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  • Millions urged to evacuate as powerful Typhoon Dujuan hits Japan

    Millions urged to evacuate as powerful Typhoon Dujuan hits Japan

    As Typhoon Dujuan makes landfall across multiple Japanese prefectures, nearly 2 million residents have been ordered to evacuate their homes, in what has become the country’s 25th typhoon of an unusually active storm season. The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) initially issued an urgent warning of “imminent threat to life” across wide swathes of the country, though most severe alerts have since been downgraded. Only a small number of high-risk areas retain the most serious life danger warnings, including Oshima Town, Shinagawa Ward, Toshima Village, and Niijima Village, where level four landslide warnings remain in effect. Authorities continue to urge the public to stay vigilant and monitor updated weather advisories closely.

    Packing sustained wind speeds of 130 kilometers per hour (80.8 miles per hour) with gusts reaching up to 194 km/h, the storm has already caused widespread disruption to infrastructure and daily life. More than 50,000 households across the affected regions have been left without power, while hundreds of domestic and international flights have been grounded, and all regional rail services have been suspended for safety.

    The typhoon’s arrival overlapped with Japan’s five-day national holiday, forcing the cancellation of dozens of scheduled public and private events. High-profile cancellations include all Monday performances at the popular Rock in Japan music festival and the full day’s programming at the Tokyo Game Show, one of the world’s largest annual video game industry conventions. In a notable political disruption, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has delayed a high-profile trip to the United States, where she was set to meet U.S. President Donald Trump and address the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week, to stay in Tokyo and oversee the government’s typhoon response.

    Local emergency services have reported multiple incidents of storm-related harm. In Kanagawa Prefecture, the Yokosuka City Fire Department confirmed a woman in her 60s is missing after being swept away by floodwaters and is presumed buried by a landslide that hit her home. In neighboring Chiba Prefecture, a 50-year-old worker was rescued after being trapped while clearing debris at a landslide site. The worker fell into a dense bamboo thicket alongside heavy machinery before being extracted and transported to a local hospital for treatment. Emergency responders also received a report of a separate home in Kanagawa that was completely crushed by a landslide, though no further details on casualties have been released.

    Climate scientists point to two key factors driving the intensity of this year’s Pacific storm season. This year’s powerful super El Niño event, a natural climate pattern that raises ocean surface temperatures across parts of the tropical Pacific, has created ideal conditions for storm formation and intensification. While El Niño does not have a consistent impact on the total number of typhoons that form each season, researchers note it can shift storm tracks, alter strength, and increase the likelihood of stronger storms making landfall in Japan. Beyond natural climate variability, long-term climate trends are also increasing the risk of severe storm impacts: while global climate change is not projected to increase the total number of storms globally, and may even reduce storm frequency in some regions, rising global temperatures do amplify the intensity of the typhoons that do form. Warmer ocean waters allow developing storms to absorb more energy, boosting wind speeds, while a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, leading to far heavier rainfall and increased flood and landslide risk.

    As of the latest updates, Typhoon Dujuan continues to track northward along Japan’s Pacific coast. Emergency officials say full assessments of the total damage across affected regions are not expected to be completed until Tuesday, as response teams work to reach cut-off communities and clear blocked infrastructure.

  • Watch: Patrick Clancy says he forgives his ex-wife, Lindsay

    Watch: Patrick Clancy says he forgives his ex-wife, Lindsay

    In a raw and emotionally charged public appearance, Patrick Clancy, the former husband of an American mother facing murder charges for the deaths of their three young children, has shared the deeply personal decision that has shaped his grieving process: he has chosen to forgive his ex-wife, Lindsay.

    Clancy spoke candidly about why he made this unexpected choice, explaining that holding onto unforgiveness would have left a permanent, corrosive mark on his own life. He told audiences that if he had carried resentment and anger with him, he would have been “eaten up inside forever”, trapped in a cycle of pain that would never allow him to process his loss or move forward.

