Nigerian authorities say they have secured the release of a further 130 schoolchildren kidnapped from a Catholic school in November, after 100 were freed earlier this month.
“Another 130 abducted Niger state pupils released, none left in captivity,” presidential spokesperson Sunday Dare said on X, in a post accompanied by a photo of smiling children.
Nigeria has recently seen a new wave of mass abductions, reminiscent of the kidnapping of schoolgirls in the town of Chibok by the militant group Boko Haram in 2014.
A UN source said the remaining schoolchildren would be taken to Minna, the capital of Niger state, on Tuesday.
The exact number of people taken and how many have remained in captivity has been unclear since the kidnapping in the rural hamlet of Papiri.
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said that a total of 315 students and staff were kidnapped. Some 50 escaped immediately afterwards, and on 7 December the government secured the release of about 100 more.
A statement from President Bola Tinubu then put the number of people still being held at 115 – about 50 fewer than the initial CAN figure would suggest.
It has not been made public who seized the children, or how the government secured their release.
Though kidnappings for ransom are a common way for criminals and armed groups to make money, a spate of mass abductions in Nigeria has put an uncomfortable spotlight on the country’s already grim security situation.
In November, assailants kidnapped two dozen Muslim schoolgirls, 38 church worshippers and a bride and her bridesmaids, with male farm workers, women and children also taken hostage.
The kidnappings come as Nigeria faces a diplomatic offensive from the United States, where President Donald Trump has alleged that mass killings of Christians in the west African country amount to a “genocide”.
The Nigerian government and independent analysts reject that framing, which has long been used by the Christian right in the US and Europe.
The religiously diverse country of 230 million people has myriad security concerns, from jihadists in the north-east to armed “bandit” gangs in the north-west, and its multiple conflicts have seen Christians and Muslims killed.
Progressives are pushing Medicare for All in some of the Democratic Party's most competitive Senate primaries next year, threatening the unity the party has found on attacking Republicans over expiring Obamacare subsidies.
In Maine, Graham Platner said he’s making Medicare for All a “core part” of his platform in his race against Gov. Janet Mills, the establishment pick who’s called for a universal health care program. In Illinois, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton and Rep. Robin Kelly are both championing the concept — and calling out rival Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi for not fully embracing it.
In Minnesota, Medicare for All has emerged as a key distinction between progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan and moderate Rep. Angie Craig, who supports adding a public option to the Affordable Care Act rather than Medicare for All. Flanagan said she “absolutely” expects the policy to define the primary because “it doesn’t matter if I’m in the urban core, the suburbs or greater Minnesota — when I say I’m a supporter of Medicare for All, the room erupts.”
And it’s become a flashpoint in Michigan, where physician Abdul El-Sayed, who wrote a book called Medicare for All: A Citizen’s Guide, is using his signature issue to draw a contrast with Rep. Haley Stevens and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who favor other approaches.
Medicare for All — government-funded health coverage for every American — is “where we need to point to,” El-Sayed said in an interview. “And I think you can galvanize a winning coalition around this issue.”
But some more moderate Democrats worry that progressives' renewed push for Medicare for All would undermine the party’s recent united front in fighting for an extension of the Obamacare subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year, leading to a significant spike in insurance costs for millions of Americans. Their effort initially failed in the Senate, but with the help of four vulnerable Republicans who crossed party lines this week, Democrats have now secured a House vote on an extension in January.
"We have a singular message, which is: ‘Don’t let these tax credits go.’ We have Republicans on the ropes,” said a national Democratic strategist who works on Senate races and was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “I don’t think introducing ‘we need MFA’ is the right strategy right now. I think it would be unhelpful."
Several Democratic consultants pointed to recent public polling showing Americans like having individual insurance coverage, despite being dissatisfied with health care companies. An NBC News poll found 82 percent of Americans were satisfied with their plans, both private and government-sponsored. Based on that data, these consultants said allowing Americans to buy into a government-offered plan, known as a “public option,” is more politically palatable.
