Initial plans for ‘NBA Europe’ are for 10 to 12 franchises that would stay in the league on an annual basis.

It is understood multiple bids worth between $500m and $1bn (£375m to £750m) have been made, while there are also several above the billion-dollar mark.

Europe’s best teams currently compete in the EuroLeague, which was started by basketball’s international governing body Fiba but has been run by Euroleague Basketball since 2000.

Mark Tatum, the NBA’s deputy commissioner and chief operating officer, said the NBA had “received significant interest from a range of prospective teams”.

The league is expected to be made up of new franchises, current basketball teams and football clubs who may or may not already have associated basketball teams.

More than a dozen existing teams have been in talks with the NBA, including some EuroLeague teams, sources said.

EuroLeague did not comment when asked by BBC Sport about the talks, but said it is open to exploring ways to collaborate with the NBA.

With a current working title of NBA Europe, the plan is to launch the new league as soon as the 2027-28 season.

As many as 16 teams across the continent could be involved, with a team from both London and Manchester expected to feature.

Tatum said: “The level of engagement and the scale of the bids reflect the marketplace’s belief in our proposed model and the enormous, untapped potential for European basketball.

“We will now review the bids in more detail and shortlist the partners who share our vision and commitment to accelerating the growth of the game across the continent.”

The event series is expected to bring the excitement and cultural pride of Ghana’s Independence Day to key European cities.

The initiative is being organised by Promo House in partnership with La Bouchée Celeste and is designed to commemorate Ghana’s historic independence on March 6, 1957.

Beyond the anniversary, the celebrations aim to spotlight Ghana’s rich cultural heritage through music, dance and community engagement.

Popular Ghanaian radio presenter and DJ, Andy Dosty, will headline the events. Renowned for his high-energy performances and seamless mixes of highlife, Afrobeats and contemporary sounds, the Hitz FM DJ is expected to deliver memorable nights for patrons.

Andy Dosty is also well known for his collaborations with leading Ghanaian artistes, making him a fitting choice for the landmark event.

The celebrations will officially begin on Friday, March 6, 2026, in Paris, France, coinciding with Ghana’s Independence Day.

Activities will then continue in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on Saturday, March 7, 2026, giving revellers an extended weekend to celebrate Ghanaian pride abroad.

Organisers say the event is aimed at uniting Ghanaians living in Europe while also introducing non-Ghanaians to the country’s vibrant culture ahead of Ghana’s 69th Independence anniversary.

For many Ghanaians in Europe longing for a taste of home, the Ghana Independence Day Europe celebrations promise to be a joyful and patriotic way to mark the occasion.

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The winners will meet in the final for a place at next year’s World Cup, with the winners of Wales’ match at home.

The Republic of Ireland travel to the Czech Republic, with a potential home final against Denmark or North Macedonia.

The semi-finals will take place on 26 March and the finals on 31 March. All matches are one-legged.

Sixteen teams are competing for four spots at the tournament in the US, Canada and Mexico.

In the draw, which took place in Switzerland, pot one teams – the top seeds – were drawn at home to pot four teams, while pot two teams hosted pot three teams.

Sides were also placed in paths deciding who they would play in the final and who would be at home.

Twelve teams entered the play-offs by finishing second in their World Cup qualifying group. Four teams, including Northern Ireland, qualified by winning their Nations League group last year.

The draw for the World Cup – which will involve England and Scotland – will take place on 5 December in Washington DC.

European play-off draw

Path A

Italy v Northern Ireland

Wales v Bosnia-Herzegovina*

Path B

Ukraine v Sweden*

Poland v Albania

Path C

Turkey v Romania

Slovakia v Kosovo*

Path D

Denmark v North Macedonia

Czech Republic v Republic of Ireland*

*The winner of this tie will host the final

As a consequence of their 15th-placed Premier League finish and Europa League final defeat by Tottenham, United are missing out on Europe for only the second time since English clubs returned to Uefa competition after a five-year ban in 1990.

It means they must start their Carabao Cup campaign a round earlier than usual, with Wednesday’s tie at League Two Grimsby their first meeting since 1948.

However, Amorim feels this is a minor issue compared to the free midweeks he will get to work with his players as the season progresses.

“We were not prepared to play in Europe and the Premier League,” he said.

“We need time to develop as a team.”

United’s previous entry into round two of the competition was in 2014 and ended in embarrassing fashion with a 4-0 defeat at then League One MK Dons, who had an 18-year-old Dele Alli in their side.

Now, as then, the intention is to make changes to the team that started Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Fulham.

“We have three games this week and we have quality players, so we need rotation to try to win every game,” said Amorim.

England duo Kobbie Mainoo and Harry Maguire, plus midfielder Manuel Ugarte and striker Joshua Zirkzee are among the senior players who have been among the substitutes but had limited – or none in the case of Mainoo and Zirkzee – playing time so far this season.

Goalkeeper Andre Onana is also likely to come into contention, along with youngsters Ayden Heaven and Tyler Fredricson.

Noussair Mazraoui is yet to feature as he recovers from an injury that kept him out of pre-season and the trip to Blundell Park may come too soon for the versatile Morocco defender.

“He is near,” said Amorim. “We are just finishing some drills with him to be sure he is not going to have another problem.”

It is not expected striker Rasmus Hojlund will play with negotiations continuing over a loan move to Serie A title holders Napoli. Sources feel that move is likely to happen more quickly than the exits of the four remaining members of Amorim’s ‘bomb squad’ of Antony, Jadon Sancho, Alejandro Garnacho and Tyrell Malacia.

Manchester United have collected one point from their opening two Premier League games, after losing to Arsenal on the opening weekend of the season, and Amorim needs to take the Carabao Cup seriously given the winners qualify for Europe, which is the club’s stated aim for the season.

One year free from midweek European distractions offers the chance of a reset. Any more than that would bring a massive financial headache.

