin Kozak, spokesman for the district prosecutor’s office in the eastern city of Lublin.

Skrepetsky was given asylum in Biała Podlaska, a small town with a population of less than 60,000, after he left Russia in 2021 fearing criminal prosecution.

Kozak said the artist was approached by an unidentified gunman who fired two shots at him.

“When the victim fell to the ground, the perpetrator approached, fired three more shots and then quickly fled the scene. Robert K died at the scene,” he added.

Five shell casings and one Geco 9mm Luger bullet were recovered from the crime scene, Kozak said.

A post mortem examination has been scheduled for Wednesday.

Belarusian artist Vladislav Bokhan, who knew Skrepetsky, said he had found out about the shooting from Polish radio and immediately felt concerned: “I thought, that’s where Skrepetsky lives. I know it’s a very small town.”

“The victim engaged in public artistic activities and used among other things, the pseudonym Semyon Skrepetsky, under which he expressed criticism of the current policies of the Russian Federation authorities,” Kozak said.

Skrepetsky’s satirical cartoons had depicted Putin in the arms of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, Lukashenko as Adolf Hitler with a bucket of potatoes and Kadyrov and his son Adam with pigs’ snouts.

He had also mocked Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny as well as ordinary Ukrainians and his Polish address was freely available online. His work was posted on Telegram and on his YouTube channel.

Skrepetsky is survived in Poland by his wife and five children.

Video posted on social media the night before his death showed the artist attending a Russia Day protest outside the Russian embassy in Berlin on Friday.

about:blank

He had been carrying a painting caricaturing Putin and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, as well as a Russian flag tied to his trousers that had been dragging along the road.

“I kept telling him: ‘Mate, they’re going to come for you, they’re going to come for you, they’re going to come for you. Please be prepared, always stay alert,” Bulat Subkhankulov, a friend of Skrepetsky, told the BBC.

Subkhankulov believes he had become carried away. “I kept telling him that it could end badly… Eventually I realised there was no point. That’s just the kind of guy he was: completely reckless and stubborn.”

On Wednesday, Israeli jets struck the Nabatieh al-Fawqa area and the outskirts of neighbouring Kfar Tebnit, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) said. The Israeli military has not yet commented, but has previously said it is targeting the Iran-backed armed group Hezbollah.

The text of a deal between the US and Iran to end the war has not been released, but mediator Pakistan says it includes Lebanon.

On Tuesday, Trump said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needed “to be more responsible with respect to Lebanon”.

Speaking at the G7 summit in France, he also said that Israel had been fighting Hezbollah for “too long and too many people are being killed”.

Both Israel and Hezbollah have carried out attacks against each other since the US-Iran agreement was announced on Sunday night.

Earlier that day, an Israeli air strike on Beirut in response to cross-border rocket attack by Hezbollah had put pressure on attempts to finalise the deal.

Trump told the G7 that he had a “great relationship” with Netanyahu but said he “didn’t like that he did an attack… that was too much”.

He added: “Without the United States, there would be no Israel. Without me, there would be no Israel because no other president was willing to do what I did.”

Netanyahu said on Monday that his country’s forces would remain in Lebanon “for as long as necessary”.

Iran’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, has warned that it would view any Israeli attack on Lebanon or continued Israeli military presence in Lebanese territory as a violation of the interim agreement with the US.

The contents of the agreement – referred to as a memorandum of understanding – have not been officially released.

Both sides were expected sign the deal on Friday in the Swiss resort of Bürgenstock, Switzerland’s Foreign Ministry told the Schweiz Heute newspaper.

Trump said he would likely hold a news conference to publicly read the agreement between the US and Iran “word by word”.

He also said the deal meant Iran would “never have a nuclear weapon” and that the crucial Strait of Hormuz waterway in the Gulf would reopen and be “toll-free”.

Trump has argued this deal would be better than the one Barack Obama negotiated when he was president.

“We didn’t pay for it like Obama did. He paid billions of dollars,” Trump said on Tuesday.

Under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with the US and five other world powers, Iran agreed to limit its nuclear activities and allow international inspections in return for sanctions relief and the release of frozen funds.

READ ALSO:

Police kill 1-year-old boy over suspected shoplifting

Ghanaian Students in UK demand immediate payment of scholarship arrears

The shooting occurred Sunday afternoon in the store’s parking lot in Senatobia, about 40 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee.

Kohen Wiley, 1, was in a vehicle with his mother and a family friend when he was fatally shot, said civil rights attorney Ben Crump. The friend was critically injured, he said.

“Kohen Wiley was a baby. His mother, who has not been charged with any crime, says she was trying to communicate to officers that there was a baby in the car,” Crump said in a statement Tuesday.

“They fired anyway, leading to the death of an innocent 1-year-old. We intend to seek justice for baby Kohen and the life that was stolen from him.”

The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which is investigating the shooting, said in a statement that when Senatobia police officers arrived, they “encountered two subjects and a juvenile child fleeing from the store into a vehicle.”

The state agency said police tried to stop the vehicle, “but the driver drove in the direction of the officers, almost striking one.” An officer then discharged their weapon, firing at the vehicle, according to the MBI.

The driver then drove to a nearby hospital, where the child was pronounced dead, the bureau said.

No law enforcement officers were seriously injured, the state agency said in its statement.

Senatobia police did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. The police department said Sunday on Facebook that it was “committed to full transparency.”

“As the investigation progresses and facts are verified, we will share as much information as possible,” the department said.

The Tate County Sheriff’s Office was also on scene for the shooting. The office said in a news release that deputies had been responding to an unrelated incident when their assistance was requested.

“Please keep the family of the deceased in your thoughts and prayers,” the sheriff’s office said.

Marquell Bridges, a community advocate who is helping the family, said Tuesday on Facebook that the boy’s mother did not steal from Walmart “and was not a witness to or accomplice to any crime.”

“She was skipping and playing with her child, Kohen, to the car moments earlier, not fleeing a theft,” he said. “What started as an ordinary day, playing with your baby and getting into a car, turned into the worst day of a mother’s life and a tragedy this community will carry for years to come.”

He called on the police department to release body camera and store surveillance video.

Carlos Haynes, the child’s grandfather, told The Associated Press that Kohen was a happy baby who had his life cut short.

“Someone ended it all before it could even start,” Haynes said.

The child’s family did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment Tuesday.

Mississippi Department of Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell said at a news conference that body camera video and other possible evidence won’t be released until after the state investigation is complete and presented to the attorney general’s office for possible criminal charges.

He didn’t provide a timeline for that process and declined to discuss details of the shooting. He pleaded with people to remain patient so the five agents investigating the shooting can interview potential witnesses without fear of intimidation.

In a statement Tuesday, the city of Senatobia said it was committed to cooperating fully with the MBI’s independent investigation.

“We understand that emotions are high and that many questions remain. We respectfully ask our community to avoid speculation and the spread of unverified information while the investigation is underway,” the statement said.

It acknowledged the child’s death as “a heartbreaking tragedy” and extended condolences to the family. The city also asked for thoughts and prayers for law enforcement officers, first responders and anyone else affected by the situation.

“We ask our community to continue responding with compassion, respect, and grace as we support all those affected during this difficult time,” the statement said.

Walmart said it is working with law enforcement during the investigation.

“We’re saddened by what took place at our Senatobia, MS, store,” a Walmart spokesperson said in a statement.

• U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has overseen a mass deportation drive, sealing ​deals with several countries to act as hosts for ​deportees of third nationalities often in exchange for ⁠payment, with El Salvador the most well-known example for holding over ​200 Venezuelans in an anti-terrorism prison for four months.
• “This is an ​MOU (memorandum of understanding) and not a binding agreement,” Chang said, adding that “respect for human rights remains a central principle.”
• “Lessons were taken” from similar arrangements ​in the region, including the Caribbean nations of Belize, ​Dominica, Antigua and Barbuda and St. Kitts and Nevis, he added.
• Under the ‌deal, ⁠Jamaica would act as a transit country for U.S. deportees, transferring up to 25 people every fortnight and hosting no more than 10 migrants at a time as it arranges travel ​to another ​country or their ⁠home nation.
• The U.S. State Department did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
• The deal ​was previously reported by the Jamaica Gleaner, which ​said ⁠up to 10,000 deportees could be accepted under the deal. Chang said Jamaica had not agreed to such a quota.
• The U.S. ⁠said ​it would support all associated costs ​and related arrangements, Chang said, noting people with criminal backgrounds will not be ​accepted.

Brent crude futures fell $4.21, or 5.1%, to settle at $78.96 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell $4.70, or 5.8%, to settle at $76.05.

Those were the lowest closes for Brent since March 2 and for WTI since March 4.

The U.S.-Iran war started on February 28. On February 27, Brent closed at $72.48 a barrel, and WTI closed at $67.02.

“Crude oil is sliding fast on the ​assumption the Strait of Hormuz will open soon,” Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho, said in a note. Before the war, about 20% of ​global oil supplies passed through the strait.

Details of the interim deal to end the war began to emerge on Tuesday, with U.S. President ⁠Donald Trump saying it will rule out a nuclear weapon for Tehran and a U.S. official saying it allows Iran to sell oil upon signing.

The deal would extend a ​tenuous ceasefire announced in April by another 60 days and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has effectively blocked since the U.S. and Israel first attacked Iran.

Still, doubts swirled ​around the deal, with experts warning that shipping and energy exports could take weeks to recover. In Lebanon, the Iran-backed Hezbollah group said it believes Iran will not sign a final nuclear deal unless Israel withdraws from Lebanon.

“For now, a major vote of confidence is being applied to the success of this plan with limited regard to thorny issues such as financial compensation, sanctions and especially a satisfactory ​nuclear deal that was largely the reason behind the war,” analysts at energy advisory firm Ritterbusch and Associates said in a note.