    The case, which has drawn widespread national attention, centers on allegations that Lindsay Clancy killed the couple’s three children — ages five, three, and eight months — at their Massachusetts home in early 2023. Patrick Clancy, who was not at home during the incident, has been navigating the dual burden of grieving the loss of his children and confronting the criminal charges against his former spouse.

    His decision to extend forgiveness offers a rare look into the complicated, conflicting emotions that can follow an unspeakable family tragedy, challenging common assumptions about how people respond to harm perpetrated by loved ones. While many who followed the case expressed shock at his choice, Clancy framed forgiveness not as a dismissal of the gravity of the alleged acts, but as a necessary act of self-preservation that allows him to begin healing.

  • ‘I am frustrated’ – Protesters take to the streets after Austin ICE shooting

    ‘I am frustrated’ – Protesters take to the streets after Austin ICE shooting

    Fresh anger has spilled onto the streets of Austin, Texas, after a fatal-injuring incident involving a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent left a Venezuelan man wounded, spurring hundreds of demonstrators to rally against immigration enforcement practices on Sunday.

    The shooting, which occurred in the state’s capital, quickly ignited long-simmering tensions between immigrant advocacy groups and federal immigration authorities, with many protesters voicing deep frustration over the use of force against undocumented migrants. “I am frustrated,” one demonstrator shared, a sentiment that echoed across the crowd gathered at the protest site, where signs calling for immigration reform and an end to aggressive enforcement tactics were held high.

    The incident comes amid a nationwide debate over U.S. border policy and the treatment of migrants arriving from Latin America, with Venezuela facing ongoing political and economic collapse that has pushed millions of its citizens to seek refuge in the United States. Local law enforcement confirmed that the ICE agent opened fire on the Venezuelan man, though full details of the encounter — including what prompted the use of lethal force — have not yet been released to the public. As investigators work to piece together the sequence of events, community organizers have already announced plans for additional demonstrations if transparency and accountability are not provided in the coming days.

  • Merz’s political crisis threatens Germany’s obsession with stability

    Merz’s political crisis threatens Germany’s obsession with stability

    Germany’s political landscape, long synonymous with steady, consensus-driven governance, is facing an unprecedented upheaval that threatens to reshape not only domestic politics but also the trajectory of the entire European Union. At the center of this chaos stands Chancellor Friedrich Merz, a former corporate lawyer whose 16-month tenure in office has already cemented his place in German polling history – for all the worst reasons.

    With an approval rating plummeting to just 13%, Merz holds the unwanted distinction of being the least popular German chancellor since systematic public opinion polling began. Voter skepticism of his leadership emerged immediately after he took office, and his support has collapsed faster than that of any predecessor. Many German voters dismiss him as arrogant, disconnected from everyday struggles, and unable to deliver on the core promises that brought his conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to power.

    The scale of Merz’s and the CDU’s crisis was laid bare in three consecutive regional election defeats over the past two weeks. Preliminary results from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern on Sunday delivered the most humiliating blow yet: the CDU failed to clear the 5% electoral threshold required to win seats in the state parliament, an unthinkable rebuke for a party that has long dominated German regional and national politics.

    While the traditional center-right collapses, the nationalist, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) has capitalized on voter anger to surge to historic gains. The far-right party, which German federal authorities have partially classified as an anti-democratic extremist movement, emerged as the largest faction in two of the three recent regional elections. In Saxony-Anhalt, it is now poised to enter government – a first for the party since its founding in 2013. Nationally, the AfD now leads all opinion polls, a development that sends deep alarm across Germany given the country’s traumatic legacy of Nazi authoritarianism.

    AfD co-leader Alice Weidel seized on the recent gains to declare that her party has displaced the CDU as Germany’s true “Volkspartei” – a catch-all people’s party. The party rejects the far-right label, arguing it is simply the alternative that disillusioned voters have been craving. It accuses Merz of failing on two critical voter priorities: reviving Germany’s once-dynamic but now stagnant economy, the historic engine of European growth, and delivering workable solutions to widespread public anxiety over immigration and public safety.

