The gunmen stormed the Kasuwan-Daji village in Niger state’s Borgu local government area on Saturday evening and opened fire on residents. They also razed down the local market and several houses, Niger state police spokesman Wasiu Abiodun said in a statement.

At least two residents put the death toll at 37 and said it could be much higher as some people remained missing as of Sunday. Residents also said security forces are yet to arrive in the area, contradicting the police’ claim that they have deployed officers to search for those kidnapped.

Such attacks are common in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, where dozens of rogue gangs seeking control often target remote communities with limited security and government presence.

Saturday’s attack in Kasuwan-Daji village happened near the Papiri community, where more than 300 schoolchildren and their teachers were kidnapped from a Catholic school in November.

The attackers who raided Kasuwan-Daji arrived from the National Park Forest along Kabe district, according to the police, pointing to a usual trend where abandoned expansive forest reserves act as hideouts for armed gangs.

The rescue team retrieved the body floating near Padar island, about 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from the site of the sinking, said Fathur Rahman, the Maumere Search and Rescue Office chief.

The newly recovered body remains unidentified by authorities, but is believed to be that of a member of the family who was on a holiday in Indonesia’s Komodo National Park area. Rahman said the body was transported to a hospital in Labuan Bajo, a gateway town to the park in eastern Indonesia, for identification.

The family holiday in the park area turned tragic for Valencia CF Women’s B coach Fernando Martín, 44, when the boat carrying him, his wife, their four children, four crew members and a local guide, sank on the evening of Dec. 26 after suffering engine failure.

Martín’s wife and one child, along with the four crew members and the guide, were rescued in the hours following the incident. But Martin, his two sons and another daughter, aged 9, 10 and 12, were unaccounted for.

Rescuers found the first victim, the 12-year-old Spanish girl, three days later floating near the northern waters of Serai island, about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) from the site of the sinking. Indonesian authorities confirmed with Martin’s wife and through medical and forensic identification that the girl was one of the missing children.

Rahman said the Spanish government and families of the victims have been deeply involved. Spain’s ambassador formally requested continued reinforcement of the search in a Dec. 31 letter. Under Indonesian law, search operations typically last seven days, but can be extended if there are signs or chances of finding victims.

“We are determined to find all the victims,” said Rahman, following a review by the joint SAR team that extended operations to Jan. 4. “We remain optimistic that the hard work of all SAR elements will yield results during this extended operation.”

The search operation, on its tenth day Sunday, continued for the remaining family members. Efforts have been reinforced with more than 160 personnel, supported by police and the navy, who were combing four sectors in inflatable boats, navy ships and rescue vessels equipped with sonar equipment and underwater navigation gear across the Komodo National Park waters. Divers were also deployed.

Komodo National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage site famous for its rugged landscapes, pristine beaches and an endangered lizard, the Komodo dragon. The park attracts thousands of international visitors for diving, trekking and wildlife tours.

Indonesia is an archipelago with more than 17,000 islands, where boats are a common form of transportation. With lax safety standards and problems with overcrowding, accidents occur frequently.

Following a large-scale strike on Venezuela on Saturday, Maduro and his wife were captured by US forces and removed from the country. The pair have been indicted on drug charges in New York.

In an initial response, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said his government would “shed no tears” for the end of Maduro’s regime.

Neighbouring Latin American countries condemned the actions, as did Venezuela’s long-term allies, Russia and China. China said it was “deeply shocked and strongly condemns” the use of force against a sovereign country and its president.

Russia accused the US of committing “an act of armed aggression”.

Iran, which is locked in its own dispute with Trump over his promise of intervention in its country, called the strikes a “flagrant violation of the country’s national sovereignty”.

Trump said the US will “run” Venezuela “until we can do a safe, proper and judicious transition”.

Many Latin American leaders condemned the US actions.

President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva in Brazil wrote on X that the actions “cross an unacceptable line”, adding “attacking countries in flagrant violation of international law is the first step toward a world of violence, chaos, and instability”.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro called the strikes an “assault on the sovereignty” of Latin America, while Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel described it as a “criminal attack”.

Chile’s President Gabriel Boric expressed “concern and condemnation” on X and called for “a peaceful solution to the serious crisis affecting the country”.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Cane accused the US of a “criminal attack”, while Uruguay said in an official statement it was monitoring developments “with attention and serious concern” and “rejects, as it always has, military intervention”.

Trump has indicated that Cuba could become part of a broader US policy in the region, calling it a failing nation. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Cuba was a disaster run by incompetent leaders who supported Maduro’s administration. He said the government in Havana should be concerned

The Venezuelan Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello urged citizens to remain calm and to trust the country’s leadership and military, saying, “The world needs to speak out about this attack,” according to the Reuters news agency.

But Argentinian President Javier Milei – who Trump has described as his “favourite president” – wrote “Freedom moves forward” and “Long live freedom” on social media.

Meanwhile UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer refused to be drawn into whether or not the military action may have broken international law.

In an interview with the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme on Saturday morning, the prime minister did not condemn the US strikes.

He said he was waiting to establish all the facts but would not “shy away from this”, adding he was a “lifelong advocate of international law”.

The UK was not involved in the strikes and Sir Keir said he had not spoken to Trump about the operation.

Later on Saturday, Sir Keir posted on X that the UK “regarded Maduro as an illegitimate president and we shed no tears about the end of his regime”.

“The UK government will discuss the evolving situation with US counterparts in the days ahead as we seek a safe and peaceful transition to a legitimate government that reflects the will of the Venezuelan people,” he added.

The EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas reiterated the bloc’s position that Maduro lacks legitimacy, that there should be a peaceful transition of power, and that the principles of international law must be respected.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the transition of power “must be peaceful, democratic, and respectful of the will of the Venezuelan people” in a post on X.

He added he hoped González – the opposition’s 2024 presidential candidate – could ensure the transition.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the legality of the US operation was “complex” and international law in general must apply.

He warned that “political instability must not be allowed to arise in Venezuela”.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply concerned that the rules of international law have not been respected”, his spokesperson said. He was “deeply alarmed” by the strikes, which set a “dangerous precedent”.

He called on all actors in Venezuela to engage in inclusive dialogue, in full respect of human rights and the rule of law”.

In the US, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, said, “Let me be clear, Maduro is an illegitimate dictator, but launching military action without congressional authorization, without a federal plan for what comes next, is reckless”.

His comments follow reports on January 3, 2026, that U.S. forces captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro during a high-risk operation in the capital, Caracas.

The development has sent shockwaves across diplomatic circles, drawing comparisons to past Western military interventions in the Middle East and North Africa.

Reacting via his X (formerly Twitter) account, the Ningo-Prampram Member of Parliament referenced his academic background in peace and security studies to contextualise the unfolding events.

Mr. George, an alumnus of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), described the operation as a real-time case study in international law, echoing the focus of his earlier research.

“Today’s events in Caracas remind me of my dissertation topic at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, which focused on issues of international law,” he wrote.

He noted that the operation raises complex questions about non-interference, stating that issues of territorial sovereignty, the thresholds for the responsibility to protect, and the role of so-called superpowers in foreign interventions had come sharply into focus.

The minister further questioned whether the world is witnessing a familiar pattern of regime-change interventions that have historically resulted in prolonged instability. He also raised concerns about perceived inconsistencies in how the international community responds to different conflicts.

“Do we see another Libya or Iraq situation unfolding in Latin America? How do we distinguish this dawn operation from Russia’s actions in Ukraine or Israel’s actions in Palestine?” he asked.

His remarks highlight ongoing debates about double standards in global governance, particularly in determining the line between democratic intervention and aggression against a sovereign state.

While supporters of the operation have hailed the capture of President Maduro as a win for democracy, critics and legal scholars, including Mr. George, view it as a critical test of the principles enshrined in the United Nations Charter.

He concluded his commentary by describing the moment as “exciting times in global affairs and international law,” suggesting that the precedents emerging from Caracas could shape the boundaries of superpower influence for decades to come.

US oil companies would also fix Venezuela’s “broken infrastructure” and “start making money for the country”, Trump said.

The US launched strikes on Venezuela on Saturday in which Maduro and his wife, First Lady Cilia Flores, were captured by US forces and removed from the country.

Venezuela announced a state of national emergency and denounced the “military aggression”, with the country’s vice president saying Maduro is its only leader.

Maduro and Flores were flown out of the capital of Caracas on a US helicopter in the early hours of Saturday morning and taken aboard the USS Iwo Jima at an unknown location in the Caribbean Sea.

They were later flown to the Guantanamo Bay US Naval Base in Cuba before being transferred to another plane to head to New York State, and then flown by helicopter into New York City’s Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi said Maduro and Flores had been indicted in the Southern District of New York.

The pair have been charged with conspiracy to commit narco-terrorism and import cocaine, possession of machine guns and destructive devices, and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices against the US.

“They will soon face the full wrath of American justice on American soil in American courts,” Bondi wrote on X.

Previously, Maduro has vehemently denied being a cartel leader and has accused the US of using its “war on drugs” as an excuse to try to depose him and get its hands on Venezuela’s vast oil reserves.

Speaking at a news conference before Maduro’s arrival in New York, Trump said: “The oil business in Venezuela has been a bust, a total bust for a long period of time.”

“We’re going to have our very large United States oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure, the oil infrastructure, and start making money for the country.”

The South American country has approximately 303 billion barrels worth of crude, accounting for about 20% of the world’s oil resources, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

It is unclear exactly how the US plans to “run” Venezuela, but the president said it will be a “group” of people leading the charge.

“We’re going to be running it with a group, and we’re going to make sure it’s run properly,” Trump said.

When pressed by reporters as to who inside Venezuela would form part of that group, Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio had been talking to Delcy Rodríguez, the country’s vice president.

Trump said Rodríguez had expressed her willingness to do “whatever the US asks”.

However, speaking on state TV after Trump’s remarks Rodríguez called Maduro the “only one president in Venezuela”, adding that the government was ready to defend itself.

Earlier, Rodríguez was the first Venezuelan official to speak out publicly after the US strikes, urging the US to provide a proof of life for Maduro and his wife.

In the early hours of Saturday, the US launched a “large-scale strike” on Venezuela in which Maduro and his wife were captured by US forces and flown out of the country, before being transported on board USS Iwo Jima.

Venezuela’s long-term allies strongly condemned the US actions. Russia accused the US of committing “an act of armed aggression” that was “deeply concerning and condemnable”. China’s foreign ministry said in a statement that it was “deeply shocked and strongly condemns” the use of force against a sovereign country and its president.

Many Latin American countries, including Venezuela’s neighbours, Colombia and Brazil, also condemned the actions. Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel described them as a “criminal attack”, while Trump’s ally in Argentina, Javier Milei, wrote “Freedom moves forward” on social media.

US allies were more reserved in their responses, urging a peaceful transition of power. UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the UK “regarded Maduro as an illegitimate president and we shed no tears about the end of his regime”.

“The UK government will discuss the evolving situation with US counterparts in the days ahead as we seek a safe and peaceful transition to a legitimate government that reflects the will of the Venezuelan people,” he added.

The EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas and France’s president Emmanuel Macron offered similar sentiments calls for peace. A new government must be “respectful of the will of the Venezuelan people”, Macron wrote in a post on X.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the legality of the US operation was “complex” and international law in general must apply.

He warned that “political instability must not be allowed to arise in Venezuela”.

Since September, the US has launched more than 30 strikes on what it says are boats being used for drug trafficking in the Pacific and the Caribbean, killing more than 100 people.

The Trump administration has described the strikes on vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific as attacks against terrorists attempting to bring fentanyl and cocaine to the US, however the authorities have provided no evidence to back up its allegations.

With the exception of two survivors – a Colombian and an Ecuadorean national – none of the identities of those on board have been made public.

Earlier this week, the conflict escalated further when the US carried out a strike on a “dock area” linked to alleged Venezuelan drug boats.

Fentanyl is produced mainly in Mexico and reaches the US almost exclusively via land through its southern border.

Counter-narcotic experts have also said that Venezuela is a relatively minor player in global drug trafficking.

It mainly acts as a transit country through which drugs produced elsewhere are smuggled.

The statement, released from the AU headquarters on Saturday, January 3, 2026, signals a widening diplomatic rift between the 55-member continental bloc and the Trump administration following the launch of Operation Absolute Resolve.

In the release, the AU Commission expressed “grave concern” over the military strikes that rocked the Venezuelan capital overnight.

The bloc, which has historically been sensitive to external regime changes due to Africa’s own history of colonial and Cold War interventions, framed the incident as a violation of the United Nations Charter.

“The African Union is following with grave concern the recent developments, including reports of the abduction of the President of the Republic, Mr. Nicolás Maduro, and military attacks on Venezuelan institutions,” the communiqué stated.

The AU further reaffirmed its “steadfast commitment to the fundamental principles of international law, including respect for the sovereignty of States, their territorial integrity, and the right of peoples to self-determination.”

The AU’s condemnation stands in contrast to the triumphant atmosphere in Washington.

Earlier, President Donald Trump confirmed that elite Delta Force units, supported by more than 150 aircraft, extracted Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores from their home in Caracas.

Trump, who posted a photograph of a blindfolded Maduro aboard the USS Iwo Jima, announced that the United States would run Venezuela temporarily to get the oil flowing and oversee a transition of power.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has since indicted Maduro on charges of narcoterrorism and cocaine importation.

The African Union emphasised that the solution to Venezuela’s protracted economic and political crisis must come from within.

Rejecting the idea of an externally imposed transition, the AU called for a return to the negotiating table.

“The complex internal challenges confronting Venezuela can only be sustainably resolved through inclusive political dialogue among Venezuelans themselves,” the AU stressed, underscoring the importance of dialogue, the peaceful settlement of disputes, and respect for constitutional and institutional frameworks.

By expressing its “solidarity with the Venezuelan people,” the AU joined a chorus of international voices—including Russia, China, and Brazil—that have labelled the U.S. action a “dangerous precedent”.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has already scheduled an emergency Security Council meeting for January 5 to discuss the legality of the strikes.

The AU’s reaction is being seen by analysts as a significant indicator of Global South sentiment.

While U.S. allies like Argentina and Ecuador have cheered the “fall of a dictator”, the African Union’s emphasis on “good neighbourliness, cooperation, and peaceful coexistence” highlights a deep fear of a return to gunboat diplomacy.

As Maduro awaits processing at the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York, the African Union has called on all parties to “exercise restraint, responsibility, and respect for international law to prevent any escalation and to preserve regional peace and stability.”