Centrists have long dismissed Medicare for All as both a policy pipedream and political albatross for their party — a rallying cry for the left that serves as catnip for Republican admakers looking to broad brush Democrats as socialists. They argue that surveys often fail to present voters with the full picture of how Medicare for All would work, and therefore fail to capture its electoral toxicity.
“What we need to accept is there’s a deeply held skepticism among Americans about going zero to 60 that’s entirely government run, even though they don’t love the current system,” said Adam Jentleson, a Democratic strategist and president of the Searchlight Institute. “In isolation, this thing does okay. But it’s not how it plays out in real life, and the totality will crush us.”
The once-fringe policy that Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) mainstreamed during his presidential campaigns has become a rallying cry for his favored candidates and other progressives across battleground primaries, as Democrats work to make health care costs central to next year’s midterms and as the party base clamors for fighters willing to disrupt the status quo. The push for Medicare for All, which receded during the more moderate Biden era, comes as Democrats have otherwise been unified on their health care messaging, forcing Republicans onto defense over their refusal to extend expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies.
“Do I think every single swing-seat candidate is going to come out for Medicare for All? No,” said Jess Morales Rocketto, a Democratic strategist and board member for the nonprofit Care in Action. “But if you want to signal that you’re unafraid and bold right now, and you want to say you’re not beholden to the status quo, it’s a perfect position for that.”
Progressives are emboldened by partisan and independent polling that shows most Democrats and a majority of independents support Medicare for All. A recent survey commissioned by Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s (D-Wash.) leadership PAC and first reported by POLITICO showed 90 percent of Democrats back Medicare for All and found most independents and one in five Republicans back a “government-provided system.”
Jayapal, the former chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, plans to push her colleagues to start promoting Medicare for All again in the new year. She predicted in an interview that support for the system will be a “defining factor” in the party’s primaries next year and an electoral winner in battleground House seats.
But proponents of Medicare for All argue that a government-provided system would lessen the pinch of rising health care costs. They say pushing to extend the ACA subsidies and promoting Medicare for All as an end goal are not mutually exclusive. And they point to several 2018 candidates who won tough seats while supporting the measure, including former Rep. Katie Porter in California to retiring Rep. Jared Golden of Maine.
“You can know that there are short-term stopgaps that must be taken to protect working people while also thinking that long term, we need a better system,” said Platner, who is vying against Mills to unseat GOP Sen. Susan Collins in Maine.
Platner has been extolling Medicare for All from the start of his campaign and said it gets the “most raucous” response at his events across Maine, where a recent Pan Atlantic Research poll found 63 percent support for the system (and Platner trailing Mills by 10 points).
He argued in an interview that Mills isn’t as steadfast in her support for the concept because she “doesn’t talk about it all that often” and uses “vague language” when she does. Mills has said “it is time” for universal health care and that she’s “committed to finding a way to get there” if elected. Her campaign echoed that sentiment in response to a request for comment for this story, and cited her efforts to expand Mainers access to Medicaid.
In Minnesota, Flanagan said embracing Medicare for All has been a “journey” during her Senate campaign, as she heard from Minnesotans that the “cost of health care is the thing that comes over and over and over again.” Of Craig’s support for a public option, Flanagan said voters don’t want a nominee who “nibbles around the edges” instead of being “bold and audacious.”
Craig calls the public option a “big, bold reform,” but emphasizes that it’s a policy “we could actually accomplish in this country in a fairly short time period,” she said in a video this week.
In Illinois, Stratton and Kelly, two of the three leading Democrats vying to replace retiring Sen. Dick Durbin, are jockeying for position as Medicare for All’s biggest champion in the race while their campaigns knock Krishnamoorthi for couching his support for the system. Krishnamoorthi said in a statement that while it’s “a noble goal, and I’m fighting to get us to universal coverage” his focus is on extending the ACA subsidies and reversing Republicans’ cuts to Medicaid.
