It is unclear whether the moves will lead to charges, but they suggest that President Trump’s appointees intend to follow through on his campaign to exact retribution against his perceived enemies.
John Brennan, the former C.I.A. director, testifying before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligences’s Russia Investigation Task Force in May 2017.
After the former F.B.I. director put a picture on Instagram of seashells arranged to say “86 47,” law enforcement tailed his car and tracked his cellphone, steps usually reserved for serious threats.
James B. Comey in 2019. President Trump fired him as F.B.I. director in May 2017, amid the agency’s investigation into possible collusion between Mr. Trump’s campaign and the Russian government.
Maritime security firm Diaplous released a photo showing at least five Eternity C crew members being rescued
Six crew members have been rescued and at least three others killed after a cargo ship was attacked by Yemen's Houthis and sank in the Red Sea, a European naval mission says.
The Liberian-flagged, Greek-operated Eternity C was carrying 25 crew when it sustained significant damage and lost all propulsion after being hit by rocket-propelled grenades fired from small boats on Monday, according to the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency.
The attack continued on Tuesday and search rescue operations commenced overnight.
The Iran-backed Houthis said they attacked the Eternity C because it was heading to Israel, and that they took an unspecified number of crew to a "safe location".
The US embassy in Yemen said the Houthis had kidnapped "many surviving crew members" and called for their immediate release.
Authorities in the Philippines said 21 of the crew were citizens. Another of them is a Russian national who was severely wounded in the attack and lost a leg.
It is the second vessel the Houthis have sunk in a week, after the group on Sunday launched missiles and drones at another Liberian-flagged, Greek-operated cargo ship, Magic Seas, which they claimed "belong[ed] to a company that violated the entry ban to the ports of occupied Palestine".
Video footage released by the Houthis on Tuesday showed armed men boarding the vessel and setting off a series of explosions which caused it to sink.
All 22 crew of Magic Seas were safely rescued by a passing merchant vessel.
Since November 2023, the Houthis have targeted around 70 merchant vessels with missiles, drones and small boat attacks in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
They have now sunk four ships, seized a fifth, and killed at least seven crew members.
The group has said it is acting in support of the Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and have claimed - often falsely - that they are targeting ships only linked to Israel, the US or the UK, which have carried out air strikes on Yemen in response.
EPA
The Houthis released video footage on Tuesday showing armed men boarding another cargo ship, Magic Seas, and detonating explosive charges
On Wednesday the EU's naval mission in the Red Sea, Operation Aspides, said it was participating in the international response to the attack on the Eternity C and that "currently six castaway crew members have been recovered from the sea".
An Aspides official told AFP news agency that five were Filipinos and one was Indian, and that 19 others were still missing.
The Greece-based maritime security firm Diaplous released a video on Wednesday that showed the rescue of at least five seafarers who it said had spent more then 24 hours in the water, according to Reuters news agency.
"We will continue to search for the remaining crew until the last light," Diaplous said.
Reuters also cited maritime security firms as saying that the death toll was four.
The US state department condemned the attacks on the Magic Seas and Eternity C, which it said "demonstrate the ongoing threat that Iran-backed Houthi rebels pose to freedom of navigation and to regional economic and maritime security".
"The United States has been clear: we will continue to take necessary action to protect freedom of navigation and commercial shipping from Houthi terrorist attacks, which must be condemned by all members of the international community."
In May, the Houthis agreed a ceasefire deal with the US following seven weeks of intensified US strikes on Yemen in response to the attacks on international shipping.
However, they said the agreement did not include an end to attacks on Israel, which has conducted multiple rounds of retaliatory strikes on Yemen.
The secretary-general of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) called for intensified diplomatic efforts following the new wave of attacks.
"After several months of calm, the resumption of deplorable attacks in the Red Sea constitutes a renewed violation of international law and freedom of navigation," Arsenio Dominguez said.
"Innocent seafarers and local populations are the main victims of these attacks and the pollution they cause," he warned.
Raynor Winn released a 2,300-word statement responding to the Observer's allegations
Author Raynor Winn has hit back at a newspaper investigation that claimed she gave misleading information about her life story in her 2018 book The Salt Path.
The Observer reported she had misrepresented the events that led to she and her husband losing their house and setting off on a 630-mile walk. The investigation also cast doubt over the nature of her husband's illness. Winn denied the allegations and said she was taking legal advice.
She provided documents that appeared to confirm her husband Moth had previously been diagnosed with corticobasal degeneration (CBD).
She also stood by her description of how the couple came to lose their house and denied the couple had any outstanding debts.
However, Winn acknowledged making "mistakes" earlier in her career, after the Observer said she had defrauded her previous employer of £64,000. She said it had been a pressured time.
"Any mistakes I made during the years in that office, I deeply regret, and I am truly sorry," she said, but added the case had been settled between her and her ex-employer on a "non-admissions basis" and although she was questioned by the police, she was not charged.
BBC News has contacted the journalist who wrote the Observer article for a response.
How has Raynor Winn responded to the allegations?
The Observer said it had spoken to several medical experts who were sceptical about Moth having CBD, also known as CBS, given his long survival after diagnosis, lack of acute symptoms and his apparent ability to reverse them.
Winn shared photographs of four documents that appeared to show medical experts acknowledging or referring to Moth's condition or symptoms.
One letter appears to show that Moth had previously been considered as having an "atypical form of corticobasal degeneration", but further examination suggested he may have "an even more unusual disorder, perhaps monogenetic".