News of the preliminary agreement prompted investment banks, ​including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Citi, to lower their oil price forecasts.

AROUND THE WORLD

Other factors weighing on oil prices included worries about China’s economy, rising global inflation and interest rates, and ‌U.S. calls for ⁠peace between Russia and Ukraine.

China, the world’s second-biggest economy, showed increasing unevenness in May, while the country’s crude oil throughput fell 9.1% from a year earlier to its lowest level in almost four years.

Trump said Russia should make peace with Ukraine after a “very good” meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday, sparking cautious optimism among Group of Seven (G7) leaders that a peace deal could be struck.

A settlement in the Ukraine war could lead to the lifting of some sanctions on Russia, allowing ​Moscow to export more oil. Russia was the world’s third-largest crude oil producer ⁠, behind the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, in 2025, according to U.S. energy data.

In the U.S., most global brokerages are betting the Federal Reserve will hold interest rates steady for the rest of 2026, reversing from expectations of two interest rate cuts at the start of the ​year, as policymakers navigate elevated inflation risks and a resilient labour market.

The Bank of Japan raised interest rates to a 31-year ​high on Tuesday.

Higher interest rates raise consumer costs, which can reduce economic growth and oil demand.

U.S. OIL INVENTORIES:

The oil market awaited weekly storage reports from the American Petroleum Institute trade group later on Tuesday and the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Wednesday.

Analysts estimated energy firms pulled 4.6 million barrels of crude from storage during the week ended June 12.

If correct, that would be the first ⁠time energy firms ​pulled crude out of storage for eight weeks in a row since January 2025. It compares with ​a decrease of 11.5 million barrels in the same week last year and an average decline of 2.3 million barrels over the past five years (2021 to 2025). 

The vehicle was travelling from the Dessie area toward the capital city of Addis Ababa when the driver lost control in the conflict-hit Amhara region.

Local authorities confirmed that the bus was severely overloaded when it went off the cliff side, complicating initial rescue operations.

Delayed Emergency Response Fatal for Survivors

The Kombolcha Town Administration Police Division reported that the death toll rose significantly due to a critical lack of emergency infrastructure in the immediate area.

Survivors faced lengthy delays before receiving medical attention because the rural district lacks basic ambulance services.

First responders and local residents were forced to transport critically injured passengers to regional hospitals using private cars and public transit vehicles. Investigators stated that many victims died at the scene from injuries that could have been treated with prompt medical intervention.

Regional Roads Known for Extreme Hazards

The stretch of highway where the vehicle plunged remains a notorious transit point due to its winding, hilly terrain and steep drops.

While the Kombolcha police continue to investigate the exact mechanical or human cause of the morning crash, regional transport operators have long classified the route as uniquely dangerous.

The disaster mirrors a similar mass casualty transit accident in December 2024, when a bus plunged into a river in Ethiopia’s southern Sidama region and left 66 people dead.

Monday’s crash renews scrutiny on both public transit enforcement and the stark absence of trauma care networks along major Ethiopian shipping corridors.

Ongoing Conflict Compounds Regional Transit Risks

The tragedy highlights the compounding crises facing northern Ethiopia, where persistent regional instability heavily restricts public resources.

Ongoing conflict within the Amhara region continues to hamper infrastructure development, stalling vital highway repairs and isolating rural communities from centralised emergency medical networks.

Continental Crisis Sparks Push for Strict Enforcement

The lethal combination of overloaded commercial vehicles and a lack of post-crash emergency medical care mirrors a deadly trend felt across sub-Saharan Africa.

The World Health Organisation notes that the African region maintains the highest road fatality rate globally, with traffic deaths rising significantly over the last decade.

To combat this crisis, the African Union officially enacted the legally binding African Road Safety Charter in March 2026. The framework forces signatory nations, including Ethiopia, to establish strict policy enforcement against vehicle overloading and to invest heavily in rural pre-hospital trauma infrastructure.

Shared Toll Echoes Across West African Corridors

The structural failures contributing to the Ethiopian disaster deeply resonate in West Africa, where commercial transport safety has sharply deteriorated.

Ghana recently recorded its deadliest year on the road in over three decades, with the National Road Safety Authority reporting a record 2,949 fatalities in 2025.

Similar to the emergency response failures in Kombolcha, West African transport data reveals that transit deaths are rising twice as fast as the accident rate itself.

Regional policy experts attribute this expanding lethality directly to highway coverage gaps and the inability to transport victims to critical care units within the life-saving first hour.

The incident occurred at 11:20 local time (19:20 GMT) on Monday while the aircraft had been on a routine test mission. The crash sent a huge plume of black smoke into the air that could be seen for miles.

“Today, Edwards Air Force Base experienced a terrible tragedy, and we lost eight great Americans,” Col James Hayes said, describing them as a “mixed crew of military, government civilians and government contractors”.

The base earlier said that initial indications were that the crash “was not survivable”.

The crew’s next of kin were being notified and will be named 24 hours after that, Hayes said in an afternoon briefing.

The crash was “totally contained” within the Edwards Air Force Base on the runway, Hayes said, and the base has temporarily grounded operations.

The B-52 had been supporting the base’s radar modernisation programme, he said, and crashed immediately after take-off and burst into flames.

After reviewing initial footage, the incident had been deemed “an unrecoverable crash and unsurvivable”, Hayes said.

No cause has yet been determined and will not be until after a series of investigations, which could take up to 30 days. Further cause analysis investigations could take more than six months, Hayes said.

Boeing confirmed in a separate statement that two of its employees had been among those onboard and said the company was in contact with their families. The aerospace giant declined to comment further when contacted by the BBC.

California Governor Gavin Newsom called the crash “a tragic incident” and offered condolences to the victims’ families and Edwards Air Force Base community in a post on X.

Aerial footage showed a charred, smoking landscape where the crash occurred.

The base said in an earlier update that all inbound aircraft had been diverted and all non-commercial visitor passes suspended “until further notice to allow the installation to focus entirely on emergency response operations.”

The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress has been used by the US military since the 1950s. It is nicknamed “the Buff”, which is partly short for “Big Ugly Fat”.

The B-52 is a long-range strategic bomber that has been participating in bombing raids during the US and Israel’s war in Iran.

Capable of flying at up to 50,000ft – in comparison to commercial airliners, which fly at around 35,000ft – the colossal bomber’s 70,000lb (32,000kg) payload can include hundreds of conventional bombs and 32 nuclear cruise missiles.

The aircraft can refuel mid-flight, giving it a potentially unlimited strike range. This created a “nuclear umbrella” for the US during the Cold War, back in the era of mutually assured destruction in the mid-20th Century.

The planes typically carry a crew of five – an aircraft commander, pilot, radar navigator, navigator and electronic warfare officer.

Edwards Base is located around 100 miles (160km) north of Los Angeles in the Mojave Desert.

“Absolutely heartbreaking. God bless the 8 crew members on board,” US Representative Vince Fong, whose California congressional district includes part of the base, wrote on X.

Congressman Jay Obernolte, whose district also includes part of the base, posted on Facebook that he and his wife were “praying for everyone involved in today’s B-52 crash at Edwards Air Force Base, especially the crew, their families, and the first responders on scene”.

Michigan Congresswoman Lisa McClain was also wrote about the crash, posting on X: “My prayers are with everyone involved in the B-52 crash at Edwards Air Force Base this afternoon.”

She thanked emergency crews and added: “Our service members carry the weight of this nation’s defense every single day. We are with them.”

In a statement dated June 15, 2026, the students said the Ghana Scholarships Secretariat, now the Ghana Scholarships Authority (GSA), has failed to pay their tuition fees and monthly stipends since they commenced their studies in September 2024, despite repeated assurances from government officials.

The affected students, Noah Krah, Emmanuel Boakye, George Osei Buabeng, Abena Fosuaa Gyasi, Irene Pomaa Kumi and Dwomoh Evelyn, were awarded government scholarships to pursue master’s degree programmes at Loughborough University for the 2024/2025 academic year.

According to them, the government owes an estimated £238,852, comprising £154,000 in tuition fees and £84,852 in stipend arrears. At an exchange rate of GH¢14.32 to the pound, the amount translates to more than GH¢3.4 million.

The students explained that although the unpaid tuition fees currently appear on their university accounts, the responsibility for settling the debt remains with the Government of Ghana under the terms of their scholarship agreements.

They further alleged that they were compelled to forfeit 12 months of unpaid stipends in exchange for a “Letter of No Objection” required to apply for the UK’s Graduate Visa. According to them, the condition was not part of the original scholarship agreement and was imposed at a time when they were already facing severe financial hardship.

The students said they had spent the past eight months pursuing various channels to resolve the matter, including meetings with officials of the Ghana High Commission in London, petitions to the Ghanaian High Commissioner, the UK Prime Minister’s Office and intervention from Dr. Jeevun Sandher, Member of Parliament for Loughborough.

They noted that despite several assurances, including a promise to settle the debt within the first quarter of 2026, no payments have been made.

The statement also referenced a communiqué issued by the Director of the Ghana Scholarships Authority on April 16, 2026, indicating that funds had been released by the Government of Ghana to settle scholarship-related debts in the UK. However, the students claim neither they nor the university have received any payment.

The prolonged delay, they said, has plunged them into serious financial and emotional distress. Some students reportedly relied on food banks, skipped meals and depended on support from friends and church members to cover basic living expenses and avoid homelessness.

Academically, the students say they have completed all coursework, examinations and dissertations but have been unable to graduate because Loughborough University continues to withhold their certificates and academic transcripts due to the unpaid tuition fees.