And in Michigan, El-Sayed has slammed McMorrow’s call for universal health care with a public option as “incoherent” and ill-informed as the two compete for the same slice of progressive voters. McMorrow has knocked the idea of a single-payer system run by President Donald Trump and his controversial health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. And she’s promoted a public option so people who like their private insurance can keep it. Stevens’ campaign says she supports strengthening Obamacare, including through a public option, without endorsing Medicare for All.
The issue is also becoming a flashpoint in Democratic primaries for some of the most competitive House seats in the country, driven in part by Sanders-backed candidates running from California’s Central Valley to Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley.
“There’s immense hostility and anger toward the way the insurance industry functions, doubled up with health care itself being one of the biggest affordability issues,” said Mark Longabaugh, a progressive strategist who worked on Sanders’ 2016 presidential bid. “Progressives are smart to push the case.”
Dame Ann Limb after being appointed a dame at Buckingham Palace in 2023
The chair of the King's Foundation Dame Ann Limb has admitted being "misleading" about her doctorate qualification.
The education specialist, who was recently nominated for a life peerage by Labour, told the Sunday Times that she had not completed a PhD at the University of Liverpool, despite this appearing on her since-amended CV.
"To be completely upfront and honest about it, I never completed my PhD at Liverpool University," she told the newspaper, adding that she used the Doctor title because she had been conferred with honorary PhDs by other institutions.
The BBC has contacted Dame Ann for comment. The King's Foundation declined to comment.
Dame Ann was among nominees to the House of Lords announced by Downing Street earlier in December, having held a number of senior public and private roles.
The King's Foundation - which offers courses in practical skills to young people - announced last week that she would be stepping down from her role as chair, which she had held since January, to become a peer.
An old version of her online CV, seen by the BBC, refers to her with the "Dr" honorific and lists a PhD from the University of Liverpool in 1978 as among her qualifications.
She was referred to as Dr Ann Limb by the City & Guilds Foundation, which she also chairs, in 2020, and in the Queen's Birthday Honours list announcing her damehood in 2022.
However, a new version of her CV - made in July 2024 - omits the Dr honorific and the supposed 1978 PhD, stating that she received honorary PhDs from Anglia Ruskin University and the University of Northampton.
Her website still says that she began her teaching career in further education "whilst undertaking a PhD at the University of Liverpool".
She told the Sunday Times: "I have used the word 'Doctor'... because I have got several honorary PhDs and that's been clear to me that they're honorary.
"Perhaps my own website is not very helpful, I don't pay a lot of attention to it, but if there's anything misleading... on that I'm very happy to correct [it]."
The newspaper also reported she claimed to have gained an MA from the Institute of Linguistics, which she also admitted was untrue.
Recipients of honorary doctorates tend not to use the Dr honorific despite technically being able to out of deference to those who have undertaken the academic work to receive a PhD.
When approached for comment, a No 10 spokesperson directed the BBC to a document listing the reasons why Dame Ann had been nominated for a peerage.
That document notes she has been the chair or non-executive director of several public, private and charity bodies.
Dame Ann grew up in Moss Side in Manchester and is currently the pro-chancellor of the University of Surrey and chair of institutions including the Lloyds Bank Foundation.
She was made a dame for services to young people and philanthropy, having spent much of her career in higher education.
The police watchdog says it may investigate West Midlands Police over its handling of the decision to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending an Aston Villa game.
The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) told the BBC it can exercise its power to investigate "if evidence available to us appears to warrant" it, but that it needed to assess that evidence "before determining our next steps".
Its director Rachel Watson is quoted by the Sunday Times as saying she was willing to use the watchdog's "power of initiative" given the "sensitivities" of the case.
Maccabi fans were prohibited from attending a 6 November match in Birmingham based on reports of hooliganism at other away games they attended.
However, the government's adviser on antisemitism has since said that some of the intelligence the force used to come to the decision was "inaccurate".
West Midlands Police also faced criticism over two of its high-ranking officers appearing to reiterate some of these inaccuracies before the committee.