Winn said a CBS diagnosis does not come from a simple test, "but rather from a long and complex route of observation, where sufferers may have symptoms for many years before they finally reach a diagnosis".
She added: "We will always be grateful that Moth's version of CBS is indolent, its slow progression has allowed us time to discover how walking helps him."
Winn said she had documented Moth's illness "with such a level of honesty, that this is the most unbearable of the allegations", adding: "My books have become a record of his health."
The Salt Path described how Moth's condition appeared to improve during and after the walk. But in her statement, Winn said: "I have never sought to offer medical advice in my books or suggest that walking might be some sort of miracle cure for CBS, I am simply charting Moth's own personal journey and battle with his illness, and what has helped him."
The Observer said the couple had not lost their home in a bad business deal as Winn originally suggested, but after they were unable to repay £100,000 they had borrowed to repay money she had been accused of stealing from a previous employer
Winn acknowledged a dispute with her previous employer but said that was separate to the court case described in The Salt Path involving their friend, whom she had referred to as Cooper, which ultimately lost the couple their home.
Reiterating the events described in the book, Winn said Moth made an investment in Cooper's property portfolio, and when the investment was due to mature, Cooper said it had failed due to low occupancy.
Winn said Cooper promised to eventually pay the money back, and the couple asked for it to be returned in 2008. Instead, she said, Cooper offered them a loan through his company, assured against their home, with 18% interest, which he said he would cover.
But Winn said his company later went into liquidation without the charge on their home having been removed. As a result, the author said, their house was repossessed.
Left to right: Raynor and Moth Winn with actors Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs, who portrayed them in a film adaptation
The Observer alleged Winn had stolen £64,000 from her previous employer's while she was working there.
Winn acknowledged working for the employer before the economic crash of 2008, saying it was a "pressured time".
"It was also a time when mistakes were being made in the business. Any mistakes I made during the years in that office, I deeply regret, and I am truly sorry," she said.
Winn said her employer had gone to the police, accusing her of taking money from the company. "I was questioned, I was not charged, nor did I face criminal sanctions," she said.
"I reached a settlement... because I did not have the evidence required to support what happened. The terms of the settlement were willingly agreed by both parties."
She said her employer was equally keen to reach a private resolution as she was, and the money she paid was on a "non-admissions basis".
The Observer said the couple owned property in the south-west of France, but added it was not in a habitable state and reported locals saying the couple only camped on the land when they visited
Winn said: "What we own in France is an uninhabitable ruin in a bramble patch, on the boundary of a family member's property.
"It has missing walls, a collapsed roof, no running water, drainage, or electricity... We have never lived there, that would be impossible, and we haven't been there since 2007."
She said the insinuation that the pair were not homeless, the central premise of the book, was "utterly unfounded".
Winn said the couple did try to sell the land in 2013, around the same time as events depicted in the book, "but the local agent said it was virtually worthless and saw no point in marketing it".
Elsewhere in the statement, Winn disputed any suggestion that the couple had outstanding debts, and said a credit check would have proved this.
She said after receiving an advance for the book and over the subsequent years "I tracked down our remaining debts and now believe I have tracked down and repaid everyone".
Winn also explained why she and Moth are not known by their legal names of Timothy and Sally Walker.
The author said Winn was her maiden name, and she disliked her first name of Sally and decided to use her family name Raynor as a pen name. She also noted Moth was short for Timothy.
She denied the couple were "hiding behind pseudonyms" and said their friends use "Sal and Tim interchangeably with Ray and Moth".
Millions of British households are facing an average £107 rise in monthly mortgage payments as their deals expire, according to the Bank of England.
It has said that 3.6 million home loans are coming up for renewal over the next three years, equating to 41% of all outstanding mortgages.
But the number of mortgages facing expiry is less than the Bank of England had initially expected and the monthly hike is below the £146 increase it had first anticipated.
While some bills will rise, a fall in interest rates is slowly feeding its way into typical monthly mortgage payments following four cuts by the Bank of England since last August.
Around 2.5 million households, or 28% of mortgage holders, will see their bills fall in the next three years.
Meanwhile, first-time buyers are likely to get more access to mortgages as banks and building societies are allowed to loosen a cap on riskier lending.
In its latest Financial Stability Report, the Bank of England's governor Andrew Bailey said at present just under 10% of new mortgages issued exceed 4.5 times a borrower's income.
He said he would be happy to see that percentage rise.
Individual banks and building societies will be allowed to exceed a 15% limit on higher loan-to-value mortgages.
The looser cap comes after a call by the UK government for regulators to look for ways to encourage economic growth.
The Bank reckons the change could lead to up to 36,000 new higher loan-to-income mortgages a year.
But the mortgage lending industry as a whole will have to stick to a 15% limit on riskier home loans.
Elsewhere, the bank said financial instability across the globe had increased, after the US-led global trade war.
While there had been little direct impact so far on British households and companies, some significant changes were occurring to the global financial system.
In particular the traditional strengthening of the US dollar as a safe haven in times of turmoil appeared to have changed since the start of the global tariff war.
Investors and large companies who never previously felt the need to hedge or insure against a weak dollar were now doing so, the Bank said.
This has added to the weakness of the US dollar this year, which is already down about 10% against a range of currencies.
US president Donald Trump has said he wants a weaker dollar, arguing that will boost exports and US manufacturing jobs growth.
However, imported goods can get more expensive, adding to any price rises from tariffs.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have agreed that "new and innovative solutions" are needed to tackle small boat crossings.
