Published
11 minutes ago

Ugandan Olympic marathon runner Rebecca Cheptegei, who was set ablaze by her former boyfriend and later died, is due to be buried in a state funeral on Saturday.

Dickson Ndiema attacked her with petrol just under a fortnight ago outside her home in north-west Kenya, close to where she trained.

The 33-year-old's killing, and its brutal nature, left her family distraught and shocked many others across the world.

It underscored the high levels of violence against women in Kenya and the fact that several female athletes have been victims in recent years.

Cheptegei died in hospital four days after the attack. Doctors said she had suffered burns on more than 80% of her body which "led to multi-organ failure".

Ndiema, who was also burned after some of the fuel splashed on his own body, died on Monday.

He attacked the mother-of-two after she returned from a service at a church, the God's Dwelling Ministry.

The pastor there, Caroline Atieno, remembers a "wonderful... God-fearing person".

After hearing about what had happened, she managed to speak to Cheptegei on the phone while she was in hospital.

The athlete first asked about her children, who were both fine, the pastor told the BBC's Africa Daily podcast.

Then Cheptegei talked about her attacker: "You mean Dickson is not able to see all I have done for him? He could not remember even one or two things I have done for him and stop setting me on fire? Why has he done this to me?"

Cheptegei's funeral is being held in Bukwo, home to her family in Uganda and close to the Kenyan border.

On Friday, family members, friends and activists against gender-based violence viewed her coffin at a funeral home in the Kenyan town of Eldoret, before it was driven away.

Her mother, Agnes Cheptegei, covering her face in anguish, was wearing a souvenir bag that the athlete received at the recent Paris Olympics, where she came 44th in the marathon.

She was dressed in a T-shirt which had the slogan "being a woman should not be a death sentence" printed on it.

The mother-of-two was the third female athlete to be killed in Kenya over the last three years. In each case, current or former romantic partners were named as the main suspects by police.

In 2021, world-record holder Agnes Tirop was stabbed to death and six months later Damaris Mutua was strangled.

Attacks on women have become a major concern in Kenya. In 2022 at least 34% of women said they had experienced physical violence, according to a national survey.

Some observers are saying that female athletes are becoming increasingly vulnerable.

"[This is] because they go against traditional gender norms where the woman is just in the kitchen and just cooking and taking care of kids. But now female athletes are becoming more independent, financially independent," said Joan Chelimo, who co-founded Tirop’s Angels to help highlight the issue of violence against women.

"We don't want this to happen to any other woman, whether an athlete or from the village, or a young girl," Rachel Kamweru, a spokesperson of the government's department for gender and affirmative action, told the BBC.

When Cheptegei first got into running, she joined the Uganda People’s Defence Forces in 2008 which helped support her.

Her last race was at the Paris Olympics. Although she came 44th people in her home area still referred to her as "champion".

She won gold at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in 2022.

Go to BBCAfrica.com, external for more news from the African continent.

Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, external, on Facebook at BBC Africa, external or on Instagram at bbcafrica, external

Published
1 hour ago

Taylor Swift has just endorsed Kamala Harris – but it’s not just her vote Harris is after, it’s her millions of fans.

Weeks before Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris on Instagram, the gears had already begun to turn Swift’s millions of fans into bona-fide Harris voters.

Soon after Harris announced her intention to run for president, Irene Kim, 29, who spends as many as 14 hours a day talking to fellow Swifties online and has attended more than five of Taylor Swift’s Eras tour concerts, sprung into action. Along with other mega-fans who supported Harris, they created social media accounts, memes, montages, and newsletters, all in a bid to help their favourite candidate win the election.

I’ve been going inside the world of the Swifties ahead of the Presidential vote for the second season of BBC Radio 4’s podcast Why Do You Hate Me USA. Subscribe to the podcast for episodes soon. I’ll be investigating how the online world of social media is shaping the US election. And when it comes to social media, Taylor Swift supporters are considered leaders of the pack.

Now the executive director of the Swifties for Kamala campaign, Ms Kim decided to get involved because she wants the US to see its first female president and believes Kamala Harris will “protect our rights, the rights of our friends, our family members”.

With more than 3,500 volunteers, the Swifties for Kamala would seem like an experienced political operation. The group has even raised over $165,000 (£126,000) for the campaign since they began tracking donations from 1 August.

But Ms Kim, who says she has never participated in political campaigning like this before, thinks everyone came together in a really “natural” way. They’re using the skills she says they’ve developed - from strategising how to buy tickets for the sold-out Eras tour and auctioning off merchandise like signed Taylor Swift records - to try and swing an election.

The Swifties for Kamala group is volunteer-led and independent of the Harris campaign, but they have been in touch.

The conversations are “surprisingly more casual than you would expect”, Ms Kim tells me. They aren’t entirely about the online world either - they’re about translating that into real-world action.

“They’re [the campaign] helping facilitate things like volunteer sign-ups and helping us coordinate volunteer training,” Ms Kim says. Not just for in-person canvassing but also text and phone banking.

“We can make requests. We really wanted a photo of Doug [Kamala’s husband] standing behind Kamala so we could do the like ‘he lets her bejewelled’ joke.”

The BBC reached out to the Harris campaign for comment, but did not get a response.

The online world is a key battleground for both campaigns, and memes and videos from supporters that feel more authentic than paid-for ads could be effective at reaching younger, disengaged voters.

The army of Swifties could also be a way for the Harris campaign to go head-to-head with Donald Trump’s already very active base of supporters online. They operate a bit like a fandom too, and have proved effective at pushing out endless memes and pictures for the former president. Endorsements from - for example - tech boss Elon Musk have also sent Musk’s devoted army of followers on X Trump’s way too.

All of that keeps Donald Trump at the top of some social media feeds. But that can backfire.

In one meme, which the former president shared on social media, an AI generated image of Swift endorsed Trump.

In her Instagram post endorsing Kamala Harris, Taylor Swift specifically cited misleading images of her supporting Trump as a reason to speak now.

“It brought me to the conclusion that I need to be very transparent about my actual plans for this election as a voter. The simplest way to combat misinformation is with the truth,” she said in her post, that was liked more than 10.7m times.

Although Swift’s endorsement specifically told her fans “your research is all yours to do, and the choice is yours to make”, Swifties for Kamala is hoping that call to vote will translate into votes for Harris.

Ms Kim says the group didn’t know the endorsement was coming, but had planned for it anyway, hoping it would yield a wave of new volunteers.

Since the post, it’s been “absolutely madness in the best way”, she says.

According to Ms Kim they’ve seen a spike in voter registration activity and a “huge boost on social media” because of the endorsement. She also says it’s been a “huge morale” boost for the Swifties involved in the group.

Taylor Swift’s online supporters have a reputation too for being devoted to her whatever it takes - and that can include being ferocious to those they see as her enemies.

Will they be trolling Trump supporters? Ms Kim says the group has actually come up with guidelines of their own about this to try to stop it from happening.

“They are very specifically about conducting yourself in a way that is respectful and specifically not engaging with hate online. And that also includes not posting hate. Have a respectful conversation,” Irene tells me.

There are Swifties too who are Trump, rather than Harris supporters. Some Swifties for Trump accounts have been set up - although currently with fewer followers than Swifties for Kamala.

Several profiles belonging to Trump-supporting Taylor Swift fans have posted about her endorsement saying it hasn’t changed their mind about who they’ll vote for.

Ms Kim says they want to reach as many voters as possible – and that they hope their shared love of Swift will help them find common ground on Harris.

“We don’t want to make anyone feel like they’re isolated or alienated,” she explains. She thinks Swifties for Kamala could be especially useful in reaching “conservative women” who are “now realising the political beliefs they were raised with don’t always align with what they feel and believe”.

So, will Swifties affect the presidential race?

The group has had hundreds of thousands of views on TikTok, but that doesn’t mean those voters are even based in the US. And they might have been people already planning to vote for Kamala Harris.

Nonetheless, in an election that could be decided by just a few hundred thousand votes in a handful of states, any boost in voter registration and voter turnout could tip the scales.

Younger voters, who make up the majority of Swift’s fans, have historically had a lower voter turnout, which means that there is more room for gains.

Ms Kim thinks Swifties and their social media know-how are a secret weapon.

“I never would have imagined this in my wildest dreams. We've had a lot of moments where we've, like taken a step back to be like, I think we're actually making a difference and that's like really cool.”

What will happen next? And how is what unfolds in the social media world shaping the US election? Subscribe to Why Do You Hate Me USA on BBC Sounds. Episodes coming soon.

Published
1 hour ago

What is it called when an artist's first album is already a greatest hits collection?

That's the question I kept asking during Chappell Roan's first UK show of 2024 on Friday.

Normally, concerts ebb and flow, but the audience at the Manchester Academy knew more than just the singles. They sang every word, every ad lib, of every song - some with mascara running, others with hands clasped to their chests.

At times, Chappell herself was drowned out. At others, she simply stopped and listened, as the fans chanted her lyrics back at her.

It's a phenomenon - or, to use Chappell's terminology, a Femininomenon - that only occurs once in a blue moon.

I saw it when Olivia Rodrigo played her first UK dates in 2022. I saw it when One Direction hit Wembley Stadium. And I saw it on the first leg of Amy Winehouse's Back To Black tour, before excitement turned to concern.

It happens when an artist speaks directly to their fans. More accurately, it happens when fans feel like an artist is speaking on their behalf.

For Chappell's audience, the devotion is particularly potent because of what she represents.

The 26-year-old is the first pop star to achieve mainstream success as an openly queer person, rather than coming out as part of their post-fame narrative.

Her debut album, The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess, is a real-life coming of age story, full of messy, complex relationships and tentative sexual experimentation.

She made the first half of it while dating a man, until she realised her lyrics had exposed her true feelings.

“I wrote a lot of queer songs while I was dating him, even though I had never even kissed a girl,” she told the Q with Tom Power podcast last year., external.

“It was something I wanted so bad, but I didn’t know how to make it real,” she added, in a BBC interview this April.

In those songs, Roan draws on the power-pop sounds of Lady Gaga and Britney Spears, skewing them with campy cheerleader chants and bawdy sexual asides.

Her calling card is Pink Pony Club, the semi-autobiographical story of a small-town girl’s transformation into a go-go dancer, written after her first visit to a Los Angeles gay club in her early 20s.

But her break-out hit was this year's Good Luck Babe, about a fling with a girl who insists she's not gay.

At first, the song is one big eye-roll: Just shut up and admit the truth, Chappell insists, before you get trapped in a loveless, heterosexual marriage of convenience.

Then, in the closing bars, the song slows down like a toy whose batteries have run out. It’s the end of the argument. Chappell has screamed her case to the point of exhaustion. She drops an octave and sings, “you’d have to stop the world just to stop this feeling", and her voice is quietly resigned. This is one last plea, and she knows it will fall on deaf ears.

It's superb songwriting - pointed and specific, full of meaning.

Fans in Manchester said lyrics like those make her more important than other pop stars.

"Being a big, mainstream queer artist is really important," said Manchester fan Sarah. "She’s what we’ve been waiting for in pop music for a long time."

"When I first heard her, I looked her up and I was like, 'She looks like me, she’s queer like me and she’s killing it'," agreed Bethan, who had travelled to the show from Bristol.

"I was like, that’s my girl."

