UNITED NATIONS, Sept 24 – Iran has no intention to build nuclear weapons, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, just days before international sanctions could be reimposed on his country over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
“I hereby declare once more before this assembly that Iran has never sought and will never seek to build a nuclear bomb. We do not seek nuclear weapons,” Pezeshkian said.
On August 28, Britain, France and Germany launched a 30-day process to reimpose U.N. sanctions that ends on September 27, accusing Tehran of failing to abide by a 2015 deal with world powers aimed at preventing it from developing a nuclear weapon.
The European powers have offered to delay reinstating sanctions for up to six months to allow space for talks on a long-term deal if Iran restores access for U.N. nuclear inspectors, addresses concerns about its stock of enriched uranium, and engages in talks with the United States.
SAYS E3 ‘SET ASIDE GOOD FAITH’
Pezeshkian criticised the move by European powers as “illegal”, saying it was made at “the behest of the United States of America”.
The United States, its European allies and Israel accuse Tehran of using its nuclear programme as a veil for efforts to try to develop the capability to produce weapons. Iran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only.
“In doing so, they (the E3) set aside good faith. They circumvented legal obligations. They sought to portray Iran’s lawful remedial measures … as a gross violation,” Pezeshkian said.
But amid the looming threat of sanctions and last-ditch talks on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, gaps remain between Tehran and European powers over a deal to avert the snapback of sanctions.
Still, both sides have left the door open to further negotiations. While the E3 says Iran’s clerical rulers have so far failed to meet the conditions it set, Tehran says it will not offer concessions.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last say on key state matters such as foreign policy and Iran’s nuclear programme, has ruled out negotiations with the United States under threat.
DEADLINE ON SATURDAY
If Tehran and the E3 fail to reach a deal on an extension by the end of September 27, then all U.N. sanctions will be reimposed on Iran, where the economy already struggles with crippling sanctions reimposed since 2018 after President Donald Trump ditched the pact during his first term.
The so-called “snapback” process would reimpose an arms embargo, a ban on uranium enrichment and reprocessing, a ban on activities with ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, a global asset freeze and travel bans on Iranian individuals and entities.
Soon after the U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iranian nuclear sites in June, Iran’s parliament passed a law suspending cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
However, the IAEA and Tehran reached a deal on September 9 to resume inspections at nuclear sites and U.N. nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi said on Tuesday a team of inspectors was on its way to Iran should Tehran and the E3 strike a deal this week to avert revival of sanctions.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday he believes NATO member countries should shoot down Russian aircraft if they enter their airspace as the defense alliance confronts the potential for an expansion of the war in Ukraine.
“Yes, I do,” Trump said when posed a question about NATO shoot-downs during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
Later, he stopped short of saying the United States would join in the effort to shoot down violating Russian aircraft.
“Depends on the circumstance,” he said. “But you know, we’re very strong toward NATO.”
NATO members have scrambled in recent weeks after Russian drones and aircraft violated their airspace.
Three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets entered Estonian airspace over the Gulf of Finland without permission Friday.
That came the week after several Russian drones and fighter jets entered Polish airspace, prompting a scramble of F-15 and F-35 fighter jets.
European allies warned Monday during a fiery emergency meeting of the UN Security Council that they would shoot down Russian jets or drones involved in any further violations of NATO airspace.
A 13-year-old Afghan boy made a dangerous journey from Kabul to Delhi, hiding in the landing gear compartment of a Kam Air passenger plane.
Officials say the teen, who is from Kunduz city in northern Afghanistan, was found wandering around on the runway at Delhi’s international airport after the plane landed on Monday.
He was detained by Indian security personnel and questioned for several hours before being sent back to Kabul on the same flight.
The boy reportedly told authorities he did this out of curiosity.
A spokesperson from the Indian Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) said the boy managed to travel undetected on Kam Airlines flight RQ-4401, which landed in Delhi around 11:10am on Sunday.
Police found him roaming around by himself and took him aside for questioning.
The boy reportedly told authorities that he had hidden himself in the rear central landing gear compartment of the said aircraft.
The airline staff also found a small red-coloured audio speaker after further safety inspections were carried out.
The Indian Express newspaper reported that the 13-year-old wanted to travel to Iran and did not know that the flight he entered was bound for Delhi, not Tehran.
According to the newspaper, the boy sneaked into the Kabul airport, trailed a group of passengers, and stowed away in the aircraft’s rear wheel well — the internal compartment which houses the landing gear. He was only carrying the red coloured speaker with him.
There have been recent incidents of stowaways hiding in flights to the US or Europe, often escaping their home countries. But very few of them make it out alive.
Experts say that many stowaways who survive such flights are often unconscious during descent, putting them at risk of falling to their deaths when the landing gear is lowered.
In 2022, a 22-year-old Kenyan man was found alive in the wheel well of a cargo plane in Amsterdam.
Britain, Australia, Canada and Portugal on Sunday recognized a Palestinian state after nearly two years of war in Gaza, with France, Belgium and other countries poised to follow suit at the UN General Assembly.
Here is an overview of diplomatic recognition of the state, which was unilaterally proclaimed by the Palestinian leadership in exile in 1988.
Of the territory claimed by the state, Israel currently controls the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip is largely in ruins as a result of the war sparked by the Hamas terror group’s October 7, 2023, attack on the Jewish state.
Which countries recognize or will recognize the State of Palestine?
Answer: three-quarters of UN members.
According to an AFP tally, at least 145 countries out of 193 UN members now recognize the State of Palestine.
AFP has not yet obtained recent confirmation from three African countries.
The count includes Britain and Canada — the first G7 countries to do so — Australia and Portugal.
L-R: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer gestures at a joint press conference with US President Donald Trump (unseen) following their meeting at Chequers, in Aylesbury, central England, on September 18, 2025. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP); Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks at a press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City on September 18, 2025. (Yuri Cortez/AFP); Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese attends a flag-raising ceremony marking Papua New Guinea’s 50th independence anniversary in Port Moresby on September 16, 2025. (Andrew Kutan/ AFP)
Several other countries including France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Malta are expected to follow suit during a summit on the future of the two-state solution chaired by France and Saudi Arabia on Monday at United Nations headquarters in New York.
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Russia, alongside all Arab countries, almost all African and Latin American countries, and most Asian countries including India and China are already on the list.
Algeria became the first country to officially recognize a Palestinian state on November 15, 1988, minutes after late Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat unilaterally proclaimed an independent Palestinian state.
Dozens of other countries followed suit in the following weeks and months, and another wave of recognitions came in late 2010 and early 2011.
The Israeli offensive in Gaza has now driven another 13 countries to recognize the state.
Who does not?
Answer: at least 45 countries, including Israel, the United States and their allies.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government completely rejects the idea of a Palestinian state.
In Asia, Japan, South Korea and Singapore are among the countries that do not recognize Palestine.
Neither does Cameroon in Africa, Panama in Latin America and most countries in Oceania.
Europe is the most divided continent on the issue, and is split almost 50-50 over Palestinian statehood.
A Club Palestino fan waves a Palestinian flag during a local league soccer match against Santiago Wanderers at La Cisterna stadium in Santiago, Chile, Friday, July 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Basualdo)
Until the mid-2010s, the only countries recognizing the State of Palestine apart from Turkey were those of the former Soviet bloc.
Now, some former Eastern-bloc countries such as Hungary and the Czech Republic do not recognize a Palestinian state at a bilateral level.
Western and northern Europe were until now united in non-recognition, with the exception of Sweden, which extended recognition in 2014.
But the war in Gaza has upended things, with Norway, Spain, Ireland and Slovenia following in Sweden’s footsteps to recognize the state in 2024, before the United Kingdom and Portugal did so on Sunday.
Italy and Germany do not plan on recognizing a Palestinian state.
What does recognition mean?
Romain Le Boeuf, a professor in international law at the University of Aix-Marseille in southern France, described recognition of Palestinian statehood as “one of the most complicated questions” in international law, “a little like a halfway point between the political and juridical.”
He told AFP that states were free to choose the timing and form of recognition, with great variations that are either explicit or implicit.
According to Le Boeuf, there is no office to register recognitions.
“The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank puts all they consider to be acts of recognition on its own list, but from a purely subjective point of view. In the same way, other states will say that they have or have not recognized, but without really having to justify themselves,” he said.
Members of the Global Movement for Palestine wave a giant Palestine flag during a rally against Israel and the ongoing food shortages in the Gaza Strip, in Mexico City on August 17, 2025. (Yuri CORTEZ / AFP)
However, there is one point on which international law is quite clear: “Recognition does not mean that a state has been created, no more than the lack of recognition prevents the state from existing.”