The UK is paying France hundreds of millions of pounds to stop the boats leaving the French coast but, so far this year, the numbers of migrants arriving in the UK this way - most of whom go on to claim asylum - have reached record levels.
France has claimed that one factor attracting them is the ability to "work without papers" in the UK economy.
BBC Verify looks at the evidence for this and other "pull factors" cited as reasons for asylum seekers to choose the UK as a destination.
The informal economy?
The French government has argued that asylum seekers come to the UK because they believe they will be able to work in its informal economy - where tax is not paid and people are employed without legal status and proper documentation.
Estimating the size of the informal economy is not simple for obvious reasons.
This was actually lower than their estimate for France's at 14% and lower than the average of 31 European countries at 17%.
By its nature the UK's informal economy provides potential opportunities for asylum seekers - and other irregular migrants - to work illegally - and the UK government has accepted the need for more enforcement in this area.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper described this as a potential "pull factor" earlier this week.
There were 10,031 visits and 7,130 arrests in the year since the July election, compared with 6,797 visits and 4,734 arrests in the same period last year.
Getty Images
French President Emmanuel Macron has said the UK and France "will deliver" on stopping small boat crossings
The volume and value of fines issued has also increased.
In the year to March 2025, 2,171 fines were issued to employers worth a total of £111m. In the same period last year, there were 1,676 fines worth £31m.
There is no data on the type of businesses targeted but recent Home Office press releases have mentioned restaurants, nail bars and construction sites.
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair - and a number of Labour MPs - have called for the introduction of UK-wide digital identification to help the government tackle "illegal 'off-the-books' employment".
Digital ID, which exists in many EU countries, could be used as a tool to check an individual's right to work and to clamp down on illegal working.
Access to the legal labour market for asylum seekers, while they wait for their claims to be processed, is more restrictive in the UK than in many major European countries.
In the UK, they can apply for permission to work if they have been waiting for more than a year for an initial decision on their claim.
Madeleine Sumption from Oxford University's Migration Observatory think tank said: "I'm a bit sceptical of the narrative you often hear from French politicians about the UK being a soft touch on right-to-work issues because we have broadly the same set of policies as they do and some of the same challenges on unauthorised workers."
She added that research suggests that the ability of asylum seekers to speak English over other European languages and existing family links with the UK are significant pull factors.
Another factor cited is the "general impression that the UK is a good place to live" - a message promoted by people smugglers trying to sell Channel crossings.
State support?
The majority of asylum seekers cannot access welfare benefits in the UK, but they do gain legal protections while awaiting a decision - including accommodation if they cannot support themselves financially.
They can get £49.18 per person per week loaded onto a pre-paid debit card if they are in self-catered accommodation. People receiving support in catered accommodation can get £9.95 per person per week.
Asylum seekers are generally entitled to free access to the NHS and can get some free childcare.
Children of asylum seekers are also entitled to state education and in some circumstances can qualify for free school meals.
This is in contrast to many of the migrants in Calais - hoping to cross into the UK - who have not applied for asylum in France and are not entitled to state support there, but do get limited help from charities.
Research suggests that benefits are not a significant pull factor for asylum seekers.
A 2021 paper by Aalborg University in Denmark, found that other factors, such as which countries are most likely to recognise refugee status as well as the ability to reunite with family are more influential.
Another paper, written by University of Essex professor Timothy Hatton in 2020, said border controls and processing policies have significant deterrent effects while welfare policies do not.
Ms Sumption says the findings indicate that "technical tweaks to your [benefit] system don't tend to have a big impact, [although] they may have some impact at the margins".
What about push factors?
When it comes to the overall numbers of asylum seekers, researchers also stress the importance of "push factors", such as conflict and repression in their home countries.
Some relevant context is that asylum applications have risen sharply in recent years not just in the UK, but across Europe.
Claims are up in countries like France, Germany, Spain and Italy since 2020 - and in 2024 they were higher in absolute numbers in those countries than the number of claims submitted in the UK.
Additional reporting by Tamara Kovacevic and Rob England
Wales' greatest female footballer Fishlock finally achieving career dream
Image source, BBC Sport
Image caption,
Jess Fishlock has 163 caps and 47 goals for Wales
Published
When it comes to Welsh women's football, there is no question that Jess Fishlock is the greatest of all time.
Debates would rage over the greatest men's player. It is easy to make the case for John Charles or Gareth Bale but perhaps you preferred Cliff Jones or Ian Rush - or maybe you were a Neville Southall enthusiast.
However, any conversation over Wales' greatest female footballer would be a short one.
Fishlock has won it all at club level, lifting league title trophies in six different countries, twice winning the Champions League, and she has also starred in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) for Seattle Reign over a prolonged period, winning the NWSL most valuable player award in 2022.
Yet despite clocking up more air miles as a player than many pilots, Fishlock has always remained available for her country, having represented Wales 163 times since her debut in Switzerland in 2006.
Fishlock has been there for Wales for 19 years, always setting the standards, always trying with all her heart to drag Wales on to football's biggest stage.
Sometimes, getting closer to a dream you cannot obtain makes things harder. So it was for Fishlock and for Wales. Three successive near misses in qualifying for major finals.
It seemed highly possible, probable even, that Fishlock would join the list of the greatest players never to play at a major international tournament, a list already brimming with Welsh players such as Gary Speed, Ryan Giggs, Rush and Southall.
However, after a glittering club career, Fishlock, now 38 and one of the greatest female footballers in history, is finally playing international football on the biggest stage at Euro 2025.