The situation has also created immigration challenges. According to the students, unresolved visa applications have left some of them unable to seek employment or earn income while awaiting a resolution.

The students are now calling on the Government of Ghana to provide a definite payment date and immediately settle all outstanding tuition fees and stipend arrears to enable them to participate in their graduation ceremony scheduled for July 7, 2026.

They warned that further delays could prevent them from formally completing their academic journey and obtaining the qualifications they worked to achieve.

READ ALSO:

Appiah-Kubi announces next line of action after High Court rejects application to withdraw from Wontumi’s case

GES interdicts Bole SHS teacher over alleged sexual misconduct with student

Federal High Court judge Peter Lifu directed the Independent National Electoral Commission to strike the African Democratic Congress and others from its register, backing claims by former lawmakers that they did not meet minimum electoral performance thresholds.

Nigerian law requires a party to either win at least one elective seat at any level or secure at least 25% of the vote in a state in a presidential election, failing which it risks deregistration.

The ruling poses a hurdle for former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the ADC’s presidential candidate and a leading challenger to President Bola Tinubu, and could narrow the opposition field.

ADC ⁠spokesperson Bolaji Abdullahi rejected the ruling, calling it “a direct invitation to anarchy”. The party ⁠will ​appeal the ruling through all ​legal and constitutional channels, he said.

Source: Reuters

ALSO READ:

• Nigeria wins 4th ECOWAS Regional Cybersecurity Hackathon 2026 in Accra

• Cholera outbreak in Nigeria’s Borno kills 74, infects thousands since May

The Emergency ​Medicine and Support Centre, ​which operates under the health ministry, ⁠said the bodies washed up ​in Khumas city, some 118 ​km (73 miles) east of Tripoli.

The centre said all the bodies have been buried.

Pictures ​were posted by the centre ​on its Facebook page showing their medics ‌wearing ⁠white hazmat suits carrying bodies in black and white plastic bags, and other pictures taken during ​the burials.

Since ​an uprising ⁠in 2011, Libya has become a North African ​transit route for hundreds ​of ⁠thousands of migrants fleeing conflict and poverty, often from sub-Saharan Africa, ⁠with ​many risking dangerous journeys ​across the desert or the Mediterranean.

The administration appealed a lower court’s ruling that said the U.S. Constitution’s right to due process bars “unreasonably prolonged” detention ‌without a hearing of non-U.S. citizens who face deportation after being convicted of certain crimes. That ruling involved two immigrants in New York – one who pleaded guilty to assault and the other convicted of sexually abusing a child.

The Reuters Daily Briefing newsletter provides all the news you need to start your day. Sign up here.

The court is expected to hear arguments in the case during its next term, which starts in October.

The dispute stems from the government’s detention of two non-U.S. citizen men who were convicted ​of aggravated felonies while living in the United States as lawful permanent residents, also known as green-card holders.

Federal immigration law requires authorities to detain and seek the ​deportation of non-U.S. citizens who are convicted of an aggravated felony and certain other serious crimes, or accused of terrorism.

After several months ⁠in detention, each man filed a legal action called a habeas corpus petition in federal court challenging the legitimacy of their detention and arguing that they were entitled to ​hearings to determine whether they qualified to be released on bail. Both men were detained during Trump’s first presidential term.

One of the green-card holders, a Dominican man identified in court ​papers as G.M., became a lawful permanent resident in 2011 and four years later pleaded guilty in New York to assault, according to court papers. He was detained in 2020.

A federal judge in 2021 denied his habeas corpus petition. G.M. was later released in 2022, after 21 months in detention, due to concerns about the spread of COVID.

The other man, a Jamaican citizen named Carol Black, became a lawful ​permanent resident in 1983. In 2000, he was convicted in New York of sexually abusing a child younger than 11 years old, according to court papers. Citing his criminal ​record, federal immigration authorities took Black into custody in 2019.

A separate federal judge granted Black’s petition in 2020 and ordered a bail hearing. He was later released on a $15,000 bond.

After initially appealing a ‌judge’s deportation order ⁠against him, Black and his wife left the United States in 2025 and have no intention of returning, according to court papers. For this reason, his lawyer argued in a filing to the Supreme Court, Black’s case should be considered moot.

During appeals of their cases, the Manhattan-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it was unreasonable that Black was detained for seven months and G.M. for nearly two years without a chance to qualify for bail, though that court stopped short of setting a strict time limit on such detentions. ​In these two cases, the 2nd Circuit ​said, the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth Amendment guarantee ⁠of due process entitled the men to a bond hearing.

The 2nd Circuit also said that if the government seeks to maintain its detention in these circumstances, it must prove by clear and convincing evidence that a detainee poses a risk of flight or a ​danger to the community.

American Civil Liberties Union attorney Cecillia Wang, who represents the two men, said: “The court of appeals got it right, ​and we will defend ⁠our fundamental due process principles at the Supreme Court.”

“The Constitution protects all of us, regardless of immigration status, from being locked away without due process,” Wang said. “(U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) cannot detain immigrants – separating families and cutting people off from their communities – for months or even years on end without a bond hearing.”

The Supreme Court has backed Trump in several immigration-related rulings ⁠issued on an ​emergency basis since his return to the presidency, including allowing him to deport migrants to countries other than ​their own and to revoke temporary legal status for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants.

The court also is expected to rule by the end of June on the legality of Trump’s directive to restrict birthright citizenship in the United ​States and the administration’s bid to revoke temporary legal protections for more than 350,000 Haitians and about 6,100 Syrians living in the United States.

Source: Reuters

ALSO READ:

• Trump administration says migrant Abrego could be deported to Eswatini

• Trump offers illegal immigrants $1,000 to ‘self-deport’

Four people were killed in attacks on the Ukrainian capital, while five rescue workers died trying to put out a fire caused by a strike on the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, officials said.

The 11th Century Dormition Cathedral was significantly damaged in what Zelensky called “one of the biggest Russian crimes against Christian culture today”. Russia denied hitting the site.

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone attack in the Russian city of Tula killed three people and wounded three others, including a one-year-old, local officials said.

Drone and missile strikes set fire to buildings and cars and left more than 140,000 people in Kyiv without electricity, its Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.

Most of Ukraine was under air raid warnings on Monday morning.

The Kyiv strikes, which targeted several residential buildings, left at least 23 people wounded. Zelensky said a total of 53 people had been injured across Ukraine.

The Dormition Cathedral is part of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, an architectural ensemble of monastic buildings declared a Unesco World Heritage Site.

A gaping hole could be seen on one side of the church, with flames visible from the partially destroyed roof.

Zelensky said Russia launched 70 missiles and 611 drones in the overnight attack, and that the fire had since been extinguished.

French President Emmanuel Macron joined the Ukrainian leader in condemning the strike.

“Nothing justifies this attack on our universal heritage,” he said on X.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called the attacks on the cathedral and Ukrainian civilians “war crimes”.

The strikes come ahead of a G7 meeting of world leaders this week in France, where the war in Ukraine is on the agenda.

Zelensky said the meeting’s response should be “decisive and meaningful: more pressure on the aggressor, more assistance to Ukraine with air defense, primarily with anti-ballistic missiles”.

The Ukrainian leader earlier said he had spoken to US President Donald Trump about efforts to end the long-running conflict.

Russia said a US-manufactured Patriot air defence missile had hit the cathedral, possibly after misfiring. It did not provide evidence to support its claim.

Russia’s military said its “massive strike” had targeted Ukrainian military sites.

This is not the first time the cathedral has been struck during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began in 2022.

In January, Russian attacks damaged several buildings in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra complex, Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture said at the time.

During World War Two, it was almost entirely destroyed, with the exception of its south-eastern tower, Unesco says on its website.

The UN agency condemned the strike on “one of Ukraine’s most significant spiritual and cultural landmarks”.

“Damage to such institutions deprives communiteies of access to culture, education and shared spaces that are essential for recovery and social cohesion,” it said in a statement.

A coronial inquest into the death of her 21-month-old son, Nknau, at Euracare hospital in January had been due to start in April, Adichie said.

The author now alleges that Euracare has “stalled and muddied and obfuscated” over the inquest and has requested Nigeria’s Federal High Court block the inquiry.

The BBC has approached Euracare for comment. An investigation panel set up by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria had previously found evidence of possible medical negligence by the hospital.

Adichie recently published a letter on social media which she had sent to the hospital’s director in April.

It was her first public comment since the death of her son, who was one of twin boys born in 2024, using a surrogate.

“If Euracare cares about the truth, then why create delays and distractions and now, finally, try to stop an inquest?” she wrote in her post.

Explaining why she posted the letter, she wrote: “The ultimate and utter loneliness of grief is that only you can know the true depth of your despair.

“I long for, at least, peace to mourn, but Euracare Hospital has robbed me even of that.”

In her letter, Adichie said that the hospital noted her son’s death was from bacterial meningitis, to which she responded: “There was no medical evidence to make such a claim on his death certificate.”

Adichie and her family have accused Euracare of negligence, saying medics denied Nkanu oxygen and gave him too much sedation, causing a cardiac arrest.

The hospital has expressed its “deepest sympathies” over the death but denied wrongdoing, saying its care had been in line with international standards.

In the letter, she accuses the hospital of providing incomplete medical records, which she described as “strikingly unprofessional”, adding that “one was inaccurate”.

According to submissions made to the court by Adichie’s legal team, Nkanu had initially been admitted to Atlantis Hospital in Lagos with what was described as a worsening but mild illness.

Plans had been made to transfer him to the United States for further treatment at Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins Hospital, before the toddler was referred to Euracare for a pre-flight inspection, including an MRI and a spinal tap, or lumbar puncture.

Nkanu died on 7 January after undergoing the various diagnostic tests at Euracare hospital.

