Opposition says trial was staged to entrench president Kais Saied’s authoritarian rule

A Tunisian court has handed down prison sentences of 13 to 66 years to politicians, businessmen and lawyers in a mass trial that opponents say is fabricated and a symbol of president Kais Saied’s authoritarian rule.

Businessman Kamel Ltaif received the longest sentence of 66 years on Saturday, while opposition politician Khayam Turki was given a 48-year jail term, a lawyer for the defendants said.

English-speaking minority refugees caught up in clashes between the military and separatists are stranded in neighbouring country

Amid the sound of children excitedly practising a drama for a forthcoming performance, a yam seller calls to passers by with discounts for their wares. Outside a closed graphic design shop overlooking them from a small hill, Solange Ndonga Tibesa tells the story of being uprooted from her homeland in north-west Cameroon.

In June 2019 she and other travellers were abducted with her three-month-old baby by secessionists, who accused them of supporting the military. Their captors repeatedly hit them with butts of their guns, keeping them in a forest without food or water.

Fire broke out during onboard cooking before wooden vessel capsized with 500 passengers aboard

The death toll from a boat fire and capsizing in the Democratic Republic of Congo earlier this week has risen to 148 with more than 100 people still missing, officials said on Friday.

About 500 passengers were on board the wooden boat when it capsized on Tuesday after catching fire on the Congo River in the country’s north-west.

United Arab Emirates says Sudan ‘misusing’ world court in proceedings relating to African nation’s civil war

The international court of justice will rule in the next few weeks on whether the United Arab Emirates can be plausibly found “complicit in the commission of genocide� by arming the Rapid Support Forces militia in Sudan’s civil war.

The case was brought by Sudan, whose acting justice minister, Muawia Osman, told the world court in The Hague last week that the country’s “ongoing genocide would not be possible without the complicity of the UAE, including the shipment of arms to the RSF�. Sudan wants ICJ judges to force the UAE to stop its alleged support for the RSF and make “full reparations�, including compensation to victims of the war.

Findings from Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro region indicate traditional eating habits in rural Africa can boost the immune system and reduce inflammation

Plantains, cassava and fermented banana drink should be added to global healthy eating guidelines alongside the olive oil, tomatoes and red wine of the Mediterranean diet, say researchers who found the traditional diet of people living in Tanzania’s Kilimanjaro region had a positive impact on the body’s immune system.

Traditional foods enjoyed in rural villages also had a positive impact on markers of inflammation, the researchers found in a study published this month in the journal Nature Medicine.

Joshua Sullivan was abducted from his church by four gunmen, but is now recovering and in ‘excellent condition’

South African police have rescued an American pastor who was abducted last week while he was conducting a sermon, as kidnappings have soared over the last decade in the country.

Three unidentified suspects were killed during the “high-intensity shootout� on Tuesday in which Joshua Sullivan, a missionary from Tennessee, was rescued, the Hawks, the police unit that deals with serious crime in South Africa, said in a statement.

Jennifer Vasquez Sura relieved husband is alive but Trump officials say in mocking X post he is ‘never coming back’

Jennifer Vasquez Sura, the wife of Kilmar �brego García, the man the Trump administration has admitted it mistakenly deported, expressed relief to learn he is alive after a Democratic US senator managed to meet with him in El Salvador – as the White House posted on social media that �brego García is “never coming back� to the US.

“It was very overwhelming – the most important thing for me, my children, his mom, brothers was to see him alive, and we saw him alive,� Vasquez Sura told ABC in an interview.

Report finds over a quarter of Canadians exposed to ‘more sophisticated and more politically polarizing’ fake content

More than a quarter of Canadians have been exposed to fake political content on social media that is “more sophisticated and more politically polarizing� as the country prepares to vote in a federal election, researchers have found, warning that platforms must increase protections amid a “dramatic acceleration� of online disinformation in the final weeks of the campaign.