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Several explosions in Caracas have been seen this morning with some areas of the city without electricity. The first blast was recorded at approximately 1.50am local time on Saturday.

President Trump had repeatedly warned that the US was preparing to take new action against alleged drug trafficking networks in Venezuela.

Confirming it the Saturday action Trump said the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has been captured and flown out of the country along with his wife. 

He added the US has carried out a “large scale strike” against Venezuela in the early hours of this morning.

Trump said on Truth Social: “The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country. 

“This operation was done in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement. Details to follow. There will be a News Conference today at 11 A.M., at Mar-a-Lago. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP”

President Trump has been warning for months that land attacks on Venezuela were imminent

He has amassed an armada of ships and American firepower in the Caribbean, and indeed, a third of the United States Navy is now stationed off the coast of Venezuela.

The US has carried out multiple attacks on small boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, claiming they were smuggling drugs.

The Trump administration designated Venezuela’s nominal president, Nicolas Maduro, a narco terrorist, with his government operating as a drug cartel who stole elections last year to stay in power. Pressure has been steadily mounting on Maduro to stand down.  

What started as ostensibly a drug operation has steadily morphed into an operation to stop Venezuela exporting oil – a tanker was boarded by American forces in December and taken to the United States, and President Trump has announced a blockade on Venezuelan oil.  

But the latest developments would suggest that President Trump has decided to push for Maduro to step down and to bring about regime change through force. 

Opposition leaders, notably Maria Corina Machado, the latest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, have been saying for months that the opposition is ready to take power and have been preparing in secret for months.

For change like this to happen, Maduro would have to leave, and the Venezuelan security forces would have to accept those changes.

That is far from guaranteed, but perhaps these US strikes overnight in Venezuela are designed to put pressure on them to do exactly that. 

In a Facebook post on Saturday, January 3, Mr Ablakwa said the Ukrainian government had officially informed Ghana of the arrest and provided details of the detained national, which have since been verified by Ghanaian authorities.

According to the Minister, available evidence indicates that the Ghanaian travelled to Moscow, Russia, on July 7, 2024, where he allegedly signed a contract to join the 2nd Assault Company of the 71st Motorised Rifle Regiment under the 42nd Motorised Rifle Division. He was subsequently deployed to the Zaporizhzhia front, where he reportedly took part in hostilities.

Mr Ablakwa disclosed that he has met with the Acting Ambassador of Ukraine to Ghana, Ivan Lukachuk, and formally appealed for the release of the detained Ghanaian.

“I held a meeting with the Acting Ambassador of Ukraine to Ghana, Ivan Lukachuk, and appealed for his release to Ghana. A special message has been sent to Kyiv,” he stated.

The Foreign Affairs Minister also revealed plans to travel to Ukraine in the coming weeks to continue negotiations. He added that Ghana has objected to any attempt to include its citizen in a potential prisoner-of-war exchange between Ukraine and Russia.

“Ghana has objected to the potential of our national being added to a prisoners-of-war exchange between Ukraine and Russia, as that could make him even more vulnerable,” he explained.

Mr Ablakwa expressed confidence that Ghana’s diplomatic efforts would yield positive results, citing the country’s cordial relations and strong commitment to peace.

He further cautioned Ghanaian youth to be vigilant against criminal recruitment and human trafficking networks, warning that such schemes often lure individuals into dangerous conflicts.

“It is extremely dangerous to get involved in any conflict. You can be killed or captured,” he cautioned.

The Minister reaffirmed the commitment of the Mahama administration to protecting the welfare and safety of Ghanaians both at home and abroad.

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Here’s the statement from Truth Social in full:

“The United States of America has successfully carried out a large scale strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicolas Maduro, who has been, along with his wife, captured and flown out of the Country.

“This operation was done in conjunction with U.S. Law Enforcement. Details to follow. There will be a News Conference today at 11 A.M., at Mar-a-Lago. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”

Study Tours
Namibia – Five‑Day Immersion
The Namibian delegation spent five days in Accra, a visit facilitated by its government. On arrival, Dr Christian Addai‑Poku, Registrar and CEO of the National Teaching Council (NTC), tasked Dr Cecilia Agbe (Deputy Registrar) and Dr Lawrence Sarpong (Director for Higher Education) with guiding the team through Ghana’s regulatory ecosystem. The programme covered licensing and registration, the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) framework, and the point‑based CPD system. It also showcased three home‑grown technology initiatives:

• Teacher Portal Ghana – a digital platform programmed by Next Dev Technologies that links teacher data (CPD transcripts, digital portfolios, the teacher register, and a marketplace of CPD service providers).
• Technology‑Induced Coaching and Mentoring Model – a digital‑first scheme developed by Samuel Nuamah Boakye that matches newly qualified teachers with seasoned mentors, tracks mentoring hours, and feeds outcomes into the CPD record.
• Teacher Learning Accountability System (TLAS) – an automated monitoring suite also created by Samuel Nuamah Boakye that validates CPD points, flags non‑compliance, and generates real-time dashboards for school leaders and regulators.

All three initiatives were brought to life under the skillful design and initiative of Dr Lawrence Sarpong, whose work was supervised by Dr Christian Addai‑Poku.

Tanzania – One‑Day Intensive Visit
A Tanzanian team arrived for a single, full‑day programme, also arranged by its government. Dr Addai‑Poku entrusted the delegation to Dr Lawrence Sarpong, leader of the partnership and affiliations team, and Ms Araba Eduafoah Mensah, support‑team lead, whose combined expertise delivered a concise overview of the same components presented to the Namibians.

Both visits were followed by a Ghanaian delegation’s trip to Uganda, sponsored by the Regional Teacher Initiative for Africa (RTIA). Led by Dr Addai‑Poku, the team shared best practices with Uganda’s Ministry of Education on 1 December 2025 at the Golden Tulip Hotel, Kampala.

Institutional Architecture
Unlike the centralized models often cited, Ghana and Nigeria operate decentralized systems in which the employer’s role is separate from regulatory functions. Kenya and Sierra Leone, by contrast, combine employer and regulatory responsibilities within a single authority.

Ghana has further refined its approach by establishing three zonal centres—in the Northern, Middle, and Southern regions—under Dr Addai‑Poku’s stewardship. These centres act as operational hubs, bringing council services closer to schools, streamlining registration, CPD accreditation, and support for Teacher Portal Ghana.

Legislative Momentum in Uganda and Namibia
Namibia and Uganda now have draft legislation for their own teaching regulatory bodies under parliamentary review. If enacted, the councils are expected to be operational before the Africa Federation of Teaching Regulatory Authorities (AFTRA) conference in Botswana in May 2026. Ghana’s early success has set a benchmark that other African states are keen to follow.

Comparative Overview of African Models
During his Uganda presentation, Dr Addai‑Poku sketched a comparative landscape of continental regulatory architectures:

• Nigeria and Ghana – employ a decentralized structure that separates employer functions from regulation.
• South Africa – operates a decentralized system, with provincial councils reporting to a national authority.
• Zambia – mirrors the Ghana‑Nigeria model, emphasizing statutory backing and a points‑based CPD system.
• Kenya and Sierra Leone – combine employer and regulatory functions within a single entity.

This analysis helped Ugandan officials see the full spectrum of options and the common ingredients that make a regulatory system effective.

Why Ghana’s System Stands Out
Ghana’s regulatory architecture enjoys recognition beyond the continent. The United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, Jamaica, and Australia have all acknowledged the quality of Ghana’s teacher‑licensing regime, granting reciprocal recognition to Ghanaian teachers.

Key differentiators include:

• Transparent, point‑based CPD that generates a verifiable transcript of every professional‑development activity.
• Technology‑induced CPD, an online learning‑management system that delivers tailor‑made modules, enabling teachers to earn points from anywhere.
• Teacher Learning Cycles (TLCs), school‑based action‑research projects that embed continuous improvement.
• Coaching and Mentoring Programme, which pairs newly qualified teachers with seasoned mentors.

Together, these innovations have turned Ghana into a beacon of success in teacher training and development across Africa.

The Ghana Teacher Prize: A Magnet for Benchmark Visits
Each year, from 2 to 5 October, the NTC hosts the Ghana Teacher Prize, celebrating outstanding educators at every level. Winners receive a suite of prizes—including a three‑bedroom house, a 4×4 vehicle, a salon car, motorbikes, fridges, laptops, international and local scholarships, and cash awards—making the event a draw for other nations seeking to replicate Ghana’s success.

Leadership Driving the Vision
Strong political and governance support underpins the momentum. Hon. Haruna Iddrisu, Minister for Education, and Mr Emmanuel Kwami Alorvi, Board Chairman of the NTC, have championed the cause of making teaching an attractive profession. Their leadership, coupled with Dr Addai‑Poku’s visionary direction, positions Ghana as the go‑to destination for countries aiming to raise the bar in teacher regulation.

Outlook: A Broader African Impact
As Uganda, Tanzania, and Namibia edge closer to establishing their own councils, the continent stands on the cusp of a new era in teacher professionalism. Ghana’s contribution—from policy formulation to cutting‑edge implementation, from transparent CPD to the inspirational Ghana Teacher Prize—is unparalleled.

The forthcoming AFTRA conference in Botswana will serve as a testament to this progress. With Ghana’s experience as a cornerstone, the newly formed regulatory bodies in Uganda, Tanzania, and Namibia are poised to join AFTRA, expanding the federation’s influence and reinforcing the message that quality teacher regulation is the foundation of quality education across Africa.

For further information on the Ghana Teacher Prize and upcoming benchmark visits, please visit the NTC website or contact the council’s communications office.

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In his New Year message issued on Monday, December 29, 2025, in Washington, D.C., Mr Guterres said the world stands at a critical crossroads, facing chaos and uncertainty fuelled by deep divisions, violence, climate breakdown and persistent violations of international law.

He described the situation as “a retreat from the very principles that bind us together as one human family.”

According to him, people across the globe are increasingly questioning whether their leaders are listening and prepared to take decisive action. As the new year begins, he said global trends paint a troubling picture.

Mr Guterres revealed that global military spending has surged to 2.7 trillion dollars, an increase of nearly 10 percent. He noted that this amount is thirteen times higher than total global development aid and equivalent to the entire Gross Domestic Product of Africa, even as conflicts reach levels not seen since the Second World War.

The UN Secretary-General therefore called on world leaders to rethink their priorities in 2026, stressing that lasting security can only be achieved by investing more in ending poverty and less in waging wars.

“Peace must prevail,” he said, adding that the world already possesses the resources needed to uplift lives, protect the planet and build a future rooted in peace and justice.

He urged both leaders and citizens to act with courage, emphasising that collective action remains key to shaping a better future.

“Our future depends on our collective courage to act,” Mr Guterres said. “This new year, let us rise together for justice, for humanity, and for peace.”

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Zelensky said the remaining 10% of the agreement to end nearly four years of conflict would “determine the fate of peace, the fate of Ukraine and Europe”.

In his own New Year speech, Russian President Vladimir Putin told his troops that “we believe in you and our victory”.

Earlier on Wednesday, Moscow also released what it said was evidence of Ukraine using drones to target Putin’s private home on Lake Valdai in north-west Russia, allegations Kyiv has strenuously denied.

It included a map allegedly showing that the drones were launched from the Sumy and Chernihiv regions of Ukraine and a video of a downed drone lying in snowy woodland. A serviceman standing next to the wreckage claims it is a Ukrainian Chaklun drone.

The BBC hasn’t been able to verify the footage, and it is not possible to locate where it was shot.

Russia would review its position on the ongoing peace negotiations as a result of the alleged incident, the Kremlin said.

However, Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat, on Wednesday described the Russian claims as a “deliberate distraction” and an attempt to derail the peace process.

In his 20-minute address to the nation, Zelensky said that Ukraine did not want peace “at any cost”, adding that “we want the end of the war – not the end of Ukraine”.

He said that a Ukrainian withdrawal from the eastern Donbas region means “everything will be over”, a reference to Russia’s maximalist demand that Moscow secure full control of the industrial area in any peace agreement.

Moscow currently controls about 75% of the Donetsk region, and some 99% of the neighbouring Luhansk. The two regions are known collectively as Donbas.

Its fate has been a major obstacle throughout negotiations, with Russia consistently unwilling to compromise on its aim to seize full control of Donbas.

In the address, Zelensky thanked leaders that have supported Ukraine, but said that “intentions must become security guarantees, and therefore – be ratified”.

Following talks between Zelensky and his US counterpart Donald Trump in Florida earlier this week, the Ukrainian leader said Washington had offered security guarantees for 15 years – but a time frame for their implementation is not yet clear.

“Signatures under weak agreements only fuel war,” Zelensky said in his address. “Either the world stops Russia’s war, or Russia drags the world into its war.”

By comparison, Putin’s New Year address was much shorter.

Addressing the war in Ukraine, which Moscow describes as a “special military operation”, Putin said: “We strive to bring joy and warmth through our care for those in need of support and, of course, to stand by our heroes – the participants in the special military operation – in both word and deed.”

Separately, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un used his New Year message to praise the “invincible alliance” between Pyongyang and Moscow, while praising soldiers who are fighting in “alien lands”.

North Korea has sent thousands of troops to aid Russia in its invasion, along with missiles and long-range weapons, South Korean officials have said.

At least 600 of those soldiers have died, according to South Korean estimates.

Zelensky has expressed a desire for peace negotiations to resume and accelerate this month with the involvement of both US and European officials.

French President Emmanuel Macron said European states and allies who are due to meet in Paris on 6 January “will make concrete commitments to protect Ukraine and ensure a just and lasting peace on our European continent”.

On Wednesday, Trump’s advisers held talks with Zelensky and national security advisers from the UK, France and Germany about ending the war in Ukraine.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff said they discussed “strengthening security guarantees and developing effective deconfliction mechanisms to help end the war and ensure it does not restart”.

But any deal will ultimately need Russian buy-in, which does not seem forthcoming – and which the alleged drone incident over Putin’s residence may have pushed further into the distance.

In separate statements issued by their foreign ministries late on Tuesday, the two West African countries said they were acting in the name of “reciprocity” after the White House announced on December 16 that US President Donald Trump was adding them and five other countries to a list of those subject to a full travel ban.

The White House said the expanded ban, set to take effect on January 1, applied to “countries with demonstrated, persistent, and severe deficiencies in screening, vetting, and information-sharing to protect the Nation from national security and public safety threats.”