Adichie has authored multiple award-winning novels, including Half of a Yellow Sun (2006) and Americanah (2013), and has recently hosted panels of world leaders, including former US Vice-President Kamala Harris while she was promoting her autobiography and ex-Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel.

She lives in the US but was in Nigeria for the Christmas holidays.

ALSO READ:

• Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie loses son

• Three Nigerian doctors suspended over death of Chimamanda Adichie’s son

The airplane, which was leased by a skydiving company, took off around 11:20 local time on Sunday, according to a Bates County Emergency Management spokesperson.

After failing to gain altitude, it made a sharp left turn and crashed about 200 yards away from Butler Memorial Airport, the spokesperson told the BBC.

All 12 people on board died, he said.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said a Pacific Aerospace P750 crashed while departing the airport.

“Air traffic services were not being provided at the time,” the FAA said.

Local media reported that first responders are checking the area to see if any of the skydivers had jumped from the plane before the crash.

The city of Butler is about 50 miles south of the Kansas City metropolitan area.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is leading the investigation into the crash, the FAA said.

The 32-year-old had been on a world tour when the crash occurred over Rio de Janeiro on Sunday. One of the helicopters then fell onto the car park of a dealership, setting around 20 vehicles ablaze.

Footage published by Brazilian media shows one of the helicopters dropping from the sky, as well as flames and thick smoke rising from the crash site.

Authorities say an investigation into the cause of the collision is now underway.

The Military Fire Department of the State of Rio de Janeiro said it was called to the crash site around 09:00 local time (12:00 GMT).

Argentine content creator Gaspar Prim Diaz – also known as Gaspi – was also believed to have been in one of the helicopters, according to the Associated Press.

The other passengers on the helicopter’s manifest were Lucas Brito Chaves, Lucas Vignale and pilot Alexandre Souza. The crew manifest for the second aircraft lists only the pilot, Charles Marsillac.

Tree – born Oliver Tree Nickell in Santa Cruz, California, in 1993 – first rose to fame in 2016 after going viral on social media.

With his distinctive bowl haircut, he was known for hits including Life Goes On, Miss You and Alien Boy.

Tree had just begun a world tour, with his most recent show in São Paulo, Brazil, on 6 June. He was next scheduled to perform in Lisbon, in Portugal, on 1 July and had been due to play dates in Glasgow, Manchester and London in September.

YouTuber KSI, who collaborated with him on the track Voices, paid an emotional tribute.

In a post shared on X, Britain’s Got Talent judge KSI said: “Can’t believe I’m actually having to type this. You’re 32 man. You should still be here. You still had so much life to live. So much music to make. So much content to make.

“You’re a legend and will always be a legend. Still doesn’t feel real. Genuinely feel sick. I love you bro.”

Jackass star Steve-O, real name Stephen Glover, also paid tribute to the late singer online, sharing a photograph of the two of them together.

“I was incredibly lucky to become friends with Oliver Tree,” he wrote.

“He would check in on me regularly, and let me know he cared about how I was doing. Such a great person… I’m going to miss him.”

Tree was nominated for a Brit Award in 2024 for his song Miss You, alongside German producer Robin Schulz.

In 2020, he broke the Guinness World Record for building the largest kick scooter at 0.16m tall and 3.13m long.

Commenting on the attacks, Dr Tedros expressed concern over the loss of lives and the displacement of thousands of people.

“Earlier in the attacks, five Mozambicans died in Mossel Bay. Thousands more are now fleeing for their lives,” he stated.

The WHO chief said the incidents contradict the spirit of African unity that played a crucial role in ending apartheid and securing South Africa’s freedom.

“To see South Africa turn to xenophobia is a tragic betrayal of the country’s struggle for independence and freedom,” he said.

Reflecting on Africa’s collective support for South Africa’s liberation, Dr Tedros recalled Ethiopia’s role in assisting former President Nelson Mandela during the anti-apartheid struggle.

“African nations stood united to dismantle apartheid. Ethiopia proudly supported ‘Madiba,’ Nelson Mandela, in 1962 and issued him a passport so he could travel the continent. Other countries helped in many ways, including with political and financial support,” he wrote.

He urged both authorities and citizens to resolve grievances through legal and peaceful channels rather than targeting foreign nationals.

“Disagreements and grievances must be addressed by the justice system and the rule of law, never through vigilante violence and collective punishment,” he stressed.

Dr Tedros concluded his remarks with a call for compassion, solidarity and the protection of vulnerable people.

“South Africa deserves better. Africa deserves better. Stop the hate. Protect the vulnerable. Uphold our shared humanity.”

ALSO READ:

• Ablakwa condemns xenophobic attacks, says Ghana welcomed over 11,000 South African tourists in 2025

• Ablakwa pushes for compensation for victims of xenophobic attacks in South Africa

The Iranian American Legal Defence Fund (IALDF) said on ‌Thursday that three Iranian women who fled persecution were at risk of deportation, including one who had converted to Christianity.

In the end, only the activist was on the flight that took off from Louisiana on Thursday night, said her lawyer, Emily Trostle, while not ruling out that the others could be deported later.

The plane landed in Bangui, the ​capital of the Central African Republic, shortly before 10 p.m. local time (2100 GMT), after a stop in Ghana’s capital, Accra, according to the ICE ​Flight Monitor managed by Human Rights First.

It was not immediately clear where the deportees would be housed or how long ⁠they would be able to stay in the Central African Republic.

“They have absolutely no connection to this place. In all of my filings, I submitted tons ​of information about how this was super dangerous,” Trostle told Reuters.

“These individuals are being removed from the United States and abandoned in a country where they ​have no status, no connection and no support network. We fear they will ultimately be forced to return to the countries they originally fled,” Trostle said.

The U.S. State Department and Central African Republic’s presidency did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the deportations to Central African Republic. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said last week that ​all deportees would receive full due process.

Ghana and Central African Republic have signed deals with President Donald Trump‘s administration to take in third-country deportees who in ​many cases secured legal protections from U.S. courts so that they could not be repatriated.

The United States has used the deals — including with Central African Republic’s neighbour Democratic Republic of ‌Congo, which ⁠is facing an Ebola outbreak — to deport people it cannot legally send home.

The Trump administration has said the deals are lawful. Rights groups and advocates have said that the details of the deals are opaque and many of the deportees are ultimately repatriated.

RISK OF REPATRIATION

The IALDF said the Iranians facing deportation had their asylum claims denied because of a rule requiring that asylum seekers first apply in countries they transit through before reaching the U.S. A federal court in California ​vacated that rule in May.

The group ​said deporting Iranians to Central African ⁠Republic was “a potentially fatal action,” citing security issues in the country and the risk that they would be sent back to Iran.

President Faustin-Archange Touadera signed peace deals last year with several rebel groups. Others were weakened as Russian ​mercenaries and troops from Rwanda were deployed to shore up Touadera’s government as well as U.N. peacekeepers.

Ali Rahnama, interim ​executive director at the ⁠IALDF, said the Russian presence in Central African Republic was concerning because Russia had close intelligence ties with Iran.

The U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran on February 28, starting a now three-month-old war.

Trump said in April that he thought that the Iranian people should rise up against the government in Tehran if a ceasefire ⁠were declared, ​but understood that it was too dangerous for them to do so.

It was unclear how many ​people would be deported to Central African Republic on the first flight.

An official briefed on the matter told Reuters on Thursday it was expected to transport about 20 people, including Syrians and ​Afghans. The official said hundreds of migrants could ultimately be deported there under the deal.

The confirmed cases include 181 deaths, according to the government’s latest situation report.

The data shows that the outbreak, Congo’s 17th, remains confined to three eastern provinces: Ituri, North Kivu, and South Kivu.

But it showed that cases had been confirmed for the first time in the Nia-Nia health zone in Ituri and the Mabalako health zone in North Kivu.

There are now confirmed cases in 20 of Ituri’s 36 ​health zones, 10 of North Kivu’s 34 health zones, and 1 health zone in South Kivu.

The ban forms part of the government’s package of sanctions on Moscow following the war with Ukraine.

In May, the government said it would gradually phase out the use of diesel and jet fuel refined in third countries from Russian crude oil as it introduced new sanctions, saying extra flexibility was needed due to global oil supply issues.

The move prompted criticism, with the EU warning it is “not the time to roll back sanctions” against Moscow.

Trade Minister Chris Bryant said: “The end date is a clear signal that we continue to ratchet up maximum pressure on Russia.”

The temporary licence to import those products will be reviewed every two weeks, the government said. It is understood the review process means the licence could be revoked sooner than 1 January.

“I made a commitment to the House of Commons that we would review the temporary general licence for diesel and jet fuel on a fortnightly basis and lift it as soon as practicable,” Bryant said.

“Today we’re confirming that the government will include an end date of 1st January 2027 in the licence at the latest and that we will continue to keep the licence under continuous review.”

Global oil prices have been pushed up by the US and Israel conflict with Iran, as the effective halt of trade through the Strait of Hormuz has reduced global oil supplies.

Before the conflict, the global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading around $70 a barrel, but is currently trading around $87 as a deal to end the conflict appears close.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Minister Stephen Doughty said: “These new measures that strengthen our sanctions will stop refined oil made from Russian crude from entering the UK through third countries.

“We are maximising pressure on Russia while maintaining stability at home, and we will continue to use every lever available to debilitate Putin’s war machine and support Ukraine.”

But a campaigner said the decision was “absurd” and would provide billions of pounds of financing to Russia’s war machine.

Speaking to the BBC, Sir Bill Browder, a longstanding critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said: “It’s absurd. On one hand we are giving Ukraine billions to fight off Russia.

“On the other we’re giving Russia billions for their diesel and jet fuel to buy weapons to attack Ukraine.

