The seven claimants, also including Sir Elton John and Liz Hurley, must pay an initial £9.54m by Friday of next week to Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL).

The judge ruled that the case was a rare one in which the claimants should have to pay far in excess of the costs that had been agreed before trial, criticising how they presented their claims as “unreasonable to a high degree”.

On 7 July, Judge Mr Justice Nicklin dismissed the claims of unlawful information-gathering, which ANL denied.

The Duke of Sussex and the other six claimants have until 2 October to attempt to launch an appeal.

Those other claimants are Sir Elton John and his husband David Furnish, Sir Simon Hughes, Sadie Frost, Liz Hurley, and Baroness Doreen Lawrence.

They had insurance to cover up to £16.2m of Association Newspapers’ costs in the event of losing the case – but Friday’s ruling means the newspaper group could now try to recover up to the £34.5m that it said it had to spend to defend itself. This means the Duke and others could face a bill of some £18m.

Justice Nicklin described the potential £34.5m payment to ANL as “excessive”, suggesting the costs for the group will not rise to that extent.

The judge said: “I regard a claim for costs in excess of £34 million as, on its face, excessive and as giving rise to real concerns as to whether all of the costs now claimed by Associated were reasonably incurred and are reasonable in amount.”

But he added he had “decided not to impose a ceiling on Associated’s recoverable costs”, as it would “be too broad brushed, would risk unfairness, and would be vulnerable to the charge that it was arbitrary”.

The judge also ruled that ANL’s costs should be determined on an indemnity basis, which is more favourable to the publisher in terms of the amount it can recover, aside from where orders had already been made.

He added it was “striking” that “not a single allegation of serious wrongdoing was voluntarily withdrawn” by the group of seven claimants.

He said: “That matters. Serious allegations of criminality or grave impropriety cannot properly be left hanging over individuals in that way.

“If a party no longer advances such an allegation, or no longer has a proper evidential basis for advancing it, the allegation should be withdrawn clearly and in terms.

“The claimants’ failure to do so was not ordinary forensic judgment. It was not a proper or disciplined way to deal with serious allegations. It was unreasonable to a high degree.”

In a statement released on Friday, the publisher called the ruling ” a devastating critique of an attempt to destroy a newspaper and the reputations of its journalists, editors and executives”.

Friday’s decision comes just days after the Duke and Duchess announced their plan to return to the UK, with their children Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, enrolled to start school in September.

During the trial, dozens of people gave evidence including Prince Harry and the other claimants. The Duke of Sussex flew in from the US to attend court in person.

Many current and former Associated Newspapers journalists and executives gave evidence denying illegal activity.

Sir Simon Hughes told the BBC he was “disappointed” by the judgement.

“I am now taking the time necessary to consider both the substantive and the costs judgment and whether to pursue appeals against decisions in either judgment or both,” he added.

In a joint statement following the judge’s ruling last month, Prince Harry and Baroness Doreen Lawrence, another claimant and peer whose son Stephen was murdered in 1993, said: “We came to court seeking justice and accountability. But we have received neither.”

“It is a complete and obvious whitewash, but sadly not altogether unexpected”, the pair added.

ANL had asked for more than £9.9 million as an interim payment ahead of future hearings to decide its legal costs in depth.

However, lawyers for the claimants said the interim payment should be just over £7.9 million.

Mr Justice Nicklin previously said the claimants would need to pay the interim payment on 28 August.

In a civil case such as this, the legal convention is that the losing party must reimburse “reasonable” legal fees incurred by the other side – but the judge reserves the right to decide how much they should have to pay. They also have to settle their own legal costs.

READ ALSO:

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The sign board up ahead has just been changed to show there’s no fuel.

“They say there will be petrol here,” Svyatoslav tells me optimistically. “They just don’t know when. Maybe today, maybe tomorrow.”

I ask him why he doesn’t drive off and look for another place to fill up.

“I haven’t got enough in the tank to do that,” Svyatoslav replies.

Even if he had, there’d be no quick fuel fix for Svyatoslav. This week across Moscow, and in other parts of Russia, there have been long queues for petrol.

“Unscheduled repairs at oil refineries,” explain Russian officials.

Those repairs have been triggered by Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian oil facilities. Such long-range attacks sparked major fuel shortages earlier this summer. The targeting of oil refineries has continued apace.

This time the queues in Moscow are even longer than before. The authorities appear to be struggling to resolve problems with refining capacity and logistics.

“The second wave of the fuel crisis is building,” declared broadsheet Nezavisimaya Gazeta this week.

Driving around Moscow this week two things catch the eye: patriotic announcements on giant billboards about Russian Flag Day…and giant petrol queues.

Outside one Moscow petrol station I count 80 vehicles waiting in line.

The search for fuel is now a constant struggle.

“Last night I went to get petrol at 11pm,” says Elizaveta who’s queuing again for fuel. “By midnight I’d reached the front of the queue. Then they shut the petrol station until 2am.”

“I drove into Moscow yesterday from the provinces,” says Lyubov. “It was empty petrol stations all the way.”

To stay calm in the queue Lyubov is stroking her pet dog Agatha.

How does Lyubov view the fuel crisis?

“Everyone says there is a difficult situation in the country,” Lyubov tells me. “Everyone connects this to that situation.”

Before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 there were no drone attacks on Russian oil refineries – or on any facilities inside Russia. These strikes haven’t forced the Kremlin to U-turn. It’s continuing what it still calls the “special military operation”, Russia’s war on Ukraine.

To ease the crisis, Russia has begun importing petrol.

That is extraordinary for a country widely recognised as an energy superpower and one of the world’s leading exporters of crude oil.

To reduce the fuel shortage the government has also temporarily authorised the production and sale of lower-grade petrol, like Euro 2, which is faster to produce. Euro 2 contains up to 50 times more sulphur than modern Euro 5 and was banned in Russia in 2013.

It comes with a warning.

“For modern cars,” wrote the government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta, “regular use of lower-grade petrol can increase the pressure on the fuel injector, spark plugs, oxygen sensors, the catalytic converter and soot filter. Euro 2 won’t kill an engine on one re-fuelling. But it sharply reduces the margin of safety.”

It’s not just the targeting of oil facilities which have brought the war home to Russians.

Ukrainian strikes on distribution centres of Wildberries, Russia’s equivalent of Amazon, are causing disruption to shoppers and economic pain for sellers.

This week President Vladimir Putin conceded that attacks on industrial facilities and infrastructure “do inflict damage; this is obvious. We understand this, we see it.”

But the Kremlin leader played down the problems.

“There are no critical consequences from such attacks. There have not been and cannot be.”

In other words, no need for panic.

“It is a disconnect between people’s feelings and the description of reality by Vladimir Putin, the description of his personal reality in his head,” believes Andrei Kolesnikov, a columnist for independent news outlet Novaya Gazeta.

“Maybe he’s trying to hypnotise himself that everything is okay.”

Recent polling inside Russia, including by the Public Opinion Foundation, suggest that anxiety in society is rising. That would suggest that the Kremlin’s message of ‘keep calm and carry on’ isn’t landing.

“This permanent feeling of anxiety is with everyone right now. You feel that something is wrong. Anxiety is the main sentiment,” says Kolesnikov.

“This regime doesn’t demonstrate any model of the future: the nearest future, a middle- term future, a long-term future. We are ‘great’ right now. What are the qualities of this greatness? The petrol crisis? In that sense, the future is aborted. People are trying not to think about the future. The horizon of planning is very short.”

A few minutes’ drive from the petrol station where I’d been chatting with Svyatoslav, I spot another long queue.

But this one is for candyfloss.

The local authorities have set up stalls and put on a street concert to mark Russian Flag Day.

There may be a shortage of petrol. But not of patriotism. Not here.

“It’s my country, my fate, my dream,” croons a singer. “I’m raising my flag. The flag of my country.”

Volunteers are handing out Russian tricolours to people on the square.

“Dear friends, we live in a wonderful country!” declares one of the speakers. “We know that we will always be victorious. I wish you peaceful skies, a good mood, comfort, prosperity and pride in our country.”

Along with the candyfloss there are Kalashnikovs. At one stall children are being shown an array of military hardware, including hand-held rocket launchers. The kids are picking up the weapons and posing with them.

It hints to the growing militarisation of Russian society.

The patriotic presentation is lifting some people’s spirits.

“Difficulties unite us,” pensioner Tatyana tells me. “The harder things are, the stronger we get.”

But the war is very much on people’s minds – especially the Ukrainian drone attacks on the Moscow region.

“When you go to sleep you don’t know if you’ll wake up in the morning,” Angelina tells me. “That’s the only problem. Everything else is fine.”

“The problems we have are high prices, petrol shortages and last night, for the first time, my windows shook…I heard ‘boom boom!’ another woman tells me.

“Right now, it’s important to take care of your psychological state, so that it’s strong and unbreakable. So that, whatever happens, you can say: ‘Oh well, never mind.’

Comments like that suggest that Russians don’t believe they can influence what’s happening around them. All they feel they can do is try to adapt.

Nathan Cofnas, a self-defined “race realist”, was among those to question Arday’s work and achievements – prompting a weeks-long plagiarism row prior to his death on 14 August.

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Cofnas said he was under investigation by Ghent University “for discriminating against Arday”.

The university said a staff member had been notified of a “preliminary disciplinary investigation” and suspended as a precaution.

In a statement regarding Arday’s death, its rector Petra De Sutter and vice-rector Herwig Reynaert said they took “recent public statements made by a postdoctoral researcher at Ghent University regarding this matter very seriously”, and had taken “appropriate action”.

They said the university stood for “respect for human dignity and opposes discrimination, hatred, and racism”.

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“We attach great importance to academic freedom and to open academic debate, even when views are controversial. However, that freedom is not unlimited.

“It goes hand in hand with responsibility and may be restricted in order to protect the rights of others.”

They said Arday’s death should “prompt reflection” and that lessons should be learned “regarding the way we treat one another both within and outside the academic world, particularly when people become the subject of public controversy”.

Cofnas works as a postdoctoral researcher at the university’s department of philosophy and moral sciences, according to his website.

His role at a Cambridge college was terminated in 2024 after backlash to his view that, under a true meritocracy, black people would “disappear from almost all high-profile positions outside of sports and entertainment”.

Cofnas claimed to have put Arday’s work through plagiarism detection software, which found that “many passages are lifted with minimal editing, sometimes retaining copy-editing mistakes from the original source”.

He also noted that a retired professor had previously raised concerns about Arday’s subsequent academic articles, which led to two journals issuing correction notes.

Questions were also asked about Arday’s claims that he ran 30 marathons in 35 days, and 300 miles in three days for charity, which Arday said had raised more than £5m for charity, as well as running 600 miles on a treadmill in six days.

Arday, who became Cambridge’s youngest Black professor in 2023, was found dead in Battersea, south London, having resigned as a professor of sociology of education the week prior.

Also read:

• Former Cambridge Professor Jason Arday found dead amidst plagiarism row

• Jason Arday death ‘tragedy on so many levels’ says PM Burnham

The accident took ‌place near Gorau in Goronyo local government area and rescue efforts are continuing, said Abdulkadir Yusuf, an area manager at the National Inland Waterways Authority.

A Reuters witness ​saw 50 bodies, many wrapped in mats and traditional cloths, ​lying in the forecourt of a community mosque ahead of ⁠their burial in Gorau later on Thursday.

Deadly boat accidents are ​relatively common in Nigeria, where overcrowding, poor maintenance and weak enforcement of ​safety regulations often contribute to disasters on the country’s rivers and waterways, particularly during the rainy season.

One local resident said the boat had been carrying farm owners ​and labourers hired to harvest rice and that more than 70 ​people had been onboard when it capsized. Another resident said there were 57 people ‌on ⁠board.

Yusuf said the bodies of around 40 children had been found.

Nasiru Adamu, a lawmaker at the Sokoto state legislature from the area, said that those onboard were mostly aged between 10 and 15 years old, adding that ​16 people had ​been rescued.

“We ⁠have buried 46 people, and even more dead bodies have just been brought. The death toll is 53,” ​said Sharhabilu Kiliya, one eyewitness.

Mustapha Umar, director of relief ​and rehabilitation ⁠at the state’s emergency management agency, said officials were heading to the scene and would provide further information later.

In January, at least 25 people ⁠died ​when a leaking boat capsized in Yobe ​state, northeast Nigeria.

Also read:

• More than 40 missing in Nigeria boat accident

• Dozens feared dead in Nigeria after boat capsizes

The 93-year-old leader arrived at Yaounde’s Nsimalen International Airport aboard a chartered flight from Geneva, Switzerland, after more than 10 weeks away.

Biya, the world’s oldest head ​of state, left Cameroon on June 7 for what the ​civil cabinet described as “a brief private stay in Europe”.

The president, ⁠accompanied by First Lady Chantal Biya, touched down around 4.45 p.m. local ​time (1545 pm GMT) before departing in a motorcade for the Etoudi Unity ​Palace.

He waved through a half-open window to hundreds of supporters of the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM) who lined the streets of the capital to welcome him home, ​waving party colours and banners praising the president.

Biya’s prolonged absence had fuelled widespread speculation about his health and capacity to govern, despite repeated assurances from authorities that he would return soon. It also raised more questions about political succession in a country where power remains highly centralised around the presidency. 

Opposition politicians had called on the Constitutional Council to examine whether someone should fill in as head of state during the president’s absence. The council did not take any action.

Under Cameroon’s constitution, in the absence of a vice president, the president of the Senate should assume interim duties if the presidency is declared vacant due to death, resignation, or permanent incapacity.

Biya has not appointed a vice president despite the reintroduction of the role last April, ⁠and ​critics say the lack of a clear ​succession framework raises uncertainty about a potential transition in the event he becomes unable to govern.

Also read:

• Cameroon’s 92-year-old Paul Biya wins re-election

• Paul Biya: Cameroon bans reporting on President’s health, whereabouts

The teenager, identified only as Rehan, was allegedly lured to a secluded location on August 6 before being stabbed to death.

Police in Bhopal, India, said the suspects allegedly removed the teenager’s testicles after the killing, believing they could sell them for about 12 million Indian rupees — approximately £92,000.

Investigators believe the group was motivated by a false claim circulating on social media about the supposed value of human testicles.

Police have arrested 20-year-old business student Zoheb Khan, described as the alleged mastermind, while 18-year-old Aamir Qureshi has also been arrested. Three minors have reportedly been detained in connection with the case.

According to investigators, Khan allegedly recruited the group and convinced them that the organs could be sold to buyers in the Gulf for a huge amount of money.

Police further allege that Khan posed as a doctor and claimed to know how to remove the organs. He reportedly purchased a white apron, stethoscope and thermometer online and used them while allegedly training the others.

Rehan, who worked as a street vendor, was reportedly approached at his stall by two youths who offered him 100 rupees to help with an arranged fight. Police believe the offer was used to lure him to the location where he was later killed.

Ayush Gupta, deputy commissioner of police in Bhopal, said four of the accused allegedly took part in the killing while Khan guided them through a video call.

The group reportedly failed to find a buyer for the organs. Police allege that Khan subsequently instructed them to dispose of the organs in separate lakes.

Rehan’s body was recovered from Lower Lake near Dhobi Ghat on August 10, four days after he was reported missing by his mother.

Police said he was identified through a tattoo.

The investigation remains ongoing as authorities work to establish the full circumstances surrounding the teenager’s death and the role of each suspect.

Gaël Mocaër and Sebastian Perez Pezzani, who work for audiovisual production company Tony Comiti Productions, were arrested with their Togolese fixer, Fred Venum, while filming for the France 5 documentary programme, Les Routes de l’impossible.

The three were arrested near Kara in northern Togo while filming at a market about 20 kilometres from the Benin border.

They were initially placed under house arrest before being remanded in custody and charged with “false statements” on August 17. They are being held at the Agoè Logopé police camp near Lomé.

The French Foreign Ministry confirmed the detention on August 18, saying the two French nationals were the subject of a judicial investigation.

It said French authorities had made three consular visits since July 27 and were working to ensure their rights, health and detention conditions were respected.