Mali said on Tuesday that Washington’s decision to add it to the travel ban list had been taken without prior consultation and that the stated rationale was not justified by “actual developments on the ground.”

Mali and Burkina Faso are not the first countries to take such measures affecting US citizens after being targeted by Trump’s travel restrictions.

On December 25, neighboring Niger announced it would stop issuing visas to US citizens, the country’s state media agency reported, citing a Nigerien diplomatic source.

In June, Chad announced it was suspending visa issuance to US citizens after it was included on an earlier list of 12 countries affected by a travel ban.

1. The Night Manager

It has been nearly a decade since the dynamic adaptation of John le Carré’s 1993 novel became a huge critical and popular success.

At last, a second season continues the story of Jonathan Pine, the efficient hotel night manager who became an even more efficient spy.

But that first run took the story to the end of the novel, and le Carré died in 2020 – so its adapter David Farr had to start from scratch for this one.

Tom Hiddleston once again stars as Pine, whose looks, charm and quick wit enabled him to take down an arms dealer. He is now entrenched at MI6, working quietly in a London office, when he goes rogue and follows yet another arms dealer all the way to Colombia.

Olivia Colman returns in a supporting role as Angela Burr, who recruited Pine to the agency last time.

Among the new characters, Diego Calva plays Teddy Dos Santos, the season’s wily villain, Camila Morrone is his glamorous cohort and Hayley Squires is an MI6 agent working with Pine. Le Carré may be gone, but his novel’s DNA remains, and a third series has already been ordered.

The Night Manager premieres 1 January on BBC One in the UK and 11 January on Prime Video internationally

2. Run Away

The latest of many Netflix adaptations of Harlan Coben novels stars James Nesbitt as Simon, whose college-age daughter, Paige (Ellie de Lange), runs off. His search for her takes him to an underworld of drugs and, when Paige’s controlling boyfriend is murdered, into the kind of cloak-and-dagger mystery Coben is known for.

Minnie Driver plays Simon’s wife, Ingrid. Alfred Enoch is Detective Isaac Fagbenle. And Ruth Jones (co-creator and star of Gavin & Stacey) plays Elena, a private investigator who is also searching for Paige, although Simon didn’t ask her to.

They form a team with its own energy. “It’s a really lovely onscreen relationship because, well, spoiler alert, it’s not a romance,” Jones said at the series’ London premiere. “It’s refreshing to see that male-female friendship.”

Run Away premieres 1 January on Netflix internationally

3. The Pitt

On paper, The Pitt might have sounded like just another medical drama, but its first season proved to be one of the year’s best shows, full of realism, with lives lost and saved, as doctors, nurses, medical students and patients endlessly grappled with stress. The second season is once again built around Noah Wyle’s character, Dr Robby, whose PTSD is leading him to take a sabbatical.

The series’ setting isn’t called the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center for nothing. The new season – and its 15 episodes following a single working day in real time – takes place on his last shift before that break, and the show’s creators have added more peril by setting it on the Fourth of July.

Wyle tells EW that the holiday will bring “fireworks, alcohol-related accidents, bad judgments [and] celebrations gone awry” as patients stream into the hospital.

The new season is set 10 months after the last, which means that most of the previous cast are still around, including Katherine LaNasa as Nurse Dana Evans, Taylor Dearden as empathetic Dr Mel King, Fiona Dourif as Dr Cassie McKay and Patrick Ball as Dr Frank Langdon, just back from rehab.

The Pitt premieres 8 January on HBO Max in the US

4. His & Hers

Small-town murder investigations don’t get more closed-circle than this. Tessa Thompson plays Anna Andrews, a television anchor who leaves Atlanta to report on a killing in her hometown of Dahlonega, Georgia.

Jon Bernthal is Jack Harper, an investigator in Dahlonega’s sheriff’s department, who is tackling the murder case there after being forced out of a big city job. Each suspects the other of being the killer, and because they are married to each other (it is fiction) but estranged, each probably has a good instinct about what the other is capable of.

Or maybe suspecting an estranged spouse of murder is the ultimate revenge. William Oldroyd, director of the terrific 2016 film Lady Macbeth, with Florence Pugh – not based on Shakespeare, it’s another fraught story of marriage and murder – directed the first episode and is a writer on the show, based on the 2020 novel by Alice Feeney.

His & Hers premieres 8 January on Netflix internationally

5. Industry

This intense, compulsively watchable series dared to blow itself up at the end of last season. The ambitious, sexually voracious, ruthless young friends and rivals at the London investment bank Pierpoint scattered when the firm was taken over by another company, leaving the show to reconstruct itself in this fourth season.

Most of the familiar cast returns, including Marisa Abela as Yasmin, last seen getting engaged to the wealthy and wonderfully named Sir Henry Muck (Kit Harington). Her true love, Robert, played by Harry Lawtey, is the one main character not in the new season. Harper (Myha’la) sets out on a business venture of her own.

And Max Minghella joins the cast as a tech mogul, creator of a payment processing company called Tender (think PayPal if that helps). Kiernan Shipka plays his executive assistant and Kal Penn the company’s CEO.

The show’s creators, Mickey Down and Konrad Kay, have said that this season was influenced by “conspiracy and erotic thrillers”, which should ramp up the enjoyable tension even more.

Industry premieres 11 January on HBO and HBO Max in the US and January on BBC One in the UK

6. Hijack

If you happen to be on a hijacked anything – plane, train, whatever – just hope that Idris Elba is there too. In season two of this taut thriller, he returns as Sam Nelson, the business negotiator who talked and stormed his way into saving a hijacked plane full of passengers last time.

Now he is in Berlin, searching for the fugitive he holds responsible for that hijacking, when he steps onto an underground train with a bomb attached to it. There are plenty of twists and questions, as the German police and British security services suspect Sam himself is part of the plot.

New cast addition Toby Jones and a returning Archie Panjabi play British officials who have their own agenda. Elba is, as always, a charismatic hero, who is savvy enough to manipulate anyone with schemes that aren’t always obvious. “This is a game of poker,” Sam says. “You don’t have to have the best hand to win, you just have to have the best bluff.”

Hijack premieres 12 January on Apple TV internationally

7. Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials

Agatha Christie is always in fashion and her novels always seem to draw superb casts to their screen adaptations. This three-part series, based on The Seven Dials Mysteries, is set in 1925 at that most reliable and cinematic of murder-mystery settings, a large country house.

A prank gone wrong at a house party leads to death, and Lady Eileen Brent, known as Bundle, sets out to discover who did it. Mia McKenna-Bruce (who made her breakthrough in the 2023 film How to Have Sex) plays Bundle, whom James Prichard, Christie’s great-grandson and an executive producer of the series, has described as “one of my great-grandmother’s raft of interesting, humorous, and sharp young female characters”.

Helena Bonham Carter plays Lady Caterham and Martin Freeman is Superintendent Battle in the show, which was written by Chris Chibnall, the creator of a great, darker television mystery series, Broadchurch. “Someone in this room knows more than they are telling us,” one character says in the trailer to the gathered guests. Of course they do. That cosy familiarity is what makes Christie such fun.

Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials premieres 15 January on Netflix internationally

8. Ponies

Emilia Clarke (forever the Mother of Dragons on Game of Thrones) is Bea and Haley Lu Richardson (from The White Lotus’s Sicily season) is Twila in this mismatched-buddy spy thriller set in Moscow in 1977, a year that explains Twila’s giant mop of curly hair.  Bea is a reserved, educated Russian speaker, daughter of Soviet émigrés to the US, and Twila is a brash rebel from a working-class background.

Both are now living in the USSR because their husbands are undercover CIA operatives, but when the men are killed in a suspicious plane crash, Bea and Twila go undercover themselves to find out what happened.

They are Persons of No Interest, PONIs in spy-talk, whose low profiles as US embassy secretaries, a job they both hate, makes them the perfect underestimated people to infiltrate the KGB. Adrian Lester plays the CIA’s head of the Moscow station and their handler, who figures that together they might make one good agent. There is a dash of wit that comes from Bea and Twila’s contrasting personalities, but the espionage drama dominates as they tangle with some nasty Soviets.

Ponies premieres 15 January on Peacock in the US

9. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

This Game of Thrones prequel is set 100 years before the events of that series, and about a century after House of the Dragon, but don’t expect the same palace intrigue. Based on George RR Martin’s novellas Tales of Dunk and Egg, the show follows Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey), known as Dunk, and his squire, called Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell). Egg is, by contrast, extremely short, because he is still a child, and readers of the novellas will know that he has a secret connection to the Targaryens, who sit on the Iron Throne.

The series puts us in the point of view of Dunk, who has a relatively low status as a hedge knight, unattached to any household. Ira Parker, the series’ showrunner, has described him as “somebody who grew up in the slums of King’s Landing as an orphan”. And unlike the other GOT dramas, this one is quite short, with six half-hour episodes.

“It’s not the big, sprawling Game of Thrones that we’ve come to know and love,” Parker said. “This is close and this is intimate.” Still, there is a big jousting tournament as an action centrepiece, and some familiar names, with Bertie Carvel playing Baelor Targaryen, heir to the throne, and Daniel Ings as Ser Lyonel Baratheon.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms premieres 18 January on HBO and HBO Max in the US and 19 January on Sky Atlantic in the UK

10. The Beauty

He’s back. And so soon! Producer Ryan Murphy’s most recent series, the campy legal drama All’s Fair, dropped in November and was widely reviled by critics with descriptions such as “the worst TV drama ever”. It quickly became a hit. Here he is with another buzzy series, this time set in the high-fashion world, where a sexually-transmitted virus turns people into examples of physical beauty and perfection. Of course, there’s a deadly catch, reminiscent of last year’s film The Substance.

Evan Peters and Rebecca Hall play FBI agents looking into what nefarious plot might be behind it all. Ashton Kutcher is a villainous tech billionaire (is there any other kind on screen?), creator of a drug called The Beauty, and Anthony Ramos is his employee, known as The Assassin. Guest stars include Isabella Rossellini, Bella Hadid and Ben Platt.

Set in Paris, Venice, Rome and New York, the show is based on a graphic novel series by Jeremy Haun and Jason A Hurley, and considering how often Murphy’s over-the-top characters are deliberately cartoonish, that sounds about right.

The Beauty premieres 21 January on Hulu in the US and 22 January on Disney+ in the UK

11. Shrinking

With Harrison Ford as its droll standout, this sophisticated comedy has one of the best ensemble casts on television, along with the rare ability to be funny and touching while avoiding any sappiness. The plot has grown from its early focus on Jimmy (Jason Segel) and his unconventional psychiatric methods as he spirals after his wife’s death.  In this third season, Paul (Ford), Jimmy’s friend and mentor, deals with the increasing symptoms of Parkinson’s, while Jimmy seems ready to move into a relationship.

Jeff Daniels guest stars as Jimmy’s dad and Michael J Fox plays a Parkinson’s patient, a role tailored to his own well-known experience living with that condition. But it’s the regular cast that shines. Jessica Williams, Luke Tennie, Michael Urie, Christa Miller and Ted McGinley are more comfortable than ever as the friends and neighbours who are endlessly, comically, meddling in each other’s lives.

As Bill Lawrence, the show’s co-creator, told TV Insider: “This is a show about a tiny found family that built a nuclear safety bubble around themselves” – and that continues to evolve.

Shrinking premieres 28 January on Apple TV internationally

12. Bridgerton

Season four belongs to the second Bridgerton son, the licentious, artistically-minded  Benedict (Luke Thompson). According to the rules of his society (and of historical romances on TV) it is time for him to grow up and settle down. At a masked ball, he spies a young woman he calls The Lady in Silver, and is instantly taken with her. We soon know, and Netflix has revealed, what he doesn’t: Cinderella-style, she has made her way into the ball but is actually a lowly maid. How will he ever find her unless she loses a shoe? Yerin Ha plays the mysterious love interest, Sophie Baek. She works for another new character, the harsh Lady Araminta Gun (Katie Leung, Cho Chang in the Harry Potter films), who has two daughters to marry off. The regular cast returns, including (for at least a bit) Jonathan Bailey as Anthony Bridgerton, along with Claudia Jessie as the spirited Eloise and Nicola Coughlan as Penelope, now married to Colin Bridgerton and having admitted that she has been the gossiping Lady Whistledown all along. Half of the season premieres this month, and the remaining four episodes on 26 February.

Bridgerton premieres 29 January on Netflix internationally

Well-known international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) such as ActionAid, the International Rescue Committee and the Norwegian Refugee Council are among those that will have their licenses suspended on 1 January, with their operations to end within 60 days.

Israel said the groups, among other things, had failed to hand over “complete” personal details of their staff.

The move was heavily criticised by foreign ministers from 10 countries including the UK, who said the new rules were “restrictive” and “unacceptable”.

In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of the UK, France, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland said the forced closure of INGO operations would “have a severe impact on access to essential services including healthcare”.

They added that the humanitarian situation in Gaza remained “catastrophic” and called on Israel’s government to ensure INGOs were able to operate “in a sustained and predictable way”.

Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, which is in charge of registration applications, said the new measures would not impact the flow of humanitarian assistance to Gaza.

It added that aid continued to be delivered through “approved and vetted channels”, including UN agencies, bilateral partners, and humanitarian organisations.

It said the primary reason aid groups were having their licences revoked was “the refusal to provide complete and verifiable information regarding their employees,” which it said was critical to preventing “the infiltration of terrorist operatives into humanitarian structures”.

Earlier this month, UN-backed experts said there had been improvements in nutrition and food supplies in Gaza since a ceasefire was brokered between Israel and Hamas in October, but 100,000 people still experienced “catastrophic conditions” the following month.

Israeli military body Cogat, which controls Gaza’s crossings, said the organisations that will be suspended “did not bring aid into Gaza throughout the current ceasefire”.

It added that “even in the past their combined contribution amounted to only about 1% of the total aid volume”.

The Ministry of Diaspora Affairs said that fewer than 15% of organisations providing humanitarian assistance to Gaza were found to be in violation of the new regulatory framework.

That framework includes several grounds for rejection, including:

• Denying the existence of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state
• Denying the Holocaust or the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023
• Supporting an armed struggle against Israel by an enemy state or terrorist organisation
• Promoting “delegitimisation campaigns” against Israel
• Calling for a boycott of Israel or committing to participate in one
• Supporting the prosecution of Israeli security forces in foreign or international courts

The Humanitarian Country Team of the Occupied Palestinian Territory – a forum that brings together UN agencies and more than 200 local and international organisations – previously warned that the new registration system “fundamentally jeopardises” the operations of INGOs in Gaza and the West Bank.