While recognition carries largely symbolic and political weight, three-quarters of countries say “that Palestine meets all the necessary conditions to be a state,” he said.
“I know for many people this seems only symbolic, but actually in terms of symbolism, it is sort of a game changer,” lawyer and Franco-British law professor Philippe Sands wrote in the New York Times in mid-August 2025.
“Because once you recognize Palestinian statehood… you essentially put Palestine and Israel on level footing in terms of their treatment under international law.”
Britain, Australia, Canada and Portugal on Sunday recognised the State of Palestine, a historic shift in decades of Western foreign policy that drew swift anger from Israel.
Though Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip welcomed the recognition as a victory, the move drew a furious response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who vowed that a Palestinian state would never come to pass.
Other countries, including France, are due to follow suit at the annual UN General Assembly opening on Monday in New York.
Israel has come under huge international pressure over its war in Gaza, which has sparked a dire humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory.
Netanyahu denounced the push for recognition as “absurd”, claiming it would “endanger” Israel’s existence.
“It will not happen. No Palestinian state will be established west of the Jordan River,” the Israeli premier said.
He later vowed to expand Jewish settlements in the West Bank, which Israel has controlled since 1967 in an occupation considered illegal under international law.
Netanyahu spoke after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Britain was formally recognising the State of Palestine “to revive the hope of peace for the Palestinians and Israelis, and a two-state solution”.
The UK and Canada became the first members of the Group of Seven advanced economies to take the step.
– ‘Moral victory’ –
It is a watershed moment for Palestinians and their ambitions for statehood, with the most powerful Western nations having long argued recognition should only come as part of a negotiated peace deal with Israel.
Three-quarters of UN members now recognise the State of Palestine, with at least 145 of the 193 member countries having done so, according to an AFP tally.
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the move “recognises the legitimate and long held aspirations of the people of Palestine”, while Portuguese Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel called the two-state solution “the only path to a just and lasting peace”.
On the ground in Gaza, many saw recognition as an affirmation of their existence after nearly two years of war between Israel and Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.
“This recognition shows that the world is finally starting to hear our voice and that in itself is a moral victory,” said Salwa Mansour, 35, who has been displaced from the southern city of Rafah to Al-Mawasi.
“Despite all the pain, death and massacres we’re living through, we cling to anything that brings even the smallest bit of hope,” she added.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas hailed the recognitions as “an important and necessary step toward achieving a just and lasting peace”.
Although a largely symbolic move, it puts the four countries at odds with the United States and Israel.
US President Donald Trump said last week after talks with Starmer that “one of our few disagreements” was over Palestinian statehood.
French President Emmanuel Macron insisted in an interview with a US TV network that despite France moving to extend recognition, releasing the hostages Hamas captured in 2023 would be “a requirement very clearly before opening, for instance, an embassy in Palestine”.
– ‘Special burden’ –
A growing number of longtime Israeli allies have shifted their long-held positions as Israel has intensified its Gaza offensive, which began with Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack.
Since then, the Gaza Strip has suffered vast destruction, with a growing international outcry over the besieged coastal territory’s spiralling death toll and a UN-declared famine.
The UK government has come under increasing public pressure to act, with thousands of people rallying every month on the streets.
The UK was pivotal in laying the groundwork for the creation of the State of Israel through the 1917 Balfour Declaration.
Starmer said on Sunday that Britain was acting “in the face of the growing horror in the Middle East”.
He renewed calls for a ceasefire and again demanded Hamas release the remaining Israeli hostages.
Branding Hamas a “brutal terror organisation”, Starmer also confirmed plans to bolster sanctions on the militants, denying recognition was a “reward”.
Hamas’s attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 65,208 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, which the UN considers reliable.
Many obstacles remain before statehood, including who would run the territory.
Australia, Canada and the UK have officially recognised the state of Palestine, the countries’ leaders announced on Sunday.
The three countries confirmed the decision shortly before the start of the UN General Assembly which is scheduled to begin on Monday in New York.
Canada became the first G7 nation to recognise the Palestinian state.
In a statement posted on X, prime minister Mark Carney said: “Canada recognises the State of Palestine and offers our partnership in building the promise of a peaceful future for both the State of Palestine and the State of Israel.”
The announcement was followed by similar statements by the Australian and British governments. UK prime minister Keir Starmer said the move was needed to “revive the hope of peace and a two-state solution”.
He added that it was “not a reward for Hamas” as it means the group can have no future, and repeated calls for the immediate release of hostages still being held by Hamas.
Belgium will also recognise Palestine during the assembly, subject to certain conditions. These include the release of all Israeli hostages and the removal of Hamas from government.
Celebrated children’s writer Robert Munsch has been approved for medically assisted dying in Canada.
Munsch, whose 85 published books include The Paper Bag Princess and Love You Forever, was diagnosed with dementia in 2021 and also has Parkinson’s disease.
The 80-year-old author told the New York Times Magazine that he had not decided a date for his death, but said he would go “when I start having real trouble talking and communicating. Then I’ll know.”
Canada first legalised euthanasia in 2016 for people with terminal illnesses. In 2021, the law was changed to include those with serious and chronic physical conditions, even in non-life threatening circumstances.
Munsch has sold more than 80 million copies of his books in North America alone and they have been translated into at least 20 language – including Arabic, Spanish and Anishinaabemowin, an indigenous North American language.
In 1999, Munsch was made a member of the Order of Canada. A decade later, he received a star of Canada’s Walk of Fame in Toronto.
In the interview with the New York Times Magazine, Munsch said his decision was influenced by watching his brother die from Lou Gehrig’s disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) – the most common form of motor neurone disease (MND).
Munsch said: “They kept him alive through all these interventions. I thought, let him die.”
In Canada, people over 18 must meet several requirements to be eligible for assisted dying.
They include having a “serious and incurable illness”, making a “voluntary request that is not the result of external pressure” and be in an “advanced state of irreversible decline in capability”.
Two independent doctors or nurse practitioners must then assess the patient to confirm that all of the eligibility requirements are met.
Scholastic, Munsch’s publisher, said in a statement on Instagram that his decision to speak publicly about medically assisted dying “reminds us, once again, why Robert’s work continues to touch many generations”.
Munsch’s daugher, Julie, posted on Facebook that her father’s decision to pursue medically assisted dying was made five years ago.
Julie called the New York Times Magazine interview “great”, but added that “nowhere does it say my dad isn’t doing well, nor that he’s going to die anytime soon”.
According to Canadian law, the person must be able to actively consent on the day of his death.
“I have to pick the moment when I can still ask for it,” he said in the interview.
Medically assisted dying accounted for 4.7% of deaths in Canada in 2023 – the most recent official government statistics.
Some 96% of the 15,300 people that underwent assisted dying in 2023 had a death deemed “reasonably forseeable”, due to severe medical conditions like cancer.
Doha, Qatar – An emergency summit of Arab and Islamic country leaders held in Doha has condemned Israel’s “cowardly” attack on Hamas leaders in the Qatari capital, but the participants made no promises of concrete action.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)’s pledge to “activate a joint defence mechanism” may have been the most actionable result of the summit, which was opened by Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who called the Israeli bombing “blatant, treacherous, and cowardly”.
The GCC countries, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, have formed a defence pact to address the security concerns of the member states.
“My country’s capital was subjected to a treacherous attack targeting a residence housing the families of Hamas leaders and their negotiating delegation,” Sheikh Tamim said in his opening speech. The Hamas leaders had been meeting to discuss the latest United States-backed proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Sheikh Tamim called for “concrete steps to address the state of madness of power, arrogance, and bloodthirstiness obsession that has befallen the government of Israel, and what resulted and continues to result from it”.
The attack on mediators proved that Israel had “no genuine interest in peace” and was seeking to “thwart negotiations” to end the war in Gaza that has killed more than 64,800 Palestinians, he said.
The emergency summit was organised after fury swept the region following Israeli strikes on September 9, which killed six people.
The GCC said that consultations were already under way among the bloc’s military bodies to build up “Gulf deterrent capabilities”, with a meeting of the group’s Unified Military Command to take place soon in Doha, according to Majed Mohammed Al-Ansari, spokesman for Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
No further details were available about the new defence mechanism, which states that an attack on one member state is an attack on all.
“The joint statement obviously called for a meeting of the high command to be held here in Doha to discuss further steps to ensure that the safety and the joint security of the GCC countries is addressed,” Al-Ansari told Al Jazeera.