In a new report released on Friday, Canada’s Media Ecosystem Observatory found a growing number of Facebook ads impersonating legitimate news sources were instead promoting fraudulent investment schemes, often involving cryptocurrency.

PM focuses on threat from across the border as most polls show his Liberals leading Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative party in tight race

Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, faced sustained attacks from his Conservative rival at an election debate on Thursday but the Liberal leader sought to focus attention on what he calls Canada’s top threat: Donald Trump, the US president.

Most opinion polls show Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative party trailing Carney’s Liberals ahead of the 28 April vote for Canada’s federal government.

Chris Van Hollen posts photo on X but does not provide update on status of man wrongly deported from US

The Maryland senator Chris Van Hollen met in El Salvador with Kilmar �brego García, a man who was sent there by the Trump administration in March despite an immigration court order preventing his deportation.

Van Hollen posted a photo of the meeting on X, saying he also called �brego García’s wife “to pass along his message of love�.

Two people injured after man took control of plane at knifepoint before being shot by another passenger

A US man has been shot dead after hijacking a small passenger plane and injuring two passengers in the Caribbean nation of Belize.

Fourteen passengers were onboard the aircraft when the hijacker, identified as Akinyela Sawa Taylor, took control of the flight at knifepoint. Two passengers were injured, including one who was stabbed in the back.

Lawyer says officials were looking for someone else while taking Juan Francisco Mendez in Massachusetts on Monday

A Massachusetts family is demanding answers from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), complaining its agents smashed a car window with a large hammer and detained a man whom they say had applied for asylum.

A lawyer for the family also claims agents were not looking for the man in the car, Juan Francisco Mendez, when they grabbed him on Monday in New Bedford while he was driving to a dental appointment. He is now believed to have been taken into Ice detention.

Twenty-one humanoid robots joined thousands of runners at the Yizhuang half-marathon in Beijing

Twenty-one humanoid robots joined thousands of runners at the Yizhuang half-marathon in Beijing on Saturday, the first time these machines have raced alongside humans over a 21km course.

The robots from Chinese manufacturers such as DroidVP and Noetix Robotics came in all shapes and sizes, some shorter than 1.2m, others as tall as 1.8m. One company boasted that its robot looked almost human, with feminine features and the ability to wink and smile. Some firms tested their robots for weeks before the race. Beijing officials have described the event as more akin to motor racing, given the need for engineering and navigation teams.

Beijing rejects Ukrainian president’s accusation as ‘groundless’ and says it is committed to ending the conflict

• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates

China’s foreign ministry has dismissed as “groundless� the accusation by Volodymyr Zelenskyy that the country had been supplying weapons to Russia.

The comments, made at a regular press briefing in Beijing on Friday, came a day after the Ukrainian president said China was supplying weapons to Russia, including gunpowder and artillery, and that Chinese representatives were involved in weapons production on Russian territory.

New rules part of effort to revive US shipbuilding, but penalties scaled back after warnings about impact on consumers

The Trump administration is forging ahead with plans to charge steep fees on Chinese-built ships for stopping at US ports in an effort to revive its shipbuilding industry, but scaled back the penalties after warnings about the impact on consumers.

The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) significantly watered down original plans from February, under which vessels built in China would be charged $3.5m (£2.6m) each time they docked at a US port. The US and China are locked in a trade war.

Growth in international hotels coincides with government effort to push region as a tourism destination

Almost 200 international hotels are operating or planning to open in Xinjiang, despite calls from human rights groups for global corporations not to help “sanitise� the Chinese government’s human rights abuses in the region, a report has said.

The report by the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) identified 115 operational hotels which the organisation said “benefit from a presence in the Uyghur region�. At least another 74 were in various stages of construction or planning, the report said. The UHRP said some of the hotels also had exposure or links of concern to forced labour and labour transfer programmes.

