Heavy security deployed at airport in Niger capital after overnight explosions

Source says two aircraft on ground in Niamey ‘destroyed’ by gunfire although authorities yet to comment on situation
Heavy security has been deployed around the main airport in Niger’s capital, Niamey, after overnight gunfire and explosions.
The shooting and detonations began shortly after midnight on Wednesday, according to residents of a neighbourhood near the airport, which is next to Base Aérienne 101, a military base previously used by US and then Russian troops.
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Hundreds feared dead in attempt to cross Mediterranean during cyclone

Fifty killed in one incident as Italian authorities estimate 380 people may have drowned last week
Up to 380 people may have drowned attempting to cross the Mediterranean last week as Cyclone Harry battered southern Italy and Malta, the Italian coastguard has said, as a shipwreck with the loss of 50 lives was confirmed by Maltese authorities.
Just one person, who was hospitalised in Malta, survived the shipwreck, which happened on Friday.
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Crocodile warnings as floods devastate southern Africa

More than 100 people killed and hundreds of thousands displaced in South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe
Devastating floods have killed more than 100 people in southern Africa since the beginning of the year and displaced hundreds of thousands, as authorities and aid workers warn of hunger, cholera and attacks by crocodiles that have spread with the waters.
More than 70 people have died in Zimbabwe and 30 in South Africa, where hundreds of people were evacuated from Kruger national park earlier this month after a deluge of rain.
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‘It’s the sovereignty of the country’: Guinea-Bissau says US vaccine study suspended

Despite US pushback, officials in west Africa say controversial hepatitis B study on pause amid ethics concerns
US health officials insisted it was still on. African health leaders said it was cancelled. At the heart of the controversy is the west African nation of Guinea-Bissau – one of the poorest countries in the world and the proposed site of a hotly debated US-funded study on vaccines.
The study on hepatitis B vaccination, to be led by Danish researchers, became a flashpoint after major changes to the US vaccination schedule and prompted questions about how research is conducted ethically in other countries.
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ActionAid to rethink child sponsorship as part of plan to ‘decolonise’ its work

Development charity’s new co-chief executives signal shift from controversial sponsor a child scheme launched in 1972 to long-term grassroots funding
Child sponsorship schemes that allow donors to handpick children to support in poor countries can carry racialised, paternalistic undertones and need to be transformed, the newly appointed co-chief executives of ActionAid UK said as they set out to “decolonise” the organisation’s work.
ActionAid began in 1972 by finding sponsors for schoolchildren in India and Kenya, but Taahra Ghazi and Hannah Bond have launched their co-leadership this month with the goal of shifting narratives around aid from sympathy towards solidarity and partnership with global movements.
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Trump orders immediate reopening of commercial airspace over Venezuela

Order allows direct flights from US to Venezuela, as major oil companies already on ground to assess potential operations
Donald Trump has ordered the immediate reopening of commercial airspace over Venezuela, weeks after US military forces toppled the dictator Nicolás Maduro.
Speaking at the White House during his cabinet’s first meeting of the year, Trump said he had just concluded a telephone conversation with Venezuela’s acting president (and former vice-president), Delcy Rodríguez, in which he informed her of the decision to restore flight access.
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Canada separatists accused of ‘treason’ after secret talks with US state department

Alberta activists’ covert meetings with US officials revealed, outlining group’s increasingly emboldened efforts
Covert meetings between separatist activists in the Canadian province of Alberta and members of Donald Trump’s administration amount to “treason”, the premier of British Columbia said on Thursday.
“To go to a foreign country and to ask for assistance in breaking up Canada, there’s an old-fashioned word for that – and that word is treason,” David Eby told reporters.
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US congressman meets five-year-old Liam Ramos and his father at ICE detention center – as it happened

This blog has now closed. Read our latest story here
Two federal officers fired their guns during the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, according to an initial review by the Department of Homeland Security that was obtained by NBC News.
Three sources told NBC News that the preliminary report, from a Customs and Border Protection internal investigation led by the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility, was sent to congressional committees yesterday, including the House homeland security and judiciary committees.
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Can Venezuela’s Delcy Rodríguez become a Latin American Deng Xiaoping?