“The GCC stands in one line,” he added.
Israel’s expansionist vision
The Qatari emir also warned against Israel’s expansionist vision of the region, with repeated bombings of Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. Israel has also grabbed Syrian land and refused to withdraw its forces from southern Lebanon.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is dreaming of making the Arab region “an Israeli sphere of influence”, Sheikh Tamim said, adding that it “is a dangerous illusion”.
No immediate political or economic measures were announced against the Israeli aggression at the summit.
But Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi, the secretary-general of the GCC, urged US President Donald Trump to rein in Washington’s closest ally, Israel.
“We expect our strategic partners in the US to use their influence on Israel for it to stop this behaviour – we really do expect that,” Albudaiwi said.
“They have leverage and influence over Israel, and it’s about time that this leverage and influence are used”.
Despite expectations of more forceful measures, the summit’s final communique largely consisted of condemnations and pledges of solidarity.
“We condemn in the strongest terms Israel’s cowardly and illegal attack on the State of Qatar. We respond with absolute solidarity with Qatar and support for its steps,” read the memo issued by member states of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
The communique also praised Qatar’s response to the attacks, voiced solidarity with Doha’s mediation role alongside Egypt and the US, and rejected any justification for further aggression.
The member states also rejected “Israel’s repeated threats of the possibility of targeting Qatar again”.
When questioned about these threats, as well as Israel’s resolve to target Hamas “anywhere”, Foreign Ministry spokesman Al-Ansari said Qatar would make use of the international system to hold Israel to account.
“We will hold Israel accountable in the international community, and our tool in doing that is our belief in international law and international organisations,” he said.
“This is why we went to the [United Nations] Security Council and now, of course, to the Arab and Islamic Organisations and GCC … we are working very closely with all our partners to make sure that we deter Prime Minister Netanyahu from attacking sovereign states again.”
Tougher calls by individual states
While the joint communique stopped short of hard measures, several Arab and Islamic leaders tabled stronger, more actionable responses to Israel.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Arab and Muslim leaders to apply economic pressure on Israel, arguing that “past experience has proven the success of such pressure”.
He also called for Israeli officials to be brought to justice through international legal mechanisms.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said that “the heinous attack on Qatari territory is a grave violation of international law and sets a dangerous precedent”.
“I say to the people of Israel that what is happening now is sabotaging the existing peace agreements, and the consequences will be dire,” he said. Egypt was the first Arab country to establish diplomatic relations with Israel in 1979.
Pakistan, meanwhile, urged the UN to suspend Israel, and also called for an Arab-Islamic task force.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said the task force should “adopt effective measures to ward off Israeli expansionist designs”.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, meanwhile, stated that “condemnations will not stop the missiles, declarations will not free Palestine”.
He pressed for strict sanctions and the suspension of diplomatic and commercial relations with Israel.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian earlier on Monday had also urged Muslim nations to cut ties with Israel.
“We should act together to stand up to Israeli behaviour because Israel has violated the sovereignty of a number of Arab and Muslim states under the false pretext of self-defence,” he said.
Andrea Dessi, assistant professor of international relations at the University of Rome, said the Doha summit marked a change of tone among Arab Islamic states.
“At the rhetorical level, we are seeing the beginnings of a coming together, of a change of tone and a change of mind – the actions will have to follow,” Dessi told Al Jazeera.
The professor said the event was important, as Arab and Muslim leaders agreed that “something has to change in terms of the security architecture of the region. We are far away from this, but there are movements”.
As the summit was being held in Doha, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio travelled to Israel to meet Netanyahu, who again threatened to target Hamas leaders if Qatar did not expel them. But Trump on Monday repeated his assertion that Israel would not strike Qatar again.
Al-Ansari said that Qatar has “been engaging very closely with the Trump administration”.
He told reporters that Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani had “excellent” meetings in New York in the past week, and that discussions on next steps between the allies are taking place.
Warning: Contains disturbing content and graphic descriptions of sexual acts
A man running a sex ring operating out of Dubai’s most glamorous neighbourhoods, and exploiting vulnerable women, has been identified by a BBC investigation.
Charles Mwesigwa, who says he is a former London bus driver, told our undercover reporter he could provide women for a sex party at a starting price of $1,000 (£740), adding that many can do “pretty much everything” clients want them to.
Rumours of wild sex parties in the UAE emirate have circulated for years. The hashtag #Dubaiportapotty, which has been viewed more than 450 million times on TikTok, links to parodies and speculative exposés of women accused of being money-hungry influencers secretly funding their lifestyles by fulfilling the most excessive of sexual requests.
Our BBC World Service investigation was told the reality is even darker.
Young Ugandan women told us they had not expected to have to undertake sex work for Mr Mwesigwa. In some cases, they believed they were travelling to the UAE to work in places like supermarkets or hotels.
At least one of Mr Mwesigwa’s clients regularly asks to defecate on the women, according to “Mia”, whose name we have changed to protect her identity, and who says she was trapped by Mr Mwesigwa’s network.
Mr Mwesigwa denies the allegations.
He says he helps women find accommodation through landlords, and that women follow him to parties because of his wealthy Dubai contacts.
We have also discovered that two women linked to Mr Mwesigwa have died, having fallen from high-rise apartments.
Although their deaths were ruled as suicides, their friends and family feel the police should have investigated further.
Mr Mwesigwa said the incidents were investigated by the Dubai police and asked us to contact them for information. They did not reply to our request.
One of the women who lost her life, Monic Karungi, arrived in Dubai from western Uganda.
She found herself sharing a flat with dozens of other women working for Mr Mwesigwa, according to one of the women, who we are calling Keira, who says she lived with Monic there in 2022.
“[His] place was like a market… There were like 50 girls. She was not happy because what she expected is not what she got,” Keira told us.
Monic thought the job in Dubai was going to be in a supermarket, according to her sister Rita.
“He [Mr Mwesigwa] was violent when I told him I wanted to go back home,” says Mia, who also knew Monic in Dubai. She says that, when she first arrived, he told her she already owed him £2,000 ($2,711) and that within two weeks that debt had doubled.
“Money for air tickets, for your visa, for where you’re sleeping, food,” says Mia.
“That means you have to work hard, hard, hard, pleading for men to come and sleep [with] you.”
Monic owed Mr Mwesigwa more than $27,000 (£19,918) after several weeks, according to what a relative of hers we are calling Michael says she told him. He adds that he received tearful voice notes from her.
Monic grew up with 10 siblings in rural Uganda
Mia told us that clients were mostly white Europeans, and included men with extreme fetishes.
“There’s this one client, he poops on girls. He poops and he tells them to eat the shit,” she explained quietly.
Another woman we are calling Lexi, who says she was tricked by a different network, echoed Mia’s story, saying “porta potty” requests were frequent.
“There was a client who said: ‘We pay you 15,000 Arab Emirates Dirham ($4,084, £3,013) to gang-rape you, pee in your face, beat you, and add in 5,000 ($1,361, £1,004)’” for being recorded eating faeces.
Her experiences have led her to believe there is a racial element to this extreme fetish.
“Every time I said that I wouldn’t want to do that, it seemed to get them more interested. They want somebody who is going to cry and scream and run. And that somebody [in their eyes] should be a black person.”
Lexi says she tried to get help from the only people she thought could intervene – the police. But she says they told her: “You Africans cause problems for each other. We don’t want to get involved. And they would hang up.”
We put this allegation to the Dubai police and they did not reply.
Lexi eventually escaped back to Uganda and now helps to rescue and support women in similar situations.
Warsan Tower in Dubai, from which Monic Karungi fell in May 2022
Finding Charles Mwesigwa wasn’t easy. We could only find one picture of him online – and it was taken from behind. He also uses multiple names across social media.
But through a combination of open-source intelligence, undercover research, and information from a former member of his network, we traced him to a middle class neighbourhood in Dubai – Jumeirah Village Circle.
To corroborate what sources had told us about his business – supplying women for degrading sex acts – we sent in an undercover reporter posing as an event organiser sourcing women for high-end parties.
Mr Mwesigwa appeared calm and confident when speaking about his business.
Mr Mwesigwa showed us his UK driving licence and said he was a former London bus driver
“We’ve got like 25 girls,” he said. “Many are open-minded… they can do pretty much everything.”
He explained the cost – from $1,000 (£738) per girl per night, but more for “crazy stuff”. He invited our reporter for a “sample night”.
When asked about “Dubai porta potty” he replied: “I’ve told you, they are open-minded. When I say open-minded… I will send you the craziest I have.”