Jensen Huang causes stir on social media and is reported to have met founder of AI company DeepSeek

• Business live – latest updates

The chief executive of the American chip maker Nvidia visited Beijing on Thursday, days after the US issued fresh restrictions on sales of the only AI chip it was still allowed to sell to China.

Jensen Huang’s surprise visit was on the invitation of a trade organisation, according to a social media account affiliated with state media.

Russia remains a key arms supplier in South-east Asia, and Trump’s unstable leadership is providing more opportunities to make inroads

A defence industry report claiming that Russia requested a permanent base for its warplanes in Indonesia’s remote Papua region, right on Australia’s northern doorstep, sent Canberra into a tailspin. But in Indonesia, it was the frenzy whipped up in Australia’s tight election campaign that came as the real surprise.

Foreign policy and defence experts are highly sceptical about the prospect that Jakarta would ever acquiesce to such a Russian request, and besides, it is hardly new. Moscow has sought permanent basing rights for its planes at Indonesia’s Biak airfield in Papua for almost half a century – and not once has it won approval.

Coalition appears to be losing support, but latest Essential poll shows 47% of voters on the fence, making the final 12 days crucial

• Polls tracker; election guide; full federal election coverage
• Anywhere but Canberra; interactive electorates guide
• Listen to the latest episode of our new narrative podcast series: Gina
• Get our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcast

The brief pause in election campaign hostilities over the Easter weekend will abruptly end on Tuesday, as the opening of early voting marks the start of the final push to the 3 May poll.

With opinion polls showing a collapse in support for the Coalition, Labor is now hopeful of retaining majority government – a result that appeared out of reach just a month ago.

Exclusive: Guardian Australia investigation into export abattoirs brings ‘necessary and commonsense’ commitment back to the spotlight

• Get our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcast

Labor will consider strengthening Australia’s independent animal welfare body following shocking revelations of welfare breaches and oversight failings in the nation’s export abattoirs.

A Guardian Australia investigation revealed on Saturday that government-employed veterinarians working inside the nation’s export abattoirs had repeatedly blown the whistle on “profound problems� with the system.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

After the Legalise Cannabis party’s strong 2022 election performance, Fiona Patten says she has ‘unfinished business’

• Polls tracker; election guide; full federal election coverage
• Anywhere but Canberra; interactive electorates guide
• Listen to the latest episode of our new narrative podcast series: Gina
• Get our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcast

More than a hundred peaceful picnickers gathered on the green grass of Melbourne’s Flagstaff Gardens support of the legalisation of cannabis on Sunday.

This year, the annual 20 April global celebration of cannabis (known as “420�), landed during a federal campaign in which independents and minor parties are expected to play a defining role.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

This blog is now closed.

• Anywhere but Canberra: Australian voters on what matters to them
• Interactive guide to electorates in the Australian election
• Listen to the latest episode of our new narrative podcast series: Gina
• See all our Australian election 2025 coverage
• Get our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcast

Bandt asked about housing and gas

Staying with the ABC where Adam Bandt was asked whether the Greens would be prepared to phase out the concessions over a longer period of time to prevent a mass sell-off of investment properties, which could send rents spiralling.

We are willing to consider any ideas. This is part of the reason it would be good for the public service to start work on this now.

But there is a much simpler solution than what Peter Dutton is proposing, which is just stop the corporations like Santos from dipping into the domestic markets to fulfil future contracts. Do that and you do not need to open new gas fields, which is what Peter Dutton wants to do.

So what we’re saying is that we need to ensure that younger generations have the same chance at owning a home as previous generations have.

How would we do it? We’ve got to really, I guess, defuse this timebomb in a way that is fair because there would be a lot of people who have one investment property.

With Peter Dutton’s views on climate change in the spotlight, the focus has turned onto whether there will be any policies to reduce emissions in the next decade

• Election 2025 live updates: Australia federal election campaign
• Polls tracker; election guide; full federal election coverage
• Anywhere but Canberra; interactive electorates guide
• Listen to the latest episode of our new narrative podcast series: Gina
• Get our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcast

The Coalition is refusing to say if it will introduce any policies to cut Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions in the next decade as it pledges to unwind most climate measures introduced under Labor.