    “It is high time for political change,” Weidel said Monday, echoing a growing sentiment across the country.

    Merz’s hold on the chancellorship is now widely seen as precarious. Rumors of an internal party coup to replace him with a more popular CDU figure have circulated for weeks, though no potential challenger has publicly stepped forward, waiting to gauge sufficient support within party ranks. Even if Merz manages to cling to power, analysts agree his political credibility, influence, and room to maneuver within Germany’s fractious coalition government have been permanently eroded.

    Looking visibly deflated in an uncharacteristically downbeat televised address delivered even before final election results were confirmed, Merz struck a defiant tone Sunday evening, saying he would press ahead with planned tax, welfare, and economic reforms to restore German prosperity. “What we need now is backbone, steadfastness and patience,” he said. But German voters’ patience is wearing increasingly thin.

    The current crisis is not an overnight development. For decades after World War II, German voters reliably backed traditional center-left and center-right parties, but public disillusionment has grown steadily for years. Resentment began building after the 2007-2008 global financial crisis, when mainstream parties were seen as prioritizing bank bailouts over struggling families, whose savings and living standards declined steadily.

    The 2015 European migration crisis deepened those divides, when Germany welcomed more than one million refugees and migrants. While many integrated successfully, a series of high-profile attacks linked to some migrants – including a foiled 2024 plot to attack a Munich Christmas market with Islamist motives – left many Germans feeling anxious and unprotected.

    More recently, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 delivered a crippling blow to Germany’s economic model. The country lost access to cheap Russian energy that its manufacturing and export sectors depended on, while US trade tariffs and rising economic competition from China have further squeezed growth. Today, Germans face some of the highest energy costs in Europe, leaving widespread economic insecurity in their wake.

    On the left, the hardline Die Linke party has also made gains, capitalizing on voter discontent with centrist politics to win recent control in Berlin, squeezing the CDU from both sides of the political spectrum.

    The ripple effects of Germany’s political upheaval extend far beyond its borders. As the EU’s largest economy, the bloc’s biggest net budget contributor, and the largest international donor to Ukraine, political instability in Berlin has immediate consequences for the entire European project. Amid growing pressure on public finances, Merz has already pushed for deep cuts to wealthy EU member states’ contributions to the bloc’s budget, at a time when Brussels is calling for increased spending on common defense, migration management, and AI technology development.

    EU officials in Brussels have grown increasingly concerned about the shifting political landscape, warning that at a moment of rising global threats from Russia and China, energy volatility from Middle East conflicts, and perceived unpredictability from the United States under Donald Trump, European unity is more critical than ever.

    This month’s German regional election results also kick off a pivotal year of elections across the EU, with major member states including France, Italy, Spain, and Poland all set to hold national polls. Pollsters predict widespread gains for nationalist, Eurosceptic, and anti-immigration parties across the bloc – a shift that is being closely watched by leaderships in Moscow and Beijing.

  • Google hit with €403m fine by Irish data watchdog over GDPR violations

    Google hit with €403m fine by Irish data watchdog over GDPR violations

    In one of the most significant penalties issued by Irish data privacy authorities to date, tech giant Google has been fined €403 million (£345 million) by the Republic of Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) over long-standing violations in its handling of user location data. The landmark penalty caps a six-year investigation launched after multiple European consumer advocacy groups submitted formal complaints against the company, shining a fresh spotlight on Big Tech’s compliance with European Union privacy rules.

    The DPC’s inquiry, which concluded this week, focused on Google’s processing of location information across three core user features: Web & App Activity, Location History, and Location Accuracy. The investigation covered the period from May 25, 2018 — the exact date the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into force — through February 4, 2020. The regulator found that Google’s processing practices during this window failed to meet three core GDPR requirements: they were not lawful, not fair, and not transparent to users.