“For anyone to not see the connection and absurdity, they must be willingly blind.”

Source: BBC

Seyed Abbas Araghchi told state TV the deal also includes the lifting of a US blockade of Iran, but that talks on Iran’s nuclear programme would begin later.

US officials have confirmed some of the details of the agreement, saying economic benefits for Iran would depend on Tehran meeting its obligations.

The war began with US and Israeli strikes across Iran on 28 February, prompting Iran to attack Israel and US-allied states in the Gulf – as well as effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route for the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas.

Despite having agreed a ceasefire in April, the US and Iran have exchanged intermittent fire, including two rounds of tit-for-tat strikes this week.

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he had cancelled “scheduled attacks” against Iran, because negotiators had “just made a great settlement” – a deal that was likely be to signed imminently.

On Friday, Iranian media published some details from the alleged 14-point deal which Trump said had “nothing to do with the terms that were agreed to” and “bears no relation to the truth”.

A few hours later, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose country helped mediate the deal, said the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the US and Iran had been agreed and awaited finalising.

Iran’s Araghchi was quoted in state media saying there are “supporters and opponents” of the latest terms of the deal among Iran’s top security body, the Supreme National Security Council.

However, he added that a collective decision had not been reached. “For now, we must wait. If approved, the agreement will be signed remotely,” he said.

In a detailed briefing with journalists on Friday afternoon, US officials said the deal would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, in return for the US lifting its blockade on Iranian shipping.

Those steps would come into effect more or less immediately. This would be followed by a 60-day period of negotiation – focusing on Iran’s enriched uranium – an essential ingredient to make a nuclear bomb. Officials said that this would result in all that material being destroyed on site and then removed from the country, though the precise mechanism for doing so is still to be worked out.

On the economic side, officials stressed there would be no money provided up-front – an apparent rejection of earlier Iranian news reports suggesting some Iranian assets would be unfrozen before substantial negotiations had begun.

Instead, US officials said, there would be a staged reintegration of Iran into the global economy, with measures such as the lifting of sanctions and the potential unfreezing of assets happening incrementally.

The deal calls on Iran to stop funding proxy groups in the region – a reference to Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies across the Middle East.

The US officials emphasised that the MOU was not based on trust or promises, but on “performance” – Iran would only receive economic benefits when it could be verified it had implemented measures it had committed to.

Even though there is a sense of cautious optimism from all sides – the US, Iran, Pakistan and Qatar which has also helped with mediation efforts – there is still a small distance to go. Variations of this agreement have been expected several times over the past month or two, only to fall away at later stages.

The difference now, according to the US administration, is both a greater level of optimism and a greater openness about the substance of the agreement.

For his part, the Iranian foreign minister said that “as soon as the final stages of our negotiations are completed, this agreement will be signed and announced”.

“This could happen in the coming days. I am very hopeful,” Araghchi told state TV.

He stressed that the first point mentioned in the MOU was the lifting of the US naval blockade of Iran.

As for the Strait of Hormuz – the crucial waterway through which some 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas normally transits – Araghchi said its administration would “no longer be the same as before”. Since closing the Strait, Iran has insisted on a fee to be paid by vessels seeking to cross, with the US insisting passage should be free to all shipping.

The senior Iranian official also said the MOU envisaged an end to the conflict between Israel and the Hezbollah in Lebanon. Previous reports from the US have suggested Lebanon may not be part of this deal – with Iran reportedly insisting on it.

Israel’s prime minister has said his country will strike Hezbollah if it continues attacks against northern Israel.

Source: BBC

“At my direction, the United States Southern Command delivered a swift and lethal kinetic strike to successfully execute Niño Guerrero,” Trump wrote on social media.

Niño Guerrero, whose full name is Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, was the longtime leader of Tren de Aragua. The gang is one of the most notorious criminal groups in Latin America and has been a target of the Trump administration.

The president has accused the group of engaging in “irregular warfare” against the US and declared it a foreign terrorist organisation.

Trump posted footage of what appears to be the airstrike, showing a green building with a nearby shed being blown up, debris flying into the air. Trump said the military action was “coordinated closely with our friends in Venezuela, with whom we are working very well”.

Venezuelan authorities confirmed their involvement in what they described as a “joint operation”.

In January, American forces seized then-Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from his compound in a dramatic overnight raid to face criminal charges in New York. The US accused him of collaborating with the gang. The indictment named Guerrero Flores as a co-conspirator.

Since then, the US has sought to tighten ties with Maduro’s successor, Delcy Rodríguez, lifting sanctions on her and pushing to collaborate on the extraction of Venezuela’s oil reserves – the most plentiful on earth.

Under Guerrero’s leadership, Tren de Aragua expanded into Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile and diversified from extorting migrants into sex-trafficking, contract killing and kidnapping.

It was originally a prison gang that Niño Guerrero turned into a “transnational criminal organisation”, according to the US state department, which had offered millions for information leading to his arrest.

Guerrero spent years in and out of prison. In 2012, he escaped by bribing a guard and was then rearrested in 2013.

Upon his return, he transformed the Tocorón Prison in the northern Venezuelan state of Aragua into a leisure complex, complete with zoo, restaurants, nightclub, betting shop and swimming pool.

In September 2023, Maduro – then still president – sent 11,000 soldiers to storm and wrestle back control of the jail. Guerrero escaped – again.

In and out of prison, he was still able to expand the gang’s influence, seizing control of gold mines in Bolivar state, drug corridors on the Caribbean coast, and clandestine border crossings between Venezuela and Colombia, according to the US state department.

By most accounts, Tren de Aragua spread out of Venezuela when the country entered a humanitarian and economic emergency in 2014 that made crime less profitable, and now is believed to have nodes in eight other countries, including the US.

The group, in part, operates by forming alliances and partnerships with local criminal organisations.

In Ecuador, for example, the gang is believed to work with groups loosely affiliated with Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, while in Colombia some have alleged that they have worked with members of the left-wing National Liberation Army guerrilla group, or ELN.

Under the Trump administration, US forces have launched dozens of strikes on boats they say are part of a large-scale operation to ferry drugs into the US, including those it claims are linked to Tren de Aragua.

More than 200 people have been killed in strikes since September, according to US media.

But the military has not provided evidence that the attacked boats were carrying drugs or drug smugglers, sparking criticism of the operation and questions around its legality.

Some legal experts have argued that the strikes could violate international law by targeting civilians without offering them due process.

The Trump administration has said the killings are lawful. In a statement to Congress last year, the White House said US President Donald Trump had “determined” that the US was in a formal armed conflict with drug cartels and that crews of drug-running boats were “combatants”.

Source: BBC

His warning comes amid growing concerns among Ghanaian doctoral students in the UK, many of whom say prolonged funding delays have left them struggling to meet basic living expenses and continue their studies comfortably.

Speaking on Accra-based Citi FM, Bansah described the situation as increasingly difficult for affected students and called for urgent intervention from government.

According to him, the challenges facing scholarship recipients have been worsened by what he sees as inadequate communication from the leadership of the Ghana Scholarships Authority, particularly the Registrar.

Bansah said the Registrar has met with executives of the PhD cohort only once and engaged students directly only once since assuming office, despite repeated calls for regular updates on outstanding payments and the status of funding.

“Our plea is that the President directly engages the Registrar to get the issue resolved because it appears the Registrar himself does not know what he is doing. The condition of some of these colleagues in the UK is debilitating. Some of us can survive it, but there are those who cannot survive the situation,” he said.

When asked whether he would recommend that a prospective student accept a Ghana Scholarships Authority scholarship under the current circumstances, Bansah’s response was unequivocal.

“Don’t even try,” he said.

His remarks follow concerns raised by the executive body of Ghanaian PhD students sponsored by the Ghana Scholarships Authority in the United Kingdom over delays in the release and disbursement of scholarship funds.

In a statement issued on June 8, the students said government and the scholarship management body had failed to release funds to cover outstanding tuition fees and stipends despite earlier assurances that payments had been processed.

According to the group, beneficiaries were informed in April 2026 that funds had been released to settle outstanding obligations. However, as of June 8, no member of the PhD cohort, nor any undergraduate or master’s scholarship recipient known to them, had received payment.

The students warned that the continued delays are taking a toll on their academic work, welfare and overall well-being, and called for immediate action to address the situation before it worsens further.

ALSO READ:

• Gov’t not serious about us – stranded UK PhD students

• Ghana owes £5m in unpaid stipends to PhD students in UK – High Commissioner…

In a statement issued on Friday, June 12, the Ministry said 228 of the affected Ghanaians had already returned home on Thursday, June 11, while arrangements had been completed for the remaining returnees to arrive in Ghana on Friday.

According to the Ministry, the affected individuals were residing in areas impacted by the demolition exercise and became stranded after losing their livelihoods and accommodation.

The Government of Ghana has provided buses and trucks free of charge to transport the returnees and their belongings safely back home.

The Ministry further disclosed that Ivorian authorities have expressed willingness to compensate victims affected by the demolitions. It noted that Ghana’s diplomatic mission in Abidjan will continue to engage relevant stakeholders to ensure the promised compensation is received by the affected Ghanaian nationals.

The government reaffirmed its commitment to the welfare and protection of Ghanaians abroad and pledged continued support to facilitate the successful return and reintegration of those affected.

The Ministry also expressed appreciation to the authorities of Côte d’Ivoire and all stakeholders for their cooperation in facilitating the repatriation exercise.

Prosecutors argued that Yoon ordered the operation in October 2024 to provoke Pyongyang and create a pretext for his failed martial law bid later that year.

When Yoon declared martial law on 3 December, he had claimed he was protecting the country from “anti-state” forces that sympathised with North Korea. But it soon became clear he was driven by domestic troubles, and he rolled back the order in the face of mass protests.

