Author: Elizabeth Jenrola Oso

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a flagship initiative of President Donald Trump’s administration, has apparently been dissolved with eight months still remaining on its contract. The move brings an abrupt end to a controversial campaign that saw federal agencies invaded, budgets slashed, and hundreds of thousands of workers dismissed. Confirmation of Doge’s demise came earlier this month when Scott Kupor, director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), told Reuters that the department “doesn’t exist” and was no longer a “centralised entity”. His remarks formalised suspicions that had been circulating for months about the department’s future. Doge was created…

Israel has dramatically escalated its confrontation with Hezbollah after an airstrike in Beirut’s southern suburbs killed one of the group’s most senior military commanders. The attack, which took place on Sunday evening in the densely populated Haret Hreik district, claimed the life of Haytham Ali Tabatabai, Hezbollah’s chief of staff, according to the Israeli military. Lebanon’s health ministry reported that at least five people were killed and 28 wounded in the strike, while the national news agency said three missiles were fired at the targeted building. Footage from the scene showed extensive damage to residential blocks in the area, a…

New Zealand has announced plans to eradicate feral cats by 2050, marking a significant expansion of its world-leading Predator-Free strategy. The move, unveiled by Conservation Minister Tama Potaka, represents the first time a new predator has been added to the programme since its inception in 2016. Potaka confirmed on Friday that feral cats would join the list of targeted species, which already includes ferrets, stoats, weasels, rats and possums. The minister described the animals as “stone-cold killers” and said their removal was essential to restoring native biodiversity and protecting the country’s heritage landscapes. More detailed plans for the eradication effort…

The future of global efforts to combat HIV, tuberculosis and malaria has been thrown into doubt after a major funding shortfall at the Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria. Advocates have warned that decades of progress in reducing deaths from these deadly infectious diseases “hangs in the balance” following disappointing pledges at a summit held on the fringes of the G20 in South Africa. The Global Fund had set a target of $18bn (£14bn) for the period 2026 to 2028. However, only $11.3bn has been confirmed so far. Several leading donors, including France, Japan and the European Commission,…

Newly disclosed correspondence has shed fresh light on the relationship between the eminent linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky and the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. The documents, released earlier this month by Republican members of the US House oversight committee, suggest that Chomsky’s association with Epstein was closer than previously acknowledged. Epstein, who was convicted in 2008 of soliciting prostitution and soliciting prostitution from a minor, served 13 months of an 18‑month sentence before his release in 2009. He later faced federal sex‑trafficking charges and was found dead in his New York prison cell in 2019, with officials ruling his death…

Greene

Sophisticated weapons capable of attacking or altering human consciousness, perception, memory or behaviour are no longer confined to the realm of science fiction, two British academics have warned. Michael Crowley and Malcolm Dando, of Bradford University, are preparing to publish a book that they believe should serve as a wake‑up call to the international community. The pair argue that advances in neuroscience, pharmacology and artificial intelligence are converging to create a new frontier in warfare: the human mind. This weekend, the academics will travel to The Hague to attend a key meeting of states, where they intend to press for…

Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro has been arrested at his villa in Brasília after the Supreme Court authorised a preventive detention order, citing fears that he was preparing to flee to a foreign embassy to avoid imprisonment for masterminding a failed military coup. Federal police confirmed on Saturday morning that officers had executed the warrant and taken the 70‑year‑old politician to a police base located seven miles from the presidential palace he occupied between 2019 and 2022. Bolsonaro had been living under house arrest since August, following his conviction for attempting to overturn the 2022 election result. The arrest was…

The United States Department of Justice has charged two young men from Texas with conspiring to launch a violent coup d’état on the island of Gonâve, Haiti, in what prosecutors described as a plan motivated by depraved sexual fantasies. According to an announcement from the US attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Texas, Gavin Rivers Weisenburg, aged 21, and Tanner Christopher Thomas, aged 20, are accused of plotting to take control of the island by force. The indictment alleges that the pair intended to kill all the men living there and enslave women and children for sexual exploitation. The…

Israeli airstrikes in Gaza have killed 33 people and injured many more, according to medical officials, in one of the most serious escalations of violence since the United States‑backed ceasefire came into effect last month. The renewed bombardment has raised fears that the fragile truce could collapse entirely, with both sides accusing the other of violating its terms. Officials at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis reported receiving the bodies of 17 people, among them five women and five children, after four Israeli strikes targeted tents sheltering displaced families. In Gaza City, medical staff said two further strikes killed 16 people,…