In the course of the conversation, Mr Mwesigwa said he used to be a London bus driver. We have seen evidence he put that occupation down on an official document in east London in 2006.
He went on to tell our reporter that he loved this business.
“I could win the lottery, a million pounds, but I would still do it… it’s become part of me.”
Troy, a man who says he used to act as operations manager for Mr Mwesigwa’s network, gave us more information about how he says it is run.
Troy says he used to work as a driver and then an operations manager for Charles Mwesigwa
He says Mr Mwesigwa pays off security at various nightclubs so they will let his women in to find clients.
“I’ve heard about types of sex that I’ve never seen in my life. It doesn’t matter what you go through as long as his rich men are happy… [the women] have no escape route…They see musicians, they see footballers, they see presidents.”
Mr Mwesigwa has been able to get away with running this operation, Troy claims, because Troy and others are not just used as drivers. He says their names are also used by Mr Mwesigwa to hire cars and apartments, so that his own name never appears on the paperwork.
On 27 April 2022, Monic posted a selfie from Al Barsha – a residential neighbourhood popular with expats in Dubai. Four days later, she was dead. She had been in the emirate for just four months.
According to Mia, Monic and Mr Mwesigwa had been regularly arguing in the period before she left. Mia says Monic had been refusing to comply with Mr Mwesigwa’s demands and had found a way out of his network.
“She had got some kind of job. She was very excited. She thought she was gonna get free, she was going to get her life back because now that was a real job, no sleeping with men,” Mia says.
Monic moved out to a different apartment about 10 minutes’ walk away. It was from this apartment’s balcony that she fell on 1 May 2022.
The final selfie Monic posted before she died
Monic’s relative Michael, who was in the UAE at the time she died, says he tried to get answers.
Police told him they stopped their investigation, having found drugs and alcohol in the apartment Monic had fallen from, and only her fingerprints on the balcony, he says.
He obtained a death certificate for Monic from a hospital, but it did not say how she had died. And her family were unable to obtain a toxicology report for her.
But a Ghanaian man living in the apartment building was more helpful, he says, taking him to another block to meet the man he said was Monic’s boss.
Michael describes the scene when he got there and saw where the women were housed.
He says through the cloud of shisha smoke in the living room, he made out what looked like cocaine on the table and women having sex on chairs with clients.
He claims he found the man we had previously identified as Charles Mwesigwa in bed with two women, and that when he tried to drag him to the police Mr Mwesigwa replied: “I have spent 25 years in Dubai. Dubai is mine… There is no way you are going to report me… Embassy is me, I’m the embassy.
“[Monic’s] not the first to die. And she won’t be the last,” he added, according to Michael.
Mia and Keira both independently say they witnessed this conversation and both confirm its wording. When we asked Mr Mwesigwa what he meant by this, he denied having said it.
Monic’s death shares haunting similarities with that of Kayla Birungi, another Ugandan woman who lived in the same neighbourhood as her, and died in 2021 after falling from a Dubai high-rise apartment which we have evidence to suggest was managed by Charles Mwesigwa.
The phone number for her landlord, shared with us by Kayla’s family, turned out to be one of Mr Mwesigwa’s numbers. Troy also confirms that Mr Mwesigwa managed the apartment, as do four other women we spoke to for this investigation.
Kayla Birungi, another Ugandan, also died after falling from a Dubai high-rise building
Kayla’s relatives say that they – like Monic’s family – heard Kayla’s death had been linked to alcohol and drugs. But a toxicology report seen by the BBC shows none were present in her system at the time of her death.
While Kayla’s family was able to repatriate her body and hold a burial, Monic’s remains were never returned.
Our investigation found she was likely buried in a section of Dubai’s Al Qusais Cemetery known as “The Unknown”. It features rows and rows of unmarked graves, typically thought to belong to migrants whose family couldn’t repatriate their bodies.
Monic and Kayla were part of a wider, unofficial pipeline connecting Uganda to the Gulf.
As Uganda wrestles with rising youth unemployment, moving to work abroad – mainly in the Gulf states – has become a huge industry that contributes $1.2bn (£885m) of tax revenue to the country each year.
But these opportunities can carry a risk.
Mariam Mwiza, a Ugandan activist against exploitation, says she has helped rescue more than 700 people from around the Gulf.
“We get cases of people who have been promised to work, let’s say, in a supermarket. Then [that person] ends up sold as a prostitute,” she told us.
Monic’s family in rural Uganda say Monic always had the ambition to seek a better life
For Monic’s family, grief is now tangled with fear. Fear for other families who could suffer the same loss they have, if nothing is done.
“We are all looking at Monica’s death,” her relative Michael told us. “But who is there for the girls still alive? They’re still there. Still suffering.”
The BBC asked Charles “Abbey” Mwesigwa to respond to all the allegations made in our investigation. He denied running an illegal prostitution ring.
He said: “These are all false allegations.
“I told you I am just a party person who invites big spenders on my tables, hence making many girls flock [to] my table. That makes me know many girls and that’s it.”
He also said: “[Monic] died with her passport meaning no-one was demanding her money for taking her. Prior to her death, I hadn’t seen her for over four to five weeks.
“I knew [Monic and Kayla] and [they] were renting with different landlords. If no-one in both flats was arrested or any of the landlords, then there was a reason. Both incidents were investigated by the Dubai police and maybe they can help you.”
The BBC contacted Al Barsha Police Station to request to see the case files for Monic Karungi and Kayla Birungi. It did not respond to that request or to allegations Monica and Kayla’s deaths had not been properly investigated.
The BBC was unable to see any toxicology reports in relation to Monic Karungi, or speak to the landlord of the apartment in which she was living when she died.
Nepal’s newly-appointed interim prime minister says she will be in the post for no longer than six months.
“I did not wish for this job. It was after voices from the streets that I was compelled to accept,” Sushila Karki said, speaking for the first time since being sworn into office on Friday. She said she would hand over to the new government, which will emerge after the elections on 5 March next year.
Her appointment comes after more than 70 people were killed during anti-corruption protests, which ousted Nepal’s government.
Karki took the oath of office after an agreement with protest leaders from the so-called “Gen Z” movement.
“We have to work according to the thinking of the Gen Z generation,” she said.
“What this group is demanding is the end of corruption, good governance and economic equality.”
The mass protests, sparked by a ban on social media platforms, started on 8 September and over the course of two days descended into chaos and violence, during which politicians’ homes were vandalised and parliament was set on fire.
The death toll from the unrest has now reached 72, including three police personnel, officials say.
“I feel ashamed. If they were Nepalis who destroyed these essential structures, how can they be called Nepalis,” the interim prime minister said on Sunday.
Karki, a former Supreme Court chief justice, is widely regarded as having a clean image.
Aerial view showing massive crowds of protesters in Nepal.PHOTO/mohitlaws/X
But she has not been free from controversy, having faced an impeachment incident during her nearly 11-month tenure as chief justice.
Now Karki and her cabinet will face multiple challenges, including restoring law and order, rebuilding parliament and the other key buildings that were attacked, in addition to reassuring the Gen Z protesters who want change – and others in Nepal who are fearful its young democracy and constitutional order may be derailed.
Nepal’s former chief justice Sushila Karki was sworn in Friday as the country’s prime minister to lead a six-month transition to elections, after deadly anti-corruption protests ousted the government.
The previous prime minister quit Tuesday as parliament was set ablaze.
“I, Sushila Karki… take an oath in the name of the country and the people to fulfil my duty as the prime minister,” the 73-year-old Karki, Nepal’s first woman chief justice, said as she was sworn into office by President Ram Chandra Paudel.
“Congratulations! We wish you success, wish the country success,” Paudel said to Karki after the small ceremony in the presidential palace, attended by diplomats and some former leaders.
Parliament was later dissolved, and elections were set for March 5, 2026.
The Himalayan nation of 30 million people was plunged into chaos this week after security forces tried to crush rallies by young anti-corruption protesters.
At least 51 people were killed in the worst violence since the end of a civil war and the abolition of the monarchy in 2008.
The military took back control of the streets on Wednesday, enforcing a curfew.
Nepal’s new Prime Minister Sushila Karki (C) leaves the presidential palace after her swearing-in-ceremony in Kathmandu / AFP
The appointment of the judge, known for her independence, comes after two days of intense negotiations by army chief General Ashok Raj Sigdel and Paudel, including with representatives from “Gen Z”, the loose umbrella title of the youth protest movement.