RSF said the journalists had entered Togo after obtaining work visas and filming authorisation from the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Arts. Tony Comiti Productions also said they were in good standing and had secured a filming permit and declared their equipment to customs.

However, Togo’s High Authority for the Regulation of Written, Audiovisual and Digital Communication (HARC) said it had received no accreditation request from France Télévisions or the journalists and had not been informed of their arrival or filming activities.

HARC said the courts must determine the circumstances surrounding their presence in Togo, their activities and any alleged offences.

The families of the two journalists have expressed deep concern over their detention, particularly about Perez Pezzani’s health, saying he suffers from serious health problems requiring immediate care.

Both journalists are fathers, with one having a 13-year-old child.

RSF has described the detention as “unjustified and disproportionate” and urged the Togolese authorities to release the three men immediately.

Original report by RFI and rewritten by Albert Kuzor.

The restrictions, known as Conditions of Entry (CoE), were introduced ​by the U.S. Coast Guard in June 2014 and required ​vessels bound for the United States that had recently ⁠called at certain Nigerian ports to comply with additional security measures ​and undergo enhanced scrutiny before entering U.S. waters.

The Coast Guard said Nigerian ports did not maintain effective anti-terrorism measures, citing deficiencies in the country’s legal framework, oversight by its designated maritime security authority, access control, and cargo handling procedures.

Oyetola said the decision followed improvements in the maritime security ​framework and compliance with the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code. U.S. ‌authorities ⁠could not be immediately reached for comment.

The lifting of the restrictions means vessels calling at Nigerian ports before sailing to the United States will no longer be subject to the additional security requirements ​imposed under the program.

Oyetola ​said the ⁠move would help improve vessel turnaround times, enhance schedule reliability and make Nigerian ports more attractive to ​international shipping lines.

The U.S. Coast Guard conducted four ​assessments of ⁠Nigeria’s maritime security systems and port facilities between March 2024 and April 2026, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency said.

Industry participants have long argued that the restrictions increased operating costs ​through additional inspections, documentation requirements and security procedures, while contributing to delays, higher freight ​rates, and increased insurance costs.

The Aircraft Accident Investigation Department said the nationalities of the pilot and passengers were yet to be confirmed.

The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) said the accident happened in Samburu county at approximately 09:13 local time (06:13 GMT).

It said the helicopter was on a scenic flight from a wildlife conservancy in Loisaba to Ewaso Nyiro, a river that flows along several national reserves.

An image shared online shows smoke at the crash site at Mount Ololokwe.

The Kenya Red Cross has told the BBC that the area is not yet accessible, but drones are being used to assess the scene.

The KCAA said the accident involved a Eurocopter EC130 B4 and it was co-ordinating operations.

The transport ministry and Air Accident Investigations Department would lead “investigations into the circumstances surrounding the accident”, it added.

Samburu county is a popular tourist destination with many private wildlife conservancies and is renowned for its stunning scenery.

Helicopter crashes are not uncommon in Kenya.

In February, a helicopter crash in the Rift Valley county of Nandi killed six people, including a member of parliament.

In 2024, the military chief, Gen Francis Omondi Ogolla, died after an army helicopter that was carrying 11 people crashed in the west of the country, with only two survivors.

In June 2021, at least 10 soldiers were killed when their helicopter crashed while landing near the capital, Nairobi.

Eight airstrikes hit the Abu Duhur airport runway and storage facility on Tuesday, according to Syrian state TV, although there were no reports of injuries.

Israel, while not commenting on the strikes directly, said Syria “was on the verge of breaching” the security status quo, accusing Damascus of allowing Turkish troops to deploy to the airbase.

Syria and Turkey blamed the Israeli military for the attacks that they said threaten to escalate tensions in the region.

Tom Barrack, the US ambassador in Turkey, who was also appointed as Donald Trump’s special envoy for Syria and Iraq, criticised the attacks in a statement posted on social media.

“We are deeply concerned that the confirmed Israeli airstrikes on Abu al-Duhur Airbase constitute an unnecessary escalation that does not advance regional stability,” Barrack wrote on X.

The office of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu published a statement: “Israel and Syria agreed to a status quo in security matters, which Syria was on the verge of breaching by permitting Turkish troops to deploy at an airbase near Aleppo.”

Syria’s foreign ministry called the attacks “an unjustified act of aggression” imperilling regional “security and stability”.

Turkey, meanwhile, did not confirm whether any of its troops moved to the Abu Duhur airbase, which sits 70km from the Turkish border. However, Ankara rejected Israel’s suggestion that it posed a threat.

“The frivolous allegations put forward by the Israeli Prime Minister’s office aim to legitimize Israel’s unlawful airstrikes targeting Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Turkey’s Communications Directorate said in a statement quoted by the Anadolu state news agency.

Abu Duhur has been out of service as a dedicated military airfield since 2013. Rebel forces seized control of the base as they swept through the country in December 2024.

Syria has been trying to rebuild its military facilities that were damaged during the blitz offensive that saw Bashar al-Assad’s government overthrown within two weeks.

The Turkish military has provided assistance to Syria since the overthrow of Assad, while Israel continues to view both countries with deep suspicion.

Israel has carried out airstrikes on parts of central and southern Syria since Al-Sharaa came to power, with the latest strikes being the most significant since March.

Barrack said that Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who led the rebel forces against Assad, “has neither adopted not maintained proxy forces” and “repeatedly indicated a preference for de-escalation with Israel”.

The US would continue to offer to host diplomatic discussions between both sides to address “kinetic frustrations”, Barrack added.

Al-Sharaa has forged closer ties with the west since coming to power, particularly the US – signified when he became the first Syrian leader to visit the White House in November last year.

The woman was allegedly assaulted at a karaoke bar in Hangzhou after an official dinner involving executives from several companies and officials.

Local authorities said an investigation had found the woman was sexually assaulted by both men, adding that she had been pushed to the ground by one of them, causing injuries to her lower back.

Both suspects in the case have been dismissed from their positions, the statement added.

Sexual misconduct at drinks events is not unheard of in China, but arrests in such cases – particularly involving public officials – is less common.

In this case, the victim’s injuries and the alleged involvement of a senior official and business executive from a state-owned company have fuelled public anger over what they see as an abuse of power in a workplace hierarchy.

It has been trending heavily on local social media platforms. The case was featured in seven of Weibo’s top 50 trending topics on Wednesday.

The story generated even more attention after authorities released their findings.

One related topic received more than 68 million views, while several others received one to six million views each.

“Going to a drinks gathering does not mean consenting to be harmed, and drinking alcohol does not mean voluntarily consenting to abuse,” one comment on Weibo read.

Many of the social media conversations have also talked about what is known as China’s “drinking table culture” – especially because of reports that the woman was asked to drink heavily before allegedly being taken to the karaoke lounge.

“What is the rationale behind having women accompany men in drinking? Hopefully this practice can be eliminated,” another comment said.

A comment piece in China Women’s  News said just dealing with the individuals involved would not be enough.

It said there was a need to define the “boundaries of business interactions through institutional measures, cutting off the grey areas where power becomes entangled with social obligations”.

The fire broke out at around 2:50 a.m. local time on the ​second floor of the hotel building and ​was brought under control within an hour, ⁠a senior police officer told Reuters.

Around ​30 people were evacuated safely in the incident, ​which may have been triggered by an electrical short circuit, the officer said.

The exact cause of the blaze ​is yet to be ascertained, he added.

Local ​media reported injuries, with at least six wounded undergoing hospital ‌treatment.

 News ⁠agency ANI, in which Reuters has a minority stake, reported, citing the fire department, that among the dead were Bangladeshi citizens ​who were in ​Kolkata to ⁠seek medical treatment.

NDTV reported that all nine dead were Bangladeshis.

The senior police ​official Reuters spoke to, however, said ​the ⁠nationalities of those killed were yet to be ascertained.

The hotel is located in a congested ⁠area ​in central Kolkata and ​is known for budget accommodations and restaurants.

U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston lifted, opens new tab, the last judicial block on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security terminating the Temporary Protected Status designation for individual countries after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the administration ​in June to end similar protections for thousands of people from Haiti and Syria.

The Supreme Court’s ruling, backed by its 6-3 conservative majority, curtailed judges’ ability to review DHS efforts under Trump to end TPS designations for 13 countries that provided humanitarian immigration protection to eligible migrants from those nations.

James Percival, DHS’ general counsel, hailed the decision in ​a social media post. “All TPS terminations are in effect!” he wrote.

LIVES AT RISK: ADVOCACY GROUP

The termination of Ethiopia’s TPS designation had been challenged ​by several Ethiopian nationals and the advocacy group African Communities Together, which expressed disappointment in Tuesday’s ruling.

“The crisis in Ethiopia is still ongoing, and this decision puts the lives of thousands of Ethiopians living in the U.S. at severe risk,” said Diana Konaté, the group’s deputy executive director of policy and advocacy.

TPS ​under federal law is available to people whose home countries have experienced natural disasters, armed conflicts or other extraordinary events. It provides ​eligible migrants with work authorization and temporary protection from deportation.

Former Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration first granted Ethiopians already in the United States that status ‌beginning ⁠in 2022, citing the need to protect the African nation’s citizens from armed conflict and humanitarian suffering.

DHS under former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced in December it would end those protections on the grounds that conditions no longer posed a serious threat to Ethiopians returning safely.

Murphy blocked DHS’ action in April, saying it disregarded statutory procedures and provided a “pretextual” rationale for ending the protections.

After the Supreme Court ruled, Murphy ​issued a new order that ​continued to temporarily block the ⁠end of the Ethiopians’ TPS while he considered whether to continue to halt DHS’ action on grounds that the Supreme Court’s ruling did not address.

Those arguments included that the 1990 statute creating TPS gave ​only the attorney general authority to extend or terminate the deportation protections, not DHS, which was ​established later after ⁠the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Judges in similar cases involving people from South Sudan, Myanmar and Somalia have rejected that argument in recent days, and Murphy did as well on Tuesday.

He dismissed that and other claims, but he said he would allow the plaintiffs to continue to litigate over whether ⁠DHS’s action ​was motivated by racial or national origin animus in violation of the U.S. ​Constitution’s Fifth Amendment.

The plaintiffs argued that the administration ignored how dangerous conditions persist in Ethiopia and that the termination of its TPS designation was part of a practice ​of eliminating deportation protections for people who are non-white and non-European.

Since taking office in January last year, the Trump administration has struck several deals ​with African countries on deporting people it cannot legally send to their ⁠home countries.

The deportees have, in most cases, obtained legal protection against repatriation after U.S. immigration ​judges ruled they risked torture or other abuses in their home countries.

Washington has defended the third-country ​deals as lawful, although rights groups and advocates have said the details are opaque and many of the deportees are ultimately repatriated.

The Liberian government’s statement said the deportees “will include citizens or nationals of African and Western Hemisphere ​countries who are medically authorised to travel.”

No information was immediately available on the nationalities of ​the deportees. The State Department said it does not disclose such details.

LIBERIA SAYS DEAL NOT ‘A QUID PRO QUO’

Other African ‌countries ⁠including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Ghana and Sierra Leone have also accepted third-country deportees.

Liberia said on Tuesday that the deportees would be received “as guests” who could leave when they wanted and who could apply for asylum in Liberia.

The statement said the deal ​did not involve a ​quid pro quo with ⁠Washington and Monrovia was not demanding compensation for taking the deportees.

It added, however, that the government would receive “support to help manage the program and ​strengthen its migration system more broadly.” It offered no further details.

The ​statement also ⁠referenced Liberia’s history as a refuge for freed slaves from the U.S. and as a country with “a long history of accepting people seeking refuge from  political and other crises.”

President Joseph Boakai was one ⁠of five ​West African leaders who traveled to the White House ​last year to meet with Trump.

Reuters reported at the time that Trump had urged the leaders to accept third-country deportees.

Jeff Kofi Asare’s arrest history stretches back more than four years. Publicly available Oklahoma booking records show alleged offences such as trespassing and shoplifting to breaking and entering, drug possession and assault, for the repeated arrests.

His recent arrests, however, involve more serious allegations, including sexual battery, attempted kidnapping and first-degree rape.

A history of repeated arrests

Asare’s earliest entry on the Oklahoma arrest database is dated May 16, 2022, although no charge is listed for that arrest.

He was arrested again in December that year, first on a trespassing allegation and later on allegations of larceny of merchandise and trespassing.

The arrests continued in 2023.

He was arrested in August on allegations including resisting an executive officer, larceny of merchandise, trespassing and obstructing an officer.

On November 23, he was arrested on allegations of breaking and entering, possession of a controlled substance and trespassing.

Asare’s arrest record shows an even greater frequency of arrests in 2024.

Between June and November, he was arrested several times on trespassing allegations. Other entries during the period included allegations of larceny of merchandise, breaking and entering, possession of a controlled substance and marijuana possession.

He was arrested again in February 2025 on allegations of trespassing after being forbidden and obstructing an officer.

Later that year, the record shows arrests involving assault and battery, including a December arrest in which trespassing was also alleged.

On March 5, 2026, Asare was arrested on allegations of breaking and entering, trespassing and disorderly conduct.

The arrest database records more than 20 entries involving Asare since 2022, although some entries are listed as a “hold”, meaning the booking record alone does not establish the underlying offence or whether it represents a separate criminal case.

Seven convictions amid the arrests

Court records reviewed by Fox News show that Asare has at least seven misdemeanor convictions.

Three of those convictions were for breaking and entering. The others were for resisting an officer, shoplifting, trespassing and marijuana possession.

According to Fox the reviewed court records show Asare pleaded guilty to resisting an officer, shoplifting and trespassing in September 2023.

In November 2024, he pleaded guilty to breaking and entering and marijuana possession.

He subsequently pleaded guilty to two additional breaking-and-entering cases, one in October 2025 and another in April 2026.

He received 45 days in jail in the October case and 30 days in the April case, with credit for time already served in both cases.

Not every case ended in a conviction.

Fox reported that prosecutors dismissed a 2025 trespassing and obstruction case, after which Asare enrolled in a court-ordered outpatient programme.

In another 2024 case, he missed a court hearing and a judge issued a bench warrant.

Three arrests in 12 days

Asare’s latest run of arrests began on August 1, 2026, when Oklahoma City police responded to a possible rape call.

He was arrested on probable-cause allegations of felony sexual battery and felony indecent exposure. The police incident report also listed attempted forcible rape and forcible fondling among the reported offences.

Five days later, police arrested him again after responding to reports of sexual assaults involving multiple women at a downtown park.

He was booked on probable-cause allegations of attempted kidnapping and felony sexual battery and also received two city assault-and-battery citations.

Then, on August 12, Asare was arrested for a third time.

Jail records identified him as Jeff Kufi Asare and showed that he was booked on a first-degree rape charge. His bond was set at $75,000.

The latest arrest followed an incident on the Lake Hefner Trail in Oklahoma City, where firefighters reportedly saw Asare allegedly restraining a woman before alerting police.

The three latest cases remain allegations.

Fox News reported that, as of August 17, Oklahoma City police had not completed their investigations or presented the cases to prosecutors, meaning state charges had not yet been filed.

The Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office said it expected charges to be filed after receiving the completed cases from police.

For now, what the available records establish is a lengthy history of repeated encounters with law enforcement.

The latest allegations have not been tested in court, and Asare remains entitled to the presumption of innocence unless and until he is convicted.

In a public notice, the Embassy said its website is currently unavailable, which has disrupted access to some services provided by the Mission.

It advised persons who need to travel to Ghana urgently due to an emergency to use the Ghana E-Visa platform to submit their applications.

“The Embassy wishes to inform the public that it is currently experiencing technical challenges affecting its online systems,” the notice said.

The Mission apologised for the inconvenience and said efforts were underway to restore the affected services as quickly as possible.

It assured the public that further updates would be provided once there is progress in restoring the systems.

The Embassy also appealed to the public for patience and understanding while the technical issues are being resolved.

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Arday, who became Cambridge University’s youngest black professor when appointed in 2023, had faced weeks of media coverage over plagiarism allegations and questions about his achievements. He denied the claims.

