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Doctors, nurses, patients and other experts describe the loss of decades of progress in beating the virus in 100 days after Pepfar was disrupted

Aid cuts in east Africa have led to cases of babies being born with HIV because mothers could not get medication, a rise in life-threatening infections, and at least one woman having an unwanted abortion, according to interviews with medical staff, patients and experts.

A report by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) sets out dozens of examples of the impact of disruption to Pepfar – the president’s emergency plan for aids relief – in Tanzania and Uganda.

The men, who had been released after serving criminal sentences, are from Laos, Vietnam, Cuba, Jamaica and Yemen

Lawyers for five men deported by the US to Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, said they are being denied proper access to their clients, who they said are being imprisoned illegally.

The men from Vietnam, Jamaica, Laos, Yemen and Cuba have criminal convictions, but had all served their sentences and been released in the US, their lawyers said. The US deported them to the small southern African country without warning in July, claiming they were “depraved monsters”.

Landslide destroyed a village in the Marra mountains area of western Sudan and left only one survivor

More than 1,000 people have been killed in a landslide in western Sudan, according to a rebel group that controls the area.

The landslide on Sunday, which followed heavy rain, destroyed the village of Tarasin in the Marra mountains area of western Sudan and left only one survivor, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM) said.

Coastguard reports boat carrying about 160 people capsized in sight of town 50 miles north of Nouakchott

Sixty-nine people drowned when a vessel full of migrants overturned off the coast of Mauritania earlier this week, coastguard officials said on Friday.

The accident occurred late on Tuesday after passengers on the boat spotted the lights of a coastal town about 50 miles (80km) north of the capital, Nouakchott, prompting the occupants to press to one side of the boat, causing it to capsize, Mohamed Abdallah, the head of the coastguard, told reporters.

Trump administration pushing controversial deal to send people to non-home countries including South Sudan and Eswatini

Seven people have arrived in Rwanda as part of a deal to accept deportees from the US, the Rwandan government has said.

The Trump administration has been negotiating arrangements to send people to third countries including South Sudan and Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, as part of its wider deportation drive.

US military buildup and attack on alleged narco boat spark fears of protracted guerrilla war in South America

• Trump’s Venezuela gunboat diplomacy: sabre-rattling or prelude to invasion?

The White House’s former top Latin America official has said he fears the US could stumble into a protracted guerrilla war in Venezuela after Donald Trump ordered a military strike on a boat in the Caribbean Sea, killing 11 alleged drug traffickers.

Tuesday’s controversial strike off the Venezuelan coast – which was reportedly carried out by an attack helicopter or Reaper drone – came after the US president ordered a major naval deployment to the region, ostensibly to combat South American drug traffickers.

Polls point to ‘very close election’ between the Jamaica Labour party and the opposition People’s National party

Jamaicans head to the polls on Wednesday for a closely fought general election which has been overshadowed by an investigation into potential corruption in the ruling Jamaica Labour party (JLP) which is seeking a third term in office.

The latest local poll put the opposition People’s National party (PNP) 3.1% lead over the JLP, but political analyst Damion Gordon cautioned that the lead was barely larger than the margin of error.

Interior minister says ‘they were waiting for’ official who was shot at point-blank range outside his home in killing that has shocked Peru

Peru’s government has said the fatal shooting of an Indonesian embassy official in Lima on Monday night was likely a “contract killing”.

Zetro Leonardo Purba, 40, an official at the Indonesian embassy in Peru, was shot dead outside his block of flats in Lima’s Lince neighbourhood while riding a bicycle home from work on Monday evening.

Trump says ‘we took it out’ referring to the operation in international waters, amid US-Caracas tensions

The US military has killed 11 drug traffickers from Venezuela during a “a kinetic strike” in the Caribbean Sea, the US president, Donald Trump, has claimed amid growing tensions between Washington and Caracas.

Trump trailed the announcement during an address at the White House on Tuesday afternoon, telling reporters the US had “just, over the last few minutes, literally shot out … a drug-carrying boat”.

Daughter of former Nazi official and her husband to be questioned after raid on home failed to find masterpiece

A federal court in Argentina has ordered house arrest for the daughter of a former Nazi official and her husband after a raid failed to locate a painting stolen from a Jewish art dealer in Amsterdam.