Thousands of young activists had used the online app Discord to debate the next steps — and name Karki as their choice of next leader.
Karki, dressed in a red sari dress, took the oath but did not make a further speech. She smiled and bowed with her hands pressed together repeatedly in traditional greetings.
“It is a moment of victory… finally the power vacuum has ended,” said Amrita Ban, a Gen Z protester.
“We did it”, key youth protest group Hami Nepal posted on Instagram, calling for unity.
“Honour the lives of those who sacrificed themselves for this moment”.
Neighbouring India said that it welcomed the formation of the interim government and Karki’s appointment.
“We are hopeful that this would help in fostering peace and stability”, New Delhi’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
– ‘Make a better Nepal’ –
Protests fed into long-standing economic woes in Nepal, where a fifth of people aged 15-24 are unemployed, according to the World Bank, with GDP per capita standing at just $1,447.
At least 21 protesters were among those killed, mainly on Monday during the police crackdown on demonstrations against corruption and poor governance that was sparked by a ban on social media.
Parliament, major government buildings and a Hilton Hotel were among the sites set ablaze by protesters on Tuesday.
KP Sharma Oli, the 73-year-old leader of the Communist Party, then quit as prime minister. His whereabouts are not known.
More than 12,500 prisoners who escaped from jails across the country during the chaos “are still at large”, police spokesman Binod Ghimire told AFP.
Nepal’s army said it had recovered more than 100 guns looted in the uprising, during which protesters were seen brandishing automatic rifles.
Soldiers patrolled the largely quiet streets of the capital Kathmandu for a third day on Friday.
“I was very afraid, and stayed locked inside my home with family and didn’t leave,” said Naveen Kumar Das, a painter-decorator in his mid-40s.
He was among many ordinary residents of Kathmandu who took advantage of a brief lifting of the curfew to stock up on supplies.
James Karki, 24, who was among the protesters, said he was hopeful for change ahead.
“We started this movement so we could make a better Nepal,” he said.
Nepal’s former Supreme Court chief justice Sushila Karki is set to become the country’s interim prime minister after deadly anti-corruption protests ousted the government.
Karki, 73, will be the first woman to lead the impoverished Himalayan nation after a deal was reached with the protest leaders for her to be sworn in.
More than 50 people were killed in clashes with riot police during this week’s mass protests sparked by a ban on social media platforms.
The ban was lifted on Monday – but by then protests had swelled into a mass movement. Angry crowds set fire to parliament and government buildings in the capital Kathmandu on Tuesday, forcing Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli to resign.
Fire and smoke rise from the Singha Durbar palace, which houses government and parliament buildings, as protesters stormed the premises in Kathmandu
Karki would take the oath of office on Friday evening, President Ram Chandra Poudel’s press adviser confirmed to the BBC.
The agreement between the president and the protest leaders was reached after days of consultations. Legal experts were also involved.
Parliament is expected to be dissolved shortly.
Karki is widely regarded as a person of clean image, and is being supported by student leaders from the so-called “Gen Z” to lead the interim government.
Nepal’s army has deployed patrols on the streets of Kathmandu, as the country reels from its worst unrest in decades.
The protests were triggered by the government’s decision last week to ban 26 social media platforms, including WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook – but they soon widened to embody much deeper discontent with Nepal’s political elite.
In the weeks before the ban, a “nepo kid” campaign, spotlighting the lavish lifestyles of politicians’ children and allegations of corruption, had taken off on social media.
And while the social media ban was hastily lifted on Monday night, the protests had by that stage gained unstoppable momentum.
The North Korean government is increasingly implementing the death penalty, including for people caught watching and sharing foreign films and TV dramas, a major UN report has found.
The dictatorship, which remains largely cut off from the world, is also subjecting its people to more forced labour while further restricting their freedoms, the report added.
The UN Human Rights Office found that over the past decade the North Korean state had tightened control over “all aspects of citizens’ lives”.
“No other population is under such restrictions in today’s world,” it concluded, adding that surveillance had become “more pervasive”, helped in part by advances in technology.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said that if this situation continued, North Koreans “will be subjected to more of the suffering, brutal repression and fear that they have endured for so long”.
The report, which is based on more than 300 interviews with people who escaped from North Korea in the past 10 years, found that the death penalty is being used more often.
At least six new laws have been introduced since 2015 that allow for the penalty to be handed out. One crime which can now be punished by death is the watching and sharing of foreign media content such as films and TV dramas, as Kim Jong Un works to successfully limit people’s access to information.
Escapees told UN researchers that from 2020 onwards there had been more executions for distributing foreign content. They described how these executions are carried out by firing squads in public to instil fear in people and discourage them from breaking the law.
Kang Gyuri, who escaped in 2023, told the BBC that three of her friends were executed after being caught with South Korean content. She was at the trial of one 23-year-old friend who was sentenced to death.
“He was tried along with drug criminals. These crimes are treated the same now,” she said, adding that since 2020 people had become more afraid.
Watch: Rare footage shows teens sentenced to hard labour over K-drama
Such experiences run counter to what North Korean people had expected from the past decade.
When the current leader Kim Jong Un came to power in 2011, the escapees who were interviewed said they had hoped their lives would improve, as Kim had promised they would no longer need to “tighten their belts” – meaning they would have enough to eat. He promised to grow the economy, while also protecting the country by further developing its nuclear weapons.
But the report found that since Kim shunned diplomacy with the West and the US in 2019, instead focusing on his weapons programme, people’s living situations and human rights had “degraded”.
Almost everyone interviewed said they did not have enough to eat, and having three meals a day was a “luxury”. During the Covid pandemic, many escapees said there had been a severe lack of food, and people across the country died of hunger.
At the same time, the government cracked down on the informal marketplaces where families would trade, making it harder for them to make a living. It also made it nearly impossible to escape from the country, by tightening controls along the border with China and ordering troops to shoot those trying to cross.
“In the early days of Kim Jong Un, we had some hope, but that hope did not last long,” said one young woman who escaped in 2018 at the age of 17.
“The government gradually blocked people from making a living independently, and the very act of living became a daily torment,” she testified to researchers.
The UN report said that “Over the past 10 years the government has exercised near total control over people, leaving them unable to make their own decisions” – be they economic, social or political. The report added that improvements in surveillance technology had helped make this possible.
One escapee told researchers these government crackdowns were intended “to block people’s eyes and ears”.
“It is a form of control aimed at eliminating even the smallest signs of dissatisfaction or complaint,” they said, speaking anonymously.
The report also found the government is using more forced labour than it was a decade ago. People from poor families are recruited into “shock brigades” to complete physically demanding tasks, such as construction or mining projects.
The workers hope this will improve their social status, but the work is hazardous, and deaths are common. Rather than improve workers’ safety, however, the government glorifies deaths, labelling them as a sacrifice to Kim Jong Un. In recent years it has even recruited thousands of orphans and street children, the report claims.
This latest research follows a groundbreaking UN commission of inquiry report in 2014, which found, for the first time, that the North Korean government was committing crimes against humanity. Some of the most severe human rights violations were discovered to be taking place at the country’s notorious political prison camps, where people can be locked up for life and “disappeared”.
This 2025 report finds that at least four of these camps are still operating, while detainees in regular prisons are still being tortured and abused.
Many escapees said they had witnessed prisoners die from ill treatment, overwork and malnutrition, though the UN did hear of “some limited improvements” at the facilities, including “a slight decrease in violence by guards”.
The UN is calling for the situation to be passed to the International Criminal Court in the Hague.
However, for this to happen, it would need to be referred by the UN Security Council. Since 2019, two of its permanent members, China and Russia, have repeatedly blocked attempts to impose new sanctions on North Korea.
Last week, Kim Jong Un joined the Chinese leader Xi Jinping and the Russian President Vladimir Putin at a military parade in Beijing, signalling these countries’ tacit acceptance of North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme and treatment of its citizens.
As well as urging the international community to act, the UN is asking the North Korean government to abolish its political prison camps, end the use of the death penalty and teach its citizens about human rights.
“Our reporting shows a clear and strong desire for change, particularly among (North Korea’s) young people,” said the UN human rights chief, Mr Türk.
Brazil’s Supreme Court has sentenced ex-president Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years in prison for plotting a coup after losing the 2022 election.
Brazil’s Supreme Court on Thursday sentenced firebrand ex-president Jair Bolsonaro to 27 years in prison for coup plotting at the end of a landmark trial that divided the nation and drew US fury.
The sentence could see the 70-year-old far-right leader spend the rest of his days in jail.
