News Desk

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has claimed victory in the country’s first election since a student-led uprising that ousted longtime leader Sheikh Hasina in 2024.

Unofficial results confirmed by election officials to Al Jazeera on Friday showed the BNP winning 209 seats, easily crossing the 151-seat threshold needed for a majority in parliament.

Its leader, Tarique Rahman, the son of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, is now set to become the country’s next prime minister. BNP officials said the party expected to form a government by Sunday.

The BNP was followed by Jamaat-e-Islami, which secured 68 seats in Thursday’s polls – its highest-ever tally.

The party, which is led by Shafiqur Rahman and contested for the first time since a 2013 ban that was lifted after Hasina’s ouster, said it is not “satisfied” with the vote count and raised “serious questions about the integrity of the results process”.

The National Citizen Party (NCP), led by youth activists instrumental in toppling Hasina and part of a Jamaat-led alliance, won just six of the 30 seats that it contested.

The Election Commission has yet to formally announce the final tally, which is expected either later on Friday or on Saturday.

Turnout stood at almost 60 percent of registered voters, according to the Election Commission, well over the nearly 42 percent in the last election in 2024.

The election featured a record number of parties, more than 50, and at least 2,000 candidates, many of them independents. The parliament comprises 350 lawmakers, with 50 seats reserved for women.

More than 127 million people were eligible to cast their votes, with many expressing enthusiasm for what was widely seen as Bangladesh’s first competitive vote in years.

An interim government led by Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus, 85, has been in office since Hasina fled to India in 2024 after widespread protests led largely by young people, who were killed in their hundreds by security forces.

Tarique Rahman, who has never held government office, returned to Bangladesh in December after 17 years of self-imposed exile in the United Kingdom. The 60-year-old has yet to comment on the unofficial results but on Friday, he waved from his car as he left his house in the capital, Dhaka, for a mosque.

In a statement, the BNP asked people to refrain from large celebrations and offer special prayers instead.

“Despite winning … by a large margin of votes, no celebratory procession or rally shall be organised,” the party said in a statement.

‘Litmus test’

The 78-year-old former leader, Hasina, was sentenced to death in absentia for crimes against humanity for the bloody crackdown on protesters during her final months in power, and remains in hiding in India. Her Awami League party was barred from the election.

BNP members have said the party would formally request Hasina’s extradition from India. In its manifesto, the BNP promised to prioritise job creation, protect low-income and marginal households and ensure fair prices to farmers. Tarique Rahman has also promised to revive a stagnant economy, reset ties with countries in the region and crack down on corruption.

Abbas Faiz, an independent South Asia researcher, said the election was a test of how Bangladesh was “ready for democracy”.

“Also, a test of the political parties which have been able to take part in the elections. They have actually understood the aspirations and the wishes of the people of their country for the removal of corrupt practices in the administration and parliament,” Faiz told Al Jazeera.

He added the election is the “litmus test” which puts responsibility on the “shoulders of the new government”.

But Faiz explained that the election would have been “fairer” if all parties, including the Awami League, were allowed to participate.

“But in a way, the problem lies with the Awami League itself, because it did not reimage itself as a party that could be trusted by the general populace in Bangladesh,” he said.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the US ambassador to Bangladesh, Brent T Christensen, were among the first to congratulate Rahman on his party’s victory. China’s embassy in Dhaka also congratulated the BNP over its election showing.

The election commission also said some 48 million ‌voters chose “Yes” ‌while about 23 million said “No” in a referendum on constitutional reforms held alongside the election, though there was no official word on the outcome.

The changes include two-term limits for prime ministers and stronger judicial independence and women’s representation, while providing for neutral interim governments during election periods and setting up a second house of the 300-seat parliament.

Fahmida Khatun, an economist and executive director of the Dhaka-based Centre for Policy Dialogue, told Al Jazeera that early signals support the perception of a credible election.

Although heavy security was reported across polling stations, “broadly, the voting was peaceful”, Khatun said, pointing to the voter turnout figure as an indicator of healthy participation.

“This indicates citizens wanted to exercise their voting rights and they wanted to choose their own people,” she added.

Several hundred international observers monitored Thursday’s voting, with the European Union’s Election Observation Mission expected to issue a preliminary report on its findings on Sunday.

FANS of Oscar-nominated actress Cynthia Erivo were delighted when they heard the Wicked star was hitting the West End, but have been left demanding refunds after watching her perform in the flesh.

The A-list actress is currently starring in one-woman show Dracula at the Noël Coward Theatre in London’s West End, which kicked off last week and sees her playing a whopping 23 characters.

However, it seems that Cynthia may have bitten off more than she can chew with the vamp role – as fans have scrutinised her for “reading off of the teleprompter” throughout.

The show is filled with complex filmed sections, which means the autocue is clearly visible on massive screens throughout.

Taking to TikTok to share their frustration, one audience member wrote: “Did I just pay £135 to watch Cynthia Erivo read off a teleprompter?”

Agreeing in the comment section of the clip, another said: “The show was rubbish. After arguing with the ticket office I got a refund.”

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As one theatre-lover asked whether the teleprompter could really be seen from the audience, the original poster responded: ” Saw it with my own eyes unfortunately.

“As did many people in my section who were confused why there were multiple”.

Another user slammed: “Why play 20 roles if you know you can’t memorise a script consisting of 20 roles”.

The early reviews of the show will be a blow after the production budget was believed to be north of £3million, while tickets are as much as £225.

However, it’s not all bad for the Elphaba star, with some fans lauding her performance.

“I was at the first preview and it was genuinely the most incredible thing. Cynthia was epic!!,” said one fan after watching Dracula.

Another said: “My mind was blown”.

A third defended her use of the teleprompter, asking: “Did you want her to memorize 20 thousand words?”

Cynthia is no stranger to the West End and has even won a Tony award for her stage work.

In 2016, the actress won the gong for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her portrayal Celie in the revival of The Color Purple. 

Cynthia is set to star in Dracula until 31 May. 

Ukrainian skeleton racer Heraskevych says 2006 Winter Olympics ‘acts as propoganda for Russia’ after IOC decision.

The Court ⁠of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) began hearing Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych’s appeal on Friday, with a decision expected later in the day on whether he can return to competition at ⁠the Milano Cortina Olympics after his disqualification over his “helmet of remembrance”.

The 27-year-old was removed from the Olympic programme on Thursday when the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation jury ruled that imagery on the helmet — depicting ⁠athletes killed since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 — breached rules on political neutrality at the Games.

Heraskevych is seeking reinstatement or at least a CAS-supervised run, pending a decision by sport’s highest court in advance of the final two runs set for Friday evening.

“I’m pretty positive about how it went,” he told reporters outside the office of CAS ‌in Milan following his appearance before the court. “I hope the truth will prevail, and I know that I was innocent.”

The racer said he was now getting threats from Russians and blamed the IOC’s decision for that.

“I believe that these Games now and this act of the IOC also serves as an instrument of propaganda for Russia,” Heraskevych said. “I still receive a lot of threats from the Russian side.”

The IOC, whose president, Kirsty Coventry, met Heraskevych on Thursday in a last-ditch effort to break the impasse, has ⁠allowed the athlete to keep his credentials despite his disqualification, so he can ⁠stay at the Milano Cortina Games.

“For me, sitting down with Vladyslav and his dad, the conversation was extremely respectful,” Coventry told a news conference on Friday. “After that, I asked the disciplinary commission to re-look at not pulling his accreditation, out of respect for him ⁠and his dad. I thought that was the right thing to do.”

The case has dominated headlines in the first week of the Olympics.

CAS Secretary-General Matthieu Reeb ⁠could not say exactly when they were likely to reach a ⁠decision, despite the tight schedule.

“We hope to have a final decision announced today, but it’s difficult for me to say when,” Reeb told reporters. “Obviously, we know the schedule of the competition, and it is an objective for CAS to be able to run the decision ‌before the start of the race, but we don’t know how long the hearing will take.

“We have only one arbitrator from Germany, and she will be in charge of this case. We have participants attending in ‌person, ‌like the IOC, the athlete is here, the father of the athlete is here.

“We have a representative of IBSF attending remotely. The athlete is also assisted by legal counsel speaking from Kyiv.”

Iraq says more than 3,000 Syrians are among the ISIL-linked detainees transferred to one of its prisons by US military.

More than 5,000 ISIL-linked (ISIS) detainees have been transferred from Syrian jails to a prison in neighbouring Iraq so far, according to Iraq’s Ministry of Justice.