Authorities raided a home in the coastal city of Mar del Plata last week after a Dutch newspaper identified a painting seen in a real estate photo as an Italian masterpiece registered on a database of lost wartime art.

North Korean leader invited to visit Russia as Zelenskyy says Putin is displaying ‘impunity’ with new Ukraine strikes

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Vladimir Putin has invited Kim Jong-un to visit Russia during a lengthy meeting in Beijing on the sidelines of China’s biggest military parade, as Kim promised to do “everything I can to assist” Moscow.

North Korea has supported Russia in its war against Ukraine with weapons and troops, and the Russian president praised North Korean fighters for acting “courageously and heroically”.

On display in Beijing were nuclear weapons launched by air, sea and land, laser weapons and four-legged drones

It was hardly a subtle attempt to project power. China showed off air-, sea- and land-launched nuclear weapons in its parade on Wednesday, a triad intended to demonstrate that Beijing’s long-term aspiration is to match US military might.

Also on display were large underwater torpedo-like drones, intended to threaten western warships, as well as anti-drone lasers and four-legged “robot wolves”, all designed to be noticed, regardless of their actual military effectiveness.

Trump criticises victory day event as China caps off week of diplomatic grandstanding seen as rebuke to the west

Xi Jinping said the world was facing a choice between peace or war as he held China’s largest-ever military parade, joined by Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un in a show of defiance to the west.

Putin and Kim, the authoritarian leaders of Russia and North Korea, were among dozens of world leaders who attended the parade, a massive display of military hardware and personnel, orchestrated to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the second world war, which China calls the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.

Live footage of private conversation between Russian president and Chinese leader aired at Beijing military parade

The authoritarian strongmen Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping have mused on how organ transplants might lead to immortality, during a brief exchange of small talk caught on a hot mic at a military parade.

The Russian president was in Beijing on Wednesday with the Chinese leader, who hosted allies for a ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the second world war.

In an unprecedented spectacle the leaders of Russia, China and North Korea led a group of more than 20 world leaders at a victory day parade in Beijing

• Full report: Xi Jinping appears with Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un at China military parade

It is an image that, had it been published just a few years ago, would have been dismissed as a piece of mischievous photo-shopping: the leaders of Russia and China, accompanied by the head of a pariah regime whose mission to arm his country with nuclear weapons had been opposed at the United Nations by his two companions.

But dramatic shifts in the geopolitical landscape – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and, crucially, the re-election of Donald Trump – have combined to bring Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un together in what many observers are calling a dramatic redrawing of the global balance of power.

Former foreign affairs minister avoided Beijing photocall featuring Vladimir Putin. Follow today’s news live

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Australia’s stronger-than-expected economic growth could dash hopes for further interest rate cuts, Australia Associated Press reports.

Reserve Bank of Australia governor Michele Bullock insisted she does not know “at this stage” what the uplift in economic growth revealed on Wednesday could mean for interest rates.

I certainly would have avoided them, if there were the remotest possibility [of being photographed with Putin].

When I accepted the invitation to come to the commemoration of China’s enormously historically significant victory over the Japanese aggressor … the idea of the parade grew up separate from that.

Dan Andrews can speak for himself. He is someone who has been battered to death by media hostility in his own state, and gone on to win big majorities … he can defend himself.

Byron Waller, accompanied by instructor but doing all the flying, stops off in England on way round back to Australia

At 15 years and 10 months of age, Byron Waller can’t order a pint and has never driven a car, but on Wednesday afternoon he landed his small plane at an airport in Brighton, on England’s south coast. It was the 16th or so stop (he can’t quite remember) of a remarkable airborne odyssey that he hopes will make him the youngest supported pilot to fly around the world.

The adventure began at his home in Brisbane, Australia, four weeks ago and has taken the teenager across the Indian Ocean and through the Middle East to Europe, from where he will venture around the other half of the globe back home. Though he is accompanied by an instructor – global aviation rules not easily permitting children to fly around the world on their own – Byron does all the flying of their tiny single-engined Sling TSi aircraft.

Concern at anti-immigration sentiment targeting Indian community as Coalition politicians cross floor to support defeated Pauline Hanson motion

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The former Labor minister Ed Husic has rebuked Anthony Albanese’s assertion that “good people” attended last weekend’s anti-immigration rallies, saying “I haven’t seen a good fascist yet”.