In a statement read by Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy on behalf of Arday’s family, they said: “The public cruelty Jason was subjected to was too much for any man to bear”.

The central London vigil was organised by the group Stand Up to Racism, and several speakers paying tribute to Arday complained about his treatment by the media.

In their statement, his family said: “What has become clear over the past 72 hours is the profound impact he had on people”.

They said they wished for him to be remembered “for the wonderful person he was and all that he achieved”.

“A selfless and gentle soul, he tirelessly uplifted others through his words and actions. His achievements were great and we do not want misrepresentations about his character to overshadow them,” they added.

Vigil organisers had asked people to wear black if possible, and to bring flowers. Many in the crowd of 2,000 or more did that even though the event had been organised at short notice. The mood in Trafalgar Square was sombre, with an underlying anger. The focus of the fury was the media.

The vigil’s speakers included Labour MP Diane Abbott, who said Arday had been subject to a “vicious and bitter media campaign” which she attributed to “people who didn’t believe a black man should be a Cambridge professor”.

“He must have felt that if he resigned, the attacks on him would stop. But in fact, they got even worse.

“This was a campaign against all of us,” she added.

Lord Simon Woolley, principal of Homerton College at the University of Cambridge, told the vigil that when he met with Arday last week, the academic told him he felt that critics were “hounding me to death”.

Filmmaker and activist Misan Harriman told the vigil: “The legacy media crossed every line in the treatment of Jason.

“Imagine being so lost in the business of cruelty that you relish hurting another human for sport, with your own poison pen.”

He added: “Jason should still be here today.”

Arday, 41, was found dead at an address in south London, on 14 August, two days after Cambridge said it would investigate the circumstances around his appointment.

He had resigned as a Cambridge professor of sociology of education on 5 August, after the university said it would look into claims about his career.

Arday said his resignation should not “be mistaken for an acceptance of the narratives that have surrounded me”.

Monday’s vigil came as more than 90,000 people signed a Good Law Project petition seeking an inquiry into media coverage of Arday.

Earlier, Cambridge University’s chancellor criticised the “racist feeding frenzy” around Arday in the weeks before his death.

Speaking publicly for the first time on the row, Lord Chris Smith said academic integrity could be upheld while questioning Arday’s treatment.

In a statement, he said: “I do believe it is possible to hold to two principles at the same time: to believe in the importance of academic integrity, and where criticisms of plagiarism arise, about any academic, whoever they are, ensure that they are rigorously investigated.

“And also to refuse to join in a racist feeding frenzy over a particular academic.”

The peer is an ex-Labour MP and secretary of state for culture, media and sport as well as a former chairman of the Environment Agency.

Downing Street declined to say “at this stage” whether Prime Minister Andy Burnham was considering an inquiry, reiterating that it was “a moment for reflection”, and that it was right for “the usual processes” like an inquest, to conclude.

An investigation will be carried out to determine the cause of death, which could take several weeks, London Inner South Coroner’s Court said.

Once complete, the coroner will confirm if an inquest will take place.

Shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly said he was angry about what happened to Arday, and the university establishment – not just Cambridge – should have “done the robust due diligence and checking that should happen with any senior academic appointment”.

Speaking to the BBC’s Today programme, he said he felt Arday was used as “bragging rights by some universities”, and that people spoke of his “age and his ethnicity rather than his talent”.

Sir James – who was Britain’s first black home secretary and foreign secretary – said much of the coverage surrounding Arday was “quite possibly” motivated by racism, but that the questions over plagiarism were legitimate, regardless of motivation.

The plagiarism row began after another academic – self-defined “race realist” Nathan Cofnas, who was sacked from his Cambridge role in 2024 – said he found numerous instances of plagiarism in the professor’s work.

Cofnas’s post had been terminated amid a backlash to his view that under a true meritocracy black people would “disappear from almost all high-profile positions outside of sports and entertainment”.

Cambridge had celebrated Arday’s appointment as a young black professor, one of a tiny and visible minority in academia. Only 1% of professors in UK universities are black, making each appointment hugely significant.

On Sunday, more than 200 people attended a vigil at Cambridge that was organised by some of Arday’s students.

The suspect, identified as Muktar Shehu of Zango Ward in Jimeta was brought before the court by the Police Command on allegations of house trespass, theft and criminal charm.

According to a First Information Report (FIR) presented to the court by the prosecutor, Inspector Danjuma Hamidu, the incident occurred on August 6, 2026.

The prosecution alleged that Shehu broke into the home of Halima Yakubu and took 22 pairs of pants along with other clothing items.

The prosecutor told the court that during police interrogation, the suspect allegedly admitted taking the clothing items for ritual purposes.

When the charges were read to him in court, Shehu pleaded guilty.

Following his plea, the prosecutor applied to call a witness to corroborate the admission.

The court subsequently ordered that the suspect be remanded at a correctional facility pending further proceedings.

It comes after Kushner held rare talks with Hamas to discuss the implementation of the US-backed Gaza peace plan.

Last month, Trump’s Board of Peace said it had reached agreement for the “complete disarmament” of Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza. Last week, Israel rejected Trump’s 15-point plan, which also calls for Israeli troops to withdraw and for Gaza to be rebuilt under a new civilian Palestinian administration.

Eight Muslim countries issued a statement on Sunday condemning Israel’s rejection.

Trump leads the Board of Peace, which was created as an international organisation originally intended to bring peace to Gaza, but later expanded to include conflicts worldwide.

A Palestinian official told the BBC Trump’s son-in-law met a delegation led by Hamas’s new leader Khalil al-Hayya in Egypt on Sunday.

In a statement, Hamas later called on mediators and the Board of Peace to “compel” Israel to approve the roadmap for the next steps.

But Netanyahu faces a tough October election to try to hold onto power, with a coalition that includes ministers in favour of taking a harsher line on Gaza.

Many Israelis are also sceptical that Hamas is ready to disarm.

Kushner’s meeting with Hayya is believed to be the first at this level since last year’s agreement of a ceasefire for the Gaza Strip.

High representative for Gaza to the US-led Board of Peace, Nickolay Mladenov, and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair were reportedly also part of the meeting, alongside representatives of Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, which have mediated in the peace efforts.

No official statement has been released of the talks, reportedly focusing on concrete actions to decommission Hamas’s weapons, as well as the withdrawal of Israeli troops and humanitarian efforts.

A source with knowledge of the meeting told CBS News, the BBC’s US partner, that the meeting’s contents included “beginning to transfer all governing responsibilities to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, ensuring Hamas has no future governing role in Gaza, facilitating Israeli withdrawals and deploying an international stabilising force to the region”.

While in Egypt, Kushner also met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. According to Israeli media reports, Mladenov and Blair will also meet Netanyahu on Monday with the aim of advancing Trump’s plan.

The Israeli prime minister has said he wants a full Hamas disarmament first in order to implement the deal.

“Israel rejects the Board of Peace’s 15-point document on Gaza. The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed,” Netanyahu said last week, defying Israel’s closest ally.

Netanyahu faces pressure within his own cabinet to continue operations in Gaza. Earlier this month, far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir dismissed the draft as “not acceptable”.

In a podcast interview with Rom Braslavski, who was taken hostage by Hamas during the 7 October attack, that aired on 15 August, Ben Gvir was asked about Israel reducing operations in Gaza and said: “It’s no secret, I disagree with the prime minister,” according to the Associated Press.

He said he thought that “targeted assassinations” should be carried out, “taking down 30 to 40 every night. Not just those who pose an immediate threat – there are people there who are not worthy of life. They shouldn’t live. They’re not even people.” The comments were also reported in the Financial Times and Times of Israel.

Following Israel’s rejection of the 15-point plan, there appeared to be a pause in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, though attacks have since continued.

In a joint statement on Sunday, Egypt, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey, Pakistan and Indonesia said Israel’s rejection of the US plan threatened Trump’s efforts for peace.

The inclusion of the UAE is notable. The Gulf nation normalised relations with Israel five years ago.

The ceasefire, which came into effect on 10 October last year, remains in place.

However, the Israel Defense Forces have carried out near daily strikes since then.

More than 1,200 people have been killed since the ceasefire according to the Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are considered reliable by the UN. Unicef says at least 300 children have reportedly been killed.

There was a lull in attacks – reportedly at the request of the US – even after Israel rejected the 15-point plan.

However, Israeli strikes have since resumed. The Israeli military said on Sunday that it had targeted Hamas and Islamic Jihad “terrorists” in Khan Younis and Nuseirat. Local medics said several people living in a tent camp in Khan Younis were injured.

Israel and Hamas accuse each other of ceasefire violations.

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

Israel responded to the attack by launching a military campaign in Gaza, during which more than 73,000 people have been killed, including 21,280 children, according to the territory’s health ministry.

The UN estimates that about 1.9 million people – 90% of Gaza’s population – have been displaced since the war started.

Downing Street has declined to comment on the security breach, first reported by Politico.

Politico reported that officials said Burnham communicated with the person claiming to be Susie Wiles “before becoming suspicious that the contact was illegitimate” and claimed only a “few messages” were exchanged.

A government spokesperson said: “We do not comment on national security matters.”

It is understood the communication between Burnham and the person posing as Wiles was in the form of messages and there was no conversation between the two.

“No messages of significance” were exchanged and the texts were “quickly reported to the appropriate authorities” once they were believed to be suspicious, sources said.

The BBC has previously reported an FBI probe into Wiles’ phone being hacked in May last year.

At that time, Wiles said her phone had been hacked after an impersonator, or impersonators, used her contacts file to message other top US officials.

The impersonation was targeted at her personal phone, not government phone, but recipients included US senators, governors and top business executives.

Wiles, a key Trump ally, was also among those targeted by a cyber espionage unit associated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards – a powerful branch of Iran’s armed forces – in 2024.

In 2024, the Foreign Office (FCDO) confirmed then-foreign secretary David Cameron had fallen victim to a hoax call with someone pretending to be former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.

Lord Cameron also exchanged some text messages with the impersonator pretending to be Poroshenko, who was president of Ukraine between 2014 and 2019.

During his term as prime minister, Lord Cameron had multiple dealings with the Ukrainian leader, including meetings at international summits.

The FCDO said it released details of the exchange publicly over fears it could be “manipulated”.

The suspect, Nura Usman, and his father’s former wife, Izzatu Aliyu, appeared before Magistrate’s Court where they were charged with conspiracy to commit an offence and attempted murder.

Prosecuting counsel told the court that the charges were fresh and sought permission for them to be read to the two accused persons.

The prosecution alleged that Nura, described as the complainant’s son, and Izzatu, his former wife, conspired with others and offered them N500,000 to kill the complainant, Alhaji Usman Shanono, a resident of Dan Tsinke.

According to the prosecution, the person allegedly contracted to carry out the killing later informed Alhaji Usman that his son and former wife had offered him N500,000 to murder him.

The prosecution further alleged that a plan was subsequently staged to make it appear that Alhaji Usman had been killed, with his wristwatch taken as evidence.

The development reportedly led to the commencement of mourning rites, during which Alhaji Usman suddenly appeared alongside security personnel.

The security operatives subsequently arrested the suspects after it was discovered that the alleged assassination had not taken place.

The prosecution subsequently requested an adjournment to enable it to obtain further directives from the government.

The court granted the request and adjourned the case to September 7, 2026, for the re-arraignment of the defendants.

According to him, the historical bonds between the two countries, forged through the struggle for African liberation, must now be translated into tangible opportunities for their people.

Mr. Gunu made the call when Namibia’s High Commissioner to Ghana, H.E. Mrs. Ndiyakupi Nghituwamata paid a three-day familiarisation visit and courtesy call on authorities in the Volta Region.

Speaking on Ghana-Namibia relations, the Regional Minister said the relationship between the two countries goes beyond diplomatic protocols, describing it as one rooted in liberation, Pan-Africanism, solidarity and a shared commitment to Africa’s development.

He recalled the role Ghana played in Namibia’s liberation struggle, particularly the participation of Namibia’s founding president, Dr. Sam Nujoma, in the first All-African Peoples’ Conference, held in Accra in December 1958 under Ghana’s first President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

Mr. Gunu noted that Ghana’s support for Namibia during the liberation struggle included political, diplomatic, and moral backing, as well as educational and training opportunities for young Namibians.

He said the historical ties were further strengthened following Namibia’s independence in 1990, leading to formal bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

The Regional Minister cited the signing of a Framework Agreement for Cooperation in February 1992 and subsequent agreements covering economic and technical cooperation, culture, science, education, and diplomatic consultations as evidence of the growing partnership.

He also highlighted the Permanent Joint Commission for Cooperation between Ghana and Namibia as an important platform for strengthening bilateral relations and identifying areas of mutual interest.

Mr. Gunu said the relationship must now move beyond its historical and political foundations to focus more strongly on trade, investment, tourism, skills development, and entrepreneurship.

He particularly encouraged businesses in Ghana to explore opportunities in Namibia while urging Namibian businesses to consider Ghana, including the Volta Region, as a gateway to the wider West African market.

The Minister also called for stronger collaboration between universities and technical institutions in the two countries to equip young people with relevant skills and create opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship.

He commended the Namibian High Commission for promoting cultural diplomacy, citing the maiden “Namibia Meets Ghana Cultural Night” held in June 2026 as an example of initiatives capable of deepening people-to-people relations.

Mr. Gunu said such engagements provide platforms for diplomats, traditional leaders, businesses, tourism stakeholders, creatives, and citizens of both countries to interact and build lasting relationships.

He stressed that the generation that fought for political independence had laid the foundation, adding that the responsibility of the current generation was to use that freedom to achieve economic independence and improve living standards.

He therefore called for greater collaboration between Ghana and Namibia to create decent jobs, expand trade, develop human capital, and improve opportunities for the youth.

Mr. Gunu further recalled Dr. Sam Nujoma’s visit to the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum in Accra in 2004, where the former Namibian President wrote in the visitors’ book, “United We Stand and Divided We Fall, Long Live African Union.”

He said the statement continued to capture the essence of Ghana-Namibia relations and the broader vision of African unity.

The Volta Regional Minister expressed confidence that closer cooperation between Ghana and Namibia would strengthen African solidarity and contribute to the continent’s economic transformation.

He concluded by calling for stronger friendship between the people of the Volta Region and Namibia, saying both sides must trade more, learn more, travel more, and work more closely together.

“Long live Volta and Namibia friendship. Long live Ghana-Namibia friendship. Long live African solidarity,” Mr.Junu said.

The Ambassador, on her part, underscored the importance of strengthening diplomatic and economic ties between Ghana and Namibia, noting that engagements at the regional level could open up new opportunities for cooperation.

The visit forms part of efforts by the Namibian diplomatic mission to engage key stakeholders in Ghana and identify opportunities for collaboration beyond the national level.

The meeting ended with both sides expressing their commitment to exploring practical areas of cooperation for the mutual benefit of the people of Ghana, Namibia and the Volta Region.

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A 14-year-old child was among those injured, Alexander Shuvaev wrote on Telegram on Monday.

Ukraine officials said two people were killed in Russian drone strikes overnight on the Sumy region, close to the border with Russia, which has been under frequent attack.

The strikes come a night after what Russian officials called the “largest-scale” attack launched by Ukraine this year, in which at least seven people were killed. Russian attacks on Ukraine also killed at least seven peopleand injured more than 39 on Saturday night.

Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and currently controls approximately a fifth of Ukrainian territory.

The latest Ukrainian strikes burned a building and damaged a car in the village of Koloskovo in the Valuysky district, which is close to Russia’s border with Ukraine, Shuvaev said.

The injured child was sent to hospital while two others received medical assistance, he added.

Meanwhile, a woman was killed after a drone strike hit a home in Russia’s southern Astrakhan region, the local governor said on Monday.

Igor Babushkin wrote on Telegram that the Ukrainian strike targeted an industrial facility but that it had not been damaged.

In Ukraine, an overnight attack on the Black Sea port city of Odesa damaged a civilian vessel and injured four people, according to the regional head Oleh Kiper.

Moscow has sought to put off foreign companies from trading with Ukraine by targeting its ports and coastline.

Kyiv has stepped up drone strikes deep inside Russia during the past few weeks.