“We need time to build a base and then, in the future, to move forward,” said Amorim.

“We will reach a moment where we need to have Europe so everybody can play games.”

The 2025-26 campaign will be only the second season without European football for United since English clubs were banned by Uefa in the 1980s following the Heysel stadium tragedy.

Their 15th-place league finish last season and Europa League final defeat by Tottenham meant there will be no European matches at Old Trafford for the first time since 14-15.

“Europe is a massive, massive thing for us,” Mount said.

“The Champions League would be amazing for us and as a group we want to be playing in that competition.

“But I’d say Europe. I think that’s the focus.”

Ruben Amorim’s side need to improve on their 24-25 performance, when they finished 23 points behind seventh-placed Nottingham Forest, who took up the last of the European qualifying places based on a league finish.

United have already spent more than £125m to bring in forwards Matheus Cunha from Wolves and Bryan Mbeumo from Brentford.

They also continue to be linked with strikers, with Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins’ the most recent subject of speculation following suggestions of a move for Chelsea’s Nicolas Jackson.

Both rumours involved out-of-favour winger Alejandro Garnacho going the other way.

United sources are adamant no deal is imminent, with Villa privately saying Watkins is going nowhere.

The club have travelled to the Unired States for their three-match Premier League Summer Series campaign featuring games against West Ham, Bournemouth and Everton.

In the meantime, Garnacho and fellow outcasts Jadon Sancho, Antony and Tyrell Malacia are training with club staff at United’s Carrington training complex.

Real Betis are still keen to bring Antony back to the club after last season’s successful loan spell, while Juventus are keen on Sancho but need to create room in their squad before they can pursue any deal.

Despite the Cherries narrowly missing out on continental qualification after finishing 9th in the Premier League with 56 points, the Ghana international emerged as one of the club’s standout performers during the 2024/25 campaign.

Semenyo featured in 37 matches across all competitions, scoring 11 goals and providing five assists in what proved to be a breakout season for the former Bristol City striker.

His impressive form has reportedly attracted interest from several top English clubs, including Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, and Newcastle United.

Speaking in an interview with Showmax, Semenyo admitted that playing in Europe is a major ambition.

“I’d like to think so,” he said. “I pray about it a lot, and I’d like to think my performance shows I’m ready to take that next step. I think it’s every player’s dream to play in Europe, so why not?”

With the summer transfer window now open, speculation surrounding Semenyo’s future continues to grow as he considers his next move.

Despite losing 1-0 on Sunday, results elsewhere mean Newcastle finished the 2024-25 Premier League campaign in fifth place, enough to earn them a spot in Europe’s top competition.

Chelsea beat Nottingham Forest on the final day to finish fourth, but that result means there’s no Conference League place for the eighth-placed team – Brighton.

BBC Sport runs you through the nine Premier League sides who have earned places in Europe next season.

Champions League qualifiers

• Liverpool (Champions)
• Arsenal (second place)
• Manchester City (third place)
• Chelsea (fourth place)
• Newcastle (fifth place)
• Tottenham (Europa League champions)

Europa League qualifiers

• Aston Villa (sixth place)
• Crystal Palace (FA Cup winners)

Conference League qualifiers

• Nottingham Forest (seventh place)

UK-based Ahmed Ebid, 42, was involved in smuggling nearly 3,800 people from North Africa to Italy between October 2022 and June 2023, with some making their way to Britain, the National Crime Agency (NCA) said.

Ebid is the first person in the UK to be convicted of being involved in people smuggling across the Mediterranean Sea from Africa to Italy.

He arrived in the UK on a small boat in 2022 after spending five years in jail in Italy for attempted drug smuggling. He applied for asylum in the UK but never received a decision.

That meant he had been in legal limbo, neither facing removal nor being granted permission to stay. His sentence means he will almost certainly be deported once it has been served.

Ebid, whose wife and sons are in the UK, had been living in Home Office-funded accommodation in south-west London at the time of his arrest.

At his sentencing hearing at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday, the judge said Ebid ruthlessly exploited desperate individuals and his “primary motivation was to make money out of human trafficking”.

“The treatment of migrants was horrifying,” Judge Adam Hiddleston said.

“This was a commercial enterprise, pure and simple. The risk of loss of life was considerable. These were fishing boats, not ferries”.

Ebid “exercised a managerial role at a very high level”, the court heard, bribing officials and ordering threats of violence towards the migrants.

After he was sentenced, Ebid was heard in the dock shouting that it was “unfair” and that he was “saving money to bring my family over”.

While this was happening, a female member of Ebid’s family cried in the public gallery.

He was arrested in 2023 after Italian security services looked into satellite phones being used by migrants on Mediterranean crossings from Libya to Europe, in particular Italy.

They found that some handsets which were being used to call the country’s coastguard had also been connecting during the journey to a British mobile number.

The NCA linked that mobile phone to Ebid and then bugged his home to record evidence.

The agency found he was involved in a number of smuggling operations, transporting thousands of men, women and children, often in dangerously overcrowded fishing vessels.

Ebid even told an associate to kill and throw any migrants caught with their phones into the sea, in a bid to avoid law enforcement, the NCA said.

The smuggler had described himself on Facebook as “Captain Ahmed” and notebooks in his home included Mediterranean Sea navigational details and lists of payments related to crossings.

Ebid had admitted facilitating illegal immigration to the EU – a crime under UK law – but disputed the importance of his role.

The NCA’s investigation revealed he had a management role in the smuggling network.

Jacque Beer, regional head of investigation at the NCA, said: “Ebid was part of a crime network who preyed upon the desperation of migrants to ship them across the Mediterranean in death trap boats.

“The cruel nature of his business was demonstrated by the callous way he spoke of throwing migrants into the sea if they didn’t follow his rules. To him they were just a source of profit.”