The dream has become a reality for a trailblazer of women's football who has represented Wales with distinction for more than two decades, smashing records and raising her team-mates, as she has done throughout her trophy-laden club career.
"You don't play for this long unless it means so much to you," Fishlock told BBC Sport Wales.
"I don't think I can put into words how much playing for Wales means to me.
"We have had some times when we should have qualified for a major tournament but we didn't.
"A big narrative around my entire career internationally has been, 'Can I get to a major tournament? Can we get to a major tournament?' We've been so close so many times.
"When you want to achieve something and you get to do it with some of your very closest friends, there's really no comparison to that feeling."
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Media caption,
Jess Fishlock's best Wales goals
Born to play for Wales
Fishlock's journey to professional football would be a familiar one, if at the time a pathway had existed for a football-mad girl from Cardiff to play the game professionally.
"She was a very little girl who grew up in Llanrumney just kicking a ball about with her brothers in the garden. That is where it all started," brother James recalls.
Her love for football developed further at a soccer camp in Cardiff during the summer holidays.
"My older sister wanted to go to the camp and my mum said for me to go along with her," Fishlock recalls.
"From that moment, that was what I wanted to do."
"Jess would be up and she would want to be in the garden, she'd be over here, over there, wouldn't matter if it was a mud pile, Jess would be out in it," Fishlock's mother Sharon remembers.
When Fishlock wasn't playing football, she was dreaming about it.
"Jessica was the one who used to go to bed with a football, she was dedicated from an early stage," her father Kevyn said.
With her talent increasingly clear, Cardiff City Ladies fast-tracked Fishlock, who joined the club aged seven, making her first team debut at 15.
"When she was a 14-year old girl she used to say she wanted to be a professional footballer and I used to mock her, as older sisters do, because there was no such thing as a female professional footballer at that time," sister Kathyrn says.
Fishlock's Wales career began when she was an amateur, before a move to the Netherlands to play for AZ Alkmaar in 2008, becoming the first overseas player in the Eredivisie.
Back-to-back titles followed but it was far from easy for a young woman who had never been away from her family.
"She went to AZ Alkmaar and when she wasn't playing, she was washing dishes in the stadium," Kathryn added.
"The things she's had to do to reach where she has got to, you can't even put it into words, how hard she has worked to create and carve out this life that she has."
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Iconic: The rise of the women in red, episode four
Success everywhere… except with Wales
Fishlock has won it all in her career, playing across the world to achieve her ambitions.
In 2011, she swapped the Netherlands for Bristol, helping them to an FA Cup final appearance and ending her second season with the club as the Women's Super League's players' player of the season.
Fishlock then joined Melbourne Victory in Australia, leading the team to two Grand Finals, including the club's first title in 2013, with Fishlock named player of the match in the final.
Since joining Seattle in 2013, Fishlock has helped Reign to three NWSL Shield titles, as well as winning honours across the world during loan moves when the NWSL has been out of competition.
Fishlock won the Scottish title with Glasgow in 2014, the German league and Champions League with Frankfurt in 2015, before again winning the Australian league in 2016, 2017 and 2018 with Melbourne City.
In 2019, Fishlock helped Lyon win both the first division title and the Champions League, meaning she won league titles for seven successive seasons.
"As a football fan, I think she is the best player I have ever seen play the game," her brother James says.
The constant for Fishlock at club level has been her semi-permanent home for over a decade, Seattle, the place where she met her now wife, ex-team-mate Tziarra King.
Fishlock and King were married in 2023 and LGBTQ+ advocacy has always been a big priority for Fishlock, who says she was bullied at school because of her sexuality.
Fishlock was awarded an MBE in 2018 for services to women's football and the LGBT community, while she was honoured with a Fellowship of Aberystwyth University in 2024.
Only last week, a mural of Fishlock was unveiled on a pitch in Splott (Cardiff).
"You are proud, proud of her for achieving what she's achieved - nobody else has done it. I'm more proud that she's now able to be her true authentic self no matter where she is," sister Francesca says. "You can't really ask for more."
However, while Fishlock should be at national treasure status, former Wales captain and UEFA executive committee member Laura McAllister says she has been celebrated less than she deserves.
"I've tested this with my friends who are football fans and not all of them know who Jess Fishlock is and that tells you a lot about the invisibility of the women's game for the past two decades," she said.
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I could not be more proud of this group - Fishlock
The dream becomes a reality
Fishlock's desire to compete at the top with Wales has seemed like less of a fantasy in the past decade with increased spending from the Football Association of Wales leading to steady progress for the international side.
Twice under manager Jayne Ludlow they almost qualified - first for a World Cup and then for a European Championship. The latter disappointment, when Wales missed out to Northern Ireland on away goals scored, despite an identical points tally and a vastly superior goal difference, still hurts.
It was a similar story in 2022 - Wales beaten in a World Cup play-off final in (again) Switzerland, losing 2-1 to the Swiss in the final seconds of extra time, with a penalty shootout looming.
At each failure, Fishlock has considered, often publicly, retiring from international football.
"After Switzerland I didn't know what to do. Can I do two more years? Can I deal with any more heartache? It took a long time to get over that defeat, it was a bit soul-destroying to be honest."
Yet she continued, never stopped chasing the dream and eventually, it came to fruition.
Wales won their Nations League B Group and qualified for the Euro 2025 play-offs, drawing Slovakia in the semi-finals.
Disaster struck with Fishlock sidelined for a month leading into the match with a calf injury, fit enough only to start as a sub in the away leg. With Wales 2-0 down and facing a crisis, Fishlock entered the fray and created a goal for Ffion Morgan.