On Saturday night, Ukraine fired some 822 drones towards Russia, with 600 aiming for Moscow, according to its regional governor, who said the Russian capital suffered “one of the most massive drone attacks in recent memory”.

During the strikes on Saturday night, five people died in Russia’s south-western region of Rostov, its governor said. A woman was killed in an attack on a civilian bus in Belgorod, officials said, while an 83-year-old man died in a drone attack in the Moscow region.

A warehouse belonging to Russian online retailer Wildberries was also hit.

Since July, Ukraine has repeatedly targeted the company, known as Russia’s version of Amazon. Ukraine’s defence ministry said the latest attack meant that seven out of 10 of the largest Wildberries logistics centres had been “disabled”.

Speaking to the BBC before the latest attacks, the deputy chief of Ukraine’s intelligence service said long-range strikes in Russia would continue.

Maj Gen Vadym Skibitski defended Ukrainian attacks on distribution warehouses such as Wildberries and accused Russia of using civilian networks to supply its armed forces.

“It’s one of the elements of the logistics system of the Russian Federation to wage the war, including through Wildberries – some military equipment, components and other elements,” he said.

Skibitski said Ukraine did not deliberately target civilians, adding that some deaths in Russia were the accidental result of air defences shooting down incoming missiles and drones.

He claimed that drone strikes were influencing opinion among Russia’s population, with concerns over the country’s capability to “prevent” attacks and “to protect some areas”.

Russia has also intensified missile attacks across Ukraine in recent weeks.

The Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz said on Monday that Russia had attacked its facilities 13 times during the past week.

In Russian attacks on Ukraine on Saturday night, a man and woman died after a private house was hit by a guided aerial bomb in the Zaporizhzhia region, officials said. Five others were killed in attacks across the country.

Russia said its attacks on Kyiv on Saturday night targeted a FirePoint facility producing parts for Ukrainian Flamingo missiles and a factory making components for drones.

The Russian attacks also hit a book market in the city’s Pochayna district. Burnt books could be seen on the ground.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said 13 regions had come under attack this week, with Russia launching more than 1,550 attack drones, nearly 1,560 guided aerial bombs and 62 missiles.

Both sides accuse each other of targeting civilians.

But the reported result has not been officially confirmed, and even a confirmed positive would not necessarily be the smoking gun it might appear to be.

On 4 August, an Air India Airbus A320 flying from Phuket to Delhi suddenly lost about 91m (300ft) of altitude, injuring 13 passengers and four crew members. The aircraft, carrying 137 passengers and eight crew, landed safely in Delhi. The incident is under investigation.

Both pilots underwent routine post-flight screening for psychoactive substances, India’s aviation ministry said. It said the captain’s initial test produced a result requiring “confirmatory testing” and that both pilots had been removed from flying duties pending the inquiry.

Earlier this week, a number of media reports, citing sources, reported that the captain subsequently tested positive for marijuana in a confirmatory laboratory test. Air India has not confirmed the result. The reports have triggered a storm over pilot drug testing and aviation safety in India.

There is, so far, no official finding linking the captain’s alleged drug-test result to the sudden loss of altitude. Investigators are examining the incident more broadly, including technical, operational, medical and human factors, and it remains unclear what caused the aircraft to plunge.

The obvious question is whether cannabis had anything to do with it.

The less obvious one is harder: what does a positive cannabis test actually tell us about a pilot’s state of mind several hours earlier?

Quite a lot is known about how cannabis affects performance of complex tasks. Much less is known about how to turn a positive test into a reliable timestamp for impairment.

Some of the most directly relevant evidence comes from a rather unusual source: pilots.

In a 1976 experiment, 10 pilots smoked a modest dose of marijuana and then flew a simulator. Their performance deteriorated, with errors in altitude, heading and radio navigation. The effects were evident for at least two hours and generally disappeared within four to six hours, the study found.

A decade later, researchers returned to the question of what happens after the obvious “high” has worn off.

Ten experienced private pilots were tested on a flight simulator 24 hours after smoking cannabis. They showed significant deterioration in several measures, including elevator and aileron control, landing accuracy and vertical and lateral deviation on approach. Most strikingly, the pilots did not realise that their performance had deteriorated, the study found.

A 1991 follow-up produced a similar warning.

Nine active pilots flew a simulator after smoking a cigarette containing 20mg of THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol – the main psychoactive compound in cannabis and the chemical responsible for the “high” and many of the drug’s effects on the brain and motor skills.

Performance was impaired when checked 15 minutes, four hours, eight hours and 24 hours later. Seven of the nine pilots showed some impairment at 24 hours, but only one was aware of the drug’s effects, the study found.

These studies are small, old and were conducted with aircraft simulators rather than modern airliners. They cannot tell us what happened in the Air India cockpit. But experts believe they likely establish something useful: cannabis can interfere with the sort of fine motor control, attention and complex human-machine interaction that flying demands.

A review by aviation-medicine specialist David Newman for Australia’s Transport Safety Bureau reached a similar conclusion.

Cannabis affects behaviour, cognition and psychomotor performance in a dose-dependent way, and complex tasks such as flying are particularly sensitive. The review also found evidence of residual effects lasting up to 24 hours.

The science has become more complicated, however, as cannabis use has become more widespread and the potency of cannabis products has increased in many parts of the world.

A 2022 randomised clinical trial led by Thomas Marcotte at the University of California San Diego tested 191 regular cannabis users.

Those who smoked THC performed worse on a simulated driving task, but the researchers found that impairment could not be inferred from the THC content of the cannabis, the users’ previous experience or their blood THC concentration.

The drug initially impaired performance, but after about four-and-a-half hours, those who had taken it were performing about as well as people who had not received the active drug.

That finding matters enormously for aviation testing.

A positive test can show that THC is present, but not necessarily when cannabis was consumed or whether the person was impaired at the time. The relationship varies with the dose, how it was consumed, frequency of use and individual biology, experts say.

This is one reason cannabis presents regulators with a problem that alcohol does not.

“Unlike with alcohol where there’s a more robust relationship between alcohol concentrations in blood and impairment, the association is much more complex with THC. THC rapidly leaves the bloodstream after smoking, and there is limited to no correlation between blood THC concentrations and impairment,” Marcotte told the BBC.

“In people who use at least occasionally, THC can be detectable in blood for days and sometimes weeks after last use, particularly in more frequent users. This is long after any acute impairment has subsided.”

Studies show that impairment after smoking cannabis typically lasts three to five hours. When cannabis is ingested, such as in an edible, impairment lasts longer – typically six to eight hours, and sometimes more.

After edible use, the metabolite 11-OH-THC (11-hydroxy-THC) is often more closely associated with impaired cognitive function than THC itself, which may be present at lower concentrations, says Marcotte.

Not surprisingly, there is no equivalent universally accepted cannabis test that can say: this person is currently too impaired to fly.

Canada has responded by taking a deliberately blunt approach. After legalising recreational cannabis in 2018, Transport Canada introduced a rule prohibiting flight crews and flight controllers from consuming cannabis for at least 28 days before duty.

The regulator says the rule was intended to address the uncertainties surrounding cannabis impairment and detection; and airlines can impose stricter rules.

The American aviation experience offers another warning against reading too much into a positive test.

A 2026 US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) study of pilots killed in US civil aviation accidents between 2018 and 2022 found that 52.8% had at least one drug detected, while 27.7% had two or more. THC was the main driver of the increase in illicit-drug detections. But the NTSB stressed that the study was about drug presence, not whether pilots were impaired.

Clearly, finding cannabis in someone’s system does not, by itself, establish that it caused an incident or accident.

But there are cases where investigators have gone further. In a 2011 Canadian crash, a Cessna 208B pilot had 50.1 nanograms per millilitre (ng/ml) of THC in his blood. The Transportation Safety Board concluded that the amount of psychoactive cannabinoids was sufficient to impair cognitive processes and likely affected the pilot’s planning and conduct of the flight.

The opposite has happened, too.

In a 2017 New Zealand helicopter crash, THC was detected in the pilot’s blood after cannabis use two days earlier. A forensic toxicologist concluded that he was unlikely to have been under its influence at the time of the accident, and investigators found cannabis very unlikely to have contributed.

The lesson from these cases is not that a positive cannabis test means nothing. It is that its meaning depends on the concentration, timing, circumstances and other evidence available to investigators

In the Air India case, investigators will need to establish much more than the alleged fact that the captain’s confirmatory test was positive.

They will need to know what sample was tested, whether it contained THC itself or a metabolite – a substance produced when the body breaks THC down – at what concentration, and what that can say about the timing of use.

Air India is to immediately test all its pilots for banned substances after the incident, expanding on existing rules that require at least 10% of pilots to undergo random screening.

Urine, blood and even saliva can show that someone was exposed to THC, but they cannot reliably establish when it was used or whether the person was impaired at a particular point several hours earlier, according to Marcotte. Saliva is more closely linked to recent use, but can still detect THC many hours – and potentially a day or two – after consumption, he says.

Experts believe the question is not simply: Was the pilot using marijuana?

It is threefold: Was cannabis consumed? Was the pilot impaired while flying? And did that impairment contribute to the aircraft’s sudden loss of altitude?

The first may soon be answered. The other two are considerably harder.

U.S. ‌District Judge Allison Burroughs in Boston allowed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to terminate the Temporary Protected Status designation for Somalia after the U.S. Supreme Court ​in June allowed the administration to end similar protections for thousands of ​people from Haiti and Syria.

The Supreme Court’s ruling, powered by its ⁠6-3 conservative majority, curtailed the ability of judges to review DHS efforts ​under Trump to end TPS designations for 13 countries that provided humanitarian ​immigration protection to eligible migrants from those nations.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs and DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Two other judges last week allowed the administration to similarly end ​TPS for South Sudan and Myanmar. Only the end of TPS for ​Ethiopia remains blocked by a judge.

Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in January announced ‌plans ⁠to end TPS for Somalis, arguing Somalia’s conditions had improved, despite ongoing fighting between Somali forces and al-Shabaab militants.

Burroughs, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, in March blocked Noem’s decision from taking effect in a lawsuit brought ​by four Somalis ​and two advocacy ⁠groups including African Communities Together.

The plaintiffs argued the administration sought to end TPS for Somalia due to bias ​against non-white immigrants, pointing to Trump’s past descriptions of ​Somalis as “garbage” ⁠and “low IQ people.”

After the Supreme Court ruled, Burroughs issued a new order that continued to temporarily block the end of the Somalis’ TPS while she ⁠considered whether ​to allow the plaintiffs to try to ​challenge DHS action on grounds the Supreme Court’s ruling did not address.

Arday was found dead at an address in Battersea, south London, on Friday afternoon.

“It’s not a moment for any rushing to judgment. It’s a moment for reflection, I would say, reflecting on how things came to this,” he told broadcasters during a visit to Cornwall.

In a statement issued by his publisher Simon & Schuster UK, Arday’s family said they were “in shock to have lost this amazing father, partner, brother, uncle and son”.

They said a “campaign of misinformation” had been too much for him.

Arday, 41, resigned as a Cambridge professor of sociology of  education last week after allegations of plagiarism and questions about some of his achievements. He had denied the claims.

The University of Cambridge vice-chancellor Prof Deborah Prentice led the tributes, saying the faculty was “desperately saddened” to learn of his death.

“Our heartfelt sympathies go to Jason Arday’s family and friends at this incredibly difficult time.”

Education Secretary Lucy Powell said she was “deeply shocked and saddened” to hear about the death and she urged people to “remember there are real people with loved ones involved”.

Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan is among those who have said Arday was subjected to unrelenting media scrutiny.

He said Arday had faced “an unacceptable public hounding and campaign of abuse”, adding that he was a victim of “a pernicious public shaming that other people in his position simply wouldn’t have faced”.

“His death was a tragedy, but once again it should be a wake up call for all of us,” he posted on X.

Jo Grady, General secretary of the University and College Union said the “level of harassment he suffered and the racism he was subjected to has been sickening” and “must be investigated”.

Lord Paul Boateng, who became the UK’s first black cabinet minister in 2002 when he was appointed Chief Secretary to the Treasury under Tony Blair, told BBC Newsnight he was ” horrified, shocked and deeply saddened”.

“Racism in academia is a fact of life and needs to be addressed,” he added in a written statement.

In a statement on Saturday, National Education Union (NEU) general secretary Daniel Kebede said Arday had been subjected to “a public and brutal takedown that unleashed a tirade of racism”.

“The effect has been chilling. It tells black people and others from underrepresented backgrounds that entering prominent public positions will make you a target,” he said.

Director of the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge, Prof Simon Baron-Cohen told the Today programme Arday had been “bombarded by every media outlet to paint him as a fraud”.

“He was an incredibly, kind and gentle and caring man,” he said.

He spoke to Arday the morning of his death, and said the academic had felt unable to leave the house.

“He has experienced what he described as a campaign against him, for the last three years,” he previously told BBC  News.

“What he was saying to me was ‘they’ve destroyed my life’ – it’s not clear who they were but I think he was referring to the media.”

“The personal attacks on him have been so immense.

“This isn’t to point fingers, and its not a single media outlet, but in the last few weeks since he resigned, I must have received a hundred new requests – to comment on his life.”

Speaking to BBC Newsnight, Professor of Black Studies Kehinde Andrews, a friend of Arday, described him as “very down” after resigning from Cambridge.

“He was very upset. He felt that there was no way out. He effectively wasn’t leaving the house. He had lost a lost of weight,” Andrews said.

“There should be a wakeup call to just how bad black academics actually have it in academia.”

Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy also told the programme “the idea that an academic would be dragged through this amount of media scrutiny is unheard of”.

Shadow communities secretary Sir James Cleverly said he was angered by the “tragic” death and said “a number of people at a number of academic institutions have serious questions to answer”.

“His whole world fell apart,” he said in a post on X.

Arday had denied any plagiarism – but admitted errors in his work – and said the recent controversy about his work had led to “an unrelenting level of public scrutiny and personal attack”.

The row first erupted after another academic – self-defined “race realist” Nathan Cofnas, who was sacked from his Cambridge role in 2024 – said he found numerous instances of plagiarism in the professor’s work.

Arday said some errors in his early academic work arose because of his autism, as he relied on using mimicry to make sense of information. Similar scrutiny would find similar errors in work by other academics, he said.

Questions were also raised about parts of his life story, including that he ran 600 miles in six days and that he had raised £5.5m for charity.

He later said the run was actually completed over a 12-day period to allow for rest days – and that the huge sum was raised with the help of others.

Arday’s appointment as Cambridge’s youngest ever black professor at the age of 37 in 2023 was hailed at the time as a progressive moment.

Announcing his resignation last week, Arday said the “personal cost” of the scrutiny of him had become “too great”.

He said: “While criticism is an inevitable part of academic life, what I have experienced has gone far beyond scholarly disagreement.

“The relentless accusations, speculation and public commentary have taken a profound toll on me and on those I love.”

He stressed that his resignation should not “be mistaken for an acceptance of the narratives that have surrounded me”.

Earlier this week, Cambridge announced it would be launching an independent investigation around the circumstances of Arday’s appointment.

It had initially said claims of plagiarism regarding Arday’s thesis and some journal publications had been investigated by Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) and the journals in question.

LJMU – which awarded Arday his PhD in 2015 – concluded that he had not plagiarised work.

In a statement on Saturday, a spokesperson for the university said it was “saddened to hear of the tragic loss of Professor Jason Arday”.

“At this time our thoughts are with his family and friends, and the many colleagues and students who will be feeling his sudden loss so acutely,” they added.

Bime is now 65 and retired from teaching. Biya is 93 – and still president. Last year, he won a disputed eighth term that could keep him in office until he is nearly 100.

“The best is yet to come,” Biya said before the election, which his opponents called fraudulent and was marred by deadly clashes between protesters and police.

For the past two months, however, the man who has ruled Cameroon since 1982, when, as prime minister, he assumed power following the resignation of the sitting president, has been thousands of miles away. He left on June 7 for what his office called a “brief private stay in Europe” — now his longest uninterrupted absence from the Central African nation in years.

