Umar Bio Salihu, 53, the local head of Woro in Kwara state, says gunmen ‘just came in and started shooting’

The traditional chief of a village in western Nigeria where jihadists massacred residents earlier this week has recounted a night of terror during which the attackers killed two of his sons and kidnapped his wife and three daughters.

Umar Bio Salihu, the 53-year-old chief of Woro, a small, Muslim-majority village in Kwara state, said that at about 5pm on Tuesday the gunmen “just came in and started shooting�.

Local politician says armed men rounded up residents, bound their hands behind their backs and shot them

More than 160 people have been killed in two villages in western Nigeria in the country’s deadliest armed assaults this year, as communities reel from repeated and widespread acts of violence perpetrated by jihadists and other armed groups.

The death toll from Tuesday’s attacks in Woro and Nuku in Kwara state stood at 162 on Wednesday afternoon, according to Mohammed Omar Bio, a member of parliament representing the area.

Bobi Wine’s whereabouts unknown since he fled what he said was night raid on his home by police and military

Bobi Wine, Uganda’s most prominent opposition figure, remains in hiding nearly three weeks after a disputed election, as a high-stakes social media feud with the east African country’s military chief escalates.

Wine’s whereabouts have been unknown since 16 January, when he fled what he said was a night raid by the police and military on his home, leaving his family behind.

Ifunanya Nwangene died in hospital after being bitten in her Abuja home, raising questions about the availability of effective antivenoms

In a last message to her friends, Ifunanya Nwangene wrote: “Please come.�

The 26-year-old singer and former contestant on The Voice Nigeria had been bitten by a snake while asleep in her flat in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, and was in hospital, anxiously awaiting treatment.

Rights group says growing authoritarianism and abuses in US, Russia and China threaten global rules-based order

The world is in a “democratic recession� with almost three-quarters of the global population now living under autocratic rulers – levels not seen since the 1980s, according to a new report.

The system underpinning human rights was “in peril�, said Philippe Bolopion, executive director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), with a growing authoritarian wave becoming “the challenge of a generation�, he said.

Miguel Díaz‑Canel says Cuba is willing to engage Washington amid the island’s deepening economic crisis

After months of threats from Donald Trump, the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, has said that his government is willing to talk to the United States, just so long as it is “without pressure�.

Standing in front of a life-sized photograph of Fidel Castro carrying a rifle during the 1959 revolution, Díaz-Canel, the 65-year-old president, said on Thursday that his island nation had been subject to an “intense media campaigns of slander, hatred and psychological warfare�.

Investigation exposes ‘corrosive’ reach of organized crime in Canada, with links to bribes, drug trade and a murder plot

At least eight current and former Toronto police officers have been arrested following a sweeping investigation that officials say exposed the “corrosive� reach of organized crime into Canada’s largest municipal police service.

Police allege fellow officers accepted bribes, aided drug traffickers, leaked personal information to criminals who then carried out shootings and helped members of organized crime in a plot to murder a corrections officer.

FBI and Venezuela’s intelligence agency also reportedly arrest billionaire media mogul Raúl Gorrín at same address

A close and powerful associate of the deposed Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro has reportedly been detained during a joint operation by Venezuela’s intelligence agency and the FBI.

Alex Saab, a wealthy Colombian-Venezuelan businessman long considered Maduro’s frontman, was removed from his position in Venezuela’s government a fortnight after US forces captured his ally on 3 January. In the early hours of Wednesday, the 54-year-old was reportedly detained by members of the Bolivarian national intelligence service (Sebin) at a luxury home in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas.

The move is among several measures the acting president has touted since Maduro’s capture – yet critics say it erases Venezuela’s long history of repression

It was designed in the 1950s to be the world’s first “drive-through shopping centre�, a futuristic structure with more than than two miles of ramps looping past 300 shops, as well as cinemas, a hotel, a private club, a concert hall and a heliport.

But the building was never completed, and under the regimes of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro, spaces envisioned as shops were turned into cells, and El Helicoide became Venezuela’s most notorious torture centre for political prisoners.

Prediction markets allow you to put money on everything from the US attacking Iran to Jesus returning. Saahil Desai explains their dizzying rise

In the early hours of 3 January, Donald Trump ordered a surprise attack on the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, to kidnap the country’s leader, Nicolás Maduro. Millions of Venezuelans’ lives were thrown into uncertainty. Politicians at home and abroad scrambled to respond. It seemed this was something no one had seen coming. Except one person did actually predict it.

In the hours before the attack, someone - and we have no way of knowing who - placed a series of bets that Donald Trump would oust Maduro on a prediction market platform, netting them nearly $500,000 when it happened. These platforms allow their users not just to bet on whoever’s going to win the Super Bowl, but also on world events. Heavily regulated under the Biden administration, these apps have enjoyed a huge boom in popularity since Trump came to power.

Taiwanese president says ties with Washington ‘rock solid’, hours after leaders of US and China share first call since November

In their first call since November, Chinese leader Xi Jinping warned US president Donald Trump to be “prudent� about supplying arms to Taiwan, according to a readout of their call provided by China’s foreign ministry.

“President Xi emphasised that the Taiwan question is the most important issue in China-US relations,� the readout said. “China must safeguard its own sovereignty and territorial integrity, and will never allow Taiwan to be separated. The US must handle the issue of arms sales to Taiwan with prudence.�

Industry bigger than all but seven world economies, and accounts for more than third of China’s economic growth

China’s clean energy industries drove more than 90% of the country’s investment growth last year, making the sectors bigger than all but seven of the world’s economies, a new analysis has shown.

For the second time in three years, the report showed the manufacture, installation and export of batteries, electric cars, solar, wind and related technologies accounted for more than a third of China’s economic growth.

Mandarin transliteration of character’s name regarded as auspicious, prompting wave of memes and fan art

Draco Malfoy, one of Harry Potter’s most recognisable villains, has become an unlikely lunar new year icon across China, as fans embrace the character for the year of the horse.

In Mandarin, Malfoy’s name is transliterated as “mǎ ěr fú�. The first character means “horse� while the final character, “fú�, means “fortune� or “blessing� – a powerful symbol found across lunar new year celebrations.

Sleek car doors reduce vehicle drag but are prone to losing operability in the event of a crash, officials say

China will soon ban concealed door handles on electric vehicles (EVs), becoming the first country to do so after several deadly incidents triggered global scrutiny of the controversial design first popularised by Tesla.

According to regulations announced on Monday by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, cars sold in China will now be required to have a mechanical release on both the inside and outside of every door except the boot.

Other countries are expected to join Project Vault, which US president said would ensure that US businesses are ‘never harmed by any shortage’

Donald Trump has announced the creation of a critical mineral reserve worth nearly $12bn, a stockpile that could counter China’s ability to use its dominance of the hard-to-process metals as leverage in trade talks.

“Today we’re launching what will be known as Project Vault to ensure that American businesses and workers are never harmed by any shortage,� Trump said at the White House on Monday.

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Rideshare driver in court over allegations of sexual assaulting passenger

A rideshare driver will face court after allegedly sexually assaulting a woman during a short early morning trip, AAP reports.

One of the key figures in Melbourne’s years-long gangland war, Mokbel was jailed for 30 years in 2012 after pleading guilty to masterminding an elaborate drug syndicate

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One of Australia’s most famous gangsters will walk free after prosecutors on Friday said they would drop a planned retrial on drug trafficking charges.

Tony Mokbel – one of the key figures in Melbourne’s years-long gangland war – was jailed for 30 years in 2012 after pleading guilty to masterminding an elaborate drug syndicate.

There is a profound inequity when it comes to tax breaks for investors. Reform could boost the budget bottom line and help renters trying to buy property

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Slashing tax breaks for property investors might not put much of a dent in house prices, but that’s not to say it can’t make a meaningful difference to home ownership rates over the coming years.

Reading through the submissions to the Greens-led Senate committee on the capital gains tax discount and talking to economists delivers a series of convincing arguments for why the government might be on a winner if it finally finds the courage to prosecute this reform.

Lester’s 1990 classic about the wonders of nature wins Guardian Australia poll ahead of Possum Magic in second place

• Alison Lester interview: ‘Everything I do looks a bit like a stuffed toy’

• Children on their favourite picture book: ‘I also like that the dad cries’

Magic Beach by Alison Lester has won Guardian Australia’s poll to find Australia’s best children’s picture book of all time.

More than 100,000 votes were cast after polling opened on 27 January. Aside from the first day, when Possum Magic by Mem Fox and illustrator Julie Vivas took an early lead, Magic Beach was the most voted for book every other day of the count.