City were drawn against Real Madrid in the Champions League knockout play-offs on Friday.

The two-legged tie against the Spanish club comes in the middle of a run in February where City will play seven times in 25 days, starting with Sunday’s trip to Arsenal.

Though Guardiola says he has no complaints, the Spaniard says the Premier League’s scheduling gives foreign clubs an advantage in European competition.

“Always they put the toughest schedules for the European teams in the important stages,” he said.

“I’m not complaining because we had incredible success dealing with this calendar.

“But I remember when I was at Barcelona, I followed the Premier League because it was the most attractive league in the world. Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho, Arsene Wenger made the same complaints.

“Do you think it’s going to change? The broadcasters decide. There are leagues that play on the Friday before the Champions League. They don’t ask me when it’s better to play to have one more day. It has always been like that.

“It’s no surprise when I see the calendar. It is what it is. Here, the Premier League is much more important than the other competitions.”

US President Joe Biden has given Ukraine permission to use American-supplied weapons to strike targets in Russia, but only near the Kharkiv region, US officials say.

One told BBC News his team had been directed to ensure Ukraine was able to use US weapons for “counter-fire purposes” to “hit back at Russian forces hitting them or preparing to hit them”.

Russian forces have made gains in the Kharkiv region in recent weeks after a surprise offensive in the area, close to the border with Russia.

On Friday, Ukrainian officials said three people had been killed and 16 injured in Russian shelling of a residential building in a suburb of Kharkiv city.

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The Blues moved up to sixth in the Premier League after Wednesday’s 2-1 win at Brighton.

Despite a difficult campaign, they will guarantee a spot in Europe next season if they claim a point at home to Bournemouth in Sunday’s final game.

“For it to be in our hands to get sixth place is a big thing for us,” said Palmer, who scored his 22nd goal of the season with the opener against the Seagulls.

“Chelsea are a big club and everyone wants to finish higher than sixth but you have to look at where we were at the start of the season.”

Mauricio Pochettino’s side have recovered from a poor start to the campaign and were in 12th place as recently as 3 April.

Palmer, 22, added: “To get back into Europe would be a step in the right direction.

“All credit to the manager. All the players love the manager and want to fight for him.”

Which places get you into Europe this season?

A fifth or sixth-placed Premier League finish would give the Blues a spot in next season’s Europa League, while seventh is only good enough for the Europa Conference League.

However, if rivals Manchester United finish outside the top six they could still take a Europa League place by winning the FA Cup.

If that were to happen, the side finishing fifth would also enter the Europa League, but sixth place would instead land a Conference League spot and a seventh-placed finish would miss out on Europe entirely.

With a three-point gap to Tottenham, Chelsea could end the season as high as fifth if results fall their way on the final day.

It would mark an incredible recovery as the Blues were ninth and 13 points behind Spurs when they lost 5-0 to Arsenal last month.

“We talked about patience and when you need to build something you need time,” Chelsea boss Pochettino told BBC Match of the Day.

“But it always looks like an excuse at a big club. We have kept working and being positive and to finish in a good way would be good for the club.”

Potter was sacked by Chelsea in April 2023 and the 48-year-old has held talks with Dutch club Ajax.

They have been without a permanent manager since October when Maurice Steijn was sacked and John van ‘t Schip has been in charge on an interim basis.

They were beaten 6-0 by rivals Feyenoord on Sunday.

Ajax also have issues at board level, and their chief executive Alex Kroes was suspended for alleged insider trading this month.

It is understood former Brighton and Swansea boss Potter wants to make sure he is aligned with his next club’s strategy and long-term plan.

Potter has also been linked with the manager’s job at Manchester United if there was to be a change of head coach at Old Trafford and Erik ten Hag was to leave.

Manchester United’s incoming sporting director, Dan Ashworth, also worked with Potter when he was manager of Brighton.

Although during his time at Stamford Bridge the club’s league form was criticised, Potter did lead Chelsea to the Champions League quarter-finals.

However, he parted ways with the Blues before they lost to Real Madrid last season.

Potter built his reputation at Swedish club Ostersund and Swansea in the Championship before making the switch to the Premier League, where he guided Brighton to a ninth-place finish.

According to Mr Darko, who goes by the username ‘Abrokyire y3 d3’ on Facebook, he will not even wish for his enemies to experience what he witnessed when he decided to use the illegal route to Europe in 2008.

Recounting the reason for his journey, he said he was determined to eradicate poverty from his family because there was no hope for him in Ghana.

Hailing from Kwameseikrom at Drobo, ‘Abrokyire y3 d3’ said he started his journey in the night, where he boarded a car to Techiman, the capital of Techiman Municipal and Bono East Region of Ghana, before he continued to the Burkina Faso border – where all his woes started unfolding.

At the border, he alleged that the customs officers took a charge from each Ghanaian resident leaving the Libyan and Nigerien citizens to carry on the journey to Niamey, the capital and largest city in Niger.

At the Niger border, they were charged again, he said, adding that, “every two kilometres there were checkpoints where we had to pay money or get down from the bus. At a point you will be whipped or caned if you don’t want to pay or have no money.

“The collection of money starts from the Ghana border. Nigeriens don’t pay anything at the border. But at the Niger border we are charged again until we got to Libya.

“At a point, one of the soldiers asked me to take off my Timberland boots if I could not pay what they were asking of us,” he added.

“The number of people who use the route in a day is over 2,000, comprising people from different countries in Africa,” he said.

He continued that the journey from Agadez, a market town at a crossroads, 460 miles (740 km) northeast of Niamey, to Qatrun, a village in the Murzuq District in southern Libya before reaching Tripoli, the capital and largest city of Libya, is as daunting as ever.  “They can use iron road to lash you. They don’t even respect black people,” he recounted.

