NEWS

US President Donald Trump welcomed Saudi Arabia’s crown prince to the White House, declaring the Kingdom a major non-NATO ally and signaling a push to deepen US-Saudi ties. Here’s what we know about what they agreed on.

James began his 23rd NBA season in Lakers’ home win as Curry’s Warriors lost to Orlando Magic despite his 34 points.

LeBron James has broken the record for most NBA seasons after appearing for the Los Angeles Lakers in his 23rd after missing almost the first full month of the campaign due to sciatica.

The 40-year-old superstar, a four-time NBA champion and four-time NBA Most Valuable Player, missed the Lakers first 14 games before taking the court at home against Utah Jazz on Tuesday.

The Lakers rallied for a 140-126 victory over the visiting Jazz.

James, the NBA’s all-time scoring leader, practiced with the Lakers on Monday and had no pain or soreness after his first game-style workout with the club since last season’s playoffs.

That set the stage for him to start against the Jazz, breaking a tie with Vince Carter for the most career seasons in NBA history.

The home crowd cheered as James was introduced and moments later James made history when the game tipped off.

👑 SEASON 23 FOR THE KING 👑 pic.twitter.com/SF09U3pZxe

— NBA (@NBA) November 19, 2025

Meanwhile, the Detroit Pistons stretched their longest winning streak since 2008 to 11 games with a 120-112 victory in Atlanta, snapping the Hawks’ five-game win streak.

The Pistons, who lead the Eastern Conference at 13-2, got 25 points and 10 assists from Cade Cunningham and 24 points with eight rebounds from Jalen Duren.

Jalen Johnson sparked Atlanta (9-6) with 25 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.

At Brooklyn, Jaylen Brown scored 29 points and Payton Pritchard added 22 and 10 rebounds to spark the Boston Celtics in a 113-99 victory over the Nets.

Desmond Bane scored 23 points and reserve Anthony Black added 21 to lead the Orlando Magic over the visiting Golden State Warriors 121-113.

Stephen Curry led the Warriors (9-7) with 34 points while Jimmy Butler added 33 in a losing cause.

At San Antonio, De’Aaron Fox scored 20 of his 26 points in the second half and Harrison Barnes added 23 to spark the host Spurs over Memphis 111-101.

The Spurs (10-4) were without star big man Victor Wembanyama due to a left calf strain and guard Stephon Castle with a left hip flexor strain while Memphis star guard Ja Morant was sidelined by a right calf strain.

“We are trying to do this as a collective. There’s no replacing Vic,” Barnes said. “Were just trying to find ways to win, share the ball, move the ball, that’s how we’ll do that.”

Barnes scored the first seven points in an 11-0 game-closing run to secure the victory.

“Harrison Barnes carried us through this. That’s just what a vet does,” Fox said. “It felt great winning the game with all the guys we have out.

“We have a team and we know that when one guy goes down we have a number of guys that can step up. No one guy will take up the slack for one being out.”

Award-winning rapper Nicki Minaj has publicly backed President Donald Trump’s allegations that Christians face persecution in Nigeria.

“In Nigeria, Christians are being targeted,” Minaj said on Tuesday at an event organised by the US, adding: “Churches have been burned, families have been torn apart… simply because of how they pray.”

Analysts say that jihadists and other armed groups have waged campaigns of violence that affect all communities in the West African nation, regardless of background or belief.

This week alone, two people were killed in an attack on a church, while a group of 25 girls, who the BBC has been told are Muslim, were abducted from a school.

Two of the girls later managed to escape from their abductors. A teacher and a security guard – both Muslim – were also killed in the attack on the secondary school in the north-western Kebbi state.

Earlier this month, Trump said he would send troops into Nigeria “guns a-blazing” if its government “continues to allow the killing of Christians”.

Minaj, whose real name is Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty, told an event organised by the US embassy to the UN in New York that calling for the protection of Christians in Nigeria was “not about taking sides or dividing people… but about uniting humanity”.

“This is about standing up in the face of injustice. It’s about what I’ve always stood for,” she added.

The 42-year-old rapper, who has previously spoken of her Christian faith, thanked Trump for “prioritising this issue and for his leadership”.

The Nigerian government has pushed back on these claims, describing them as “a gross misrepresentation of reality”.

An official said that “terrorists attack all who reject their murderous ideology – Muslims, Christians and those of no faith alike”.

Other groups monitoring political violence in Nigeria say most victims of the jihadist groups are Muslims.

The country’s 220 million people are roughly evenly split between followers of the two religions, with Muslims in the majority in the north, where most attacks take place.

On Wednesday, Nigeria police in the south-western Kwara state confirmed a deadly attack on a church in the town of Eruku, where gunmen opened fire on worshipers the previous day, killing two people and abducting several others.

Local media say armed men, identified by residents as bandits, stormed the Christ Apostolic Church during an evening programme on Tuesday evening, shooting the pastor and rounding up worshipers at gunpoint.

Images and short video clips – believed to be from the church’s CCTV cameras – have circulated widely online, showing terrified worshippers scrambling for safety, including an elderly woman seen desperately trying to escape the gunmen.

On Tuesday, President Bola Tinubu confirmed that jihadist forces had killed a senior army officer, after he had been captured in an ambush.

The Islamic State West Africa Province (Iswap) said on Monday its fighters had killed Brigadier General Musa Uba in the north-eastern state of Borno.

The Nigerian army had earlier denied that the officer had been abducted and killed.

The latest attacks have triggered frustration and anger across Nigeria, with many lamenting what they see as an unending wave of insecurity affecting rural communities, churches, schools and major transport routes.

Minaj described Nigeria as “a beautiful nation with deep faith traditions” and even acknowledged the “beautiful Barbz” – her fans – in the West African country.

The US ambassador to the UN, Mike Waltz, thanked the rapper for “leveraging her massive platform to spotlight the atrocities against Christians in Nigeria”.

For months, right-wing campaigners and politicians in Washington have been alleging that Islamist militants were systematically targeting Christians in Nigeria.

But the BBC has found that some of the data being relied on to come to this conclusion is difficult to verify.

Deadly disputes are also often over vital resources like land and water or fuelled by inter-ethnic tensions, rather than religion, say analysts.

London, United Kingdom – David Lesperance, a Canadian wealth adviser based in Poland, is working against the clock for one of his British clients.

John*, who requested anonymity, is trying to relocate from London to Dublin, the Irish capital, ahead of November 26, when Chancellor Rachel Reeves will deliver the budget – a statement presenting the Labour government’s plans for public finances for the year ahead.

Having built a company worth around 70 million pounds ($92m) that he plans to sell soon, John wants to avoid a hefty capital gains tax bill.

As his children are in university, upping sticks is possible. He hopes to take advantage of the Republic of Ireland’s non-domiciled, or “non-dom”, tax regime, which would exempt him from Irish taxes as well.

“We’ve been moving fast to organise his immediate departure to Ireland,” said Lesperance, who has been assisting him in shifting his assets abroad. “With higher taxes looming, the costs of leaving early are a rounding error.”

John is not alone.

The footballer Rio Ferdinand has recently moved to Dubai, citing tax as a push factor, while Egyptian billionaire and Aston Villa co-owner Nassef Sawiris, who moved his residency to Italy and the United Arab Emirates from Britain, told the Financial Times earlier this year that everyone in his “circle” is considering moving.

Herman Narula, the 37-year-old British Indian founder of Improbable, a tech company, announced this month that he is fleeing to Dubai. Worth about 700 million pounds ($920m), he is said to be Britain’s richest young entrepreneur. Among his reasons for fleeing were reported plans by the Labour government to impose an exit tax on wealthy people leaving the United Kingdom.

While that proposal appears to have been ditched, the overall business environment for entrepreneurs is increasingly unpredictable, Narula and a few others say.

“There is alarming evidence that some entrepreneurs are leaving the UK,” reads a recent open letter to Reeves, signed by more than a dozen wealthy business owners, including Nick Wheeler, founder and chair of the men’s clothing retailer Charles Tyrwhitt, and Annoushka Ducas, a jewellery designer.

“As the government prepares for this year’s Budget, it must carefully consider the cumulative impact of these policies on entrepreneurs,” the letter warns.

When the budget is delivered, all eyes will be on any changes to taxation – an issue affecting everyone in the UK. In recent months, speculation about tax amendments on property, incomes and pensions has repeatedly made headline news.

Rumours about the superrich abandoning the UK have been swirling for an even longer period, triggered by the mere prospect of a Labour government last year. Since the Keir Starmer-led government was elected last July, a range of media outlets have homed in on case studies suggesting that Labour is driving wealth out.

The first Labour budget last October outraged some high-earning individuals in the UK, who said they were already taxed too much.

“Last year’s Budget measures, including changes to Capital Gains Tax, Entrepreneur’s Relief, and Employer National Insurance, have increased costs for many entrepreneurs and enterprises,” read the recent open letter from wealthy business owners to Reeves.

Those changes came after the Conservatives abolished the non-dom regime, a status that allows for people with a residency abroad to avoid taxes in the UK.

But experts have offered words of caution on the supposed flight of the rich.

There is no official data on the number of wealthy individuals leaving because of Labour’s tax changes.

“The most recent tax data on wealthy individuals with non-dom status from HMRC [His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, the UK’s tax revenue department] shows that the number of non-doms leaving the UK is in line with or below official forecasts,” said Mark Bou Mansour, an advocate at the Tax Justice Network.

Claims that recent revenue-boosting tax reforms have triggered a massive non-dom exodus are false and part of a wider rhetoric that is detrimental to the UK’s fiscal and economic health, he said.

“Talking about whether the superrich will move if we tax can be a distraction from talking about the harms to economies and democracies that arise from not taxing extreme wealth,” he said.

Mansour pointed to a 2024 study by the London School of Economics that interviewed a number of wealthy individuals. It found the most important factors underpinning their reluctance to migrate were their attachment to the capital’s cultural infrastructure, private health services and schools, and the ability to maintain social ties.

“There’s plenty of strong evidence showing that the superrich don’t choose to relocate just to pay less tax,” said Mansour.

Behind a large number of articles predicting an exodus of wealthy people was a report by the passport advice firm Henley & Partners.

However, the report was found to be based on flawed methodology, and was later amended.

Even so, Lesperance said he has worked with a number of clients who have left the UK since Labour came into power.

He argued that while not necessarily large in number, the group makes up a high percentage of overall tax revenue raised by the government.

“The tax contribution of a non-dom is about 220,000 pounds ($289,000) a year, which is about six or seven times the UK average,” he said, “They’re super contributors” who need to be protected, or else, “You’re going to actually see a drop in annual tax collections because these people have left.”

Some of his clients have chosen to relocate to Milan and Dubai.

“As one of my clients said, ‘London’s nice, but it’s not that nice,’” he said.

But Michelle White, head of private office at UK wealth management firm Rathbones, said that while her clients are internationally mobile and could move away, the majority have stayed put so far.

“Since some of these articles started coming out saying the floodgates are open, we haven’t seen that,” she said.

Britain’s schools, legal system and business environment continue to be pull factors, she argued.

Those who have left usually have ventures or properties abroad and can easily relocate, or are considering selling their business in the next two years or so, and do not want to pay capital gains tax on sales.

Others have big payouts from private equity or hedge funds and want to avoid paying income tax.

“It means that they’ll go and spend more time somewhere else and less time here in order to not pay UK tax on that sale,” said White.

A large extent of her clientele in the end decides to stay in the UK to raise families, and mitigates taxation through smart planning.

“I tell people to look at the next 50 years and plan taxes around that,” she said, “People take a long view.

“Tax is one thing, but quality of life and how you actually want to live as a family often overrides the tax aspect.”

Diplomatic dispute deepens between Tokyo and Beijing over Taiwan remarks by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.

China will again ban all imports of Japanese seafood as a diplomatic dispute between the two countries escalates, Japanese media report.

Japanese public broadcaster NHK and Kyodo News agency said on Wednesday that the seafood ban follows after China earlier this month lifted import restrictions on Japanese marine products, which were imposed by Beijing in 2023 after the release of treated radioactive water from Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea.

Kyodo News, referencing sources with knowledge of the matter, said China has told Japan that the reimposition of the ban was due to the need for further monitoring of the water from Fukushima released into the Pacific Ocean.

But the ban comes amid a deepening crisis in relations between Beijing and Tokyo over remarks by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. The premier told parliament on November 7 that a Chinese attack on Taiwan, which threatened Japan’s survival, was one of the few cases that could trigger a military response from Tokyo.

Takaichi’s comments were met with a wave of criticism by Chinese officials and state media, prompting Japan to warn its citizens in China to take safety precautions and avoid crowded places.

In a post on X following Takaichi’s comments, the Chinese consul general in Osaka, Xue Jian, threatened to “cut off that dirty neck”, apparently referring to the Japanese prime minister. Tokyo said it had summoned the Chinese ambassador over the now-deleted social media post.

Beijing has also advised Chinese citizens to avoid travelling to Japan and demanded that Takaichi retract her remarks, though Tokyo said they were in line with the government’s position.

Seeking to defuse the row, Masaaki Kanai, Japan’s top official in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the Asia Pacific region, held talks on Tuesday in Beijing with his Chinese counterpart, Liu Jinsong.

“During the consultations, China once again lodged a strong protest with Japan” over “Takaichi’s erroneous remarks”, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Mao Ning said.

“Takaichi’s fallacies seriously violate international law and the basic norms governing international relations”, Mao said, adding the Japanese premier’s comments “fundamentally damage the political foundation of China-Japan relations”.

‘Very dissatisfied’

Al Jazeera’s Katrina Yu, reporting from Beijing, said the visit by Kanai to Beijing was seen as an effort by Tokyo to de-escalate tensions and communicate to China that Japan’s stance on independently-ruled Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own territory, has not changed despite Takaichi’s remarks.

“It seems there were no concrete outcomes, but what we have seen, though, is some footage following the meeting of these two diplomats parting ways, and I think it really speaks for itself. We have very cold body language from both of these diplomats,” Yu said.

“Liu Jinsong had his hands in his pockets, refusing to shake hands with the Japanese senior diplomat,” Yu said, adding that the Chinese official said afterwards that he was “very dissatisfied” with the meeting.

Liu Jinsong, director-general of the Department of Asian Affairs of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, met with Masaaki Kanai, director-general of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, on Tuesday.

Following the meeting, Masaaki Kanai has left the Chinese… pic.twitter.com/rdAy2YJruQ

— China News 中国新闻网 (@Echinanews) November 18, 2025

Before the most recent seafood ban, China accounted for more than one-fifth of Japan’s seafood exports, according to official data.

The dispute has also engulfed other areas of China-Japan relations, with China Film News, which is supervised by the state-backed China Film Administration, announcing that the release of two imported Japanese movies would be postponed amid the dispute.

The two movies were originally expected to be released on December 6 and November 22, respectively, according to review site Douban.

In China, 87 percent of people trust AI, compared with just 32 percent in the US, according to an Edelman poll.

China’s public is far more trusting of artificial intelligence than their peers in the United States and other Western countries, a survey has found.

In China, 87 percent of people said they trusted AI, compared with 67 percent in Brazil, 32 percent in the US, 36 percent in the United Kingdom, and 39 percent in Germany, the Edelman poll released on Tuesday showed.

More than seven in 10 Chinese respondents said they expected AI to play a role in solving a range of societal issues, including climate change, mental illness, poverty and polarisation.

Only one-third of Americans said they expected AI to reduce poverty and polarisation, though half predicted a positive impact on climate-related challenges.

While 54 percent of Chinese said they embraced greater use of AI, just 17 percent of Americans answered the same, according to the survey.

Trust was highest among young people, though still much lower in Western countries.

Eighty-eight percent of Chinese aged 18-34 said they had faith in the technology, compared with 40 percent of Americans in that age group.

“For businesses and policymakers, this divergence presents a double challenge,” Edelman Senior Vice President Gray Grossman said in a report accompanying the survey.

“In high-trust markets, the task is to sustain optimism through responsible deployment and straightforward evidence of benefit. In low-trust markets, the task is to rebuild confidence in the institutions behind the technology.”

The survey results come as the US and China are locked in a battle for tech supremacy, with firms in both countries rolling out increasingly sophisticated AI models.

While the US is widely seen as still having an edge in producing the most powerful AI, Chinese firms such as Alibaba and DeepSeek have made major inroads in recent months with “open” language models that offer customers much lower costs.

Last month, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky made headlines when he revealed that the short-term rental platform preferred Alibaba’s Qwen over OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

“It’s very good. It’s also fast and cheap,” Chesky told Bloomberg in an interview.

BBC

British Newspaper Archive

Handout

‘They leathered me’

PA Media

Merseyside Police

‘You’re going home’

Julia Quenzler/BBC

Ukraine announced it launched Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) short-range ballistic missiles at military targets in Russia. The attack appears to be the first use of these U.S.-made weapons into Russia under the Trump administration. It also points to the strong possibility that another batch of the prized missiles have been supplied to Ukraine, which is noteworthy in itself due to the limited U.S. stocks of the weapons, and/or that the White House has approved the type’s use once again.

“This is a significant development that underscores Ukraine’s unwavering commitment to its sovereignty,” the Ukrainian Armed Forces General Staff said of the attack. “Despite the ongoing pressure of Russian offensive actions, Ukrainians remain resilient, demonstrating determination and consistent resolve in defending their homeland.”

“The use of long-range strike capabilities, including systems such as ATACMS, will continue,” the Armed Forces General Staff added.

Ukrainian officials provided no details about the ATACMS targets or how many were launched. Newer variants of these missiles can reach to nearly 200 miles, with first generation models having just over half the range.

Ukrainian and Russian mibloggers suggested that Ukraine attacked locations in Russia’s Voronezh region, among them the Pogonovo training area, located roughly 105 miles from the border. However, there is no independent verification of that.

The following video, first published by the Supernova+ Telegram channel, purports to show one of the ATACMS being shot down.

Cluster warheads packed with submunitions would be an ideal weapon to fire at a location where troops might be concentrated in the open. Ukraine used cluster munitions-equipped ATACMS to hit a Russian training ground in the occupied Luhansk region in May 2024 to devastating effect. That strike was also captured on video, which you can see below.

Though Kyiv claimed it will continue using ATACMS, just how many it has left is a mystery. Considering the long stretch between known uses, it likely ran dry for an extended period of time until the U.S. supplied more. The Trump administration could have also blocked the use of the weapons, especially into Russian territory, until now, although we cannot confirm this at this time.

Ukraine still has a number of U.S.-made Army High Mobility Rocket System (HIMARS) and M270 MLRS launchers that fire ATACMs. However, the last of these munitions authorized to be sent to Ukraine by former President Joe Biden arrived in the spring, The Wall Street Journal reported in August. The publication noted that “Kyiv has a small supply left, according to U.S. officials.”

Meanwhile, in March, The Associated Press reported Ukraine ran out of ATACMs. A U.S. official told the wire service at the time that “Ukraine was given fewer than 40 of those missiles overall and that Ukraine ran out of them in late January.”

We cannot confirm that number, but we do know they were not furnished by the many hundreds or anything approaching that number. The U.S. inventory is thought to be the low thousands.

Senior U.S. defense leaders, including the previous Pentagon chief, Lloyd Austin, “had made it clear that only a limited number of the ATACMs would be delivered and that the U.S. and NATO allies considered other weapons to be more valuable in the fight,” according to the AP.

As we previously reported, the first tranche of about 20 early generation, shorter-range ATACMS variants arrived in Ukraine in October 2023 and were apparently mostly used during attacks on Russian-held airfields the same month. Ukraine has used the limited number of these prized weapons it has received with major results. Longer-range variants, which were not introduced into the war until the Spring of 2024, were first used in a wave of attacks on air bases and air defense installations across the Crimean peninsula, according to the Kyiv Post.

A major reason for the limited number of ATACMS given to Ukraine is that U.S. officials have expressed concern about their own stockpiles. However, in December 2023, the U.S. Army began receiving the first tranches of the Precision Strike Missile (PrSM) short-range ballistic missiles. The Army, which sees PrSMs as the ATACMS successor, said in September 2023 that the advent of these weapons could reduce some of the readiness risks associated with giving Ukraine ATACMS. It is quite possible that PrSM deliveries had freed-up more ATACMS rounds for Ukraine, and, given the chill between the White House and the Kremlin, these weapons would work both as a tactical tool and a strategic message.

This is especially the case as discussions continue regarding the U.S. supplying even more advanced and longer-range weaponry to Ukraine. While Trump has seemed to sour on giving Ukraine Tomahawk cruise missiles, more ATACMS, which have far shorter range and do not set a new precedent, would be a likely alternative.

After meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in September, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his American counterpart was open to lifting restrictions on Kyiv’s use of American-made long-range weapons to strike inside Russia, according to The Wall Street Journal. Trump didn’t make any commitments to do so, the newspaper reported.

A month earlier, the Journal wrote that the Pentagon had for months “been blocking Ukraine’s use of long-range missiles to strike inside Russia.”

“A high-level Defense Department approval procedure, which hasn’t been announced, has prevented Ukraine from firing ATACMS missiles against targets in Russia since late spring,” the Journal added. “On at least one occasion, Ukraine sought to use ATACMS against a target on Russian territory but was rejected.”

The last recorded case of a Ukrainian ATACMS strike inside Russia was on January 14 as part of a massive attack also using U.K.-made Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missiles and long-range drones. That took place in the waning days of the Joe Biden administration, which also took a circuitous route in giving Ukraine ATACMS and then allowing them to strike inside Russia. The following graphic, produced as Biden was debating allowing Ukraine to hit Russia with ATACMS, gave a sense of what kinds of targets could be reached.

The first such attack took place almost exactly a year ago. On Nov. 19, 2024, a munitions storage facility near the town of Karachev in the Bryansk region of western Russia was hit by ATACMS. The target was around 70 miles from the Ukrainian border, well within range of these missiles.

There are many questions unanswered about Ukraine’s claimed ATACMS strike today. We have reached out to the White House, Pentagon and State Department to see if we can get some answers about the last time Ukraine was given these weapons and the last time they were used in Russia. We will update this story if they give us any useful details.

While ATACMS did have major lasting battlefield effects, it never proved to be a game-changer based on the tiny quantities provided. But they are another long-range weapon that has existed in Ukraine’s arsenal that packs a punch far heavier than the long-range drones Kyiv has been using across Russia. With Ukraine’s introduction of home-made cruise missiles, this equation is changing, but still, ATACMS are survivable and hit very hard when equipped with a unitary warhead and its cluster warheads can blanket large areas with explosions and shrapnel.

If the strike occurred as stated today, it points to a shift in the Trump administration’s policy when it comes to long-range strikes with U.S. weapons into Russia and it could also indicate the ATACMS supplies are flowing once again.

Contact the author: [email protected]

Saudi Aerospace Solutions (SAS) has signed an agreement to purchase 100 electric helicopters from the Chinese company Vertaxi. This reflects Saudi Arabia’s commitment to strengthening its technological partnership with China in the field of future aviation. Saudi Arabian Airlines confirmed its intention to use these small, electric-powered aircraft, acquired through the “Vertaxi” deal, to transport pilgrims between Mecca and Jeddah, as well as visitors to major sporting events in Riyadh and other tourist destinations. The low-altitude economy (LAE), represented by “Vertaxi,” is a strategic and emerging sector in China, combining advanced manufacturing with new business models such as smart cities. SAS’s vision is to establish Saudi Arabia as a regional hub for the LEA by 2030.

  Through this deal with China’s Vertaxi and Saudi Aerospace Solutions Group, it continues to pursue its ambitious goals of connecting the world to Saudi Arabia. This includes offering several advantages, such as linking multiple destinations via this advanced Chinese electric aircraft and supporting them with air routes between the major airports where the Saudi group operates. This initiative aligns with Saudi Arabia’s vision of economic diversification and the shift towards smart transportation models that could impact future technological and regional balances. The 8th China International Import Expo witnessed the signing of an agreement between Saudi Aerospace Solutions Group and Vertaxi, a Chinese company specializing in electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. Saudi Aerospace Solutions Group signed a letter of intent to purchase 100 Vertaxi M1 electric cargo VTOL aircraft.  The electric aircraft included in the deal are among the first fully electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles.

 These aircraft are distinguished by their ability to take off and land vertically, eliminating the need for traditional airports. They can travel up to 175 km at speeds of up to 260 km/h, offering significant time savings for individual passengers compared to other options, and can accommodate up to six passengers.

 Through this deal with China, Saudi Arabia, officially through the Saudi Solutions Group, aims to enter a new era and achieve leadership in the aviation and air transport sector in the region. The Saudi electric aircraft deal with China will provide unprecedented solutions and new air routes to connect pilgrims to Mecca during the Hajj and Umrah seasons. It will also enable visitors to Saudi Arabia to quickly access sporting and entertainment events and tourist sites, in addition to connecting the Kingdom’s mega-projects within the framework of Saudi Vision 2030 with distinguished air services that meet the future aspirations of Saudis. Furthermore, this deal achieves a highly important objective for Saudi Arabia, which is continuing the implementation of initiatives supporting sustainability and environmental conservation (electric aircraft), which are characterized by their reduced carbon dioxide emissions. This Saudi deal with China will contribute to providing more flights and reducing travel times by up to 90%, including to long-distance tourist destinations. It will also offer effective transportation solutions in areas congested with pilgrims, travelers, and traffic jams. Furthermore, this Saudi-Chinese agreement will contribute to reducing traffic congestion, saving time, expanding the range of premium services for VIP guests visiting Saudi Arabia, and providing a seamless and luxurious travel experience. This will also contribute to boosting tourism and business within the Kingdom.

 Saudi Arabia is relying on the air transport electrification deal with China as a practical path to decarbonizing this vital and important sector, which is currently characterized by high emissions and environmental damage. Currently, environmentally friendly and low-carbon-emission electric aircraft represent a very small percentage of the global aviation fleet. Saudi Solutions Company will collaborate with the Chinese company Vertaxi to develop local applications for these aircraft.  Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) cargo services in Saudi Arabia, including low-level logistics, marine power transport, and security inspection.

 This Saudi deal with China comes at a time when China is accelerating its plans to strengthen its global digital presence. Tencent (the Chinese giant) is also simultaneously taking new steps in the Saudi market through cloud investments, in line with the goals of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 for digital transformation. Dawson Tong, senior executive vice president of Tencent and CEO of its Cloud and Smart Industries Group, confirmed that “the new data center in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, represents a significant growth opportunity,” explaining that the Chinese partnership with Saudi Arabia is nearing completion of its final launch stages. He officially confirmed that “we already serve many Chinese companies that are increasing their investments in Saudi Arabia, and a number of our partners have lined up to benefit from the new data center in Riyadh, which allows us to expand not only within the Kingdom but throughout the entire region.”

  In this context, Saudi and Chinese companies signed 34 investment agreements on the sidelines of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Saudi Arabia in December 2022. These Saudi-Chinese agreements covered various sectors, including green energy and green hydrogen, solar photovoltaic energy, information technology, transportation and logistics, medical industries, housing, and construction, among others. Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 offers diverse investment opportunities in partnership with China across multiple sectors as part of the Saudi government’s efforts to diversify the economy away from crude oil, which is currently the Kingdom’s primary source of income.

 In the future industries sector, the Saudi Business Industries Company (Sahl Al-Aamal) signed a cooperation agreement with two Chinese companies: China New Energy and Eurasia. The aim is to establish a specialized electric vehicle manufacturing plant in Saudi Arabia, with investments totaling one billion Saudi riyals. This new Saudi-Chinese project also aims to support Saudi Arabia’s drive towards sustainable transportation, increase local content, and create quality job opportunities through partnership with Chinese companies.

 These Saudi steps towards partnership and cooperation with China come within the framework of the “Vision 100 strategy” to expand its international partnerships and enhance its ability to transfer advanced technologies and knowledge to the Saudi market, thus contributing to driving economic development and achieving sustainability.

  From the preceding analysis, we conclude that the Saudi-Chinese partnership, through the helicopter deal with the Chinese company Vertaxi and others, promotes environmentally friendly industrial innovation.  With the joint Saudi-Chinese effort to strengthen partnership in artificial intelligence and petrochemicals to develop sustainable and environmentally friendly technologies, Saudi Arabia has affirmed its readiness to welcome Chinese investments through the development of industrial cities, aiming to increase the number of its factories to more than 26,000 by 2030 through cooperation with China.

Dhaka, Bangladesh – Shahina Begum broke down in tears the moment a special court in capital Dhaka sentenced deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her close aide, former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan, to death for crimes against humanity.

Begum’s 20-year-old son Sajjat Hosen Sojal was shot and his body burned by the police on August 5, 2024, hours before a student-led uprising forced Hasina to resign and flee the country she had ruled with an iron first for 15 years.

Prosecutors allege that six student protesters were killed that day in Ashulia, a readymade garments hub on the outskirts of Dhaka: five shot and their bodies burned, while another was allegedly burned alive inside the police station.

The killings, allegedly ordered by Hasina in a desperate bid to hang on to power, were part of a brutal crackdown by security forces on what is referred to in Bangladesh as the July Uprising, during which more than 1,400 protesters were killed, according to the United Nations.

After a months-long trial held in absentia as Hasina and Khan had fled to neighbouring India, Dhaka’s International Crimes Tribunal on Monday sentenced the two to death, while a third accused – former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah al-Mamun – was given a five-year jail term because he had turned a state witness.

“I cannot be calm until she [Hasina] is brought back and hanged in this country,” Begum told Al Jazeera on Monday night, as the historic verdict triggered a surge of emotions across the country of 170 million people.

“My son screamed for help inside that police station. No one saved him. I will not rest until those who burned him can never harm another mother’s child again.”

But as hundreds of families who lost their loved ones during last year’s uprising come to terms with Monday’s landmark sentencing, many wonder if Hasina will actually face justice.

There are questions around whether India, a close ally of Hasina during her 15 years of rule, would extradite her and Khan, or whether it might instead help them escape justice.

“They took five minutes to burn my son alive, but it took almost a year and a half to deliver this verdict,” said Begum from her ancestral home in Shyampur village in the northern Gaibandha district.

“Can this government really bring her back from India? What happens if the government changes and the next one protects Hasina and her collaborators? Who will guarantee that these killers won’t escape?”

‘Sentence must be carried out’

As hundreds gathered outside the tribunal building in Dhaka on Monday, Mir Mahbubur Rahman Snigdho – whose brother Mir Mugdho was shot dead during the uprising – said Hasina “deserves the maximum penalty many times over,” urging the authorities to bring her back to Bangladesh to enforce the judgement.

Standing close to him was Syed Gazi Rahman, father of killed protester Mutasir Rahman. He called for the sentence to be carried out “swiftly and publicly,” accusing Hasina of “emptying the hearts of thousands of families”.

Some 300km (186 miles) away, at Bhabnapur Jaforpara village in the northern district of Rangpur, family members of Abu Sayeed also welcomed the death sentence against the former prime minister.

Sayeed was the first casualty of the July Uprising, which started with mainly student-led protests against a controversial quota system for government jobs that disproportionately favoured the children of people who fought in the 1971 war for independence from Pakistan.

On July 16, 2024, Sayeed, a student leader, was shot dead by the police while demonstrating in Rangpur.

“My heart has finally cooled down. I am satisfied. She must be brought back from India and executed in Bangladesh without delay,” said his father, Mokbul Hossain.

“My son is gone. It pains me. The sentence must be carried out,” added his mother, Monowara Begum. She said the family distributed sweets to those visiting them after the verdict.

Sanjida Khan Dipti, mother of Shahriar Khan Anas, a 10th-grade student who was shot dead in Dhaka’s Chankharpul neighbourhood on August 5, 2024, told Al Jazeera the verdict is “only a consolation”.

“Justice will be served the day it is executed,” she said.

“As a mother, even 1,400 death sentences would be insufficient for someone who emptied the hearts of thousands of mothers. The world must see the consequences when a ruler unleashes mass killing to cling to power. God may grant you time, but He does not spare.”

Dipti said she was not satisfied with the verdict against former police chief al-Mamun.

“Abdullah al-Mamun should have received a longer sentence because, as part of the nation’s security force, he became a killer of our children,” she said.

‘No dictator should rise again’

Several processions were taken out in Dhaka and other parts of the country on Monday after Hasina was sentenced to death.

During a march inside the campus of the Dhaka University, Ar Rafi, a second-year undergraduate student, said they will rally to demand Hasina’s extradition from India.

“We are happy for now. But we want Hasina brought back from India and executed. We, the students, will remain on the streets until her sentence is carried out,” he told Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, a group called Maulik Bangla staged a symbolic enactment of Hasina’s execution at Dhaka’s Shahbagh intersection area after the tribunal’s verdict.

“This is a message that no dictator should rise again,” said Sharif Osman bin Hadi, spokesperson for Inquilab Manch (Revolution Front), a non-partisan cultural organisation inspired by the July Uprising.

Political parties, including the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), and the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami party, also welcomed the verdict.

“This judgement proves that no matter how powerful a fascist or autocrat becomes, they will one day have to stand in the dock,” BNP leader Salahuddin Ahmed told reporters on Monday.

Jamaat leader Mia Golam Porwar said the ruling proves that “no head of government or powerful political leader is above the law”, and that the verdict offers “some measure of comfort” to families of those killed during the uprising.

The United Nations human rights office said while it considered the verdict was “an important moment for the victims”, it stressed that a trial held in absentia and resulting in a death sentence may not have followed due process and fair trial standards, as it reiterated its opposition to capital punishment.

Rights group Amnesty International also raised concerns about the fairness of the trial, saying the victims “deserve far better” and warning that rushed proceedings in absentia risk undermining justice.

“Victims need justice and accountability, yet the death penalty simply compounds human rights violations. It’s the ultimate cruel, degrading and inhuman punishment and has no place in any justice process,” it said.

But the families of the victims say the verdict was a recognition of the brutality of the crackdown, and raises hopes for a closure.

“This verdict sends a message: justice is inevitable,” said Atikul Gazi, a 21-year-old TikToker from Dhaka’s Uttara area who survived being shot at point-blank range on August 5, 2024, but ended up losing his left arm.

A selfie video of him smiling – despite missing an arm – went viral last year, making him a symbol of resilience. “It feels like the souls of the July martyrs will now find some peace,” Gazi told Al Jazeera.

Here are the key events from day 1,364 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here is how things stand on Wednesday, November 19:

Fighting

• Russian drones struck two central districts – Slobidskyi and Osnovyansk – in Ukraine’s second largest city Kharkiv, injuring five people in an apartment building and triggering a fire, authorities said.
• Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said 22 residents had been evacuated from one section of the damaged apartment building while another drone struck an area outside a medical facility, injuring a doctor and damaging the building and nearby cars.
• The Kharkiv region’s governor, Oleh Syniehubov, said 11 drones were deployed in the attack and seven people were injured in total.
• Russia’s civil aviation authority said it was temporarily halting flights at Krasnodar International Airport in southern Russia on Wednesday morning, saying only that it was for flight safety.
• Russian air defences shot down four Ukrainian drones en route to Moscow on Tuesday, the city’s mayor said. Moscow’s two largest airports, Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo, stopped all air traffic for a time before later reopening, Russia’s aviation watchdog said.
• Ukrainian drone attacks have caused extensive damage to the power grid in the Russian-occupied part of the Donetsk region. Denis Pushilin, the Moscow-appointed head of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, said about 65 percent of consumers were without power in the region.
• Ukraine attacked two thermal power stations in Russian-occupied Donetsk, according to a Telegram post by the commander of Ukraine’s drone forces. Major Robert Brovdi said the Starobeshivska and Zuivska power plants had been hit by his forces.
• Ukraine said it attacked military targets in Russia with United States-supplied ATACMS missiles, calling it a “significant development”. The military said in a statement that the “use of long-range strike capabilities, including systems such as ATACMS, will continue”.
• Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov conducted a regular inspection of troops fighting in eastern Ukraine, his ministry’s outlet, Zvezda, reported. Video posted by Zvezda showed Belousov presenting awards to military servicemen.

Military aid

• The Trump administration has approved a $105m arms sale to Ukraine to help it maintain existing Patriot missile air defence systems. The sale includes upgrading from M901 to M903 launchers, which can fire more missiles at once.
• Spain will provide Ukraine with a new military aid package worth 615 million euros ($710m), Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced on Tuesday.
• “Your fight is ours,” Sanchez said alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “neoimperialism” seeks to “weaken the European project and everything it stands for”.

Regional security

• The United Kingdom lacks a plan to defend itself from military attack, members of parliament warned while at least 13 sites across the UK have been identified for new factories to make munitions and military explosives, according to a report.
• Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said authorities have identified two Ukrainian nationals who had collaborated with Russia for “a long time” and were responsible for an explosion on a Polish railway route to Ukraine.
• “The most important information is that … we have identified the people responsible for the acts of sabotage,” Tusk told lawmakers. “In both cases, we are sure that the attempt to blow up the rails and the railway infrastructure violation were intentional and their aim was to cause a railway traffic catastrophe,” he said.

• The Kremlin accused Poland of succumbing to Russophobia after Warsaw blamed the explosion on a railway route to Ukraine on two Ukrainian citizens who it said were recruited by Russian intelligence.
• Soldiers from across the NATO alliance practised counterdrone skills in Poland on Tuesday with troops from the US, UK and Romania joining their Polish counterparts at the exercises in Nowa Deba in Poland’s southeast corner.
• The European Commission will propose a new initiative to help speed up the development and purchase of innovative defence technologies, according to a draft document seen by the Reuters news agency.

Ceasefire

• Zelenskyy said Ukraine will try to “reactivate” the diplomatic process to end the war with Russia. Zelenskyy later announced he planned to go to Turkiye on Wednesday to try to revive talks with Russia on how to end the war in Ukraine.
• No face-to-face talks have taken place between Kyiv and Moscow since they met in Istanbul in July.
• Steve Witkoff, a US special envoy, is expected to join the talks with Zelenskyy in Turkiye, another Ukrainian official involved in the meeting’s preparations told the AFP news agency.
• Ukraine plans to claim $43bn in climate compensation from Russia to help fund a planet-friendly rebuild after the war, Ukrainian Deputy Minister for Economy, Environment and Agriculture Pavlo Kartashov announced at the UN climate conference in Brazil.
• “We in Ukraine face brutality directly, but the climate shockwaves of this aggression will be felt well beyond our borders and into the future,” Kartashov said.

Politics and diplomacy

• One of Ukraine’s main opposition parties physically blocked lawmakers from holding a vote in parliament on Tuesday to dismiss two ministers over a corruption investigation, demanding the removal of the entire cabinet instead.
• Zelenskyy made a one-day visit on Tuesday to Spain and took the opportunity to view Pablo Picasso’s Guernica, a painting that depicts the horrors of war and specifically the bombardment of civilian targets in Spain by fascist German and Italian forces.

Economy

• Russian state conglomerate Rostec said its defence exports have fallen by half since 2022 as domestic orders became a priority during the war in Ukraine. Until 2022, Russia held second place in the world after the US in defence exports, but the volumes dropped “due to the fact that we have had to supply most of our production to our army”, Rostec chief Sergey Chemezov told reporters.
• Russian lawmakers endorsed new tax hikes on Tuesday as Moscow looks for new revenue sources to boost its economy during its nearly four-year war with Ukraine. Legislators in the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, approved the key second reading of a bill to raise the value-added tax from 20 percent to 22 percent.

Sanctions

• US oil firm Exxon Mobil has joined rival Chevron Corp in considering options to buy parts of sanctioned Russian oil firm Lukoil’s international assets, sources familiar with the matter told the Reuters news agency.
• Exxon is considering options for Lukoil assets in Kazakhstan, where both the US and the Russian firm have stakes in the Karachaganak and Tengiz fields, the sources said. Chevron, another partner in these assets, is also studying options to buy.

The vote represents a major step in the years-long effort to make government documents on the late sex offender public.

The United States Congress has approved a bill to release government documents related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, clearing the way for making the files public.

The House of Representatives adopted the measure in a 427-1 vote on Tuesday, sending it to the Senate, which swiftly agreed to pass it by unanimous consent even before it was formally transmitted to the chamber.

Once the bill is formally approved, it will go to the desk of President Donald Trump, who said he would sign it into law.

The case of Epstein – a financier who sexually abused girls and young women for years – has sparked intrigue in the US for years, given his connections to powerful people in the media, politics and academia, including ties to Trump.

Trump initially opposed releasing the files, calling the controversy around the late sex offender a “hoax” before reversing course this month.

The president and his Department of Justice do not need to wait for Congress to pass the legislation to release the files. They have the authority to make them public.

Before the vote on Tuesday, members of Congress who have been leading the bill – Democrat Ro Khanna and Republicans Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene – spoke alongside survivors of Epstein’s abuse outside the US Capitol.

“We fought the president, the attorney general, the FBI director, the speaker of the House and the vice president to get this win. They’re on our side today, so let’s give them some credit as well,” Massie told reporters.

Jena-Lisa Jones, one of the survivors, held up a photo of herself when she was 14 – the age when she met Epstein.

“I was a child. I was in ninth grade. I was hopeful for life and what the future had held for me. He stole a lot from me,” she said.

Epstein first pleaded guilty to charges of solicitation of prostitution with a minor in 2008. He served 13 months in a minimum-security prison and was allowed to leave for 12 hours a day to work. Critics said the punishment did not match the severity of the offence.