"If I was a younger, like a teenager, looking up to Chappell Roan, that would have been really inspiring," added Kim, a Newcastle fan who was at the gig to celebrate her third wedding anniversary with her wife, Jules.

"It’s something I would have really gripped onto. It would have helped us through the coming out phase."

For the uninitiated, Chappell Roan was born Kayleigh Rose Amstutz in the conservative city of Willard, Missouri, in 1998.

The eldest of four children, she grew up in a trailer park and attended church three times a week, where she was taught that being gay was a sin.

Shy and awkward, her life changed in 2014 when a song she’d written at summer camp and uploaded to YouTube caught the attention of several record labels.

Whisked out to Los Angeles and signed to Atlantic Records, she released her first EP, a downbeat, singer-songwriter affair, in 2017.

It sold poorly and when the pandemic hit, she was dropped amid a round of money-saving lay-offs. Despondent, she went back to Missouri and took a job serving coffee at a drive-through donut shop.

But she stayed in touch with one of her collaborators, Daniel Nigro, who was simultaneously working with another up-and-coming pop star called Olivia Rodrigo.

When Rodrigo's career took off, Nigro used the cachet to sign Chappell to his own label and they wrote her album together, discarding the self-seriousness of her teenage material and diving headfirst into hedonism.

“A lot of it is audience participation based,” she told me earlier this year. “I just tried to think, what's really hooky and what would be fun to sing with a crowd. Those were my parameters.”

The album came out to almost universal disinterest last September, selling just 3,000 copies in its first week. But it ended up on a few critics' end-of-year lists and, as word began to spread, Roan went out as a support act on Rodrigo's Guts tour.

After the first few dates, fans started coming to the shows early just to see her performance.

But the hot streak really kicked off with her televised set at the Coachella Festival in California this April. When Chappell leaned into the TV cameras and declared: “I’m your favourite artist’s favourite artist," the show went viral. It's subsequently been watched more than a million times.

She went on to dominate New York’s Governors Ball, where she memorably coated herself in green body paint and dressed as the Statue of Liberty; and Chicago’s Lollapalooza, where she drew the festival’s biggest-ever crowd - some 80,000 people - even though she wasn’t a headliner.

By the summer, The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess had ascended to the top of the UK album charts. Earlier this week, she won best new artist at the MTV Awards.

As is so often the way, however, success has come at a price.

Chappell took to social media last month, asking some fans to stop being obsessive and "creepy", after one grabbed her and kissed her in a bar. In another incident, police at LAX Airport had to intervene when a fan who wanted an autograph wouldn’t take “no” for an answer.

“I’ve been in too many nonconsensual physical and social interactions and I just need to lay it out and remind you, women don't owe you [anything]," wrote the singer on Instagram, external.

The audience in Manchester took no such liberties. They were "day one" fans - people who'd bought their tickets in January, before the singer's meteoric rise to fame - and they wanted to celebrate with her.

Scalpers were offering over £1,000 for tickets that had a face value of £19.50 - but no-one was selling.

Instead, they came dressed in the mermaid outfits Chappell had requested. There were fishtails, bikinis, and crowns befitting of Princess Ariel. One brave fan came dressed as a jellyfish. A couple who described themselves as "masculine-presenting" lesbians wore sailors outfits.

Chappell also joined the fun, wearing a one-piece bodysuit encrusted with pearls and seashells.

And she dedicated the show to the fans, saying their acceptance mattered as much to her, as her music did to them.

"Thank you for dressing up," she said. "Thank you for being here and showing up for the [LGBTQ+] community.

"I really needed this when I was 15. I needed it so bad to be in a room full of people that looked like me.

"The people in my hometown would call gay people clowns. That’s why I actually wear white face [drag make-up], because of how those people called us clowns.

"I was like, 'Bitch I’ll show you a clown'."

Cue a deafening round of applause.

And that's before we even discuss the show itself.

As a performer, Chappell is the full package. She doesn't have the budget (yet) for a spectacular stage set, but she's a pyrotechnic all of her own - a finger-snapping, hair-tossing, force of nature.

Backed by a full live band, her vocals are flawless. She moves seamlessly between her lower and upper registers, belting the high notes with a slight country twang, but equally capable of dropping to a hushed, heartbroken whisper.

Highlights included Coffee - a tentative ballad about meeting up with an ex - and the lemon-bitter My Kink Is Karma, which got an invigoratingly grungy rock makeover.

The crowd participation moments that the star envisaged in the recording studio also came to bounteous fruition.

Hot To Go, which she's described as "YMCA, but gayer", came with big goofy dance moves; and Red Wine Supernovas's singalong chorus gave me actual goosebumps.

Amusingly, the singer says her teenage self would have been horrified by this spectacle.

“I think she would be like, ‘Oh my God, you're so corny’," she told me in April.

“I don't think I'd have allowed myself to be silly back then. She’d think I’d sold out. But I'm not a sellout. I'm actually just having a good time.

“I love pop music and I make silly pop music because people want to have fun.”

Mission accomplished.

Published
1 hour ago

When she walks into the courthouse in the French city of Avignon, flanked by her children and a team of lawyers, Gisèle Pelicot cuts an unassuming figure.

The 72-year-old mother and grandmother, her hair styled into a neat bob, wears colourful dresses and Breton tops. She looks down as she passes the dozens of journalists gathered by the entrance, her eyes hidden by round-framed sunglasses.

Behind them, as she has put it, lies a "field of ruins".

Nearly every day since 2 September, Gisèle Pelicot has been at the centre of a trial in which 51 men are accused of raping her, including the man she was married to for 50 years.

As her story has rippled through France since the trial began, she has become a symbol of courage and resilience.

"I was sacrificed on the altar of vice," she said, explaining how she had learned that Dominique Pelicot had drugged her to sleep and recruited men to treat her "like a rag doll" for over 10 years.

The trial, due to run until December, has so far heard evidence from lawyers, police, psychiatrists, and from another woman whose husband drugged and raped her following instructions by Dominique.

The Pelicots’ daughter, Caroline, who believes her father abused her when she was unconscious, has also taken the stand.

Dominique Pelicot has admitted the charges against him, although he denies abusing his daughter.

Unsettling details of the defendants' pasts, psyches and alleged crimes have filled the airwaves, news websites and social networks.

This kind of access has only become possible because Gisèle has waived her right to anonymity.

In a case of such magnitude it is an unusual decision, not least because it means thousands of videos of the alleged rapes filmed by Dominique Pelicot - in some cases surreptitiously - will eventually be played in open court.

Gisèle's only request was that her children be allowed to leave the room when that happens.

Her legal team said opening up the trial would shift the "shame" back on to the accused.

Above all, the case has ignited a painful – and often uncomfortable – discussion about rape that many in France say is long overdue.

Protests are due to be held across the country on Saturday "in support of Gisèle Pelicot and of all rape victims".

When Gisèle gave evidence that she had to "start over from scratch" and was now only living off a small pension, an influencer set up an online collection that made €40,000 (£33,700) in under a day. It was quickly shut down following a request from Gisèle's legal team, who saw it as a possible distraction.

One key issue this case has thrown up is the little-discussed phenomenon of chemical submission – drug-induced assault in the home.

In 2022, 1,229 people in France suspected they had been drugged without their knowledge, according to Leila Chaouachi, a pharmacist at the Paris addiction monitoring centre and an expert on drug rape.

That number is probably “only the tip of the iceberg”, she believes. Victims often hesitate to file legal complaints because they know the assailant, they might be ashamed, or they have hazy memories of what happened.

Complaints also need to be filed before the substances disappear from the body, which is not always possible.

For the 10 years her husband was drugging her, Gisèle Pelicot had unexplained neurological symptoms as well as gynaecological issues, and yet no-one put the clues together.

It points to a lack of awareness of chemical submission as a phenomenon.

Dr Chaouachi says training healthcare professionals and police is important, because the key to stemming the issue lies in recognising that there are others out there besides Gisèle.

“We have the right to be shocked, but we also need to recognise that these aren't isolated cases,” she says.

“When we only focus on the justice system and investigators, we're hiding behind them in some way. I think it's a broader societal issue, and therefore it's societal change that we need.”

Judging from opinions voiced on the streets of Paris, that view is not universally accepted.

“It's a private affair,” said one man, who thought the case was awful but still an isolated event and not one for public debate.

“I don't understand why the media are making such a big deal about it. It is because people like drama, gossip.”

A friend agreed: “If you hadn’t asked the question, we would’ve never discussed this."

But a female companion said they were both wrong: “It's important this case is public... it raises a broader issue and raising awareness of it is necessary for change.”

What has shocked so many in France is the sheer number of men involved in the case.

Police were only able to identify 50 suspects out of the 83 that appeared in Dominique Pelicot’s videos.

Their ages range from 26 to 68 and they hail from all walks of life - firefighters, pharmacists, labourers and journalists. Many are fathers and husbands.

Of the other men accused, 15 admit rape, but all the others admit only to taking part in sexual acts.

“What shocked me even more is that so many men could have done this - more than 50 ‘normal’ men, who all lived nearby," said Caroline, a 43-year-old doctor from Paris.

"[Pelicot] didn't even have to look very far for them. It really scares me because it is a reflection of society. It's not the norm, but there are too many.”

Céline Piques of feminist organisation Osez le Féminisme hopes the fact that the accused come from ordinary backgrounds and all kinds of professions will mean that this trial has a lasting impact.

"It demolishes the myth of the rapist who is a psychopath... they raped because they were sure of their impunity."

Another concern that has not escaped the large numbers of women across France who are following the Pelicot case is that many other men knew and did nothing.

Dominique Pelicot had invited men to have sex with his wife “without her knowledge” in a post on the Coco.gg website, which was shut down only last June. Last year it counted 500,000 visitors a month.

“One hundred per cent of these people... never made a phone call to stop this abuse,” says Céline Piques. “Not one man thought about informing the police of these criminal facts.”

The Avignon trial is also dredging up questions over the language surrounding rape.

The defence of many of the accused hinges on the premise they did not “know” they were raping Gisèle - in other words, that they thought they were having consensual intercourse with her.

Some have accused Dominique Pelicot of “manipulating” them into believing they were taking part in an erotic game in which Gisèle was only pretending to be asleep because she was shy.

At least two of the defendants stated they did not feel they had raped Gisèle because she had been “offered” to them by her own husband, and one man said he did not consider his actions rape because "for me, rape is when you grab someone off the street".

"I don't have the heart of a rapist," he added.

Summing up this line of defence earlier this week, Guillaume De Palma, a lawyer for six of the defendants, caused outrage when he said that “rape is not always rape”, and argued that “without the intention of committing rape, there is no rape".

In French law, rape is sexual penetration obtained by constraint, violence or surprise – and Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyers are expected to argue that “surprise” covers the case of a sedated or unconscious woman.

But the comments caused outrage and dismay in the courtroom and beyond.

Gisèle's daughter Caroline stormed out of the trial exclaiming “I am ashamed of the justice system”, while the president of the court suspended the session amid a mood that reporters described as “extremely tense”.

Other lawyers reportedly distanced themselves from De Palma’s comments.

With the trial due to run for three more months, France’s soul searching will continue.

“It has shown how far behind we are at all levels,” said Sandrine Josso, an MP who was the victim of an attempted drug rape by a senator in 2023.

Thanks to Gisèle Pelicot, she said “we lift the veil, and we discover a lot of things”.