The Ghanaian immigrant said the part of his journey that got things worse was when their boat developed a fault across the Mediterranean Sea on their fateful journey to Europe.

‘Unfortunately, we were rescued by Libyan soldiers and that was not a good thing because they were going to lock all of us up, so we had to run for our lives by falling into the water to swim. There was even a pregnant Nigerian woman with us.

“They didn’t let us escape freely, hence they started shooting at us so with the little military experience I had on my first trip to Israel, I crawled my way out.”

Mr Darko said this wasn’t his first trip to seek greener pastures outside Ghana. He made the first attempt to Israel, where he was recruited into their army but he was later fished out for lying about his age so he was sent to prison until he returned to Ghana.

On his return to Ghana, he bagged himself for the Europe journey, which gave him the haunting experience he has ever seen in life.

On the Libyan Desert, Mr Darko said he lost his Nigerian brother to the heat of the scorching sun.

“He was my best friend. And we were all going in for money. The sun had scorched him too much, so blood was oozing from his nose. It was as if it had choked him, and he couldn’t breathe. We did all we could, but he couldn’t survive. And if you are suffering, no one will help you on the journey.

“I was the only one who buried him. Everyone was suffering from fatigue. We used our hands to dig. The [Muslim] drivers were praying, so we had the chance to rest for a while. But I had to go back and dig deeper to bury him completely. That was a point where I felt like I should have stayed in Ghana. You will see plenty of people dead on the deserts,” he recounted.

“I still have nightmares and see him in my sleep. I had never seen a dead body before until it happened, and that really shocked me.”

Mr Darko, in an interview with Adomonline.com, said he will never advise anyone to use the route he used because it has the highest tendency to result in death.

Talking about his motive of sharing his daily videos on Facebook, he said it is his subtle way of reminding Ghanaians that they do not have a good system to improve their standards of living.

According to him, the system of democracy and the politicians’ agenda don’t enforce the basic things that will boost the lives and careers of the citizens who voted them into power.

“The videos I make on Facebook go beyond that. It is actually a project that I am embarking on to preach and make people aware of what happens there. Soon I will come out fully to lay my vision to stop people from embarking on such a trip,” he said.

Meanwhile, he said he will patronise the route for a million lifetimes if the system of Ghana continues to favour the higher class than those below.

“I will not advise anyone to use that route, but if I am deported a thousand times I will still use that route to get back to Europe. Not only that, but I will rather die in the journey than suffer in Ghana. Likewise, I want to make it in life on my own. I don’t want to be dependent on anyone,” Mr Darko said.

Mr Darko is currently living and working in Germany. After three unsuccessful attempts to cross the Mediterranean Sea, he finally landed in Lampedusa, one of the Pelagie Islands, in the Mediterranean Sea, southern Italy before he entered Europe circa 2009.

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There had been fears Moscow may not have resumed the flow in response to EU sanctions over the war in Ukraine.

On Wednesday, the European Commission urged countries to cut gas use by 15% over the next seven months in case Russia switched off Europe’s supply.

Russia supplied Europe with 40% of its natural gas last year.

Germany was the continent’s largest importer in 2020, but has reduced its dependence on Russian gas from 55% to 35%. Eventually, it wants to stop using gas from Russia altogether.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has sought to play down fears, telling reporters that state gas firm Gazprom would fulfil all its contractual obligations.

The pipeline resumed operations early on Thursday morning, but a spokesman said it was only delivering 40% of its capacity.

This is the same level it was operating at in mid-June, when Gazprom cut gas flows blaming a delay in the return of equipment being serviced by Germany’s Siemens Energy.

More than 10,000 people have been forced to leave the south-western Gironde region in the past few days.

Dozens of fires are burning in Portugal and Spain where temperatures have surged above 40C.

At least 281 deaths in the two countries were linked to the heatwave.

Several towns in western Spain have been evacuated.

The head of France’s firefighters’ federation has warned of the impact global warming is having on civil protection. “It’s firefighters, civil security who deal with the effects on a daily basis – and these effects aren’t in 2030, they’re right now,” said Grégory Allione.

Heatwaves have become more frequent, more intense, and last longer because of human-induced climate change. The world has already warmed by about 1.1C since the industrial era began and temperatures will keep rising unless governments around the world make steep cuts to emissions.

Firefighters in Spain fought to protect the town of Monsagro as fires erupted further south in the Monfragüe national park, home to rare species of birds. The main N-5 route in Cáceres just east of the park was cut off when a forest fire reached the road.

Incendio forestal en Casa de Miravete en la N-5, Provincia de Cáceres. Seguimos! ⁦@La_SER⁩ ⁦@A3Noticias⁩ ⁦@BomberosCUBP⁩ ⁦@EPExtremadura⁩ pic.twitter.com/l7DTMyUpyI

— Emilio Mateos Ortega (@emiliomoska) July 14, 2022

Temperatures were set to top 40C in large areas of western Spain as well as Portugal on Friday. At Pinhão in the north, 47C was recorded on Thursday, a record high for July in mainland Portugal.

However, forecasters in Spain said temperatures would begin to fall on Friday.

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The Carlos III Health Institute said on Thursday that at least 43 people had died during the first two days of the latest heatwave, on Sunday and Monday, because of the heat.

Health officials in Portugal recorded 238 deaths more than normal since 7 July which they attributed to the very hot and very dry conditions. The worst affected are the elderly, children and people with chronic diseases.

More than 30 fires were active in Portugal on Friday morning, including one in a forest at Pombal in the central region of Leiria which has lasted a week. More than 300 sq km have been torched this year, a bigger area than in all of 2021.

The EU’s Copernicus emergency management service tweeted a map showing the biggest fire risks across Southern Europe and Morocco.

#EFFIS Fire Danger Forecast for 15 July

?Very Extreme Danger forecasted in:
➡️South & western #Spain??
➡️Central & southern #Portugal??
➡️Southeastern #France??
➡️Southeastern #Greece??