In comments to the Iraqi News Agency on Friday, ministry spokesperson Ahmed Laibi said the transfers and ongoing detention of the prisoners had been carried out at the request of an international coalition led by the United States to combat ISIL, of which Iraq is a key member.

In separate comments on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein gave a lower figure, telling Reuters that about 3,000 ISIL-linked detainees had been transferred.

He told the news agency that the process was ongoing and that Baghdad was in discussions with various countries about repatriating their nationals who had been transferred.

Iraq would need more ⁠financial assistance to ⁠deal with the intake, he said, adding that there had been a recent ⁠uptick in ISIL activity in Syria.

The US military has been transporting thousands of ISIL-linked prisoners from jails and detention centres previously run by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeast Syria.

The transfers have come as control of the prisons has been handed over to the Syrian government, amid a push by Damascus to assert its authority over the full extent of a country still fragmented in the wake of a brutal war.

Deadly clashes with SDF forces broke out amid the Syrian army’s advance in recent weeks, including in and around key prison sites, resulting in some ISIL detainees escaping and raising fears the armed group could exploit any security vacuum to regroup.

A ceasefire has since been struck between the government and the SDF.

Detainees mostly Syrian nationals

Laibi, the Iraqi Justice Ministry spokesperson, said that of the 5,064 ISIL detainees transferred so far, more than 3,000 were Syrian, while at least 270 were Iraqi.

He said the detainees were being held in a single prison, in a section separated from other prisoners.

The detainees would all be investigated and prosecuted under Iraqi law, he said, while the responsibility for feeding the thousands of detainees was being handled by the international coalition, rather than Iraq.

Last month, lawyers for a group of French ISIL suspects who had been transported by the US military from Syria to Iraqi prisons in an earlier series of transfers claimed the inmates had been subjected to “torture and inhumane treatment” there.

Damascus becomes US’s main anti-ISIL partner

The US military has previously said up to 7,000 people with alleged ISIL links could be transferred to Iraqi-controlled facilities.

US Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of US forces in the Middle East, said last month that facilitating the secure transfer of detainees was critical to preventing mass breakouts that could pose a direct threat to the US and regional security.

The statement came shortly after the US special envoy to Syria said that Washington’s main partner against ISIL in Syria would be the Syrian government, rather than the SDF, which had held that position for years.

The shift followed Syria – under new President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former leader of the armed group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, who was once deemed a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist” by the US – joining the anti-ISIL coalition in November.

US departs Syrian base

The ongoing transfers of the detainees from Syria have come as the US military reduces its presence in the country, where it has conducted operations against ISIL for years.

On Thursday, Syrian ⁠forces ⁠announced they had taken control of the al-Tanf military base, a strategic garrison near the border with Iraq and Jordan, following the withdrawal of US forces.

Cooper, the commander of US forces in the Middle East, said the departure was “part of a deliberate and conditions-based transition”, and that US forces remained “poised to respond to any [ISIL] threats that arise in the region as we support partner-led efforts” to prevent the group’s resurgence.

While ISIL was largely defeated in 2017 in Iraq and in Syria two years later, sleeper cells still carry out attacks in both countries.

Lyndon J. Barrois Sr. always knew he wanted to be an artist, even as a child.

From crafting figures out of chewed gum stuck underneath the pews at his Catholic school’s church after he was forced to scrape them as punishment from teachers to collecting his mother’s discarded gum wrappers, Barrois felt a creative itch to make something out of nothing.

“I had seen too much art [and thought to myself], ‘Someone had to be doing this, why not me?,’” Barrois said with a chuckle. “I always dreamt of doing this. Other kids played with Play-Doh. I made stuff with anything I could get my hands on like clay, aluminum foil and discarded phone wire.”

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Now the 61-year-old New Orleans native is debuting his latest project at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art: “Fútbol Is Life.” It depicts some of the most iconic plays and political moments in the 95-year history of the FIFA World Cup, coming to L.A. this summer, with “humble” gum wrappers.

Barrois and LACMA curator Britt Salvesen assembled 60 works, including 40 vignettes from past World Cups and four animated short films, among them the movie “Fútballet,” which re-creates 21 famous scenes on a 50-inch soccer pitch.

Suspended artwork of Brazilian Swedish footballer Marta Vieira da Silva, known mononymously as Marta, made by Barrois. He made a conscious effort to feature women’s contributions to soccer.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

A large-scale projection of a miniature of French footballer Kylian Mbappé hangs on the wall. Two life-size replicas of Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Brazil’s Marta Vieira da Silva hang from the ceiling, the first of their kind for the artist, who has done miniatures of NBA legend Kobe Bryant and NFL star Patrick Mahomes.

The exhibition is laid out to resemble a playing field.

“We really wanted to create that environment that you feel like you’re in a separate world, and my colleague Darwin Hu took a personal and creative interest in this,” Salvesen told The Times. “He did a bunch of visual research on soccer fields in schools and prisons, where fields were improvised in whatever spaces were available. We wanted to wrap the lines up the walls and have the turf. Your sense of the space changes when you go from a hard floor to a softer floor.”

With a suspended Lionel Messi at right, Noa Carter, 4, and dad Darius L. Carter of Pasadena get a preview of artist Lyndon J. Barrois Sr.’s LACMA exhibition, “Fútbol Is Life.”

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Barrois’ 1-inch tall “sportraits” are carefully painted to capture even the tiniest detail. The majority of the installations include a mirror, allowing the viewer to see themselves as part of the moments “frozen in time,” he said.

A total of 325 individual mini soccer and football players, including Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, are included in the show.

“I had so much fun making the sculptures that when I was done, it was like hitting a wall after all that adrenaline,” Barrois said. “Now we get to hang it. Install it. You just start to see all the things we envisioned just come to life. I love this s—.”

Before sculpting, Barrois did “tons of research, a lot of reading, [looking at] photography and video.” He and a friend rewatched the most famous plays and examined the history surrounding the World Cup, stretching back to the 1930s, and before the Women’s World Cup started in 1970.

A “Sportraits” work shows the German soccer team highlighting migrant workers’ rights ahead of the 2021 World Cup. “I chose moments that I personally thought would be important, there’s a lot of politics involved,” Barrois said.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

“I just wanted to tell a story with the politics involved, like in 1938, the German team was all Nazis, and they’re doing the salute, and by 2022, the German team has human rights on their T-shirts,” Barrois said. “We also had the Iranian women project. All these things happened on such a huge platform. So it was a tough editing process to bring that down to 40.”

Barrois spent seven months completing his pieces.

Curator Sandra Jackson-Dumont, former director and CEO of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, applauded Barrois’ use of gum wrappers.

“I like that Lyndon is using materials that are a part of our everyday lives that we take for granted and we discard,” Jackson said. “He’s using those materials to make something creative.”

Barrois was surrounded by family and friends for the exhibition’s preview, most of whom grew up with the artist. Dany Wilson, who went to elementary school with Barrois, said he was “proud of him.”

The exhibition also features works from scientist Harold Edgerton and photographer Eadweard Muybridge that explore the history of motion studies and time-lapse photography.

SEOUL, Feb. 13 (UPI) — Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said Friday that Seoul’s expression of regret over alleged drone incursions was “sensible,” but cautioned that any future flights would trigger a “terrible response.”

The statement, carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency, followed comments Tuesday by South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young, who expressed “deep regrets” over alleged drone flights into the North as part of the Lee Jae Myung administration’s broader push to ease tensions with Pyongyang.

North Korea’s military last month said it shot down a South Korean surveillance drone near the border city of Kaesong. Seoul has denied involvement, saying it does not operate the drone model cited by the North.

Kim described Chung’s remarks as “fortunate” and “quite sensible behavior,” but said South Korean authorities must take preventive measures to ensure such violations “would never happen again.”

“We don’t care who the very manipulator of the drone infiltration into the airspace of the DPRK is and whether it is an individual or a civilian organization,” she said.

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea.

“I give advance warning that reoccurrence of such provocation as violating the inalienable sovereignty of the DPRK will surely provoke a terrible response,” Kim said. “Various counterattack plans are on the table and one of them will be chosen without doubt and it will go beyond proportionality.”

A South Korean investigation initially centered on three civilians who were placed under travel bans last month. But a joint military-police task force on Tuesday raided the country’s spy agency and a military intelligence command as the probe widened to include three military officers as suspects.

On Wednesday, the Unification Ministry said Seoul would take immediate action to prevent future incidents.