Judges voted 4-1 to convict Bolsonaro of plotting to overthrow Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva following his October 2022 election defeat by the left-winger.
Prosecutors said the plan failed only due to a lack of support from military top brass.
Bolsonaro’s defense team called the sentence “incredibly excessive” and announced he would appeal, “including at the international level.”
Washington was quick to respond to the conviction of the man dubbed “the Trump of the tropics” on his election in 2019.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States “will respond accordingly” to what he called a politically motivated “witch hunt.”
Brazil’s foreign ministry hit back, saying it would not be intimidated by Rubio’s “threats.”
– A ‘good man’ –
Supporters of Brazil’s convicted ex-president Jair Bolsonaro argue he is the victim of political persecution / AFP
Trump, who levied steep tariffs on Brazil as punishment over Bolsonaro’s prosecution, labeled the verdict “very surprising.”
He praised Bolsonaro as a “good president” and “good man” and said his legal woes were “very much like they tried to do with me.”
While the Supreme Court had already garnered the simple majority of three votes needed for his conviction at the fourth vote, it only became final after the last of the five judges issued his decision.
“An armed criminal organization was formed by the defendants, who must be convicted based on the factual circumstances I consider proven,” said the fifth judge, Cristiano Zanin, Lula’s former lawyer.
Brazilians celebrate the Supreme Court decision against former president Jair Bolsonaro / AFP
Bolsonaro’s seven co-accused, including former ministers and military chiefs, were also convicted.
The former army captain, who served a single term from 2019 to 2022, claims he is the victim of political persecution.
Speaking outside his father’s home in Brasilia, Bolsonaro’s lawmaker son Flavio Bolsonaro said the politician was “holding his head high in the face of this persecution, because history will show that we are on the right side.”
He added that his father’s allies would act with “all their might” to secure Congress’s support for an amnesty bill.
– ‘Political’ –
Bolsonaro’s conviction came after one of the biggest and most divisive trials in Brazil’s recent history, which ended with a nail-biting vote that stretched over four days.
Apart from heading a “criminal organization,” the former senator was charged with knowing of a plan to assassinate Lula, his vice president Geraldo Alckmin and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre Moraes.
Bolsonaro was also found guilty of inciting the violent 2023 storming of the Supreme Court, presidential palace and Congress in Brasilia by hundreds of his supporters, a week after Lula was inaugurated as his successor.
He himself did not attend the verdict hearings in the capital Brasilia, instead following the proceedings from his residence, where he is under house arrest.
Across the nation, Brazilians were glued to the proceedings on TV and social media.
In one Brasilia bar, patrons watching the trial on a giant screen burst into applause after he was convicted.
“After so much waiting, this despicable individual is being sent to jail,” translator Virgilio Soares, 46, said.
But Germano Cavalcante, a 60-year-old civil engineer, called the trial “unfair.”
– A country divided –
Portraits of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and current President Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva in the presidential palace in Brasilia / AFP
The case drove a deep wedge through Brazilian society, between those primarily on the left who saw it as a vital test of the country’s democracy, from those mainly on the right who viewed it as a political show trial.
It also led to an unprecedented crisis in relations between the United States and longtime ally Brazil.
Besides the tariffs punishment, Washington has also sanctioned Moraes and other Supreme Court judges.
Bolsonaro is the fourth former Brazilian president to be convicted since the return to democracy in 1985 after a two-decade military dictatorship.
Lula spent 19 months in prison in 2018-2019 on corruption charges that were later overturned.
The 79-year-old political veteran, whose popularity had plummeted before Bolsonaro’s trial, has been boosted by the standoff with the United States.
He has styled himself the guardian of Brazil’s sovereignty in the face of alleged US meddling in its affairs and indicated he will run for reelection next year.
BRASILIA, Sept 11 (Reuters) – Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro was convicted by a Supreme Court majority on Thursday of plotting a coup to remain in power after losing the 2022 election, a powerful blow to the populist far-right movement he created.
The presumptive ruling by a majority of a panel of five justices in Brazil’s Supreme Court makes Bolsonaro the first former president in the country’s history to be convicted for attacking democracy.
Three judges so far have voted to convict, one acquitted, and one remains to vote.
The conviction of Bolsonaro, a former Army captain who never hid his admiration for the military dictatorship that killed hundreds of Brazilians between 1964 and 1985, echoes legal condemnations this year for far-right leaders elsewhere, including France’s Marine Le Pen and the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte.
It is likely to further enrage Bolsonaro’s close ally U.S. President Donald Trump, who has already called the case a “witch hunt” and slammed Brazil with tariff hikes, sanctions against the presiding judge, and the revocation of visas for most members of Brazil’s high court.
The verdict was not unanimous, with Justice Luiz Fux on Wednesday breaking with his peers by acquitting the former president of all charges.
That single vote could open a path to challenges to the ruling, potentially bringing the trial’s conclusion closer to the run-up of the 2026 presidential elections, in which Bolsonaro has repeatedly said he is a candidate despite being barred from running for office.
Fux’s vote also ignited a surge of righteous relief among the former president’s supporters, who hailed it as a vindication.
“When coherence and a sense of justice prevail over vengeance and lies, there is no room for cruel persecution or biased judgments,” Michelle Bolsonaro, the former president’s wife, posted after Fux’s vote.
FROM THE BACK BENCHES TO THE PRESIDENCY
Bolsonaro’s conviction marks the nadir in his trajectory from the back benches of Congress to forge a powerful conservative coalition that tested the limits of the country’s young democratic institutions.
His political journey began after a brief career as an army paratrooper, when he became a city lawmaker in Rio de Janeiro in the late 1980s. He went on to be elected as a congressman in Brasilia, where he quickly became known for his defense of authoritarian-era policies in the early years of Brazil’s democracy.
His reputation as a firebrand was fueled by interviews like one in which he argued that Brazil would only change “on the day that we break out in civil war here and do the job that the military regime didn’t do: killing 30,000.”
While long dismissed as a fringe player, he refined his message to play up anti-corruption and pro-family values themes. These found fertile ground as mass protests erupted across Brazil in 2014 amid the sprawling “car wash” bribery scandal that implicated hundreds of politicians – including President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose conviction was later annulled.
Burning anti-establishment anger helped lay the path for his successful 2018 presidential run, with dozens of far-right and conservative lawmakers elected on his coattails. They have reshaped Congress into an enduring obstacle to Lula’s progressive agenda.
Bolsonaro’s presidency was marked by intense skepticism about the pandemic and vaccines and his embrace of informal mining and land-clearing for cattle grazing, pushing deforestation rates in the Amazon rainforest to record highs.
As he faced a close reelection campaign against Lula in 2022 -an election that Lula went on to win – Bolsonaro’s comments took on an increasingly messianic quality, raising concerns about his willingness to accept the results.
“I have three alternatives for my future: being arrested, killed or victory,” he said, in remarks to a meeting of evangelical leaders in 2021. “No man on Earth will threaten me.”
In 2023, Brazil’s electoral court, which oversees elections, barred him from public office until 2030 for venting unfounded claims about Brazil’s electronic voting system.
PROTECTING DEMOCRACY
Bolsonaro’s conviction and its durability will now emerge as a powerful test for the strategy that Brazil’s highest-ranking judges have adopted to protect the country’s democracy against what they describe as dangerous attacks by the far-right.
Their targets included social media posts that they say spread disinformation about the electoral system, as well as politicians and activists. Sending a former president and his allies to jail for planning a coup amounts to its culmination.
The cases were largely led by the commanding figure of Justice Alexandre de Moraes, appointed to the court by a conservative president in 2017, whose stance against Bolsonaro and his allies was celebrated by the left and denounced by the right as political persecution.
“They want to get me out of the political game next year,” Bolsonaro told Reuters in June, referring to the 2026 election in which Lula is likely to seek a fourth term. “Without me in the race, Lula could beat anyone.”
Last week, as Moraes read his vote, he enumerated the evidence he believed showed Bolsonaro and his allies were guilty of plotting to not only stop Lula from taking office, but also to poison Lula and his running mate.
The charges are also tied to Bolsonaro’s alleged incitement of riots in January 2023, when thousands of his supporters stormed the Congress, presidential palace, and Supreme Court in Brasilia, the capital.
Bolsonaro’s lawyers have maintained his innocence on all counts.
The historic significance of the case goes way beyond the former president and his movement, said Carlos Fico, a historian who studies Brazil’s military at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
Four other defendants found guilty come from a military background, including Bolsonaro’s running mate in the 2022 election, General Walter Braga Netto. The verdict marks the first time since Brazil became a republic almost 140 years ago that military officials have been punished for attempting to overthrow democracy.