Asked on Wednesday if he agreed with the prime minister’s suggestion that among the neo-Nazis and far-right activists at Sunday’s rallies would have been “good people” concerned about immigration, the now Labor backbencher pushed back.

Sewell, who has been charged over alleged attack on Indigenous protest site, described in court as having ‘at his disposal a large group of followers’

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Neo-nazi Thomas Sewell – who allegedly led an attack on a First Nations encampment in Melbourne over the weekend – will continue to commit violent offences that could lead to death, a court heard.

Sewell, 32, applied to be freed on bail on Wednesday after being charged over an alleged attack on Melbourne’s Camp Sovereignty on Sunday.

BYD overtakes Mitsubishi after nearly quadrupling sales in past year, according to official figures, as GWM, MG and Chery also surge

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Australians bought more than 20,000 Chinese-made vehicles in August, putting four Chinese brands into the top 10 for the first time, while Tesla sales have slumped by more than a third.

BYD came in sixth for the month, overtaking Mitsubishi, after its sales nearly quadrupled compared with August 2024, while GWM, MG and Chery each outsold Isuzu Ute in the month to round out the top 10.

President laments accident on railway that carries passengers up and down a hillside in Portuguese capital

At least 15 people have been killed after Lisbon’s Gloria funicular railway car derailed and crashed, an emergency medical service spokesperson has said.

Authorities would not identify the victims or disclose their nationalities, but said some foreign nationals were among the dead. At least 18 people were also injured.

Devolved government says contractors seeking support must prove products will not be used by Israeli military

The Scottish government has banned arms companies which supply the IDF from getting grants and investment support, and will freeze support for trade with Israel.

John Swinney, the first minister, said on Wednesday any defence contractors who wanted financial help in Scotland would have to prove their products would not be used by the Israel Defense Forces.

This live blog is now closed. For the latest on the Trump-Nawrocki meeting, you can read our full report here:

• Trump pledges to ‘stand with Warsaw’ in meeting with Polish president

Putin was also asked about the prospect of more EU sanctions against Russia or its allies, including China and India.

He said the leaders did not discuss this during their recent conversations.

“I think there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. We will see.

Otherwise, we will be forced to resolve all our objective objectives through military means.”

US president praises Karol Nawrocki for election win and says he was not considering pulling troops from Poland

• Europe live – latest updates

The US president, Donald Trump, has said he was not considering pulling US troops out of Poland and pledged to stand with Warsaw “all the way” during a meeting with the country’s conservative nationalist president, Karol Nawrocki, at the White House.

Backed by the populist rightwing opposition Law and Justice party, which ruled Poland between 2015 and 2023, Karol Nawrocki unexpectedly won Poland’s presidential election after running a campaign under a Trumpesque slogan of “Poland first, Poles first”.

Those who have asylum claims rejected and do not leave within 14 days will face prison terms of two to five years

Greece has passed draconian legislation that could mean rejected asylum seekers receiving prison terms, fines and orders to wear ankle tags, in a move that reflects the centre-right government’s continued attempts to deter undocumented migrants from arriving on its soil.

The tough penalties usher in an unprecedented era of zero tolerance for people who remain in the country if their asylum claims are denied. As a frontier state, long viewed as a gateway to Europe, Greece has had a surge in migrant arrivals this year.

Letter by senior Democrats asks state department to reveal details behind financing of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation

Senior Democratic senators have called on the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, to reveal details behind the financing and oversight of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) amid concerns over rising death tolls near aid sites, the group’s apparent coordination with the Israeli army and its reported use of private military contractors linked to intelligence operations.

The letter, co-signed by senators Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen and Peter Welch, accuses the state department of an “inability to answer basic questions about GHF in a timely manner” and said that the department’s “overriding of internal protocol and staff warnings is particularly concerning given it is unlikely to be able to conduct basic oversight of the funds it provided to GHF”.

More than 40,000 have suffered ‘new war-related injuries’ with more than half left disabled, says UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities

Yemen’s Houthis have claimed responsibility for a missile launched at Israel (see 8.17am BST), saying they fired two ballistic missiles at Tel Aviv in what they said was an initial response to Israeli attacks on Yemen.