Extreme Danger is present in areas of:
???????????????????????????????? pic.twitter.com/mkmsshOvJg

— Copernicus EMS (@CopernicusEMS) July 15, 2022

Police in south-west France went from door to door in an effort to evacuate 4,000 residents from the Cazaux district south-west of Bordeaux. Smoke could be seen close to the town of La Teste-de-Buch and there were long queues of traffic as people tried to leave and police blocked entrances to stop drivers getting in.

One holidaymaker, Matthias, told BFMTV how he and his son had been told to escape immediately: “We started packing our things but the lady told us, no, you have to leave everything as it is. You try to keep calm but it’s hard not to be scared because it happens so fast.”

An estimated 73 sq km of pine forest has burned down in recent days, including around Arcachon and Landiras. Temperatures are set to reach 40C in some areas and the head of the national firefighters’ federation warned there were still two months of summer to go.

“The situation is highly complex. Our morale is still good but fatigue sets in fast. That’s why we’re calling for a target of 250,000 volunteer firefighters,” Mr Allione told RMC TV.

Italy and Croatia have also reported forest fires this week, and strong winds have greatly increased the risk of wildfires in five regions in Greece, civil protection officials have warned.

Central Greece, Attica and Create are among the areas most at risk and officials have appealed to Greeks not to do anything that could spark a fire.

Fires were reported in Crete and on the mainland in Attica on Friday. Emergency services issued an urgent appeal to residents south-east of Athens to flee the village of Feriza Saronikos for the coast.

⚠️ Χάρτης Πρόβλεψης Κινδύνου?για Παρασκευή 15/7:

? Πολύ υψηλός κίνδυνος 4⃣ σε:
?#Aττική, κεντρική & νότια #Εύβοια, #Αργολίδα
?περιοχές #Βοιωτία & #Κορινθία
?#Κρήτη, #Λέσβο, #Σάμο, #Ικαρία, #Χίο & #Ψαρά

? Υψηλός κίνδυνος 3⃣ σε αρκετές περιοχές

ℹ️ https://t.co/UcUk400yPY pic.twitter.com/VBzEyHpkun

— Civil Protection GR (@GSCP_GR) July 14, 2022

Across the Strait of Gibraltar from Spain, toxic wildfires have also been ripping through parts of Morocco.

The state emergency service, DSNS, says nearly all of the victims were in a nine-storey building hit by one missile in the village of Serhiyivka.

At least two people, including the child, were killed in a separate strike on a holiday resort in the village.

Russia has fired dozens of missiles on Ukrainian cities in the past few days.

The DSNS said the missiles hit Serhiyivka at about 01:00 on Friday (22:00 GMT Thursday).

It released footage showing firefighters searching for survivors in the wreckage of the nine-storey building.

They were also seen carrying what looked like the body of one of the victims in a bag.

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The DSNS says 38 people, including six children, were injured in the Russian strikes.

Maryna Martynenko, a DSNS spokeswoman in the Odesa region, told Ukrainian TV that the building’s external wall was damaged, and a nearby shop was set ablaze after the strike. Firefighters later put out the fire.

She said 60 rescuers were currently working at the site.

As many as 150 people are believed to have lived in the building.

The child killed at the holiday resort was a 12-year-old boy, said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office. He added that three people, including two children, were still under the rubble.

Yulia Bondar, 60, was staying in a building nearby.

“We heard three explosions and now there is nothing left of the recreation centre,” she told the BBC. “The village is very quiet, we never thought this could happen.”

Ms Bondar said few people were at the centre as people tended not to stay there overnight.

Ukrainian officials said three missiles were launched from Russian warplanes over the Black Sea.

Odesa regional administration spokesman Serhiy Bratchuk said Soviet-era X-22 missiles were believed to have been used.

Moscow has so far made no public comment.

Ukraine had hoped that the Russian withdrawal on Thursday from the strategically important Snake Island would ease the threat to Ukraine’s biggest Black Sea port of Odesa and wider region.

Russia said it had withdrawn its garrison as a “gesture of goodwill” to prove it was not obstructing grain exports from Odesa and other Ukrainian ports – but Ukraine dismissed that claim, saying Moscow continued to shell its grain stores.

In separate developments on Friday:

• Ukraine’s military said Russian troops were focusing on encircling Ukrainian soldiers in the eastern city of Lysychansk, aiming “to establish complete control over the Luhansk region”
• The death toll from Monday’s Russian missile strike on a busy shopping centre in the central city of Kremenchuk rose to 19, with 62 injured, the DSNS said
• Overnight, Russian troops shelled the Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv regions in Ukraine’s north, north-west and south, local officials said

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Upon her arrival in Madrid, they moved to Belgium and finally settled in Groningen, where she stays presently.

“When we got to Groningen, they told me that the cost of my trip from Ghana to the Netherlands was $40k, but they will give me a discount because I am family. It came down to $10k. The woman told me that I could only sell my body to pay off such a debt,” she said.

According to Mavis, she threatened to take her back to Ghana if she refused. As a result, the lady planned to take her back to Belgium, but she was advised to fight for her freedom while in Groningen.

“She left me on the street, and a 23-year-old boy offered to take me to his home. I did not flinch at all because I just wanted to go somewhere. He took me to school and taught me the lifestyle here,” she added.

Mavis stated that eventually, she got into a relationship with a man for three years, but broke up later on.

France and four of its European neighbours moved to Level 4, the CDC’s highest-risk category, on Monday.

France was the world’s top destination for international tourist arrivals pre-pandemic, according to 2019 figures from the United Nations World Tourism Organisation.

Two other places — one in the Middle East, the other in East Africa — were also moved to Level 4.

Those seven nations are Andorra, Cyprus, France, Jordan, Liechtenstein, Portugal
and Tanzania.