“The trial is a wake-up call for the Armed Forces,” Fico said. “They must be realizing that something has changed, given that there was never any punishment before, and now there is.”
A Hamas official told the BBC that members of the Palestinian armed group’s negotiating team were targeted during a meeting. It was not clear whether any of them were killed, but photos showed a badly damaged building in the northern Katara district.
The Israeli military accused the Hamas leaders of being directly responsible for the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel and of orchestrating the ensuing war in Gaza.
Qatar strongly condemned what it called the “cowardly Israeli attack that targeted residential buildings housing several members of the political bureau of Hamas”.
“This criminal assault constitutes a blatant violation of all international laws and norms, and poses a serious threat to the security and safety of Qataris and residents in Qatar,” a foreign ministry statement said.
The Gulf state – a key US ally in the region that is the location of a major American air base – has hosted the Hamas political bureau since 2012 and has served as a mediator in indirect negotiations between the group and Israel.
UN Secretary General António Guterres also condemned the strike, saying it was a “flagrant violation” of Qatar’s sovereignty.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office stressed that what it called the “action against the top terrorist chiefs” of Hamas was a “a wholly independent Israeli operation”.
“Israel initiated it, Israel conducted it, and Israel takes full responsibility,” a statement said.
A senior Israeli official told Israeli media that the Hamas members targeted included Khalil al-Hayya, the chief negotiator and exiled Gaza leader, and Zaher Jabarin, the exiled West Bank leader.
“We are awaiting the results of the strike. There is a consensus among the political and security leadership,” the official added.
On Monday, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz had warned Hamas leaders living abroad that they faced “annihilation” and Gaza would be destroyed if the group did not release its hostages and lay down its arms.
The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
At least 64,605 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
Nepali youth protesters set fire to parliament on Tuesday as the veteran prime minister obeyed furious crowds to quit, a day after one of the deadliest crackdowns in years in which at least 19 people were killed.
The protests, which began on Monday with demands that the government lift a ban on social media and tackle corruption, reignited despite the apps going back online.
Demonstrators on Tuesday attacked and set fire to KP Sharma Oli’s house, the 73-year-old, four-time prime minister and leader of the Communist Party.
Shortly after, chanting protesters — some wielding assault rifles, according to an AFP reporter at the site — gathered outside main government buildings.
Plumes of smoke also covered Nepal’s parliament as demonstrators set the building ablaze.
“Hundreds have breached the parliament area and torched the main building,” Ekram Giri, spokesman for the Parliament Secretariat, told AFP.
Protesters, mostly young men, were seen waving the country’s national flag as they dodged water cannons deployed by the security forces.
Other demonstrators targeted the properties of politicians and government buildings.
Kathmandu’s airport remains open, but some flights were cancelled after smoke from fires affected visibility, airport spokesman Rinji Sherpa said.
An AFP journalist saw some protesters wielding rifles
“I have resigned from the post of prime minister with effect from today… in order to take further steps towards a political solution and resolution of the problems,” Oli said Tuesday in a statement.
His political career stretched nearly six decades, a period that saw a decade-long civil war, with Nepal abolishing its absolute monarchy in 2008 to become a republic.
First elected as prime minister in 2015, he was re-elected in 2018, reappointed briefly in 2021, and then took power in 2024 after his Communist Party forged a coalition government with the centre-left Nepali Congress in the often-volatile parliament.
His resignation followed that of three other ministers, and came despite the government repealing the ban.
Bringing social media back online “was among the Gen Z’s demands”, Minister for Communication Prithvi Subba Gurung told AFP, referring to young people aged largely in their 20s.
KP Sharma Oli resigned after days of deadly protests sparked by a ban on social media
The ban fed into existing anger at the government in a country with a youth bulge.
People aged 15-40 make up nearly 43 percent of the population, according to government statistics — while unemployment hovers around 10 percent and GDP per capita is just $1,447, according to the World Bank.
Live ammunition
Slogans demanding accountability from the authorities have been a feature at the protests.
A burning baricade on a road in Kathmandu on September 9
“Nearly 20 people were murdered by the state — that shows the scale of police brutality,” said 23-year-old student Yujan Rajbhandari.
Several social media sites — including Facebook, YouTube and X — were blocked on Friday in the Himalayan nation of 30 million people, after the government cut access to 26 unregistered platforms.
Amnesty International said live ammunition had been used against protesters on Monday, and the United Nations demanded a swift and transparent probe.
Since Friday, videos contrasting the struggles of ordinary Nepalis with the children of politicians flaunting luxury goods and expensive vacations have gone viral on TikTok, which was not blocked.
Popular platforms such as Instagram have millions of users in Nepal who rely on them for entertainment, news and business. Others rely on the apps for messaging.
“This isn’t just about social media — it’s about trust, corruption, and a generation that refuses to stay silent,” The Kathmandu Post newspaper wrote.
“Gen Z grew up with smartphones, global trends, and promises of a federal, prosperous Nepal,” it added.
“For them, digital freedom is personal freedom. Cutting off access feels like silencing an entire generation.”
It lifted a nine-month ban on TikTok last year after the platform agreed to comply with Nepali regulations.
Nepal’s prime minister has resigned after more than a dozen people were killed and hundreds injured during youth-led protests sparked by a government ban on social media platforms, widespread corruption, and poor economic opportunities.
Security forces deployed live ammunition, water cannons, and tear gas during protests in several cities, in which authorities said at least 19 people were killed, according to news agency Reuters.
Nepal, a Himalayan country of 30 million people, is known for its turbulent politics and has seen more than a dozen governments since it transitioned to a republic after abolishing its 239-year-old monarchy in 2008 following a decade-long civil war.
Still, the latest protests, which are led by people ages 13 to 28 – the cohort known as Generation Z – are Nepal’s worst unrest in decades.
Nepali Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli announced his resignation on Tuesday in a letter that cited “the extraordinary situation” in the country, according to copy of the note posted on social media by a top aide.
Protesters took to the streets again in the capital Tuesday in defiance of a curfew imposed on the city center, and after the government lifted the social media ban. Photos by Reuters showed protesters burning a police booth and furniture outside the office of the Nepali Congress, Nepal’s largest political party. The international airport was closed due to the violence in the city affecting operations, Reuters reported, citing the aviation authority.
South of Kathmandu, in the municipality of Chandrapur, police fired into the air as protesters defied curfew to gather, a local official told CNN. Protesters also set a police car on fire, the source said.
Here’s what we know about the unrest roiling Nepal.
Riot police personnel chase demonstrators during a protest against corruption and the government’s decision to block several social media platforms, in Kathmandu, Nepal, on September 8, 2025. Navesh Chitrakar/Reuters
What sparked the protests?
Anger against the government for what many view as rampant, decades-long corruption in Nepal was already simmering, and it spilled into the streets of the capital last week after the government blocked social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube and X, in a move that was widely criticized by rights groups.
The government had written new rules it said were needed to clamp down on fake news and hate speech and threatened to ban any social media companies that failed to register.
By midnight last Thursday, 26 platforms had gone dark, according to local media.
But organizers say the protests, which spread across the country, are not only about the social media ban but are also a reflection of generational frustration at poor economic opportunities.
Meanwhile, a viral online movement against “Nepo Kids” — politicians’ children showing off their lavish lifestyles — is fueling further anger by highlighting the disparities between those in power and regular Nepalis.
Nepal’s economy is heavily reliant on money sent home by Nepalis living abroad. More than a third (33.1%) of Nepal’s GDP came from personal remittances, according to the World Bank, a number that has steadily risen over the past three decades.
“All the Nepali citizens are fed up (with) corruption. Every youth (is) going outside the country. So, we want to protect our youth and make the country’s economy better,” a protester told Reuters.
Gen Z protesters gather on the roof and in front of the parliament house as clashes erupt with police at the Federal Parliament in Kathmandu, Nepal, on September 8, 2025. Prakash Shrestha/NurPhoto/Getty Images
Protests turn deadly
The protests turned violent Monday as protesters clashed with police at the parliament complex in Kathmandu.
Police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at thousands of young protesters, many of whom wore school or college uniforms, according to Reuters.
Protesters set fire to an ambulance and hurled objects at riot police guarding the legislature, Reuters reported, citing a local official.
“The police are firing indiscriminately,” one protester told Indian news agency ANI.
At least 17 people were killed in Kathmandu and two more in the eastern city of Itahari, according to hospital officials.