“The government is conducting a thorough investigation and will immediately implement measures to prevent similar incidents,” ministry spokesman Yoon Min-ho said at a regular press briefing.

Kim’s statement was “signaling the need for joint efforts between the two Koreas to ease tensions and prevent accidents on the Korean Peninsula,” Yoon added.

North Korea is preparing to convene its Ninth Party Congress later this month, where Kim Jong Un is expected to outline a new five-year economic plan and recalibrate military and foreign policy priorities. Analysts will be watching for signs the North will formalize a hardened posture toward Seoul. In 2024, Pyongyang designated the South a “hostile state” and publicly rejected the long-held goal of reunification.

The UK’s High Court has ruled that the government ban on the pro-Palestinian campaign group Palestine Action as a ‘terror group’ was unlawful. The case was brought by the group’s co-founder Huda Ammori. Rory Challands is outside the court in London.

KATIE Price has sent a clear public signal that her feud with Peter Andre is over with a tell-tale social media U-turn – just days after the pair’s legal agreement to no longer slam each other.

After calling a truce for their children Princess, 17, and Junior, 19, Katie has shown she really is committed to moving forward.

More than a decade after their shock divorce, eagle eyed fans spotted that Katie Price is once again following her ex-husband on Instagram.

The star unfollowed Peter back in 2021 after he called in lawyers over claims Katie made in her new book, Harvey & Me.

However, the past now appears to be firmly behind them, with Pete also returning the follow.

Peter, who is married to Emily MacDonagh, has never followed his ex-wife on the social media platform until now.

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Katie recently stunned fans by marrying self-proclaimed businessman Lee Andrews just ten days after they first met.

The former glamour model walked down the aisle for the fourth time after the pair hit it off online following her split from boyfriend of two years JJ Slater.

Katie and Peter recently revealed they had struck a legal agreement not to speak negatively about each other in public again.

In a joint statement shared on social media, they said: “Katie Price and Peter Andre have decided to close the door on the past and move forward into a new chapter with positivity and respect.

“We are both focused on creating a calm and supportive environment for our children.

“We have reached a mutual agreement, both legally and personally confirming that neither of us will speak negatively about the other going forward. 

The statement ended by saying: “This decision reflects a shared commitment to our family and stability.”

In a rare public outburst last summer, Peter, 52, broke years of silence to hit back at ex-wife Katie, 47, after comments she made about their children on her podcast.

Katie had claimed daughter Princess was living with her and previously said she was banned from the set of Princess’s ITV show.

Peter said he had stayed silent for 16 years “in the face of repeated lies” but felt he had to speak out, insisting Junior and Princess had been in his care since 2018 under a legally binding court order issued in 2019.

He also referenced past court rulings in 2011 and 2015, which found Katie had made false claims and ordered her to pay damages, adding that further allegations would be addressed “in the coming months.”

Katie and Peter were together for around four and a half years, married for three, before their shock split in 2009.

These days Katie is splitting her time between the UK and Dubai as new husband Lee is unable to leave the UAE.

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Lee is banned from leaving the country after being banged up for three weeks for allegedly forging his ex-girlfriend’s signature on a £200k loan.

Katie’s family are said to have concerns about their whirlwind romance, despite the star insisting “I’m a grown a**e woman” in a defiant video shared before she jetted off to see Lee.

A source told The Sun: “They’re all so worried that Katie is paying for everything or being tricked or talked into handing over money to him.

“He says he’s a millionaire but it’s not clear if he actually has any money or how he makes it.”

Before jetting back out to the UAE to be with Lee, Katie took to social media to insist she was happy and that there was nothing to worry about.

She said: “I bet everyone’s thinking, ‘What’s going on in the Katie Price world?’ Well you guys tell me because I’m reading it as it unfolds, just like you.”

The defense ministry said Friday it has relieved Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Kang Dong-gil from duty over his alleged involvement in former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s botched martial law bid in late 2024.

The move came a day after the ministry took a similar action against Ground Operations Commander Gen. Joo Sung-un over suspicions of martial law involvement, marking the second such suspension of a four-star general appointed under President Lee Jae Myung’s administration.

“The defense ministry excluded the chief of naval operations as of Friday as allegations in relation to the insurrection case have been identified,” ministry spokesperson Chung Binna said in a briefing.

Kang, who served as chief of the directorate of military support at the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time of the martial law imposition, was among the seven top-brass officers appointed as four-star generals in September last year.

The allegations involving Kang and Joo were not previously verified ahead of their appointment, a ministry official said, acknowledging limitations in the procedure amid efforts to fill the leadership vacuum caused by the martial law bid.

The official said the ministry continues to firmly carry out measures to determine the circumstances surrounding the martial law imposition, regardless of the ranks of personnel involved.

The deputy chief of the Navy will serve as acting Navy chief following Friday’s decision, the ministry said, adding disciplinary action will be considered for Kang.

On Thursday, the ministry said it has identified around 180 personnel as having been involved in the martial law imposition following a monthslong probe into about 860 general-level and field-grade officers.

It also concluded that some 1,600 personnel across the military affiliated with the Army, counterintelligence command, special operations command and Defense Intelligence Command were found to have been mobilized on the night of the martial law imposition.

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The U.S. Air Force has now denied taking delivery of any F-35A Joint Strike Fighters from the latest Lot 17 production batch without radars installed. This comes a day after TWZ published a detailed piece examining a recent unconfirmed report that the U.S. military has been receiving radar-less F-35s since last June due to issues tied to the new AN/APG-85 radar. Earlier this week, the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) had declined to confirm or deny whether that was the case, citing “enhanced security measures.”

“USAF F-35A lot 17 aircraft are delivering with APG-81 radars,” an Air Force spokesperson told TWZ today in an unprompted statement. “The Air Force is working with the F-35 Lightning II Joint Program Office to deliver F-35s with APG-85 radars, and actual modernization plans, capabilities, and schedules remain classified to maintain program security.”

Since at least 2023, Northrop Grumman has been developing the APG-85 as a replacement for the existing AN/APG-81 radar used on all F-35 variants. The new radar is one part of the larger critical Block 4 upgrade package, which has been beset by delays and cost growth. Block 4 is also supposed to eventually include replacements for the Joint Strike Fighter’s AN/AAQ-37 Distributed Aperture System (DAS) and Electro-Optical Targeting System (EOTS), as well as a new electronic warfare suite and a host of other improved capabilities. In the past, the Air Force has described the electronic warfare package, which will be directly tied in with the APG-85, as a top priority.

“Lockheed Martin has been delivering F-35s to the military services since last June without radars, including all F-35As,” Defense Daily had reported last week, citing an anonymous source. “F-35 deliveries to U.S. units in the field since last June have had the APG-85 mountings, which do not fit the APG-81.”

“The radar-less F-35 deliveries have not affected sales to foreign partner nations which have the APG-81 on their jets, the source said,” that story added. “Without a radar, there had to be additional weight added in the nose for aircraft balance during flight. Radar-less F-35s have been able to fly, as long as they are accompanied by other F-35s, data linked and equipped with the APG-81, the source said.”

As mentioned, TWZ reached out earlier this week to the F-35 JPO with queries regarding the details in the Defense Daily piece.

“F-35 Lightning II aircraft are being built to accommodate the F-35 advanced radar (APG-85) for [the] U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps,” an F-35 JPO spokesperson had told us in response. “Initial fielding for some F-35 aircraft is planned for Lot 17, which began delivery in 2025 and continues through September 2026.”

“Due to program security reasons, we are protecting any additional information with enhanced security measures,” the spokesperson added.

In addition, Defense Daily‘s report last week said it received a statement from the Air Force that was similar to the response we subsequently received from the JPO.

“This advanced radar [APG-85] will be compatible with all variants of the F-35 aircraft,” an Air Force spokesperson told that outlet. “Due to program security reasons, we are protecting any additional information with enhanced security measures.”

What has now changed regarding these “enhanced security measures” and why is unclear. There are still questions from our story yesterday that remain unanswered, including whether or not jets configured to accept the APG-85 can have the APG-81 installed for the time being. If modifications are required for this, it is not clear how substantial or invasive they might need to be. As we previously noted, a separate report last year from Breaking Defense had also pointed to a backwards compatibility issue and potential need to redesign the entire forward end of the fuselage to be able to accommodate both the APG-81 and the APG-85.

TWZ has followed up with the Air Force to see if more information may now be available.