Maduro’s Sorbonne-educated successor is talking up an era of ‘reform and opening up’ modelled on China’s post-Mao boom
After years of political and social upheaval, hunger and despair, the Great Helmsman departs and is replaced by a francophile economic reformer who catapults a traumatised country into a new era of prosperity and growth.
That is what happened in China half a century ago when the croissant-loving communist Deng Xiaoping became paramount leader after Chairman Mao Zedong’s 1976 death and set in motion one of history’s biggest economic booms.
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Mexico’s president says cancellation of oil shipment to Cuba is ‘sovereign’ decision

Claudia Sheinbaum denied move was response to pressure from the US, after Trump said ‘zero’ oil would go to Cuba
Mexico has cancelled a shipment of oil to Cuba, the country’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, appeared to confirm on Tuesday, but she insisted the decision was “sovereign” and not a response to pressure from the US.
Fuel shortages are causing increasingly severe blackouts in Cuba, and Mexico has been the island’s biggest oil supplier since the US blocked shipments from Venezuela last month.
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Keir Starmer opens door to UK visit by Xi Jinping after bilateral talks

PM says trip to China has put relationship in stronger place, but possible return visit angers British critics
Keir Starmer has taken a big step towards rapprochement with China, opening the door to a UK visit from Xi Jinping in a move that drew immediate anger from British critics of Beijing.
During the first visit by a UK prime minister to China in eight years – a period which Starmer has described as an “ice age” – he said talks with the Chinese president had left the bilateral relationship in a stronger position.
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Xi didn’t really see a point to Kier’s visit – but hey, let a hundred flowers bloom | John Crace

Chinese leader bestows a little largesse on the British PM while getting the green light for London ‘mega embassy’
Let’s face it, this was never going to be a meeting of equals. Keir Starmer had been desperate to squeeze in a trip to China for some time. Another country to tick off his list and he always feels a lot better about himself when he’s abroad. Less noise from his unhappy MPs. Plus he loved the pomp and ceremony that came with it. The large flags. The military bands. A country that treated him with respect. Almost. Besides, Mark Carney and Emmanuel Macron had both made recent trips. He had seen their holiday photos. Now it was his turn. He couldn’t bear to be left out.
The Chinese? Not so much. They couldn’t really see the point. But they would schedule in a couple of meetings on the condition the UK government gave the green light to the new “mega embassy” near the Tower of London. Consider it done, said Keir. All systems go for the first prime-ministerial visit since Theresa May in 2018.
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Starmer announces visa-free travel to China after talks with Xi in Beijing – UK politics live

Downing Street gives no date for when the agreement of 30 days of visa-free travel will come into force
For more context on today’s Starmer-Xi meeting, China is the world’s second-biggest economy and Britain’s third-largest trading partner – to which it exports £45bn of goods and services a year – so it is no surprise the UK has turned to Beijing in its search for economic reliability.
As the Guardian’s political editor Pippa Crerar reported earlier today, the UK does not rank among the top 10 of China’s trading partners but the Beijing leadership has spied a political opportunity to improve links with one of Washington’s closest allies at a time of deep uncertainty in the transatlantic alliance.
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Xi-Starmer meeting: Chinese leader tells PM he hopes both countries can ‘rise above differences’

China agrees visa waiver for British citizens as countries sign agreements on closer economic cooperation

UK politics live – latest updates

The Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, has said the UK’s relationship with his country has gone through “twists and turns” over the years but that a more “consistent” approach is in both their interests.
Before talks with Keir Starmer during the first visit to China by a British prime minister in eight years, Xi said the two men would “stand the test of history” if they could “rise above differences”.
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Thursday briefing: Will Keir Starmer’s cautious China gamble pay off?

In today’s newsletter: With China now central to the world’s green tech​ and economic future, the UK faces a ​s​eries of strategic ​discussions it can no longer postpone

Good morning. The Starmer has landed.
Yesterday, Keir Starmer became the first British prime minister to make the trip to China since Theresa May’s in 2018 (meaning a surprisingly large number of PMs didn’t) and has vowed to bring “stability and clarity” to the UK’s approach to Beijing.
Iran | Donald Trump has warned time is running out for Tehran and said a massive US armada was moving quickly towards the country.
Assisted Dying | Supporters of assisted dying will seek to force through the bill using an archaic parliamentary procedure if it continues to be blocked by the Lords.
UK politics | Centrist ideas are no longer wanted in the Conservative party, Kemi Badenoch has said.
Ofsted | A snap inspection of a Bristol secondary school criticised for postponing a visit by an MP who is a member of a group that advocates for Israel has found “no evidence of partisan political views”.
BBC | The BBC has named senior executive Rhodri Talfan Davies as its interim director general, as the corporation continues the search for a permanent replacement for Tim Davie.
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News live: Australia closely monitoring Nipah virus spread overseas, Butler says; Nine sells talkback radio stations to Sydney pub billionaire

