World news
Britons Peter and Barbie Reynolds freed after eight months in Afghan detention | Afghanistan
A British couple have been freed from months of detention in Afghanistan, the UK Foreign Office confirmed. The Taliban released Barbie Reynolds, 76, and her husband, Peter, 80, after eight months of detention. The couple were arrested in February as they travelled to their home in Bamyan province, central Afghanistan. They had been held since […]
Kenya’s Turkana people genetically adapted to live in harsh environment, study suggests | Global development
A collaboration between African and American researchers and a community living in one of the most hostile landscapes of northern Kenya has uncovered key genetic adaptations that explain how pastoralist people have been able to thrive in the region. Underlying the population’s abilities to live in Turkana, a place defined by extreme heat, water scarcity […]
China, India and Belarus line up for Russia’s rival version of Eurovision | Russia
Russia is gearing up to revive its Soviet-era alternative to Eurovision – the Intervision song contest – which begins in Moscow on Saturday, with performers from 23, mostly allied, countriesto take the stage. But sequinned bodysuits, camp theatrics and Europop bangers will be in short supply. Instead, the Kremlin’s version of the spectacle promises “traditional […]
Late night hosts condemn Trump administration – as it happened | Trump administration
Jon Stewart airs Trump ‘approved’ Daily Show Jon Stewart has hosted the first edition of The Daily Show since his fellow late-night hosts, Jimmy Kimmel, was suspended by ABC. Marketing itself as the “all new government approved Daily Show”, Stewart appeared in a studio bedecked by gold trimming, in an apparent nod to […]
Eritrean man is second to be deported to France under UK’s ‘one in, one out’ deal | Immigration and asylum
An Eritrean man has been deported to France under the UK government’s “one in, one out” deal with the neighbouring country. The man – the second to be deported under the agreement – was on a flight that left Heathrow for Paris at 6.15am on Friday, the Home Office confirmed after he lost a […]
For comedians around the world, the laughs often end as democracy fades | Freedom of speech
The exiled Egyptian comedian Bassem Youssef has experienced firsthand how intolerant governments can silence political satire. And he had a short message this week for those living in an age of Donald Trump’s free speech clampdown: “My Fellow American Citizens,” he wrote on X. “Welcome to my world.” In his attacks on the most […]
Friday briefing: Special relationships, unlikely ‘friendships’ – Trump’s state visit beyond the cliches | Donald Trump
Good morning. Donald Trump has gone home, no doubt so thrilled by the Red Arrows and the chance to have dinner with Nick Faldo that he will enter the Oval Office this morning a changed man. Admittedly, at his Chequers press conference with Keir Starmer yesterday afternoon, the transformation hadn’t entirely taken hold: Trump […]
‘Cricket diplomacy’ collapses as India-Pakistan hostility enters field of play | South and central Asia
As nationalistic rivalries go, few run as deep as India and Pakistan. But even as the neighbours fought wars against each other, carried out rival nuclear tests and conducted nightly shows of strength along their heavily militarised border, there was always one thing that brought them together: cricket. But as the two sides came together […]