The ordinary nature of the couple at the centre of the trial – middle-class pensioners and grandparents – has made it easy for observers to identify with the story.

“I thought it could be my mother, my sister… and my father,” said Charley, a 35-year-old man living in Paris.

“For me, it's the trial of the century,” he added.

“There will be a before – and there will be an after.”

Additional reporting by Eva Van Dam

Published
14 September 2024, 00:28 BST

UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer did not signal any decision on allowing Ukraine to use long-range missiles to hit targets inside Russia after talks with US President Joe Biden in Washington.

When asked if he had persuaded Biden to allow Ukraine to fire long-range Storm Shadow missiles into Russia, Sir Keir said they had had "a long and productive discussion on a number of fronts, including Ukraine, as you would expect, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific".

The White House said they also expressed "deep concern about Iran and North Korea's provision of lethal weapons to Russia".

Earlier Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Western nations not to let Ukraine fire long-range missiles at Russia.

Putin said such a move would represent Nato's "direct participation" in the Ukraine war.

Addressing reporters ahead of his meeting with Sir Keir at the White House, Biden said: "I don't think much about Vladimir Putin".

To date, the US and UK have not given Ukraine permission to use long-range missiles against targets inside Russia, for fear of escalation.

However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly called on Kyiv's Western allies to authorise such use, saying it is the only way to bring about an end to the war.

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ukrainian cities and front lines have been under daily bombardment from Russia.

Many of the missiles and glide bombs that hit Ukraine's military positions, blocks of flats, energy facilities and hospitals are launched by Russian aircraft deep inside Russia.

Kyiv says not being allowed to hit the bases from which these attacks are launched hinders its self-defence capability.

The UK previously said Ukraine had a "clear right" to use British-provided weapons for "self-defence" which "does not preclude operations inside Russia", following Kyiv's surprise cross-border incursion last month.

However, this excludes the use of long-range Storm Shadow missiles in territory outside Ukraine's internationally recognised borders.

The US provided long-range missiles to Ukraine earlier this year, but like Kyiv's other Western allies these have not been authorised for use on targets deep inside Russia.

Asked if he was intimidated by Putin's threats of a potential war with Nato, Sir Keir said "the quickest way to resolve" the war in Ukraine "lies through what Putin actually does".

Sir Keir said the White House meeting with Biden was an opportunity to discuss the strategy in relation to Ukraine, "not just a particular step or tactic".

The pair also discussed the situation in the Middle East, where the Israel-Gaza war has been raging for nearly a year, and "other areas across the world", Sir Keir added.

He told reporters they would get another opportunity to discuss these issues at the United Nations General Assembly next week.

In a separate briefing on Friday, ahead of the two leaders' meeting, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Washington was not planning any change in the limits it has placed on Ukraine's use of US-made weapons to hit Russian territory.

Earlier on Friday, Moscow expelled six British diplomats, revoking their accreditation and accusing them of spying.

The country's security service, the FSB, said in a statement it had received documents indicating Britain's involvement in inflicting "a strategic defeat" on Russia. The accusations were dismissed by the UK Foreign Office as "completely baseless".

In an interview with the BBC, UK defence analyst Justin Crump said Putin was testing the new Labour government and the outgoing Biden administration.

"Ultimately Russia already supplies weapons to the UK's adversaries, and is already engaged in 'active measures' such as subversion, espionage, sabotage, and information/cyber operations against Nato members' interests.

"This may all accelerate, but picking a fight against all of Nato is not something Russia can afford given how hard they're struggling against just Ukraine," Mr Crump added.

Also on Friday, the US announced new sanctions against the Russian media channel RT, accusing it of being a "de facto arm of Russia's intelligence apparatus".

The top US diplomat, Antony Blinken, told reporters RT is part of a network of Russian-backed media outlets, which have sought to covertly "undermine democracy in the United States".

In response to US allegations that RT had sought to influence elections, RT’s editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan - who was sanctioned by the US last week - said they were excellent teachers, adding that many RT staff had studied in the US, and with US funding.

Russia's foreign ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said there should be a "new profession" in the US, of specialist in sanctions imposed on Russia.

Published
4 hours ago

More men have come forward to the BBC accusing the former chief executive of Abercrombie & Fitch and his British partner of sexual exploitation. Some allege they were abused, and some that they were injected with drugs.

Luke says he was shocked as he was guided into Mike Jeffries’ presidential suite in a hotel in Spain. "It was like a movie set of an Abercrombie store," he recalls of the event in 2011. "And I thought we were going to do a photoshoot."

He says the room was dimly lit with erotic photos of men’s abs adorning the dark walls. In the middle, a group of assistants dressed in Abercrombie & Fitch uniforms - polos, blue jeans and flip-flops - were casually folding clothes on a table, pretending to be shop workers, he says.

Then aged 20, Luke says he had been offered the chance of being in a company advert if he flew from his home in Los Angeles to Madrid to meet the CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F).

Luke says the proposal had come via a modelling website from a man who said he worked as a talent scout and executive assistant for Mr Jeffries - then head of the billion-dollar teen retailer.

Warning: This story contains accounts of sexual violence

In the suite, he says Mr Jeffries' assistants began engaging in role-play, encouraging him to act as a shirtless greeter, a hallmark of A&F stores at the time. Luke says he remembers the talent scout saying: "Now I have two very important guests, and these are going to be the customers that you need to impress and entertain because they're going to be buying a lot of clothes from you."

At that moment, he says Mr Jeffries and his life partner, Matthew Smith, came out of a corner of the room. They immediately started touching him and Mr Jeffries forcibly kissed him, he says. "I was trying to avoid the whole situation as much as I could, but Michael was very aggressive." He says the Abercrombie boss then performed oral sex on him.

“I tried to say no repeatedly. And then I just got kind of convinced to do something. But I constantly was saying no, and I wanted to go.”

___

Luke (not his real name) is one of eight more men who have spoken to the BBC in the past year since we revealed allegations of sexual exploitation at events hosted by Mr Jeffries and Mr Smith. The FBI launched an investigation following the BBC’s reporting, and 20 men in total have now told us they attended or helped organise these events.

As well as Luke’s allegation, the new witnesses reveal fresh details about the scale of the events, which took place from at least 2009 until 2015 while Mr Jeffries was chief executive.

The BBC previously found there had been a sophisticated operation involving a middleman tasked with finding men for these events, but the new testimonies detail additional recruitment methods.

The men also raise new questions about the role of Mr Jeffries' assistants - a select group of young men in A&F uniforms who travelled around the world with him and supervised these sex events.

According to multiple men, Mr Jeffries' assistants injected some attendees in the penis with what they were told was liquid Viagra.

Chris, not his real name, told the BBC he felt he was "going to die" after one of these injections caused an extreme reaction during an event at one of Mr Jeffries' New York homes. Feeling "hot, dizzy" and in shock, he said nobody called for an ambulance. Still disorientated, he said Mr Jeffries and Mr Smith, who had been waiting in another room, then tried to have sex with him.

Former model Keith Milkie, 31, says one of Mr Jeffries' assistants had also "bragged" about having done some work for Abercrombie & Fitch at the same time as working at these sex events. He says this assistant was named on an event itinerary and the BBC found he also had an A&F company email.

While personal assistants of Mr Jeffries’ were often dressed in A&F uniforms, this is the first claim that a member of A&F staff was involved in the running of Mr Jeffries' sex events. When the BBC asked the company about this, it declined to answer, saying it does not comment on legal matters.

Mr Jeffries, 80, Mr Smith, 61, and A&F - which also owns the brand Hollister - are facing a civil lawsuit alleging the retailer funded a sex-trafficking operation over the two decades he had been in charge.

Mr Smith and Mr Jeffries did not respond to requests for comment. However, their lawyers’ have previously said they deny allegations of wrongdoing, adding: "The courtroom is where we will deal with this matter."

One former attendee, Diego Guillen, who says he has been interviewed by the FBI, told the BBC he was paid $500 (£380) every Saturday to make wake-up calls to men expected to attend these sex events in 2011. He estimated he made about 80 calls over seven months.

Mr Guillen, 42, says there was also a roster of attendees. Other sources have said this "database" could have as many as 60 different men on it at any given time, revealing a snapshot of the scale of those recruited.

He says he had initially attended sex events at Mr Jeffries' former New York homes after being recruited on the street by the couple’s middleman, James Jacobson.

Mr Guillen, now a lawyer and real estate broker who runs his own firm, says he had never had sex for money before, but at the time he was unemployed and homeless, sleeping in a friend’s office. Despite his circumstances then, he says he did not feel exploited.

After the FBI turned up at his door, Mr Guillen says he contacted Mr Jeffries' lawyer who sent a private investigator to interview him to help build their legal defence.

Mr Guillen says the other men present at the events he attended had been "under no obligation, under zero pressure" and "paid quite well".

"Michael and Matthew are high profile gay men and liked having sex with young, handsome men. And being older, they knew that the real way to get this done was to be generous," he says. "But with full consent and making sure that the [men] wanted it and liked it. And that's it."

Unlike other men who were recruited by the middleman, Luke says his initial contact was an assistant working for Mr Jeffries’ family office - a private company run by Mr Smith, which managed the then-CEO’s wealth and properties.

Luke says this assistant interviewed him over Skype, telling him to expect to be topless for the Madrid hotel photoshoot, but there were no obvious red flags. This man then organised his travel and accommodation, he says.

"It didn't seem like anything too out of the ordinary for me because even working at an Abercrombie store when I was younger, there was guys who would stand outside shirtless. That was like a trademark thing," says Luke.

Leaked travel plans show Mr Jeffries was scheduled to be in Madrid several times in 2011 ahead of opening a real A&F store.

The night before the event, Luke says he was paid €3,500 (£2,950) in cash, which he believed was "general spending money" for the three days he was in Madrid. But he says the assistant was "vague" about the plan.

World Of Secrets - The Abercrombie Guys

Hear two new episodes on BBC Sounds or here, external if you are outside the UK

He says in the hotel suite, Mr Jeffries and Mr Smith began having sex with two slightly older men - one he thought was in his 30s and the other in his 40s - present for the same event. Luke says Mr Jeffries' then started kissing him. Soon after, he says Mr Jeffries performed oral sex on him and Mr Smith attempted to do the same. He says he tried to perform "some sort of oral" sex on Mr Jeffries, but "couldn't".

"I'm getting fired because I didn't do what this guy wanted," Luke remembers thinking, believing he was about to lose his chance of a modelling job. "I could have just ran out of that room, but I didn't even know how I would have gotten out."

Luke says he felt unable to leave as Mr Jeffries' assistants - whom he perceived as security staff - were "watching exits".

Back home in the US, he says he felt unable to report what happened because of the non-disclosure agreement he had signed prior to the event.

"There's an immense amount of shame associated with this idea that you're not a masculine man if you've been molested or taken advantage of by another man," says Luke, who identifies as straight.

"My whole life I've struggled with people thinking that I'm gay and I got bullied in high school because I have a soft voice. The last thing on earth I was going to do is say something emasculating, like, I got molested and orally raped by a guy."

Luke says what happened in Madrid was "rocket fuel" for a drug addiction he later developed. In 2016, he was arrested for selling drugs and served six months in a correctional boot camp. He now runs his own business alongside helping people with addictions.