As we detailed in our piece yesterday, there are additional questions about the general status of work on the APG-85 and the rest of the Block 4 upgrade package, and the timeline now for the delivery of any of those capabilities. The integration of the APG-85, as well as the new electronic warfare suite and many of the other improvements, are all directly intertwined with the need for more auxiliary power-generation and thermal cooling capacity. These demands are supposed to be addressed, at least in part, by an engine upgrade effort that is itself now running behind schedule.

The goal had previously been for F-35s with a complete suite of Block 4 improvements to begin arriving this year. A September 2025 report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a Congressional watchdog, said that those plans had been revised to focus first on a truncated portion of the upgrade package, but that schedule had still been set back at least five years.

The F-35 program continues to stare down growing costs associated with operating and maintaining the jets. Altogether, the total cost of the program from the start of development in the 1990s through the end of the type’s expected lifecycle in the 2070s, is now estimated to be approximtely $2.1 trillion. The JPO has stressed that inflation is expected to account for roughly half of that figure.

Altogether, even if F-35s are not being delivered now without radars, there are still significant challenges facing the Block 4 upgrade package and the rest of the Joint Strike Fighter program.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

Julia has since revealed that her health battle had held her back over the years

Julia Bradbury has shared a heartfelt family admission as she recalled a time she didn’t feel “brave enough” after her cancer diagnosis.

The 51-year-old presenter was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021 and had a mastectomy to remove a 6cm tumour the same year.

The star, who is now cancer free, is set to return to our TV screens with her new three-part ITV series, Wonders of the Frozen South, which documents her 23-day voyage across the Southern Ocean.

The journey took Julia to Paradise Harbour on Antarctica’s western edge, where she tackled a short hill climb before stopping to absorb the stunning landscape around her.

However Julia has since revealed her health battle had held her back as she admitted that she wouldn’t have been able to travel alone a few years ago as she said she didn’t feel “brave enough” to leave her family.

During an appearance on Friday’s (February 13) episode of Lorraine, Julia said: “After I went through the breast cancer diagnosis in 2021 then I had my mastectomy, there was a very tender emotional time in my life where I didn’t think I would ever want to leave my family again.”

She continued: “I don’t mean anybody wants to leave them but I didn’t think I’d be brave enough to. You just want everybody that you care about to be as close as possible. So the fact that five years on, I’ve been as far away from home as you could possibly get.”

Following her ordeal, Julia has undergone major lifestyle transformations, including a complete reassessment of her eating habits.

She’s now adopted a cleaner approach to nutrition, prioritising whole foods, beneficial fats and high-quality proteins, while steering clear of sugar and heavily processed items.

The television star has also cut out alcohol after medical advice highlighted that even moderate drinking could heighten the chances of cancer returning.

Stress management has additionally become a central focus, with Julia now practising meditation, breathing exercises, keeping a journal and spending time in nature each day.

Speaking to Bella magazine previously, she emphasised: “Stress and emotional health are things that we should all take very seriously. People don’t think that they have a physical impact, but they do.”

The broadcaster has also transformed her approach to skincare, explaining: “I’ve always been a sucker for beauty products, but after my diagnosis I became much more conscious about what I put on my skin and the potential impact of chemicals we often don’t think twice about.

“Now my make-up, skincare and sun lotions are clean. I love Green People because it’s organic and marine-friendly, and the brand also donates to the Marine Conservation Society.”

The first episode of Julia Bradbury’s Wonders of the Frozen South airs on February 15 at 12.45pm on ITV and Lorraine airs weekdays from 9:30am on ITV1 and ITVX

BREAKINGBREAKING,

Group’s co-founder declares ruling ‘monumental victory both for our fundamental freedoms here in Britain and in the struggle for freedom for the Palestinian people.’

The High Court in the United Kingdom has ruled that the government ban on the pro-Palestinian campaign group called Palestine Action as a “terror group” was unlawful.

In a statement responding to the landmark ruling on Friday, the Claimant and co-founder of Palestine Action, Huda Ammori, said, “This is a monumental victory both for our fundamental freedoms here in Britain and in the struggle for freedom for the Palestinian people, striking down a decision that will forever be remembered as one of the most extreme attacks on free speech in recent British history.”

The United Kingdom said last June that it would ban Palestine Action under anti-terrorism laws. This that put the organisation on par with armed groups like al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS) in the UK, making it a criminal offence to be part of Palestine Action.

The government’s announcement prompted legal battles, criticism from human rights organisations and triggered protests.

More to come…

The recent use of a laser directed energy weapon to down an aerial object near El Paso, Texas, and its chaotic aftermath, highlight the policy challenges and impediments the U.S. still faces in defending against drone incursions over the homeland. These are major national security concerns and a topic The War Zone has been reporting on for years.

The latest chapter in the ongoing saga of U.S. efforts to begin countering small drone incursions over the country began last week. Reacting to what they thought was a drone operated by a Mexican drug cartel, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel reportedly used a laser directed energy weapon to take down the object, which multiple reports say turned out to be a Mylar balloon. The system, which Reuters identified as a AeroVironment LOCUST laser counter-drone weapon, was lent to CBP by the U.S. Army. This is the first publicly known instance of an object being shot down over the U.S. with a laser in an operational setting.

You can read more about LOCUST and how it works in our story here.

The use of the LOCUST came as the FAA was working on “a safety assessment of the risks the new technology could pose to other aircraft,” The New York Times reported. “F.A.A. officials had warned the Pentagon that if they were not given sufficient time and information to conduct their review, they would have no choice but to shut down the nearby airspace.”

The tug of war between the Pentagon and FAA – which led to a shutdown of airspace over the nation’s 23rd largest city – is a glaring example of the convoluted and conflicting authorities the U.S. relies on to deal with the increasing threat posed by drones.

The FAA did not respond to our request for comment. We also reached out to U.S. Northern Command and AeroVironment for comment.

However, safety concerns about using directed energy weapons, and especially kinetic ones, to take down drones in the U.S. have been a major factor in why they aren’t employed in this role. 

A little less than a year and a half ago, officials at U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM), which has coordinating authority for counter-drone efforts in the U.S., said the use of such weapons was not yet on the table. The reason is that they can create dangerous or otherwise serious collateral effects that are not a concern in a war zone.

“The biggest thing right now is the impact of the laser when it moves beyond its target,” NORTHCOM Deputy Test Director Jason Mayes said of laser directed energy weapons for counter-drone use. “You know, how far is it going? What’s that going to do? How long does the laser need to remain on target before it begins to inflict damage and so on, right?”

Mayes, speaking to a small group of reporters, including from The War Zone at Falcon Peak 2025, a counter-drone experiment at Peterson Space Force Base in October 2024, also raised questions about whether the laser beam could impact aircraft or even satellites passing by, as well as things on the ground like “hikers up on a hill.”

The military has been working to mitigate those concerns, Mayes proffered at the time.

“I think that we could get to a point where we have approval for that here in the homeland,” he posited.

The video below shows a test of a U.S. Navy shipboard laser directed energy weapon capable of being employed against drones.

USS Portland (LPD 27) tests LWSD laser system

It is unclear when the approval to use laser counter-drone weapons came or how extensive such permissions have been. We also don’t know if the LOCUST system, understood to have been stationed at nearby Fort Bliss, was sent there under a pilot program established under the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). It calls for at least four military installations to be used to speed up the development of counter-drone efforts at bases across the country. The measure includes systems “capable of destroying or disabling a small unmanned aircraft by means of high-powered microwave, laser, or other similar technology.”

Fort Bliss is also home to a significant portion of the Army’s air defense units, which are increasingly charged with the counter-drone mission. The base is also a major hub for border security operations, which the U.S. military often conducts in cooperation with law enforcement agencies, as well.

The future domestic use of laser counter-drone weapons remains an open question, but the NDAA pilot program gives the military additional authorities under existing statutes to at least test them. Still, as we have frequently noted, a confusing and often competing set of federal laws governing the use of counter-drone systems domestically impacted the ability to defend against these threats. The El Paso situation is a case in point of how challenging this can be.

NORTHCOM has authority over the troops and equipment, in this case a laser system, to take down the drones. However, federal laws limit where and when the military can use these systems, which is a large reason why CBP was involved.