Last week, government spokesman René Emmanuel Sadi told French radio RFI that Biya was in Geneva, Switzerland and was not hospitalised, but did not give more detail on his whereabouts.

A president who is rarely seen

Biya is Cameroon’s second president since independence in 1960 and one of the world’s longest-serving leaders. He first won office in 1984 under a one-party system, then won six more elections after multiparty  politics was introduced.

He has spent extended periods abroad during his presidency. But his latest absence has revived questions about his health and who is running the country while he is away.

Rumours about Biya’s health and whereabouts have long been part of public life in Cameroon, where he is rarely seen in public. His office has repeatedly had to push back against speculation that he was seriously ill or had died. In 2024, the government banned media discussions about his health, calling them a national security matter.

Biya’s long rule also reflects a wider contrast across Africa. The continent has the world’s youngest population, but several countries are still led by ageing leaders whose political careers began decades ago, including former liberation figures now governing in a different era.

For millions of Cameroonians, Biya is the only president they have ever known.

Bime’s children are among them. His oldest is 32, and his youngest is 18.

Abit Riassai Acha, a 26-year-old doctoral student and community youth leader at the University of Yaoundé II, belongs to the same generation.

“Growing up, President Biya was the only president I knew, so his presidency has been part of my entire experience of Cameroon,” said Acha, who voted for the first time in last year’s presidential election, backing the youthful opposition candidate Samuel Hiram Iyodi, 38.

After more than four decades under the same president, questions about his leadership have only grown.

“Because this has happened repeatedly over the years, many Cameroonians have become used to it,” Acha said of Biya’s long absences. “But becoming accustomed to something does not necessarily mean that people should stop asking questions about how the country is being governed.”

Iyodi, who finished eighth in last year’s presidential election, which several candidates, including one of Biya’s main challengers, were barred from contesting, has called on parliament to ask Cameroon’s Constitutional Council to consider whether Biya’s absence amounts to a vacancy in the presidency. But such a move is unlikely to succeed, given the dominance of Biya’s ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement.

Despite being away, Biya has continued to make key decisions from abroad, including a major military reshuffle announced earlier this month. Yet questions about his prolonged stay overseas have left officials publicly assuring Cameroonians that their president is still alive.

Government spokesman Sadi dismissed concerns about a power vacuum, telling RFI that “President Paul Biya is alive” and “will soon return.”

From hope to frustration

Bime is old enough to remember when Biya was the change. He first heard Biya’s name in the 1970s, when he served as secretary-general of the presidency under Cameroon’s first president after independence, Ahmadou Ahidjo. After Ahidjo resigned in 1982, Biya took over.

When Biya first appeared on the ballot two years later, Bime saw him as a “representation of hope,” he said. “We believed he was young and dynamic – handsome too. He meant so much to Cameroonians.”

Few imagined that the man they saw as a new beginning would remain in power for decades. For his critics, the disappointment is not just about how long Biya has stayed in office, but what they see as his failure to improve the lives of ordinary Cameroonians.

Political analyst Collins Molua Ikome, a Cameroonian based in Germany, said he saw some of the country’s problems firsthand when he visited Cameroon in April.

“Roads in Cameroon are extremely bad. I even witnessed a fatal accident,” he told CNN.

Ikome also pointed to frequent power cuts, corruption and a lack of jobs for young people.

Wilson Tamfuh, a public and international law professor at the University of Dschang in West Cameroon, said the country has institutions that can keep the government running when the president delegates responsibilities. Key duties, he said, can be handled by the prime minister, the secretary-general at the presidency and ministers.

But the bigger question, Tamfuh said, is whether the government is solving the country’s longstanding problems.

“People want the Anglophone crisis resolved, standards of living ameliorated, more good roads, fewer people on the streets with degrees, and more,” he told CNN, referring to the years-long separatist conflict in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions.

Whenever Biya eventually leaves office, his successor will inherit a country also facing attacks by Boko Haram militants in the north and deep economic frustration among young people.

Healthcare is another concern. Ikome said access to quality healthcare remains out of reach for many Cameroonians.

“Life expectancy in the country is below 70 years. However, Biya has far outlived that due to access to medical healthcare abroad, which the ordinary Cameroonian cannot access due to poverty,” Ikome said.

The divide is not unique to Cameroon. Across Africa, political elites have often sought healthcare or maintained homes abroad, even as public services at home struggle.

For Bime, the question is more personal: Will he live to see another president?

After decades of waiting for change, he worries he may not – and that Biya could outlive him and many others who are not part of the country’s elite.

“Anytime they have a cold, they run overseas and are taken care of, but the other Cameroonians are dying because of lack of care,” he said.

Emergency services said a man was found “unresponsive” at an address in Battersea, south London, on Friday afternoon.

Arday resigned as a Cambridge professor of sociology of education last week after allegations of plagiarism and questions about some of his achievements. He had denied the claims.

Arday’s family said in a statement that they were “in shock to have lost this amazing father, partner, brother, uncle and son”.

They added: “The campaign of misinformation was too much for Jason, who was a gentle man and who always wanted to see the best in everyone.”

Earlier on Friday, police officers were called to an address in Battersea by the London Ambulance Service.

In a statement, the Metropolitan Police said: “At this time his death is being treated as unexpected, but is not believed to be suspicious.”

Cambridge University vice-chancellor Prof Deborah Prentice said: “We are desperately saddened to hear this tragic news.”

“Our heartfelt sympathies go to Jason Arday’s family and friends at this incredibly difficult time,” she said.

Education Secretary Lucy Powell said she was “deeply shocked and saddened” to hear about the death and she urged people to “remember there are real people with loved ones involved”.

Arday, 41, had denied any plagiarism – but admitted errors in his work – and last week said the recent controversy about his work had led to “an unrelenting level of public scrutiny and personal attack”.

The row first erupted after another academic – self-defined “race realist” Nathan Cofnas, who was sacked from his Cambridge role in 2024 – said he found numerous instances of plagiarism in the professor’s work.

Arday said some errors in his early academic work arose because of his autism, as he relied on using mimicry to make sense of information. Similar scrutiny would find similar errors in work by other academics, he said.

“We’re talking about academia here. I didn’t murder somebody. I think the cruelty that I’ve experienced and the positioning of me as this kind of liar and fantasist is totally unacceptable,” he told the Times newspaper earlier this month.

1:04Former colleague of Arday says they spoke on morning of his death

Arday’s appointment as Cambridge’s youngest ever black professor at the age of 37 in 2023 was hailed at the time as a progressive moment.

Announcing his resignation last week, Arday said the “personal cost” of the scrutiny of him had become “too great”.

He said: “While criticism is an inevitable part of academic life, what I have experienced has gone far beyond scholarly disagreement.

“The relentless accusations, speculation and public commentary have taken a profound toll on me and on those I love.”

He stressed that his resignation should not “be mistaken for an acceptance of the narratives that have surrounded me”.

Cambridge initially said claims of plagiarism regarding Arday’s thesis and some journal publications had been investigated by Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) and the journals in question.

LJMU – which awarded Arday his PhD in 2015 – concluded that he had not plagiarised work.

Earlier this week, Cambridge announced an independent investigation into his appointment.

In a letter to university staff at the time, Prof Prentice said: “I fully understand the concerns being raised across the university and well beyond it, regarding Jason Arday’s appointment and I share them…

“That investigation, as you say, should be thorough and transparent, and will be carried out independently by senior academics from within and beyond Cambridge.”

Cambridge celebrated Arday’s appointment as a young black professor, one of a tiny and visible minority in academia. Only one per cent of professors in UK universities are black, making each appointment hugely significant.

The university will have to answer bigger questions including about its duty of care after it put him into a very prominent position.

It may also find itself the lightning rod for anger from several different quarters, including those who feel Arday was persecuted publicly and those who question whether he should ever have been appointed.

Jolyon Maugham from campaign group Good Law Project said Arday’s death was “a tragedy”.

“I do not understand what the public interest was in continuing to hound him after he resigned as a professor and I do not understand what risk assessments media outlets did,” Maugham added.

Speaking to BBC Newsnight, Professor of Black Studies Kehinde Andrews and friend of Arday described him as “very down” after resigning from Cambridge.

“He was very upset. He felt that there was no way out. He effectively wasn’t leaving the house. He had lost a lost of weight,” Andrews said.

“There should be a wakeup call to just how bad black academics actually have it in academia,” he added.

Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy told the programme “the idea that an academic would be dragged through this amount of media scrutiny is unheard of”.

Arday originally worked as a PE teacher before earning his doctorate at LJMU and going on to become an associate professor at Durham University and professor of sociology of education at the University of Glasgow.

Glasgow university also announced a review into Arday’s previous academic work.

When news of his death emerged, the university said in a statement it was “shocked and saddened” by the death of a former colleague.

“Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with his friends and family at this desperately sad time,” it added.

Durham University, another of Arday’s former employers, described him as “a kind and warm person, who actively sought to promote opportunities for PhD students”.

Last weekend, Arday cancelled an event promoting his memoir.

Publisher Simon & Schuster previously said that the book, Great And Unfortunate Things, would be published in the UK on 27 August. It was released in the US earlier this week.

The book tells the story of his life from being non-verbal until the age of 11 and unable to read or write until 18, then going through a series of “improbable triumphs and heartbreaking setbacks”, before being appointed professor of sociology of education at Cambridge.

The actor said he is still struggling to come to terms with the death and is uncertain how long it will take him to fully overcome the grief.

In a video shared on his social media pages on August 13, 2026, IK Ogbonna expressed gratitude to fans, friends and family members for their support, prayers and kind words during the difficult period.

“I just want to say thank you to everyone that has shown support with your love, prayers and kind words. It has not been easy,” he said.

He acknowledged that the grieving process had been difficult and said he hoped time would eventually help him heal.

“I don’t know if this is something I would ever be out of, but I pray that with time, I will be able to get out of it,” he added.

According to the actor, Alexx Ekubo’s death has deeply affected not only him but also the late actor’s family, friends and fans.

“It’s been a very crazy period for not just myself but for friends, fans and family of Alexx. His death is a big blow, honestly,” he stated.

IK Ogbonna explained that the emotional toll of the loss has also affected his social media activity over the past three months.

“For the past three months, I have not been very active on my social media; it’s not like I don’t want to, but I guess it’s a psychological thing,” he said.

He revealed that although he continues to take photographs and record videos, he often lacks the motivation to share them with his followers.

“I will make pictures and videos, but I don’t have the zeal to post them,” he explained.

Despite his grief, the actor acknowledged the need to gradually resume his professional activities and return to his usual routine.

He said he intends to get back to work and social media activities as he continues to process the loss.

“We have to get back to work somehow, someway,” IK Ogbonna said.

Watch the video below:

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Luigi Mangione, 28, revealed for the first time through his allocution to the court that he posed as a potential investor and emailed the insurance giant to confirm the location of the investors conference so he could track Thompson’s location.

“I emailed UnitedHealthcare with the intent to shoot Brian Thompson,” Mangione said in his statement. “On the morning of Dec. 4, 2024 I shot Mr. Thompson in Manhattan in his back.”

The admitted gunman said he “understood my actions would place [Thompson] in fear of death and bodily injury” and that he “knew what I was doing was illegal.”

Mangione also told the judge that he was driven to kill Thompson because of his experience with the healthcare system as a patient with a back injury. Prosecutors have previously said that Mangione had no personal connection to UnitedHealthcare and he was never a customer.

Thompson’s family issued a rare public statement after the plea hearing, calling it “an important step toward justice for Brian and for our family.”

“While nothing will ease the pain of losing him, we are grateful that the federal justice system has held the person responsible for this heinous act accountable,” the statement said. “Now we look to the court to ensure that sentencing reflects the severity of this crime.”

Mangione faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and prosecutors suggested that his sentencing range under federal guidelines would be 24 to 30 years in prison. Prosecutors later clarified that they would be recommending life in prison, the steepest sentence available.

He will be sentenced at a separate hearing Dec. 18 and the final sentence will be determined by the judge who has full discretion.

His federal court guilty plea is expected to kick off a double jeopardy fight in state court where he still faces murder charges and the possibility of life in prison. Mangione’s defense is expected to argue that the cases cover the same alleged conduct and that proceeding with a state court trial would amount to a legal violation.

“Since December 2024, the Manhattan D.A.’s Office has been tirelessly preparing to pursue a trial conviction in New York State Supreme Court for the alleged cold-blooded murder of Brian Thompson,” a spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said following the federal hearing. “While federal sentencing is pending, we are prepared to litigate the defense motions. The Manhattan D.A.’s Office remains committed to seeking justice for Mr. Thompson and his family.”

Following the guilty plea, Mangione’s lawyer Karen Friedman Agnifilo said, “We just filed our motion in state court explaining why the state charges must be dismissed under New York’s double jeopardy protections.”

She also discussed Mangione’s rationale.

“As Luigi explained in court today, he endured years of severe debilitating pain following a broken back while struggling to navigate our healthcare and health insurance systems,” Friedman Agnifilo said.

“He believed that the system had failed him and destroyed his life,” the attorney added.

The upcoming double jeopardy fight could stall proceedings in New York Supreme Court where he’s set to stand trial Sept. 8. It could also lead to litigation in appeals court.

The suspect, identified as Aisha Musa, was arrested after allegedly mixing a poisonous substance into her husband’s food on August 12, 2026.

According to the command’s spokesperson, SP Nafiu Habib, police received a distress call from an anonymous woman and quickly moved to the scene.

The husband was subsequently taken to the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital in Bauchi, where he is currently receiving treatment.

Police arrested Aisha shortly after the incident. She allegedly confessed during interrogation, although investigations into the circumstances surrounding the incident are continuing.

As part of the investigation, officers reportedly recovered an empty bottle suspected to have contained the poisonous substance, together with remnants of the meal allegedly laced with the substance.

The items have been preserved as exhibits as police work to establish the circumstances surrounding the alleged poisoning.

The case comes barely six weeks after the couple reportedly got married.

President Mahama is expected to assume the AU Chairmanship in January next year.

The committee is chaired by Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, and brings together diplomats, academics, public servants and other experts with extensive experience in African affairs.

The committee members are Dr Mohamed Ibn Chambas, Amb. Kwasi Quartey, Amb. Chris Kpodo, Amb. Amma A. Twum-Amoah, Dr Delese Mimi Darko, Amb. William Awinador-Kanyirige, Mr Larry Gbevlo-Lartey, Dr Edem Adzogenu, Amb. Khadija Iddrisu, Amb. Francis D. Kotia, Dr Obodai Torto and Mr Clarence Amoatey.

Mr Ablakwa said President Mahama is determined to have an “impactful and transformative tenure” as AU Chairman from day one to meet the expectations of Africa’s 1.5 billion people.

He commended members of the committee for their dedication and sacrifices and called on the public to share their views on the issues they believe President Mahama should prioritise during his tenure.

• Masra, a former prime ​minister, was sentenced to 20 years and ⁠fined 1 billion CFA francs ($1.77 million) last year ​in a trial that was criticised by ​human rights activists as politically motivated.
• Masra will be released in the coming days, the statement said, after the ​presidency agreed to a request for ​a pardon submitted by his attorneys.
• Masra was internationally recognised ‌as ⁠the most vocal figure in the opposition. He will be freed along with eight other political figures, the statement said.
• “These nine individuals ​will be ​released as ⁠soon as the Ministry of Justice makes the necessary arrangements in ​the coming hours and days,” the ​presidency ⁠said.
• “They have been pardoned by the Head of State. However, the pardon does not waive ⁠the ​civil penalties, which remain enforceable.”

The authority said the process would be halted nationwide with immediate effect, citing concerns over reports of violence that had “resulted in the theft of marked ballot papers in ballot boxes”.

President Hakainde Hichilema is seeking a second five-year term. Brian Mundubile is the main opposition candidate among 13 challengers.

The electoral commission had previously set a target to announce the results by the end of Sunday.

Counting got underway immediately after polls closed on Thursday, but no official results had been declared when the halt in the count came into effect.

In Friday’s statement the commission said it would review the decision to suspend vote counting within the next 24 hours.