Keith Milkie says he attended numerous events hosted by Mr Jeffries and Mr Smith between 2012 and 2014. He says he understood these events would be sexual but that nothing Mr Jacobson said could "prepare you for what's going to happen" next.

Then aged about 20, Mr Milkie says he had been struggling to pay his rent after being invited to move to New York by an agent, who ran a house full of aspiring models. He says a housemate soon introduced the idea of escorting, and a contact later introduced him to Mr Jacobson.

Mr Milkie, who identified as straight at the time, says he found some of the events "uncomfortable" and "painful". On one occasion, in Paris, he says Mr Jeffries instructed him to have sex with another man, which he "did not want or enjoy".

During another, he says he was verbally abused by Mr Jeffries after saying "no" to a risky sexual act while on board the Queen Mary 2, an ocean liner which sails from England to New York. He says Mr Jeffries was drunk and tried to insert a "bleeding finger" into him.

"I was in the bed putting on a fake smile, crying on the inside," he says. "Here I am in the middle of the ocean having this person four times my age in that position of power and influence belittle me to death and literally call me worthless… simply because I said no to something."

He says Mr Jacobson paid him about $24,000 (£18,400) in cash for the seven-night cruise.

According to his event itineraries, which had been sent by Mr Jacobson, another of these sex events was just days after it had been publicly announced Mr Jeffries was stepping down as CEO of A&F in December 2014. Mr Milkie believes that final meeting marked the end of these events.

"The personification of Mike Jeffries is Abercrombie. He had the hair plugs, the plastic surgery, he wore the clothes, he wore the flip-flops. I mean, you talk about power. He projected his image on the entire country. His places where he lived were literally an Abercrombie store. It was like fantasy land," he says.

"Without that sort of power, that sort of fear and influence, I imagine it's just like a lot harder to keep people quiet, which is why years later people are talking about it."

After the BBC’s initial investigation was published last year, A&F announced it was opening an independent investigation into the allegations raised. When we recently asked when this report will be completed - and if the findings would be made public - the company declined to answer.

Like Mr Jeffries and Mr Smith, the brand has been trying to get the civil lawsuit against it dismissed, arguing it had no knowledge of "the supposed sex-trafficking venture" led by its former CEO - which it has been accused of having funded.

Earlier this year, a US court ruled that A&F must cover the cost of Mike Jeffries' legal defence as he continues to fight the civil allegations of sex-trafficking and rape. The judge ruled the allegations were tied to his corporate role after he sued the brand for refusing to pay his legal fees.

The brand said it does not comment on legal matters. However, in its defence submitted to court, A&F said its current leadership team was "previously unaware of" the allegations until the BBC contacted it, adding the company "abhors sexual abuse and condemns the alleged conduct" by Mr Jeffries and others.

Mr Jacobson - the middleman - previously said in a statement through his lawyer that he took offence at the suggestion of "any coercive, deceptive or forceful behaviour on my part" and had "no knowledge of any such conduct by others".

Published
12 September 2024

The presence of hard-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer alongside Donald Trump on the campaign trail in recent days has raised questions, including from some Republicans, about the influence the controversial former congressional candidate may have on him.

Ms Loomer is well-known for her anti-Muslim rhetoric and for spreading conspiracy theories, including that the 9/11 attacks were an "inside job" carried out by the US government.

She joined Trump at an event on Wednesday commemorating the attacks, raising eyebrows and prompting outrage in some US media outlets.

And on Tuesday, the 31-year-old travelled to Philadelphia on board Trump's plane for the presidential debate in the city.

Perhaps the most memorable moment of that debate came when Trump repeated a baseless claim that illegal immigrants from Haiti have been eating domestic pets in a small Ohio city. "They are eating the pets of the people that live there," he said.

City officials later told BBC Verify that there have been “no credible reports" this has actually happened.

Trump said he was repeating claims he had heard on television, but the theory was aired by Ms Loomer just a day before the debate. On Monday, the fringe pundit and social media influencer repeated the claims to her 1.2m followers on X.

While the level of access Ms Loomer has to Trump is unclear, and his running mate JD Vance has also spread the baseless theory, external, Ms Loomer's post and her presence in Philadelphia has led some Republicans to blame her for the former president making the unfounded claim on stage.

An anonymous source close to the Trump campaign told US news outlet Semafor, external that they were "100%" concerned about Ms Loomer's proximity to Trump.

“Regardless of any guardrails the Trump campaign has put on her, I don’t think it’s working,” the source was quoted as saying.

A number of senior Republican politicians have also publicly criticised Ms Loomer and cautioned against Trump bringing her into his inner circle.

"Laura Loomer is a crazy conspiracy theorist who regularly utters disgusting garbage intended to divide Republicans," North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

"A DNC [Democratic National Committee] plant couldn't do a better job than she is doing to hurt President Trump's chances of winning re-election," Mr Tillis added.

Speaking at a news conference in California on 13 September, Trump said only that Ms Loomer is "a supporter" and that he was unaware of recent comments she made about Harris, or her comments about 9/11.

“I don’t control Laura. Laura has to say what she wants. She’s a free spirit," he added

Ms Loomer did not respond to several requests for comment from the BBC.

But on Twitter/X, she said that she operates "independently" to help Trump, who she referred to as "truly our nation's last hope".

"To the many reporters who are calling me and obsessively asking me to talk to them today, the answer is no," she wrote. "I am very busy working on my stories and investigations and don’t have time to entertain your conspiracy theories."

Born in Arizona in 1993, the self-styled investigative journalist has worked as an activist and commentator for organisations including Project Veritas and Alex Jones's Infowars.

In 2020, she ran - with Trump's support - as a Republican candidate for the US House of Representatives in Florida, but lost to Democrat Lois Frankel.

She tried again two years later, when she unsuccessfully ran to unseat Representative Daniel Webster in a Republican primary in a different Florida district.

Now, she is known for her vocal support of Trump and for promoting a long string of conspiracy theories including claims that Kamala Harris is not black, and that the son of billionaire George Soros was sending cryptic messages calling for Trump's assassination.

These posts led her to be banned from a number of platforms including Facebook, Instagram and even, according to her, Uber and Lyft for making offensive comments about Muslim drivers. She once described herself as a “proud Islamophobe”.

Ms Loomer frequently attends events in support of Trump and has been seen previously at his Florida residence Mar-a-Lago.

Earlier this year, she travelled on his plane to Iowa where she was given a shout-out by him on stage at an event. “You want her on your side," Trump said. The former president has also shared several of her videos on Truth Social.

And last year, the New York Times reported, external that Trump had expressed an interest in hiring her for his campaign, relenting only after top aides expressed concern that she could damage his electoral efforts.

“Everyone who works for him thinks she’s a liability,” one Trump aide said of Ms Loomer in a report in NBC News in January.

Another outspoken Trump supporter, Marjorie Taylor Greene, took issue with Ms Loomer this week over her comments questioning Harris's race and a post in which she said the White House "will smell like curry" if Harris - who is partly of Indian descent - is elected.

Greene said Ms Loomer's comments were "appalling and extremely racist" and did "not represent who we are as Republicans or MAGA" - prompting a flurry of furious messages in her direction.

This feud in Trump's orbit played out just a day after Ms Loomer appeared at events with Trump commemorating the anniversary of 9/11 in New York and Pennsylvania.

Asked about her attendance there by the Associated Press, she said she did not work for the campaign and was "invited as a guest".

Published
5 hours ago

Donald Trump has said he will mass deport migrants in a small Ohio town that has been rocked by baseless claims that its Haitian influx are eating pets and park animals.

"We're going to start with Springfield," Trump said on Friday, adding the town had been "destroyed" by immigration. He mentioned a second city in Colorado, which right-wing commentators have falsely claimed is in the hands of a Venezuelan gang.

Springfield officials say that the debunked claim of pet-eating has sent shockwaves through its community, and has led to violent threats that have shut schools.

President Joe Biden appealed for calm on Friday, calling criticism of Haitians in Springfield "simply wrong".

"This has to stop, what he’s doing. It has to stop," Mr Biden said of Trump's statements.

The Republican candidate's promise comes after nearly a week of false claims about migrants killing pets and children in Springfield.

The claims of animal eating, which Trump repeated in his debate with Kamala Harris on Tuesday, has been debunked by Springfield's police chief and mayor, as well as Ohio Governor Mike DeWine.

On Friday, three schools in Springfield were evacuated due to bomb threats. At least one of the threats made disparaging comments about Haitians, according to Springfield Mayor Bob Rue.

It comes after city hall and several other buildings, as well as one school, were evacuated on Thursday due to threats.

Trump was asked whether he was considering a visit to the town during a press conference at his golf course in Los Angeles on Friday.

"I can say this, we will do large deportations from Springfield, Ohio – large deportations. We're going to get these people out. We're bringing them back to Venezuela," he said.

The migrants in Springfield are mostly from Haiti, and have legal permission to be in the US under a federal programme for Haitians.

It was not immediately clear why Trump mentioned Venezuela. Although throughout his remarks he made references to an influx of Venezuelan migrants to Aurora, Colorado, and said deportations would also begin there if he won the presidential election in November.

On Friday, Ohio Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted posted a photo online of two migratory Canadian geese. "Most Americans agree that these migrants should be deported," he said.

Published
13 September 2024

Pope Francis has called both major US presidential candidates "against life" and advised Catholic voters to choose the "lesser evil" when casting their ballots in the November election.

The pontiff said not welcoming migrants - seemingly referring to Trump - is a "grave" sin, and compared Kamala Harris's stance on abortion to an "assassination".

“Both are against life, be it the one who kicks out migrants, or be it the one who kills babies,″ the Pope said in rare political comments at a Friday news conference as he wrapped up a 12-day tour through southeast Asia.

The Pope did not refer to Harris or Trump by name in his comments.

American Catholics make up 52 million of the 1.4 billion Catholics globally.

Pope Francis was asked to consul Catholic voters during the in-flight news conference and noted in his remarks that he was not an American and would not be voting in the election.

But he encouraged Americans to vote.

"Not voting is ugly. It is not good. You must vote," he said.

"You must choose the lesser evil. Who is the lesser evil? That lady, or that gentleman? I don't know. Everyone, in conscience, (has to) think and do this."

The Pope has frequently criticised abortion, which is forbidden by Catholic teaching, in sharp terms.

"Forcing a child from the mother's womb is an assassination because there is life there," Francis said.

And this is not his first time making critical comments about Trump.

During the 2016 election, he described Trump as "not Christian" because of the presidential contender's anti-immigrant language.

"Expelling migrants, not letting them develop, not letting them have a life is an ugly thing, it's mean," he said on Friday.

Trump has repeatedly promised to crack down on illegal immigration and as recently as Friday afternoon said he would deport millions of immigrants if re-elected.

Harris has promised to expand nationwide protections for access to abortion after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.

Pope Francis's remarks come days after Trump and Harris debated one another for the first time. The pair was expected to take the debate stage one more time before election day, but Trump has said he would not debate Harris again.

Published
7 hours ago

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has announced new sanctions against the Russian media channel RT, accusing it of being a "de facto arm of Russia's intelligence apparatus".

The top US diplomat told reporters on Friday that RT is part of a network of Russian-backed media outlets which have sought to covertly "undermine democracy in the United States".