Yoon was impeached and is now serving time in prison after he was sentenced to life for insurrection over his botched martial law attempt.

On Friday, the Seoul District Court found Yoon, as well as his former defence minister Kim Yong-hyun, the former head of the Defence Counterintelligence Command Yeo In-hyung, and the former head of the Drone Operations Command Kim Yong-dae, guilty of treason and abuse of power.

Kim was sentenced to 30 years in prison, while Yeo received 15 years, and Kim Yong-dae received 3 years in prison with a 5-year suspended sentence.

“The defendants used the guise of a military operation to induce provocations from North Korea with the aim of creating a state of emergency,” the court said.

It added that all three officials had “provoked North Korea”, thus “increasing the risk of a military conflict”, but concluded that Yoon bore the “greatest responsibility” in this event.

Yoon’s lawyers had argued that his actions were a “legitimate” response to North Korea’s “provocations with rubbish balloons”.

This was a reference to North Korea dropping hundreds of balloons in 2024, which were later found to contain “filthy waste and trash”, across the border in the South.

The two countries have used such “propaganda balloons” in their campaigns since the Korean War, with messages placed inside them.

But tensions shot up in 2024 when North Korea accused the South of flying drones into its capital. These drones allegedly scattered propaganda leaflets all over Pyongyang, in what the North described as a provocation that could lead to war.

It was Yoon who sent these drones into the North, expecting it to strike back, said a judge in Friday’s ruling.

Apart from insurrection, Yoon was also sentenced to five years in jail for abuse of power and obstructing his own arrest.

Yoon’s attempt at martial law and the protests that followed created months of chaos in the country, culminating in an election in which the opposition Democratic Party’s Lee Jae-myung won a decisive mandate.

The TikTok reel shared on Monday depicts border agents placing people in handcuffs, with Grande’s 2024 hit Bye as a soundtrack. It is captioned: “Bye-bye… President Trump has delivered the most secure border in history”.

Grande commented on the post: “Please do not use my music in relation to this barbaric, inhumane, heinous nonsense.”

White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told US media: “What’s actually barbaric, inhumane, and heinous are the criminal illegal ‌aliens ⁠who have injured and murdered innocent American citizens.”

The White House video comes after Donald Trump signed a bill into law approving more than $70bn (£52bn) in funding for immigration agencies for the remaining two-and-a-half years of his presidential term.

The video shows officers placing handcuffs on people, ushering them into cars and then placing them into detention centres.

After Grande replied to the post, the video was muted and her comment removed. Several users then commented under the post noting that Grande’s comment was missing and that the sound had been muted.

The Wicked actress joins a growing list of artists who have demanded that Trump’s team do not use their music to promote the president’s policy agenda.

Last year, Sabrina Carpenter wrote “do not ever involve me or my music to benefit your inhumane agenda” after a White House clip used part of her 2024 song Juno in a compilation showing ICE operations.

ABBA, Céline Dion and Beyoncé were among those insisting Trump’s campaign not use their music during his re-election bid in 2024, including at campaign rallies.

She collapsed in December 2022 while exercising with her dogs. Her doctors attributed it to a severely irregular heartbeat, caused by a mycoplasma infection in her heart.

With her death, the Thai royal family has lost its most visibly accomplished member, and someone who might have played a pivotal role in an as-yet-unclarified succession.

She was the eldest of King Vajiralongkorn’s seven children, born on 7 December 1978 to his first wife and cousin, Princess Soamsawali.

“The medical team provided the closest and most intensive care possible, but her condition continued to decline progressively,” the palace said in a statement on Friday morning, adding that she passed away at 19:48 local time (12:48 GMT) the previous day in Chulalongkorn Hospital.

She trained as a lawyer, getting two post-graduate degrees from Cornell University in the US. She worked briefly at the Thai mission to the United Nations in New York before returning to Thailand to work in the Attorney-General’s offices in Bangkok and elsewhere in the country.

From 2012 to 2014, she was Thailand’s ambassador to Austria, where she built a relationship with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

She started speaking out on the need for penal reform, with a particular focus on vulnerable women who end up in prison; Thailand has one of the world’s highest numbers of female inmates.

Once back in Thailand, she became the UNODC’s Ambassador for the Rule of Law in South East Asia and continued to advocate for reform of Thailand’s criminal justice system, in which severe sentences are often handed down to people convicted of relatively minor drug possession charges.

In 2021, her father made her a chief of staff in his private bodyguard, giving her the rank of general.

Princess Bajrakitiyabha was also a fitness enthusiast who often took part in long-distance runs.

Her abilities and the trust her father appeared to have in her made her an inevitable topic of speculation about the royal succession.

King Vajiralongkorn, who is 73 years old, has not yet named an heir. Thai custom dictates that the heir must be male, but a 1974 amendment to the constitution allows a female to take the throne.

The king has five sons, but four of them, born of his second marriage, were disowned in 1996 and have lived with their mother in the US since then.

His fifth son, Dipangkorn, by his third wife, is the presumed heir, although questions have been raised about his ability to serve as monarch in a country where the royal institution wields so much influence.

For many Thai royalists, Princess Bajrakitiyabha seemed the most promising figure to succeed her father, either as queen or as a regent to help Prince Dipangkorn.

Her death leaves the question of the succession in Thailand unanswered, and the severity of the country’s lese majeste law rules out any public discussion of it.

US Central Command (Centcom) said it had completed a wave of “self-defence strikes” targeting military, surveillance and radar sites in southern Iran, hours after President Donald Trump vowed US forces would hit Iran “hard”.

Tehran responded to the attack with a round of strikes targeting US military assets across the region in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan.

Iran’s foreign ministry said early on Thursday that the overnight attacks violated the two-month-old ceasefire, rendering it “practically meaningless”.

It said in a statement that responsibility for the “extremely serious consequences of this criminal act” lay with the leaders of the US.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it had fired ballistic missiles at a US command centre in Jordan, state media reported.

It said it had destroyed “a large number” of US fighter jets and “facilities” after firing 12 ballistic missiles at the Muwaffaq Salti Airbase.

Jordanian state media reported 20 missiles had been intercepted and shot down by the country’s air defence systems and air force, citing an unnamed military official.

The missiles had been fired towards Azraq in central Jordan, it reported, “without any human casualties or material damage” caused.

Meanwhile, Bahrain’s interior ministry said its air raid sirens were activated and that falling shrapnel from intercepted Iranian drones had damaged homes and vehicles in the capital, Manama, and Hamad Town.

Kuwait’s Army posted on X that its anti-air defence systems intercepted “hostile aerial targets”.

Kuwait said it had temporarily closed its airspace due to the Iranian attacks, before reopening it early on Thursday.

In Iran, state media reported explosions around Tehran, the port city of Bandar Abbas and other southern areas near the Strait of Hormuz.

The IRGC said it had hit two oil tankers passing through the crucial shipping channel shortly after state media reported it was “completely closed to all type of vessel” – although there was no immediate confirmation of a strike.

Centcom, however, said “commercial ships are continuing to transit in and out of the Strait of Hormuz”.

Oil prices rose shortly after the closure of the shipping channel and the apparent attack on the ships was announced.

Brent crude oil, seen as the global benchmark, climbed to around $95 a barrel after rising by about 2%.

Hours before the US launched its latest attack, Trump had warned: “We hit them hard yesterday and we’re going to hit them hard again today.”

Trump wrote on Truth Social that Iranian leaders had “taken too long to negotiate a deal” and threatened further attacks were a deal not reached.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Iran had been given a chance to make a deal but had not taken it and said bombs would be “dropping on key facilities” in the country.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said the country would “stand firm against any pressure or threat”. The foreign ministry in Tehran has accused the US of damaging the diplomatic process through “contradictory messages”.

In April, the US and Iran agreed a ceasefire that was initially meant to last for two weeks. Both sides have since exchanged intermittent fire, without returning to full-scale hostilities.

However, recent efforts to broker a peace agreement have stalled and attacks have grown more frequent.

This week, a US helicopter was downed in an attack that the US blamed on Iran. The IRGC in turn responded by targeting US bases across the Middle East.

UN Secretary General António Guterres said in a statement on X that the Middle East was “being pulled deeper into crisis” and that recent attacks meant “the ceasefire is more like a lesser-fire”.

“We should not minimise the risks of lesser fire becoming full fire. All parties must work towards a diplomatic settlement. No more attacks. No more excuses,” he said.

The Palau-flagged MT Settebello came under attack on Wednesday, accused by the US military of violating an American blockade by “attempting to transport oil from Iran”.

US Centcom said an aircraft fired “precision munitions” into the engine room of the tanker “after the crew repeatedly failed” to follow directions.

The US and Israel launched wide-ranging strikes on Iran on 28 February.

Iran responded by attacking Israel and US-allied states in the Gulf, and effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz, through which around 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas travels.

That oil comes not only from Iran, but also Gulf states such as Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Shortly after a ceasefire was agreed in early April, the US established a blockade of Iranian ports, which Trump said would remain “in full force and effect until an agreement is reached, certified, and signed”.

These concerns were raised during high-level talks with a delegation from the West African Monetary Institute (WAMI), led by Dr. Abraham Abdulai, at the GIS Headquarters in Accra.

The meeting formed part of WAMI’s study visit to assess challenges in the implementation of the ECOWAS Protocol on Free Movement, trade, and the use of the ECOWAS biometric identification system.

Deputy Comptroller-General of Immigration in charge of Command, Post and Operations, Mr. Faisal Disu, warned that “Ghana is currently attracting a lot of bad actors into the country,” stressing that proceeds from organised begging networks could potentially be used to finance terrorism.