“The system relies on vague, arbitrary, and highly politicised criteria and imposes requirements that humanitarian organisations cannot meet without violating international legal obligations or compromising core humanitarian principles,” it said.

It added: “While some INGOs have been registered under the new system, these INGOs represent only a fraction of the response in Gaza and are nowhere near the number required just to meet immediate and basic needs.”

According to the Humanitarian Country Team, INGOs currently run or support most of Gaza’s field hospitals and primary healthcare centres, emergency shelter responses, water and sanitation services, nutrition stabilisation centres for children with acute malnutrition, and critical mine action activities.

In a statement, Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, Amichai Chikli, said: “The message is clear: humanitarian assistance is welcome — the exploitation of humanitarian frameworks for terrorism is not.”

Other organisations to be suspended include CARE, Medico International and Medical Aid for Palestinians.

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Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed Kyiv had launched an attack overnight using 91 long-range unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on Putin’s state residence in Russia’s northwestern Novgorod region.

Russia said it would now review its position in peace negotiations. It is not yet clear where Putin was at the time of the alleged attack.

Zelensky dismissed the claim as “typical Russian lies”, intended to give the Kremlin an excuse to continue attacks on Ukraine.

He said that Russia had previously targeted government buildings in Kyiv.

Zelensky addedon X: “It is critical that the world doesn’t stay silent now. We cannot allow Russia to undermine the work on achieving a lasting peace.”

In a statement shared on Telegram on Monday, Lavrov said all of the 91 droneshe claimed were launched at Putin’s residence were intercepted and destroyed by Russian air defence systems.

He added that there were no reports of casualties or damage as a result of the attack.

“Given the final degeneration of the criminal Kyiv regime, which has switched to a policy of state terrorism, Russia’s negotiating position will be revised,” he said.

But he added that Russia did not intend to exit the negotiating process with the US, Russian news agency Tass reported.

The claim by Moscow comes after talks between the US and Ukraine in Florida on Sunday, where Presidents Trump and Zelensky discussed a revised peace plan to end the war.

Following the meeting, Zelensky told Fox News on Monday that there was a “possibility to finish this war” in 2026.

But he said Ukraine could not win the war without US support.

“My feelings of President Trump’s sanctions and economical steps, shows that he’s ready for very strong steps,” Zelensky said. “In this situation, the United States can move the situation to peace quicker.”

The Ukrainian president told Fox News there was no indication that Putin wanted peace and that he did not trust Putin.

“I don’t trust Putin and he doesn’t want success for Ukraine,” Zelensky added.

Zelensky said the US had offered Ukraine security guarantees for 15 years, and Trump said an agreement on this point was “close to 95%” done.

Ukraine’s leader described territorial issues and the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant as the last unresolved matters, and there was little sign of progress on the future of Ukraine’s contested Donbas region – which Russia wants to seize in full.

Moscow currently controls about 75% of the Donetsk region, and some 99% of the neighbouring Luhansk. The two regions are known collectively as Donbas.

Russia has previously rejected key parts of the plan under discussion.

The White House said on Monday that President Trump had “concluded a positive call” with Putin, following the US-Ukraine talks.

Yuri Ushakov, a Kremlin foreign policy aide, told reporters on Monday that during the call, Putin had pointed out the alleged attack on his residence happened “almost straight after what the US had considered to be a successful round of talks”.

Ushakov said: “The US president was shocked by this information, he was angry and said he couldn’t believe such mad actions. It was stated that this will no doubt affect the US approach to working with Zelensky”.

During a later press conference, Trump initially appeared to say he did not know about the alleged incident, but later told reporters that he was told about it by Putin and was “very angry” about it.

Asked if the US had seen any evidence supporting Russia’s claim, he responded: “Well we’ll find out. You’re saying maybe the attack didn’t take place – that’s possible too, I guess. But President Putin told me this morning it did”.

The Most Reverend Cherry Vann, who is also Bishop of Monmouth, became both the UK’s first female Archbishop as well as the first openly gay Archbishop in the world, in July.

Speaking ahead of delivering her first Christmas message as Archbishop, she said she had been hurt by attacks over her sexuality, but added those with different opinions should not be forbidden from expressing their views.

It follows the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (Gafcon) describing her appointment as “another painful nail in the coffin of Anglican orthodoxy”.

Speaking to BBC Wales, the Archbishop said: “There are still patches all over the place where people continue to struggle with women in leadership and I have to respect that.

“The Church in Wales is working hard to welcome LGBT+ people, but also I respect that there are people in the Church in Wales who find that really difficult.

“Some, sadly, have felt the need to leave and I take that very seriously”.
Archbishop Vann was elected by her fellow bishops with a two-thirds majority, following the retirement of her predecessor, Andrew John, in the summer.

He retired after issues with safeguarding, excessive drinking and church members overstepping sexual boundaries came to light at Bangor Cathedral.

Archbishop Vann said the vast majority of people had been supportive about her election, but added others had been “quite hostile”.

“It can be very hurtful”, she said.

“It’s hard to hear some of the things that people say, but I think it’s important that there is the space for them to say that.

“I don’t want people to feel shut down or silenced just because I hold a different view.

“But it does nevertheless hurt because it feels like an attack on who I am and who God has made me to be.

“We have to find a way as a Church to respect one another’s views and find a commonality in our faith in Christ, despite our differences”.

Archbishop Vann said that despite the widespread interest in her election because of her sex and gender, they were not the most important things to her.

“Other people find it fascinating”, she said.

“I had a lot of people contact me rejoicing at my election and saying how much hope and strength they get from the fact that there is now a woman in the role – and a civilly partnered woman at that.

“I’ve had the opposite as well. That’s just life”.

In her Christmas message, the Archbishop said she had chosen a passage from the Gospel of John about finding light in the darkness, a popular choice at carol services.

“It’s really about how the coming of Jesus into the world is the light in the darkness – and there’s plenty of darkness around in the world at the moment”, she said.

“Our message as Christians is that Jesus comes into all that difficulty and despair and brings the light of hope and love and joy, because of who he is”.

After a turbulent year for the Church in Wales, Archbishop Vann said she was very conscious of her responsibility to fix the issues that led to her predecessor’s departure.

Asked whether her time as Archbishop should be judged against her ability to change the culture within the Church, she said it presented a significant challenge.

“I think there is a big cultural issue in the Church”, she said.

“Anybody who has tried to change the culture in an organisation will tell you it takes a long time.

“This is a big thing and I guess that there will still be work to do when I retire.

“(We need) to take a greater care for those who have been damaged by the Church, of which sadly there are many.

“But I am hopeful that we are already making changes.

“There are many people who are determined to make a difference and ensure that the Church is a place where, when things go wrong, they are dealt with properly”.

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Mario Rodriguez, a model who landed a minor role in Perry’s 2016 movie Boo! A Madea Halloween alleges in a new lawsuit that Perry sexually assaulted him and made unwanted sexual advances while promising him roles. Rodriguez is seeking $77 million in damages.

Rodriguez is being represented by attorney Jonathan J. Delshad, who also represented Derek Dixon, another actor who made similar allegations against Perry, 56, earlier this year.

Alex Spiro, an attorney for Perry, says in a statement on December 26, “Having recently failed in another matter against Mr. Perry, the very same lawyer has now made yet another demand from more than a decade ago, which will also be a failed money grab.” However, Delshad says Dixon’s claims “are alive and well, and none of them have failed; they were just moved to a different court,” as the case is relocated from California to Georgia.

In the lawsuit obtained by PEOPLE, Rodriguez claims that in 2015 he was approached by a trainer while at a Los Angeles gym who said Perry wanted to meet him. Rodriguez said Perry soon spoke to him over the phone and offered him a small role in the Madea Halloween film. He went on to play “Frat Guy #10” in the movie.

The complaint alleges multiple instances when Perry would invite Rodriguez over to his home under the guise of discussing future work projects, only to make sexual advances while drinking. In November 2018, Perry allegedly “grabbed [Rodriguez’s] penis,” and Rodriguez repeatedly told Mr. Perry to stop, and Rodriguez had to “physically struggle to get away.”

Perry allegedly would tell Rodriguez to “let it happen” and “If you were to just be with me, I would take care of you….” Rodriguez’s lawsuit claims that after two incidents, Perry allegedly apologized, handed him $5,000, and sent him away.”

At a final alleged encounter in April 2019, “More than ever before, it was clear that Mr. Perry would do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, to whomever he wanted, no matter how many times he was rejected.”

The lawsuit claims Perry would “randomly reach out to” Rodriguez through 2024, and “when Perry became aware that Rodriguez was going to file this action, Perry once again reached out to Rodriguez by text,” telling him he “did so much to help Rodriguez” and he “was feeling betrayed.”

In a Dec. 13 Instagram video, Rodriguez spoke about feeling “scared and ashamed,” explaining why he hadn’t previously come forward, though he did not mention Perry by name in the post, just a “powerful director “that everybody knows.”

“I stayed quiet for much too long. And I just want to say I’m really sorry, man. Because if I had spoken up sooner, I could’ve saved somebody that this probably happened to after me,” he says at one point to his nearly 1 million followers in the clip. “I just want to say sorry for that, whoever that may be. It could’ve stopped with me if I had said something… But I’m speaking up now.”

Dixon, who starred on Perry’s TV series The Oval, filed a $260 million lawsuit against Perry in June, alleging sexual harassment, assault, and retaliation, which the filmmaker denies.

In September, one of Perry’s lawyers, Matthew Boyd, claimed Dixon is “an individual who got close to Tyler Perry for what now appears to be nothing more than setting up a scam.” He added at the time, “Tyler will not be shaken down, and we are confident these fabricated claims of harassment will fail.”

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The military government is holding a phased ballot nearly five years after it seized power in a coup, which sparked widespread opposition and spiralled into a civil war.

Observers say the junta, with China’s support, is seeking to legitimise and entrench its power as it seeks a way out of the devastating stalemate.

More than 200 people have been charged for disrupting or opposing the polls under a new law which carries severe punishments, including the death penalty.

Polling began on Sunday after reports of explosions in at least two regions of Myanmar.

Three people were taken to hospital following a rocket attack on an uninhabited house in the Mandalay region in the early hours of Sunday, the chief minister of the region confirmed to the BBC. One of those people is in a serious condition.

Separately, more than ten houses were damaged in the Myawaddy township, near the border with Thailand, following a series of explosions late on Saturday.

A local resident told the BBC that a child was killed in the attack, and three people were taken to hospital in an emergency condition.

Voters have told the BBC that the election feels more “disciplined and systematic” than those previously.

“The experience of voting has changed a lot,” said Ma Su ZarChi, who lives in the Mandalay region.

“Before I voted, I was afraid. Now that I have voted, I feel relieved. I cast my ballot as someone who has tried their best for the country.”

First-time voter Ei Pyay Phyo Maung, 22, told the BBC she was casting her ballot because she believed that voting is “the responsibility of every citizen”.

“My hope is for the lower classes – right now, the prices of goods are skyrocketing, and I want to support someone who can bring them down for those struggling the most,” she said.

“I want a president who provides equally for all people.”

The Burmese junta has rejected criticism of the polls, maintaining that it aims to “return [the country] to a multi-party democratic system”.

After casting his vote at a highly fortified polling station in the capital, junta chief Min Aung Hlaing told the BBC that the election would be free and fair.

“I am the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, a civil servant. I can’t just say that I want to be president,” he said, stressing that there are three phases of the election.

Earlier this week, he warned that those who refuse to vote are rejecting “progress toward democracy”.

Film director Mike Tee, actor Kyaw Win Htut and comedian Ohn Daing were among the prominent figures convicted under the law against disrupting polls, which was enacted in July.

They were each handed a seven-year jail term after criticising a film promoting the elections, state media reported.

“There are no conditions for the exercise of the rights of freedom of expression, association or peaceful assembly,” the United Nations’ top human rights official, Volker Türk, said.

Civilians are “being coerced from all sides”, Mr Türk said in a statement on Tuesday, noting that armed rebel groups have issued their own threats asking people to boycott the polls.

The military has been fighting on several fronts, against both armed resistance groups who oppose the coup, as well as ethnic armies which have their own militias. It lost control of large parts of the country in a series of major setbacks, but clawed back territory this year following relentless airstrikes enabled by support from China and Russia.

The civil war has killed thousands of people, displaced millions more, destroyed the economy and left a humanitarian vacuum. A devastating earthquake in March and international funding cuts have made the situation far worse.

All of this and the fact that large parts of the country are still under opposition control presents a huge logistical challenge for holding an election.

Voting is set to take place in three phases over the next month in 265 of the country’s 330 townships, with the rest deemed too unstable. Results are expected around the end of January.

There is not expected to be any voting in as much as one half of the country. Even in the townships that are voting, not all constituencies will go to the polls, making it difficult to forecast a possible turnout.

Six parties, including the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, are fielding candidates nationwide, while another 51 parties and independent candidates will contest only at the state or regional levels.

Some 40 parties, including Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League of Democracy, which scored landslide victories in 2015 and 2020, have been banned. Suu Kyi and many of the party’s key leaders have been jailed under charges widely condemned as politically motivated, while others are in exile.

“By splitting the vote into phases, the authorities can adjust tactics if the results in the first phase do not go their way,” Htin Kyaw Aye, a spokesman of the election-monitoring group Spring Sprouts told the Myanmar Now news agency.

Ral Uk Thang, a resident in the western Chin state, believes civilians “don’t want the election”.

“The military does not know how to govern our country. They only work for the benefit of their high-ranking leaders.

“When Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s party was in power, we experienced a bit of democracy. But now all we do is cry and shed tears,” the 80-year-old told the BBC.

Western governments, including the United Kingdom and the European Parliament, have dismissed the vote as a sham, while regional bloc Asean has called for political dialogue to precede any election.

Ministers say the DRC has not made the changes required under the toughening up of the UK’s asylum rules announced in November.

Fast-track visa processes will no longer apply to people from the country, while the Home Office said VIPs and politicians would no longer get preferential treatment when coming to the UK.

Meanwhile, the Home Office said Angola and Namibia had agreed to step up efforts to repatriate their citizens, after being threatened with sanctions alongside the DRC.

A government source said Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood would not hesitate to ban visas for other countries refusing to take citizens back.

The Home Office said Angola and Namibia agreeing to improve their processes marked the “first delivery success from last month’s asylum reforms”.

The government had warned it would stop granting visas to people from Angola, Namibia and the Democratic Republic of Congo if their governments did not rapidly improve co-operation on removals.