Federal health minister says Australia has no protocols yet for sick travellers who arrive in country. Follow today’s news updates live

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Queensland health minister said federal government still has to bridge the gap on funding deal
Tim Nicholls, the Queensland health minister, said he still thinks there’s a “bit of water to flow under the bridge” in discussions between states and the federal government over hospital funding.
There’s quite a bit of work for the commonwealth to do to step up to the mark because the last offer that was put forward was rejected by states. Because it was inadequate and failed to address the burgeoning problems that we have.
We’re negotiating respectfully with them, but quite frankly, the most recent offer wasn’t up to scratch, and we hope to see some improvements on it.
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Teenage boy’s body found in creek after Blue Mountains camping trip

Boy’s friend, 17, winched to safety by emergency rescue team after pair were separated in Blue Gum forest

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A teenage boy has been found dead in a national park creek in the Blue Mountains after he became separated from a friend on a camping trip.
Two boys, aged 16 and 17, travelled to Leura train station on Tuesday before they walked to Mount Hay, New South Wales police said.
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Australia spends more on tax breaks for landlords than social housing, homelessness and rent assistance combined

Exclusive: Acoss report shows property investors received $12.3bn in tax concessions in 2025, while the share of social housing dropped to a record low

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Australia spends billions of dollars more on tax breaks for property investors than on social housing, homelessness and rent assistance combined, according to research by the Australian Council of Social Service (Acoss).
The analysis comes as new data from the Productivity Commission reveals the share of homes dedicated to social housing has dropped to a record low 3.6%, from 5.7% in the 1990s.
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Company handling Australia’s immigration detention playing key role in Trump’s ICE migrant crackdown

Albanese government awarded contracts to MTC despite allegations of ‘gross negligence’ in the US involvement with ICE

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The Australian government’s main immigration detention contractor is playing a key role in Donald Trump’s hardline immigration crackdown and has attracted a string of complaints over its treatment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees.
In recent years, the Albanese government has awarded lucrative immigration detention contracts to the local subsidiary of Management and Training Corporation, a major US private prison company, to operate offshore processing facilities on Nauru and Australia’s onshore detention network.
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‘Gobsmacked’: Australian workplace relations department to replace short-term staff with third-party contractor

Workers and union say outsourcing will mean loss of knowledge and experience needed to help ‘very vulnerable people’ waiting for government payments

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A group of call centre staff kept on short-term contracts at the government department responsible for workplace standards will be replaced by a third-party contractor, with their union warning “vulnerable people” contacting the government could be affected.
Due to laws to improve job security, 13 workers at the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) are unable to renew their contracts after reaching the maximum period they can remain in short-term positions, their union says.
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Trump claims Putin agreed to halt Ukraine energy strikes amid extreme cold

US president says he made appeal to Russian leader, but no ceasefire has been confirmed by Moscow or Kyiv
Donald Trump has claimed that Vladimir Putin has agreed to halt strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for one week after he issued a personal appeal to the Russian leader due to the extreme cold in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, did not immediately confirm the ceasefire was in place, but said that Trump had made an “important statement … about the possibility of providing security for Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities during this extreme winter period”.
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Greenland threats no laughing matter, says mayor after comic’s flag stunt

Avaaraq Olsen tells content creators to think before making jokes after German tried to raise Stars and Stripes in Nuuk
The mayor of Greenland’s capital has called on media professionals and content creators to act responsibly after a German comedian’s failed attempt to hoist the US flag.
Maxi Schafroth, 41, a Bavarian comic, tried to run up the Stars and Stripes on a flagpole near the cultural centre in Nuuk but was confronted by angry passersby.
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EU designates Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organisation

‘Any organisation that kills thousands of its own people is working toward its own demise,’ says Kaja Kallas
The EU has listed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation, ending years of division over the issue in response to the regime’s brutal repression of protesters.
“Repression cannot go unanswered,” said Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, on Thursday. The paramilitary organisation has played a significant role in suppressing demonstrations in Iran. “Any regime that kills thousands of its own people is working toward its own demise,” she wrote on X.
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EU designates Iran’s revolutionary guard as terrorist organisation – as it happened