The donations were disclosed through the Australian Electoral Commission on 2 February – but not through the state-level disclosure system

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Adani donated more than $600,000 to the Liberal National party of Queensland before the 2024 state election, making it the party’s largest single federal donor.

But the donations were not disclosed for a year, with the Greens blaming a loophole in federal electoral funding laws that allowed it to not disclose it in real time.

While the US president’s many mentions in the Esptein files seem to have no consequences, in the UK Starmer could be the first world leader to fall

All around Europe, the political and business elite are facing an inquest on what blinded so many to think it was permissible to consort with a known child sex offender. As the 3m emails and 1,800 photos released on Friday by the US Department of Justice start to percolate across the continent and through to national media, questions about the moral fibre of this elite are starting to be asked at markedly different levels of intensity.

Squirming businessmen, bankers, politicians, royals, academics, tech bros and partners in law firms have become entangled in Jeffrey Epstein’s interlocking circles of money, power and sex. It seems there was no one in a position of power that Epstein was not in email contact with, and that there was little limit to what this networking elite was prepared to do in return for a gift, a contact or an invite to a sexually charged party. Elon Musk was right when in July 2025 he tweeted – only to quickly delete it – that “so many powerful people want that list suppressed�.

Donald Trump’s former adviser told Epstein in 2019 that he was ‘focused on raising money for Le Pen and Salvini’ before European elections

Dozens of messages contained in the latest tranche of Epstein files lay bare the attempts by Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon to tap Jeffrey Epstein for support and funding to bolster European far-right parties.

The messages mostly date to 2018 and 2019, when Bannon, after being sacked by Trump, regularly visited Europe in his quest to forge a movement in the European parliament uniting ultra-rightwing and Eurosceptic forces from several countries including Italy, Germany, France, Hungary, Poland, Sweden and Austria.

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US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff said that the US, Ukraine and Russia have agreed to exchange 314 prisoners in “the first such exchange in five months.�

He said:

“This outcome was achieved from peace talks that have been detailed and productive. While significant work remains, steps like this demonstrate that sustained diplomatic engagement is delivering tangible results and advancing efforts to end the war in Ukraine.�

“We may be, in the course of 2026, coming to a point where the whole thing becomes unsustainable, because so much of the Russian economy has been distorted so much by the building up of the war economy at the expense of the civil economy. I think defying the laws of economic gravity can only go on for so long.�

Former truck driver, now 80, allegedly one of many ‘sniper tourists’ who paid Bosnian Serb soldiers to be allowed fire on city

An elderly Italian man is under investigation as part of an investigation by prosecutors in Milan into individuals who allegedly paid members of the Bosnian Serb army for trips to Sarajevo so they could kill citizens during the four-year siege of the city in the 1990s.

The 80-year-old is being investigated on charges of aggravated murder, a source close to the case told the Guardian. The man, a former truck driver from the northern Italian region of Veneto, is the first suspect to be placed under investigation since the inquiry began in November.

Industry leaders urge EU to tell authorities to stand down entry-exit system controls if needed

Travel industry leaders have called on the European Commission to tell all border authorities to stand down the new entry-exit system (EES) if needed as fears increase of summer disruption.

European airports have warned of a potentially “disastrous� experience for passengers and huge queues unless the biometric controls for foreign visitors are relaxed.

Emails appear to show Mountbatten-Windsor attempting to introduce Epstein to UAE crown prince via foreign affairs minister

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor vouched for Jeffrey Epstein during a UK state visit to the United Arab Emirates with Queen Elizabeth II in 2010, according to newly released emails.

The email was sent from “The Duke� to Epstein on 24 November of that year, with the subject listed as “Abdullah� – an apparent reference to the UAE foreign affairs minister, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Although weakened by airstrikes, sanctions and domestic unrest, Tehran is surprisingly bullish before talks with US

When it comes to Iran and Donald Trump, there is so much bluff, backed by military hardware, that the truth rarely makes an appearance.

It appears that a bullish Iran is going into negotiations with the US on Friday adopting maximalist positions that do not seem greatly different to those it adopted in the five rounds of talks before the negotiations were abruptly halted by the surprise Israeli attack on Iran last June.

Bezalel Zini accused of role in taking goods into the occupied Palestinian territory during an Israeli blockade

The brother of Israel’s internal security chief has been charged with “assisting the enemy in wartime� for his alleged role in a smuggling network taking cigarettes and other goods into Gaza during an Israeli blockade of the occupied Palestinian territory.