The Israeli military moved deeper into Gaza City on Wednesday, with soldiers and tanks pushing into Sheikh Radwan, one of the urban centre’s largest and most crowded neighbourhoods, reports Reuters.

Unifil condemns ‘serious attack’ on Tuesday morning as it was clearing a road and adds that no one was hurt

Israeli drones dropped four grenades near UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon, the agency’s force said on Wednesday, in what it described as “one of the most serious attacks” on its personnel since a November ceasefire.

The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, Unifil, said the Tuesday morning attack came as it was clearing a road to a UN position close to the Israeli border, adding that no one was hurt.

Foreign minister says move is not aimed at Israeli people but ‘ensuring their government respects international and humanitarian law’. This live blog is closed

At least 63,633 Palestinian people have been killed and 160,914 others injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

At least 76 Palestinian people, including 12 aid seekers, were killed in the last 24 hours alone, the ministry said.

Latest attack comes as Israel’s military urges people to leave Gaza City with 60,000 more reservists to be called up

At least nine people, including five children, have been killed in an Israeli strike while fetching water in al-Mawasi, an area of southern Gaza which Israel has designated as a safe zone, health officials said.

A doctor from al-Nasser hospital shared a picture of the children’s bodies in the hospital, as well as a picture of water jugs left in a pool of blood at the site of the attack on Tuesday.

Russian president says relations at ‘unprecedentedly high level’ as dozens of leaders gather for Victory Day events

Vladimir Putin has hailed Russia’s “unprecedentedly” high level of ties with China, as dozens of leaders including the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong-un, arrived in Beijing on the eve of a massive military parade intended to showcase a Chinese-led global order.

Putin called China’s leader, Xi Jinping, a “dear friend” after the two held talks at the Great Hall of the People and then at Xi’s personal residence. “Our close communication reflects the strategic nature of Russia-China relations, which are at an unprecedentedly high level,” Putin told Xi, according to a video on the Kremlin’s Telegram channel. “We were always together then, and we remain together now.”

China seizes on opportunity for geopolitical realignment after India was hit with one of US’s harshest trade penalties

They stood together like old friends, heads thrown back in jovial laughter, clutching one another’s hands affectionately. Except this was no ordinary gathering of three men, but a meeting of three of the most powerful non-western leaders: Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi.

The overt displays of intimacy were widely regarded by observers as a telling message of defiance aimed at their western counterparts, in particular Donald Trump, who just a few days earlier had slapped India with 50% import tariffs, among the harshest of the US president’s trade penalties.

Taliban appeal for aid, with casualties expected to increase as rescue teams struggle to reach isolated areas

The Taliban have called for international aid as Afghanistan reels from an earthquake that killed more than 1,400 people and left thousands more injured.

Rescuers searched into the night for survivors after the 6.0-magnitude quake struck on Sunday destroying entire villages across the country’s eastern Kunar province, which borders Pakistan.

Several villages in Kunar province ‘completely destroyed’, says public health ministry, as rescue operations take place. This live blog is closed

• Magnitude 6 earthquake hits eastern Afghanistan

• How have you been affected by the earthquake?

One resident in Afghanistan’s Nurgal district, one of the worst-affected areas in Kunar, said almost the entire village had collapsed under the force of the earthquake.

“Children are under the rubble. The elderly are under the rubble. Young people are under the rubble,” the villager, who did not give his name, told the Associated Press.

“We need help here,” he pleaded. “We need people to come here and join us. Let us pull out the people who are buried. There is no one who can come and remove dead bodies from under the rubble.”

People tell of losing children and other relatives and of digging their way out of the rubble after the disaster

It was almost midnight when Hameed Jan was jolted awake in his bed by a deep rumble. Powerful tremors were shaking his small house in Piran village, in Afghanistan’s Kunar region, and he could see the walls beginning to crack.

“I jumped out of bed and rushed to where my children and parents were sleeping,” Jan said. “I managed to rescue two of my children and brought them outside to safety. I went back inside to save my younger siblings, but as I did the roof and walls collapsed around me.”

Deputy prime minister expresses regret over mistake that led to underpayment of stamp duty on £800,000 flat

Angela Rayner is battling for her political survival after she admitted underpaying stamp duty on her £800,000 seaside flat and referred herself to the ministerial ethics adviser after days of denials of wrongdoing.