Destinations that fall into the CDC’s “Covid-19 Very High” Level 4 category have had more than 500 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days.

People should avoid travelling to locations designated with a “Level 4” notice, the CDC recommends.

Anyone who must travel should be fully vaccinated first, the agency advises.

In its broader travel guidance, the CDC has recommended avoiding all international travel until you are fully vaccinated.

“Fully vaccinated travellers are less likely to get and spread Covid-19.

However, international travel poses additional risks, and even fully vaccinated travellers might be at increased risk for getting and possibly spreading some Covid-19 variants,” the agency said.

All of these European destinations, plus Jordan in the Middle East, had previously been considered “high” risk at Level 3. Previously, safari favourite Tanzania had been rated “unknown” for lack of reliable information.

Concerns: Covid surge in Europe and Omicron

The Level 4 announcement comes as two troubling fronts continue to develop in the pandemic.

First, Europe continues to grapple with a Covid-19 surge that threatens the overall economy and tourism in particular.

France has been hit particularly hard in this latest wave and is responding with increasingly strict measures. 

Neighbouring Germany is also tightening rules on who can come in and ramping up restrictions on its own unvaccinated citizens.

Some Christmas markets in Europe are still planning to operate, but others, including the famed Munich market, have been cancelled.

Secondly, the world is anxiously watching the newest coronavirus variant of concern, called Omicron.

First announced by South African health authorities in late November, the variant has prompted various travel bans on nations in southern Africa.

The CDC moved numerous southern African nations to Level 4 on November 27 because of Omicron and the United States implemented tighter travel rules on Monday because of concern about the variant.

Other nations on Level 4

While Europe is hard hit, it isn’t the only region with popular tourist destinations on Level 4.

Among the other places also considered at “very high” risk for travel are Barbados, Cayman Islands, Malaysia, Singapore and Turkey.

In all, more than 80 countries were rated Level 4 as of December 6.You can view the CDC’s risk levels for global destinations on its travel recommendations page.

News from Level 3

The Level 3 category — which applies to destinations that have had between 100 and 500 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days — had four updates this week, all in the Caribbean basin.

The four places moved to Level 3 were Colombia, Cuba, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis.

The move was a positive development for the islands of Cuba, Grenada and Saint Kitts and Nevis, which had been at level 4.

It’s a move in the wrong direction for South America’s Colombia, which previously had been at Level 2.

Also notable: The CDC puts cruise ships, whether at sea or in rivers, at Level 3.

New entries on Level 2

Destinations carrying the “Level 2: Covid-19 Moderate” designation have seen 50 to 99 Covid-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days.

It has five new entries this week. They are Bahrain, Cape Verde, Fiji, Mali, São Tomé and Príncipe.

The West African nation of Mali had previously been at Level 1, but the rest of the group had been at Level 3.

That move down was good news for Fiji, which reopened to international tourists on December 1 for the first time since closing in March 2020.

Level 1 and unknown

The small African nation of Djibouti moved to Level 1 and had previously been at Level 2.”

Level 1: Covid-19 Low” destinations log fewer than 50 new cases per 100,000 residents in the past 28 days.

Finally, there are destinations for which the CDC has an “unknown” risk because of a lack of information.

As of December 6, that list included Algeria, Cambodia, Macau and Monaco, among others.

“I just saw light. It’s very often dark where I come from because there’s no electricity… But everything here was just blinking – it was very beautiful.”

Jewel – not her real name – is describing her arrival in Denmark.

“I was thanking God for the opportunity to be in this country. I was looking forward to starting work.”

Jewel caught a flight from Nigeria thinking she was going to work with old people.

“People who get trafficked go through Libya and usually take buses and boats. But this was so well organised that it wasn’t suspicious at all,” she says.

The International Organisation for Migration has estimated 80% of Nigerian women travelling overland, then attempting to cross the Mediterranean, are trafficked into the European sex trade. Jewel knew of women who had suffered that fate after making the perilous journey, so when her trip began at Lagos airport, she was reassured.

In Copenhagen, she was met by a Nigerian woman, who took her the following day to Vesterbro, Copenhagen’s red light district.

“I was looking around for some sort of hospital,” Jewel remembers.

They walked the streets for a while, Jewel being told to take note of her surroundings.

Then the woman dropped a bombshell.

“She said, ‘This is where you’re going to be working.’ I looked round to see if she was pointing at a building I hadn’t noticed. But no – she meant where we’d been walking. That’s when she told me I was going to be a prostitute, and this was where I’d be hunting for customers. Then the whole of Denmark just crashed down on me…”

Jewel had one fortuitous meeting that night that would later be important – Michelle Mildwater from HopeNow, an NGO supporting trafficked people in Denmark, spotted the tiny, timid, 20-something woman and gave her a card with a contact number on it.

Jewel’s Nigerian boss – her “madam” – told her not to trust this English woman with a bike. Then she quickly found Jewel her first customer.

“The man gave her 4,000 kroner (£450 / $620) to take me home, and then my madam just walked away,” says Jewel.

“He drove me for what seemed like forever. I didn’t speak the language at the time and I had no idea what he was saying – we had to use Google Translate to communicate. It was scary.”

In the months that followed, selling sex did not become any easier for Jewel.

“I wasn’t good at it. I was that shy one in the corner. But I always got found because the regulars know when a new person arrives, and they wanted a piece of the new person.”

In the most recent figures released by the EU, more than 14,000 trafficking victims were registered in 2017/2018 – but this will be the tip of the iceberg, because they represent only identified cases. Half were from outside the EU, with Nigeria one of the top five nationalities.

Sexual exploitation continues to be the main purpose of trafficking, according to the European Commission, and in a single year the criminal revenues derived from it are estimated at a staggering 14bn euros (£12bn / $16bn).