A Home Office source said the agreements could see thousands of people removed and deported.

Under the government’s changes to the UK’s asylum system, refugee status will become temporary, guaranteed housing support for asylum seekers will end and new capped “safe and legal routes” into the UK will be created.

Announcing the changes last month, Mahmood had warned visa penalties would be applied to countries that failed to co-operate with the returns policies, including an “emergency brake” on visas for countries with high asylum claims until they take back citizens in the UK illegally.

The Home Office had said that returns from the DRC, Angola and Namibia were being frustrated – with paperwork not being processed or people being required to sign their own documents – giving them an effective veto.

It had warned that the three countries faced penalties for their “unacceptably poor and obstructive returns processes”.

It said there had been some engagement by the DRC but “unless co-operation rapidly improves” further measures could be imposed, including the possibility of a complete visa ban on people from the country coming to the UK.

Home Secretary Mahmood said: “We expect countries to play by the rules. If one of their citizens has no right to be here, they must take them back.

“I thank Angola and Namibia and welcome their co-operation. Now is the time for the Democratic Republic of Congo to do the right thing. Take your citizens back or lose the privilege of entering our country.”

Zelensky made the comments en route to Florida, where he will meet US President Donald Trump on Sunday to discuss a new 20-point peace plan agreed by American and Ukrainian envoys.

The 10-hour missile and drone barrage directed at Ukraine’s capital killed two people and left 32 injured, local authorities said.

Damage to energy infrastructure left 40% of residential buildings in Kyiv and nearby districts without heating, according to Ukraine’s minister for development, Oleksiy Kuleba.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence said long-range precision weapons were used to target energy facilities, which it claimed were being used “in the interests of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and enterprises of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex”.

Writing on Telegram, Zelensky said that Russia directed almost 500 drones and 40 missiles towards Kyiv, targeting energy and civilian infrastructure.

Pictures showed gaping holes in apartment buildings and homes on fire following the strikes.

The apartment block of BBC journalist Anastasiya Gribanova was struck, leaving some homes on the higher levels of the high-rise building in flames. Gribanova, who was in the building’s elevator at the time, was unharmed.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said that 68 people were evacuated from a retirement home in the eastern Darnytskyi district.

“Russian representatives are having long conversations, but in reality the Daggers [missiles] and Shaheds [drones] are speaking for them,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin does not want to end the war.

“This sick activity can only be responded to with really strong steps. America has this opportunity, Europe has this opportunity, many of our partners have this opportunity,” he wrote, urging allies to show strength against Russian aggression.

The attack saw Poland, which shares a 530km-long (320 miles) border with western Ukraine, ready its fighter jets, ground-based air defence systems and radar reconnaissance.

Later on Saturday morning, it concluded that there had been no violation of the country’s airspace.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said its air defence systems had intercepted and destroyed almost 200 Ukrainian drones over several Russian regions, including eight over Moscow.

Zelensky briefly met with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney on Saturday, ahead of his Florida meeting with Trump.

Speaking in Nova Scotia, Zelensky said the latest bombardment of Kyiv was “Russia’s answer [to] our peace efforts and this really shows that Putin doesn’t want peace”.

Carney pledged $2.5bn CAD (£1.35bn) in economic assistance to Ukraine, but agreed that “lasting peace” would require “a willing Russia”.

Zelensky then took a call with European leaders to discuss diplomatic “priorities” ahead of his meeting with Trump, adding that “strong positions are needed” to move forward with the plan.

Security guarantees and territorial concessions for Ukraine are likely to return to the table, issues on which Russia has previously been unwilling to compromise.

Also on Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited a command and control centre overseeing Moscow’s war, according to the Russian news agency TASS.

Wearing army fatigues, Putin said if Kyiv did not want to resolve the conflict peacefully, Russia would accomplish its objectives militarily, according to comments in state media.

The new 20-point draft is a revised version of an earlier 28-point plan, which was drafted by US special envoy Steve Witkoff, but widely seen as being too favourable to Russia.

The Ukrainian president has voiced optimism around the new draft, describing it as “a foundational document on ending the war”, but Trump warned that Zelensky “doesn’t have anything until I approve it” in an interview with Politico.

The draft reportedly includes security guarantees from the US, NATO, and European allies for a coordinated military response if Russia were to invade Ukraine again.

Control of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas has been a sticking point in talks so far, but now Zelensky has said a “free economic zone” could be an option.

Trump told Politico he expected to see the new draft on Sunday.

“I think it’s going to go good with him. I think it’s going to go good with [Vladimir] Putin,” Trump said in the interview, adding that he expects to speak with Russia’s president “soon”.

The incident was caused by a crash between two trucks, sparking a chain reaction that set at least 10 vehicles on fire, local police said.

A 77-year-old woman from Tokyo was killed, and another body was discovered in the driver’s seat of a burnt-out truck. Five people were seriously injured and 21 suffered minor injuries, police said.

There was a heavy snow warning in place at the time of the crash. Police believe icy road surfaces likely caused the trucks to skid.

The crash happened on the Kan-etsu Expressway in Minakami, Gunma prefecture, about 160km (100 miles) north-west of Tokyo, at about 19:30 local time (10:30 GMT) on 26 December.

It took about 7.5 hours to put out the fire, police said.

Following the incident, a section of the highway was closed, with a long line of vehicles, many charred beyond recognition, stuck in the outbound lane. Work is under way to tow them away.

A man in his 60s, whose vehicle was involved in the accident, told local media outlet NHK he heard a loud explosion from the far end of the pile-up and saw fire during the crash. The blaze then spread to other vehicles, he said.

He said he was evacuated to a nearby toll gate with about 50 other people and spent the night in the hallway there.

Nexco, which operates the road, said checks were needed to see if the surface was damaged by the fire.

The company is warning travellers not to use the highway.

Adverts for gym and diet plans pop up in your socials and back-to-work chat turns to what everyone is cutting out, taking up or finally getting right in January.

Yet most New Year’s resolutions don’t last. Many of us will have abandoned our goals by mid-January.

But this year can be different. We’ve asked some experts for their tips on how to make – and keep – your New Year’s resolutions.

1. Be realistic

Will 2026 be the year you’ll “lose weight”, “change career” or “move house”?

Beware – these are not actionable plans, they’re pressure statements, warns Dr Claire Kaye, a former GP and confidence coach.

Resolutions often fail because they are unclear, unrealistic and too broad, she says.

She advises writing down what’s working in your life, what’s draining you or no longer fits, and where are you running on autopilot.

“When you understand what you want more of, not just what you want to escape, change becomes far more sustainable,” she says.

Write down your goals focusing on “direction and experience rather than a fixed point”.

She suggests “Lose weight” can be reframed as: “I want to feel more energised and comfortable in my body, and understand what helps me feel that way.”

Instead of “change career”, it could be: “I want to explore what work gives me energy and meaning, and identify one small step towards more of that.”

2. Don’t use these two words

Another thing to avoid when writing down your goals is fixed language like “always” or “never”, says psychologist Kimberley Wilson.

It creates an all-or-nothing approach that is extremely hard to stick to.

Promising yourself “I’ll always go for a run on a Wednesday” or “I’m never drinking again” just sets you up for a fall.

“A classic example is around diet or exercise and people think that if they mess up one day then the whole thing is pointless,” she tells BBC’s What’s Up Doc podcast.

She says people can develop tunnel vision, judging a single choice in isolation, when what’s needed is a wider perspective that puts one moment into the context of many.

Dr Kaye says goals should be written with flexible phrasing such as “I want to experiment with”, “I want to create more space for” or “I’m learning what works for me when”.

3. Plan for relapse

You’ve been so good for weeks then one missed run, one takeaway, one late night and suddenly your winning streak is over and you feel defeated.

The reason why some resolutions fail is because “people make plans for their best selves”, says Wilson.

“They are not prepared for being up late or having a hard day at work and at that point they don’t have a plan to put into practice,” she says.

Wilson says it’s important to accept relapse as part of the process – it doesn’t mean you’ve failed as persistence matters more than perfection.

Dr Kaye says it’s important to remember “the goal isn’t to be perfect, it’s to avoid turning one moment into a full abandonment of the plan”.

If you slip up, “the most helpful response is curiosity rather than criticism” and instead of waiting for the following week or next month to start again, you should treat every day as a reset.

4. Stack your habits

One way to help your New Year’s resolutions succeed is a technique known as “habit stacking” where you link a new behaviour to something that is already part of your daily routine, says career coach Emma Jefferys.

“So for example, after I brush my teeth, I’ll do ten push-ups. After I pour my wine, I’ll write for ten minutes. After I put my kids to bed, I’ll stretch,” she says.

“You’re not adding more to your plate, you’re weaving the new behaviour into the architecture of what you already do.”

Rather than relying on motivation alone, Jefferys says curating your environment for success can also make a big difference.

“So, if you want to read more, then keep the book on your pillow so you have to move it before bed,” she says.

5. Make it positive

If your New Year’s resolution is to save more or budget better, experts say it’s more likely to stick if it’s tied to something positive.

Tom Francis, head of personal finance at Octopus Money, says “having a clear and exciting goal whether that’s a holiday or an emergency fund makes saving feel purposeful rather than restrictive”.

He also says it’s important to not try and change too much as that’s rarely sustainable.

“Pick just two or three clear priorities – for example, saving £1,200 towards a dream holiday might feel overwhelming, but £100 a month feels achievable,” he says.

If you have an unexpected expense it’s ok to slow down, he says.

“Reducing a monthly saving from £100 to £20 for example would still mean you are moving forward and what matters most is keeping the habit alive.”

In a court filing for an expedited appeal, the rap mogul’s attorney argued that he was improperly sentenced, and that the conduct that resulted in his conviction was not criminal in nature.

Attorney Alexandra Shapiro called Combs’ 50-month prison sentence “unlawful, unconstitutional, and a perversion of justice”.

She asked an appeals court to order that Combs be resentenced, should the panel choose not to throw out his conviction in its entirety.

The request is the latest attempt by his team to reduce his sentence or throw out his conviction.

The Southern District of New York, which prosecuted Combs, declined to comment on the request to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

Combs’ lawyers had previously said they would appeal his sentence and conviction.

Federal prosecutors in New York accused Combs of using his money, power, and the threat of violence to coerce women into unwanted sexual encounters.

During a high-profile trial this spring, the jury heard from two of Combs’ ex-girlfriends, Cassie Ventura and a woman who testified as “Jane Doe”. They said Combs abused them and forced them to participate in so-called “freak-offs” with male escorts.

The jury found Combs not guilty of the two most serious charges: racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking. They convicted him of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.

In September, after his conviction, Combs asked Judge Arun Subramanian to consider an acquittal or new trial, citing objections over the way an anti-prostitution statute known as the Mann Act was used to prosecute Combs. That bid was not successful.

Ahead of his sentencing, Combs’ attorneys argued he should receive a brief sentence that would essentially amount to time served, a request that would have paved the way for a swift release. Prosecutors, however, asked the judge to send Combs to prison for at least 11 years.

US District Judge Arun Subramanian ultimately sentenced Combs to more than four years in prison. He said he considered Combs’ contributions to society and testimonials from family and friends, but “a history of good works can’t wash away your record”.

Combs’ appeal argues that Judge Subramanian did not properly follow sentencing guidelines when sending him to 50-months in prison.

It argues the judge “flouted” new guidelines and improperly considered conduct for which Combs had been acquitted when formulating his punishment. The filing argues the judge “acted as a thirteenth juror” in the case and calls the sentence “draconian”.

Before Judge Subramanian issued his sentence, Combs apologized to Ms Ventura and “Jane.”

“My actions were disgusting, shameful, and sick,” Combs said. “I got lost in excess, I got lost in my ego.”

Combs is also facing dozens of pending civil lawsuits, which accuse him of sexual assault, rape and sexual exploitation.

Many of the lawsuits allege that the rapper used his fame and power to silence accusers through threats. Some detail allegations that the rapper – or those who worked for him – drugged people at parties before alleged assaults.

Representatives for Mr Combs have repeatedly said he “never sexually assaulted or trafficked anyone – man or woman, adult or minor”.

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He called for an end to conflicts around the world during his Urbi et Orbi address, which the pontiff traditionally delivers on Christmas Day to worshippers gathered in Vatican City.

Speaking about Ukraine, the Pope said: “May the clamour of weapons cease, and may the parties involved, with the support and commitment of the international community, find the courage to engage in sincere, direct and respectful dialogue.”

His plea comes as US-led negotiations on a deal to end the fighting continue.

The US has sought to put together an agreement acceptable to both sides, but direct talks between Russia and Ukraine have not taken place during this latest round of diplomatic efforts.

Pope Leo also decried turmoil and conflict plaguing other parts of the world, including Thailand and Cambodia, where deadly border clashes have flared up despite a ceasefire in July.

He asked that the South East Asian nations’ “ancient friendship” be restored and “to work towards reconciliation and peace”.

During an earlier Christmas Day sermon in St Peter’s Basilica, Pope Leo lamented the conditions of homeless people worldwide and the damage caused by conflicts.

“Fragile is the flesh of defenceless populations, tried by so many wars, ongoing or concluded, leaving behind rubble and open wounds,” he said.

He said the story of Jesus’ birth showed that God had “pitched his fragile tent” among the people of the world. “How, then,” he asked, turning his attention to the conditions of Palestinians, “can we not think of the tents in Gaza, exposed for weeks to rain, wind and cold?”

Gaza has been devastated by Israeli bombardment in a two-year war, triggered by Hamas’s attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.

Winter storms have compounded the plight of the territory’s 2.1m population, nearly all of whom have been displaced and whose homes have been damaged or destroyed.

Aid agencies have called for Israel to allow more tents and urgently needed supplies into Gaza.

COGAT, the Israeli military body which controls Gaza’s border crossings, has dismissed claims of deliberate aid restrictions, saying almost 310,000 tents and tarpaulins had been delivered since the start of the ceasefire in October.

“Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!” the president wrote on Truth Social.

“I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was,” he went on. “The Department of War executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing.”

“Under my leadership, our Country will not allow Radical Islamic Terrorism to prosper. May God Bless our Military, and MERRY CHRISTMAS to all, including the dead Terrorists, of which there will be many more if their slaughter of Christians continues,” the president concluded.

CNN said it has reached out to the White House for additional comment.

Trump has focused for the last several months on the plight of Christians in Nigeria, including calling in November on his secretary of defence to “prepare for possible action” and warning the US would enter Nigeria “guns-a-blazing” to protect the Christian population of Africa’s most populous country.