The IOPC tends to investigate cases that have been referred to it by individual police forces - usually when someone has died due to police action, or if a police officer is accused of a criminal offence.
As such, instigating its own investigation without a referral is relatively rare.
The IOPC is not yet investigating the force's decision, but a spokesperson said on Sunday: "It is right for public confidence and police accountability that the force's involvement in the decision-making process is examined."
They noted HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services was examining the risk assessment West Midlands Police carried out before the fixture and the extent to which the intelligence it gathered "reflected the full information and intelligence picture".
They added that the Home Affairs Committee has asked the force for "additional evidence" relating to Chief Constable Craig Guildford and Assistant Chief Constable Mike O'Hara's committee appearance earlier this month.
"It is important for us to assess evidence related to these processes before determining our next steps."
The IOPC spokesperson said it had written to West Midlands Police and the region's police and crime commissioner to "seek assurances over what assessments they have made of any conduct".
They said this was important "to understand why a formal referral has not been made".
MPs previously heard that the ban was based on information given to the force by Dutch police commanders concerning violence that broke out in Amsterdam last year during a Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi.
Following this, Dutch courts said evidence showed fans of the Israeli club faced violence, and also pointed out that the club's supporters pulled down Palestinian flags, vandalised taxis and chanted racist slogans against Arabs.
Despite West Midlands Police saying the decision "wasn't taken lightly", senior MPs, including Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, said it amounted to antisemitism.
Lord Mann told the Home Affairs Committee that there were several inaccuracies in West Midlands Police's intelligence report.
He said it cited Maccabi fans "pulling down Palestinian flags" on match day in the Netherlands, when the incident occurred the night before. It also referred to a match between Maccabi and West Ham which never happened.
This week, Maccabi Tel Aviv was fined €20,000 (£17,550) for "racist and/or discriminatory behaviour" by supporters during their game at Stuttgart in Germany on 11 December.
Fans were also given a suspended one away match ban.
The proliferation of illegal firearms from the United States has fueled a spike in gun violence in Canada, where most guns used in crimes are smuggled across the border.
Seized guns at the Toronto Police Service. In Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, which includes Toronto, 91 percent of handguns recovered from crimes in 2024 came from the United States.
PHOENIX — After three straight days of MAGA infighting here at Turning Point’s AmericaFest, top Republicans — including Vice President JD Vance — tried to find agreement on Sunday afternoon, shifting their focus to countering the opposition.
“President Trump did not build the greatest coalition in politics by running his supporters through endless, self-defeating purity tests,” Vance told the crowd to loud applause, adding later: “We have far more important work to do than canceling each other."
In his speech, Vance ripped into “far left” Democrats, casting their policies as toxic to Americans and blaming them for Charlie Kirk's September killing, which has loomed large over the gathering. He touted the Trump administration’s policies on immigration, vaccines and transgender issues, while calling for the crowd to engage ahead of next year’s midterms.
“If you miss Charlie Kirk, do you promise to fight what he died for? Do you promise to take the country back from the people who took his life?” Vance asked the crowd.
His speech at the Phoenix Convention Center is the culmination of a weekend-long festival for 30,000 of President Donald Trump’s most ardent supporters. But until Sunday, much of the weekend was clouded by an intra-party schism that kicked off during night one on Thursday, when conservative commentator Ben Shapiro ripped into a number of fellow MAGA-verse influencers, especially Tucker Carlson, Candace Owens and Steve Bannon.
“The conservative movement is in serious danger,” Shapiro said, especially from some “charlatans who claim to speak in the name of principle but actually traffic in conspiracism and dishonesty.”
Those themes carried through on Friday and Saturday, with presidential-hopeful turned Ohio GOP gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy casting the moment as “a time for choosing in the conservative movement.”
Like Shapiro, Ramasawamy focused significant time on Carlson and his interview with far-right influencer and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, listing some of his most inflammatory remarks and saying they “have no place in this movement.”