Just hours before the commission’s statement, Mundubile expressed “grave concern” over delays in announcing the presidential results, warning that the delay could create opportunities for interference or manipulation.

He cited what he described as “deeply troubling reports” from several areas, including alleged military involvement at totalling centres and allegations concerning the movement of ballot boxes.

He called for the immediate publication of results polling station by polling station, protection of the chain of custody and investigations into the reported incidents.

Hichilema also issued a statement urging Zambians to “remain peaceful, patient and patriotic as we await the official outcome from those entrusted with managing the vote”.

Polling day was largely peaceful, with queues reported in many areas and only isolated delays. Along with electing a president and MPs, the more than eight million registered voters had the chance to choose a new parliament and local councils.

Thursday’s vote was seen as a test of Zambia’s reputation as one of Africa’s most stable democracies, amid concerns that  political freedoms are being undermined.

Despite 14 candidates being on the presidential ballot paper, the contest was largely seen as a two-horse race between the incumbent and his main challenger Mundubile – running on the banner of the National Reconciliation Party for Unity and Prosperity (NRPUP).

Hichilema is credited with steering Zambia through a difficult economic climate but his popularity was dented as many people said their circumstances have not improved. Mundubile hoped to capitalise on that dissatisfaction.

Mundubile is a former minister in the Patriotic Front (PF)  government that ruled from 2011 to 2021, with his alliance drawing support from backers of the late former President, Edgar Lungu.

Lungu died more than a year ago and his body remains unburied in South Africa, amid a bitter dispute between Lungu’s family and Hichilema, which has heightened political divisions in Zambia.

Hichilema, 64, won the 2021 election on his sixth attempt and is betting on job creation and an ambitious infrastructure drive to secure a second and final term.

The election was seen as a referendum on his economic record, which has boasted debt restructuring, currency strengthening and lowered inflation.

But his United Party for National Development (UPND) government has also been criticised by Amnesty International for restricting rights and freedoms in the run-up to this election, an accusation that Zambian authorities have yet to comment on.

Civil society monitors reported mostly orderly voting alongside some incidents of delays and procedural issues. International observers are present.

Mwiche Nalupumbwe, 26, was among hundreds who braved Thursday’s morning chill to queue at polling stations well before they opened.

“Zambians are frustrated and this election is a 50-50, that is why we are all here early to make the change,” he told the AFP news agency.

“I voted for HH because he cares about us,” James Phiri, a 29-year-old student at the University of Zambia, told the Reuters news agency, using a common nickname for the president.

“Things are better after he re-introduced meal allowances,” he said.

Samuel Chitendwe, a 47-year-old welder and father of four, said he voted for Mundubile.

“I have just come from firing someone. We are tired of stories about economic progress,” he told Reuters.

If no presidential candidate gets more than 50% of the vote a run-off must be held within 37 days.

Additional reporting by Natasha Booty

Correction 14 August 2026: This story was amended to say the Sunday deadline for announcing the result was one set by the electoral commission and not the law.

The works, with an estimated combined worth of about $200,000 (£148,000), were found on Thursday at a home in São Bernardo do Campo, a suburb south of the city. A 44-year-old male suspect was arrested at the scene.

During the heist at Biblioteca Mário de Andrade on 7 December last year, two thieves overpowered a security guard and an elderly couple who had been visiting the library, before making off with the artworks through the main entrance on foot.

Three other people were previously arrested in relation to the case.

Five engravings by the Brazilian artist Candido Portinari, also taken during the robbery, have not yet been recovered. Police in São Paulo said they suspected the works had been sold.

João Paulo Linhares de Araujo, the man arrested on Thursday, is suspected by police of having stored the Matisse artworks on behalf of those accused of being involved in the theft, as well as illegal possession of a firearm.

Laéssio Rodrigues de Oliveira, 53, described by Brazilian media as a prolific art thief, is suspected of having planned and directed the crime, according to Brazilian news outlet Globo.

He has been in custody since April after being arrested in relation to another case.

Another man and a woman have also been arrested over the library heist.

The Matisse illustrations, made for the limited-edition art book Jazz, along with five engravings by Portinari, created to illustrate a special edition of the novel Menino de engheno (Plantation Boy) by Brazilian writer José Lins do Rego, formed part of a joint exhibition with the São Paulo Museum of Modern Art.

The thieves targeted the exhibition, entitled From Book to Museum, on its final day.

They reportedly entered the library by its main entrance mid-morning and headed towards the nearest metro station following the heist.

Investigators said the theives placed the stolen artworks in a canvas bag to flee the scene.

The local department of culture said the illustrations had already been returned to the library, the security of which had been improved.

Matisse is widely considered to be one of the 20th Century’s most influential artists and art critics say the value of the stolen works is “incalculable”.

Portinari, who often painted rural workers and labourers, is one of the most significant Brazilian Modernist artists.

Shareholders are claiming the pop star failed to fulfil promises that she would be “actively building” the brand, saying her “abject dereliction of her duties” has left the company in a “state of financial calamity”.

The lawsuit seeks to recover around $1.2m (£890,000) it claims was invested as well as costs and damages.

The BBC has contacted Wondermind and Gomez’s representatives for comment.

Gomez, who rose to fame as a child actor before moving into pop music, set up the mental health platform five years ago with her mother Mandy Teefey and businesswoman Daniella Pierson. It came after Gomez publicly discussed her own mental health struggles, including with bipolar disorder.

The 34-year-old is one of the most-followed women in the world on social media, with over 500 million followers, and an estimated net worth of nearly $1bn. She also founded cosmetics company Rare Beauty, in 2020, which is closely associated with her name and image.

Wondermind aimed to make mental health-related content more accessible through a digital platform, recruiting investors to back the venture.

But the lawsuit claims Wondermind’s founders “falsely represented” their position by suggesting “a full slate” of ad deals, celebrity cover stories, an app and other initiatives were already underway and promising that Gomez would take an active role as its head of marketing.

“Gomez purported ‌to ⁠sign a contract obligating her to perform and then ignored it,” the lawsuit claims.

Gomez is currently listed as a co-founder on Wonderminds website, below her mother who is now in the chief executive role, following Pierson’s departure from the company.

The individuals behind the suit, based in New York and Florida, include Brent Saunders, chief executive of eye-health company Bausch + Lomb.

The claimants’ lawsuit alleges Wondermind failed to meet “even its most basic obligations, such as timely paying its employees and vendors”.

Promises including Wondermind’s partnerships and app never materialised, according to the claim.

“For three years, while the company quietly collapsed around them, not one of its founders, officers, or directors said a word to the investors whose money was funding the collapse,” the complaint states.

They said they were unaware of the company’s difficulties until an investigative news story by the online magazine, The Cut, surfaced in September 2025.

That report made allegations about Wondermind’s finances and issues with its management, according to the lawsuit.

The article showed that “Wondermind had no plan for its future – much less a plan for achieving a multi-billion dollar valuation,” the lawsuit claims.

The discovery involved Fred Kwarteng, the Embassy’s IT officer, whose office was searched during a special audit of the Mission, covering the period January 2017 to June 2025.

During the inspection, auditors recovered 18 passport booklets from Mr. Kwarteng’s office. Four of the booklets were blank biometric passport booklets.

One contained Mr Kwarteng’s own image, while the remaining active passport booklets could not be accounted for. Also recovered were fifty-nine (59) used and unused visa stickers, materials that are supposed to be tightly controlled.

Biometric passport booklets are sensitive security documents issued by the  Government of Ghana and require strict custody, inventory management and accountability procedures, according to the auditors.

Every booklet received, issued or held in storage at a diplomatic mission is expected to be properly accounted for. The discovery came despite an earlier internal review that had already raised concerns about the management of biometric passport booklets at the Embassy.

A May 2021 internal audit identified weaknesses in record-keeping and stock management practices. Records from Ridge PAC, Ghana’s biometric passport production partner, showed discrepancies between passport booklet numbers supplied to the Mission and those recorded by the Embassy.

Although the total number of booklets supplied and recorded matched, the differences in serial numbers raised concerns over possible manipulation.

The internal review also found that the Mission was holding excess stocks of biometric passport booklets, increasing the risk of theft or misuse. The review recommended stronger controls, including setting appropriate reorder levels based on usage and ensuring proper reconciliation of passport inventory.

Inside Fred Kwarteng’s Office

However, during the subsequent audit by the Auditor-General, the Embassy could not provide a complete account of passport stock management between 2016 and 2025.

Management was also unable to explain how blank biometric passport booklets came into Mr. Kwarteng’s custody or why earlier recommendations on inventory control had not been implemented.

The possession of blank passport booklets and visa stickers became more significant because Mr Kwarteng also provided visa and passport application support services through a private company whose website he directed traffic to from the official website of Ghana’s Embassy in Washington, D.C.

The circumstances surrounding the materials found in his office, the audit noted, “presuppose” that Mr. Kwarteng may have been engaged in fraudulent issuance of passports and visas outside official Embassy processes.

A source who worked at the embassy at the time, however, told Pledge Against Corruption that the auditors’ conclusion may be wrong.

The source, who wants to remain anonymous, explained that Fred Kwarteng often liaised with printers of Ghana’s passport booklets, so there was a time when some errors occurred during the printing process, resulting in discrepancies in serial numbers.

When it was corrected, some passport booklets whose serial numbers had been duplicated could no longer be used and those may still have been in Mr Kwarteng’s office during the audit.

A forensic examination of 15 empty passport booklets retrieved during the investigation confirmed that they were genuine Ghana passport stock.

The booklets contained standard security features, including Supreme Court watermarks, UV-responsive elements featuring the Parliament House, Coat of Arms and Fawohodie symbol, as well as micro-text reading “Republic of Ghana.”

However, seven of the 15 booklets examined had security deficiencies on their biodata pages. The identified defects included the absence of polycarbonate overlay, missing thermochromic print, missing Optical Variable Ink (OVI), irregular Machine-Readable Zone (MRZ) alignment and cancellation markings.

Beyond the passport materials, the auditors also said they uncovered what appeared to be attempts to conceal digital records in Kwarteng’s office.

The desktop computer assigned to him was found without an internal Solid-State Drive (SSD), the component responsible for storing files and system information. Physical inspection showed that the primary storage device had been removed, leaving the computer without its internal storage medium.

Investigators also recovered multiple electronic devices and storage media associated with Mr. Kwarteng’s office, including six used SATA hard drives, Dell Latitude, MacBook Pro and Lenovo ThinkPad laptops, an iPad tablet, Samsung and iPhone mobile devices, and RAM modules.

The removal of the SSD, combined with the presence of multiple storage devices, created concerns that sensitive consular information may have been copied, removed, altered or destroyed before the inspection.

The audit report said, “Examination of the office environment revealed signs of disruption and disorder consistent with a hurried removal of equipment and documents.

Several drawers and shelves were found open and disorganised, with documents, storage media, cables, and electronic components scattered across the workspace. The condition of the office, including dismantled computer components and removed storage hardware, strongly suggests that the computer system had been tampered with prior to the audit inspection.

“Given that the SSD typically contains the operating system, user files, emails, and system logs, its removal effectively eliminates access to potentially critical electronic records.

This raises a reasonable suspicion that the storage device was intentionally removed to prevent auditors from examining digital records that could provide evidence of unauthorised activities, including possible manipulation of passport records, visa processing data, or financial transactions.”

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The settlers had besieged residents in three homes in the area since Sunday, cutting off their power and water supplies.

Qusra Mayor, Abdel Azim Wadi, told the BBC that his village had been declared a closed military zone – and Israeli forces were using some of the vacated Palestinian houses as barracks. The Israeli military said the aim was “to protect the residents”.

An Israeli spokesman told the BBC the settlers’ action was “deplorable” and “unacceptable” and the  government would investigate and arrest those responsible.

“The Israeli army is acting against it, and we are investigating it and we will arrest those responsible and we will prosecute them,” David Mencer said.

Settlers have been emboldened by the rapid expansion of settlements under the current Israeli government – leading to a dramatic rise in settler violence as they try to drive Palestinians off their land.

All settlements are illegal under international law.

Of the besieged families’ three homes in Qusra, which are made up of the Abu Ridi and Hassan families, the residents of two were told to leave on Thursday, they told the BBC. They said those told to leave had since moved into the third house.

Elsewhere in the village, the residents of 11 other houses had also been told to leave by the army.

One of those was Qaher Odeh, who said more than 20 soldiers had entered his house in the morning. They later left but then came back, telling him and his brother they were in a military post and that they needed to leave.

“We left and kept walking down towards the lower part of the neighbourhood. Shortly afterwards, they sealed off the entire area,” Odeh said.

“There were people being forced out of their homes. A lot of people,” he added.

Earlier, videos shared from Qusra overnight into Thursday showed a dozen Israeli security vehicles – including a bulldozer.

In later footage – filmed in the daylight – there was a long line of Israeli security forces on the road to the Palestinian village.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they had “dismantled two illegal outposts”.

It added that it had detained one Israeli and confiscated equipment on the outskirts of the Qusra and Jalud areas, near Nablus.

Qusay Abu Ridi, one of the trapped Palestinian family members, told the BBC that the house had been attacked again overnight and that a few settlers had remained in the area, hiding from the army.

His brother – who owns the property – is a Palestinian-American businessman who had complained to the US embassy.

The US Ambassador Mike Huckabee – a longstanding supporter of settlements – called the settler intimidation of the Qusra families “a horrific act of terror.

“Actions by those who carried out this horrific act of terror meant to intimidate and harass this family are disgusting. No excuse for such thuggish behavior,” he posted on X.

The situation in Qusra first began on Sunday when settlers blocked the road to the Palestinian families’ gates and cut off their power and water supplies. The first Israeli soldiers who came to the site prayed with the settlers – an act for which the Israel military later said they would be disciplined.

The Abu Ridi and Hassan families made appeals for help on social media after their water and power supplies were cut off on Sunday.

On Wednesday an attempt by Israeli security forces to dislodge the settlers led to confrontations with a bigger group.

Palestinian security camera video shared with the BBC showed confrontations between Israeli soldiers and border police and a large crowd of settlers. The security forces used tear gas and stun grenades.

In other footage, the Israeli forces appear to have confiscated the canopy under which the settlers were sheltering, while leaving their other equipment.

It is not clear exactly what the settlers in Qusra want. In the past, settlers have forced Palestinians out of their homes and seized their properties.

The stated aim of the settlers is to empty the area of its Palestinian residents.

Settlements are illegal under international law, but the Israeli government has promoted their recent rapid expansion.

The case is the latest to draw attention to the relative impunity of settlers and how Israeli forces are struggling to deal with rising settler violence.

Qusra’s mayor had earlier told the BBC that local residents had seen “a clear and sustained pattern of targeting Qusra”. Last month a newly completed mosque was set on fire with graffiti in Hebrew sprayed nearby.

That settler attack was one of many that followed on from an incident in the Palestinian village of Tal. After Israeli settlers attacked Tal, it triggered an escalation in which six people were killed – four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers – one of whom acted as a security coordinator for a nearby Israeli settlement.

In July, settlers also surrounded a Palestinian home in the village of Jalud, near Qusra, for more than two weeks. Afterwards, the owners fled and settlers took over the property where they remain until now.

According to the UN’s figures, 76 Palestinians – including 18 children – have been killed in the West Bank this year, by Israeli forces or settlers. At the same time, three Israelis – including one civilian – were killed in confrontations with Palestinians and in an alleged ramming attack by a Palestinian in the West Bank.

Since January 2023, 127 Palestinian communities in the West Bank have experienced full or partial displacement, including 47 that have been entirely displaced, affecting more than 6,390 Palestinians, the UN says.

It has registered that in 2026, about 3,800 Palestinians, nearly half of them children, have been displaced due to settler violence, demolitions and evictions.

Speaking at the UN meeting, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon dismissed the idea that settlements were an obstacle to peace. He said that they would remain and continue to grow as his country had biblical, historic and legal rights to the land.

He said that the Security Council “must understand a simple truth: we are not going anywhere”.