In advance of the U.S. hosting the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympic Games, the Trump administration pushed to expand counter-drone authorities. Congress granted that when it passed the Fiscal Year 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

Under a federal law known as 124n, “the Departments of Homeland Security (DHS) and Justice (DOJ, including CBP, have limited authority to mitigate drone threats domestically to protect covered facilities or assets,” Scott Shtofman, Vice President & Counsel, Regulatory Affairs for the Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), told us. “That authority has been extended and expanded, under the Safer Skies Act of the NDAA, to certain certified state, local, Tribal, and territorial agencies operating under federal training and oversight.”

Still, “it’s not a blanket nationwide shoot down power and only applies in defined threat situations,” he added. 

Meanwhile, under another federal statute commonly referred to as 130(i), “DoW can mitigate drone threats to protect military installations and missions inside the U.S., but it does not have general domestic airspace policing authority,” Shtofman posited.

However, the Pentagon is working to expand its counter-drone capabilities. 

In January, the recently created Joint Interagency Task Force (JIATF) 401 announced updated guidance for counter-unmanned aerial systems (UAS) operations. The move empowered installation commanders “to take decisive action to protect military facilities, assets, and personnel within the homeland,” according to a press release at the time.

“The guidance, signed by the Secretary of War on December 8, 2025, streamlines and consolidates existing policies for detecting and mitigating UAS under the authority of 10 U.S. Code § 130i,” the release added, referring to another one of the laws governing domestic counter-small drone efforts. “It addresses the direct and growing threat posed by the proliferation of inexpensive and capable UAS. This updated framework provides commanders with the expanded authority and flexibility needed to dominate the airspace above their installations.”

Among other things, the new rules eliminate restrictions on defense perimeters that reduced installation commanders’ abilities to protect against drones.

“The previous ‘fence-line’ limitation has been removed, giving commanders a larger defensive area and greater decision space to protect covered facilities and assets,” the new rules state.

In earlier reporting, we noted that not all installations were considered “covered” to take down drones. The new rules permit service secretaries to determine which installations should be covered, to increase the number.

Beyond that, the Pentagon is now allowed to share “UAS track and sensor data among interagency partners, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ). It also allows for the use of trained and certified contractor personnel as C-sUAS operators.”

“Every commander has the inherent right to self-defense,” the Pentagon told us. “The Department of War will defend its personnel and assets from illicit UAS activity in accordance with our authority under title 10 Section 130i, and the standing rules for the use of force.”

In addition to the numerous drone incursions over U.S. installations that we have frequently covered, cross-border cartel drone operations are a chronic issue, and we have been calling attention to the growing dangers they pose for many years now. Controversy over the El Paso incident was magnified after the White House insisted that the U.S. shot down a cartel drone flying over the border, which was later contradicted by the reporting that it was a mylar balloon.

Regardless of what it was, small drones remain a clear and present danger to the U.S. Whether new technology and additional authorities to use them will make a difference is an open question.

Update: 8:31 PM Eastern –

A U.S. official responded with answers to some of our questions.

1. The limit on the distance installation commanders can counter drones is the capability of their counter-UAS systems and the ability to coordinate with local authorities and communities.
2. No sites have been chosen yet for the counter-drone pilot program.
3. To his knowledge, the El Paso incident was the first time a directed energy weapon had been used against illicit drones in the homeland.
4. There are no statutory preclusions to using directed energy weapons against drones in the homeland.

Contact the author: howard@thewarzone.com

The Lady is a four-part limited series delving into the rise and fall of the former Duchess of York’s royal aide.

The Lady is set to grip ITV viewers with the royal true crime drama brought to life by the same producers of Netflix’s award-winning The Crown.

For weeks now, ITV has been teasing the release of The Lady, a true rags to riches tale that ends in convicted murder.

Sarah Ferguson’s former dresser Jane Andrews worked for the royal for nine years. Three years after she was let go, she murdered her boyfriend Thomas Cressman.

But how did she go from rubbing shoulders with those at Buckingham Palace to spending her days behind bars as a killer?

Here’s everything there is to know about The Lady on ITV as fans don’t have long before the drama drops.

ITV The Lady release date

The wait is almost over for the grand debut of The Lady with the limited series premiering on Sunday, February 22, on ITV and ITVX.

The Lady will consist of four episodes with instalments one and two airing on Sunday, February 22, and Monday, February 23, and episodes three and four the following Sunday and Monday.

Alternatively, fans can binge-watch the entire series on the day of its initial release via the free streamer ITVX.

ITV The Lady cast

At the heart of ITV’s The Lady is Jane Andrews, the working-class woman from Grimsby who got a chance of a lifetime when she was hired to work as Sarah Ferguson’s royal dresser before her life spiralled out of control.

She is brought to life by actress Mia McKenna-Bruce who has starred in How To Have Sex, The Fence, Get Even and Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials on Netflix.

McKenna-Bruce is joined by actor Ed Speleers – famed for his roles as Stephen Bonnet in Outlander, Jimmy Kent in Downton Abbey and Rhys Montrose in You on Netflix – who plays Jane’s boyfriend and victim Thomas Cressman.

Meanwhile, Sarah Ferguson is portrayed by actress Natalie Dormer, remembered for playing Margaery Tyrell in HBO’s Game of Thrones and Anne Boleyn in The Tudors on Channel 4.

What to expect from The Lady on ITV

Described as a “working-class girl from Grimsby”, Jane Andrews’ life changed forever when she answered an advertisement in the magazine The Lady.

Much to her surprise, she was hired to become the former Duchess of York’s official dresser at Buckingham Palace.

However, no one expected that following her time working for the royals that Jane would go on to murder her boyfriend Thomas Cressman, hitting him with a cricket bat before stabbing him in the chest.

Writer and executive producer Debbie O’Malley commented: “There’s a saying that ‘truth is stranger than fiction.’

“I’m not sure I’d always agree but when I first heard about the case of Jane Andrews, it was immediately clear that her true story was every bit as intriguing, compelling and tragically heartbreaking as any fabricated thriller.

“The fascinating tale of a working-class girl who became the dresser to a duchess, with a dramatic twist that ultimately sees her on trial for murder.

“This story looks beyond the headlines while remaining high stakes and uniquely British.

“It also poses thought-provoking questions about class and entitlement whilst exploring issues around mental health that have never been more relevant than they are today.”

The Lady premieres on Sunday, February 22, at 9pm on ITV.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has said he regrets maintaining a relationship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein after the latter’s 2008 conviction for procuring a child for prostitution, as the reverberations from millions of files released pile up.

In an interview with Israel’s Channel 12 on Thursday, Barak gave his first comments on his relationship with Epstein, who died by suicide in prison in 2019, since the United States Department of Justice released a massive tranche of files relating to the late financier.

Barak, who led Israel from 1999 to 2001, expressed remorse over his lengthy relationship with Epstein, saying he regretted the moment he met the financier, to whom he was introduced by former Israeli President Shimon Peres at a large event in Washington in 2003, Peres referring to Epstein as a “good Jew”.

“I am responsible for all my actions and decisions. There is room to question whether I should have investigated more thoroughly. I regret not doing so,” said Barak.

But, despite Epstein having been convicted of procuring a minor for prostitution in 2008 and spending about a year in prison during the course of their relationship, Barak claimed he was unaware of the scope of Epstein’s crimes until a wider probe into him was opened in 2019.

“I did not know the manner of his crimes until 2019, and you probably didn’t know it either,” he said, according to Israeli media reports, claiming that in the 15 years he knew Epstein, he “never saw any unreasonable occurrence, or any unreasonable behaviour”.

Visits to home, island

Barak did not deny his contacts with Epstein after his 2008 conviction, which included staying, along with his wife, at the financier’s Manhattan home on multiple occasions between 2015 and 2019, as well as exchanging emails and meeting him in person.

He also acknowledged visiting Epstein’s notorious island in the US Virgin Islands, Little Saint James, where parties involving sex trafficking victims are said to have taken place.

He said it was a single visit, for three hours in broad daylight, accompanied by his wife and three guards, and that he saw nothing there except Epstein and some workers.

Barak sought to deflect his continued business and social contacts with Epstein after his 2008 conviction by saying that during that period, the financier was widely treated as someone who had “paid his debt to society” and been readmitted to public life.

It was not until the reopening of the investigation into him in 2019, which revealed the scale and severity of his actions, that his influential associates severed their ties with him, he said.

Epstein killed himself in prison that year while facing charges of sex trafficking underage girls.

The ties between the disgraced Epstein and Israel have come into sharp focus after the release of millions of documents.

The documents have revealed more details of Epstein’s interactions with members of the global elite, including Barak. But they also document his funding of Israeli groups, including Friends of the IDF (Israeli army), and the settler organisation the Jewish National Fund, as well as his ties to members of Israel’s overseas intelligence services, the Mossad.