He added that the Russian government has "embedded within RT, a unit with cyber operational capabilities and ties to Russian intelligence".

RT live-streamed Mr Blinken's remarks on X and declared it the "US's latest conspiracy theory".

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said there should be a "new profession" in the US, of specialist in sanctions imposed on Russia.

Responding to US allegations that RT had sought to influence elections, RT’s editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan who was sanctioned by the US last week said they were excellent teachers, adding that many RT staff had studied in the US, and with US funding.

The State Department accused the state broadcaster, formerly Russia Today, of engaging in "information operations, covert influence, and military procurement" in countries in Europe, Africa, and North and South America.

Mr Blinken also accused RT of running online fundraisers to purchase body armour, sniper rifles, drones and other equipment for Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine.

The network, he said, has also sought to influence Moldova's politics in coordination with Russian intelligence ahead of presidential elections in October 2024.

The US had already indicted two RT employees for allegedly attempting to interfere in this year's presidential election, but US officials said on Friday the state broadcaster played a bigger role in Russia's efforts to undermine democracies.

The state-funded media organisation responded at the time by mocking the US government's accusations, saying in a statement to the BBC that "2016 called and it wants its clichés back".

"Three things are certain in life: death, taxes and RT's interference in the US elections."

Mr Blinken said in a press conference: "Our most powerful antidote to Russia's lies is the truth. It's shining a bright light on what the Kremlin is trying to do under the cover of darkness."

Mr Blinken emphasised that the sanctions were not related to the content of the outlet's reporting, and he affirmed the US's support for independent journalism.

"Covert influence activities are not journalism," he said.

The announcement is part of a suite of actions the US government has taken against Russian state media as the 2024 election approaches. The State Department has also designated RT as a foreign mission.

Published
13 September 2024

Boeing workers have gone on strike after they overwhelmingly rejected a tentative deal between union representatives and the plane maker that included a 25% pay rise.

More than 30,000 workers in Seattle and Portland downed their tools from midnight Pacific Time (07:00 GMT) on Friday.

The walkout is another setback for the firm, which is facing deepening financial losses.

It is also struggling to repair its reputation after a series of safety issues, including two fatal crashes.

The stand-off adds to the challenges facing Boeing's new chief executive Kelly Ortberg, who was appointed last month with a mission to turn the business around.

Almost 95% of the union members - who produce planes including the 737 Max and 777 - voted in the ballot rejected the pay deal.

Of those who voted, 96% back strike action until a new agreement is reached.

"Our members spoke loud and clear tonight," said Jon Holden, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) District 751.

"We strike at midnight."

Speaking at an investor conference on Friday, Boeing chief financial officer Brian West said the impact on the firm would depend on the duration of the strike, which has shut down production of the firm's popular 737 planes.

He warned that the stoppage "will jeopardise" the firm's recovery and said the firm was focused on repairing its relationship with workers and reaching a deal.

"We want to get back to the table and we want to reach an agreement that is good for our people, their families, our community and our intent is to do just that," he said.

The walkout is a severe blow to Boeing and an embarrassment for Mr Ortberg, who had made a last-ditch plea to workers before the vote, warning that a strike would put the company's "recovery in jeopardy".

The question now is how long it will go on for. Boeing seems ready to get back to the table.

But there is an obvious breakdown in trust between management and the workforce – and equally between the workforce and the union leadership, who had said this was the best contract it had ever negotiated and had urged members to accept the deal.

As well as a 25% pay rise over four years, the preliminary agreement that workers rejected included a commitment from Boeing to build its next commercial plane in the Seattle area if the project started during the lifetime of the contract.

The union had initially targeted a number of improvements to workers' packages, including a 40% pay rise.

Mr West said it was clear there had been a "disconnect" and that Mr Ortberg was "personally" involved with finding a compromise.

On the face of it, it is hard to see a quick solution unless Boeing capitulates.

Analysts say an extended shutdown could cost the company and its suppliers billions.

On Friday, shares in the firm fell as Moody's warned that the situation could lead to a downgrade of Boeing's credit rating, an action that would make it more expensive for the firm to borrow.

The current contract between Boeing and the unions was reached in 2008 after an eight-week strike.

That walkout cost the company about $1.5bn (£1.14bn) a month, according to credit rating agency Moody's.

In 2014, the two sides agreed to extend the deal, which expired at midnight on Thursday.

“It’s never a good time for a strike, at least from the perspective of management, the current situation makes it even more problematic," said Greg Waldron, Asia Managing Editor at aviation news website FlightGlobal.

"Still, a great deal will depend on how long the strike lasts. Airline CEOs with 737 Maxes on order will be watching this closely,” Mr Waldron added.

Mr Ortberg's appointment came as Boeing found itself in a deepening crisis over its safety record. His predecessor Dave Calhoun had announced in the spring that he would step down.

In July, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to a fraud charge and a criminal fine of nearly $244m in connection with the fatal crashes of two of its 737 Max planes more than five years ago.

It is also facing other lawsuits and probes after a mid-air blowout in January of a door plug on a new plane flown by Alaska Airlines.

On top of mounting financial losses, the plane maker has slowed down its assembly lines, so that it is not even meeting a 737 Max production cap imposed by the US Federal Aviation Administration.

Mr West said the firm had been ramping back up its pace of production and had expected to meet that cap by the end of the year.

"There was very good momentum. Unfortunately there's now a strike," he said.

"My expectation is we'll pick right back up where we left off," he added. "But I don't know when."

Published
13 September 2024

Thirty-seven people - including three Americans, a Briton, a Belgian and a Canadian national - have been sentenced to death over an attempt to overthrow the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The men were accused of leading an attack on both the presidential palace and the home of an ally of President Félix Tshisekedi in May.

Christian Malanga, a US national of Congolese origin, the suspected leader of the plot, was killed during the attack, along with five others.

In total 51 people were tried in a military court, with hearings broadcast on national TV and radio.

Malanga's son Marcel, one of the US citizens sentenced to death, previously told the court that his father had threatened to kill him unless he took part.

His friend Tyler Thompson, was also given the death penalty. The pair, aged in their 20s, had played football together in Utah.

His stepmother Miranda Thompson in June told the BBC the family had "zero idea" how he had ended up in DR Congo.

"We were in complete shock as to what was happening, and the unknown. Everything we were learning was what we were getting off Google," she said.

The third American, Benjamin Zalman-Polun, had business interests with Christian Malanga.

Also sentenced to death was Jean-Jacques Wondo, a dual Congolese and Belgian citizen.

Human Rights Watch previously described him as a prominent researcher on regional politics and security, and suggested the evidence connecting him to the coup attempt was thin, external.

The AFP news agency reports that the Briton and Canadian nationals were of Congolese origin.

The court heard the British national, Youssouf Ezangi, had helped recruit some of the others who took part.

Of the 51 tried, 14 people were acquitted and freed, with the court finding they had no connection to the attack.

Those convicted have five days to appeal against their sentences.

Death sentences have not been carried out in DR Congo for roughly two decades - convicts who receive the penalty serve life imprisonment instead.

The government lifted this moratorium in March this year, citing the need to remove "traitors" from the nation’s dysfunctional army. However, no death penalties have been carried out since.

The attempted coup began in the capital, Kinshasa, in the early hours of 19 May. Armed men first attacked parliamentary speaker Vital Kamerhe’s home in Kinshasa then headed to the president’s official residence.

Witnesses say a group of about 20 assailants in army uniform attacked the palace and an exchange of gunfire followed.

An army spokesman later announced on national TV that security forces had stopped "an attempted coup d'etat".

Local media reports said the assailants were members of the New Zaire Movement linked to Malanga, an exiled DR Congolese politician.

Malanga was shot dead in the attack after resisting arrest, said army spokesperson Brig Gen Sylavin Ekenge.

President Tshisekedi was re-elected for a second term in disputed elections last year in December. He won about 78% of the vote.

DR Congo is a country with vast mineral wealth and a huge population. Despite this, life is difficult for many people, with conflict, corruption and poor governance persisting.

Much of the country's natural resources lie in the east where violence still rages despite Mr Tshisekedi's attempts to deal with the situation by imposing a state of siege, ceasefire deals and bringing in troops from neighbouring countries.

Additional reporting by Emery Makumeno in Kinshasa & Natasha Booty in London

Go to BBCAfrica.com, external for more news from the African continent.

Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, external, on Facebook at BBC Africa, external or on Instagram at bbcafrica, external

Published
13 September 2024

Justin Timberlake has reached a plea deal to bring his drink-driving case in the US to an end.

The pop star, who was originally charged with driving while intoxicated, has appeared in court in New York state, where he pleaded guilty to the less serious traffic offence of driving while impaired, which is non-criminal.

Timberlake has been ordered to pay a $500 (£380) fine with a $260 (£200) surcharge, do 25 hours of community service and make a public safety announcement outside court.

"Even if you've had one drink don't get behind the wheel of a car," the singer said.

"This is a mistake I have made, but I hope whoever is watching and listening right now can learn from this. I know I certainly have."

The 10-time Grammy winner was arrested on 18 June for going through a stop sign and failing to stay on the right side of the road in the Hamptons, a popular holiday destination for celebrities in New York.

When officers pulled him over, Timberlake's eyes were "bloodshot and glassy", and a "strong odour of an alcoholic beverage was emanating from his breath", according to a charging document.

He refused a breathalyser test and performed poorly on sobriety tests, the police said.

"I had one Martini and I followed my friends home," Timberlake allegedly told the officer who stopped him.

Outside the court on Friday, Timberlake's lawyer said the pop star had one drink over the space of two hours that night.

"A few weeks ago, I addressed all of you and said my client was not driving while intoxicated - after much discussion and a thorough review, today the DA [district attorney's] office decided not to move forward with that charge."

Timberlake first appeared in court last month, virtually from Europe, where he was on tour.

In that hearing, he denied driving while intoxicated, which in New York carries penalties including up to a year in jail, and had his driving licence suspended in the state, which is standard procedure after a DWI arrest.

Timberlake - who has been open about struggles with excessive drinking in the past - referred to the arrest days afterwards at a performance in Chicago, telling the crowd ''It's been a tough week'.

Published
13 September 2024

Germany has agreed to open the doors to 250,000 skilled and semi-skilled Kenyan workers in a controlled and targeted labour migration deal.

Kenya is struggling with increasing difficulties in providing work and sufficient income for its young professionals, while Germany is facing a shortage of skilled labour.

Five Kenyan bus drivers have already been welcomed to Flensburg, external, in the north of Germany, in a pilot project.

Migration agreements are a central pillar in the German government's efforts to curb immigration.

The agreement will also simplify the repatriation of Kenyans who are in Germany without legal permission.

Immigration is a huge issue in Germany at the moment, following the rise in popularity of the far-right anti-immigration party, Alternative for Germany (AfD).

Successive governments in Berlin have allowed relatively large numbers of asylum seekers to settle in the country in recent years.

Germany took in more than one million people, mostly fleeing war in countries such as Syria, during the 2015-2016 migrant crisis, and has received 1.2 million Ukrainians since Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022.

The labour deal was signed in Berlin by Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Kenya's President William Ruto.

Germany agreed to ease some of its immigration laws to enable Kenyans to find employment in Europe's biggest economy.

Authorities in Berlin will also consider extending temporary residence permits for Kenyan workers who have secured an approved job.

Kenyans will also be issued with long-term visas to study or do vocational training in Germany.