The women who earn this money are told they owe their traffickers huge sums for travel and accommodation.

“They are debt-bonded,” says Sine Plambech, a senior researcher in the Department of Migration at the Danish Institute for International Studies.

“Nigerians are one of the migrant sex worker groups with the highest debt. It could be between 10,000 and 60,000 euros. And when you have that kind of debt, you need to make a lot of money fast. And if you don’t have papers that allow you to work, the fastest way to earn money is in the sex industry.”

Jewel’s traffickers said she would have to pay them 42,000 euros, in regular instalments. To underline their point they summoned her to a frightening meeting in a cemetery, the day before she flew out of Nigeria.

“I was forced to take an oath that I was going to pay the money no matter what, and that I was not going to reveal who trafficked me. If I did, so many bad things were going to happen to me and my family.”

Once Jewel was in Denmark, the traffickers menaced her family in Nigeria.

“People just came into the house and they wanted my grandmother to talk to me about not having any ideas about reporting them to the police, or not paying the money. So every time I called her, she was always crying on the phone and reminding me that I had made this deal with these people – I had to pay or something would happen to them.”

Jewel was under immense pressure so did not feel she could be discriminating about the clients she serviced inside and between parked cars on the streets of Vesterbro, or in their homes.

“You cannot say no. You have to say yes, because there are 10 or 15 other women looking at that same guy wanting to make some money that night,” she says.

But going with a customer to his home could be enormously risky.

“I could have died that night I was forced to remain in the bathtub,” she remembers, still traumatised.

“The man I had to go home with asked me to get in the bathtub. And I thought, ‘OK – he wants me to clean up or something.’ Then he went out and came back with two buckets of ice. And he started pouring this ice on me in the bath. And I was in there naked and it’s in the middle of winter…”

‘Impunity of perpetrators’

In April this year, announcing a new strategy to combat human trafficking, the European Commission admitted that 10 years of efforts to tackle the problem had largely failed.

“The impunity of perpetrators in the EU persists, and the numbers of prosecutions and convictions of traffickers remain low,” it said, making trafficking “a low-risk and high-profit crime”.

Attempts to reduce demand for the services of exploited victims had also flopped, the Commission added.

The UK government says that in the year to March 2020 police recorded 7,779 modern slavery crimes (including labour exploitation and sexual exploitation), but fewer than 250 people were charged in 2019.

The UK’s support services for victims of modern slavery are run by the Salvation Army. It says 610 non-British survivors of sexual exploitation joined its programme in the year to June 2021.

Vesterbro’s main street, Istedgade, with its bars, clubs and sex shops, is noisy and brightly lit on a Saturday night. Groups of men, often unsteady on their feet from the effects of alcohol, prowl up and down. The women selling sex – most of them from Nigeria and Eastern Europe, their hair and make-up immaculate – are dressed in figure-hugging, comfy gym gear. They sport trainers you can run in – there are few pairs of high heels, and no stereotypical “sexy” outfits.

Michelle Mildwater, who has supported foreign prostitutes in Denmark for more than a decade, still does the rounds here – giving out her card to women like Jewel, offering help and counselling. She is very aware how perilous street life is, and remembers several violent incidents in one of the district’s hotels.

“We had a number of rapes in there,” she says. “There were times when a woman ran out with blood all over her.”

At weekends, Danish NGOs run services for the women selling sex. One, Reden International, has a café where they can rest, recuperate and get a snack between clients. And in one of the side streets, a group of volunteers host a harm reduction initiative like no other.

It is called the Red Van, because that is what it is – a vehicle with a bed in the back lit by fairy lights, and a ready supply of condoms and wipes. It is a private space where sex workers can bring a client instead of going somewhere potentially unsafe. Throughout the night, a steady stream of women arrive – men in tow – to use the van’s facilities, while the volunteers stand a respectful distance away but close enough to hear if a woman is in trouble. It may be used up to 28 times in a four-hour shift.

One of the Red Van’s volunteers is Sine Plambech, the academic researcher.

“These women have a problem they’re trying to solve – debt, poverty, family, children. They need to work. They’re going to sell sex whether we like it or not, so we provide a safe space for them while they’re doing what they would do anyway,” she says.

“Most women wouldn’t sell sex if they didn’t have to. You can have all these moral ideas about what’s good for them, but they need to make money.”

Buying and selling sex in Denmark is not illegal, but you do need a work permit. The precarious migration status of many of the women selling sex in Copenhagen makes them more vulnerable – and far less likely to report any abuse or violence against them to the police.

Denmark’s policy is to deport irregular migrants. Even if women are identified as victims of human trafficking, they are expected to return to their home countries after a short period in a government-sponsored safe house.

After four months on the streets, desperate, depressed and tempted to take her own life, Jewel too was reluctant to report to the authorities. She still had a massive debt, and was fearful for her safety and that of her family in Nigeria.

Then her life changed. It sounds corny – like a fairytale even – but Jewel met a Danish man and fell in love. On their first date, after a romantic meal, she told him everything.

“That’s a burden he’s had to carry,” she says now about the man who became her husband.

Jewel stopped working on the streets, and he helped her make her weekly repayments to her madam. But the couple needed advice. Did Jewel know anyone who could assist them, her boyfriend asked?

Jewel had kept the card Michelle Mildwater had given her that first night she sold sex in Vesterbro.

Michelle counselled Jewel, helped her to confront her demons, and gave her the confidence to stop paying her madam. And fortunately, there have been no violent repercussions for her or her family – perhaps because her trafficker did not belong to one of the large transnational criminal networks.

Now Jewel is awaiting the outcome of her application to remain in Denmark. Meanwhile, her Danish has become fluent and she has had a baby. Jewel and Michelle have become firm friends. And when Jewel got married, the NGO worker from HopeNow was her Best Woman.