The EU has just designated Iran’s revolutionary guard as terrorist organisation, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas confirmed.
EU enlargement commissioner Marta Kos also strongly criticised Russia for its continuing attacks on Ukraine.
Arriving for the EU foreign affairs council this morning, she said:
“The news we are getting from Ukraine nearly every morning are horrific. What Russia is doing. There is a state terror. It’s far beyond the war [as] they are bombing people while they are at home, freezing to death, [and] bombing passenger trains …”
“I can’t speak about the years; [as] I was saying there is some level of fundamentals which have to be fulfilled. But of course, we also have to consider the very important historical moments. So we will discuss with the member states how to bridge the time we need for the accession process, and of course, to react to this situation.”
“We will work until the end to get the unanimity we need for this process. This is the only way we have to keep going, working also with the Hungary, and this is what we are doing.”
“After more than a decade of hostilities and almost four years of full-scale war, the people of Ukraine continue to endure immense suffering. Daily civilian casualties, widespread infrastructure destruction, and mass displacement are further exacerbating the massive humanitarian needs.
With Russia’s ongoing attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, millions in the country are exposed to freezing temperatures.”
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Criminal investigation opened into two officials over deadly new year Swiss fire

Prosecutors questioning Crans-Montana head of public safety and a former fire safety officer, documents show
Prosecutors investigating the deadly new year bar fire that killed 40 people in the Swiss ski resort of Crans-Montana have opened a criminal investigation into a current and a former local council official, according to documents and local media reports.
The municipality’s head of public safety was this week summoned to a hearing next Friday, their lawyer, Nicolas Rivard, confirmed on Thursday, adding that his client would be reserving any statement for the public prosecutors.
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UK unlikely to join a US attack on Iran – but may help Gulf states if Tehran retaliates

Deployment of RAF Typhoon squadron to Qatar signals willingness to protect country from a counterattack
Britain is unlikely to assist the US in an attack on Iran but a deployment of RAF Typhoons to Qatar last week signals a willingness to help regional allies if Tehran tries to widen the conflict in retaliation.
A first strike on Iran is unlikely be in line with the UK’s interpretation of international law, but British forces could become involved if there is a need to help Qatar or other regional allies in self-defence.
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Is Trump about to attack Iran? – The Latest

Donald Trump says ‘time is running out’ for Iran as the threat of war appears to loom closer. A huge US armada is being moved towards Iran and is seen as the starkest indication yet that Trump intends to strike.
The US president had called on the Iranian regime to negotiate a deal on the future of its nuclear programme, only weeks after he promised Iranian protesters ‘help was on the way’ then backtracked days later.
Nosheen Iqbal talks to the Guardian’s deputy head of international news, Devika Bhat, about what Trump could do next – watch on YouTube
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Nigel Farage meets UAE ministers and drums up donations on Dubai trip

Reform UK leader speaks at GB News event also attended by industry minister on second UAE visit in two months
Nigel Farage has paid a visit to Dubai to build diplomatic relations with United Arab Emirates ministers and drum up donations for Reform UK from wealthy expats.
The two-night trip was his second visit to the Gulf state in two months, after a £10,000 trip hosted by Abu Dhabi to attend the Formula One grand prix.
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Iran seeks to avert US military action with talks in Ankara

Turkey hosts urgent mediation as Trump’s threats mount and Tehran weighs painful compromises to avoid conflict
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, will travel to Ankara for talks aimed at preventing a US attack, as Turkish diplomats seek to convince Tehran it must offer concessions over its nuclear programme if it is to avert a potentially devastating conflict.
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, proposed a video conference between Donald Trump and his Iranian counterpart, Masoud Pezeshkian – the kind of high-wire diplomacy that may appeal to the US leader, but would be anathema to circumspect Iranian diplomats. No formal direct talks have been held between the two countries for a decade.
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Iran tries to confront ‘catastrophe’ of violent clampdown on protests

Calls for independent external inquiry into brutal crackdown that some estimates suggest killed more than 30,000
A deep and painful inquest is under way inside Iran as politicians, academics and the security establishment try to come to terms with what has been described as a catastrophe after the violent protests and their even more violent suppression by the security forces.
The shape of the debate taking place in the heavily censored society is emerging, as selective newspapers and Telegram channels slowly open up to international audiences after the protests – which some estimates suggest could have left more than 30,000 dead – that have stunned many Iranians.
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