The US has launched a series of “powerful” strikes on Iran in response to attacks on three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. US Central Command (Centcom) said on Tuesday it had begun the assault, “to impose heavy costs for targeting and attacking commercial shipping crewed by innocent individuals in an international waterway”. The…
Leader of the French National Rally party Marine Le Pen has said she will run for the presidency in 2027. Le Pen also said she will attempt to appeal and embezzlement conviction that requires her to wear an electronic tag for a year. “I can’t campaign with a tag,” the National Rally leader told French…
The Court of Cassation is likely to take a few months to reach a decision. If it does confirm Tuesday’s verdict, Le Pen could find herself having to wear an electronic tag as the election campaign moves into its most important period early next year. This would risk becoming an embarrassment as well as a…
Hungary’s main public television channel has halted news broadcasts, while a state-run radio station has been suspended altogether, in a bid to make its media “independent and trustworthy”. The country’s former prime minister, Viktor Orbán, who was ousted in April after 16 years in power, had tightly controlled state media. Reforms to media were a…
Abu Safiya was director of Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, treating patients and leading the hospital as the area was under “near total siege” by Israeli forces, according to the UN. He was detained in December 2024, when the Israeli military forced patients and medical staff to leave the hospital, saying it was a…
The row escalated last week when Ghana condemned the alleged killing of Bahiru Isak, a 40-year-old Ghanaian national living in the Khayelitsha suburb of Cape Town in South Africa. Ghanaian officials said he was killed during anti-immigration protests on 30 June. South African authorities however say no such killing happened, and insist the only Ghanaian…
The Paris appeal court has upheld Marine Le Pen’s conviction for misusing EU funds but shortened her sentence, clearing the path for her to run in the April 2027 French presidential election. A five-year ban on holding public office has been reduced and backdated to March 2025, and the court said it now considered the…
The woman suspected of carrying out a parcel bombing in Monaco which injured a sanctioned Ukrainian multi-millionaire and his family has been found dead, Ukraine’s security service (SBU) has said. A cross-border manhunt had been launched for Anastasiia Berezovska, a Ukrainian woman who officials believed had fled the wealthy city-state after planting the bomb in…
Zimbabwean footballer Divine Lunga has survived a gun attack in Johannesburg, South African police have said. The football star, 31, was driving in the inner city suburb of Hillbrow on Sunday when his car was shot at by an unknown gunman, according to local reports. Lunga, who plays for both Zimbabwe’s national football team and…
At least 11 people have died after severe thunderstorms swept cities in central China’s Hubei province, state media reported. Tornado videos have been circulating online, taken from the neighbouring cities of Ezhou and Huanggang. A student in Huanggang city told the BBC that he had thought it was “just an ordinary thunderstorm”, until he saw…