Then, Bannon hit the stage and reversed course, comparing Shapiro to a “a cancer, and that cancer spreads.”
“Ben Shapiro is the farthest thing from MAGA,” Bannon told the crowd.
The sold-out annual meeting is the group’s first since founder Charlie Kirk was gunned down in September. It has featured a broad array of figures from within the conservative movement, including top commentators, elected officials, candidates and religious leaders, culminating with Vance and Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday.
Johnson called the weekend an “epic and faithful battle that truly will determine the future of our great republic” while stressing the importance of keeping control of the House ahead of next year’s midterms.
Vance also spent much of his speech talking about the midterms, bashing Democratic Senate candidates Graham Platner of Maine and Jasmine Crockett of Texas, who are both running in competitive primaries.
“We are gonna kick their ass next November,” Vance said of Democrats as the crowd immediately burst into “USA” chants. Outside of Johnson and Vance, a number of other speakers on Sunday sought to bridge the divisions that emerged in the prior days.
"I choose to build a movement, be part of a movement, that stands on principle, on strength, that loves the people in the movement, even sometimes when they piss you off,” said Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), who is running for governor. "You can't form a winning unit if you can't stay focused on the mission at hand.”
Donald Trump Jr. also sought to shift the focus to Democrats.
“The real enemy? It’s not Steve Bannon or Tucker Carlson or Ben Shapiro, it’s the radical left that murdered Charlie and celebrated it on a daily basis,” Trump Jr. told the crowd.
The political beliefs of alleged Kirk shooter Tyler Robinson, who is facing multiple charges including aggravated murder, aren’t easily defined.
Durante dos décadas, luchó contra incendios forestales para el gobierno de EE. UU. Ahora se enfrenta al cáncer, a las deudas y a la amenaza de separarse de su hijo de 11 años.
A crowd in Sydney, Australia, sings “Waltzing Matilda” on Sunday in honor of Matilda, the youngest victim of the Dec. 14 attack at a Hanukkah celebration on Bondi Beach.
The election agent for Nigel Farage in Clacton Peter Harris said the complaint had been "politically motivated".
"The facts are clear, the process has been properly followed, and there is no basis for any further allegation, inference, or repetition of these claims," Mr Harris added.
In a letter, the commission said it had "not identified any omissions of expenditure that ought to have been declared" in Farage's campaign for his Clacton constituency.
It added: "We did not identify credible evidence of potential offences of electoral law.
"Therefore, our decision is to close our consideration of the matter following initial enquiries and take no further action."
The claims of wrongdoing against Nigel Farage and his party were made by ex-Reform campaigner Richard Everett.
He alleged the party failed to declare spending on some leaflets, banners, utility bills and the refurbishment of a bar in the Clacton constituency office.
Documents were passed to the Metropolitan Police, which transferred the case to Essex Police.
Earlier this week an Essex Police spokeswoman said: "Any prosecution for such an offence must commence within one year."
She said an "allegation around misreported expenditure by a political candidate" in July 2024 was made on 5 December.
"It has been concluded that this report falls outside of the stated statutory time limit, and no investigation can take place," the spokeswoman added.
Farage took over as leader of Reform UK in June 2024, about a month before the general election.
He went on to win the seat of Clacton in Essex from the Conservatives with a majority of more than 8,000.
An army patrol in Bekkersdal township - file photo
South African police say a manhunt is under way after a shooting at a tavern left nine people dead and another 10 injured in a township near Johannesburg.
They say about 12 unidentified gunmen arrived in two cars in Bekkersdal, "opened fire at tavern patrons and continued to shoot randomly as they fled the scene".
The shooting happened at about 01:00 local time on Sunday (23:00 GMT Saturday). The police added that the tavern was licensed.
South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world, at 45 people per 100,000 according to 2023-24 figures from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
“Avatar: Fire and Ash” took in $88 million over the weekend, a sizable No. 1 total that nonetheless fell 34 percent behind the opening for its franchise predecessor.
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