Peter Dutton’s position on the climate crisis came under scrutiny last week after he gave contradictory answers on whether he accepted mainstream climate science. Asked during a leaders’ debate on the ABC whether extreme weather events were worsening, the opposition leader said: “I don’t know because I’m not a scientist�.

Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter

Dropping a Labor goal of 82% of electricity coming from renewable generation by 2030 and slowing the rollout of solar and windfarms, in part by scrapping a “rewiring the nation� fund to build new transmission connections. Instead, it says the country would rely on more fossil fuels – coal and gas-fired power – until it could lift a ban on nuclear energy and build taxpayer-owned nuclear generators, mostly after 2040.

Abolishing fines for car companies that do not meet targets to cut the average emissions from the new cars they sell.

Not supporting Labor’s 2030 emissions reduction target. Former diplomats say lowering the target would put Australia in breach of commitments made in the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

Opposing a joint Australia-Pacific bid to host a major UN climate summit in Adelaide next year.

An increasingly confident prime minister has bounced back from his campaign missteps while a nervous-looking opposition leader is running out of time to make a comeback

• Election 2025 live updates: Australia federal election campaign
• Polls tracker; election guide; full federal election coverage
• Anywhere but Canberra; interactive electorates guide
• Listen to the latest episode of our new narrative podcast series: Gina
• Get our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcast

Two weeks until the 3 May election day and Anthony Albanese is cracking jokes about Star Wars.

Every profile and sketch of the prime minister during this campaign – which is now past its halfway – speaks of the confidence and even swagger Albanese projects as he travels the country. It is one of the starkest differences to his 2022 campaign, which was dominated by missteps: forgetting key economic figures, then his untimely Covid diagnosis and images of being chased out of a press conference by journalists.

‘Easter truce’ ordered by Putin on Saturday but Ukraine president says Russian army continuing efforts to advance. This live blog is closed

• Zelenskyy dismisses Putin ceasefire as ‘PR’ and says Russian attacks continue

Easter falls on the same day this year for orthodox and western churches, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy has urged Ukrainians not to give up hope that peace will one day return.

Here are some of the latest images coming out of the newswires from Ukraine where festivities continue despite Russian attacks:

We are documenting every Russian violation of its self-declared commitment to a full ceasefire for the Easter period and are prepared to provide the necessary information to our partners.

In practice, either Putin does not have full control over his army, or the situation proves that in Russia, they have no intention of making a genuine move toward ending the war, and are only interested in favorable PR coverage. It’s a good thing, at least, that there were no air raid sirens.

Ukraine reports drone and artillery strikes over Easter weekend, while Moscow also claims ceasefire breaches by Kyiv

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has dismissed Vladimir Putin’s Easter ceasefire as a fake “PR� exercise and said Russian troops had continued their drone and artillery attacks across many parts of the frontline.

Citing a report from Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, Zelenskyy said Russia was still using heavy weapons and since 10am on Sunday an increase in Russian shelling had been observed.

Incidents over Baltic Sea come after UK’s deployment of six jets to eastern Poland to defend Nato airspace

RAF fighter jets have intercepted two Russian aircraft flying close to Nato airspace over the Baltic Sea.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said two RAF Typhoons were scrambled from Malbork airbase in Poland on Tuesday to intercept a Russian Ilyushin Il-20M “Coot-A� intelligence aircraft.

Rating agency downgrades Ineos Quattro as it says ‘trade barriers’ could affect it for next two years

Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s loss-making chemicals business could take longer than expected to recover its financial health because of Donald Trump’s trade tariffs, analysts have said.

The billionaire industrialist has faced growing concerns over the state of his chemicals group amid problems with his business interests in Manchester United and All Blacks rugby.