During the interview, Barak was also asked about comments he had made in one recently unclassified recording with Epstein about Israel offsetting Palestinian population growth by absorbing one million Russian-speaking immigrants.

In the audio, the former Israeli leader also appeared to disparage Sephardi Jews from the Middle East and North Africa.

He said that in the past, Israel did what it could by taking Jews “from North Africa, from the Arabs, from whatever”, but added that the country could now “control the quality” of the population “much more effectively than our ancestors”.

“We can easily absorb another million. I used to tell [Russian President Vladimir] Putin always, what we need is just one more million,” he says in the audio, released by the US Department of Justice last month.

Such an immigration wave would mean “many young, beautiful girls would come, tall and slim”, from Russia to Israel, he says in the recording.

Addressing his comments, Barak said he was “not proud of that choice of words, but I did not say that to Putin”.

He denied that his remarks were racist, saying they were a conversation about the demographic challenge Israel faced from its growing Arab population.

Questions swirl over Norwegian diplomat

Barak claimed that while further documents may emerge from the released files detailing his ties to Epstein, none would reveal inappropriate conduct.

The release of the files, compiled by investigators looking into Epstein’s activities, have further revealed his links to a sprawling, global network of powerful contacts.

Among those involved is Terje Rod-Larsen, the Norwegian diplomat who was a key architect of the 1993 Oslo Accords, who is facing a storm of corruption and blackmail allegations after files revealed he was deeply embedded in Epstein’s inner circle.

Norwegian media investigations have exposed a relationship involving illicit loans, visa fraud for sex-trafficked women, and a beneficiary clause for his children in Epstein’s will worth millions of dollars, raising questions about whether Oslo’s foundational agreements of the two-state solution were brokered by a mediator vulnerable to elite blackmail and foreign intelligence pressure.

Gezani is forecast to return to cyclone status when it strikes southern Mozambique on Friday evening.

Nearly 40 people have been killed and more than 12,000 others displaced after Cyclone Gezani slammed into Madagascar’s second-largest city earlier this week, as Mozambique braced for the storm’s arrival.

Updating its tolls as assessments progressed, Madagascar’s National Office for Risk and Disaster Management (BNGRC) said on Thursday it had recorded 38 deaths, while six people remained missing and at least 374 were injured.

Gezani made landfall on Tuesday at the Indian Ocean island nation Madagascar’s eastern coastal city, Toamasina, bringing winds that reached 250km/h (155mph).

Madagascar’s new leader, Colonel Michael Randrianirina, has declared a national disaster and called for “international solidarity”, saying the cyclone had “ravaged up to 75 percent of Toamasina and surrounds”.

Images from the AFP news agency showed the battered city of 500,000 people littered with trees felled by strong winds and roofs blown off buildings.

Residents dug through piles of debris, planks and corrugated metal to repair their makeshift homes.

More than 18,000 homes were destroyed in the cyclone, according to the BNGRC, with at least 50,000 damaged or flooded. Authorities say many of the deaths were caused by building collapses, as many give inadequate shelter from strong storms.

The main road linking the city to the capital, Antananarivo, was cut off in several places, “blocking humanitarian convoys”, it said, while telecommunications were unstable.

The storm also caused major destruction in the Atsinanana region surrounding Toamasina, the disaster authority said, adding that assessments were still under way.

France announced the dispatch of food aid and rescue teams from its Reunion Island, about 1,000km (600 miles) away.

Thousands of people had been forced to leave their homes, said the United Nations’s International Organization for Migration (IOM), describing “widespread destruction and disruption”.

The cyclone’s landfall was likely one of the strongest recorded in the region during the satellite era, rivalling Geralda in February 1994, it said. That storm killed at least 200 people and affected half a million more.

Gezani weakened after landfall but continued to sweep across the island as a tropical storm until late on Wednesday.

It was forecast to return to cyclone status as it reaches the Mozambique Channel, according to the Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre La Reunion (CMRS), and could from Friday evening strike southern Mozambique.

Mozambican authorities issued warnings on Thursday about the approaching storm, saying it could cause violent winds and rough seas of 10-metre waves and urging people to leave the area of expected impact.

Both Madagascar and Mozambique are vulnerable to destructive storms that blow in off the Indian Ocean. Just last month, the northwestern part of Madagascar was hit by Cyclone Fytia, killing at least 14 people.

Mozambique has already faced devastating flooding from seasonal rainfall, with nearly 140 lives lost since October 1, according to the country’s National Disasters Management Institute.

BBC Breakfast presenters Naga Munchetty and Charlie Stayt shared a heartbreaking story on Friday

BBC Breakfast has shared some tragic death news as a guest broke down in tears.

Friday’s (February 13) live episode was hosted by Naga Munchetty and Charlie Stayt, who updated viewers on the latest news from across the UK and around the world.

They were joined in the studio by Matt Taylor, who delivered regular weather updates. Meanwhile, Mike Bushell and Peter Ruddick shared the sporting news and Valentine’s Day features, respectively.

Later in the show, the hosts revealed that the Chair of the Commons Health Committee has called on the UK drug regulator to review warnings on medications which can cause impulsive behaviour as a side effect.

Naga explained: “A BBC investigation has found that for some patients, the drugs cause impulsive gambling or sexual behaviour.”

In a pre-recorded segment, BBC correspondent Noel Titheradge spoke to a man called Freddie, whose dad Bill passed away three years ago. He was prescribed medication for Parkinson’s, which had devastating side effects. Reflecting on the struggles his dad faced, Freddie soon broke down in tears in heartbreaking clips.

This is a breaking showbiz story and is being constantly updated. Please refresh the page regularly to get the latest news, pictures and videos.

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United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has claimed that Washington engineered a dollar shortage in Iran to send the rial into freefall and cause protests on the streets.

In December and January, Iran was faced with one of the biggest antigovernment protests the country has seen since the Islamic revolution of 1979, prompted by the severe economic crisis.

Protests over soaring prices in Iran began with shopkeepers in Tehran who shuttered their shops and began demonstrating on December 28, 2025, after the rial plunged to a record low against the US dollar in late December. The protests then spread to other provinces of Iran.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s government responded with force. More than 6,800 protesters, including at least 150 children, are thought to have been killed in a sweeping crackdown by the government on the protest movement.

So, how did Washington create a “dollar shortage” in Iran, ultimately causing the rial to tank? And what effect has that had on the Iranian people?

What is a ‘dollar shortage’?

A “dollar shortage” refers to when a country does not have enough US dollars to pay for things it needs from the rest of the world.

The US dollar is the main currency used in global trade, especially for oil, machinery and loan repayments, which means countries need a steady supply of it.

If exports fall and sanctions block access to the US financial system, dollars can become scarce. As a result, the local currency weakens, prices of imported goods rise, and inflation worsens.

In Iran, a “dollar shortage” was engineered by simultaneously blocking the two main channels of foreign exchange (FX) inflow: Oil exports and international banking access, said Mohammad Reza Farzanegan, an economist at Germany’s Marburg University. The US did this by imposing sanctions on Iranian oil, meaning anyone buying or selling it would be subject to punitive measures.

Given Iran’s dependence on oil for revenue, economic sanctions on its oil can create a severe FX constraint.

“By using secondary sanctions to threaten any global entity trading in dollars with Iran, the US traps Iran’s existing reserves abroad and prevents new dollars from entering the domestic market,” Farzanegan told Al Jazeera.

What has US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said?

Replying to a query about dealing with Iran at a Congressional hearing last week, Treasury Secretary Bessent described the US strategy to send the Iranian currency plunging.

“What we [have done] at Treasury is created a dollar shortage in the country,” Bessent said, adding that the strategy came to a “grand culmination in December, when one of the largest banks in Iran went under … the Iranian currency went into freefall, inflation exploded, and hence, we have seen the Iranian people out on the street.

“We have seen the Iranian leadership wiring money out of the country like crazy,” Bessent added. “So the rats are leaving the ship, and that is a good sign that they know the end may be near.”

Before this, speaking with Fox News at the World Economic Forum last month in Davos, Bessent explained the role US sanctions played in driving the recent nationwide protests.

“President Trump ordered Treasury … to put maximum pressure on Iran, and it’s worked,” he said. “Because in December, their economy collapsed. They are not able to get imports, and this is why the people took to the streets.”