    Location data, a category of personal information that can pinpoint an individual’s whereabouts at any given time, carries uniquely sensitive privacy risks. In an official statement announcing the ruling, DPC Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle emphasized that this type of data “can reveal a significant amount of information about an individual, including information that is inherently private.”

    Doyle reiterated that the GDPR establishes strict, uniform data protection standards across the entire European Economic Area (EEA), mandating that all processing of personal user data adhere to the core principles of lawfulness, fairness, and transparency. He added that Google’s systemic failures left users in the dark about how their location information was being used, including for targeted advertising and building user interest profiles. This lack of clarity stripped users of meaningful control over their own personal data, a violation compounded by Google’s practice of retaining location data far longer than required for its stated purposes.

    Beyond the substantial financial penalty, the DPC has ordered Google to bring all of its location data processing operations into full compliance with GDPR requirements within a six-month timeline.

    Google has pushed back on the ruling by framing the violations as tied to outdated policies that the company has already overhauled. In its own public statement, the company noted that the case centers on historical practices that it began updating as early as 2019. “From 2019 onwards, we’ve significantly evolved our practices and launched robust tools that make managing location data simple,” the company said.

    Google highlighted a series of data protection improvements it has rolled out in recent years to address privacy concerns. These include industry-first auto-delete controls that allow all users to set their accounts to automatically delete location and activity data on rolling three, 18, or 36-month cycles. The company also pointed to simplified ad management tools that let users opt out of personalized advertising entirely, as well as increased transparency measures, including consolidated, easy-to-access information about Google’s location data practices and simplified account privacy settings.

  • US strikes on alleged drug boats could be crimes against humanity, says UN

    US strikes on alleged drug boats could be crimes against humanity, says UN

    Two days after the U.S. military published imagery of its latest strike on a vessel accused of drug trafficking in the Caribbean, a United Nations investigation has delivered a damning conclusion: the ongoing U.S. campaign of airstrikes on maritime targets outside American territorial waters violates international law, and may qualify as crimes against humanity. The findings, released Monday in an official briefing note by the UN Human Rights Council, come from special rapporteur Ben Saul, who has documented the scale of the operations launched by the U.S. as part of its counternarcotics initiative.
    Saul’s investigation confirms that between September of last year and the present, the U.S. has carried out no fewer than 68 such strikes across the Caribbean and Pacific, resulting in the deaths of more than 220 people. Even in cases where targets can be accurately verified as members of internationally designated terrorist or drug trafficking groups, Saul argues the strikes do not meet the legal standard for triggering the right to self-defense under international law. For self-defense to apply, the targeted group would need to have launched an active armed attack against the U.S. — a threshold the U.S. has not met in any of these cases, according to the report.
    The UN findings land just 48 hours after U.S. Southern Command, the military body overseeing operations in the region, confirmed its latest attack. In an official statement accompanying grainy aerial footage of the strike, the command said confirmed intelligence proved the targeted vessel was actively involved in narco-trafficking, and that the operation killed four individuals labeled as narco-terrorists. But Saul’s report pushes back hard on the legal justification for the entire campaign, noting that the strikes amount to a pattern of serial extrajudicial killings that violate the fundamental right to life. “Such attacks are unjustified in national or personal self-defence or under international humanitarian law, the international law of the sea, narcotics suppression conventions, or international counter-terrorism law,” Saul wrote in the briefing.
    Going a step further, the special rapporteur concluded that there are reasonable grounds to believe the 68 documented strikes that killed 223 people meet the definition of the crime against humanity of murder under customary international law.
    The U.S. launched its expanded counternarcotics air campaign, codenamed Operation Southern Spear, in early September of last year. From its launch, the initiative has faced sharp criticism and controversy. U.S. defense leaders have defended the mission, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth previously stating the operation focuses on removing “narco-terrorists from our hemisphere” and protecting the U.S. from the flow of illicit drugs that kill thousands of American citizens annually. However, the U.S. has yet to publicly release definitive, verifiable evidence proving all targeted vessels were actively engaged in drug trafficking.
    Critics of the operation have included regional leaders, but two of the most prominent opponents have been removed from power in controversial circumstances over the past year. Nicolás Maduro, the then-Venezuelan president who repeatedly spoke out against the strikes, was captured by U.S. forces in a dramatic, widely contested overnight raid on Caracas earlier this year. Meanwhile, Gustavo Petro, the left-wing former president of Colombia who also opposed Operation Southern Spear, left office in August after a Trump-backed candidate won the country’s June presidential election.
    As of Tuesday, the UN report has not yet received an official response from the U.S. government. BBC News has reached out to the White House and State Department for comment on the findings.