Laurie Lee and Robert Graves among ‘English-speaking Quixotes’ in new book celebrating literary love for all things Spanish

Almost 200 years ago, the pioneering British travel writer Richard Ford offered an observation that has been happily ignored by the legions of authors who have traipsed in his dusty footsteps across Spain, toting notebooks, the odd violin or Bible, and, of course, their own particular prejudices.

“Nothing causes more pain to Spaniards�, Ford noted in his 1845 Handbook for Travellers in Spain, “than to see volume after volume written by foreigners about their country.�

Pope Francis has attributed two miracles to the London-born teenager, who built websites for church and died of leukaemia

He was a London-born teenager with leukaemia who spread his faith by building websites, later gaining the moniker “God’s influencer�.

And now Carlo Acutis, a computer prodigy who died at the age of 15 in 2006, will become the first millennial canonised by the Catholic church next week, in St Peter’s Square.

IDF says it is dismissing deputy commander for giving ‘inaccurate report’ on shooting that caused global outcry

Israel’s military has admitted to several “professional failures� and a breach of orders in the killing of 15 rescue workers in Gaza last month, and said that it was dismissing a deputy commander responsible.

The deadly shooting of eight Red Crescent paramedics, six civil defence workers and a UN staffer by Israeli troops, as they carried out a rescue mission in southern Gaza at dawn on 23 March, had prompted international outcry and calls for a war crimes investigation.

Russia touted as possible destination for Iran’s uranium stockpile and could also act as arbiter of deal breaches

Russia could play a key role in a deal on the future of Iran’s nuclear programme, with Moscow being touted not only as a possible destination for Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, but also as a possible arbiter of deal breaches.

Donald Trump, who abandoned a 2015 nuclear pact between Tehran and world powers in 2018 during his first term, has threatened to attack Iran unless it reaches a new deal swiftly that would prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.

Home Office intervened after initial ruling allowing grandmother with terminal cancer to join family in Glasgow

A Syrian refugee says the Home Office has “broken her heart� by trying to bar her mother, who has weeks to live, from coming to the UK to spend her final days with the grandchildren she has never met.

Ola Al Hamwi fled Syria with her husband, Mostafa Amonajid, in 2015. They had lost their baby after a bombing and were unable to take Al Hamwi’s mother, Soaad Al Shawa, with them.

Palestinians pushed into new misery as supplies of food, fuel and medicine run out in seven-week siege

Gaza has been pushed to new depths of despair, civilians, medics and humanitarian workers say, by the unprecedented seven-week-long Israeli military blockade that has cut off all aid to the strip.

The siege has left the Palestinian territory facing conditions unmatched in severity since the beginning of the war as residents grapple with sweeping new evacuation orders, the renewed bombing of civilian infrastructure such as hospitals, and the exhaustion of food, fuel for generators and medical supplies.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, and US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff will resume talks in Rome on Saturday

Iran’s top negotiator believes reaching an agreement on its nuclear programme with the US is possible as long as Washington is realistic, as the two sides prepare to resume talks in Rome on Saturday.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, and the US Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, will begin indirect negotiations through mediators from Oman, after their first round in Muscat, which both sides described as constructive.

Death toll reportedly hits 80 with 150 wounded in deadliest attack since Washington launched its campaign

US military strikes on Yemen’s Ras Isa fuel port have killed at least 80 people including civilians and rescue workers, according to the Houthi-run health ministry, in the deadliest attack since Washington launched its campaign against the Iran-backed militants.

The rebels’ Al-Masirah TV, citing local officials, said the toll from the strike had “risen to 80 dead and 150 wounded�.

Worshippers are frisked on entering temple in Kandy where relic is held and photography is strictly prohibited

Sri Lankan police have launched an investigation into a photo circulated on social media claiming to show a Buddha tooth relic, which has gone on display under tight security.

The Criminal Investigation Department was ordered to determine whether the widely shared image was taken during the rare display of the relic, police said.