In both instances, Bessent referred to his earlier remarks at the Economic Club of New York, in March last year, when he outlined how the White House would leverage President Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign to collapse Iran’s economy.

In his address there, Bessent said the US “elevated a sanctions campaign against [Iran’s] export infrastructure, targeting all stages of Iran’s oil supply chain”, coupled with “vigorous government engagement and private sector outreach” to “close off Iran’s access to the international financial system”.

What effect did the dollar shortage have in Iran?

In January, the Iranian rial was trading at 1.5 million to the dollar – a sharp decline from about 700,000 a year earlier in January 2025 and about 900,000 in mid-2025. The plummeting currency triggered steep inflation, with food prices an average of 72 percent higher than last year.

In 2018, during his first presidency, Trump withdrew from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a deal between Iran and global powers limiting Tehran’s nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief.

Since re-election last January, President Trump has doubled down on his so-called “maximum pressure” to cripple Iran’s economy and corner Tehran to renegotiate its nuclear and regional policies. Last month, Trump threatened a 25 percent tariff on countries doing business with Iran.

Through the rigorous blocking of Iran from the global financial system by creating a dollar shortage, the US pushed Tehran towards a severe “import compression, [and as a result, Iran] cannot pay for the intermediate goods and machinery required for domestic production”, said Farzanegan, the economist.

The US strategy, he said, “is particularly devastating because it leverages commercial risk management against humanitarian needs”. In short, Washington’s strategy “makes the small Iranian market a commercial liability” for any company, even if they are only dealing with medicine, for instance, Farzanegan added.

A research paper published by Farzanegan and Iranian American economist Nader Habibi last year found that the size of Iran’s middle class would have expanded by an annual average of approximately 17 percentage points, between 2012 and 2019, if it were not for US action.

In 2019, the estimated size of loss in the middle-class share of the population in Iran was 28 percentage points, the research found.

“People lost their purchasing power, and savings were wiped out,” the economist told Al Jazeera. “This is a long-term destruction of the country’s human capital.”

Besides the US action is the existing vulnerability of Iran’s economic structure, with factors like long-term mismanagement, high rates of corruption and over-reliance on oil revenues making it fragile.

While the US sanctions created external shock, a lack of domestic structural reforms left the government with “no fiscal space to cushion the blow”.

What is the US’s endgame here – and will it succeed?

Bessent’s admission that Washington deliberately created a “dollar shortage” signals the US’s shift towards a total economic warfare narrative.

“This is economic statecraft; no shots fired,” Bessent said at the WEF in Davos last month.

“This admission may complicate the US’s diplomatic standing, as it confirms that the humanitarian channels for food and medicine are often rendered useless if the entire banking system is being targeted for collapse,” Farzanegan said.

Bruce Fein, a former US associate deputy attorney general who specialises in constitutional and international law, told Al Jazeera that this type of economic coercion is “as common as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west”, pointing to economic sanctions against Russia, Cuba, North Korea, China and Myanmar.

However, unlike in other cases where the US has applied economic pressure, Farzanegan said Iran’s case is “a unique experiment due to the duration and intensity of the pressure”.

Unlike Russia, which has a more diversified export base and larger reserves, Iran has been facing varied forms of sanctions for decades since the supreme leader took power in 1979.

“Iran has a sophisticated internal mechanism for sanctions circumvention that makes the ‘dollar shortage’ a game of cat-and-mouse rather than a one-time shock,” the economist said.

With a US armada currently stationed in the Arabian Sea, the US and Iran are in talks to defuse tensions. The US wants three key things from Iran: To stop enriching uranium as part of its nuclear programme, to get rid of its ballistic missiles and to stop arming non-state actors in the region.

Ultimately, observers say, the US wants regime change in Iran.

But Fein said his experience shows that economic sanctions alone “seldom, if ever, topple regimes … Regime change comes externally only with the use of military force.

“Iran’s dollar shortage will not oust the mullahs or Revolutionary Guard,” he said, referring to Iran’s current administrative structure.

The impoverishment of Iranians will diminish, Fein told Al Jazeera, “rather than promote the likelihood of a successful revolution because day-to-day survival will be the priority”.

Two weeks ago, 12 miles from Twickenham, Scotland parked coaches on very English lawns.

In the stately surroundings of RGS Surrey Hills school in Dorking, a group of Under-16 and Under-18 prospects ran through drills under the eyes of staff from Scottish Rugby’s SQ (Scottish Qualified) programme.

The scheme is designed to establish connections with youngsters who, like Ashman, Rodd and many others, live and play outside of Scotland, but could one day represent its senior sides.

The SQ programme’s coaches, which include English-born former Scotland international Peter Walton, act on tip-offs from schools and clubs.

They also set up a recruiting station at high-level age-grade rugby events, inviting those with the ancestry and interest to scan a QR code and enter their details.

All countries work to maximise their talent pool.

England are keen to ensure that Under-20 Rugby World Cup winner Junior Kpoku, who plays for Toulon and could become available to France, will go on to wear white at senior level.

South African-born centre Benhard Janse van Rensburg will soon be eligible for England on residence grounds after the Rugby Football Union successfully asked for a review of his tie to the Springboks.

But for nations with a smaller talent pool – Scotland has about 50,000 club players, compared to England’s 880,000 – there is a higher premium on making sure a particular promising youngster chooses to represent them.

What are the factors that come into a player’s decision?

First and foremost, there is national pride.

Ashman said that back in 2021, he explained “quite bluntly” to England’s coaches that he wanted to play for Scotland.

Sometimes, however, players can be torn between different parts of their identity.

Flanker Gary Graham, the son of former Scotland prop George Graham, grew up in Carlisle. He attended a training camp with England and, perhaps in an effort to wind up his father in a joint interview, told the Daily Mail in February 2018, external that he “feels more English than Scottish”.

Within a year later, having not played for England, he made his debut for Scotland, assuring fans that he has “always wanted to play for his country”.

For kids with big dreams of manning the controls someday, there’s a designated area where they can sit in former airplane cockpits and play pilot, all alongside a fire engine, a “Star Wars” X-wing model and the nose of a Flying Boxcar that’s open for exploring. And every Saturday morning, the cockpit of a select aircraft parked inside the hangar is made available to guests who are able to climb inside.

There are also unique learning opportunities within the museum, which is dedicated to educating the public about the role that air power has played in upholding American life. The upstairs Education Center holds over 13,000 titles, as well as flight simulators that anyone can test out. And through the museum’s First Flight Experience, students from the Coachella Valley and surrounding areas who are 12 to 17 years old may apply to take their first flight lesson onboard the museum’s Cessna 182 Skylane, Inspiration One, at no cost. As part of the program, students work with a flight instructor to learn about protocols during an actual flight with the time spent in the air counting toward the number of hours required to qualify for a pilot’s license.

For those who would rather remain in the role of passenger, the museum offers the chance to fly on several different warbird planes. Ranging in price from a few hundred dollars to several thousand, visitors may board military cargo planes or fighter jets in group or private settings and take flight over the Coachella Valley.

Feb. 13 (UPI) — Two people are dead and a third is wounded following a shooting on the campus of South Carolina State University, officials said.

The shooting occurred Thursday night in an apartment at the Hugine Suites student residential complex on the university’s campus in Orangeburg, located about 75 miles northwest of Charleston.

The university issued a campus lockdown at about 9:15 p.m., according to officials, who said in a statement that they have asked the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division to investigate.

SLED investigators are on site and investigating the crime, the university said.

Little information about the shooting was immediately available.

“Stop what you’re doing and pray,” Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said in a statement posted to her personal X account following reports of the shooting.

“Join us in prayer for the students, staff and their families. God bless our brave law enforcement responding tonight.”

The identities of the victims have yet to be confirmed, the school said.

As of early Friday, the campus remained on lockdown.

School officials said Friday’s classes were canceled and counselors would be made available to students.

The shooting is the latest at the school since Oct. 4, when one person was killed and a second person was wounded in separate shootings on the historically Black university’s Orangeburg campus.

The deceased victim from one of the October shootings was identified as 19-year-old Jaliyah Butler.

Nablus, the occupied West Bank – For decades, the Zenabia Elementary School has been offering an intimate learning environment to aspiring young students from across the educational spectrum in the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

But now, due to Israel’s years-long withholding of tax revenues owed to the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian school system is effectively broke. Like administrators at all government-run schools in the West Bank, the Zenabia school principal, Aisha al-Khatib, is struggling to keep her small, public school in session.