"On the expiry of the long-stay visa, Kenyans may receive a temporary residence permit for study purposes in Germany for up to two years," the agreement states.

The temporary residence permit may be extended if the purpose of residence has not yet been achieved but is achievable within a "reasonable" period, it adds.

According to the deal, IT specialists from Kenya will be allowed to enter and work in Germany, even if they do not have formal qualifications.

Both governments will support the immigration of skilled workers who have finished vocational training or earned a university degree, as long as their qualifications are recognised by the relevant authorities of the other party.

The deal also includes provisions for the readmission and return of citizens between the two nations.

It spells out guidelines to prevent and fight against labour exploitation, forced labour and human trafficking.

While welcoming five Kenyan drivers in Flensburg on Thursday, Schleswig-Holstein's Transport Minister Claus Ruhe Madsen said Germany was in need of hard-working hands and clever minds.

"We simply have to position ourselves in Germany in such a way that it is attractive to come here," Mr Madsen added.

The drivers are the first batch of Kenyan workers, who will be trained by the Aktiv bus company in a pilot project, hoping to get a job in Germany.

Doctors, nurses and teachers are among those expected to take part in the programme.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) said the deal was expected to significantly increase access to decent foreign jobs for Kenyan workers in Germany and address labour shortages in Germany.

"It includes mechanisms to protect the rights and welfare of Kenyan migrant workers in Germany, ensuring safe, orderly, and productive migration," ILO added in a statement, external.

But there are concerns about a brain-drain in Kenya with professionals like doctors and nurses going abroad for jobs, leaving local hospitals with a huge shortage of medical workers.

"It is sad that we are going to service other countries at the expense of our own country," Ekuru Aukot, a Kenyan lawyer and politician, told the BBC's Newsday programme.

But Roseline Njogu, a senior foreign affairs official, said Kenya was simply responding to the global labour market demands.

"We have a youth bulge in Kenya and every year we have a million people joining the local labour market. It takes time and resources to create job opportunities at home," she added.

Go to BBCAfrica.com, external for more news from the African continent.

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Published
13 September 2024

China will "gradually raise" its retirement age for the first time since the 1950s, as the country confronts an ageing population and a dwindling pension budget.

The top legislative body on Friday approved proposals to raise the statutory retirement age from 50 to 55 for women in blue-collar jobs, and from 55 to 58 for females in white-collar jobs.

Men will see an increase from 60 to 63.

China's current retirement ages are among the lowest in the world.

According to the plan passed on Friday, the change will set in from 1 January 2025, with the respective retirement ages raised every few months over the next 15 years, said Chinese state media. , external

Retiring before the statutory age will not be allowed, state news agency Xinhua reported, although people can delay their retirement by no more than three years.

Starting 2030, employees will also have to make more contributions to the social security system in order to receive pensions. By 2039, they would have to clock 20 years of contributions to access their pensions.

The state-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said in 2019 that the country's main state pension fund will run out of money by 2035 - and that was an estimate before the Covid-19 pandemic, which hit China's economy hard.

The plan to raise retirement ages and adjust the pension policy was based on "a comprehensive assessment of the average life expectancy, health conditions, the population structure, the level of education and workforce supply in China," Xinhua reported.

But the announcement has drawn some scepticism and discontent on the Chinese internet.

"In the next 10 years, there will be another bill that will delay retirement until we are 80," one user wrote on a Chinese social media site Weibo.

"What a miserable year! Middle-aged workers are faced with pay cuts and raised retirement ages. Those who are unemployed find it increasingly difficult to get jobs," another chimed in.

Others said they had anticipated the announcement.

"This was expected, there isn't much to discuss.

"Men in most European countries retire when they are 65 or 67, while women do at 60. This is going to be the trend in our country as well," one Weibo user said.

China's huge population has fallen for a second consecutive year in 2023 as its birth rate continues to decline.

Meanwhile, its average life expectancy has risen to 78.2 years, external, officials said earlier this year. According to the World Health Organization, almost a third of China's population - about 402 million people - will be aged over 60 by 2040, up from 254 million in 2019.

A slowing economy, shrinking government benefits and a decades-long one-child policy have created a creeping demographic crisis in China, our China correspondent Laura Bicker wrote earlier this year.

China's pension pot is running dry and the country is running out of time to build enough of a fund to care for the growing number of elderly.

Over the next decade, about 300 million people, who are currently aged 50 to 60, are set to leave the Chinese workforce. This is the country's largest age group, nearly equivalent to the size of the US population.

So who will look after them? The answer depends on where you go and who you ask.

Read our analysis here

Published
13 September 2024

PwC's Chinese auditing arm has been suspended from the country for six months over its work on the collapsed Chinese property giant Evergrande.

The Big Four accountancy firm is also being fined more than $62m (£47m) after Chinese authorities said it had helped cover up fraud at Evergrande.

The real estate firm collapsed in January under a mountain of debt.

PwC China admitted the work had fallen "unacceptably below the standards" expected within the firm and apologised for the impact on its clients.

The Chinese authorities said PwC knew there were "major misstatements" in Evergrande's financial statements when it audited the firm.

As a result, the Chinese Ministry of Finance has imposed "administrative penalties" and suspended the operations of PwC's auditing business PwC ZhongTian for six months.

Other PwC operations providing non-audit services in China are not affected.

In addition, China's securities regulator has confiscated the revenue PwC earned auditing Evergrande and has also issued a fine.

An investigation by the regulator said PwC had "seriously eroded the basis of law and good faith, and damaged investors' interest".

In response to the penalties, PwC said it had taken "a number of accountability and remedial actions", including the sacking of six partners and the launch of a process to fine responsible team leaders.

An additional five staff have also left, and Hemione Hudson, PwC's global risk and regulatory leader, has been parachuted in to run the Chinese unit on an interim basis.

PwC admitted the work done on the Evergrande audit had been "well below" standards expected at the firm.

“It is not representative of what we stand for as a network and there is no room for this at PwC," the firm’s global chair Mohamed Kande said.

“That is why, following a thorough investigation, we ensured that actions were taken to hold those responsible to account.

“I remain confident in the China firm’s partners and staff as we work together to rebuild trust with stakeholders,” he added.

PwC China said in a statement: "We deeply regret and apologise for the impact this has had on our clients and people. We will work tirelessly to regain their trust."

Evergrande, which built property in more than 280 Chinese cities and branched out into other business sectors, teetered, then finally went into liquidation in January.

The Chinese authorities have accused Evergrande and its founder, Hui Ka Yan, of falsely inflating revenues at the firm to the tune of $78bn (£61.6bn) and imposed fines and bans on him personally as well as the business.

Published
13 September 2024

Sandbags are being prepared in Austria, reservoirs have been emptied in the Czech Republic and flash floods are expected in Poland, as forecasters warn of days of "potentially catastrophic" rainfall.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said there is “no reason to panic”, after attending a flood risk briefing in Wroclaw, amid forecasts of 15cm (6in) of rainfall in four southern provinces.

In Austria, heavy rain and snow in the mountains has already led to travel disruption and Chancellor Karl Nehammer has said the army is ready to deploy up to 1,000 soldiers if necessary.

The Czech capital is taking no chances, after floods that devastated the city two decades ago.

Images from 2002 of flooded metro stations, residents being evacuated in rubber dinghies and elephants drowning in the Prague Zoo are seared into the local memory.

Shortly before 10:00 (08:00 GMT) on Friday, a heavy steel gate, one metre thick, closed off the so-called Devil's Canal or Certovka, a sliver of water that slices through the historic Mala Strana district of Prague before rejoining the River Vltava.

The Certovka gate is part of a nationwide network of flood defences that officials say have cost more than €1bn (£845m) in order to prevent a repeat of the catastrophic damage of 1997 and 2002.

Prague hopes to escape the worst of the flooding. Attention is focused this weekend on central and eastern parts of the country, especially North Moravia, where 50 people lost their lives in 1997.

The Jeseniky mountains could receive some 400mm over the next three days, and that water will then cascade down the River Oder (Odra in Czech) and on towards Poland, passing a number of towns and villages on the way.

After attending a briefing by emergency services in south-west Poland, Donald Tusk sought to reassure the public that the forecasts were "not overly alarming" and there was no reason to predict anything on a scale that might cause a threat across the country.

Poland's territorial army was on standby, he said, and in one of the four southern provinces, Malopolska, an estimated two million sandbags had been stockpiled, while another million were available in Lower Silesia, the province around Wroclaw.

“If something can be expected, and this what we want to be prepared for, it is of course localised flooding or so-called flash floods,” he added.

Thousands of residents had to use the staircases of their high-rise blocks of flats in Wroclaw, because the lifts were shut down amid flooding fears, local media reported.

The Polish Institute of Meteorology and Water Management later extended the highest alert level from the four southern provinces to the mouth of the River Odra in Szczecin, where it spills into the Baltic Sea.

Austria experienced its hottest August since records began, according to the Geosphere Austria federal institute.

Now it is warning of 10-20cm of rainfall in many regions in a matter of days. In some places, well over 20cm is possible, especially in the mountains of Upper and Lower Austria and in northern Upper Styria.

Austrian storm warning centre UWZ says that in some areas, previous records for the entire month of September will be "surpassed in just a few days".

Manuel Kelemen, a forecaster for Puls24 TV, says from a meterological point of view, "what we're experiencing is extraordinary, if not unprecedented".

Railway network OEBB has advised all passengers to postpone non-urgent journeys. Part of the Tauern railway line between Bad Hofgastein and Böckstein in the province of Salzburg has been closed because of heavy snowfall.

Flooding and landslides are possible, with gale force winds expected in the capital, Vienna. Aid organisation Caritas has appealed for volunteers to help in affected areas.

Continuous heavy rain is also expected across the border in the German state of Bavaria.

This is of course a regional, not a national emergency, with a large area of Central Europe affected.

But a reminder of national priorities came earlier this week when Czech officials said they had been forced to refuse a German request to stop emptying reservoirs into the River Vltava, which flows into the River Elbe (Labe in Czech) and onwards to Germany, following the collapse of a bridge in Dresden.

Those reservoirs - a series of nine dams known as the Vltava Cascade - will need to be half-empty to take what this weekend has in store.

Published
13 September 2024

The headline in this morning’s Kommersant newspaper captured the drama.

“Vladimir Putin draws his red line.”

Will the West cross it? And, if it does, how will Russia respond?

Speaking in St Petersburg, President Putin sent a clear warning to the West: don’t allow Ukraine to use your long-range missiles to strike Russian territory.

Moscow, he said, would view that as the “direct participation” of Nato countries in the war in Ukraine.

“It would substantially change the very essence, the nature of the conflict,” the Kremlin leader continued.

“This will mean that Nato countries, the USA and European states, are fighting with Russia.”

He claimed that, for missile launches into Russia, Ukraine would require data from Western satellites and that only servicemen from Nato member states would be able to “input flight missions into these missile systems”.

Russia has drawn red lines before. And seen them crossed before.

On 24 February 2022, when he announced the start of his "special military operation" – the full-scale invasion of Ukraine – President Putin issued a warning to “those who may be tempted to interfere from the outside”.

“No matter who tries to stand in our way or create threats for our country and our people, they must know that Russia will respond immediately,” the Kremlin leader had declared.

“And the consequences will be such as you have never seen in your entire history.”