Former City minister denies allegations she received land illegally from her aunt, the ousted PM Sheikh Hasina

The former City minister Tulip Siddiq has said an arrest warrant issued against her in Bangladesh over allegations she illegally received a plot of land from her aunt, the country’s ousted former prime minister, is a “politically motivated smear campaign�.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, the Hampstead and Highgate MP said: “No one from the Bangladeshi authorities has contacted me. The entire time they’ve done trial by media. My lawyers proactively wrote to the Bangladeshi authorities, they never responded.

Unctad says many countries targeted with high tariff rates are unlikely to be a threat to US

• Business live – latest updates

The UN’s trade and development arm, Unctad, is calling on Donald Trump to exempt the world’s poorest and smallest countries from “reciprocal� tariffs, or risk “serious economic harm�.

In a report published on Monday, Unctad identifies 28 nations the US president singled out for a higher tariff rate than the 10% baseline – despite each accounting for less than 0.1% of the US trade deficit.

Former City minister accused of illegally receiving plot of land from her aunt, ousted PM Sheikh Hasina

An arrest warrant for the former City minister Tulip Siddiq has been issued in Bangladesh with a new allegation accusing her of illegally receiving a plot of land from her aunt, the ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina.

Bangladeshi media reported the warrant was issued by a judge for 53 people connected to Hasina, including Siddiq. There is no formal extradition treaty between the UK and Bangladesh.

Temperatures exceeding 40C trigger deadly thunderstorms, as Mali agency issues hot weather warning

Northern India has been experiencing early extreme heat this week as temperatures topped 40C (104F), including in the capital, New Delhi.

Hot weather across the north-west of the country peaked on Tuesday as Barmer, a city in the state of Rajasthan, reached 46.4C – more than 6C above the average maximum in April.

Daughter of Peter and Barbie Reynolds, 79 and 75, says they have ‘no idea’ why they have been in jail for two months

An elderly British couple taken captive by the Taliban have been interrogated 29 times since they were imprisoned more than two months ago, and still have “absolutely no idea� why they have been incarcerated, their daughter has said.

No charges have been brought against Peter Reynolds, 79, and his wife, Barbie, 75, who ran school training programmes and were arrested alongside an American friend, Faye Hall, as they travelled to their home in Bamyan province, in central Afghanistan, in February.

Exclusive: Price of importing drugs for a Paris and Birmingham study has almost quadrupled to £175,000

• NHS cancer patients denied life-saving drugs due to Brexit costs, report finds

British clinical trials of revolutionary cancer treatments are being derailed by red tape and extra costs caused by Brexit, according to a report obtained by the Guardian.

These two examples illustrate how the UK’s departure from the EU is harming UK cancer research, leaving patients in limbo and unable to access pioneering treatments.

Exclusive: Britons found to have ‘lost out’ while rest of Europe benefits from golden age of research and treatments

• ‘Children with cancer cannot wait’: the human cost of clinical trial delays after Brexit

British cancer patients are being denied life-saving drugs and trials of revolutionary treatments are being derailed by the red tape and extra costs brought on by Brexit, a damning report warns.

Soaring numbers are being diagnosed with the disease amid a growing and ageing population, improved diagnosis initiatives and wider public awareness – making global collaborations to find new medicines essential.

Meeting called with justice secretary after attack on three guards at HMP Frankland

Prison officers will demand the immediate issue of electric stun guns to protect staff guarding Britain’s most dangerous jails when they meet the justice secretary this week.

Wednesday’s meeting with Shabana Mahmood was called after the attack on three guards at HMP Frankland, allegedly by the convicted terrorist Hashem Abedi. Two were seriously injured after being doused in hot cooking fat and stabbed, one five times in the torso, in a sustained assault.

Duke of York attends royal family’s traditional Easter service at Windsor Castle with Sarah, Duchess of York

The Duke of York has appeared at the Easter Sunday service at Windsor Castle with King Charles, days after it emerged that an alleged spy helped him write birthday letters to China’s president.