For most of the week, the Zenabia school is shuttered, and children roam the streets or stay at home. School supplies are woefully missing, with even regular schoolbooks now reduced to “bundles of pages”.

“We do everything we can, but we do not have the time or the materials or the consistency to properly teach our children and keep them off the streets,” says al-Khatib. “And this is everywhere in the West Bank.”

Targeting the education of Palestine’s children, she says, “means destroying the nation”.

Under the direction of far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Israel has systematically been withholding billions of dollars in tax revenues over the past two years that Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA). The measure is partly intended to punish the PA for its longstanding policy of paying families of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel for resisting the occupation – even after the PA announced early last year that it was reforming such policies.

Public services have faced severe cuts, affecting the salaries of bureaucrats, sanitary workers, and the police.

But possibly nowhere has that budgetary crisis been felt more than in the education sector.

At Zenabia and elsewhere in the West Bank, public schools are currently only open for a maximum of three days a week. Teachers face long stretches of not being paid, and when they are, they only receive about 60 percent of what they were earning before, resulting in strikes.

And the effects of these cuts in education are showing up on the days when school is in session. Class time is so diminished at Zenabia that teachers focus almost solely on teaching mathematics, Arabic, and English, with subjects like the sciences being essentially cut altogether.

The result, educators warn, could be lasting educational gaps for a generation of Palestinian students.

“As principal of the school, I know that [the students] are not [at] the same [educational] level as before,” al-Khatib says.

‘We are always absent from school’

Spending most of his days out of school, star student Zaid Hasseneh, 10, tries to keep improving his English by looking up words on Google Translate. Zaid dreams of going to university someday in the United States, with hopes of becoming a doctor.

“I want my son to grow up to be cultured – not just memorise the material he learns at school,” says his mother, Eman. “No, I want his cultural knowledge to develop and become diverse and advanced.”

Eman helps Zaid when she can with his studies, but she is busy keeping the family afloat financially after her husband lost his work in Israel. Before Israel’s war on Gaza began in 2023, Eman’s husband worked in Tel Aviv as a mechanic. After Israel revoked his work permit, along with those of some 150,000 other West Bank Palestinians, he has been unable to find work. Eman now works in a halawa factory as the sole breadwinner.

“I go home tired from work, but I have to keep up with [Zaid] regularly,” says Eman. “I tell him, ‘The most important thing is studying. Studying is essential for life.’”

But Eman realises how limited she is in helping her son with his studies. “The teacher knows one thing, but I don’t know how to explain it,” says Eman. “And now, the books [they receive in school] aren’t complete books anymore. They’re bundles. Regular books are 130 pages, but these are 40 or 50 pages.”

To compound the dearth in school resources, students and their families describe erratic schedules that make cumulative learning a near impossibility. “The whole family’s routine is affected,” says Eman.

Even Zaid is now often spending his days out in the streets rather than studying in the classroom – or otherwise on his phone, playing mobile games.

That is the case for most students these days.

Muhammad and Ahmed al-Hajj joined Zenabia four years ago as six-year-olds when they faced extreme bullying in another school. They came to love the new school and the intimate setting it offers. But the twins now mostly spend their time on their phones. With their parents also struggling to earn enough money to get by, they’re left at home alone during their days off from school.

“It’s not good at all. We are always absent from school,” says one of the twins. “It’s not like a full schedule, and we try to study as much as we can, but still, we don’t feel good about it.”

Some families have switched their children over to private schools, but few can afford to do so. “My [monthly] salary is 2,000 shekels [$650],” explains Eman Hassaneh. “About 1,000 goes towards the home rent. Another 500 goes towards bills. And only very little is left for food. I cannot also take care of his education.”

Teachers quitting, and mounting dropouts

Collectively, the PA’s multi-year budget cuts of billions of dollars are shrinking both the attendance of students and the number of teachers, too.

“Many of the teachers left working in the schools to work in factories because they do not get enough salary,” says al-Khatib. “And they don’t feel that they are giving what they need to give the students.”

Tamara Shtayeh, a teacher at Zenabia, nowadays only teaches maths, English, and Arabic due to the reduced funding. “As a teacher, the three-day solution is a bad solution because it doesn’t cover the minimum education that is needed,” she said. “Not for the students, and not for the teachers as well.”

Due to her reduced salary, Shtayeh, a mother of three girls, is selling products online on the side to support her family. Even the school’s principal, al-Khatib, says she can now only afford to send one of her two college-age daughters to university, with the other daughter staying at home.

School hours are reduced even further as Israeli soldiers regularly raid the surrounding areas, closing the school every time they do so. With the crisis stretching on for years now, Shtayeh is sensing a generational gap widening between the previous generation that received five days of school, and this one going to school for about half of that.

Shtayeh and al-Khatib worry about the lack of routine in the children’s lives. For every student like Zaid, who is devoted to educating himself despite the circumstances, many more students are dropping out of the system altogether.

Not far from Zenabia, Talal Adabiq, 15, now spends his days selling sweets and drinks for eight hours a day on the streets of Nablus.

“I don’t really like school,” says Talal. “I prefer working.”

Talal told his parents about a year ago that he wanted to drop out of school. Though they wanted him to continue his studies, he told them he did not find much use for school anymore – and he used the irregular school schedule to prove his point.

Offering to help support his struggling family financially, Talal subsequently dropped out of al-Kindi School. He now makes “about 40 to 50 shekels a day” ($13-16) hawking street goods.

As he sells lollipops and other sweets on a Tuesday afternoon, several teenage boys looked on nearby. They say they’re still in school, but on this budget-mandated day off, some of the boys joke about how “fun” it would be to not go to school at all.

Talal, meanwhile, shrugs off questions about what dropping out of school portends for his future. “God willing, things will be better,” says Talal. “I don’t know how.”

In the estimations of educators and representatives from the Palestinian Authority, about 5 to 10 percent of students have dropped out of school in the West Bank in the past two years.

‘Our children deserve a chance at life’

While massive budget cuts roil the education sector, the Palestinian Authority is struggling to come up with solutions as its budgetary woes deepen – and schoolchildren otherwise face threats, violence and demolitions at the hands of Israeli soldiers, settlers and the Israeli Civil Administration.

Even before the war on Gaza began, the school sector was facing a variety of crises, with teacher strikes commonplace, as well as Israeli attacks on school infrastructure and children on their way to class, with at least 36 demolitions of 20 schools between 2010 and 2023.

But systemic attacks on education are now intensifying. According to Ghassan Daghlas, the governor of Nablus, in his district alone, three schools have been attacked in the last two months by settlers. In nearby Jalud last month, settlers set a school on fire. The rise in violence is leaving students at once traumatised and fearful of going to school, says Daghlas.

“In the past three months, most of the invasions that target homes in the Nablus district are targeting schoolchildren. They will take the kid along with one of the parents. They subject them to interrogation for a few hours,” says the governor. “What kind of psychological state will the students have after these interrogations?”

According to PA estimates, more than 84,000 students in the West Bank have had their education disrupted by incidents including settler attacks, military raids and demolitions of schools. More than 80 schools serving approximately 13,000 students are under threat of full or partial demolition by Israeli authorities in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem. Between July and September 2025 alone, more than 90 such education-related incidents were documented in the West Bank.

In Area C – the 60 percent of the West Bank under full Israeli military control – students from isolated villages sometimes have to walk several kilometres to reach their schools, in which they regularly face harassment or attacks from settlers as well as soldiers on the way, with a rising trend in settler outposts deliberately placed near schools.

“These are not individual acts by some violent settlers,” says Mahmoud al-Aloul, the vice chairman of the central committee of Fatah, the Palestinian Authority’s ruling political party. “Rather, it’s a general policy that is supported by the occupation.”

In 2025, Nablus governorate alone had 19 students killed by Israeli army gunfire, according to Daghlas. A total of 240 were injured.

Education officials say the longer the crisis persists, the greater the long-term impact will be as teacher attrition, interrupted learning and rising dropout rates compound over time.

“The continuation of the crisis means risking long-term institutional erosion, in which temporary solutions become permanent, and the regime becomes less able to restore its previous level of quality, efficiency and justice,” says Refaat Sabbah, the president of the Global Campaign for Education. “Saving education today is not a sectoral option, but a strategic necessity to protect society and its future.”

For Eman Hassaneh, that means safeguarding her son Zaid’s future hopes and dreams. “We hope all of these barriers to education won’t actually affect our children and their passion for learning,” she says.

“Our children deserve a chance at life.”