In October 2025, the European Union began rolling out its Entry/Exit System (EES). This new digital border-management tool records biometric data and the entry and exit dates of non-EU nationals travelling in and out of the Schengen area.

Once fully implemented in April 2026, the system will replace manual passport stamping with digital screening, making the process more efficient and secure – and marking a significant shift in how some travellers cross European borders.

The change is part of a broader global trend. Countries like Australia, Japan and Canada already use biometric data at border crossings, while the United States has announced plans to expand similar systems.

As digital processing becomes the norm, it could quietly spell the end to a time-honoured travel ritual: collecting passport stamps.

“Versions of passport stamps go all the way back to the Middle Ages or Renaissance,” said Patrick Bixby, a professor at Arizona State University and author of License to Travel: A Cultural History of the Passport. “[A wax seal] would be put on letters of conduct by sovereigns in Europe. That’s kind of the beginning, at least as far as I’m concerned.”

While travel documents – and stamps of some kind – have existed for centuries, it wasn’t until the early 20th Century that modern passports began to take shape.

After World War One, the League of Nations helped formalise passport standards as borders became more tightly regulated.

By the 1950s, the more modern tradition of receiving passport stamps had become markers of mobility and status as the world entered the “golden age” of travel, when flights became more accessible to the general public.

“[It was] really only after World War Two and the resumption of international travel [that] the stamps begin to take on the kind of sentimental value that they have now,” said Bixby.

With the possibility of stamps disappearing, reactions among travellers are mixed.

“I’ll genuinely miss passport stamps,” says Hristina Nabosnyi, who lives in London. “For me, they’ve always been more than just proof of entry – they’re little memory markers of places visited and countries I travelled to.”

New York-based writer Elle Bulado agrees. “Losing passport stamps feels bittersweet. Although I recognise the need for quicker and more effective processes, receiving a stamp has always felt like a little acknowledgement,” she said. “It’s evidence that you crossed a border and arrived somewhere you could only dream of. I will miss that custom if stamps vanish.”

Others are more pragmatic. Jorge Salas-Guevara, president and founder the tour company New Paths Expeditions, is excited about how much time the new digitised process could save. “I spend about 250 to 300 days a year on the road, crossing borders constantly, so for people like me this change is a relief.”

Though some travellers will miss the nostalgia of collecting passport stamps, many have plans to mark their travels in other ways instead, such as collecting fridge magnets or other souvenirs.

Still, for Bixby, there will always be something special about having a tangible record of your travels. “This is [really] a bigger question about analogue versus digital,” he said. “There’s something about having [a document] that was with you when you were there. [It creates] a kind of aura around the physical object that dissipates when everything becomes digitised.”

Speaking on Friday via his X handle, Moore said the strikes, conducted in coordination with the Nigerian government, marked “just the first step to ending the slaughter of Christians and the security crisis affecting all Nigerians.”

“President Trump has been clear that the killing of Christians in Nigeria must end.

“As I stated at the outset: Do not test President Trump‘s resolve in this matter,” the congressman added.

The comments came after reports that US forces, under President Donald Trump’s direction, carried out airstrikes against ISIS-linked terrorist elements in North West Nigeria. In a separate post, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Washington acted with Nigeria’s cooperation.

“The President was clear last month: the killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria (and elsewhere) must end. The Department of War is always ready…Grateful for Nigerian government support & cooperation,” Hegseth wrote.

The Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the strikes were part of structured security cooperation with international partners to combat terrorism and violent extremism.

Moore recently concluded a fact-finding mission in Nigeria to investigate alleged attacks on Christian communities, describing the experience as deeply disturbing.

Leading a five-member congressional delegation, he visited IDPs, survivors of terrorist attacks, Christian leaders, and traditional rulers in Benue State.

The team also met with the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, and the Attorney General, Lateef Fagbemi.

Speaking on Fox News, Moore recounted harrowing cases, including a woman who lost five children while pregnant, and another who lost her husband, two daughters, and her unborn child, describing the violence as deliberate targeting of Christians.

“This is one of the most dangerous states in Nigeria. They are trying to erase Christians in Benue and across Nigeria from their ancestral homeland,” Moore said.

He confirmed that President Trump tasked him and House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole to submit a report with recommendations by the end of the month, following Nigeria’s designation as a “Country of Particular Concern” over alleged Christian killings.

Police launched a manhunt for the 12 unidentified gunmen who had opened fire at patrons at around 01:00 local time (23:00 GMT Saturday) in the Bekkersdal establishment, near Johannesburg.

On Wednesday, provincial deputy commissioner of police, Major General Fred Kekana, said nine of the arrested suspects are Lesotho nationals, while one is from Mozambique.

Another suspect, believed to be a South African mineworker, was also detained.

Murders in South Africa – which has one of the highest rates in the world – are often the result of arguments, robberies and gang violence.

While the attack appeared “unprovoked” at the time, preliminary investigations now appear to suggest a motive linked to illegal mining turf wars.

During the attack, gunmen continued to shoot as people fled the tavern, killing two as well as a taxi driver who had dropped off a passenger nearby.

Upon making the arrests, several unlicensed firearms including an AK-47 rifle, were found in the suspects’ possession.

There are about 3m legally held firearms in South Africa and at least the same number of unlicensed weapons, according to statistics cited by Gideon Joubert from the South African Gunowners’ Association,

Although 2025 has seen a decline in reported mass shootings, there has been a significant increase in incidents where four or more people are either killed or injured since 2020, Claire Taylor, a researcher at campaign group Gun Free South Africa, told the BBC.

Among the most common locations for these attacks are licensed taverns or illegal drinking spots, known locally as shebeens.

Sunday’s shooting occurred just two weeks after another attack at the Saulsville Hostel in the capital Pretoria, where eleven people including a three-year-old child were killed.

Nahum Daso told local media that another 35 people were injured in the blast in the Gamboru market of Maiduguri, the state capital, during evening prayers.

Unverified footage on social media appears to show the aftermath of the explosion, with people standing in a market area with dust particles in the air.

No group has admitted carrying out the attack, but militants have previously targeted mosques and crowded places in the area with suicide attacks and improvised explosive devices (IED).

Maiduguri has been central to an insurgency by the militant Islamist group Boko Haram and its offshoot, Islamic State West Africa Province.

Military operations by Boko Haram to create an Islamic caliphate in Borno state began in 2009.

Security measures against the group have failed to prevent sporadic attacks against civilians in north-east Nigeria.

Spot gold rose 0.1% to $4,492.51 per ounce by 0359 GMT, after touching a record high of $4,525.19 earlier in the session. U.S. gold futures for February delivery climbed 0.3% to a record high of $4,520.60.

Silver gained 1.2% to $72.27 an ounce, after hitting an all-time peak of $72.70 earlier, while platinum jumped 3.3% to $2,351.05 after rising to a historic high of $2,377.50.

Palladium climbed almost 2% to $1,897.11, its highest level in three years.

“Precious metals have become more of a speculative narrative around the idea that, with de-globalisation, you need an asset that can act as a neutral go-between, without sovereign risk, particularly as tensions between the U.S. and China persist,” said Ilya Spivak, head of global macro at Tastylive.

Thin year-end liquidity exaggerated recent price moves, but the broader theme was likely to endure, with gold targeting $5,000 over the next six to twelve months and silver potentially pushing toward $80 as markets respond to key psychological levels, Spivak added.

Gold has surged more than 70% this year, its biggest annual gain since 1979, driven by safe-haven demand, expectations of U.S. rate cuts, robust central-bank buying, de-dollarisation trends and ETF inflows, with traders pricing in two rate cuts next year.

Silver has jumped more than 150% over the same period, outpacing gold on strong investment demand, its inclusion on the U.S. critical minerals list and momentum buying.

Gold and silver have “been hitting the accelerator pedal this week” with fresh record highs, reflecting their appeal as stores of value amid expectations of lower U.S. rates and lingering global debt, said Tim Waterer, chief market analyst at KCM Trade.

Platinum and palladium, primarily used in automotive catalytic converters to reduce emissions, have surged this year on tight mine supply, tariff uncertainty, and a rotation from gold investment demand, with platinum up about 160% and palladium gaining more than 100% year to date.

“What we’re seeing in platinum and palladium is largely catch-up,” Spivak said, adding that the thin nature of those markets leaves them vulnerable to sharp swings, even as they broadly track gold, once liquidity returns.

Two traffic police officers saw a “suspicious individual” near a police car on the city’s Yeletskaya Street, and when they approached the suspect to detain him, an explosive device was detonated, Russia’s Investigative Committee has said.

The two police officers died from their injuries, along with another individual who was standing nearby.

The blast took place close to the location where a senior Russian general was killed in a car bombing in the capital on Monday.

Lt Gen Fanil Sarvarov died after an explosive device – which had been planted under a car – was detonated.

“These radical activists and weaponised NGOs have advanced censorship crackdowns by foreign states – in each case targeting American speakers and American companies,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.

Thierry Breton, the former top tech regulator at the European Commission, suggested that a “witch hunt” was taking place.

The State Department described Breton as the “mastermind” of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which imposes content moderation on social media firms.

However, it has angered some US conservatives who see it as seeking to censor right-wing opinions. Brussels denies this.

Breton has clashed with Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and owner of X, over obligations to follow EU rules.

The European Commission recently fined X €120m (£105m) over its blue tick badges – the first fine under the DSA. It said the platform’s blue tick system was “deceptive” because the firm was not “meaningfully verifying users”.

In response, Musk’s site blocked the Commission from making adverts on its platform.

Reacting to the visa ban, Breton posted on X: “To our American friends: Censorship isn’t where you think it is.”

Clare Melford, who leads the UK-based Global Disinformation Index (GDI), was also listed.

US Undersecretary of State Sarah B Rogers accused the GDI of using US taxpayer money “to exhort censorship and blacklisting of American speech and press”.

A GDI spokesperson told the BBC that “the visa sanctions announced today are an authoritarian attack on free speech and an egregious act of government censorship”.

“The Trump Administration is, once again, using the full weight of the federal government to intimidate, censor, and silence voices they disagree with. Their actions today are immoral, unlawful, and un-American.”

Imran Ahmed of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a nonprofit that fights online hate and misinformation, was also handed a ban.

Rogers called Mr Ahmed a “key collaborator with the Biden Administration’s effort to weaponize the government against US citizens”.

The BBC has reached out to the CCDH for comment.

Also subject to bans were Anna-Lena von Hodenberg and Josephine Ballon of HateAid, a German organisation that the State Department said helped enforce the DSA.

In a statement to the BBC, the two CEOs called it an “act of repression by a government that is increasingly disregarding the rule of law and trying to silence its critics by any means necessary”.

“We will not be intimidated by a government that uses accusations of censorship to silence those who stand up for human rights and freedom of expression,” they added.

Rubio said that steps had been taken to impose visa restrictions on “agents of the global censorship-industrial complex who, as a result, will be generally barred from entering the United States”.

“President Trump has been clear that his America First foreign policy rejects violations of American sovereignty. Extraterritorial overreach by foreign censors targeting American speech is no exception,” he added.

Sophie Hunt, 34, from Northampton, had multi-organ failure and died after she went into cardiac arrest three times on 9 March 2022, two days after having a Brazilian butt-lift (BBL) and a tummy tuck.

Her family told the inquest into her death at Northampton Coroner’s Court that they were concerned she had not been fit for the surgery, which took place at the private Nisantasi Hospital in Istanbul.

“If she hadn’t had the surgery, she would be alive still,” her sister Aimee Hunt told the BBC.

“They still haven’t stated what the complications were. It’s not really an answer. No one can really tell,” she added.

She added that the family “want more answers” over Ms Hunt’s death.

The inquest was told Ms Hunt was taken by ambulance to the Avrupa Safak Hospital in Istanbul, which has a specialist cardiac intensive care unit, where she later died.

In a statement read to the court, Sandra Hunt, Ms Hunt’s mother, said her daughter lost consciousness after the surgery and had swelling in her hands.

Sandra said paperwork from the hospital showed “some of her ECG (electrocardiogram) readings indicate an abnormal heartbeat”, which she has been told was not healthy.

She added: “We believe she was not fit for the surgery.”

She also expressed concerns there may have been a complication from the BBL procedure if too much fat was injected or removed from Ms Hunt’s body.

The coroner, Sophie Lomas, told the inquest that because Ms Hunt died in another country, she “does not have the jurisdiction to fully investigate what happened in that hospital”.

Ms Lomas added: “I have to reach the findings on the information I do have.”

“Sophie Hunt died due to complications of a surgical procedure carried out whilst abroad,” she concluded.

Lost consciousness

A report provided by Turkey’s Council of Forensic Medicine said: “The individual had no known medical illnesses.”

It added she had an abdominoplasty, also known as a tummy tuck, and liposuction on 7 March 2022, before she experienced “sudden loss of consciousness”.

The Turkish investigation found Ms Hunt died “as a result of abdominoplasty and liposuction procedures and the complications that developed thereafter”.

A post-mortem examination was carried out by Professor Kevin West when Ms Hunt’s body was repatriated to the UK.

The coroner said Prof West concluded she died due to complications of the surgery, but he said the “exact cause of cardiopulmonary arrest is unclear”.

Aimee Hunt said she had been worried about her sister travelling abroad due to the risks, as “it seemed like a big surgery to have”.

“Sophie was outgoing, funny, fun to be around, caring, kind and a brilliant mum,” she added.

Gen Mohammed Ali Ahmed al-Haddad and four others were on board a Falcon 50 aircraft flying out of the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Tuesday evening.

In a post on X, Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said the signal with the business jet was lost at 20:52 local time (17:52 GMT) – about 42 minutes after it took off from Ankara’s airport.

The Tripoli-bound jet had issued an emergency landing request before contact was lost. The aircraft’s wreckage was later found south-west of Ankara, and an investigation is now underway into what caused the crash.

In a later post on X, Yerlikaya wrote that police had spotted the debris near the village of Kesikkavak, in the Haymana district.

He said the “public will be informed of further developments”.

In Libya, Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, the prime minister of the country’s internationally recognised Government of National Unity (GNU), said he had received news of the deaths of Gen Haddad and other senior Libyan military officials on board the jet.

The prime minister called it a “great loss” for the nation, saying Libya had “lost men who served their country with sincerity and dedication”.

Gen Haddad and his team had been in Turkey for talks aimed at further strengthening military and security co-operation between the two countries.