It was Fishlock - of course - who scored the goal that levelled the tie in Cardiff, playing 120 minutes as Wales eventually triumphed 2-0, with Fishlock creating Ceri Holland's injury-time winner.
Fishlock also provided the assist for Lily Woodham in the first leg of the play-off final as Wales drew 1-1 with the Republic of Ireland, before the dramatic second leg in Dublin when a 2-1 Welsh win saw them finally make history and qualify for a major tournament for the first time.
After the match Fishlock told the pitchside BBC reporter that it was "the proudest moment," of her career.
With the benefit of hindsight, another emotion has been added to the euphoria. A feeling of relief.
"There was a big element of, you know, oh my god, finally," Fishlock said.
"Finally this has happened. And there was relief, which I wasn't expecting. Maybe I just hadn't realised how kind of big it had been weighing on me for all these years until that moment. And so there was obviously joy and euphoria but there was also relief for me specifically.
"I can't believe that we have done it."
Finally the greatest female footballer Wales has ever produced is representing her country on the biggest stage.
Horner's demise at Red Bull: what we know happened and why
Published
Image source, Getty Images
Red Bull's removal of Christian Horner may appear sudden, given only three days have passed since he oversaw Max Verstappen's fifth-placed finish at the British Grand Prix.
But this was a decision at least 18 months in the making.
Horner, in charge for two decades, will go down in F1 history as one of the sport's greatest team bosses.
Yet his long-standing grip on Red Bull Racing had been slipping for some time.
There is a whole lot more to Horner's demise than that episode, the ultimate conclusion of which remains unknown. But it added extra momentum to the mix that led to Red Bull's decision.
Looking at the state of Red Bull right now, it's almost hard to believe that Verstappen is the reigning world champion.
Verstappen - regarded by almost everyone in F1 as the best driver in the world - is third in the championship, 69 points off the leader, McLaren's Oscar Piastri, at the halfway point of the season.
The Dutchman has won only two races this season. He has won just four out of 24 races in the past year. Red Bull are fourth in the constructors' championship - or to put it another way, last of the top four teams - with no obvious way of improving on that position.
At the same time, Verstappen's future is in doubt. Horner has been emphasising that the driver has a contract until 2028. But that has not stopped Mercedes courting him.
If Verstappen left, with Red Bull in their current plight in terms of performance, it would be potential armageddon for the team. He has scored 165 points this season. Their second driver has scored just 10.
So what do we know about what happened and the events that led to his departure? Well, while Red Bull were keeping their own counsel on Wednesday, plenty is known about the machinations behind the scenes, with power struggles, disagreements and concern over both car and driver decisions.
Power struggles 'rife for close to three years'
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Adrian Newey, here right with Horner, is regarded as a F1 design genius and left Red Bull for Aston Martin on a £30m-a-year deal this year
The hatches have been bolted down at Red Bull, who are saying nothing other than their public statement that Horner has been "released from his operational duties with effect from today".
Even the few internal sources who might normally brief reliably are refusing to talk off the record.
So it is impossible to know for sure what was the straw that broke the camel's back to lead to this decision being taken now.
But although the decision might be a shock, with a bit of reflection, perhaps it's not as much of a surprise. Let's take a step back and ask: How did things get to this point?
To find the beginnings of an answer to that, one has to go back to October 2022, perhaps even earlier, and the death of Red Bull co-owner Dietrich Mateschitz.
Horner saw an opportunity to enhance his power. He started manoeuvring, and the first person in the way was Helmut Marko, Red Bull's long-time motorsport adviser and a close friend of Mateschitz.
A power struggle ensued. For some time, there was talk that Horner was trying to get rid of Marko, and the situation was not resolved until March 2024, when Verstappen stepped in and backed the Austrian. He made it clear that if Marko left, so would he.
Verstappen's father, Jos, also made his unhappiness known. In the wake of the allegations against Horner, Jos Verstappen said the team would fall apart if Horner remained in place.
Meanwhile, Horner was managing internal tensions within the design department between chief technical officer Adrian Newey and technical director Pierre Wache.
Through 2023, Horner was briefing that Newey - regarded as the greatest designer in F1 history - was no longer as important as he was. Newey effectively worked only three days a week, Horner would say, bigging up the roles of Wache and the technical leadership team around him, especially head of aerodynamics Enrico Balbo.
When the female employee made her allegations about Horner, Newey was unimpressed by what he heard. That, along with the feeling that others were claiming credit for work he believed was his own, led to Newey resigning in April last year.
He was immediately removed from any involvement with the F1 team, until his formal departure from the company later in the year. Newey started work for Aston Martin in March.
At the time Newey left, Verstappen had won two consecutive world championships - the second of which in 2023 was the most dominant in history.
Verstappen started the 2024 season with four wins in the first five races. Following Newey's departure, he won three of the next four. Then two of the following 13.
That performance level has continued into 2025. At the halfway point of the season, Verstappen has won just twice in 12 races.
Was Red Bull's loss of competitiveness a direct consequence of Newey's departure? No-one can be sure, but it has to have had an effect. A team does not lose someone of Newey's wisdom, experience and wide-ranging expertise without some consequences.
In July, long-time sporting director Jonathan Wheatley also resigned. He is now team principal of Sauber/Audi. Horner, much to Wheatley and Audi's annoyance, announced the move for them.
In September, head of strategy Will Courtenay followed suit. He will join McLaren as sporting director as soon as a contractual impasse can be resolved.