Discussions also highlighted the slow progress in implementing the ECOWAS National Biometric Identity Card, with only Ghana, Senegal, and Côte d’Ivoire currently fully implementing the system. Currency disparities across the sub-region were also identified as a key challenge.

Dr. Abdulai noted that WAMI’s ongoing exercise will help develop strategies and benchmarks, including a centralised database of ECOWAS citizens, to strengthen border management.

Both institutions emphasised the urgent need for public advocacy and sensitisation campaigns on regular migration and the dangers of irregular migration and the use of unapproved border crossing routes.

The GIS announced plans to intensify border patrols to safeguard national security while ensuring that the principle of free movement supports, rather than undermines, Ghana’s peace and stability.

Further recommendations from the meeting are expected to inform ECOWAS policy reforms aimed at protecting lives, securing borders, and advancing genuine regional integration.

A flight carrying 268 Nigerians has landed in Lagos after leaving Johannesburg on Thursday morning. The passengers were part of around 1,000 people who the Nigerian consulate in South Africa says have registered to be repatriated.

Ghana, Zimbabwe and Malawi have already carried out evacuations, ahead of a 30 June deadline set by some campaigners for undocumented migrants to leave.

Many people from other parts of Africa moved to South Africa around the time white-minority rule ended in 1994, hoping for a better life.

But with South Africa facing an unemployment rate of more than 30%, anti-migrant sentiments have risen, with protest marches being held in major cities and people facing xenophobic attacks.

At the main international airport in Johannesburg, Justin, one of the Nigerian passengers, told the BBC that he had lived in South Africa since 1998.

“I’m leaving because of the conditions they’ve given us here. They say we must leave on or before 30th June. And because of the way they are killing people, killing our brothers, so I’m not safe,” Justin said.

Justin told the BBC that he had already been targeted.

“Recently they attacked me in a taxi. I ran away and left my things. I left my phone and everything.

“They call us names and say you must leave this country. When we tried to beg them, they started insulting us.”

There have been no official figures regarding the number of deaths caused by xenophobic violence in recent weeks.

The police have said two Mozambican men were killed in Western Cape province earlier this month but have not given a motive.

The Mozambican authorities said the death toll was higher, and their citizens have been killed as a result of xenophobia.

Some of the protesters have pointed the finger at migrants for South Africa’s high unemployment rate, and putting pressure on public services like schools and hospitals.

However, Nigeria’s Consul General in South Africa, Ninikanwa Okey-Uche, told the BBC that migrants made up less than 10% of South Africa’s population, and could not be “blamed for broken systems in education, health care, policing, unemployment”.

“They are not and cannot be the problem. So, migrants are basically being scapegoated,” Okey-Uche added.

A spokesman for South Africa’s Border Management Agency told local TV station Newzroom Afrika that none of the passengers on the flight had documents to live in South Africa legally.

Okey-Uche said she did not have the figures, but delays in processing applications could lead to some people ending up as undocumented migrants.

She added that the South African authorities need to do more to act against people “propagating these xenophobic attacks and anti-foreigner sentiments”.

“There are a lot of top South African politicians who have spoken up against what’s happening, saying it’s absolutely wrong.

“But down on the street, we need to see arrests. We know the people in charge. They’re not hiding. They’ve caused mayhem in people’s lives, but they’re walking free. Some of them are running for election,” Okey-Uche said.

South Africa is due to hold local government elections in November, with some analysts believing that migration is being turned into a major campaign issue.

On Sunday, President Cyril Ramaphosa made a televised address responding to the protests, announcing new measures to crackdown on illegal migration.

These include jailing employers who hire undocumented workers, setting up dedicated courts to speed up the deportations and having a biometric database for everyone in the country to avoid identity theft.

He also warned South Africans not to take the law into their own hands by targeting those they suspect of being in the country illegally.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, June 10, the department said the operation uncovered a sophisticated scheme in which individuals allegedly used fraudulent documents and visa facilitators to obtain U.S. visitor visas with the intention of giving birth in the United States.

According to the State Department, the network relied on visa “fixers” who helped applicants secure travel documents and make arrangements aimed at obtaining U.S. citizenship for children born on American soil.

“A U.S. embassy in West Africa uncovered a sophisticated birth tourism network of more than 100 foreign nationals using fraudulent documents and visa ‘fixers’ to get themselves visas in order to get U.S. citizenship for their children. We shut it down, revoked these foreign nationals’ visas, and are coordinating with local authorities to systematically identify and cut off any similar operations,” the department stated.

The State Department did not disclose the specific West African country involved but said it is collaborating with local authorities to prevent similar operations from emerging elsewhere in the region.

The revelation forms part of a broader crackdown on birth tourism, a practice in which foreign nationals travel to the United States primarily to give birth so their children can acquire U.S. citizenship under the country’s birthright citizenship laws.

Reiterating its position, the department stressed that obtaining a visitor visa for the primary purpose of giving birth in the United States violates U.S. visa regulations.

“No foreigner is permitted to obtain a visitor visa for the primary purpose of acquiring U.S. citizenship for a child by giving birth in the U.S.,” the statement said.

U.S. authorities indicated that the West African operation is one of several cases uncovered globally. In Europe, officials have identified more than 400 suspected birth tourism cases since 2024, linked to at least six companies accused of coaching visa applicants, arranging accommodation and coordinating childbirth-related travel to the United States.

The department said visas connected to those cases had been revoked, while several individuals involved in facilitating the schemes were permanently barred from travelling to the United States.

In a separate operation, a U.S. embassy in North Africa revoked more than 100 visas issued to parents who had travelled to the United States primarily to give birth.

“Consular officers – working with law enforcement and using data analytics – identified several networks abusing the system and put a stop to it,” the department noted.

The State Department said it would continue targeting visa fraud and birth tourism operations worldwide, describing access to a U.S. visa as a privilege rather than a right.

“A U.S. visa is a privilege, not a right. The State Department is taking action around the world to stop this abuse, dismantle birth tourism networks, and hold accountable those who try to scam our system,” it added.

READ ALSO:

See the areas that will be affected by ECG’s planned maintenance on Thursday (June 11, 2026)

Ghanaians stranded in South Africa appeal to Mahama for help after evacuation exercise ends

In a video circulating on social media and shared by WeLoveGhana on X, the group—comprising men, women, and children—described worsening living conditions and pleaded with the government not to abandon them.

Some of the stranded Ghanaians said they have been sleeping in open spaces and temporary shelters for nearly two weeks, with limited access to money, accommodation, or employment.

Speaking on behalf of the group, a visibly emotional woman appealed directly to the President for assistance.

“We are sleeping outside. We have children among us. Many others are at other places and we have been here for nearly two weeks. Please, President John Mahama, come and help us,” she pleaded.

Another member of the group recounted how his decision to join the evacuation process has left him without shelter or income.

“I was owing my landlord rent and after I told him I was leaving for Ghana, he cancelled the debt. We signed all tenancy agreements and now I cannot go back. I don’t even have any money on me. We have been sleeping in this place for almost two weeks and I have no job,” he said.

A woman in the group also revealed that some stranded Ghanaians have resorted to paying for temporary sleeping spaces in private homes.

“Some people are sleeping in someone’s living room where they pay 100 rands each day, and because of that, they have run out of money,” she said.

The latest appeal comes days after the Government of Ghana undertook an evacuation exercise for citizens affected by recent tensions and attacks targeting foreign nationals in parts of South Africa.

So far, 979 Ghanaians have been evacuated, following the arrival of the final batch of 342 on Sunday, June 7, 2026.

The operation, coordinated through Ghana’s diplomatic mission and relevant state agencies, facilitated the return of Ghanaians who expressed willingness to leave amid growing fears for their safety and livelihoods.

Government officials have indicated that support measures, including temporary accommodation and reintegration assistance, are being considered for returnees upon arrival in Ghana.

However, the latest developments suggest that some Ghanaians may have been unable to join the evacuation flights or were left behind after arrangements had already been completed.

The stranded group is now urging the government to reconsider its intervention and provide urgent assistance before their situation worsens further.

Their appeal adds a human dimension to ongoing concerns about the welfare of Ghanaians affected by recent unrest in South Africa, with many hoping for a swift response from authorities in Accra.

ALSO READ:

• Patrick Boamah urges Ablakwa to brief Parliament on Ghanaians in South Africa

• 74% of returned Ghanaians had overstayed visas – South Africa’s Int’l Relations Minister

“The first aspect we have to look into is how it happened, who forced them out and all that. And that is the process that we are currently undergoing,” Mr Lamola said.

Speaking on Super Morning Show on June 10, Mr Lamola said authorities are examining all aspects of the matter, including how the incidents occurred and who may have been responsible.

He stressed that it would be premature for the government to make any pronouncements on compensation while investigations are ongoing.

“At this stage, there is no ground for any compensation because we are still looking into all the aspects, because you need to be sure,” he stated.

The minister noted that many of the affected individuals had already been declared undesirable in South Africa due to immigration violations, a factor he said must be considered as part of the assessment.

“Most of them had to come back home because they had already been declared to be undesirable in South Africa. So you have to check all those aspects,” he explained.

Mr Lamola said legally, Ghanaian residents whose businesses were affected, each case would be handled on its merits.

“We will not stipulate. We’ll have to deal with each case to be able to say,” he said.

Mr Lamola said, “It is an issue that is being discussed.

I can’t make a political announcement that has not yet been confirmed, but it is an issue that is being discussed, and it will definitely be this process that we’re undergoing. It’s one of the issues that we will pronounce on.”

“As I’ve said earlier on, with the bulk of all Ghanaians that have come back home, almost 74% had overstayed, and they had been declared undesirable through our processes, and this is the law, and this has been communicated to the High Commissioner,” Mr Lamola said.