  • Mohamed Salah given six-month driving ban

    Mohamed Salah given six-month driving ban

    A high-profile former Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah has been handed a six-month driving disqualification after failing to cooperate with police over a speeding incident involving his luxury Rolls-Royce, court officials have confirmed.

    The case dates back to March 27, just three days after Salah confirmed his departure from Liverpool following a storied nine-year tenure with the Premier League club. On that date, a speed camera caught the vehicle travelling at 36 miles per hour in a 30mph zone in Wilmslow, a market town in Cheshire, north-west England.

    When police sent an official inquiry asking Salah to identify who was operating the car at the time of the offence, the 34-year-old Egypt international did not respond to the request. He also failed to enter a plea to the charge of failing to provide driver identification information, which was brought by Cheshire Police.

    In a hearing processed under the Single Justice Procedure – a system that allows magistrates to handle minor offences without a public courtroom hearing – Salah was convicted on the charge. In addition to the six-month driving ban, Warrington Combined Court ordered the footballer to pay a total of £1,044 in fines and court costs.

    Salah’s departure from Liverpool was officially announced by the club on March 24, 2026. Over his nine seasons with the Merseyside club, the Egyptian attacker cemented his status as one of the most accomplished players in the club’s 140-plus year history, scoring 257 goals across 442 appearances in all competitions. He completed his transfer to Turkish top-flight side Trabzonspor at the end of the 2025-26 domestic season.

  • CNN, MS NOW and Politico to file lawsuit against Trump’s White House ban

    CNN, MS NOW and Politico to file lawsuit against Trump’s White House ban

    A major clash over press freedom has erupted in U.S. politics after three leading national media outlets—CNN, Politico, and MS NOW—announced they are taking legal action against the Trump administration following an abrupt ban that blocked their reporters from entering the White House complex.

    The controversial restriction was first announced by former President Donald Trump on a Friday, when he publicly lashed out at the three organizations, claiming they had deliberately published what he called “fiction or lies” covering his administration. The punishment moved from announcement to enforcement just one day later: when the outlets’ reporters attempted to enter the White House for scheduled work on Saturday, they were turned away at security checkpoints and had their official press credentials seized by officials, with no prior warning or formal disciplinary process.

    In a coordinated joint statement released to the public on Monday, legal teams for the three media outlets laid out their case for challenging the ban in court. The core of their argument centers on defending fundamental rights enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits the federal government from curtailing press freedom. For decades, federal courts have consistently interpreted this constitutional language to bar the government from retaliating against media outlets or excluding reporters from official spaces based purely on disagreement with their coverage.

    “Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting,” the joint statement read. The outlets emphasized that the lack of any formal hearing or prior notification for the credential revocation makes the action constitutionally problematic. They added that if the ban is allowed to stand without legal pushback, it would set a dangerous precedent that undermines not just the independence of the press, but also the American public’s right to receive unfiltered, independent reporting about government activities that is not subject to official censorship.

    Legal experts note that the case marks one of the most direct confrontations between a sitting presidential administration and major national media outlets over access to official government spaces and constitutional press protections in modern U.S. history. The outcome of the lawsuit is expected to set a key precedent for the boundaries of presidential authority to regulate press access to the White House going forward.

