Yusupha Mbye's mother pushes his wheelchair slowly across the tiled compound of their home in Kanifing, about 11km (seven miles) from The Gambia's capital, Banjul. The late-afternoon sun hangs low as she pauses to straighten a wrap over his legs, stopping briefly to catch her breath. He has been in this wheelchair since he was a teenager, she told Al Jazeera, wiping away tears. Twenty-six years later, I am still caring for him.
Poland is urging their citizens to leave Iran immediately, warning that the "possibility of a conflict is very real" amid escalating tensions over Tehran's nuclear programme. Prime Minister Donald Tusk issued the warning on Thursday while speaking in Zielonka, outside Warsaw. "Please leave Iran immediately and under no circumstances travel to this country," he said. "I do not want to alarm anyone, but we all know what I am referring to. The possibility of a conflict is very real."
More than 600 people may be in custody for political reasons, one Venezuelan rights group estimates. Venezuela's acting president has signed into law an amnesty bill that could see hundreds of politicians, activists and lawyers released soon, while tacitly acknowledging what the country has denied for years that it has political detainees in jail. The law, signed on Thursday, in effect reverses decades of denials.
the militant Palestinian movement faces imminent decisions which will be critical to its own continued existence and the potential for peace in Gaza. According to the BBC and press reports in the Gulf, Hamas members in Gaza have already voted. Those in the West Bank, in Israeli prisons and the diaspora are also expected to cast ballots for delegates to the movement's 50-member general Shura council, which ultimately chooses its politburo and a new interim leader. The process could last weeks.
The United States administration is intensifying its build-up of a vast array of military assets in the Middle East, as President Donald Trump says Iran has 10 to 15 days at most to agree a deal over its nuclear programme and stock of ballistic missiles. As well as the world's largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R Ford, which is reportedly joining the Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group in the Arabian Sea, key force multipliers such as E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft have been deployed.
A meeting between two drug traffickers in the Amazon jungle region of Putumayo has become a new lever of pressure for Donald Trump on the governments of Colombia and Venezuela. A U.S. intelligence report reveals that Giovanny Andres Rojas aka Arana, the top leader of the Border Commandos and currently imprisoned in La Picota prison in Bogota, is making illegal deals with the Serbian kingpin Antun Mrdeza, who has been held in Venezuela since 2025.
Alican Uludag is a well-known investigative journalist who focuses on reporting about corruption," said Massing. He is very well-connected and has access to important sources. This makes him dangerous to the government, in their eyes. The fact that a journalist is being treated like a serious criminal, taken away by 30 police officers and brought directly to Istanbul, serves as a deliberate act of intimidation and shows how severely the government is suppressing press freedom. Our colleague must be released immediately.
The US Supreme Court has struck down much of the Trump administration's tariffs on foreign goods, which have been a cornerstone of its trade and foreign policies. Also, Iran prepares for a possible US military strike. And, the International Energy Agency has removed climate change from its list of priorities for the next two years, following threats from the US
William Burns had travelled halfway around the world to speak with Vladimir Putin, but in the end he had to make do with a phone call. It was November 2021, and US intelligence agencies had been picking up signals in the preceding weeks that Putin could be planning to invade Ukraine. President Joe Biden dispatched Burns, his CIA director, to warn Putin that the economic and political consequences if he did so would be disastrous.
The United States has dispatched fighter jets after multiple Russian military aircraft were observed operating in international airspace near Alaska, according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). Two Russian Tu-95s, two Su-35s and one A-50 were detected and tracked operating in Alaska's Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), NORAD said in a statement on Friday, adding that it responded by sending two F-16s, two F-35s, one E-3 and four KC-135s.
A day after the U.S. women captured gold in hockey, the U.S. men's team's quest for the same hardware continues Friday at the 2026 Winter Olympics. Team USA will face Slovakia in the semifinals after hanging on to defeat Sweden in overtime on Wednesday. Quinn Hughes, who scored the game-winning quarterfinal goal, called facing Slovakia in the next round "an extremely hard test." The No. 3 seed dominated Germany 6-2 to advance to play the U.S.
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy -- Canada's controversial men's team will have the curling power's last chance at Olympic gold at the Milan Cortina Games. With Canada already shut out of the mixed team event medals, the country's top-ranked women were upset by Anna Hasselborg's Sweden in Friday's semifinals. Sweden, ranked No. 12, will face Switzerland for gold on Sunday. Sweden, which has won the women's competition three times since curling returned to the Olympic program in 1998, beat Canada 6-3.
Gasol won his NBA titles in the city with the Lakers and has been a member of a key Olympic panel overseeing the Games since he was elected by athletes as an International Olympic Committee member at the Tokyo Summer Games in 2021. His No. 16 jersey is retired and hangs in the Lakers' home arena that will host gymnastics and boxing at the Games. He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2023.
Not so long ago, if you said there was a shadowy cabal of elites who were involved in the sex trafficking of young women and girls and that some of the most famous people in the world were allegedly involved, then you would have been dismissed as a conspiracy theorist. On a certain level, it feels psychologically safe to other people who have conspiracy theories Jon Ronson even wrote a book called Them about extremists and conspiracy theorists.
ICYMI: The 2026 Winter Olympics are currently underway in Milano Cortina. From the "Quad God" to all the athletes winning gold, there has been a ton of buzz around this year's games. And while we watch history happen, let's take a walk down memory lane and see how fan-favorite Olympians have transformed over the years: 1. To start, Michael Phelps made his first Olympic appearance at the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, Australia, when he was just 15 years old:
