NEWS

Grace Adama puts on her earrings in her two-room flat in Abuja before grabbing her handbag and heading to work.

The health NGO worker earns 135,000 naira ($99) a month, nearly twice Nigeria’s minimum wage. Yet she says her income now disappears within days as the cost of housing, electricity and food continues to rise.

“If I’m paid today, my salary stays with me just for one week,” she told Reuters. “If you see the cost of living, house, electricity, everything has gone up.”

Adama’s experience reflects a wider cost-of-living crisis confronting millions of Nigerians as the country approaches elections. Living standards have deteriorated sharply since President Bola Tinubu introduced a series of sweeping economic reforms, including the removal of fuel subsidies, the devaluation of the naira and reductions in electricity subsidies.

The government and investors argue that the reforms were necessary to prevent a deeper fiscal crisis and put Africa’s largest oil producer on a more sustainable economic path.

But for many ordinary Nigerians, the promised benefits have yet to materialise.

The cost of preparing the country’s staple jollof rice has more than doubled since Tinubu took office, according to Lagos-based SBM Intelligence. Petrol prices, meanwhile, have risen roughly sixfold following the removal of subsidies, the weakening of the naira and higher global oil prices.

With elections approaching in January, Tinubu faces the difficult task of convincing voters that the economic pain they have endured will eventually translate into better living standards.

NIGERIANS FEEL THE PAIN AS INVESTORS CHEER

The contrast between economic indicators and everyday life has become increasingly striking.

The World Bank estimates that just over half of Nigeria’s population lived in poverty last year, compared with roughly 42% in 2022.

Some Nigerians have responded to the rising costs by cutting household spending, moving to cheaper accommodation and relying on loans to cover basic expenses.

Adama said she had stopped buying meat regularly, moved to a smaller apartment and was still forced to take short-term loans to pay her bills. She also said she could no longer send money to her elderly mother in Benue state as she had done previously.

“I can’t even send money to my aged mother at home,” she said. “I can’t do a lot of things that I used to do before.”

Yet investors have taken a markedly more positive view of Nigeria’s economic direction.

“This is the most positive investors have been about Nigeria probably in the last two decades,” said Thys Louw, a portfolio manager at Ninety One. “They’re taking the tough medicine now.”

That divergence creates a major political challenge for Tinubu. Financial markets can respond positively to reforms long before their benefits reach households, while voters tend to judge governments according to the immediate cost of food, transport, housing and electricity.

Tinubu has been nicknamed “T-Pain” by some Nigerians frustrated by the rising cost of living.

REFORMS AIM TO END YEARS OF ECONOMIC DISTORTIONS

Tinubu inherited an economy burdened by years of policies that had created significant distortions.

Under former President Muhammadu Buhari, the government maintained petrol subsidies, imposed import restrictions and operated tight currency controls. While those measures were intended to protect consumers and encourage domestic production, they also contributed to shortages, foreign-exchange difficulties and growing pressure on government finances.

Fuel subsidies alone cost the government around $10 billion in 2022.

“We were living in fiscal illusions,” Finance Minister Taiwo Oyedele said at a recent event in Abuja. “We needed to stop deceiving ourselves so the country can move forward.”

Tinubu’s government therefore moved quickly after taking office to dismantle several of those policies.

The removal of fuel subsidies immediately pushed up transportation and living costs. Currency reforms also caused the naira to lose significant value, increasing the cost of imported goods.

The government argues that these measures were unavoidable and that rebuilding the economy requires accepting short-term pain.

There are signs of progress.

Nigeria’s stock market has risen close to 60% this year. Capital inflows reached a six-year high of $23 billion last year, while the opening of the 650,000-barrel-per-day Dangote refinery has created hopes that domestic refining will eventually reduce the country’s dependence on imported petroleum products.

The government has also pointed to increased investment in domestic oil assets as evidence that its reforms are attracting capital.

But those improvements have not necessarily translated into better household finances.

A BOOMING STOCK MARKET, BUT FEW CAN INVEST

Nigeria’s financial markets have benefited significantly from renewed investor confidence.

However, fewer than 5% of Nigerian adults invest in capital markets, according to the Nigerian stock exchange.

Much of the recent capital inflow has also been concentrated in short-term financial instruments such as Treasury bills, allowing foreign investors to quickly withdraw their money if economic conditions deteriorate.

For ordinary Nigerians, borrowing remains extremely expensive.

The central bank’s key interest rate stands at 26.5% as policymakers attempt to control inflation, which remains close to 16%.

That makes it difficult for businesses to expand and for households to access affordable credit.

At the same time, petrol prices average roughly 1,600 naira ($1.18) per litre nationally. Although that is lower than prices in neighbouring Ghana and Ivory Coast, it remains prohibitively expensive for many Nigerians who had become accustomed to subsidised fuel.

“The solution for me is for government to bring the fuel price down,” said Lagos food seller Eji Uchenna.

She said customers who once purchased food in bulk can no longer afford to do so.

POLITICAL PRESSURE BUILDS

The economic pressure is increasingly becoming a political issue.

In June, federal workers rejected a proposed 100,000-naira minimum wage and threatened an indefinite nationwide strike.

A June voter sentiment tracker by SBM Intelligence found that 80% of Nigerians believed the country was moving in the wrong direction.

Economic hardship is not the only concern. Security, particularly widespread kidnapping, remains a major issue for voters.

Yet widespread dissatisfaction does not necessarily mean Tinubu is vulnerable at the ballot box.

Nigeria’s opposition remains fragmented, reducing the likelihood that dissatisfaction will automatically translate into a coordinated electoral challenge.

“The opposition is disunited, and… the only way the opposition beats Tinubu is if they are united,” said Cheta Nwanze, chief executive of SBM Intelligence.

That gives Tinubu some political space to continue pursuing his economic programme despite the public backlash.

THE TEST IS WHETHER GROWTH REACHES HOUSEHOLDS

Investors remain optimistic that the reforms will eventually produce stronger economic growth, lower inflation and greater investment.

Louw said that if the government maintains its policies, workers could begin to benefit as inflation falls and interest rates decline.

But the transition remains painful, and the government faces growing pressure to ensure that economic gains are not concentrated among investors and businesses while ordinary households continue to struggle.

The central challenge is therefore no longer simply whether Nigeria’s reforms are economically necessary. It is whether the government can make those reforms politically and socially sustainable.

Tinubu must demonstrate that the sacrifices demanded from Nigerians are producing tangible improvements in their daily lives before voters head to the polls.

Finance Minister Oyedele acknowledged that the government must do more to ensure that economic recovery translates into broader prosperity.

“When inequality persists, it becomes dangerous,” he said. “It’s like sitting on gunpowder; it explodes.”

For Nigeria, the coming election will therefore offer a test not only of Tinubu’s political standing but of whether a painful programme of economic reform can deliver benefits quickly enough for ordinary citizens to believe in it.

With information from Reuters.

It is a crucial time for Africa in terms of how it interacts with the rest of the world. Africa is no longer viewed as a place of humanitarian interest or of mere charity. Instead, Africa is increasingly seen as a prize, as a place that contains large populations and is a place where great and emerging powers struggle to win influence. With fifty-five states, more than one billion people, and the youngest population of any continent, Africa’s future will determine the politics of the world for decades to come. However, this potential strategic significance exists in an uneasy context of instability, dependency, and weak governance. The key question this paper seeks to address is whether Africa will remain a subject of outside influence and internal problems, or be able to turn its potential into real strategic power.

A Continent in Transition: Crisis, Change and Transformation

The transition of Africa is evident in its economic output. According to the IMF, it should come as no surprise that sub-Saharan Africa will grow at about 4.3% in 2026 and that the region will be one of the fastest growing in the world, even beating out developed nations facing the challenges of monetary tightening and shrinking populations. It is estimated that nations such as Ethiopia, Guinea, Uganda, Rwanda, and Benin will have growth rates of 7% or more because of mining, construction, industrial parks, and infrastructure spending. Africa’s aggregate nominal GDP will reach around 3.3 trillion dollars in 2026.

This data indicates true evolution; however, these very reports indicate that growth in Africa is uneven since economies relying on resources and importing oil experience worsening trade accounts and increasing cost of living. The contradiction within Africa’s transition process is that while there is economic momentum, there is also economic fragility, which means that growth indicators do not mean development per se.

Shifting Security Landscapes and the Crisis of Regional Stability

One does not have to look further than the Sahel region to see just how critical this problem of stability becomes. Military coups seized control in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger; in these regions, the Alliance of Sahel States was formed and left the Economic Community of West African States. According to the information available from Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, the level of violence in central Sahel increased dramatically from 2018 to 2024.

Humanitarian organizations working within the United Nations reported approximately nine thousand three hundred casualties in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger in 2025. While the withdrawal of French troops and UN peacekeepers was not completed by an improvement of local armies, the Russia-based Africa Corps, a successor to the Wagner Group, became the main security partner of junta regimes with varied success. Extremist organizations such as Jama’at Nusrat al Islam wal Muslimin and the Islamic State Sahel Province expanded their operations and started to use more often armed drones in their actions with a possibility of destabilization spreading to the countries of the Gulf of Guinea coast.

Economic Crossroads: Resources, Growth and Strategic Dependency

The development of the economy in Africa has a direct connection with the natural resources present in the continent, including the minerals used in the process of energy transition in the world such as copper, cobalt, manganese, and lithium. China has been the largest trading partner of Africa for the past sixteen years, and the expected value of the total trade between these two regions in 2025 is three hundred and forty-eight billion dollars, which is an increase by eighteen percent compared to the preceding year.

The main countries contributing to the largest share of trade include South Africa, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, and Egypt. China is involved in the continent’s economy not only in traditional sectors like natural resources but also in renewables, digitalization, and low carbon technology, as China plans to invest over fifty billion dollars in the continent by 2027 under the Beijing Action Plan. According to Boston University Global Development Policy Center, Africa’s exports to China are mostly raw material and the trade deficit with China is approximately equal to three percent of regional GDP.

Diplomatic Repositioning in an Emerging Multipolar World

The states of Africa are increasingly seeking to assert their independence in a multipolar world. With the admission of the AU to the G20 in 2023, the continent has secured a place among the major powers of the world permanently. Some of the African states have sought membership to BRICS, a power bloc which included Egypt and Ethiopia in addition to the founders and some other new members, making it another power bloc which its supporters argue is an alternative to the Western dominated groupings.

This diplomatic maneuver by the continent represents the larger strategy that the Africans follow in terms of strategic non alignment where they seek relations with all the major centers of power, including the US, China, Russia, Europe, and the Gulf countries. The Africans have used this diplomatic clout to their advantage in securing better deals on debt, trade, and security cooperation. But this diplomatic repositioning itself faces limitations because of the divide among the African states and lack of ability to capitalize on it.

Domestic Politics, Governance and the Crisis of Legitimacy

Underlying the security crossroads and the economic crossroads is a more fundamental crisis of political legitimacy. Since 2020, there have been coups across the Sahel and Central Africa as a manifestation of public discontent with corruption, poor service delivery, and the inability of the civilian government to ensure security. While military regimes in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Guinea partly justify their takeover of power by invoking issues of sovereignty and anti-colonial rhetoric – an argument that struck a chord with a lot of people while the indicators of good governance in those countries continued to decline rather than improve.

In other cases, disputed elections, the manipulation of constitutions to prolong the rule of presidents, and the constriction of civic space challenge the viability of the democratic institutions that were put in place after the opening up period of the 1990s. At the same time, a number of countries such as Ghana, Kenya, and Zambia have shown the potential for power transitions and active civil societies, which means that the crisis of legitimacy in Africa is not consistent.

External Powers and the Contest for African Influence

Today’s contest for influence in Africa is characterized by a larger and broader coalition of players than has been seen since the attainment of independence. The United States has attempted to make a comeback through efforts aimed at the development of critical minerals and infrastructure, in response to the increasing influence of China and Russia in the region, although the future of favorable trade policies like the African Growth and Opportunity Act appears to be in doubt due to changes in American trade policy.

The influence of Russia has primarily been gained through security collaboration and disinformation, rather than economic investment. Russian interests lie in forming partnerships without having to be conditional upon the governance of the partner country. Countries from the Gulf region, such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, have invested heavily in ports, agriculture, and renewable energy, especially in the Horn of Africa. The influence of Turkey has been formed in the form of business and military connections, especially in the Sahel and East Africa regions. With so many external partners involved in Africa, there is an increase in the chance that the continent becomes a battleground for great powers, rather than a partner in determining the outcome.

From Strategic Importance to Strategic Agency

The concept of strategic importance and strategic capability is essential to understand the strategic positioning of Africa at present times. Strategic importance is bestowed upon a country by external actors due to the recognition of the natural resources and markets of the region. Strategic capability on the other hand involves the setting of terms by African institutions and states rather than mere reactions to the interests of external forces.

In this regard, the African Continental Free Trade Area, which seeks to create a common market of over one point three billion people is an attempt to exercise such a strategic capability through reduction of dependency on external trade partners and increased intra-African trade which currently constitutes only a limited portion of total trade in the continent. Credibility of organizations like the African Union and Economic Community of West African States in conflict and coup mediation will determine whether African diplomacy will be conducted through collective institutions or ad hoc decisions made by individual African nations.

Now which direction will Africa take?

The geopolitical position of Africa in international politics is that of a paradoxical nature. The African continent can be characterized by both immense economic potential and security crises, both rising diplomatic power and an area of contestation between foreign forces, both a land of resilient democracy and an example of authoritarianism. The statistical information provided above gives evidence of a rising continent, despite the existing weaknesses. Whether or not Africa becomes a strategic player on its own or stays an object of contestation in the new multipolar world will depend solely on decision-making of the African continent. Whether the African continent will follow the path of development or the road of stagnation depends on how Africa will deal with the issues of governance, regional integration and economic diversification.

Dhaka Seeks a New Start

Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman told India’s envoy on Monday that the two countries needed to create a “conducive environment” to strengthen bilateral ties, as Dhaka continues to press New Delhi over the politically sensitive issue of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s exile in India.

Rahman’s remarks highlight his six-month-old government’s efforts to stabilise relations with its largest neighbour while seeking progress on issues that have remained major sources of tension since Hasina was ousted in August 2024.

While Rahman has sought closer relations with India since taking office, Monday’s comments were his first to explicitly stress the need to improve the broader environment for bilateral engagement.

Hasina’s Extradition Remains a Key Dispute

Rahman made the remarks during his first meeting with India’s new High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Dinesh Trivedi.

Rahman “emphasized the need to create a conducive environment to further advance the bilateral relations between the two countries”, Bangladesh’s Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement following the meeting.

Bangladesh also urged India to expedite Hasina’s extradition.

Hasina, who has remained in India since the collapse of her government, is facing legal proceedings in Bangladesh and was sentenced to death in November.

Hasina’s Return Raises Fresh Tensions

The extradition request came days after Hasina interacted with the media for the first time since fleeing Bangladesh.

During an online audio conference, she reiterated that she would return to Bangladesh in December, drawing renewed attention to her continued presence and political activities in India.

Bangladesh’s foreign ministry strongly criticised the event, saying that India’s decision to allow Hasina to participate was deeply hurtful and that Bangladesh was outraged.

India has said it is examining Bangladesh’s extradition request in accordance with its legal and judicial procedures.

India Signals Willingness to Engage

In a post on X, the Indian High Commission said Trivedi reiterated India’s commitment to working with Bangladesh in a “positive, constructive and forward-looking manner”.

The exchange reflects the delicate balancing act facing both governments as they attempt to preserve bilateral ties while disagreements over Hasina’s future continue to complicate relations.

Can the Relationship Move Beyond Hasina?

For Dhaka, securing Hasina’s extradition remains a politically sensitive issue, while for New Delhi, any decision on the request carries broader implications for its relationship with Bangladesh and the country’s evolving political landscape.

Rahman’s call for a “conducive environment” suggests that Dhaka is seeking to prevent the dispute from overwhelming wider bilateral relations.

For India and Bangladesh, cooperation on broader areas of mutual interest will increasingly depend on whether the two sides can manage the Hasina issue without allowing it to become a permanent obstacle to engagement.

With information from Reuters.

Drones of an unknown origin were reportedly sighted over the remote joint U.S.-U.K. Diego Garcia installation located deep in the Indian Ocean. As we have frequently reported, this island base has long been a highly strategic operating location for the U.S. military. Beyond its large airfield that has been an epicenter of bomber operations over the decades, it plays many roles for the Pentagon. These include hosting Space Force operations, serving as a key port for U.S. Navy vessels, including nuclear submarines, and its lagoon provides shelter for a Sealift Command Prepositioning Ship Squadron.

The installation was targeted by Iranian ballistic missiles during the Epic Fury operation, but the threat posed by drones is even more plausible for the island outpost, especially at this extremely tense time as the standoff between the U.S. and Iran grinds on.

The issue of reported drones over Diego Garcia highlights a plausible threat of sea-launched drones that TWZ has been drawing attention to for years now. It also again raises concerns about the danger to critical infrastructure and aircraft parked in the open at Diego Garcia and many other U.S. installations. This is another issue TWZ has been highlighting for years.

“We are aware of reported sightings of drones (UAS) over Diego Garcia,” the U.K. Defense Ministry (MoD) told us Monday morning. “We are unable to provide any details about a situation which may affect the security or operation of the joint U.K.-U.S. base on Diego Garcia.”

“The U.S. and U.K. Commanding Officers on Diego Garcia consider and implement appropriate measures to ensure the security and safety of the base and the safety of the personnel on the island,” MoD added.

U.S. officials were less forthcoming.

“As a matter of operational security, we do not discuss specific force protection measures or security procedures at U.S. military installations,” an official from U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM) told us on Friday. “We remain vigilant in protecting U.S. personnel and facilities.”

Neither MoD nor PACOM would say what kinds of drones were sighted, when they were sighted, who was operating them or what, if any, defensive measures were taken as a result. Both military organizations were responding to our questions about an Aug. 7 posting on the Air Force amn/nco/snco Facebook page, an unofficial social media channel that posts about service topics.

“Inbox: ‘Diego Garcia. Drones spotted near fuel farm. Base on 0700 to 1900 curfew until further notice’ Note: message us if you have further information, thanks,” the post read.

On Sunday, the page published a second post on the topic titled “Diego Garcia Curfew reportedly due to Drone Threats.” The post displayed what the page purported to be an official listing of curfew times for various locations around the installation.

We cannot independently confirm the accuracy of these posts and have reached out to MoD and PACOM for details. MoD did not specify who reported the drone sightings over Diego Garcia, so we have asked for clarification. Making this an even more unusual event, Diego Garcia is essentially a closed island with no significant general population or tourists around to be operating drones on a recreational basis. So seeing one or more over the base would certainly raise alarms.

Though Diego Garcia is about 1,000 miles from Sri Lanka, the nearest large landmass, its remote location does not rule out the possibility of drone incursions by an adversary.

During the run-up to the launch of the Epic Fury operation against Iran, the FBI sent out an alert warning about the possibility of an Iranian drone attack on targets in California using uncrewed aircraft launched from ships off the coast. Though the alert was based on raw, unverified intelligence, and was sent out of an abundance of caution rather than any fears of an imminent action, the overall threat of drone attacks from ships is very real. You can read our feature about this very real threat vector and its relation to that questionable intelligence release here.

Generally speaking, there are long-standing concerns that Iran and/or other actors operating on its behalf could seek to launch asymmetric attacks on targets in the United States, as well as elsewhere outside of the Middle East, in retaliation for large-scale strikes or even in an unprovoked manner. The risks of Iranians deciding to take such action have historically been seen as especially high in any scenario where there might be an existential threat to the regime in Tehran.

There were enough concerns about an Iranian attack on Diego Garcia that F-16s were deployed there in February, before the war erupted, for protection primarily against one-way attack drones and cruise missiles. F-15Es were first deployed to Diego Garcia for this same purpose last year, in what appeared to be a first of its kind force protection change. As noted earlier, Iran clearly sees the installation as a top target, as it has long been something of a refuge for U.S. forces to fallback from the Middle East from, if need be. Iran subsequently launched two intermediate-range ballistic missiles at Diego Garcia during Epic Fury; however, neither struck the base.

The threat from drones launched by ships is not just limited to Iran. Russia is suspected of sending drones over key European military installations from vessels.

Long-range one-way attack drones with endurance measured in many hundreds of miles, if not more than a thousand miles, are increasingly a staple in military arsenals globally, and have also been proliferating to non-state actors. Yet the drone threat isn’t just limited to these kinds of weapons for remote locales like islands. Ukraine has carried out devastating attacks on Russian radars and other targets on Crimea and elsewhere using short-range aerial drones launched by uncrewed surface vessels (USVs). This same capability set is proliferating around the globe, allowing for the USV to work as a relatively low-cost delivery system for highly precise and relatively inexpensive short-range drones that can then execute near-field attacks. The U.S. and others are also developing similar capabilities for its submarines and future uncrewed underwater vehicles (UUVs), which could even more easily sneak into close proximity to targets ashore before launching their deadly drone munitions.

The following video shows a Ukrainian USV launching drones against Russian targets:

The pro-Kremlin nationalist party Rodina accused Yabloko of receiving undeclared campaign support, notably from Western sources – an allegation Yabloko denied.

Russia‘s Supreme Court has barred the only officially registered party opposing Moscow’s war in Ukraine from running in next month’s parliamentary elections.

The court upheld a suit on Monday brought by the small pro-Kremlin nationalist party Rodina to annul the registration of Yabloko, stripping voters of the chance to express their discontent with the four-and-a-half-year conflict at the ballot box.

Last month, the Central Election Commission had initially allowed Yabloko on the ballot along with 10 other parties.

“The claims seeking to annul the registration of the federal list of candidates for the State Duma of the ninth convocation, nominated by the Yabloko political party, were granted,” Judge Vyacheslav Kirillov said.

Rodina alleged that Yabloko had received undeclared campaign support, including from Western sources, among other accusations.

During a day-long hearing, Yabloko leader Nikolai Rybakov said there was no evidence to support the allegations and described the case as an unconstitutional attack on freedom of thought by political opponents seeking to clear the field of rivals.

About 100 supporters, mostly young people, gathered outside the courthouse as police stood by, chanting “Shame! Shame!” after the ruling was delivered. Some carried apples to display their affiliation with Yabloko, which means “apple” in Russian.

Addressing them after the hearing, Rybakov said the party would appeal the decision.

“We have a long way ahead, and we have a big and important task: to stop deaths and bring the peace back,” he said. “Everything we do should be dedicated to that.”

With most of President Vladimir Putin’s opponents jailed, exiled or dead, Yabloko is the only liberal party still operating in Russia.

The party has received the backing of several exiled opposition figures, including Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the late opposition leader Alexey Navalny. Both are listed as “extremists” in Russia.

A poll conducted earlier this year showed Yabloko at just three percent support – short of the five-percent threshold needed to enter Russia’s lower house.

With the Kremlin tightening its control over elections, Yabloko has failed to win seats in the State Duma since 2003.

Since then, every parliamentary vote has been won by the ruling United Russia party, which backs Putin.

Efforts to end the Ukraine war through diplomacy have so far failed, with Putin pushing hardline territorial demands to end the fighting and ruling out talks with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Independent polls show most Russians favour peace negotiations with Kyiv.

Caracas, August 10, 2026 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelan business sector representative Luigi Pisella has urged the privatization of public assets in a string of recent appearances on state-affiliated media.

“Our main goal is to create an efficient state, one that retains only strategic assets while opening them to private capital and technology,” Pisella said in an interview on Friday with La Iguana, a media outlet founded and owned by current Communications Minister Miguel Pérez Pirela.

He added that privatized state-owned companies would “create wealth, create jobs, and pay taxes.”

The former president of major pro-business lobby CONINDUSTRIA, Pisella was chosen by Acting President Delcy Rodríguez to represent the private sector in a commission tasked with evaluating state-owned assets, with companies, landed estates, and other properties deemed “non-strategic” set to be privatized or liquidated.

Other commission members include Economic Sector Vice President Calixto Ortega, Finance Minister Anabel Pereira, and Communes Minister Ángel Prado.

In his interview, Pisella went on to claim that the commission had an opportunity to “fix past mistakes,” in reference to nationalizations under former President Hugo Chávez, who sought to impose state control over sectors such as telecommunications, electricity, and the basic industries.

“We have to create conditions for foreign corporations, the former owners, to return,” he vowed. “And if it is not possible, find investors that will purchase these [state-owned] companies.” The private sector spokesman added that privatizations will help shrink the public sector payroll, which he placed at 3.1 million workers.

Pisella has featured prominently both in public and private news outlets to speak on the Rodríguez administration’s economic policy goals.

In an August 2 appearance on state broadcaster VTV, he pledged that the government’s economic agenda aims to make the country “more competitive” and is “on the right track.”

“The laws that we are adjusting and updating, alongside the commission to evaluate state assets, have the same goal of attracting foreign investment,” Pisella underscored.

Following the January 3 US bombing and kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro, the acting Rodríguez government has fast-tracked legislative reforms offering new concession models, tax breaks, and legal assurances to private corporations in key formerly state-run sectors including energy, mining, and electricity. 

In the wake of the June 24 double earthquake, the National Assembly likewise approved a new law aimed at “encouraging” property owners to rent out houses and apartments. The bill establishes conditions for lease agreements and mediation mechanisms for landlord-tenant disputes while also facilitating evictions.

Since January, the Trump administration has seized control over Venezuelan export revenues, especially from crude sales, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisting that Venezuelan authorities must submit a “budget request” to access the funds. 

Neither Washington nor Caracas have disclosed any figures, with the Financial Times estimating that more than US $13 billion from Venezuelan oil exports has been deposited at a specially designated US Treasury account.

In a radio interview, Pisella stated that the Trump White House has deducted the cost of its “military mobilization,” which he placed at $4.7 billion. According to the business lobbyist, there are also imports from US manufacturers and debt payments to Chevron to be deducted, leaving around $7 billion to be transferred directly to private sector importers via foreign exchange tables run by public and private banks.

Pisella’s claims have yet to be confirmed or denied by the acting Rodríguez government. In recent months, an official “rapid response” social media account has been quick to dismiss news Caracas deems to be “fake.”

For his part, Trump has recurrently boasted that his administration has recouped the cost of the January 3 military operation “many times over.”

Edited by Lucas Koerner in Philadelphia, USA.

Liverpool have signed Uruguay centre-back Ronald Araujo on a season-long loan from Barcelona.

The deal for the 27-year-old, who joined Barca from Uruguayan club Boston River in 2018 and can also play right-back, includes an option to buy.

“I’m excited to be here at this massive club with lots of history. I’m excited to meet my team-mates, excited to get started playing, and I’m very motivated and really up for getting going,” he said.

“It was the ideal move for me at this stage in my career. I think it was a move that was necessary for me to take.

“As soon as I heard that interest from Liverpool, everything went into action really, really quickly.”

Liverpool have been looking to strengthen their defence this summer after France international Ibrahima Konate left the club to join Real Madrid on a free transfer.

Araujo has made more than 200 appearances for Barca, winning three La Liga titles and two Copa del Rey trophies, and was given the captaincy in January following the loan departure of goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

Spanish football commentator Alvaro Romeo says three years ago Araujo was “a colossus” during Barca’s title-winning run.

“He was phenomenal in defence and the best defender in La Liga by far,” Romeo told BBC Radio 5 Live.

“But then after he got injuries, a little bit of absent-mindedness, in some moments he lost concentration.

“If he can regain that, which is not impossible in my opinion, then he’s going to be a very good asset for Liverpool.”

Araujo is under contract at the Nou Camp until 2031 but he only made 11 league starts last season as Barca were crowned Spanish champions for the 29th time.

Liverpool start their Premier League campaign away at Newcastle United on Sunday, 23 August at 16:30 BST.

Earlier cases of the disease were wrongly attributed to malaria and typhoid, WHO said.

The fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record started in February, months before it was officially declared in mid-May, said the World Health Organization (WHO) as responders in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) battle the surge in cases.

Mohamed Janabi, the WHO’s regional director for Africa, told a news conference on Monday that sequencing indicated the outbreak’s start, with some cases early on wrongly attributed to malaria and typhoid.

“So we are chasing the virus, the virus is ahead of us,” Janabi said.

Confirmed cases of Ebola in the DRC have reached 4,200, including at least 1,900 deaths, according to latest government figures.

The Ebola outbreak declared on May 15 is unlike most previous ones because the rare Bundibugyo virus has no approved vaccines or treatments. Early testing was conducted for the more common type of Ebola, contributing to delays.

The outbreak is unfolding in challenging conditions, with strikes by some unpaid health workers, threats by rebel groups, anger among long-traumatised communities and misinformation asserting that Ebola isn’t real.

Health teams travel on remote, unpaved roads and have reported shortages of protective gear, while the vast population of displaced people struggles to find reliable water sources for washing hands hygienically.

This Ebola outbreak has killed more people at a faster rate than any other, including the 2014-2016 outbreak in West Africa that is considered the worst on record with over 11,000 deaths in at least 28,000 cases. That outbreak took about eight months to reach 1,000 deaths.

Ebola is rare but highly contagious and can be contracted via contact with bodily fluids, such as blood or semen, and with contaminated surfaces and materials, such as bedding and clothing. The disease it causes is severe and often fatal.

Cases doubling in some regions

Last week, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Ebola is spreading faster than efforts to fight it. New cases are doubling in some hotspots, Tedros said on X after meeting with officials in the capital, Kinshasa.

Access to healthcare in the region had already been challenged by years of rebel conflict in one of the DRC’s most remote and vulnerable areas.

On Friday, the WHO recommended the start of full-scale human trials for the Ervebo vaccine, the only licensed Ebola vaccine. While Ervebo has proven to be safe and effective against the more common Zaire strain of the Ebola virus, WHO experts said early data showed it may also give some protection against the rare Bundibugyo strain.

A specific Bundibugyo vaccine is the preferred option for fighting the current outbreak, according to experts from the United Nations’ health agency. Two potential Bundibugyo vaccines are in the early stages of clinical trials on people, while a third is being worked on to get it to that stage.

Several previous Ebola outbreaks have also been declared weeks or months late, including the 2014-2016 West Africa outbreak. That was declared in March 2014, although the first human case was later found to have occurred in December 2013.

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

Emergency teams are still assessing the impact of the quake that was felt across the region.

A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake has struck western Colombia and neighbouring countries, prompting widespread evacuations.

The earthquake struck on Monday near the municipality of San Jose del Palmar in Colombia’s Choco region, about 400km (250 miles) west of the capital, Bogota, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and Colombia’s geological service. Colombia had initially put its magnitude at 6.6 on the Richter scale.

The USGS said the quake occurred at a depth of about 107km (66 miles). The US tsunami warning system said there was no tsunami warning.

“We have just experienced a major earthquake in the department of Choco. We are concerned about aftershocks,” Choco Governor Nubia Carolina Cordoba-Curi said on X. “Although the epicentre was near San Jose del Palmar, there are injuries and significant damage to buildings in the capital, Quibdo. We are already carrying out a damage assessment and will issue the first official report shortly.”

Authorities in Colombia and Ecuador urged residents in affected areas to remain alert as emergency teams assessed the quake’s impact.

In the capital, Bogotá, the earthquake triggered car and building alarms as people fled into the street.

Bogota Mayor Carlos Galán said on social media shortly after the earthquake that there were no reports of injuries, and only some cracks in buildings.

“No serious structural damage has been reported in Bogota, so our resources are at the service of the country,” Galan wrote. “We stand in solidarity with the affected cities. We will continue to address this emergency and provide assistance as needed.”

News outlets aired footage of buildings also destroyed in cities such as Pereira and Manizales in a tourist region called Eje Cafetero.

The mayor of Pereira, Colombia, said that 18 people had died there.

Two people are dead in Manizales, the Associated Press reported.

In Medellin, the earthquake prompted evacuation sirens from apartment buildings, with people fleeing their homes wearing pajamas or, simply, a wrapped-around towel. No full collapses were reported in the city, nor casualties. Mayor Federico Gutierrez of Medellin suspended the normal operation of the city’s metro, citing necessary checks for infrastructural damage.

Small towns on the outskirts of Medellín report structural damage including caved-in roofs and fractured walls.

In Cali, which is southwest of Bogota, at least 25 buildings collapsed, and authorities on the ground have confirmed “at least one casualty”. Mayor Alejandro Eder confirmed the installation of a Unified Command Center in the city, and pleaded for support from “sister cities” Medellin and Bogota.

The quake comes weeks after two powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela in late June, killing more than 6,000 people and destroying hundreds of buildings. The tremors, measuring 7.2 and 7.5 in magnitude, were among the deadliest earthquakes to hit the region in recent years.

Israeli far-right minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has posted an AI-generated video depicting a starving Palestinian prisoner as well as real videos mocking detainees who describe poor jail conditions. It’s part of a campaign to promote his harsh treatment of Palestinians ahead of October’s elections.

Trump’s latest Gaza roadmap hinges on two deeply contested conditions: Hamas must disarm, while Israel must withdraw from the territory. Hamas has endorsed the roadmap in principle, but Israel has rejected the idea of withdrawing before Hamas’s weapons are fully dismantled.

The plan, announced by U.S. President Donald Trump on July 30, seeks to revive the 2025 ceasefire framework after months of negotiations. It proposes an immediate halt to military operations, the creation of a Palestinian technocratic administration, Israeli withdrawal in phases and the deployment of an international stabilization force.

At the centre of the dispute is the sequencing of disarmament and withdrawal. Israel insists that its forces will not leave Gaza until Hamas and other armed groups have surrendered their weapons. Hamas, meanwhile, says it is committed only to the original roadmap, which provides for negotiations on a timetable for disarmament rather than requiring immediate surrender.

Under the proposed framework, Israel would withdraw sector by sector as areas are verified to be free of usable weapons. A new Palestinian administrative body would oversee the storage and decommissioning of heavy weapons, military production facilities, weapons depots and tunnels.

The plan also envisages an International Stabilization Force deploying to areas vacated by Israeli troops. The force would help maintain security, train Palestinian police and facilitate humanitarian assistance. Morocco and Uganda have so far pledged troops, while Kosovo, Albania and Kazakhstan have offered military planners and medical personnel.

A fragile situation on the ground

Despite the October 2025 ceasefire, Israeli forces continue to control large parts of Gaza and have conducted strikes against what they describe as militant threats. Gaza health authorities say more than 1,200 Palestinians have been killed since the truce, most of them civilians.

Israel says its military operations are necessary to prevent attacks and target militants involved in the October 2023 Hamas assault that triggered the war.

The situation has left much of Gaza’s population concentrated in a small coastal area, with widespread destruction and severe humanitarian needs. Any international stabilization force would therefore face the enormous challenge of establishing security while supporting reconstruction.

Israel and Hamas remain divided

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Trump’s proposal is unacceptable in its current form and reiterated that Israel will not complete its withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed.

Hamas has accepted the roadmap but objected to subsequent statements suggesting that it must surrender even light weapons before Israeli forces withdraw. The group argues that the original agreement allows negotiations over how and when disarmament would take place.

Trump’s plan therefore faces a fundamental contradiction: Israel wants disarmament before withdrawal, while Hamas expects withdrawal to proceed alongside a phased disarmament process.

The proposed sector-by-sector approach could provide a possible compromise. Under this model, Israel would withdraw from each area once its weapons have been secured and rendered unusable.

But with neither side willing to concede on the central sequencing issue, the success of Trump’s plan will ultimately depend on whether Washington can bridge the gap between Hamas’s demand for Israeli withdrawal and Israel’s demand for complete disarmament.

Analysis

The central problem with Trump’s roadmap is not the absence of a ceasefire framework, but the lack of agreement over who moves first. Hamas appears willing to discuss disarmament as part of a broader political settlement, while Israel insists that its forces cannot withdraw until Hamas is fully disarmed. That sequencing creates a fundamental deadlock: Hamas has little incentive to surrender its principal source of leverage before securing Israeli withdrawal, while Israel is unwilling to withdraw while Hamas retains military capabilities.

The proposed sector-by-sector approach could offer a potential compromise. If weapons are progressively removed from designated areas and Israeli forces withdraw in parallel, both sides would have a mechanism to demonstrate compliance without requiring either to make a complete concession at the outset. However, this would require an effective international monitoring mechanism and credible guarantees, neither of which has yet been fully established.

The International Stabilization Force could therefore become the most important element of the roadmap. Its credibility will depend not only on how many countries contribute troops, but also on whether those forces can operate independently, secure areas after Israeli withdrawal and help establish a functioning Palestinian security structure.

More broadly, the plan exposes the limits of treating disarmament as a purely military issue. Hamas’s weapons are tied to the wider political question of Gaza’s future governance and Palestinian statehood. Without a credible political pathway, disarmament could be viewed by Hamas as surrender rather than part of a negotiated settlement.

Trump’s proposal therefore represents a possible framework for ending the conflict, but not yet a guaranteed path to peace. Its success will depend on resolving the sequencing dispute, establishing credible security guarantees and answering the larger question of who ultimately governs Gaza. The real test is whether Washington can turn competing Israeli and Hamas demands into a phased bargain that neither side sees as capitulation.

With information from Reuters.

The U.S. Air Force’s X-62A test jet was able to use its artificial intelligence (AI) driven ‘brain’ to autonomously spot and track other aircraft in flight, and then move to intercept them, in recent testing. On top of this, the AI ‘agent’ on the X-62A performed these tasks by leveraging data from an infrared sensor pod slung underneath the aircraft. The tests demonstrate exactly the kind of autonomous air-to-air combat capabilities the Air Force is hoping to gain from its first batch of operational Collaborative Combat Air (CCA) drones.

The Air Force and Lockheed Martin shared details about the new testing involving the X-62A, which is a uniquely modified F-16, today. The U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School (USAF TPS), Lockheed Martin’s famed Skunk Works advanced projects division, and other unmanned “industry partners” supported what is described variously as a “closed‑loop AI combat test” and a demonstration of “autonomous AI sensor-to-vehicle control.” The X-62A, which started life as a two-seat F-16D Viper and is also known as the Variable Stability In-flight Simulator Test Aircraft (VISTA), is assigned to the USAF TPS. The Air Force also nicknamed this particular test effort Have Heat.

“Leveraging Lockheed Martin’s Infrared Search and Track Legion Pod, during the HAVE HEAT program, the X-62 VISTA platform demonstrated the ability of AI agents to ingest live infrared sensor data, directing the X-62 to autonomously intercept an airborne target in real time,” according to a release from the Air Force’s 412th Test Wing at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

“An artificial intelligence (AI) agent used targeting information from an operational sensor to execute successful air intercepts against a live target,” a separate release from Lockheed Martin also explained. “Across eight flights, the X-62 Variable In-flight Simulation Test Aircraft (VISTA) executed 27 AI-controlled intercepts.”

A T‑38 jet trainer was used as the live target during the tests, per Lockheed Martin.

The Air Force has clearly been building up to tests like Have Heat for years now. The service, together with General Atomics, has notably used the latter company’s MQ-20 Avenger drone equipped with this same pod to demonstrate autonomous target detection and tracking capabilities in the past.

As an aside, it is also worth noting here that Legion Pod has been in active operational use on crewed Air Force fighters for some time now. This reflects a separate renaissance that infrared search and track (IRST) capabilities have been seeing across the U.S. military. IRSTs are especially valuable for helping spot stealthy targets with features designed to reduce their radar cross-sections since they detect and track infrared emissions. By extension, IRSTs are also immune to radio frequency electronic warfare jamming. As passive sensors, they do not emit their own signals that could alert a target to the fact they are being tracked, either. IRSTs can still be used to cue or otherwise be linked to other sensors, including active electronically-scanned array radars. Fusing data from multiple sources can provide higher fidelity tracks of multiple targets, as well as improved situational awareness overall.

Legion Pod Flies on F-16

The Air Force, together with various industry partners, including Lockheed Martin, General Atomics, Shield AI, Anduril, and others, have also made other important strides in autonomous air combat capabilities in recent years. This includes a ground-breaking mock dogfight between the X-62A and a crewed F-16 back in 2024.

What Have Heat has now demonstrated is the ability of an autonomous platform to use its own closed data loop to directly prosecute an aerial intercept of a physical aircraft. It also showed that the parties involved could move “AI testing from simulated target data to real-time, on‑board sensor streams, mirroring the data environment pilots will face in future high-stakes engagements,” Lockheed Martin’s press release notes.

This all speaks to a core challenge in the development of advanced autonomous aircraft: situational awareness limitations. While the aforementioned simulated dogfight in 2024 was a breakthrough event, the Air Force subsequently disclosed that the X-62A and the F-16 had been directly exchanging data the entire time. This, in turn, underscored the difficulties of ensuring an autonomous platform can safely operate closely together with friendly aircraft, let alone engage a non-cooperative hostile threat, as TWZ explored in detail at the time. The Air Force, as well as other branches of the U.S. military, have been open about the need to overcome these hurdles and the difficulties of doing so.

It is also important to note that the commercial and military aviation sectors have been developing and fielding ever-more advanced automated ‘sense and avoid’ systems for crewed aircraft for decades now. This technology has already been working its way into the uncrewed aviation realm. However, at least so far, the main focus has been on flight safety in controlled airspace rather than dynamic air combat operations over hostile territory where threats and other hazards could emerge unexpectedly.

“Our autonomous agents consumed classified infrared search and track feeds and executed combat‑critical maneuvers in real time. This achievement marks a decisive advance toward delivering AI‑augmented air dominance for the United States,” Ron Fehlen, Vice President and General Manager of Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, stressed in a statement today about Have Heat.

“Our ability to provide reliable sensor data is critical, but the real advantage comes when that data can connect seamlessly with AI to take action,” Stacy Kubicek, Vice President and General Manager at Lockheed Martin Sensors and Global Sustainment, also said in a statement. “This project demonstrates how sensing and autonomous AI can come together as a force multiplier to make faster, more informed action in complex environments.”

“HAVE HEAT represents a meaningful expansion of avionics capability towards integrated, AI-driven control of multiple sensors and air vehicles for mission autonomy,” Air Force Lt. Col. Joshua Strafaccia, Dean of Faculty for Research at the USAF TPS, said in his own statement. “This bridges a capability gap and positions us to test advanced autonomy faster.”

As mentioned at the start, for the Air Force more specifically, Have Heat is another important stepping stone toward the air combat capabilities the service wants at least from its initial tranche of CCA drones. Using CCAs as forward IRST nodes is clearly a top priority. Putting the passive sensors out ahead of manned platforms, especially in groups, will generate high-quality target data independent of radars that even stealth aircraft cannot hide from. It will also help with survivability of the drones compared to equipping them with radars, but some will likely be equipped that way, as well. With all this in mind, IRST has already been emerging as a key capability for CCA-type programs more broadly, and not just in the United States.

The service’s initial CCA fleet is set to be made up of a mix of General Atomics FQ-42 Dark Merlin and Anduril FQ-44 Fury types. The Air Force is already using pre-production versions of those drones to help develop new concepts of operations and tactics, techniques, and procedures to go with them. This includes an operational test at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada just last month, which TWZ was first to report.

The Air Force does still see human operators at least being on the loop for the foreseeable future, especially to authorize lethal attacks. The service’s F-22 Raptors are in line to be the first airborne controllers for operational CCA drones. At the same time, the exact command and control schema can be expected to evolve as autonomous capabilities continue to advance, and human operators gain more trust in those platforms to perform their assigned tasks.

All of this is directly intertwined with tests like Have Heat to expand what the autonomous packages for those uncrewed aircraft are capable of doing. The X-62A has been especially deeply involved in this work for years now. The aircraft itself has been receiving new upgrades specifically to expand its own autonomous and other capabilities. The Air Force’s press release on Have Heat today also touched on another recent effort called Have Holidays, which focused on rapid testing of new software and hardware. Have Heat and Have Holidays were conducted in parallel.

“HAVE HOLIDAYS saw simultaneous integration and evaluation of a wide suite of modular technologies into the X-62’s Enterprise Open Mission System Architecture computer,” according to the Air Force’s release. “This included the integration of a non-prime, third-party autonomous agent onto the X-62, testing of enhanced safety rules to prevent autonomous vehicles from violating user-established operational limits, and further chip integration for advanced sensor exploitation.”

TWZ has previously explored in detail the importance of rapid, iterative testing in the development of new AI-driven autonomous capabilities, including in the virtual realm. Lockheed Martin says that it was able to complete “full integration and ground test of the agents” used in Have Heat in just three months using its “‘Supermassive’ AI agent generation capability.”

“This system-of-systems test served as critical technical risk mitigation on the design and development of logistics and integration frameworks required to maximize flight opportunities post-MSU, paving the way for broader government, academic, and industry partnerships,” the Air Force’s release today also added.

MSU here is the larger Mission Systems Upgrades plan for the X-62A. The MSU effort is currently working toward the integration of Raytheon’s PhantomStrike radar onto the aircraft, as well as other new “sensor and computing capacity” and “modern network data communications” capabilities, per the Air Force. The addition of PhantomStrike, a lower-cost lightweight active electronically-scanned array radar, is particularly significant and will give the test jet another important boost in situational awareness, as you can read more about here.

PhantomStrike: Next generation radar superiority

“X-62 is continued proof that an agile, dedicated team can rapidly advance Department of War initiatives through intentional collaboration,” Air Force Col. Maryann Karlen, Commandant of the USAF TPS, said in a statement today. “Accomplishing these significant milestones is a direct reflection of the adaptability and warfighter focus personified by all members of the school.”

Beyond the unique VISTA aircraft, the Air Force has also been modifying six other F-16s to help support advanced autonomy work as part of Project Viper Experimentation and Next-Gen Operations Mode (VENOM). The service announced the start of actual flight testing involving Project VENOM jets last month.

The Air Force has also been making use of a variety of other crewed and uncrewed aircraft, including the aforementioned MQ-20 Avenger, to support autonomy testing and otherwise help lay the groundwork for its future CCA fleets, as well. The service has been closely coordinating with the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.S. Navy on this work, and all three services have a formal agreement to develop a common command and control architecture for future CCA-type drones. The Air Force has also been working to bring in foreign allies and partners into its CCA program, starting with the Netherlands.

The Air Force is now hoping to begin fielding its first operational CCAs by 2030. In the meantime, tests like Have Heat utilizing the X-62A and other platforms will only become more important to help build the foundation for the air combat capabilities those drones will provide on day one.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

Thames Water paid its finance chief a £1m signing-on fee in July as the company struggles with a mountain of debt and faces temporary nationalisation.

Steve Buck joined the company in April 2025 but it is understood the seven-figure payment was not made until last month after the company had taken legal advice over its contractual obligations.

The existence of the payment, first reported by Sky News,, external was revealed in a letter from the Thames Water chairman to MPs on the Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee.

In the letter,, external Sir Adrian Montague said he understood customers would see large payments to senior leaders as “unjust” but argued they were necessary to stop staff leaving.

The letter said: “The majority of the team were brought in recently to fix the problems the company faces and are not responsible for causing those problems.

“These talented and experienced individuals have opportunities for roles outside Thames Water and, in many cases, have been actively approached by other companies.

“These roles would be less in the public gaze, less difficult and more remunerative.”

Sir Adrian described the payment to Buck as a “necessary incentive” and said the money had come from emergency funding provided by Thames Water’s lenders.

He said the company is facing recruitment and retention difficulties and warned the problem would “persist” if it was nationalised or put into special administration.

Alistair Carmichael, Lib Dem MP and chair of the Environment Committee, said: “Money should be going into improving services, not remunerating already well-paid senior executives.

“The government were clear in the early days that they wanted this to stop. It is obvious that they have not succeeded in this. We need to hear now from them about what they intend to do about it.”

The utility company owes roughly £20bn and has been working with creditors and government officials to find a way forward.

Failure to reach a deal could lead to Thames Water being forced into a “special administration regime”, a form of temporary nationalisation intended to keep the business operating until a viable solution can be found.

This would see government-appointed officials temporarily running the company – including funding its operations and upgrading infrastructure as well as dealing with any outstanding debts following a restructuring of the business.

If the company was subsequently sold to a private buyer, the government would be able to recoup some taxpayer cash.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has previously said he would like to see “greater public control” of key water and energy utilities.

In the past year, Thames Water boss Chris Weston saw his pay increase 14% to £1.63m while other directors received bonuses totalling £4.1m.

Speaking on the BBC Big Boss interview late last month, Weston acknowledged there was anger about Thames Water pay, but argued that the company needed to be able attract “capable people to help turn this company around”.

“If we’re not prepared to pay market rates, then they won’t come to us and they won’t stay with us,” he said.

The Copernicus Climate Change Service says historically low rainfall has worsened the situation in several countries.

Western Europe has experienced its hottest June and July on record this summer, according to the European Union’s climate change monitor.

The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said on Monday that the region’s average temperature over the two-month period was 21.62 degrees Celsius (70.9 degrees Fahrenheit), 2.79C (5.01F) above average and higher than the previous record set in 2022.

This reflected “the exceptional persistence of heat” so far this summer, C3S said.

The climate change monitor also said levels of soil moisture were “significantly lower” than in July 2022 when the last severe drought gripped Western Europe.

“July 2026 was the third consecutive month of exceptional heat in Western Europe, bringing the combined temperature for June and July to a new record for the region,” said Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.

“Persistent high-pressure systems trapped heat over Western Europe. The extreme temperatures also amplified widespread drought. As soils dry out, they lose their ability to provide natural cooling, allowing heat to build more readily. This is a clear example of how climate change is intensifying heat extremes with heat and drought increasingly reinforcing one another.”

Several rivers experienced exceptionally low water levels, including the Seine, Rhine and Danube. The low flows affected water supplies and irrigation and led Hungary and Slovenia to operate their only nuclear power plants at reduced capacity.

France and Spain also registered record levels of drought, which fuelled devastating wildfires.

A megafire burned nearly 42,000 hectares (103,785 acres) and forced the evacuation of more than 220,000 people in southwestern France’s Gironde department in late July.

At the same time, Spain’s largest wildfire in recent history scorched almost 44,000 hectares (108,725 acres) in Avila province near Madrid.

The report also warned that large fires can send smoke high into the atmosphere, allowing it to travel thousands of kilometres and affect air quality in other countries.

The C3S also said the highest sea surface temperatures on record outside the polar regions were recorded in July. The average sea surface temperature was 20.96C (69.7F), slightly higher than the previous record of 20.89C (69.6F) in 2023.

A small boat has crossed the English Channel carrying 230 people, the largest-ever recorded number to make the journey in a single vessel.

The boat arrived in the UK on Saturday, when a total of 258 migrants on four boats made the crossing.

The 230 people on one boat breaks the previous record from July when 165 people made the crossing on a single vessel.

A Home Office spokesperson said this latest incident demonstrated the “reckless and dangerous tactics employed by criminal gangs… who continue to put lives at risk by cramming ever greater numbers of people onto unseaworthy vessels”.

Follow BBC Kent on Facebook, external, on X, external, and on Instagram, external. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk, external or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250.

Voting postponed in seven of 11 Poonch division constituencies as boycott calls and violence mar the region’s legislative elections.

Islamabad, Pakistan – Voting is under way in the third and final phase of Pakistan-administered Kashmir’s Legislative Assembly elections, but just four of the 11 constituencies originally scheduled to vote are going to the polls due to unrest in the region.

More than 800 polling booths in Bagh and Haveli districts of Poonch division in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), as the region is known, opened at 8am (03:00 GMT) on Monday and will close about 5pm (12:00 GMT). About 460,000 people are registered to vote.

AJK Prime Minister Faisal Mumtaz Rathore, who belongs to the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), is defending his seat in Haveli.

In Bagh, two former prime ministers are in the fray – Sardar Tanveer Ilyas of the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party against Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan of the Muslim Conference.

Elections in the remaining seven constituencies, five in Poonch and two in Sudhnoti district, were postponed last week over security concerns. Officials said a new polling date will be announced in the coming days.

The postponement came after weeks of protests by the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), a local pressure group demanding the abolition of 12 seats in the regional legislature reserved for displaced Kashmiris living elsewhere in Pakistan.

Violence during the JAAC-led protests killed more than 50 people, according to residents and rights groups. The government has not shared an official death toll but said at least seven police and paramilitary personnel have been killed.

The JAAC, which has called for a boycott of the legislative elections, was banned by the authorities in June under “antiterrorism” laws.

The authorities have also banned international media from reporting from the region. Their reporters were told this month to leave and seek clearance from the government before returning to Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

Monday’s vote is the last of the three-phase polls for the 53-member Legislative Assembly.

The Mirpur division voted on July 27, and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN), which governs Pakistan, won nine of its 13 seats. The PPP took four. Polling in the Muzaffarabad division and 12 refugee constituencies across the country took place on August 2 with the PMLN winning 15 seats and the PPP six.

Election authorities recorded a turnout of 46 percent in the first phase and 53 percent in the second – both below the more than 60 percent recorded in 2021 and 2016.

The scaled-back vote reflects months of unrest centred on Poonch division, the JAAC’s stronghold, where an intermittent internet shutdown has stretched beyond 50 days.

Gaza Health Ministry says hospitals receive bodies of two Palestinians as Netanyahu rejects Trump plan to end war.

Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed at least one person as Palestinian health authorities have confirmed another death after a body was recovered from beneath the rubble in the war-shattered enclave.

Israeli forces shot and killed one Palestinian east of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza on Saturday, the Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported, quoting medical sources.

The Gaza Ministry of Health confirmed on Sunday that hospitals had received the bodies of two Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks, including one recovered from the rubble.

At least five people, including children, were wounded in Israeli attacks in the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah on Saturday, QNA reported.

Local sources said several people were wounded when an Israeli tank opened fire on tents sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis. Among them was a woman who was critically wounded. A girl was seriously wounded by Israeli army fire in the al-Mawasi coastal area of Rafah.

Israeli artillery also shelled areas east of Khan Younis, and Israeli fire wounded several more people in the al-Mahatta area of Gaza City’s Tuffah neighbourhood.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said the overall death toll since Israel launched its genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza in October 2023 was 73,386 with 174,250 wounded.

The remains of many people killed in Israeli attacks are still buried under rubble, and those deaths are uncounted, the ministry added. Ambulance and Palestinian Civil Defence crews remain unable to reach them.

Since a “ceasefire” took effect in October, the Health Ministry has recorded 1,258 people killed by Israel, 4,139 wounded and 807 bodies recovered from the rubble of destroyed buildings.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel has rejected United States President Donald Trump’s 15-point plan for Gaza, telling a cabinet meeting that Israeli forces “will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed”.

The rejection follows a similar position taken last week by the US-led Board of Peace, which said an Israeli withdrawal would only proceed once Hamas’s disarmament is complete, leaving both the ceasefire’s terms and any timeline for Israel’s exit from Gaza unresolved even as casualties continue to mount.

Pakistan-administered Kashmir is facing its biggest political crisis in years, with deadly protests ahead of a final round of voting in regional elections.

Al Jazeera’s Ava Warriner explains why the wider territory is divided and what’s driving the latest unrest.

A fast-moving wildfire in Canada’s British Columbia province has forced thousands of people from their homes. Canadian officials say more than 20,000 residents have been evacuated from the towns of Summerland and Peachland in the Okanagan region.

The “brrrt” of the GAU-8 Gatling gun in action, the whistle of the TF34 engines as A-10 Warthogs fly at low level, the hurried calls of Joint Terminal Attack Controllers needing support from above – welcome to the first episode in our opening season of “Special Access” on TWZ’s YouTube channel, a series where we take you up close to the latest military technology and inside the wire at elite military units.

In this episode, Jamie Hunter visits the U.S. Air Force A-10 Weapons Instructor Course that has been the center of excellence for the Warthog and its missions for nearly 50 years, but is now closing down as this close air support master nears retirement. Jamie had the rare opportunity to fly with the 66th Weapons Squadron’s A-10 team at Nellis Air Force Base, in Nevada, as they supported a capstone exercise one last time during the Weapons School’s final graduation events for new Weapon Instructors before they gain their prestigious graduate patches.

“The fundamentals of combat search and rescue, close air support, forward air control, even counter-maritime mission sets, as well, that starts the minute you walk in the door. The beauty of the weapons school is that it truly teaches you how to be an expert in your aircraft. It also teaches you, more importantly, how to be an expert in integration,” says Maj. Alex “Trippin” Boules, one of the last A-10 weapons instructor pilots at the 66th Weapons Squadron.

The final Weapons Instructor Course, or WIC, concluded in December 2025 as the last pair of students graduated from the six-month course, which has been run by the USAF Weapons School since 1977. Many graduates of the 66th Weapons Squadron have taken part in significant combat operations since that time, such as those in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the recent Operation Epic Fury in Iran. The latter saw A-10s taking on a critical role watching over combat search and rescue operations in partnership with special operations teams to recover downed U.S. aircrews.

Despite repeated calls for the A-10 to be retained in service, the Warthog is ultimately nearing retirement. Three squadrons have been granted a reprieve to continue operations until 2030, but the writing is on the wall for the Warthog as increasing numbers arrive at the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) boneyard in Arizona for storage.

So get ready for one last blast of A-10 action from Nellis as the 66th Weapons Squadron winds down the Warthog Weapons School.

The Last Days Of The A-10 Warthog Weapons School

Contact the presenter: jamie.hunter@teamrecurrent.io