Speaking on the Super Morning Show on June 10, Mr Lamola said that despite these immigration breaches, the South African government remains committed to protecting all persons within its borders, including Ghanaian nationals.

“We are indeed protecting all people within the borders of South Africa. Constitutionally, we are duty-bound to protect everyone, including Ghanaian nationals,” he stated.

He noted that many Ghanaians continue to make meaningful contributions to South Africa’s economy across various sectors and deserve protection.

“There is a huge number of them in the various sectors of our economy. The South African government is duty-bound to ensure that they feel safe and play their role as they are supposed to in the country,” he added.

Mr Lamola stressed that constitutional protections apply to everyone living in South Africa, regardless of immigration status.

“The Constitution does not differentiate. The government has a responsibility to ensure that everyone is safe,” he said.

The remarks were made as the government condemned violence against foreign nationals and reiterated its obligation to ensure the safety of all residents.

“It is for that reason that we are condemning the violence against foreign nationals, because it is our duty as the government of South Africa to protect everyone within our borders,” he explained.

At the same time, he said the government would continue to enforce immigration laws to address irregular migration.

“We also have a duty to deal with irregular migration by enforcing immigration policy,” he added.

Police say Purwadi Wahyudi ordered chicken skewers on 18 May, dipped them in toxic chemicals, then couriered them to the alleged victim’s house because he felt disrespected by her.

He tried to frame his sister-in-law, who discovered the 57-year-old woman’s body, covered in vomit, at her home in Central Java the next day, detectives added.

Purwadi, 40, has been made a suspect and detained, but has not been formally charged with murder, which in Indonesia attracts the death penalty or at least 20 years in prison.

Police say the family contacted them after the woman – identified only as Aminah – was buried, suspicious that she had not died of natural causes.

The woman’s youngest daughter, Luriyanti Putri, told investigators the alleged victim had reported receiving a delivery of chicken satay from an unknown person the day before her body was discovered. Putri said it wasn’t from her, and told her mother not to eat the food.

Aminah’s neighbour also reported seeing dead chickens near her coop.

Her body was exhumed and forensic testing found signs of poisoning in most of her major organs, as well as traces of toxic chemicals.

The head of the Boyolali police’s criminal investigation unit, Indrawan Wira Saputra, added that the killing was carefully planned, according to Indonesian media outlet Kompas.

Purwadi had pretended to be Putri on a delivery app, using her name and photo as the account details.

The delivery driver raised suspicions about this – expecting a woman, and the person who sold Purwadi the satay says the food was in different packaging by the time it was delivered to Aminah.

Police said the pilot, 59-year-old Geoffrey Wall from Ontario, had been flying with forged credentials since his promotion to captain in 2009. He now faces several fraud-related charges.

Air Canada said the pilot was immediately removed from duty once the false documents were discovered last year. “The company voluntarily reported the matter to Transport Canada,” the airline said.

The airline said passenger safety was never at risk, noting that all pilots undergo competency training every six months.

Deputy Chief Nick Milinovich of Peel Regional Police said Wall had been flying with Air Canada for 27 years, beginning his career in 1998.

The pilot allegedly had been misrepresenting his credentials since 2009, when he was promoted to the position of pilot-in-command, or captain, police said.

For that role, pilots are required to hold an airline transport pilot licence (ATPL), which is obtained in part by passing a series of written exams.

“This is very similar to a doctor who is licensed to practice family medicine, but is doing brain surgery in their office,” said Milinovich.

For the last 17 years, police said Wall flew several types of Boeing aircraft and a total of 900 domestic and international flights, and earned millions of dollars in salary, all allegedly without the proper credentials.

Officials said the alleged fraud was discovered last year during a routine evaluation when inconsistencies were flagged with the accused pilot’s licence documentation, prompting an investigation by Transport Canada, Canada’s federal transport department.

Peel Regional Police, a force in the Toronto area, then began a criminal investigation into Wall that included a search warrant and an analysis of the licence, which police said they determined was forged.

Wall was charged on 1 June with a total of seven counts, including fraud, forging documents and possession of a counterfeit mark.

Air Canada said the pilot was fully trained and held a valid commercial pilot licence, but did not have the ATPL required to operate as a captain under Canadian regulations.

In its statement, the airline added that it “takes this matter with utmost seriousness” and said it completed an audit of its pilots and found no other issues of non-compliance.

Asked why Wall’s alleged fraud went undetected for years, Milinovich noted that offenders can become “very good” at “deceit and trickery”.

“It is not uncommon for fraud to continue for years and years,” he said. “Eventually it catches up to you, and that’s when we get involved.”

Wall is due to appear in court on 29 June.

The US military said it targeted air defence systems, ground control stations and radar sites in response to the downing of an American helicopter on Monday.

In response, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said it launched strikes on 21 targets at US bases in the region, one in Bahrain and the other in Jordan, while Kuwait’s army said it was also intercepting an attack.

The US has described its strikes as “a proportional response” for the downing of an Apache helicopter, while the IRGC described the attacks as “vicious”.

The exchange of fire comes after two crew members of the downed helicopter were rescued by an American sea drone on Monday, Centcom said. It was the first time the US military publicly confirmed that type of vessel was used in such an operation.

According to US officials, Iran used a drone to launch the attack on the helicopter. But it’s not clear whether the Iranian drone had deliberately attacked, an unnamed US official told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner. The semi-official Mehr News Agency reported that Iran had not claimed responsibility for the downed aircraft.

In response, Centcom said US fighter jets “struck Iranian air defense, ground control stations, and surveillance radar sites near the Strait of Hormuz”.

The IRGC said US strikes had damaged a telecommunications tower and two water tanks.

Iran said the US had targeted the cities of Jask and Sirik, and Qeshem – an island in the Gulf.

Centcom released the statement saying the mission was “completed” just over three hours after it announced an initial wave of strikes triggered by the downing of the US helicopter on Monday.

US officials have yet to comment on reports of attacks on its bases, and it is unclear if there has been any damage. However, an air raid alert was issued in Bahrain, according to local authorities who said Iranian attacks had been repelled.

US President Donald Trump said earlier on Tuesday the downed helicopter had been patrolling the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping channel that was effectively closed days after the US launched its first strikes on Iran in late February.

“There were two pilots involved, both are safe and uninjured,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Nevertheless, the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack.”

In Washington, US House Speaker Mike Johnson said he was in the room with Trump when he decided that US attacks on Iran should resume.

“We lament that it became necessary,” said the top Republican in Congress, adding that “we’re gonna have to take care of this business”.

Iran’s foreign minister issued a threat to the US in the aftermath of the renewed US attacks, saying the country “will leave no attack or threat unanswered”.

“Despite its defeats on the battlefield, the US opted to test our determination,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X.

He added: “Leave our region if you want to be safe.”

Araghchi said on Tuesday that foreign forces near Iran’s territory were at “constant risk on account of their own human errors, plain accidents or potentially being caught in crossfire”.

“To reduce risk, best solution is for them [foreign forces] to leave,” the Iranian leader said in a post on X.

Minutes before Trump’s comments on the downed American Apache helicopter on Tuesday, Iran’s top negotiator in peace talks with Washington, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, took to social media to signal retaliation.

“We prefer the language of diplomacy, but we speak other languages far more fluently. Break your commitments, and we’ll switch to what we speak best.”

“You ride the horse you saddled!,” he wrote.

The flare-up between the US and Iran comes after Israeli forces carried out strikes across southern Lebanon on Tuesday.

Tehran had warned that Israeli attacks on southern Lebanon would trigger another wave of retaliatory strikes.

Israel and Iran halted attacks on each other after exchanging fire over the weekend for the first time since April’s truce.

Trump publicly told both countries to “immediately stop ‘shooting'” because they were jeopardising negotiations between Washington and Tehran on a deal to end the regional war.

He said on Truth Social that Israel and Iran are looking to do “an immediate ceasefire” but peace is “subject to ignorance or stupidity getting in its way”.

On Tuesday he also told journalists: “We’re in the final throes of what will be a very, very good deal,” adding that it could take “two or three days” and the Strait of Hormuz would open immediately after.

In April, Nigeria’s Senate gave its approval to the agreement, joining other African borrowers like Senegal and Angola who have tapped into similar arrangements over the past year.

• “Our view is that the transactions ​in these types of structures carry risks. Usually they are opaque ⁠so the terms are not always very transparent when we reviewed these instruments ​across countries,” Christian Ebeke, IMF resident representative in Nigeria, told reporters.
• Ebeke said Nigeria could instead ​issue eurobonds to finance its deficits or other means to raise funding, including on concessional terms.
• Nigeria intends to use proceeds from the total return swap, or TRS, to refinance expensive debt and ​pay for infrastructure.
• In its latest Article IV review, the Fund praised Nigeria’s sweeping ​reforms, saying they had strengthened economic stability and investor confidence, but warned that the benefits had ‌yet ⁠to reach millions of citizens and could be undermined by global shocks, including the Middle East conflict.
• The reforms since 2023 under President Bola Tinubu – including fuel subsidy removal, tighter monetary policy and exchange rate liberalisation – had rebuilt buffers and improved macroeconomic ​management, the IMF said.
• However, it cautioned that the reforms were also contributing to social strain, with poverty at 63% and millions facing food insecurity, underscoring a widening gap between macro gains and household realities.
• The IMF said ​improved policy ⁠credibility and forex reforms had helped Nigeria regain access to international capital markets and attract portfolio inflows, while reducing risk premiums. The central bank says gross reserves are at $50 ⁠billion, ​the highest in 17 years.
• But reliance on volatile foreign ​portfolio investment poses rollover risks, the IMF said, urging a shift towards more stable, long-term capital such ​as foreign direct investment.