After the Miami Herald investigated the prosecution against Epstein, federal authorities reopened the case against him, arrested him and charged him with sex trafficking of minors in 2019.

Two months later, he was found dead in his jail cell in New York City. His death was ruled a suicide.

Epstein’s associates over the years included former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, the United Kingdom’s Prince Andrew and former US President Bill Clinton.

Even after his first conviction, Epstein continued to have close personal relationships with influential figures, including former Harvard University President Larry Summers, who recently apologised for maintaining ties to the sex offender.

On Tuesday, Trump lashed out at an ABC News reporter who quizzed him about why he would not release the files on his own, stressing that Epstein was a major donor for Democratic politicians.

“You just keep going on the Epstein files. And what the Epstein is is a Democrat hoax,” the US president said.

Earlier in the day when asked why Trump would not make the documents public, Massie said Epstein’s connections were above partisan politics.

“I believe he’s trying to protect friends and donors. And by the way, these aren’t necessarily Republicans,” Massie said. “Once you get to a billion dollars, you see, you transcend parties.”

PA Media

Reuters

PA Media

How did we get here?

PA Media

Action Images/Reuters

Polish authorities have accused Russia of rail sabotage attacks over the weekend, while arresting two Ukrainian men said to be responsible for the incidents. Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said these attacks constituted “perhaps the most serious — when it comes to the security of the Polish state — incidents since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine” in February 2022. If verified, this would be the latest example of Russian hybrid warfare, which, as you can read about here, is just below the threshold of armed conflict. In this context, it’s a means of creating disruption and sowing fear, but, so long as it uses proxies to achieve its aims, it remains very hard for such activities to be directly traced back to the Kremlin.

The main incident occurred on Sunday in the village of Mika, in the Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland, and involved the use of a military-grade C-4 plastic explosive that was supposed to blow up a train. The explosives were to be detonated via a 300-meter (328-yard) cable.

The explosive went off under a freight train, which suffered minor damage to its undercarriage, but more serious damage was inflicted on the tracks. The next train had already been warned about the problem and was able to stop in time.

Tusk said that “a certain line has been crossed,” since the incident could have been much worse if it weren’t for undisclosed errors made in the execution of the attack by the perpetrators.

A second incident occurred further down the same railway line on Sunday, where a busy train was forced to stop suddenly. This is considered likely another case of sabotage, though not involving an explosion.

Speaking in the Polish parliament, Tusk said today that the rail sabotage incidents were “unprecedented” and warned of “escalation” by Russian intelligence services. The Polish prime minister said these activities aimed to sow chaos across Europe and to foster opposition to governments’ support for Ukraine. They also aimed to hamper the delivery of arms and other aid to Ukraine by targeting train lines connecting the two countries.

Tusk said that Polish authorities receive dozens of alerts each day, not all of which are genuine, increasing the burden on the services investigating them.

“These acts of sabotage and the actions of Russian services across the whole of Europe, not only in Poland, are unfortunately gaining momentum,” Tusk told lawmakers.

Tusk claimed that the Kremlin is interested “not only in the direct effect of this type of actions, but also the social and political consequences,” including spreading “disorganization, chaos, panic, speculation, uncertainty,” and “the stirring up of possibly radically anti-Ukrainian sentiments.”

“This is particularly dangerous in countries like Poland, where we have enough burdens that we bear due to over a million Ukrainian refugees in Poland,” Tusk added.

Poland today identified two Ukrainian men who it says were the main suspects behind the sabotage incidents. Authorities in Warsaw said the perpetrators are thought to be working for the Russian intelligence services, who organized their crossing into Poland from Belarus this fall. After the attack, the two men are said to have fled to Belarus.

If the accused are the perpetrators, this would fit with the pattern of Moscow’s use of so-called ‘disposable agents’. These individuals are recruited, often online, to undertake specific acts of sabotage. Often paid in cryptocurrency, they may well be unaware that their masters are in Russian intelligence. In this way, sabotage campaigns can be orchestrated from Russia, with no need to put its own agents into the field. Ukrainians, Belarusians, and other nationalities have been recruited for such activities. In this case, Tusk said that the use of Ukrainians was deliberate, to help promote anti-Ukrainian feelings in Poland.

Poland has said it will respond to the sabotage attacks by increasing the threat level to protect selected rail routes. Poland will raise the alert level to its third level out of four. However, the rail network elsewhere in the country will remain unchanged, at the second level.

European leaders outside Poland have also responded to the attacks.

In the neighboring Czech Republic, Prime Minister Petr Fiala said that the Polish rail sabotage was “extremely alarming.”

In a post on X, Fiala wrote: “Russia is behaving in an openly hostile manner towards us and has long been undermining the security and stability of Europe. We must not be naive or underestimate the risks we are facing. It is our duty to strengthen our defense, invest in security, cooperate with our allies, and be prepared to confront similar attacks.”

Meanwhile, the Kremlin accused Poland of “Russophobia” after its allegations.

“Russia is accused of all manifestations of the hybrid and direct war that is taking place,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told a Russian state television reporter. “In Poland, let’s say, everyone is trying to run ahead of the European locomotive in this regard. And Russophobia, of course, is flourishing there,” he said.

Bordering Poland, Ukraine, and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, Poland has been very much on the frontline of the hybrid war being waged by Russia alongside its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

According to Tusk, Poland has faced multiple sabotage incidents in recent years, resulting in 55 people being detained. However, there is, by now, a broader pattern of attacks, with other acts of Russian sabotage in Europe, including in Moldova, Romania, the United Kingdom, and Germany.

Poland has experienced a series of major arson and sabotage attacks in recent years, including parcel bombings, which it sees as part of Moscow’s hybrid war on the West.

In September, Russian drone incursions into Polish airspace were deemed deliberate by Poland, which claimed they were a calculated test of NATO’s ability to react to aerial threats. Polish authorities said 19 Russian drones entered the country’s airspace, with some of them being shot down by Polish and Dutch combat aircraft. You can catch up to our reporting on the incident in our story here.