Red Bull's second car a big problem
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Horner renewing Sergio Perez's contract was seen as one of his key mistakes
Meanwhile, Red Bull have been having a second car problem.
While Verstappen won a record 19 of 22 races in 2023, his team-mate Sergio Perez took just two victories - in the first four races. After that, his form slumped alarmingly.
Kept on for 2024, Perez did not win again. And although he finished second to Verstappen three times in four races while they were dominating at the start of last season, his form had already started to decline again - following the trend of the previous season - by May.
And yet at that point, around the time of the Monaco Grand Prix, Horner signed Perez to a new two-year contract, to take him to the end of 2026.
The decision seemed baffling at the time. Not only was Perez not performing, but Red Bull held all the cards.
Even if giving Perez a new contract beyond the end of 2024 was a good idea - and many thought it was not - they had no need to sign the Mexican for two more years.
Fast forward to December 2024, and Perez's results had been so bad for the remainder of the season that Red Bull felt they had no option but to drop him. Sources say the decision cost them a pay-off in the region of 18m euros (£15.5m).
That might be chicken feed for a company of the size of Red Bull. But it's still an obscenely large amount of money wasted, because of a managerial miscalculation.
To replace Perez, Horner chose Liam Lawson, who at that point had done just 11 grands prix spread over two seasons for Red Bull's second team.
The decision was calamitous. The New Zealander floundered, and was replaced by Yuki Tsunoda after just two races.
The Japanese was the more obvious choice of the two - he had done four seasons, and been faster than Lawson when they were team-mates.
But it was also equally obvious to anyone with any real insight into F1 drivers' abilities that Tsunoda was not someone capable of getting close to Verstappen's level of performance in a car that by now was known to be extraordinarily difficult to drive.
No-one knows how a driver of the level of, for example, George Russell or Charles Leclerc, would do in a Red Bull. But no-one has had a chance to find out, because Red Bull - for which, read Horner - have refused for years to sign one.
And it's the lack of performance from the second driver that has left Red Bull floundering in the constructors' championship - which determines the end-of-year prize money.
Lower-order concerns in the mix? Earlier this year, Horner aligned himself with a push from FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem to bring V10 naturally aspirated engines back to F1.
Rivals believed Horner was doing it out of concerns that the engine Red Bull were designing for next year in their new in-house facility will be uncompetitive compared to Mercedes. He may even have been doing it for what he perceived to be 'the good of the sport'. No-one knows for sure.
But strategically it was unwise. Red Bull's new engine partner Ford entered F1 because of the new 2026 rules, which double down on hybrid. So it was hardly likely that Ford - already uncomfortable about the allegations surrounding Horner - would approve of this stance.
Adding to the miscalculation, it was obvious the V10 plan had no legs - there was too much opposition from Mercedes, Honda and Audi, who together were always going to be able to block it. So why stick your neck out?
Horner's closeness to Ben Sulayem on other matters - such as whispering in his ear to take action on the basis of various wild theories to explain McLaren's dominance - was also rubbing people up the wrong way.
Horner or Verstappen? Red Bull 'ran out of reasons to keep Horner'
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Image caption,
Verstappen has been linked with Mercedes - was his future linked to Horner's departure?
When the sexual harassment allegations broke, Horner was saved by the Thai main shareholder Chalerm Yoovidhya, who backed him and kept him in his role.
But within a year, Horner had been told that he now reported directly to Oliver Mintzlaff, Red Bull's chief executive officer of corporate projects and investments. He is the man whose quote was on Wednesday's statement announcing Horner's exit.
The big rumour doing the rounds within F1 on Wednesday was that Red Bull had been given some kind of ultimatum from the Verstappen camp - either Horner went or Max would.
At the moment, it is impossible to know whether that's true. Red Bull have not given a reason publicly. They may never do.
But what can be said is that Verstappen has repeatedly said that he wants to work in a calm, relaxed environment. And Red Bull has been anything but that for at least the past 18 months, and probably longer.
In the end, it probably comes down to this. Results were on the slide. Senior staff, integral to Red Bull's success, had left. A series of questionable decisions had been made. A major reputational threat was still hovering around. And there were questions over their star asset.
In that situation, the future of any CEO of any company would be looking rocky. In the end, it looks like Red Bull just ran out of reasons to keep Horner.
Leila Aboulela has won this year’s PEN Pinter prize for her writing on migration, faith and the lives of women.
The prize is awarded to a writer who, in the words of the late British playwright Harold Pinter, casts an “unflinching, unswerving” gaze on the world, and shows a “fierce intellectual determination … to define the real truth of our lives and our societies”.
Aboulela grew up in Khartoum, Sudan, and has lived in Aberdeen since 1990. Her six novels and two short story collections include The Translator, Elsewhere, Home and, most recently, 2023’s River Spirit.
“This comes as a complete and utter surprise,” said the writer on hearing the news. “For someone like me, a Muslim Sudanese immigrant who writes from a religious perspective probing the limits of secular tolerance, this recognition feels truly significant. It brings expansion and depth to the meaning of freedom of expression and whose stories get heard.”
Aboulela was announced winner at English PEN’s summer party on Wednesday evening, where actors Khalid Abdalla and Amira Ghazalla read from her work. She will receive the award on 10 October at the British Library in London, where she will announce her choice of winner for the PEN Pinter Writer of Courage award, given to an author “active in defence of freedom of expression, often at great risk to their own safety and liberty”.