Prince Andrew arrived at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, with the princess royal, as well as his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, and Anne’s husband, Vice-Admiral Sir Tim Laurence.

Videos tagged #ElectronicMusic attracted more than 13bn views worldwide last year, an increase of 45% on 2023

It is another example of the parallel worlds in the music industry. The Gallagher brothers may be taking over the world’s stadiums this summer, but over on TikTok users are moving to a different beat.

Views of posts using electronic music as a soundtrack, including techno and house, outgrew those tagged for indie and alternative for the first time in 2024, according to the social media app.

Chefs, home cooks and supermarkets are discovering exciting new varieties that come in all shapes and sizes

When life gives you pithy cedro lemons and sweet Tacle mandarins, what exactly do you make with them?

British chefs and home cooks are increasingly embracing new and unusual varieties of citrus in recipes, with supermarkets and greengrocers offering a rising number of speciality fruits. Retailers like M&S now offer punnets of kumquats, while Waitrose has reported a 27% rise in sales of yuzu juice.

If enacted changes would be one of the biggest reorganizations of department since its founding in 1789

A draft Trump administration executive order circulating among US diplomats proposes a radical restructuring of the US state department, including drastic reductions to sub-Saharan operations, envoys and bureaus relating to climate, refugees, human rights, democracy and gender equality.

The changes, if enacted, would be one of the biggest reorganizations of the department since its founding in 1789, according to Bloomberg, which had seen a copy of the 16-page draft, which first reported on the draft.

• Police found 21-year-old at home after wellness check
• Safety was a decorated high school player in Kansas

Missouri State safety Todric McGee has died at the age of 21 after what has been described as a possible accidental shooting.

A Springfield Police Department spokesperson said officers had gone to McGee’s home for a wellness check on Friday morning after receiving a call. They found McGee, who they believe had suffered a “possible accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound�. He was taken to a local hospital but died from his injuries.

President’s attack on universities echoes efforts by Reagan and McCarthy – but experts say ‘we’re seeing much worse’

The showdown between Donald Trump and Harvard University may have exploded into life this week, but the battle represents just the latest step in what has been a decades-long war waged by the right wing on American academia.

It’s a fight by conservatives that dates back to Ronald Reagan, the hitherto spiritual leader of the Republican party, all the way to McCarthyism and beyond, experts say, as the rightwing scraps to seize more control in a manner that is “part of a standard playbook of authoritarianism�.

Guttmacher report finds 155,000 people crossed state lines for procedure – double number who did so before Roe’s fall

For the second year in a row, abortion providers performed more than 1m abortions in the United States in 2024. About 155,000 people crossed state lines for abortions – roughly double the number of patients who did so in 2020, before the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade and paved the way for more than a dozen state-level abortion bans to take effect.

These numbers, released earlier this week by the abortion rights-supporting Guttmacher Institute, have not changed much since 2023, when the US also performed more than 1m abortions and 169,000 people traveled for the procedure.

Don Pettit became septuagenarian hurtling towards Earth after seven-month mission at International Space Station

Cake, gifts and a low-key family celebration may be how many senior citizens celebrate their 70th birthday.

But Nasa’s oldest serving astronaut, Don Pettit, became a septuagenarian while hurtling towards Earth in a spacecraft to wrap up a seven-month mission onboard the International Space Station (ISS).

Aditya Wahyu Harsono, father of infant with special needs, surprised at work despite valid visa through June 2026

An Indonesian father of an infant with special needs, who was detained by federal agents at his hospital workplace in Minnesota after his student visa was secretly revoked, will remain in custody after an immigration judge ruled Thursday that his case can proceed.

Judge Sarah Mazzie denied a motion to dismiss the case against Aditya Wahyu Harsono on humanitarian grounds, according to his attorney. Harsono, 33, was arrested four days after his visa was revoked without notice. He is scheduled for another hearing on 1 May.