Western leaders ignored what was widely interpreted at the time as nuclear sabre-rattling. The West has since provided Ukraine with tanks, advanced missile systems and, most recently, F-16 American fighter jets.

This year Russia has already accused Ukraine of using American long-range ATACMS missiles to target Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Russia.

What’s more, over the last two years, Russian officials and the state media here have on many occasions accused the West of “fighting Russia” or launching “a war” on Russia. Even though it was Russia that invaded Ukraine.

But from the tone of President Putin’s latest remarks, it’s clear he considers that the targeting of internationally recognised Russian territory with Western missile systems would take the conflict to a new level.

What he didn’t make clear yesterday is how Moscow would respond.

“We will take corresponding decisions based on the threats to us that will be created,” Vladimir Putin said.

On Friday, Russia withdrew the accreditation of six British diplomats, accusing them of “subversive activities” and threatening Russia’s security.

But Putin’s potential response is much broader. He offered some clues back in June.

At a meeting with the heads of international news agencies, he was asked: how would Russia react if Ukraine was given the opportunity to hit targets on Russian territory with weapons supplied by Europe?

“First, we will, of course, improve our air defence systems. We will be destroying their missiles,” President Putin replied.

“Second, we believe that if someone is thinking it is possible to supply such weapons to a war zone to strike our territory and create problems for us, why can’t we supply our weapons of the same class to those regions around the world where they will target sensitive facilities of the countries that are doing this to Russia?”

In other words, arming Western adversaries to strike Western targets abroad is something that Moscow has been considering.

Earlier this month, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, announced that Russia was set to revise its nuclear doctrine: the document that lays out under what circumstances Moscow may consider using nuclear weapons.

He suggested that the decision to revise the doctrine was “connected with the escalation course of [Russia’s] Western adversaries”.

Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer is in Washington for talks with President Biden. Among the issues the two leaders are expected to discuss is the question of Ukraine and long-range missiles.

“Russia started this conflict. Russia illegally invaded Ukraine,” Sir Keir said on his way to Washington. “Russia can end this conflict straight away.”

Western leaders will need to decide which they consider greater: the risk of escalation of this conflict, or the need to lift restrictions on Ukraine’s use of western missiles.

Published
13 September 2024

A baby hippopotamus is causing a fan frenzy in Thailand.

Moo Deng - a name that roughly translates to "bouncy pig" - is a two-month-old female pygmy hippo that is going viral online and attracting queues at a zoo near the city of Pattaya.

Visitor numbers have doubled since her birth in July, according to Khao Kheow Open Zoo.

But the zoo's director has urged people to behave when they come to see Moo Deng, after videos emerged showing visitors mistreating the animal.

"These behaviours are not only cruel but also dangerous," Narongwit Chodchoi said in a statement posted online.

"We must protect these animals and ensure that they have a safe and comfortable environment."

Videos on social media show some visitors throwing shellfish and even splashing water on Moo Deng to try to coax her out of sleep.

Mr Narongwit said the zoo has installed CCTV cameras around the enclosures and threatened legal action against those who mistreat the baby hippo.

The best time to visit Moo Deng is when she is awake, he added.

Pygmy hippos, otherwise known as dwarf hippos, are native to West Africa and are classified as "endangered" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Experts believe there are fewer than 3,000 left in the wild.

This particular hippo's miniature frame and podgy proportions have inspired a fervent following online.

"I’m obsessed with Moo Deng - I’ve been thinking about this queen all day long," said one user on X.

Another said: "I don’t know anything else going on in the world right now except for Moo Deng".

Khao Kheow Open Zoo, which is located about 100km (62 miles) southeast of Bangkok, has certainly capitalised on the hype surrounding the celebrity hippo.

Since she was born, 128 of the zoo's last 150 social media posts have been about Moo Deng.

A range of merchandise - including a hippo-inspired shirt and trouser combination - is now available to purchase at the zoo and online.

Other brands have also been trying to cash in. Beauty retail Sephora had earlier put out an advertisement with a line of Moo Deng-inspired blushes, which allows customers to "wear your blush like a baby hippo."

One "Soft Pop Powder Blush" will set you back THB 1,590 ($47.70; £36.30).

Moo Deng has been making waves in traditional media too.

This week she made her international television debut after a crew from the All-Nippon News Network, a Japanese TV station, visited the zoo to film a report on the hippopotamus superstar.

Even the Royal Thai Embassy has warmly welcomed "hot topic" Moo Deng on its social media channels.

As the embassy posted on X on Thursday: "She's very energetic and her cute appearance is soothing."

Published
13 September 2024

North Korea has for the first time offered a glimpse into a uranium enrichment facility which produces material for its nuclear weapons.

Photographs showed its leader Kim Jong Un, who had earlier vowed to "exponentially" increase the country's stash of nuclear weapons, inspecting the area.

The state's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a report on Friday that he had similarly called for the uranium facility to increase its production.

Enriched uranium is essential in the manufacturing of nuclear warheads.

The photograph shows Mr Kim walking past rows of centrifuges and talking to military officials. Their publication comes amid heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula.

"[Mr Kim] went round the control room of the uranium enrichment base to learn about the overall operation of the production lines," KCNA reported, adding that he "felt strong" to see the site.

The South Korean government has said it strongly condemns the North's plans to increase production.

North Korea did not reveal when Mr Kim made the visit, nor which facility he visited – whether this is part of its sprawling Yongbyon nuclear complex, or another undisclosed site. Experts have long suspected that North Korea is covertly running at least one uranium enrichment facility, in addition to its well-known Yongbyon site.

Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul said North Korea has disclosed the facility to "boast of its nuclear development and signal that its weapons program is irreversible".

"The Kim regime may also be flaunting that it still enjoys diplomatic and economic support from Russia and China, despite its nuclear buildup," Prof Easley told the BBC.

Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, had told news agency AFP that the photographs could be a "message" to the upcoming US presidential election, meant to show the next administration that it would be "impossible to denuclearise North Korea".

"It is also a message demanding other countries to acknowledge North Korea as a nuclear state," Mr Hong said.

South Korea's Ministry of Unification has condemned the North for publicising the facility, adding that the illegal deployment of nuclear weapons violates several resolutions set by the UN Security Council.

"Any nuclear threat or provocation by North Korea will be met with an overwhelming and strong response from our government and military, based on the solid extended deterrence of the South Korea-US alliance," the unification ministry said.

It is not known how many nuclear weapons North Korea has, but one recent estimate puts the number at 50, external, with sufficient material to produce another 40.

Published
13 September 2024

A selection of the week's best photos from across the African continent and beyond:

Go to BBCAfrica.com, external for more news from the African continent.

Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, external, on Facebook at BBC Africa, external or on Instagram at bbcafrica, external

Published
13 September 2024

I’m sitting in a courtroom in the town of Pushkin, 400 miles north-west of Moscow.

Opposite me is the “aquarium” - the glass and metal box where the defendant is locked, the courtroom cage that makes anyone on trial in Russia look like a dangerous criminal.

Behind the glass is Anna Alexandrova. The 46-year-old hairdresser has been charged with “the public dissemination of knowingly false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation”.

Put simply, spreading fake news about the Russian army. The charge relates to messages and social media posts she has been accused of sending.

The key prosecution witness is here, too - Anna’s neighbour.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine there have been regular reports of Russians reporting neighbours, colleagues and acquaintances to the police over alleged anti-war statements.

Denunciations have led to arrests, prosecutions and, in some cases, long prison sentences.

But why has snitching become commonplace? And what are the implications for Russian society?

To find out, I have spoken to a number of Russians caught up in this, including a doctor informed on by her patient and an 87-year-old man who was forced off a bus and dragged to the police.

Listen to Steve Rosenberg on The Global Story podcast: The Russians snitching on each other for anti-war views

Back at the court in Pushkin, Anna Alexandrova’s neighbour, Irina Sergeyeva, is sitting two rows in front of me with her mother Natalya. They live in the house next to Anna’s.

The two families were once on good terms but have fallen out. Badly.

During a break in proceedings, I ask Natalya why.

“She started sending [my daughter] pictures from the special military operation [Russia’s war in Ukraine],” claims Natalya. “Images of soldiers' bodies torn apart, and tanks on fire.”

“I wrote to the prosecutor’s office about this,” Natalya adds. “The images make you want to cry.”

Anna denies sending any of the images and messages in question. According to her lawyer, if convicted, she faces up to 15 years in prison.

However, as I would discover, there was more to the tale of Anna and Irina than met the eye.

Free speech in Russia was already under attack, but days after the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Vladimir Putin took it to a whole new level.

A few days after ordering Russian troops into Ukraine for what he called a “special military operation”, President Putin signed into law repressive legislation designed to silence or punish criticism.

Russians could now be prosecuted for “discrediting the use of the Russian armed forces” and receive long prison sentences for spreading “knowingly false information” about the army.

The authorities also signalled a hunt for internal enemies. President Putin declared:

“…any nation, and even more so the Russian people, will always be able to distinguish true patriots from scum and traitors and will simply spit them out like an insect in their mouth, spit them onto the pavement. I am convinced that a natural and necessary self-detoxification of society like this will strengthen our country, our solidarity and cohesion…”

In this atmosphere of “us” against “them”, reports started coming in of Russians snitching on Russians for opposing the war in Ukraine - of students informing on teachers, professors on students, work colleagues on each other.

Not all complaints have made it to court. But in some cases, Russia’s harsh new laws have been used to prosecute alleged offenders.

This has revived memories of the Soviet past when denunciation was actively encouraged by the authorities. Under dictator Joseph Stalin, the prison camps, or Gulag, were full of victims who had been snitched on by their fellow citizens.

“What I find remarkable is how quickly Russian genetic memory has come back, and how people who didn’t live in those times suddenly act as if they did,” says Nina Khrushcheva, a Russian-American professor of International Affairs at The New School in New York.

“Suddenly they are squealing on others. It is a Soviet practice but it’s also something about the Russian genetic code, of fear, of trying to protect themselves at the expense of others.”

But this is only half the story.

The more I learn about the case of the hairdresser, Anna, the more I realise that denunciation isn’t solely a product of fear and self-preservation.

Sometimes personal rivalries, or personal interest, are at play.

“The so-called ‘political’ articles of the criminal code have become a very convenient way to resolve conflicts between neighbours,” suggests Anna’s lawyer Anastasia Pilipenko.

“This particular case began with a run-of-the mill domestic squabble. One side went to the police but got nowhere. That only changed when the charge of ‘fake news about the army’ appeared.”

In reality, the conflict between Anna and Irina began, not with social media messages, but a row over land.

The two families had originally battled together to protect a local forest from developers. Things changed when Irina tried to rent a plot. She said she needed it for grazing goats.

“[Anna] harboured a grudge,” says Irina. “She called us fraudsters. She claimed we would buy the land and sell it on to developers. I told her that was nonsense. Then the floodgates opened.”

What happened next, as recounted by Irina and her mother, is as surreal and dark as a novel by 19th Century Russian writer Nikolai Gogol.

It is a story of neighbours at daggers drawn. It features a row about a fence, allegations of poisoned cutlets, slashed car tyres and other “dirty tricks”.

There are claims and counterclaims, accusations of jealousy, insobriety, fake social media accounts. Plus, an argument over the sale of rabbits.