More than 400 people, including security forces staff, were hospitalized after suffering injuries on Monday, according to a report by Nepal’s health ministry.
International organizations swiftly condemned the lethal crackdown by police and called for an independent investigation.
The UN human rights office said it was “shocked” by the deaths of the protesters and urged a “transparent” investigation. It said it has received “several deeply worrying allegations of unnecessary” use of force by security forces during the protests.
“The use of lethal force against protesters not posing an imminent threat of death or serious injury is a grave violation of international law,” Amnesty International said in a statement.
A demonstrator shouts slogans during a protest outside the Parliament in Kathmandu on September 8, 2025, condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government. Prabin Ranabhat/AFP/Getty Images
Government under pressure
The resignation of Prime Minister Oli on Tuesday came after a string of other officialas quit over the government’s response to the protests.
Home Minister Ramesh Lekhak resigned Monday following the violence, according to Communications Minister Prithvi Subba. The ministers for agriculture, water and health also resigned, they wrote on social media.
The government also lifted the ban on social media platforms.
In a statement before his resignation, Oli said his government was “not negative toward the demands raised by the Gen Z generation” and said he was “deeply saddened” by the incidents on Monday.
He blamed “infiltration by various vested interest groups” for the violence, without elaborating on who the groups were.
Gagan Thapa, General Secretary of the Nepali Congress and member of parliament, on Tuesday conveyed his distress over “the cruel sight of innocent youth being killed unnecessarily is rolling before our eyes” and called on Oli to “take responsibility for this oppression and resign immediately.”
Thapa added: “The Nepali Congress must not, and cannot, remain a witness and partner in this situation for even a single day. The Nepali Congress must withdraw from the government immediately. I will work to get this decision made at the party meeting.”
Nepal’s biggest-selling newspaper had also on Tuesday called for Oli to step down, its editorial board arguing he “cannot sit in the PM’s chair for a minute longer” after Monday’s bloodshed.
A US congressional panel has released a redacted copy of an alleged “birthday book” given to Jeffrey Epstein in 2003 celebrating his fiftieth birthday.
The book was released with a trove of documents that include the late convicted paedophile financier’s will and his personal address book – with contacts that include royalty, politicians across the globe, celebrities and models.
The 238-page book contains messages and photos sent by many of Epstein’s friends, including a letter carrying a signature resembling US President Donald Trump’s. Trump has denied ever writing the birthday note.
Epstein, a well-connected financier and convicted sex offender, was found dead by suicide in 2019 while awaiting a trial for sex trafficking.
What was released and why now?
The House Oversight Committee last month issued a legal summons for the executors of Epstein’s estate to produce a number of documents, including a birthday book which contains the note purportedly from Trump.
Lawyers for the estate sent documents to the committee afterwards.
On Monday, the committee released the alleged birthday book as well as Epstein’s will, entries from his contact books containing addresses from 1990 to 2019, and a non-prosecution agreement signed by him.
The release came with a note from the committee’s chairman James Comer, which criticised Democratic members of the committee who earlier on Monday released pages of the book that purportedly contained Trump’s signature. The White House denied Trump was involved with the note and said the signature on the note did not match that of the president.
Comer said the Democrats were “cherry-picking documents and politicizing information received from the Epstein Estate”.
Who wrote in the alleged birthday book?
Entries from 40 people, divided into several categories such as “friends”, “business”, “science” and “Brooklyn”, were published, though the names under “family” and “girl friends” were redacted.
These people are not accused of any legal wrongdoing in connection with Epstein’s case.
The alleged Donald Trump entry which appears on page 165, contains a signed note, with the final line reading: “Happy Birthday – and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
A woman’s body was drawn around the text. This matches descriptions by the Wall Street Journal which first reported the letter in July.
The White House said the president “did not draw this picture, and he did not sign it.”
The document also contained a message which appears to have been written by former US President Bill Clinton. The author wrote about Epstein’s “childlike curiosity” and a “drive to make a difference”.
Clinton’s office has not responded to a BBC request for comment.
The entry by Lord Peter Mandelson, currently the UK ambassador to the US, calls Epstein “my best pal” and includes several photographs.
Alongside one picture of Lord Mandelson with two women, whose faces are obscured, he writes about meeting Epstein’s interesting – in inverted commas – friends.
An official spokesperson for Lord Mandelson has told the BBC that he “has long been clear that he very much regrets ever having been introduced to Epstein,” adding: “This connection has been a matter of public record for some time.”
There isn’t a letter from Prince Andrew. But an entry from an unidentified woman says that thanks to Epstein she had met the Prince, Bill Clinton and Trump. The woman goes on to say she has “seen the private quarters of Buckingham Palace” and “sat on the Queen of England’s throne.” Prince Andrew has previously denied any wrongdoing.
What are the other entries about?
There’s a wide range of content from people from all walks of life – from occupants of the White House to women working as masseuses.
An unidentified woman recalled how she was a 22-year-old restaurant hostess until she met Epstein, after which she travelled the world and met many notable people including royals.
There were also photos of Epstein throughout the years – from his private jet to a random Asian medicine shop, and him embracing women whose faces were redacted.
Others sent him photos, some containing lewd scenes featuring wild animals from a safari including zebras and lions.
France’s parliament on Monday ousted the government of Prime Minister Francois Bayrou after just nine months in office, leaving President Emmanuel Macron scrambling to find a successor and plunging the country into a new political crisis.
Bayrou, who has been in the job for just nine months, had blindsided even his allies by calling a confidence vote to end a lengthy standoff over his austerity budget, which foresees almost 44 billion euros ($52 billion) of cost savings to reduce France’s debt pile.
Bayrou, the first premier in the history of modern France to be ousted in a confidence vote rather than a no-confidence vote, will submit his resignation on Tuesday morning, according to a person close to him who asked not to be named.
In the vote in the National Assembly, 364 deputies voted that they had no confidence in the government while just 194 gave it their confidence. “In line with article 50 of the constitution, the prime minister must submit the resignation of his government,” said speaker Yael Braun-Pivet.
Bayrou is the sixth prime minister under Macron since his 2017 election but the fifth since 2022. Bayrou’s ousting leaves the French head of state with a new domestic headache at a time when he is leading diplomatic efforts on the Ukraine war.
But defending his decision to call the high-risk confidence vote, Bayrou told the National Assembly: “The biggest risk was not to take one, to let things continue without anything changing… and have business as usual.”
Describing the debt pile as “life-threatening” for France, Bayrou said his government had put forward a plan so that the country could “in a few years’ time escape the inexorable tide of debt that is submerging it”.
“You have the power to overthrow the government” but not “to erase reality”, Bayrou told the MPs in a doomed final bid to save his government before the vote.
– Unpopular president –
Macron now faces one of the most critical decisions of his presidency — appoint a seventh prime minister to try to thrash out a compromise, or call snap elections in a bid to have a more accommodating parliament.
There is no guarantee an election would result in any improvement in the fortunes of Macron’s centre-right bloc in parliament.
And although the Socialist Party (PS) has expressed readiness to lead a new government, it is far from clear whether such an administration could survive.
Heavyweight right-wing cabinet ministers, such as Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin, are trusted by Macron but risk being voted out by the left.
According to a poll by Odoxa-Backbone for Le Figaro newspaper, 64 percent of the French want Macron to resign rather than name a new prime minister, a move he has ruled out.
He is forbidden from standing for a third term in 2027.
Around 77 percent of people do not approve of his work, Macron’s worst-ever such rating, according to an Ifop poll for the Ouest-France daily.
– Le Pen ruling –
Alongside political upheaval, France is also facing social tensions.
A left-wing collective named “Block Everything” is calling for a day of action on Wednesday, and trade unions have urged workers to strike on September 18.
The 2027 presidential election meanwhile remains wide open, with analysts predicting the French far right will have its best-ever chance of winning.
Three-time presidential candidate for the National Rally (RN) Marine Le Pen suffered a blow in March when a French court convicted her and other party officials over an EU parliament fake jobs scam.
Le Pen was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment, two of which were suspended, and a fine of 100,000 euros ($117,000).
The ruling also banned her from standing for office for five years, which would scupper her ambition of taking part in the 2027 vote unless overturned on appeal.
But a Paris court said Monday her appeal would be heard from January 13 to February 12, 2026, well before the election — potentially resurrecting her presidential hopes.
Cheered by her MPs, Le Pen urged Macron to call snap legislative elections, saying holding the polls is “not an option but an obligation” and describing Bayrou’s administration as a “phantom government”.