  • Inside a camp for Yemeni refugees who have fled to Djibouti

    Inside a camp for Yemeni refugees who have fled to Djibouti

    The ongoing military conflict on Yemen’s western coast has triggered a new wave of displacement, driving thousands of vulnerable civilians to seek safety across a key maritime border. Amid escalating clashes that have shattered daily life in coastal Yemeni communities, many families have packed their few belongings and boarded small, overcrowded boats to cross the Bab al-Mandab Strait, a strategically critical waterway that separates Yemen from the Horn of Africa. Their destination is Djibouti, a small East African nation that has opened its borders to absorb the growing influx of people fleeing violence in their home country. Right now, these newly arrived refugees are sheltering in purpose-built camps across Djibouti, where aid organizations are working around the clock to provide basic necessities including clean drinking water, food, emergency medical care and temporary housing. The displacement crisis adds to already mounting pressure on regional humanitarian systems, as Djibouti continues to grapple with the economic and social strains of hosting a growing population of displaced people from Yemen’s nearly decade-long civil conflict.

  • Seven Ethiopian rebel groups form new alliance

    Seven Ethiopian rebel groups form new alliance

    After years of fragmented, regional armed unrest across Ethiopia, seven major and minor rebel factions have announced a unified coalition aimed at removing the national government in Addis Ababa, rekindling international concerns over stability in the Horn of Africa nation.

    The newly formed bloc, dubbed the Alliance for Survival, unites some of the most prominent armed opposition groups operating across the country. It brings together the Amhara-region Fano militia, the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), and four smaller factions based in Ethiopia’s Ogaden, Afar, and Benishangul-Gumuz regions. Combined, the alliance represents groups operating in six of Ethiopia’s 12 regional states, covering half of the country’s administrative subdivisions.

    In the statement announcing the coalition, the seven groups levied severe accusations against Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s administration, claiming his leadership has overseen widespread war, systematic genocide, mass infrastructural destruction, and crippling economic poverty that has left Ethiopia at risk of national disintegration. As of initial reporting, federal government officials have not issued a formal response to the formation of the alliance.

    The unification of these groups marks a significant escalation of long-simmering conflict that has gripped Ethiopia for years. Armed unrest has persisted for years in Oromia and Amhara, the country’s two most populous regional states, while the northern Tigray region has seen a sharp resurgence of tensions in recent months. A brutal two-year civil war in Tigray that ended with an African Union-brokered peace deal in 2022 killed an estimated hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions more. Though the formal conflict was halted, both the federal government and TPLF have repeatedly accused one another of violating the terms of the peace agreement, leaving the region on the brink of a return to full-scale war.

    Notably, the Fano militia once fought alongside federal Ethiopian forces against the TPLF during the Tigray civil war. However, the group launched an insurgency against the Abiy administration less than a year after the war concluded, when it refused federal orders to disarm and integrate into national security forces. The OLA, meanwhile, has waged an insurgency against the Ethiopian government since 2018.

    The formal formation of the Alliance for Survival comes months after unconfirmed reports emerged of a separate secret alliance between the TPLF and Eritrea, Ethiopia’s northern neighbor. Speaking to national lawmakers in July, Abiy dismissed those earlier threats, asserting he had full confidence in Ethiopia’s defensive capabilities. “Even if others were added, we do not have an iota of fear regarding Ethiopia’s sovereignty,” the prime minister said at the time.

    The coalition announcement also follows Ethiopia’s June 2024 general election, where Abiy’s Prosperity Party retained its overwhelming parliamentary majority. The election, however, was widely marred by ongoing armed conflict, opposition accusations of state repression, and minimal participation from major opposition groups. Both Fano and the OLA rejected the election and its final results, while the entire Tigray region, home to roughly six million Ethiopian citizens, was fully excluded from participating in the poll.