Anna and Irina’s village, Korpikyulya, is remarkably quiet, considering. When I visit, I’m struck by the silence. There’s hardly a soul to be seen. But, as I stare across the fields, I have the strangest feeling, as if something is rising from the earth.

I close my eyes.

I recall a trip to Siberia, where climate change has been melting the permafrost, exposing skeletons, and releasing harmful bacteria and gases.

Suddenly it hits me. Something similar is happening here and across Russia. Two-and-a-half years of war, of parallel reality and parallel morality, are releasing demons from the depths of the Russian soul and society.

Russians even have a word for it, one they have borrowed from the Greeks - “khton”. It means something dark and evil, the monsters deep inside of us.

And when the demons from below mix with what is happening above, like repressive laws and the search for internal enemies, that is when you get neighbour reporting on neighbour.

But surely Russia has no monopoly on monsters. For all the talk of a nation’s genetic code, human traits have no borders. We should not kid ourselves that denunciation is only possible in Putin’s Russia.

“I do not exclude lots of denunciations happening in Britain, if people there were to feel they could inform on opponents without any comeback and with the encouragement of the state,” says veteran human rights campaigner Oleg Orlov.

“It’s human nature. Unfortunately, lots of people try to destroy individuals they don’t like in their personal or public lives, using any means possible.”

Yet it was in Russia, not Britain, where Mr Orlov was denounced and prosecuted for an anti-war article he had published. Earlier this year he was convicted of “repeatedly discrediting” the Russian army and jailed for two-and-a-half years. He was then released early as part of a prisoner swap.

He concedes that “the Russian state is creating the kind of society in which people, who are informers by nature, feel happy and comfortable.”

Back at the courthouse in Pushkin, Anna’s trial is ongoing. With the hairdresser facing the prospect of years in prison, I ask Irina and Natalya whether they have any regrets.

“I feel sorry for her,” Natalya says. “I could cry.”

“Crimes committed must be punished,” says Irina.

I’m at another trial, this time in Moscow.

Locked in the cage is 68-year-old paediatrician Nadezhda Buyanova. She, too, has been accused of spreading “fake news” about the Russian army.

“I’ve read about this kind of thing happening to others,” Nadezhda tells me through the glass. “I never imagined it would happen to me.”

The mother of a patient claims the doctor told her that Russian soldiers in Ukraine were legitimate targets. The woman, whose ex-husband had been killed fighting in Ukraine, recorded an angry video and reported Nadezhda to the police.

“Buyanova denies the accusations,” Nadezhda’s lawyer Oskar Cherdzhiev tells me. “It’s an unusual case because, essentially, there is no evidence other than one person’s word against another. It could set a bad precedent whereby one person’s testimony is enough to make someone suffer.”

But Nadezhda has supporters here, including a former patient and a paramedic.

“I’ve travelled down from St Petersburg because it’s so important for me to back a colleague,” ambulance medic Vera Rebrova tells me. “This is a trumped-up charge. I sympathise with her very much.”

Speaking from the “aquarium”, Nadezhda tells me how much she values the display of solidarity.

“The fact that I’m not abandoned, not alone, that people are thinking of me, it means so much,” she says.

It also shows that, despite the fear in society, some Russians are taking a stand against snitching and the direction in which their country is moving.

Among those willing to speak out is 87-year-old Dmitry Grinchy, who has invited me to tea. He tells me what happened to him recently on a Moscow bus.

A passenger claimed to have overheard Dmitry making insulting comments about Russian mercenaries fighting in Ukraine and physically attacked him.

“He lunged at me, flashing his eyes and gnashing his teeth as if he wanted to bite me,” Dmitry recalls. “He called over his son, a big guy, who pressed his finger into my arm to hurt me. I’ve got bruises.”

Shocking mobile phone video shows the pensioner having his arms twisted behind his back and being dragged off the bus. The two men frogmarched Dmitry to the police. He was not charged. But the incident has left Dmitry shaken and angry.

“The Russian Constitution says everyone has the right to free speech. Why should others get to say what they think and not me?”

Under Joseph Stalin, Dmitry’s father was arrested and executed, one of the many innocent victims of Stalin’s Terror.

Russia’s past is a painful one.

But it is the present that worries Dmitry. With the authorities here, once again, searching for enemies and traitors - and the public encouraged to join in the hunt.

Published
13 September 2024

Details are emerging of an apparent raid by Israeli special forces on a "Hezbollah missile production facility" in Syria.

Israel's government has said nothing about the operation which, according to US media reports, took place at the beginning of the week.

Syrian state media say 18 people were killed on Monday in the raid near the Syrian city of Masyaf - around 25 miles (40km) north of the Lebanese border - and several dozen were injured.

According to the New York Times, external, Israeli special forces descended from helicopters, placed explosives inside the Iranian-built facility and removed sensitive information.

American and other officials quoted in the paper paint a picture of a daring operation, designed to destroy the underground military facility.

Air strikes were apparently used to neutralise Syria’s defences and prevent reinforcements from reaching the site.

Separately, a report by the Axios news site, external - citing three sources said to be familiar with the operation - says the elite Shaldag unit of the Israeli Air Force carried out the raid.

Axios also reports that Israel informed the US before the operation was slated to take place, and was not met with any resistance from the White House.

The BBC has not yet been able to independently verify these reports.

Israel's government has not commented, but the raid seems to have been designed to prevent Iran from supplying precision missiles to Hezbollah, its Lebanese ally and proxy.

Israel attacked the facility six years ago and has mounted dozens of air strikes against Syria since the war in Gaza began almost a year ago.

But, putting Israeli troops on the ground inside Syria is highly unusual.

This would be one of the most sophisticated operations of its kind in years.

Last Sunday, at least 18 people were killed in Israeli air strikes on a number of military sites in the vicinity of Masyaf, according to the Syrian health minister.

Israeli strikes have reportedly been stepped up since the start of the war in Gaza in October last year, in response to cross-border attacks on northern Israel by Hezbollah and other groups in Lebanon and Syria.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) - a UK-based monitoring group with a network of sources on the ground - Israeli air and artillery strikes have targeted Syrian territory on more than 60 occasions since the start of the year.

This has resulted in damage to or destruction of about 140 targets, including weapons depots, vehicles and Iran-backed militia headquarters, the SOHR said.

The strikes have killed at least 208 fighters - including 46 members of Syrian government forces, 43 members of Hezbollah and 24 Iranian Revolutionary Guards - as well as 22 civilians, the monitoring group added.

Published
18 minutes ago

The United States has announced it is placing sanctions on 16 officials who are closely aligned with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro following his disputed election victory.

The US Treasury said it was targeting "key officials involved in Maduro’s fraudulent and illegitimate claims of victory and his brutal crackdown on free expression following the election".

Maduro was declared the winner of July's presidential election by Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE), which is closely aligned with the government.

But the CNE has not published any detailed voting tallies supporting a Maduro victory. Data published by the opposition suggests its candidate, Edmundo González, won instead.

The US has refused to recognise Maduro as the winner and says it is convinced González received more votes.

It is also among the dozens of countries which has called on the CNE to release the detailed voting tallies which show the results from individual polling stations.

All those named in the Treasury statement, external are barred from entering the US and any property they hold there is blocked.

Among those sanctioned is Rosalba Gil, one of the five members of the CNE.

US authorities have also targeted five judges from Venezuela's Supreme Court, which upheld the CNE's decision to award Maduro a third consecutive term in office.

Members of Venezuela's security forces have also been sanctioned, with the US Treasury accusing them of being "responsible for intensifying repression through intimidation, indiscriminate detentions, and censorship".

More than 2,400 people have been arrested in the post-election crackdown launched by the Maduro government, with many accused of "terrorism".

Opposition candidate González fled to Spain on Saturday after being accused of "serious crimes" including the "usurpation" of public duties, document falsification, instigation of disobedience and system sabotage.

The judge who issued González's arrest warrant is also among the 16 on the sanctions list.

González has requested asylum in Spain and on Thursday met Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez.

He said that despite now being in exile his "determination to continue the fight to uphold the sovereign will of the Venezuelan people as expressed on July 28 by more than eight million voters" has not wavered.

"The fight is to the end, when all our families can finally be reunited on Venezuelan soil," he added.

González had replaced opposition leader María Corina Machado on the ballot after the latter was barred from running for the presidency by institutions loyal to Maduro.

Machado remains in hiding in Venezuela from where she says she will lead the fight to have González sworn in as president on 10 January 2025 - the day the new presidential term is due to start.

Published
12 September 2024, 15:43 BST

Disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein is facing new charges in New York City, prosecutors have said.

The details of the indictment will not be unsealed until he appears in court to be formally charged on 18 September, they said.

Manhattan prosecutors recently told a court hearing they had evidence of up to three more allegations against Weinstein.

Earlier this week, Weinstein, 72, was rushed to a New York hospital for emergency heart surgery. He is already awaiting a retrial in the city after his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges was overturned by an appeals court this year.

The case was thrown out after it was ruled that the judge in the original trial had allowed evidence to be presented about allegations that were not part of the case.

The retrial is scheduled for November and it is unclear if the new charges will be added to that indictment, or brought separately.

Once Weinstein's legal cases are complete in New York, he is expected to return to California to serve a 16-year sentence for a rape conviction, against which he is also appealing.

More than 100 people have made sexual misconduct and rape allegations again Weinstein dating back to the 1970s.

Weinstein has maintained his innocence.

Before his fall from grace, he co-founded the film studio, Miramax which produced award-winning films like Pulp Fiction and Shakespeare in Love.

Published
12 September 2024, 15:10 BST

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says three of its workers have been killed, and two others injured in a strike in eastern Ukraine.

The ICRC did not identify who was behind the attack but called it "unconscionable" that "shelling would hit an aid distribution site".

Earlier, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said those killed were Ukrainian and blamed Moscow for the shelling, calling it "another Russian war crime".

The agency said its vehicles are clearly marked and operate regularly in the frontline region of Donetsk.

"I condemn attacks on Red Cross personnel in the strongest terms," said the agency's president Mirjana Spoljaric, adding that: "Our hearts are broken today as we mourn the loss of our colleagues and care for the injured."

The ICRC said its team had been preparing to distribute wood and coal briquettes to homes in Viroliubivka village, north of Donetsk city, when it was hit.

The distribution of the goods had not begun yet and no residents were affected by the explosion, the agency said.

It did not confirm any details about the identities of those killed.

Earlier, Ukrainian officials had reported shelling in Viroliubivka and said workers had been unloading supplies when the attack happened.

In a post on social media, Ukraine's leader blamed a Russian strike. Zelensky shared a photo of a white truck in flames branded with the Red Cross logo on its side.

"Today, the occupier attacked the vehicles of the International Committee of the Red Cross humanitarian mission," he said.

The Ukrainian ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets also commented online, urging the Red Cross to publicly attribute the attack to Russia.

"The shelling is already known about, but the ICRC... remain silent!" he wrote.

In its statement, the ICRC had reiterated that it is a "neutral, impartial and independent organisation with an exclusively humanitarian mandate".

It deplored the "sharp rise" in the killings of humanitarians around the world in the past two years.

The United Nations has also made similar warnings. Its humanitarian mission to Ukraine earlier this year said 50 workers had killed or injured in Ukraine in 2023, including 11 killed in the line of duty, reported AFP news agency.