READ ALSO:

Three men will be executed on the same day as death penalties rise in US

Japan PM says Putin’s visit to disputed islands ‘absolutely unacceptable’

The planned executions of inmates Anthony Darrell Hines, 66, Jeremy Williams, 41, and Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez, 71, in Tennessee, Alabama and Oklahoma, respectively, are indicative of a steep rise in executions across the US.

Last year, in 2025, there were more than four times as many people put to death as there were in 2021, even as juries and the American public at large became increasingly wary of its use.

So what’s driving the increase and is the US public in step with the trend?

The Trump factor

President Donald Trump has long been a major supporter of the death penalty, describing capital punishment as “an essential tool for deterring and punishing those who would commit the most heinous crimes and acts of lethal violence against American citizens”.

In 2020, during his first term, he ended a nearly two-decade moratorium on the federal death penalty, by ordering 13 executions over a six month period.

While the moratorium returned under President Biden, on the first day of Trump’s second term in 2025, he signed an executive order that re-instated the death penalty. No federal executions have been carried out since he signed it, however. In the US, both the federal government and local states authorities can order executions.

Under Trump’s administration, the Department of Justice has also expanded protocols to include additional manners of execution, such as by firing squad, and readopted lethal injections. The agency said in April that it has also streamlined internal processes to expedite death penalty cases.

Trump’s executive order also encouraged states to seek the death penalty for every federal crime when a law enforcement officer is killed, and instructed the attorney general to ensure that states have an ample supply of drugs for lethal injections, facilitating the states’ ability to carry out capital punishment.

But his true impact won’t be known for several years, said Justin Mazzola, deputy director for research at Amnesty International USA, which opposes the death penalty.

“Because of the length it takes for the actual case to happen, and then also all the appeals that are built in once there is a conviction,” he said.

Florida leads the charge

There were a total of 47 executions across 11 states in 2025, a marked increase from the 25 executions carried out in 2024.

But about 40% of the deaths were in one state, Florida, making the Sunshine State the biggest factor contributing to the US’s rise in executions. Just over halfway into 2026, 12 of the 19 executions occurred in Florida.

That, experts say, is because of one man: Republican Governor Ron DeSantis.

“He is the reason we are seeing a record number of executions. He is the reason why Florida is an outlier compared to the rest of the United States,” said Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center (DPI). The organisation provides statistics and research on the death penalty but does not take a stance on it morally.

DeSantis has been behind changes to laws that make it easier to carry out executions.

In 2023, Florida lowered the legal threshold for capital punishment by reducing the number of jurors required to recommend the death penalty in the trial phase of  court cases, from a unanimous 12 to eight jurors.

Meanwhile, the crime of sexual battery on a minor under 12 years old has become eligible as a capital offence.

DeSantis has championed the death penalty as a “strong deterrent” for crime and “an appropriate punishment for the worst offenders”.

Because individual states have the power to prosecute crimes and order executions, much of the power lies with state governors. Florida is uniquely positioned because its governor has the singular ability to sign a death warrant for prisoners who have no more appeals – without oversight from the courts. Pennsylvania has a similar process, but has not carried out an execution since 1999.

‘Their punishment is, frankly, earned’

The US is one of the few western countries that still has the death penalty, which has been largely phased out in Europe and is beginning to wane in Africa.

In the US, 27 of the 50 states have the death penalty under state law. Four of them – California, Ohio, Oregon and Pennsylvania – have paused executions through executive actions, as issues of botched executions, discrimination and cost have come to the forefront.

But many still support it. Florida’s top prosecutor James Uthmeier has staunchly pursued the death penalty in high-profile murder cases, endorsing “the ultimate form of punishment” for “depraved” criminals.

“The people that engage in this type of conduct, their punishment is frankly earned, and it’s up to a jury of 12 to determine if that sentence is appropriate or not,” Florida State Attorney William Sheiner said in a recent interview with Central Florida Public Media.

“Just because I pursue death as an option doesn’t mean that that’s going to be the sentence. It’s basically me saying to the community: this is up to you guys to decide if death is appropriate.”

Uthmeier and Sheiner’s offices did not immediately respond to the BBC’s request for comment.

A spotlight on executions

How prisoners are executed has become just as much of a point of debate as whether they should be. Pharmaceutical companies have opposed the use of their products for the death penalty, leading to shortages of the drugs necessary for lethal injections. In 2025, facing a shortage, South Carolina began executing inmates via firing squad.

Meanwhile, a number of botched executions have raised alarm. An esti­mat­ed 3% of US exe­cu­tions rom 1890 to 2010 were botched, according to DPI, with lethal injection having the high­est rate of botched exe­cu­tions. In 2022, more than a third of executions in the US were botched or highly problematic, the organisation said.

In May, Tennessee officials tried and failed to give Tony Von Carruthers, who had been on death row for decades, a lethal injection for over an hour. Blood streamed down his chest, and he repeatedly groaned and told prison staff he was in pain, according to witness statements.

Governor Bill Lee, who granted Carruthers a one-year reprieve after the failed execution, has said that Carruthers’ execution was not botched. He has instead said that the doctor simply could not establish IV access.

But it remains to be seen if the execution of the three men on Thursday will go forward – or whether there will be a last minute reprieve.

Anthony Darrell Hines, 66, who has maintained his innocence for four years and is bedridden, is scheduled to be executed in Tennessee on Thursday under the same protocol that failed twelve weeks ago with Carruthers.

In Alabama, Jeremy Williams, convicted for the rape and murder of a 5-year-old girl in 2021, could be the southern state’s first execution of 2026. Williams, who has dismissed his attorneys and has volunteered to be put to death, is slated to die by lethal injection and Alabama Governor Kay Ivey has said she does not plan to grant clemency.

In Oklahoma, septuagenarian Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez has asked for no clemency and no mercy for the murder of a woman in 2003. He is also slated to die by lethal injection on Thursday, but his age, experts say, heightens his risk for a botched execution.

Thursday’s planned executions are occurring amid a steady decline of support for the death penalty.

“It’s the opposite of a cheap easy political fix,” said Maya Foa, CEO of Reprieve US, an international legal organisation opposed to the death penalty.

Just 52% of Americans say the death penalty is morally acceptable, the lowest number since the 1970s, a Gallup poll shows. Although over half of Americans are in favour, the decline shows shifting trends, Maher said.

And that weakening support is also reflected in the decline in the number of death sentences that are issued by juries. In the 1990s, juries across the country would issue upwards of 300 death sentences in a year. In 2025, they issued only 23.

“That tells us something very important: These are regular citizens that are sitting in judgment of people who are accused of committing the worst possible crimes, and then deciding what sentence fits those crimes,” Maher said. “Those juries are increasingly saying that a death sentence is not the right answer.”

Russian state media reported that Putin visited Iturup, known in Japan as Etorofu, one of four islands in the Kuril chain that are claimed by Russia and Japan.

Putin’s trip “has worsened Japanese sentiment towards Russia,” Takaichi told reporters, maintaining the island chain was “a unique territory of [Japan] historically and under international law”.

The countries have been locked in a dispute over the Kurils for decades, and it is the main reason Moscow and Tokyo did not sign a peace treaty after World War Two.

The Kuril islands sit between Hokkaido in northern Japan and Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula. Four of the southernmost islands are claimed by Japan, which calls them the Northern Territories.

They are administered by Russia. At the end of World War Two, the Soviet Union annexed the island chain and deported around 17,000 Japanese residents.

During his visit, Putin sampled fish roe and spoke to island locals, Russian state media reported.

Earlier on Thursday,Japan’s foreign minister Toshimitsu Motegi said the islands were “inherently Japanese territory both historically and under international law, and the Government of Japan strongly protests this visit”.

Over the years, attempts to resolve the territorial dispute have made little progress. Bilateral ties have also remained frosty, with Japan imposing sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Japan has protested against previous visits by Russian officials to the disputed islands, including Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and his predecessor Dmitry Medvedev.

The Kuril islands are a strategic area for Russia, which has beefed up its military presence on the islands over the past decade. The island of Iturup is used as its primary military air base in the region.

Last month, Chinese and Russian naval warships sailed through a strait in the Kuril islands during a joint patrol.

Russia also holds regular military drills near the islands, drawing condemnation from Japan.

There is an overwhelming sense of emptiness.

“There is no newspaper anymore,” former chief editor Dmitry Muratov tells me in an exclusive interview, published on the BBC News YouTube channel.

Mr Muratov co-founded Novaya Gazeta more than 30 years ago. It became the flagship for hard-hitting independent journalism in Russia, shining a light on human rights abuses and high-level corruption.

In 2021 Mr Muratov was joint winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts “to safeguard freedom of expression.” The Nobel Committee noted that “six of [Novaya Gazeta’s] journalists have been killed, including Anna Politkovskaya who wrote revealing articles on the war in Chechnya.”

It was recognition for courageous reporting.

But it didn’t protect the paper.

“Putin issued a decree and the newspaper’s printing presses were nationalised,” Mr Muratov explains. “Its registration was revoked.”

Novaya Gazeta does retain a presence online. But only just: the authorities have blocked access to its website. It can only be accessed from abroad, or with the help of VPNs – virtual private networks used to circumvent restrictions.

The newspaper’s difficulties reflect the broader crackdown on free speech in Russia which has accelerated since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“Most opinion leaders have been declared ‘foreign agents’, ‘extremists’ or ‘terrorists’. Several hundred,” says Dmitry Muratov.

“Figures vary, but at a conservative estimate, since the start of Russia’s ‘special military operation’ [in Ukraine] at least 1,500 people are now in prison having spoken out against current state policy. That’s three times more than during the savage days of the KGB in the USSR.”

In his 1975 Nobel Peace Prize lecture dissident Andrei Sakharov listed the names of more than 120 political prisoners he was aware of in the Soviet Union. A decade later Amnesty International estimated more than 600 prisoners of conscience in the USSR.

What the Kremlin had assumed in 2022 would be a short, successful “military operation” has become the bloodiest conflict in Europe since the Second World War.

Yet a confident President Putin continues to predict victory for Russia.

“There will never be ‘victory’,” counters Dmitry Muratov. “Because what has been going on for nearly five years – no matter how it ends – can no longer be considered a victory.

“It cannot be a victory when two Slavic nations have ripped a million people to shreds. Or more than a million.”

“It seems to me that the situation with Ukraine now is this: you can destroy it, but you cannot conquer it. What do I mean by destroy? Continued escalation all the way to the use of a nuclear weapon.”

Does he really believe the Kremlin leader would use nuclear weapons in this war?

“All those political experts who say ‘Putin thinks this’ or ‘Putin is scared of that’…they’re all charlatans,” claims Dmitry Muratov. “It’s in the same league as astrology. Nobody knows what’s going on in Vladimir Putin’s head. And I don’t know.

“I see things only as a journalist. I study big data. And since the beginning of the year the need to use nuclear weapons has been mentioned more than 500 times. When wackos say this, I pay no attention. But I’ve heard it discussed on state TV. And at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, a state-run event, one of the speakers talked up the use of nuclear weapons as something favourable, something good.”

When he announced the mass invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, President Putin spoke of “ensuring the security of Russia.”

“Tell me, has security increased?” Dmitry Muratov asks. “With Ukrainian drones now attacking warehouses of [Russia’s largest online retailer] Wildberries; with the petrol crisis, the disruption to mobile internet, the political prisoners? Has security increased, or not?”

Despite opinion polls registering a fall in Vladimir Putin’s domestic approval ratings, Russia’s president – Mr Muratov believes – retains a tight grip on power.

“Sorry, I don’t believe all this talk about a split among members of the elite, about secret conspiracies. The country is run by Vladimir Putin. They’re frightened of him.

“And this fear is reinforced in every way by his main support base: the Federal Security Service (FSB).”

As critical as he is of his own government, he has few illusions about the West.

“[Putin] knows very well the true value of European leaders. On the one hand they talk to him about human rights. He laughs out loud because, with the other hand, they sign agreements – or used to sign agreements – with Russia on trading oil, gas, diamonds…all that stuff. When they talk to Putin about European values, he truly laughs out loud. He knows the true value of people who preached to him those values.”

In Russia Mr Muratov has been designated a ‘foreign agent’, a label often used to punish critics of the Kremlin. ‘Foreign agents’ have limited rights: they’re banned from teaching, from taking part in elections; if they sell their flat, they can’t access the assets. The label is also designed to stigmatise, to create the sense in society of an enemy within.

Yet the journalist appears reluctant to focus on the pressures he’s under, preferring instead to highlight the plight of compatriots in prison.

“What worries me most right now is that no one in the world is interested in the political prisoners who were first to speak out against the land grab in our neighbouring country,” Dmitry Muratov explains.

He opens a folder and takes out a stack of large photographs: portraits of prisoners.

One shows four journalists – Antonina Favorskaya, Konstantin Gabov, Sergey Karelin and Artyom Kriger – convicted and jailed on extremism charges. They’d been accused of links to the anti-corruption organisation of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

There’s a photo of Alexei Gorinov: a city councillor jailed for “knowingly spreading false information” about the Russian military after he spoke out against the war in Ukraine.

“And here’s a wonderful pianist, Pavel Kushnir,” says Dmitry Miratov. “An outstanding performer of Rachmaninoff and Schubert.”

The musician was arrested after posting anti-war videos. Dmitry Muratov holds up a second video.

“And this is him in his coffin.”

Pavel Kushnir died in a pre-trial detention centre during a hunger strike. He was 39.

The stream of photos and prison stories highlights the dangers for individuals framed as opponents of those in power. It’s a reminder of the risks that public criticism of the authorities and the war carry.

“Does being a Nobel Prize laureate give you at least some protection to say what you want?” I ask.

“This is not a question for me,” replies Mr Muratov. “Whenever you have the opportunity, ask the authorities that.”

There is one more photo. From April.

“This is the newspaper’s lawyer when she was waiting to get into the building. The police were searching our office. Thirteen hours it took. And they wouldn’t let the lawyers in. Our managing editor Oleg Roldugin is now under house arrest.”

Dmitry Muratov paints a bleak picture of life in Russia for critics of the authorities.

Yet there are moments of hope.

“We live in a time when you stay quiet. But so many people support what we do. On the streets of Moscow, my colleagues and I hear only words of gratitude. They are spoken in a whisper. But what people think is very important.”

Those watching the astronomical phenomenon from the UK were treated to a partial eclipse, which peaked shortly after 19:00 BST, when most saw more than 90% of the Sun covered by the Moon.

But parts of Greenland, Iceland and Spain experienced the complete darkness and spectacle of a total eclipse.

Large crowds at viewing sites across the UK and Europe reacted with gasps and cheers, with astronomy enthusiasts saying it served as a reminder of how “amazing” the universe is.

The path of the total eclipse began at the northern tip of Siberia in Russia, far away from crowds and telescopes.

But it soon began curving around the Arctic Ocean arriving in Iceland in the early evening before sweeping southwards to treat the UK to part of its wonder.

The partial eclipse began at about 18:00 BST in northern Scotland and just before 18:20 on the south coast of England.

It was imperceivable at first, but for those blessed with cloud-free skies, crowds noticed the Moon nibbling away at the Sun.

Much of central and southern England and Wales enjoyed perfect clear skies giving them an unrivalled view as the Moon moved slowly across the Sun over the course of an hour.

Northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland were cloudier, but it did not stop crowds turning out at famous landmarks across the country.

Some had been successful in getting hold of solar eclipse glasses, but the vital eye protectors were in short supply in the run-up to the event with opticians, hardware shops and bakeries all selling out.

But that did not deter people – colanders, cereal boxes and pieces of paper were deployed to offer them a glimpse of the partial eclipse safely.

A solar eclipse happens when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, blocking some or all of the Sun’s light and casting a shadow on our planet.

As time ticked by, slowly but surely the Moon obscured more of the Sun – acting like a dimmer switch as it did so.

As seen from the UK, the Sun, Moon and Earth were not quite directly in line.

The result was a partial eclipse, with the Moon covering about 90% of the Sun for most of the UK – the country’s most dramatic eclipse since 1999. In Cornwall, this was as high as 95%.

Parts of Spain got to experience something even more magical.

At roughly 19:30 BST (20:30 local time), the Sun, Moon and Earth were perfectly aligned – a total eclipse.