Turkey has played an increasingly dominant role in Libya after intervening in 2019 to prevent an army from the east of the country from driving out the internationally-recognised government in Tripoli, and has built close political, military and economic ties.

According to flight tracking website Flight Radar, the plane was last recorded at 15:01 local time (21:01 GMT) over Galveston Bay, near Scholes International Airport.

The aircraft was taking part in a medical mission on behalf of the Michou y Mau Foundation, which provides care to Mexican children with severe burns.

Mexico’s Secretariat of the Navy said one person remains missing and two others were rescued alive.

Video footage shared with AP news agency showed the wreckage of the plane in the water, with witnesses and police officers seen entering the water to search the debris.

Sky Decker, a local yacht captain, said he took two police officers to the site of the nearly submerged plane, before jumping in and finding a badly injured woman trapped.

He said: “I couldn’t believe. She had maybe three inches of air gap to breathe in.

“And there was jet fuel in there mixed with the water, fumes real bad. She was really fighting for her life.”

Earlier the Mexican Navy Secretariat said search and rescue operations were under way in co-ordination with the US Coast Guard.

Video taken near Scholes International Airport in Galveston showed rescuers including a dive team working in dense fog.

In a statement shared on X, the Michou y Mau Foundation sent “our deepest condolences to the families of the victims of this tragedy”.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell in Washington, D.C., rejected arguments by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that the fee conflicts with federal immigration law and will lead many companies, hospitals and other employers to cut jobs and the services they provide to the public.

“The parties’ vigorous debate over the ultimate wisdom of this political judgment is not within the province of the courts,” Howell wrote, opens new tab.

“So long as the actions dictated by the policy decision and articulated in the Proclamation fit within the confines of the law, the Proclamation must be upheld.”

Howell is an appointee of Democratic former President Barack Obama.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Chamber’s executive vice president and chief counsel, Daryl Joseffer, said many small and medium-sized businesses will be unable to afford the fee.

“We are disappointed in the court’s decision and are considering further legal options to ensure that the H-1B visa program can operate as Congress intended,” Joseffer said in a statement.

The H-1B program allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers with training in speciality fields. Technology companies in particular rely heavily on workers who receive H-1B visas. The program offers 65,000 visas annually, with another 20,000 visas for workers with advanced degrees, approved for three to six years.

Trump’s order would sharply raise the cost of obtaining H-1B visas, which typically carried fees of about $2,000 to $5,000 depending on various factors.

The Chamber, in its lawsuit, says the new fee would force businesses that rely on the H-1B program to choose between dramatically increasing their labour costs or hiring fewer highly-skilled foreign workers.

A group of Democratic-led U.S. states and a coalition of employers, nonprofits and religious organisations have also filed lawsuits challenging the fee.

Trump, in an order imposing the fee, invoked his power under federal immigration law to restrict the entry of certain foreign nationals that would be detrimental to U.S. interests.

Howell on Tuesday said Trump had adequately backed up his claim that the H-1B program was displacing U.S. workers, including by citing examples of companies that laid off thousands of Americans while simultaneously petitioning for H-1B visas.

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Jane Ansah’s visit will be in a private capacity, but the reported size of both her entourage and the overall cost of the trip has ignited fierce criticism. The details have been disputed by her office.

The row began after the circulation of an alleged leaked letter to the Malawi High Commission in London, signed by Secretary for Foreign Affairs Chauncy Simwaka, listing 15 individuals set to accompany Ansah.

In power since October, the vice-president’s government has pledged to manage the economy competently and has already announced a raft of austerity measures.

Malawian media have published further alleged details about the visit, reportedly from leaked documents saying it would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

While the vice-president’s office has confirmed the trip, it has disputed the information in circulation about how much the state is spending.

“These documents did not originate from any government institution and do not reflect official records or approved government expenditures,” the vice-president’s press secretary Richard Mveriwa said in a statement.

“The Office of the Vice President remains committed to transparency, accountability, and the responsible use of public resources, and strongly condemns the deliberate spread of false information intended to mislead the public.”

The spokesperson did not, however, say anything about the number of people making the trip, said to include two accountants, four security personnel, three assistants to the vice-president, and other officials.

A Malawian human rights organisation, the Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) said it finds the reported size of the delegation “deeply troubling, particularly given that the trip is explicitly described as private yet appears to be financed using public resources”.

Ansah was the running mate to President Peter Mutharika, who soundly beat incumbent Lazarus Chakwera in September’s election.

They promised a “return to proven leadership” that would manage the economy better than the Chakwera administration.

Among the announced cutbacks in government spending are a reduction of both domestic and international travel by senior government officials.

When he was sworn in, Mutharika promised to be prudent. He said his government would not be a “feast” for members of the administration and supporters.

The HRDC said the vice president’s UK trip, due to start on 26 December, directly contradicted the government’s own rhetoric on austerity and called it a “double standard”.

“While Malawians are continuously urged to tighten their belts, endure hardship and accept reduced public services in the name of fiscal discipline, senior political leaders appear to exempt themselves from these very principles,” the organisation said.

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The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo in Buffalo, New York, following an announcement by the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York, Michael DiGiacomo. Cole has since been turned over to the Department of Homeland Security.

According to court records outlined by Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron J. Mango, who handled the prosecution, the offence dates back to October 30, 2022.

Cole was said to have improperly accessed a Snapchat account belonging to an individual identified as the Victim and obtained nude photographs stored on the account.

Investigators said Cole subsequently contacted the Victim using a Google Voice telephone number and demanded a payment of $200. Prosecutors said he threatened that if the money was not paid, he would damage the Victim’s reputation by releasing the nude photographs to the Victim’s family and friends.

An initial payment of $200 was made via CashApp as instructed, but the Victim later cancelled the transaction. Despite this, the Victim later discovered that some of his Snapchat contacts had already received the nude photographs.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation under the direction of the Special Agent in Charge, Philip Tejera.

U.S. authorities have not disclosed further details about immigration proceedings, but confirmed that Cole has been handed over to the Department of Homeland Security following the completion of his custodial sentence.

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The State Department declined to provide a list of the diplomats being recalled. A senior department official said on Monday the move was “a standard process in any administration”, but critics said that was not so.

“An ambassador is a personal representative of the president, and it is the president’s right to ensure that he has individuals in these countries who advance the America First agenda,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Nearly 30 senior diplomats were among those ordered back to Washington, people familiar with the matter said.

They were posted to smaller countries where the top U.S. representative has traditionally been from the Foreign Service, which is made up of career officials not aligned with a political party, the people said.

The recalled diplomats were encouraged to find new roles in the State Department, a second U.S. official said.

The American Foreign Service Association representing foreign service officers said it was working to confirm which members were recalled after some reported being notified by phone with no explanation – a process its spokesperson called “highly irregular.”

“Abrupt, unexplained recalls reflect the same pattern of institutional sabotage and politicization our survey data shows is already harming morale, effectiveness, and U.S. credibility abroad,” spokesperson Nikki Gamer said in an email.

The State Department declined to respond to Gamer’s comments.

Trump has sought to place loyalists in senior roles since starting his second term after encountering resistance during his first term advancing his foreign policy priorities within the U.S. national security establishment.

Jeanne Shaheen, ranking Democrat on the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, assailed the Republican administration’s removal of the diplomats while about 80 ambassadorial posts remain vacant.

“President Trump is giving away U.S. leadership to China and Russia by removing qualified career Ambassadors who serve faithfully no matter who’s in power,” Shaheen posted on X. “This makes America less safe, less strong and less prosperous.”

“On a personal level, I don’t want the word ‘detty’ to be associated with anything Ghana… that’s something I’m not very comfortable with,” Kofi Okyere-Darko said.

“Detty”, West African Pidgin for “dirty”, is used to express unrestricted fun when it comes to seeing the year out.

The celebrations are thought to be a huge boost to Ghana’s economy. Last December, more than 125,000 international visitors, many of whom were diasporans, flocked to Ghana.

It was a notable increase over the number of people arriving in any other month, and the same held true for the three years before that.

Government branding avoids the term “Detty December” and instead pushes a tourism initiative named “December in Ghana,” Mr Okyere-Darko, who oversees his country’s relationship with its sizeable diaspora, told the BBC at the Ghana Diaspora Summit in the capital, Accra.

“The young people somehow prefer ‘Detty December’, but officially, that’s not the name,” he said.

“I don’t think December is what attracts people to Ghana. People started coming to Ghana a long time ago. I remember December in Ghana at the turn of the millennium, with initiatives like Akwaaba UK.

Mr Okyere-Darko responded positively to suggestions that the season could be rebranded in a way that still appeals to younger audiences, saying that December in Ghana could be shortened to the initials “D.I.G.. Let’s dig it!”

The phrase Detty December gained popularity roughly eight years ago, after Nigerian musician Mr Eazi launched his Detty Rave festival in Accra.

This December, festivals, parties and concerts have Accra teeming with diasporans and other tourists. They are mostly from the US and Europe, with ages ranging from early 20s and mid-40s, and are out socialising seven days a week.

US hip-hop legend Busta Rhymes performed in Accra as part of the Rhythm and Brunch concert on Saturday, while popular UK rapper Giggs is playing at the Afro Paradise festival on 31 December.

Local stars such as Samini – considered to be the “godfather” of Ghanaian dancehall – and Reggie Rockstone will also play at major events later this month.

Ghana in recent years has been promoting itself as a destination for people from the continent and the African diaspora to visit. In 2019, the government launched the Year of Return – an initiative encouraging those with African roots to invest in the country.

The influx of foreign visitors in December is seen as a positive by many, but some locals complain of price gouging, overcrowding and intense traffic during this period.

This year has proven that December in Ghana no longer revolves around non-stop partying.

Alongside the expected concerts and festivals, there is a growing calendar of investment seminars, networking sessions and cultural showcases, offering the diaspora routes into property, minerals, fashion and textiles.

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Nigeria’s federal government described the latest release as a “moment of triumph and relief”, after one of the country’s worst mass kidnappings.

More than 250 children and staff were abducted from St Mary’s Catholic school in Papiri on 21 November. Earlier this month about 100 of the children were released.

The authorities confirmed “the rescue of the remaining 130 children and staff” in a statement, saying “not a single pupil is left in captivity”.

Niger state police chief Adamu Abdullahi Elleman told the BBC that they were being “examined by security forces and will be taken to their school tomorrow [Monday] to reunite with their families”.

Bishop Bulus Dauwa Yohanna, who is in charge of the school as the Catholic cleric who heads the region, also confirmed the development.

He said the local governor had informed him of the release of the remaining schoolchildren and teachers, and “asked me to come and receive them”.

Parents are in high spirits over the news of the release, Abdullahi Rofia, a local emergency worker in Papiri where the school is located, told the BBC. The parents are expected to gather at the school later in the day.

On Sunday, presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga said the total of freed students was now 230.

Since the kidnapping, the exact number of people taken and how many have remained in captivity has been unclear.

On 8 December, authorities secured the release of 99 children and one teacher, reportedly leaving at least 165 others with the kidnappers.

However, the Niger state police chief told the BBC that the 130 who have now been released account for all the remaining abductees, faulting the initial figures released by the school management.

It has not been formally made public how the government secured the latest release – or whether any ransom was paid.

The announcement by Onanuga included pictures of children smiling and waving. The students are expected to arrive in the Niger state capital, Minna, on Monday.

When the earlier release happened the governor of neighbouring Nasarawa state, Abdullahi Sule, told local media that the federal government had played a key role, adding that the behind-the-scenes efforts could not be disclosed for security reasons.

The Christian Association of Nigeria reported that 50 students managed to escape at the time of the kidnapping.

November’s abduction was the latest incident in a number of targeted attacks on schools and places of worship in north and central Nigeria.

The attack on St Mary’s was preceded by mass kidnappings just days earlier.

On 18 November, two people were killed and 38 abducted in an attack on the Christ Apostolic Church in Kwara state, and a day before that, two were killed and 25 Muslim students abducted from Government Girls’ Secondary School in Kebbi state.

All those taken in the Kwara and Kebbi attacks have since been freed.

It is not clear who is behind these kidnappings – most analysts believe they are carried out by criminal gangs seeking ransom payments.

On 9 December Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said his government would continue to work with Niger and other states “to secure our schools and make the learning environment safer and more conducive for our younger ones”.

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Russia’s Investigative Committee said Lt Gen Fanil Sarvarov died on Monday morning after an explosive device planted under a car detonated.

Sarvarov, 56, was the head of the armed forces’ operational training department, the committee added.

It said one theory being investigated was that the bomb was planted with the involvement of Ukrainian intelligence services. Ukraine has not commented.

Investigators have been sent to the scene, in a car park near an apartment block in the south of Russia’s capital.

Images from the area show a badly damaged white car with the doors blown out, surrounded by other vehicles in a parking lot.

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, a number of military officials have been targeted in the Russian capital.

Gen Yaroslav Moskalik was killed in a car bomb attack in Moscow in April, while Gen Igor Kirillov died in December 2024 when a device hidden in a scooter was detonated remotely.

A Ukrainian source later told the BBC that Kirillov was killed by Ukraine’s security service, though this was never confirmed on the record. As a matter of policy, Ukraine never officially admits or claims responsibility for targeted attacks.

Musk’s 2018 pay package, once worth $56 billion, was restored by the Delaware Supreme Court on Friday, two years after a lower court struck down the compensation deal as “unfathomable.”

The Supreme Court said that a 2024 ruling that rescinded Musk’s pay package was improper and inequitable.

Earlier this week, Musk became the first person ever to surpass $600 billion in net worth on the heels of reports that his aerospace startup SpaceX was likely to go public.

In November, Tesla shareholders separately approved a $1 trillion pay plan for Musk, the largest corporate pay package in history, as investors endorsed his vision of morphing the EV maker into an AI and robotics juggernaut.

Musk’s fortune now exceeds that of Google co-founder Larry Page, the world’s second-richest person, by nearly $500 billion, according to Forbes’ billionaires list.

Musk’s second most valuable asset, his estimated 42% stake in SpaceX, is now worth $2 billion less than his Tesla holdings (at an estimated $336 billion), based on a private tender offer launched this month that valued Musk’s rocket maker at $800 billion, up from $400 billion in August.

Still, it could be SpaceX rather than Tesla that makes Musk the world’s first trillionaire, with the rocket maker said to be targeting an IPO in 2026 that could value the company at around $1.5 trillion.

Nigeria’s federal government described the latest release as a “moment of triumph and relief”, after one of the country’s worst mass kidnappings.