Bezalel Zini was one of more than 10 people charged in relation to the alleged network. His brother, David Zini, is the head of the Shin Bet, the domestic intelligence agency. He was appointed by the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, last May and began the job in October.

President condemns ‘environmental and health crime’ as critics say Israel seeks to make southern Lebanon uninhabitable

Lebanon has accused Israel of spraying a herbicide linked to cancer on farmland in the south of the country as a “health crime� that would threaten food security and farmers’ livelihoods.

The country’s president, Joseph Aoun, condemned what he called “an environmental and health crime� and a violation of Lebanese sovereignty, and he vowed to take “all necessary legal and diplomatic measures to confront this aggression�.

Bankers and billionaires are flocking to the city where income tax is zero but critics say it ignores money laundering – and pay disparities are huge

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Aidan Doyle was an estate agent in Liverpool before he decamped to Dubai and turned a £30,000 annual income into £500,000 a year and climbing.

Acting as an agent for buyers and sellers, Doyle has seen his commission soar beyond anything he could hope to generate in the UK after just three years in the city, one of seven city-states in the United Arab Emirates.

Officials say calm restored to province day after dozens killed in suicide and gun attacks in at least 10 cities

Pakistan’s security forces have intensified their operations against separatist militants in Balochistan province who launched a large-scale assault on Saturday in which at least 31 civilians and 17 security personnel were killed.

A day after the militants carried out suicide attacks in the heart of the province’s capital, Quetta, the chief minister of the south-western region, Sarfraz Bugti, said 145 people he described as militants had been killed in 40 hours and that their bodies were in the custody of the authorities.

Five years after the junta’s coup, the civil war devastating Myanmar has reached a turning point. The military is carrying out large-scale counter-offensives across the country to reclaim territory seized by pro-democracy rebels of various ethnic and religious backgrounds

In Tanintharyi, the southernmost region of Myanmar, the local resistance has managed to contain the military. After five years of guerrilla warfare, the revolutionary youth there remain determined to restore democracy through armed struggle.

A long, narrow stretch of land at the southern tip of Myanmar, between the Andaman Sea to the west and Thailand to the east, Tanintharyi region is one of the areas where the resistance challenges the military’s authority. For decades, the region has been home to an armed rebellion led by the Karen ethnic minority, which operated mainly in the peripheral mountains.

Soldiers from the Karen National Union (KNU) inspect the ruins of a Buddhist monastery destroyed by a junta airstrike in Myeik district, Tanintharyi region

• Concern raised over politicisation of sport

• Bangladesh pulled out of men’s World T20 after row

Bangladesh’s withdrawal from the men’s T20 World Cup could have implications for India’s 2036 Olympic bid amid concern at the International Olympic Committee over the potential politicisation of sport.

Bangladesh pulled out of next month’s tournament last weekend after the International Cricket Council declined a request to move their group matches from India to the co-hosts Sri Lanka, after a long-running political row triggered by Kolkata Knight Riders’ decision to remove the Bangladeshi bowler Mustafizur Rahman from their Indian Premier League squad.

Human rights groups and some western countries have denounced the election, the first held since the 2021 coup, describing it as neither free nor fair

Myanmar’s military-backed party has completed a sweeping victory in the country’s three-phase general election, state media said, cementing an outcome long expected after a tightly controlled political process held during civil war and widespread repression.

The Union and Solidarity Party (USDP) dominated all phases of the vote, winning an overwhelming majority in the two legislative chambers in Myanmar. It secured 232 of the 263 seats up for grabs in the lower Pyithu Hluttaw house and 109 of the 157 seats announced so far in the Amyotha Hluttaw upper chamber, according to results released on Thursday and Friday.

Voting ends in month-long poll derided internationally as sham designed to cement army’s grip on power

Voting in Myanmar has ended with the military-backed party expected to win a landslide victory after a month-long election that has been widely derided as a sham designed to cement the army’s grip on power.

The junta leader, Min Aung Hlaing, has rejected criticism of the vote, saying it has the support of the public and presenting it as a return to democracy and stability.

While labels list dozens of possible risks only four are supported by evidence, say researchers

Almost all side-effects listed for statins are not caused by the drugs, according to the world’s most comprehensive review of evidence.