Aboulela’s work “is marked by a commitment to make the lives and decisions of Muslim women central to her fiction, and to examine their struggles and pleasures with dignity,” said novelist Nadifa Mohamed, who judged this year’s prize alongside the poet and author Mona Arshi and the chair of English PEN, Ruth Borthwick. “In a world seemingly on fire, and with immense suffering unmarked and little mourned in Sudan, Gaza, and beyond, her writing is a balm, a shelter, and an inspiration.”
Aboulela “offers us nuanced and rich perspectives on themes that are vital in our contemporary world: faith, migration, and displacement,” said Arshi.
“She is not the first to write about the experience of migration, but Leila is a writer for this moment, and my hope is that with this prize her gorgeous books find new readers, and open our minds to other possibilities,” added Borthwick.
Last year, Arundhati Roy won the prize, and selected the imprisoned British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah as Writer of Courage.
The prize is awarded annually to writers resident in the UK, Ireland, the Commonwealth or the former Commonwealth. Previous winners include Michael Rosen, Malorie Blackman, Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie, Margaret Atwood, Salman Rushdie and Hanif Kureishi.
Kenya’s president, William Ruto, has ordered police to shoot protesters targeting businesses in the legs, in a sharp intensification of his rhetoric days after 31 people were killed in nationwide anti-government demonstrations.
“They shouldn’t kill them but they should shoot their legs so they break and they can go to hospital on their way to court,” Ruto said in the capital, Nairobi.
In his toughest remarks yet about the wave of protests over economic stagnation, corruption and police brutality that have swept the east African country, he also accused his political opponents of orchestrating the demonstrations and said some of those out on the streets were waging a “war” on the state.
“Those who attack our police, those who attack our security men and women, those who attack our security installations, including police stations, that is a declaration of war, that is terrorism,” he said. “We are going to deal with you firmly. We cannot have a nation that is run by terror. We cannot have a nation that is governed by violence.
“This country will not be destroyed by a few people who are impatient and who want to have a change of government using unconstitutional means. It is not going to happen.”
In the latest protests, on Monday, Kenyans took to the streets to mark Saba Saba (Seven Seven), the day on 7 July 1990 when Kenyans rose up to demand a return to multiparty democracy after years of autocratic rule under Daniel arap Moi.
Thirty-one people were killed on Monday and 107 injured, according to the state-funded Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, bringing the toll to 51 over the past two months, according to Agence France-Presse.
Unicef condemned the killing of a 12-year-old girl by a stray bullet while she was at home in Kiambu county, nine miles from the capital, as well as the arrest of children during the protests. “Children must be protected from harm at all times and under all circumstances,” the UN agency said.
The demonstrations began in June last year as a youth-led movement against a proposed tax increase, and quickly widened to encompass calls for reform and Ruto’s resignation. The government was forced to withdraw the finance bill that contained the proposed rises, and Ruto dismissed nearly all of his cabinet in an attempt to control the situation.
Police killings and abductions have done little to assuage public anger. The death in police custody last month of a teacher who had reportedly criticised a senior police official on social media, and the police shooting of a man at close range during a subsequent protest, has refocused attention on the security forces.
On occasion, protests have degenerated into looting and violence by some protesters, with thousands of businesses destroyed.
Ruto was elected on a promise to improve the wellbeing of young and ordinary Kenyans, but many feel he has failed to deliver his economic pledges and has responded in a tone-deaf manner to protesters’ demands.
Ruto’s latest comments echo an order to police from the interior minister, Kipchumba Murkomen, two weeks ago to shoot people who approach police stations “with criminal intent”.
Opposition leaders, including Ruto’s former deputy and ally Rigathi Gachagua, have accused the government of unleashing “hostile” state-sponsored violence against its citizens. On Tuesday, they called on the public to “boycott all businesses, services and institutions owned, operated or publicly linked to this regime and its enablers”.
Ruto’s allies have accused Gachagua of bankrolling violent protests, which he has denied. Gachagua also dismissed Ruto’s claims of a plot to overthrow the government, saying on Wednesday: “We want to remove you … through the ballot in 2027.”
Observers say that Ruto has to endear himself both to a disillusioned public and to younger Kenyans – a strong-willed and defiant generation born after the restoration of multiparty democracy who benefited from free primary education that started in 2003, and who have been leading the push for change since last year.
The UN said it was “deeply troubled” over the deaths during this week’s protests and that “intentional lethal force by law enforcement officers, including with firearms, should only be used when strictly necessary to protect life from an imminent threat”.
Maritime security firm Diaplous released a photo showing at least five Eternity C crew members being rescued
Six crew members have been rescued and at least three others killed after a cargo ship was attacked by Yemen's Houthis and sank in the Red Sea, a European naval mission says.
The Liberian-flagged, Greek-operated Eternity C was carrying 25 crew when it sustained significant damage and lost all propulsion after being hit by rocket-propelled grenades fired from small boats on Monday, according to the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency.
The attack continued on Tuesday and search rescue operations commenced overnight.
The Iran-backed Houthis said they attacked the Eternity C because it was heading to Israel, and that they took an unspecified number of crew to a "safe location".
The US embassy in Yemen said the Houthis had kidnapped "many surviving crew members" and called for their immediate release.
Authorities in the Philippines said 21 of the crew were citizens. Another of them is a Russian national who was severely wounded in the attack and lost a leg.
It is the second vessel the Houthis have sunk in a week, after the group on Sunday launched missiles and drones at another Liberian-flagged, Greek-operated cargo ship, Magic Seas, which they claimed "belong[ed] to a company that violated the entry ban to the ports of occupied Palestine".