“That’s one of the proudest moments of my life – that someone walked me down the aisle, and it was Michelle who did that,” says Jewel.

Jewel hopes one day she will go to business school. She also wants to do voluntary work helping women on the streets.

Just before lockdown, Michelle Mildwater, who is a former actor, encouraged Jewel to develop a play – the story of a trafficked woman – and perform it for an audience in Copenhagen. Jewel called it The Only Way Out Is Through.

“That was therapy. When I was doing the show I was kind of… out of my body. It was like I was part of the audience, and I was very touched by what I saw,” Jewel says.

“Because this is not just a story – this is people’s reality.”

According to the man, identified as Amah Jerry in an exclusive interview with Legit.ng, Nigerians prefer to be identified as Ghanaians.

This, he arrived at following several interactions and observations with his countrymen abroad.

He said it may be as a result of the bad reputation of the country abroad. The man, on an exchange programme in Czech Republic, lamented the infrastructural decay in the country that seems to be miles behind what is obtainable overseas.

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The young student, who had lived in Abia state, slammed politicians in Nigeria for failing to replicate structures they enjoy when they go outside the country.

He mentioned that in Czech Republic, a person hit by a driver on a zebra crossing is compensated with the sum of N2 million, excluding medical bills, whereas in Nigeria the same cannot be said.

Watch the video below:

According to the government, what this means is that only airlines from countries that allow flights from Nigeria will be allowed to fly into and out of Nigeria.

It specifically stated that airlines from the European Union would not be allowed into Nigeria as the EU had recently banned flights and visitors from Nigeria.

On July 2, 2020, The PUNCH reported that the Council of the European Union had opened its borders to 15 countries, excluding Nigeria.

According to information obtained from the EU website at the time, Nigeria was still not a part of the countries from where visitors were allowed into Europe.

Speaking at Thursday’s briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, said Nigeria’s position was informed by the ban placed by some countries on flights from Nigeria.

The minister, who was represented by the Director-General, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Capt. Musa Nuhu, argued that the decision was taken in the interest of Nigerians.

He said, “On the list of countries (that are banned), we are working on the comprehensive list, but the main one that came up is when the EU opened their borders effective 1st July, Nigeria was among the list of 54 countries that were not allowed to enter the EU.

“To my understanding, as the situation changes, they are going to look at the list and change it. But so far, we don’t have any contrary information to that first one that Nigeria is banned from going to the EU.

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“So, as we open our airspace, we are going to apply the issue of reciprocity to those (EU) countries.”

Sirika also stated that airlines would be informed on arrangements that had been put in place to ensure that the resumption of flights were hitch-free.

He stated that for now, only a few flights per day would be permitted, adding that they would operate as test runs of the protocols put in place to ensure the safe return to international operations.

The protocols, according to him, would be made public in due course.

 Sirika also stated that inbound international passengers would be limited to 1,280.

He said only this number would be allowed to fly into the Lagos and Abuja airports once international flights resume on August 29, 2020.

Demand for streaming has increased because large parts of Europe are self-isolating at home due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The video-streaming provider said lowering the picture quality would reduce Netflix data consumption by 25%.

But it said viewers would still find the picture quality good.

The change appears to include the UK but Netflix has not responded to the BBC’s request for confirmation on this.

Video Quality

The company will cut its streaming bitrates, which influence how clear and smooth videos look when streamed online.

Videos with a higher bitrate tend to look less “blocky” or pixelated, but use more data.

The announcement came after a phone call with European officials.

Thierry Breton, the European Commissioner for the Internal Market, had earlier said people should “switch to standard definition when HD [high-definition] is not necessary”.

An hour of standard definition video uses about 1GB of data, while HD can use up to 3GB an hour.

Netflix also offers ultra-high definition 4K video for some of its programmes.

Netflix’s decision to reduce video bitrate by a quarter appears to be a compromise.

“Following the discussions between Commissioner Thierry Breton and [Netflix chief executive] Reed Hastings, and given the extraordinary challenges raised by the coronavirus, Netflix has decided to begin reducing bitrates across all our streams in Europe for 30 days,” the company said.

Commissioner Breton praised the “very prompt action” Netflix took just hours after the phone call, saying it would “preserve the smooth functioning of the internet during the Covid-19 crisis”.

Internet Usage

Netflix has not yet said whether the bitrate reduction will be applied to other areas such as North America.

Internet usage has been heightened in the last few weeks as more people work from home and avoid going out.

Telecoms giant Vodafone reported a 50% rise in internet use in Europe earlier this week.

Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Wednesday that the platform was seeing “big surges” as users tried to stay connected with friends.

The social media boss said the company typically saw its largest surge in use on New Year’s Eve, but that recent demand had outpaced that.

They are part of a 636,426 strong migrant population desperate to embark on the dangerous journey in an attempt to enter Europe for greener pastures.

A press statement issued to the Ghana News Agency by the Catholic Relief Services to commemorate the International Day for. Migrants, quoted the IOM as saying that almost 3,400 migrants and refugees died in 2018 globally.

It said the CRS’ under its Action for the Protection and an Intergration of Migrants in Africa (APIMA) project “is working to ensure safe migration for a dignified life in West Africa”.

“And will continue to target the youth including both returned migrants and potential migrants by promoting economic opportunities through providing Life and Employability Skills Training, increasing awareness on safe practices, engaging front-line government agencies in recognizing abuse and exploitation.

And in collaboration with church partners, adopt a holistic, cross-border protection-based approach targeting youth and community members with an intentional messaging in an effort to shift the perceptions around Migration in Nkoranza and Techiman Municipals before departure and upon return, “according to the statement.

CRS/CARITAS seeks to also encourage the government and community leaders to lead in providing avenues for the reintegration of returned migrants.

On this day we also wish to take a minute to mourn all migrants who lost their lives trying to seek refuge, it said.