Other than the well-known risks around muscle pain and diabetes, only four of 66 other statin side-effects listed on labels – liver test changes, minor liver abnormalities, urine changes and tissue swelling – are supported by evidence. And the risks are very small, according to the systematic review and meta-analysis published in the Lancet.

Shabana Mahmood insists deportations will rise, as Labour government is accused of promoting ‘harmful stereotypes’ of migrants

Nearly 60,000 unauthorised migrants and convicted criminals have been removed or deported from the UK since Labour took office, the Home Office has said.

The announcement came amid claims that the government was promoting “harmful stereotypes� by equating migration with criminality.

Amid warnings McSweeney’s survival would leave his position ‘untenable’, PM apologises to Epstein’s victims for appointing Mandelson as US ambassador

Downing Street has defied calls to remove Keir Starmer’s most senior aide, insisting Morgan McSweeney retains the prime minister’s confidence, as frustration grows over a wait for documents on Peter Mandelson, which some fear could last for weeks.

Amid warnings from Labour backbenchers that McSweeney’s survival would leave Starmer’s position “untenable�, Starmer apologised to victims of Jeffrey Epstein for appointing Mandelson, a close friend of the convicted child sex offender, as US ambassador.

US president says deal, which he previously described as act of ‘great stupidity’, was ‘best’ PM could make

Donald Trump has watered down his criticism of the UK’s plan to hand the Chagos Islands back to Mauritius, saying the deal was the “best� Keir Starmer could make.

The US president had described ceding sovereignty of the British Indian Ocean Territory, which includes the Diego Garcia military base, as an “act of great stupidity� only last month. He also claimed the deal was one of many “national security reasons� why the US should acquire Greenland.

Vodafone also reviewing its contract with Global Counsel after revelations of former minister’s links to Jeffrey Epstein

Barclays has reportedly cut ties with the lobbying firm co-founded by Peter Mandelson, after intense scrutiny of the founders’ dealings with the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Vodafone has also said it is reviewing its contract for public affairs services with Global Counsel, which Mandelson co-founded in 2010 after Labour lost the general election.

Karoline Leavitt says director of national intelligence was there ‘to make sure that American elections are free of foreign interference’ while offering few details on her role

Amid the various winding comments throughout Trump’s speech today, he said that the Department of Education will officially issue its new guidance to protect the right to prayer in public schools today.

“Now the Democrats will sue us, but we’ll win it,� Trump said, eliciting some laughs from the audience at the National Prayer Breakfast. “They’ll sue us. They sue us for everything. I’m the most sued human being in history.�

Authorities respond to reports of crash at 99 Ranch Market after victims, some trapped under vehicle, die at scene

Three people were killed and six others were hurt after a car driver collided with a bicyclist and then slammed into a grocery store on Thursday afternoon in Los Angeles, authorities said.

The crash was reported shortly after noon at a 99 Ranch Market in the city’s Westwood neighborhood, according Los Angeles fire department spokesperson Lyndsey Lantz.

Tech giant reports $213bn in revenue after its founder, who owns the Post, lays off a third of newspaper’s employees

Amazon announced plans to spend $200bn on artificial intelligence and robotics this year, the latest tech giant to vow fresh enormous investments in the artificial intelligence arms race.

The news of the investment comes one day after the Washington Post, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, announced it was cutting approximately a third of employees.

Severe lack of public defenders has meant people charged with crimes have been routinely unable to fight their cases

The Oregon supreme court has ruled that a large number of criminal cases across the state must be dismissed due to a severe shortage of public defenders, a major decision that attorneys say will impact more than 1,400 pending cases.

The problem has been years in the making and has become a significant constitutional crisis, as people charged with crimes are routinely unable to fight their cases as they wait weeks, months or sometimes years for the state to appoint them lawyers. The attorney shortage – due in part to the increasing difficulty of recruiting attorneys for the low-salary, high-caseload jobs – has meant that people have had cases hanging over them for extended periods of time, impacting their housing, employment and families, advocates say.

Anonymous insider alleges director of national intelligence withheld classified information for political reasons

The Republican leaders of the House and Senate intelligence committees have rejected a top-secret complaint from an anonymous government insider alleging that Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, withheld classified information for political reasons.

The responses this week from Senator Tom Cotton and Congressman Rick Crawford mean the complaint is unlikely to proceed further, though Democratic lawmakers who also have seen the document said they continue to question why it took Gabbard’s office eight months to refer the complaint to Congress as required by law.