Video footage released by the Houthis on Tuesday showed armed men boarding the vessel and setting off a series of explosions which caused it to sink.
All 22 crew of Magic Seas were safely rescued by a passing merchant vessel.
Since November 2023, the Houthis have targeted around 70 merchant vessels with missiles, drones and small boat attacks in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
They have now sunk four ships, seized a fifth, and killed at least seven crew members.
The group has said it is acting in support of the Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and have claimed - often falsely - that they are targeting ships only linked to Israel, the US or the UK, which have carried out air strikes on Yemen in response.
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The Houthis released video footage on Tuesday showing armed men boarding another cargo ship, Magic Seas, and detonating explosive charges
On Wednesday the EU's naval mission in the Red Sea, Operation Aspides, said it was participating in the international response to the attack on the Eternity C and that "currently six castaway crew members have been recovered from the sea".
An Aspides official told AFP news agency that five were Filipinos and one was Indian, and that 19 others were still missing.
The Greece-based maritime security firm Diaplous released a video on Wednesday that showed the rescue of at least five seafarers who it said had spent more then 24 hours in the water, according to Reuters news agency.
"We will continue to search for the remaining crew until the last light," Diaplous said.
Reuters also cited maritime security firms as saying that the death toll was four.
The US state department condemned the attacks on the Magic Seas and Eternity C, which it said "demonstrate the ongoing threat that Iran-backed Houthi rebels pose to freedom of navigation and to regional economic and maritime security".
"The United States has been clear: we will continue to take necessary action to protect freedom of navigation and commercial shipping from Houthi terrorist attacks, which must be condemned by all members of the international community."
In May, the Houthis agreed a ceasefire deal with the US following seven weeks of intensified US strikes on Yemen in response to the attacks on international shipping.
However, they said the agreement did not include an end to attacks on Israel, which has conducted multiple rounds of retaliatory strikes on Yemen.
The secretary-general of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) called for intensified diplomatic efforts following the new wave of attacks.
"After several months of calm, the resumption of deplorable attacks in the Red Sea constitutes a renewed violation of international law and freedom of navigation," Arsenio Dominguez said.
"Innocent seafarers and local populations are the main victims of these attacks and the pollution they cause," he warned.
Crete has seen an increase of 350% in migrant arrivals since the start of the year
Greece has suspended the processing of asylum applications from North Africa for three months after a surge in migrant numbers.
Arrivals by boat from the region will be arrested and detained, conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said.
He added that Greece was "sending a message of determination... to all traffickers and all their potential customers that the money they spend may be completely wasted, because it will be difficult to reach Greece by sea."
Mitsotakis added that the provisions would be based on the same legal reasoning Greece applied in 2020 to stop thousands of people from crossing the land border with Turkey.
Draft legislation will be put before parliament on Thursday.
"Clear message: stay where you are, we do not accept you," said migration minister Thanos Plevris on X.
Mitsotakis' announcement follows a considerable rise in migrant arrivals on the southern islands of Crete and Gavdos.
More than 2,000 migrants landed on Crete in recent days and another 520 were rescued off its coast early on Wednesday, bringing the total number since the start of 2025 to 9,000.
This was an increase of 350% since last year, said the president of the Western Crete Coast Guard Personnel Association Vasilis Katsikandarakis. "Immigration is suffocating us... Our personnel are literally on their knees," he said.
"The flows are very high," government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis told Action 24 channel on Tuesday, adding that the wave was "growing and ongoing".
According to public broadcaster ERT, authorities in Crete are under significant logistical strain as the pace and scale of arrivals continues to exceed the capacity of available accommodation infrastructure.
Several hundred people have had to temporarily be put up in a sweltering market hall, local media said, adding that among the migrants are 30 families with young children and infants.
ERT said that redistributing migrants to other areas of the country is a particularly slow process as the tourist season means fewer buses and ferries are available.
On Tuesday Greek, Italian and Maltese ministers as well as the EU's migration commissioner travelled to Libya to discuss the surge in migrant depatures.
But they had to turn back when the Government of National Stability (GNS) - a rival to the UN-recognised Government of National Unity (GNU) - blocked them from entering the country, accusing them of violating Libyan sovereignty.
Still, Mitsotakis said the Greek army was prepared to cooperate with the Libyan authorities to prevent the departure of the boats from the Libyan coast.
NGOs have repeatedly criticised attempts by European governments to forge deals with Libyan authorities to stem the flow of migrants.
The people who are intercepted by the Libyan coastguard and brought back to shore are often imprisoned in detention camps, where they are subject to inhuman treatment and dire conditions.
"Attempts to stop departures at any cost show a complete disregard for the lives and dignity of migrants and refugees," Amnesty International said.
Former President Yoon Suk Yeol, already accused of insurrection, faced additional criminal charges after a special counsel expanded the investigation into his ill-fated declaration of martial law.
Yoon Suk Yeol, former president of South Korea, arrived in court in Seoul on Wednesday for a hearing to address a new arrest warrant requested by a special prosecutor.
At least six other states have similar laws. Every court to consider them has blocked them, relying on a 2012 Supreme Court decision endorsing broad federal power over immigration.
Mr. Ackman and another hedge fund titan, Daniel S. Loeb, interviewed a potential campaign hire for Mayor Adams, who is courting their financial support.
As Zohran Mamdani runs for mayor in the general election, some leaders are encouraging him to keep Jessica Tisch as New York City’s police commissioner.
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