Chilean scientist Yasmin Catricheo traveled thousands of miles to A Coruña, northwest Spain, for the event.

In totality, everyone was cheering and sharing the excitement of what we were seeing. No words could describe the feeling,” she said.

“The universe is amazing.”

A total solar eclipse happens somewhere on Earth every 18 months or so.

But they are much rarer for any given place, only occurring once in roughly 400 years.

Crowds along the path of the total eclipse in Spain were treated to that rare event – with the red glow of the Sun behind the Moon to go with it.

The light coming from the darkness was the Sun’s corona – superheated jets of gas thrown thousands of miles out into space.

And for those looking closely, they may have seen small loops of pink gas called prominences following the Sun’s turbulent magnetic field.

And then, the Moon began to reveal the Sun that it had hidden.

The total eclipse lasted for less than two minutes – but for many it was unforgettable.

The fact that we get to experience a total eclipse at all is an incredible cosmological coincidence.

The Sun is 150 million kilometres (93 million miles) away from the Earth – 400 times further away than the Moon.

But because the diameter of the Moon is 400 times less than the Sun’s, they appear exactly the same size in our sky.

If the Moon was slightly smaller or its orbit was a little further away from the Earth then we would never see a total eclipse.

We’re about to enter a “golden age” of total solar eclipses between 2026 and 2028.

Eclipse chasers can travel around the world to be wowed by the spectacle of three total solar eclipses in the next couple of years.

But none of these are visible in the UK. The best the country will see is a partial eclipse in 2027, with about 45% coverage in some regions.

It will be decades until the UK experiences a fuller solar eclipse than today.

That will be in 2081, where up to 99% of the Sun will be covered.

And the UK’s next total solar eclipse will be in 2090.

Simon Levy, 40, was found guilty last week of the murder of Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo in March 2025 ​and of Sheryl Wilkins in August 2025, as well as the rape ​and serious assault of a third woman in January that ⁠year.

Police had arrested Levy several times for sexual assaults against women on ​rush-hours trains before he was again arrested on suspicion of murdering Valencia-Trujillo, 53, ​in April 2025.

But Levy was released and sexually assaulted five women before he killed Wilkins, 39, in a brutal attack.

Judge Mark Lucraft said Levy was “clearly someone who ruthlessly exploits others ​for your own personal, sexual satisfaction” as he sentenced him to a ​whole-life order without the possibility of parole for the murder of Valencia-Trujillo and Wilkins.

He was also sentenced ‌for ⁠two counts of rape, causing grievous bodily harm with intent and intentional strangulation in relation to a third woman.

Levy was separately convicted in February of sexually assaulting 10 women on London trains between October 2023 and May 2025, with ​six of the ​attacks in early ⁠2025, and an 11th charge of sexually assaulting a prison officer in April 2022.

His crimes and the failures by ​police and prosecutors which allowed him to continue offending has ​prompted questions, ⁠while London’s Metropolitan Police has referred itself to the police watchdog for downgrading him to a medium-risk offender.

“Time and time again, opportunities to stop him were ⁠missed,” London ​Mayor Sadiq Khan said in a statement.

“I am ​appalled by his crimes and the failures across multiple agencies that could have prevented him from ​harming, and ultimately killing, more women.”

The sentence ‌was handed down under a law enacted after a 12-day war between Israel and Iran in 2025, legislation that Iranian authorities say is intended to combat espionage and cooperation with hostile states.

When Moaiery arrived at Tehran’s Revolutionary Court, she was not given formal case documents, she said. Instead, a friend accompanying her copied details from a charge sheet by hand. Rights groups say such ​procedures reflect a lack of transparency in Iran’s judicial system.

According to the handwritten notes reviewed by Reuters, the accusations against her include giving interviews to ​media outlets deemed hostile by the authorities and providing photographs to organisations linked to the U.S. and Israel. Reuters could ⁠not independently verify the contents of the charge sheet.

In a statement provided to Reuters, Moaiery said the intelligence wing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps raided her ​home during anti-government protests in January and confiscated her phone, laptop and other electronic equipment. She said IRGC officers returned after the U.S. launched air strikes on Iran ​this year and again seized her belongings.

“On this occasion, they took everything, including even the cameras I had owned since childhood,” she said.

“I was subjected to several interrogations, and eventually my case was referred to Branch 33 of the Security Prosecutor’s Office and subsequently to the Revolutionary Court.”

The spokesman for Iran’s United Nations Mission in New York did not respond to a request ​for comment on her case.

Roya Boroumand, executive director of the U.S.-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran, said that withholding case documents is an ​effort by the Islamic Republic to “silence” defendants and showed the judiciary “blatantly” acting as a state agent.

A CAREER CHRONICLING WOMEN’S LIVES IN IRAN

The handwritten document provided by Moaiery to Reuters lists accusations ‌including “interviewing with ⁠networks hostile to the system” and sending photographs to entities in the United States and Israel that it describes as “hostile”.

Moaiery said she shared photographs showing damage from air strikes in Iran with CNN and appeared in an interview about her reporting, in March 2026.

She has 10 days to appeal under the 2025 espionage law, half the time allowed under previous legislation.

Moaiery has previously been imprisoned for her work. She served two years in Gharchak Prison, a place that she had previously photographed.

In 2022, she ​spent three months in jail and was ​sentenced to eight years in prison ⁠for covering the nationwide “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprisings that erupted after the death of young Iranian woman Mahsa Amini in police custody. An amnesty later reduced the sentence, but she said the case continued to expose her to questioning by authorities.

Reporters Without ​Borders, says 16 journalists have been detained in Iran this year.

Moaiery’s work has mainly focused on women. She photographed some ​of the earliest documented ⁠detentions of women by morality police, including a 2007 image showing two women sitting in white police vans, with tears streaming down their faces.

In 2017, she photographed a student protesting at economic conditions at Tehran University. The woman walks through tear gas, raising her fist in the air. The image was used by the Trump administration in its comments ⁠on human ​rights in Iran.

Moaiery said she remained committed to her work despite the prospect of further imprisonment.

“None ​of these sentences, however, has ever caused me to abandon my path, even for a moment. I have continued to document and show the realities of Iranian society,” she said.

“I don’t have anything to ​lose. The regime took everything from me and the only thing that I still have is my truth and honesty as an observer.”

The attacks, in the Gulf of Oman leading to the strait and at the entrance to the Red Sea — both vital chokepoints ‌for global oil supplies — come as the war shows no signs of ending despite repeated assertions from U.S. President Donald Trump of a deal being imminent.

Oil prices gained and global shares retreated amid renewed pessimism about a quick end to the conflict. Brent crude futures climbed 1.4% to settle at $88.91 per barrel and U.S. crude rose 1.3% to $83.20.

At the southern end of the Red Sea, four crew members were killed in a suspected Houthi attack on a small cargo vessel in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait on Tuesday, Yemen’s Transport ​Ministry said. Two Yemeni rescuers from an anti-Houthi military group were also killed, Yemen’s Coast Guard said.

The fatalities aboard the Egyptian-owned Tihamah, if confirmed, would be the first deaths on shipping by Yemen’s ​Iran-aligned Houthis since the Iran war began.

The Houthi-run news agency Saba reported that the group, which said last month it would impose a naval blockade on Saudi ⁠Arabia in the Red Sea, attacked a Saudi ship they said was carrying military equipment in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. It did not name the ship, and there was no immediate Saudi response to the report.

The U.S. military, ​meanwhile, said a U.S. Navy MH-60 helicopter fired two Hellfire missiles to disable the steering gear of a Panama-flagged cargo ship.

The ship ignored repeated warnings to stop violating a naval blockade on Iranian ports, the U.S. Central Command said. ​Maritime sources told Reuters the ship was hit off Pakistan while sailing into the Gulf of Oman.

STEPPED UP RHETORIC

Both Iran and the United States have stepped up rhetoric in the past two days.

Iran’s top security official, Mohsen Rezaei, said on Tuesday that the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping route will remain closed unless the U.S. accepts Iran’s conditions to end the war – the release of Iran’s frozen assets and an end to conflicts throughout the region, including in Lebanon and Gaza.

That followed a new demand from Trump ​on Monday that Iran should pay compensation for people killed in 50 years of wars, attacks and protests.

Throughout the conflict, Trump has alternated between threats of escalation and claims that a peace deal is imminent.

In an interview ​released late on Monday, he suggested the uncertainty could last for a while, saying he might just “bop along” and let Tehran fail economically, or hit them “really, really hard.”

“I’m sort of negotiating,” Trump told Real America’s Voice. “They’re very devious negotiators.”

Speaking to ‌reporters after a ⁠visit to Ohio on Tuesday, Trump said “Iran is going fine, going just absolutely fine.”

“We totally control the Strait of Hormuz … Nobody else, only us,” he said.

“At some point, maybe they’ll do something and then they get blown away,” he said of Iran. “But right now, we’re in a very good position. We have a country that has been the bully of the Middle East for 50 years, really 51 if you think about it … and they’re no longer the bully of the Middle East.”

Asked about an incident in which he switched planes in Turkey last month because of worries over reports of a potential Iranian assassination threat, Trump suggested the alternative aircraft may have ​faced greater risk.

“That would be the plane I think ​that they would be more likely to go ⁠for,” he told reporters after The Washington Post broke the story about him secretly taking a military flight instead of Air Force One in an operation involving him being moved between aircraft in a catering truck.

“Any consequential president has a lot of threats,” Trump added. “I don’t worry about anything.”

The comments from Rezaei, appointed on Sunday ​as second-in-command of the body that coordinates Iran’s security and foreign policy, were the strongest indication the Strait of Hormuz would not reopen to shipping anytime ​soon. The waterway handled a fifth ⁠of global oil and liquefied natural gas flow before the war.

“As long as America does not change its behaviour and does not accept Iran’s conditions, the Strait of Hormuz will not be opened,” Rezaei said, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

There was no immediate comment from Washington on Iran’s latest comments.

Thousands of people have been killed in the conflict since the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28.

Iran has struck U.S. assets and infrastructure in ⁠countries including Oman, ​Jordan, Kuwait, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Raising the prospect of further escalation, Mohammad Reza Naqdi, an adviser to the ​commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, said on Iranian state TV on Tuesday that the corps was developing the ability to carry out operations “on enemy soil.”

“We need to be able to move the operations to the enemy’s soil, whenever this is needed and ordered,” he said. “This ​is the characteristic of the offensive doctrine that has to be attained.”

Police said 90 passengers and five crew were onboard the vessel when it capsized on Tuesday, but it may have been overloaded, with other reports pointing to a higher number based on the registered ticket sales.

The vessel was hit by a strong wave and overturned, police added. Footage shared online appears to show the hull floating in the  water.

Lake Kariba, which straddles the border with Zambia, is one of the world’s largest man-made reservoirs, supporting transport and fishing and providing vital hydroelectric power to both countries.

The Zimbabwe Civil Protection Unit (CPU) said that registered ticket sales showed 114 adults were on the vessel. There could also have been an unknown number of children below ticketing age, it added.

The CPU said that 77 passengers had so far been rescued, and 15 bodies had been retrieved.

Two funeral parlours were collecting the bodies, it added.

Mutsa Murombedzi, a local member of parliament, posted a video on X of what she said was the boat at the start of the journey, adding that residents had been using it to travel across the lake to Kariba town, a journey that takes about five hours.

“We have very hard questions that require honest answers. The officials must release the correct number of people who were onboard,” she wrote.

Police said more details would be released “in due course”.

The clash on Monday is ​the latest incident in ​Nigeria’s northwest, where heavily armed gangs known locally as bandits frequently carry ​out killings, kidnappings for ​ransom, and cattle theft despite security ‌operations.

Police ⁠spokesperson Ani Iniedu said officers killed at least 17 of the attackers after intercepting ​the ​heavily ⁠armed group moving between Zamfara and Kebbi states.

Iniedu ​said reinforcements had ​been ⁠deployed to the area, which was now under control, as ⁠security ​forces pursued fleeing ​suspects.

Also read:

• At least 24 killed in bandit attack in northwest Nigeria, residents say

• Bandits kill at least 24 farmers in fresh attack in Nigeria’s Zamfara State

It is the first conviction against Assad, who fled from Damascus to the Russian capital, Moscow, with his family after his regime was overthrown in December 2024, ending his family’s five-decade grip on power.

Assad’s cousin and the former head of political security in southern Syria’s Deraa province, Atef Najib, was also sentenced to death. He appeared wearing a striped prison uniforminside a cage in the courtroom as the judge read out his sentence.

Deraa is widely seen as the birthplace of the uprising against Assad’s rule.

In March 2011, the detention and alleged torture of a group of teenagers accused of writing anti-government graffiti sparked protests in the city, which were met with a violent crackdown by security forces.

That response helped ignite nationwide demonstrations that escalated into civil war in which hundreds of thousands of people were killed.

Syria’s interim government began trying officials associated with the Assad regime, which ruled the country for more than 50 years, earlier this year.

Najib is one of the highest-ranking officials to be put on trial.

He was convicted of crimes including murder, “the intentional killing of children under 15” and “torture leading to death”.

The court also sentenced six former military and security officials in absentia to death, including Bashar al-Assad’s younger brother, Maher. He ran the army’s elite Fourth Division and also fled to Moscow when the regime fell.

The others convicted include former defence minister Fahd al-Freij.

Outside the courthouse after the ruling, hundreds of people of all ages gathered holding pictures of their loved ones who were killed by the regime.

Crowds were clapping and chanting, while cars drove by excitedly honking their horns.

A group of men passed out flags.

“The joy is indescribable,” one man told the BBC, hoisting up a photo of his late father. “God willing we will see Bashar al-Assad and all his aides hanging on the gallows.”

Another woman told the BBC everyone is feeling a mix of “victory and liberation.”

“The voices of the victims are finally heard. Justice has been achieved!” she exclaimed.

Nouha al-Masri, a prosecutor in the case, lost her brother during the March 2011 crackdown and massacre at al-Omari Square in Deraa.

“We have been waiting for 15 years to reclaim even a small part of our rights, for all those who have spilled our blood, committed crimes, violated our rights, killed, and tortured us,” Masri – now a member of the prosecution team, told the BBC.

“Our demand is that this not be the end of the trials… In the new Syria, there will be no impunity from this day forward.”

The partnership is expected to strengthen institutions, build professional capacity and improve the management and preservation of Ghana’s heritage sites.

The Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Abla Dzifa Gomashie, disclosed this during an engagement with a visiting delegation from the Korean National Commission for UNESCO.

Ms Gomashie said the collaboration presented an opportunity for both countries to deepen cultural exchanges and learn from each other’s strengths.

She noted that Ghana could draw lessons from Korea’s discipline, punctuality and work ethic, while Korea could benefit from Ghana’s rich cultural heritage and creative traditions.

The Minister expressed appreciation to the Korean government for its continued support and reaffirmed Ghana’s commitment to ensuring that the partnership produces sustainable benefits for the tourism, culture and creative arts sector.

She said the collaboration would also contribute to strengthening Ghanaian institutions and developing the skills of professionals within the sector.

The Korean delegation, led by Jinsung Jeon, thanked the Minister for the warm reception and reaffirmed its commitment to deepening the relationship between Ghana and South Korea.

The partnership is expected to provide a platform for increased cultural exchanges and cooperation while supporting efforts to preserve Ghana’s heritage and promote its tourism and creative industries.

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Brigadier Fowzi ​Mansouri was killed in the evening ⁠blast, the sources said, speaking on condition ​of anonymity.

They did not say who ​was responsible for the attack or provide further details on the device.

The killing highlights continuing security ​challenges in Libya, where rival administrations ​and armed groups have retained influence despite a ‌2020 ⁠ceasefire that halted major warfare.

Libya split in 2014 between rival eastern and western factions after a 2011 NATO-backed uprising ​toppled longtime ​autocrat Muammar ⁠Gaddafi.

The Libyan National Army, led by military commander Khalifa Haftar, ​controls much of eastern and southern ​Libya.

⁠It is aligned with authorities based in Benghazi, while the internationally recognised Government of ⁠National ​Unity is based in ​the capital Tripoli and controls much of the west.