The deputy prime minister confirmed her tax arrangements after coming under intense pressure to be more transparent about her properties, but has been left with her reputation damaged and future hanging in the balance.

Tribunal will look at Britain’s legal responsibilities and whether there is any evidence of covert support for Israel

Jeremy Corbyn will open a two-day public tribunal into alleged British complicity in Israeli war crimes in Gaza on Thursday, at which former diplomats, UN specialists and international law academics will examine the Foreign Office’s handling of the crisis.

The tribunal is being jointly chaired by the former Labour leader and is the kind of political initiative that will be a thorn in Keir Starmer’s side as his party seeks to retain the backing of leftwing and Muslim voters at the next election.

Inquest questions why more help was not offered to Victoria Taylor, 34, after her mental health deteriorated

The family of a nurse whose body was found in a river after a three-week search have said she was failed by “systemic neglect and under-resourcing in mental health services”.

Victoria Taylor, 34, was described at an inquest as a “devoted mother, a loving fiancee and a fiercely loyal sister”.

Jamie Raskin says Farage is ‘a Trump sycophant’ before UK politician addresses the House judiciary committee in Washington

Kemi Badenoch is probably hastily redrafting her PMQs script in the light of Angela Rayner’s statement about underpaying her stamp duty. She has got less than half an hour to craft the right questions. And she will probably want to ask about the economy, and hate speech laws, too.

Here is the list of MPs down to ask a question.

Democrats accuse Reform leader of being a ‘Trump sycophant’ as he missed prime minister’s questions to give evidence before House committee

Nigel Farage has been accused of being a “Putin-loving free speech impostor” whose main motivation is ingratiating himself with Donald Trump and tech companies, during a sometimes difficult appearance before a US congressional hearing on censorship.

The Reform UK leader, who missed prime minister’s questions to appear as a witness before the House judiciary committee, was invited by its Republican leadership, who quizzed him about what Farage called the “awful authoritarian” situation for free speech in the UK.

Secretary of state says previous interdiction efforts in Latin America have not worked, but ‘when you blow them up, when you get rid of them’

As part of the Trump administration’s campaign of mass deportations, the defense department will soon have hundreds of military judges work on immigration cases, the Associated Press reports:

The US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has approved sending up to 600 military lawyers to the federal justice department to serve as temporary immigration judges, according to a memo reviewed by the Associated Press.

Decision marks major victory for school after White House accused it of not addressing harassment of Jewish students

A federal judge on Wednesday ruled Donald Trump’s administration unlawfully terminated about $2.2bn in grants awarded to Harvard University and can no longer cut off research funding to the Ivy League school.

The decision by US district judge Allison Burroughs in Boston marked a major legal victory for Harvard as it seeks to cut a deal that could bring an end to the White House’s multi-front conflict with the country’s oldest and richest university.

Order sets rules for federal forces as locals stage noise protests, block indictments and demand home rule

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Washington DC’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, appeared to bow to Donald Trump’s military occupation of the nation’s capital on Tuesday, signing an executive order that formalizes cooperation with federal forces even as residents push back against the city’s takeover.

The Tuesday order establishes the “Safe and Beautiful Emergency Operations Center” – borrowing from Trump’s own branding – to institutionalize collaboration between city officials and various federal agencies including the FBI.

Blaze in Chinese Camp – a town settled around 1850 by Chinese miners – was caused by lightning, authorities say

Multiple structures burned in a historic Gold Rush town in northern California on Tuesday night, after thousands of lightning strikes ignited a spate of fast-moving fires in the rural dry foothills of the eastern Sierra.

Chinese Camp, about 57 miles (92km) east of Stockton and named for the Chinese miners who settled there, is a registered California landmark filled with historic structures, and home to roughly 60 residents.

Company says changes to gaming platform will root out ‘bad actors’ after child safety concerns over unsupervised interaction

The gaming website Roblox is to limit adult strangers from talking to children by the end of this year in an effort to root out “bad actors”.

The fast-growing platform which has more than 110 million users a day playing games like Grow A Garden and Brookhaven RP has been hit by child safety concerns as experiments found children as young as five may be able to communicate with adults while playing games.