More than 250 children and staff were abducted from St Mary’s Catholic school in Papiri on 21 November. Earlier this month, about 100 of the children were released.

The authorities confirmed “the rescue of the remaining 130 children and staff” in a statement, saying “not a single pupil is left in captivity”.

Presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga said on Sunday the total of freed students was now 230.

Since the kidnapping, the exact number of people taken and how many have remained in captivity has been unclear.

It has not been formally made public how the government secured the latest release – or whether any ransom was paid.

The announcement by Onanuga included pictures of children smiling and waving. The students are expected to arrive in the Niger state capital, Minna, on Monday.

When the earlier release happened the governor of neighbouring Nasarawa state, Abdullahi Sule, told local media that the federal government had played a key role, adding that the behind-the-scenes efforts could not be disclosed for security reasons.

The Christian Association of Nigeria reported that 50 students managed to escape at the time of the kidnapping.

November’s abduction was the latest incident in a growing number of targeted attacks on schools and places of worship in north and central Nigeria.

The attack on St Mary’s in November was preceded by mass kidnappings just days earlier.

On 18 November, two people were killed and 38 abducted in an attack on the Christ Apostolic Church in Kwara state, and a day before that, two were killed, and 25 Muslim students were abducted from Government Girls’ Secondary School in Kebbi state.

All those taken in the Kwara and Kebbi attacks have since been freed.

It is not clear who is behind these kidnappings – most analysts believe they are carried out by criminal gangs seeking ransom payments.

On 9 December, Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said his government would continue to work with Niger and other states “to secure our schools and make the learning environment safer and more conducive for our younger ones.

The US Central Command (Centcom) said fighter jets, attack helicopters and artillery “struck more than 70 targets at multiple locations across central Syria”. Aircraft from Jordan were also involved.

It said the operation “employed more than 100 precision munitions” targeting known IS infrastructure and weapons sites.

President Donald Trump said “we are striking very strongly” against IS strongholds, following the 13 December IS ambush in the city of Palmyra in which two US soldiers and a US civilian interpreter were killed.

In a statement on X, Centcom, which directs American military operations in Europe, Africa and the Indo-Pacific, said Operation Hawkeye Strike was launched at 16:00 Eastern Time (21:00 GMT) on Friday.

Centcom commander Admiral Brad Cooper said that the US “will continue to relentlessly pursue terrorists who seek to harm Americans and our partners across the region”.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the operation “is not the beginning of a war – it is a declaration of vengeance.

“If you target Americans – anywhere in the world – you will spend the rest of your brief, anxious life knowing the United States will hunt you, find you, and ruthlessly kill you.

“Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue,” the US defence secretary added.

Posting on Truth Social, President Trump said the US “is inflicting very serious retaliation, just as I promised, on the murderous terrorists responsible”.

He said the Syrian government was “fully in support”.

Meanwhile, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OBHR) said IS positions near the cities of Raqqa and Deir ez Zor were targeted.

It said that a prominent IS leader and a number of fighters were killed.

IS has not publicly commented. The BBC was unable to verify the targets immediately.

Centcom earlier said that the deadly attack in Palmyra was carried out by an IS gunman, who was “engaged and killed”.

Another three US soldiers were injured in the ambush, with a Pentagon official saying that it happened “in an area where the Syrian president does not have control.”

At the same time, the SOHR said the attacker was a member of the Syrian security forces.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, and the identity of the gunman has not been released.

In 2019, a US-backed alliance of Syrian fighters announced IS had lost the last pocket of territory in Syria it controlled, but since then the jihadist group has carried out some attacks.

The United Nations says the group still has between 5,000 and 7,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq.

US troops have maintained a presence in Syria since 2015 to help train other forces as part of a campaign against IS.

Syria has recently joined an international coalition to combat IS and has pledged to co-operate with the US.

In November, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa – a former jihadist leader whose coalition forces toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime in 2024 – met Trump at the White House, describing his visit as part of a “new era” for the two countries.

The suspect, a Portuguese man who was found dead on Thursday, entered the country through the diversity lottery immigrant visa programme (DV1) in 2017 and was granted a green card.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said she has paused the visa scheme under Trump’s direction to “ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous programme”.

US officials said they believe the suspect, 48-year-old Claudio Neves Valente, also killed Portuguese Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Nuno Loureiro earlier this week.

The programme makes up to 50,000 visas available each year through a random selection process among entries from countries with low rates of immigration to the US.

Writing on social media, Noem said Trump had previously “fought to end” the scheme in 2017 after eight people were killed in a truck-ramming attack in New York City.

Uzbekistan national Sayfullo Saipov, an Islamic State supporter who is serving multiple life sentences for the attack, entered the US through the DV1 scheme, according to Noem.

Her comments come just hours after Neves Valente was found dead in a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, from what police believe is a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Police said video evidence and tips from the public led investigators to a car rental location where they found the suspect’s name and matched him to their person of interest, following a six-day multi-state manhunt.

He was found dead with a satchel and two firearms. Evidence in a car nearby matched to the scene of the shooting at Brown University in Providence, according to Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha.

Brown University President Christina Paxson said Neves Valente was enrolled at the Ivy League school from the autumn of 2000 to the following spring, and was studying for a PhD in physics.

He had “no current active affiliation” to Brown, she said.

Officials said they believe Neves Valente shot and killed MIT professor Nuno F Gomes Loureiro, 47, on Monday at his home in Brookline, which is about 50 miles (80km) from Providence.

Both men had studied at the same university in Portugal in the late 1990s, police said.

Officials said the cases were linked when the suspect’s vehicle was identified via CCTV footage and a witness at Brown University.

The same car was spotted near the scene of the professor’s shooting, which happened just two days later.

Authorities have not provided any suspected motive for either of the attacks.

Two students were killed and nine others were injured as a gunman burst into Brown University’s engineering building on 13 December and opened fire during final exams.

They have been identified as Ella Cook, 19, a second-year student from Alabama, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, 18, an Uzbek-American who had just started at the university.

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Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on the social platform X that at Trump’s direction, she is ordering the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to pause the program.

“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” she said of the suspect, Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente.

Neves Valente, 48, is suspected in the shootings at Brown University that killed two students and wounded nine others, and the killing of an MIT professor.

He was found dead Thursday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.

Neves Valente obtained legal permanent residence status in 2017, U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah B. Foley said.

The diversity visa program makes up to 50,000 green cards available each year by lottery to people from countries that are underrepresented in the United States, many of them in Africa.

Congress created the lottery, and the move is almost sure to invite legal challenges.

Nearly 20 million people applied for the 2025 visa lottery, with more than 131,000 selected, including spouses, as the winners.

After winning, they must undergo vetting to win admission to the United States. Portuguese citizens won only 38 slots.

Lottery winners are invited to apply for a green card. They are interviewed at consulates and subject to the same requirements and vetting as other green-card applicants.

Trump has long opposed the diversity visa lottery. Noem’s announcement is the latest example of using tragedy to advance immigration policy goals.

After an Afghan man was identified as the gunman in a fatal attack on National Guard members in November, Trump’s administration imposed sweeping rules against immigration from Afghanistan and other countries.

While pursuing mass deportation, Trump has sought to limit or eliminate avenues to legal immigration. He has not been deterred by the fact that they are enshrined in law, such as the diversity visa lottery, or in the Constitution, as with a right to citizenship for anyone born on U.S. soil. The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear his challenge to birthright citizenship.

In a post on X, the Minister described the incident as “heart-wrenching” and assured the public that the matter is being pursued through diplomatic channels.

“My attention has been drawn to a heart-wrenching video reporting the killing of a Ghanaian student by the name Nana Adjei in Latvia,” he wrote.

“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has commenced immediate investigations through relevant diplomatic channels. We shall provide the public with regular updates.”

Mr. Ablakwa also warned that Ghana would not tolerate harm against its citizens abroad, stressing that “nobody harms a Ghanaian in any part of the world and gets away with it.”

My attention has been drawn to a heart-wrenching video reporting the killing of a Ghanaian student by name Nana Adjei in Latvia.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has commenced immediate investigations through relevant diplomatic channels.

We shall provide the public with…

— Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa (@S_OkudzetoAblak) December 18, 2025

The renewed government action follows the death of 21-year-old Nana Agyei, a first-year Electrical Engineering (Adaptronic) student at Riga Technical University, who reportedly fell from the sixth floor of his apartment building on Baznicas Street on June 4, 2025. He had enrolled at the university in July 2024.

While Latvian authorities described the incident as a fall, the family has rejected that account, insisting that the circumstances surrounding his death raise serious questions.

According to the family, the student sent a disturbing voice note three days before his death, claiming he had been poisoned, suggesting he may have been harmed.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has assured the public that updates will be provided as investigations continue.

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Avian flu – a type of influenza – is entrenched across South and South-East Asia and has occasionally infected humans since emerging in China in the late 1990s. From 2003 to August 2025, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has reported 990 human H5N1 cases across 25 countries, including 475 deaths – a 48% fatality rate.

In the US alone, the virus has struck more than 180 million birds, spread to over 1,000 dairy herds in 18 states, and infected at least 70 people – mostly farmworkers – causing several hospitalisations and one death. In January, three tigers and a leopard died at a wildlife rescue centre in India’s Nagpur city from the virus that typically infects birds.

Symptoms in humans mimic a severe flu: high fever, cough, sore throat, muscle aches and, at times, conjunctivitis. Some people have no symptoms at all. The risk to humans remains low, but authorities are watching H5N1 closely for any shift that could make it spread more easily.

That concern is what prompted new peer-reviewed modelling by Indian researchers Philip Cherian and Gautam Menon of Ashoka University, which simulates how an H5N1 outbreak might unfold in humans and what early interventions could stop it before it spreads.

In other words, the model published in the BMC Public Health journal uses real world data and computer simulations to play out how an outbreak might spread in real life.

“The threat of an H5N1 pandemic in humans is a genuine one, but we can hope to forestall it through better surveillance and a more nimble public-health response,” Prof Menon told the BBC.

A bird flu pandemic, researchers say, would begin quietly: a single infected bird passing the virus to a human – most likely a farmer, market worker or someone handling poultry. From there, the danger lies not in that first infection but in what happens next: sustained human-to-human transmission.

Because real outbreaks start with limited, messy data, the researchers turned to BharatSim, an open-source simulation platform originally built for Covid 19 modelling, but versatile enough to study other diseases.

The key takeaway for policymakers is how narrow the window for action can be before an outbreak spirals out of control, the researchers say.

The paper estimates that once cases rise beyond roughly two to 10, the disease is likely to spread beyond primary and secondary contacts.

Primary contacts are people who have had direct, close contact with an infected person, such as household members, caregivers or close colleagues. Secondary contacts are those who have not met the infected person but have been in close contact with a primary contact.

If households of primary contacts are quarantined when just two cases are detected, the outbreak can almost certainly be contained, the research found.

But by the time 10 cases are identified, it is overwhelmingly likely that the infection has already spread into the wider population, making its trajectory virtually indistinguishable from a scenario with no early intervention.

To keep the study grounded in real-world conditions, the researchers chose a model of a single village in Namakkal district, Tamil Nadu – the heart of India’s poultry belt.

Namakkal is home to more than 1,600 poultry farms and some 70 million chickens; it produces over 60 million eggs a day.

A village of 9,667 residents was generated using a synthetic community – households, workplaces, market spaces – and seeded with infected birds to mimic real-life exposure. (A synthetic community is an artificial, computer-generated population that mimics the characteristics and behaviours of a real population.)

In the simulation, the virus starts at one workplace – a mid-sized farm or wet market – spreads first to people there (primary contacts), and then moves outward to others (seconday contacts) they interact with through homes, schools and other workplaces. Homes, schools and workplaces formed a fixed network.

By tracking primary and secondary infections, the researchers estimated key transmission metrics, including the basic reproductive number, R0 – which measures how many people, on average, one infected person passes the virus on to. In the absence of a real-world pandemic, the researchers instead modelled a range of plausible transmission speeds.

Then they tested what happens when different interventions – culling birds, quarantining close contacts and targeted vaccination – kicked in.

The results were blunt.

Culling of birds works – but only if done before the virus infects a human.

If a spillover does occur, timing becomes everything, the researchers found.

Isolating infected people and quarantining households can stop the virus at the secondary stage. But once tertiary infections appear – friends of friends, or contacts of contacts – the outbreak slips out of control unless authorities impose much tougher measures, including lockdowns.

Targeted vaccination helps by raising the threshold at which the virus can sustain itself, though it does little to change the immediate risk within households.

The simulations also highlighted an awkward trade-off.

Quarantine, introduced too early, keeps families together for long stretches – and increases the chance that infected individuals will pass the virus to those they live with. Introduced too late, it does little to slow the outbreak at all.

The researchers say this approach comes with caveats.

The model relies on one synthetic village, with fixed household sizes, workplaces and daily movement patterns. It does not include simultaneous outbreaks seeded by migratory birds or by poultry networks. Nor does it account for behavioural shifts – mask-wearing, for instance – once people know birds are dying.

Seema Lakdawala, a virologist at Atlanta-based Emory University, adds another caveat: this simulation model “assumes a very efficient transmission of influenza viruses”.

“Transmission is complex and not every strain will have the same efficiency as another,” she says, adding that scientists are also now starting to understand that not all people infected with seasonal flu spread the virus equally.

She says emerging research shows that only a “subset of flu-positive individuals actually shed infectious influenza virus into the air”.

This mirrors the super-spreader phenomenon seen with Covid-19, though it is far less well characterised for flu – a gap that could strongly influence how the virus spreads through human populations.

What happens if H5N1 becomes successful in the human population?

Dr Lakdawala believes that it “will cause a large disruption, likely more similar to the 2009 [swine flu] pandemic rather than Covid-19″.

“This is because we are more prepared for an influenza pandemic. We have known licensed antivirals that are effective against the H5N1 strains as an early defence and stockpiled candidate H5 vaccines that could be deployed in the short term.”

But complacency would be a mistake. Dr Lakdawala says if H5N1 becomes established in humans, it could re-assort – or intermingle – with existing strains, amplifying its public-health impact. Such mixing could reshape seasonal influenza, triggering “chaotic and unpredictable seasonal epidemics”.

The Indian modellers say the simulations can be run in real time and updated as data comes in.

With refinements – better reporting delays, asymptomatic cases – they could give public-health officials something priceless in the early hours of an outbreak: a sense of which actions matter most, before the window for containment snaps shut.