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Israel and Hamas may have agreed to the first phase of a United States-backed ceasefire deal, but contentious differences between the two sides still remain, particularly when it comes to the fate of the Palestinian group’s weapons.

Israel has long insisted that Hamas surrender all of its weapons if its two-year war on Gaza is to end, as well as demanding that the group relinquish governance of the Palestinian enclave and dissolve itself as an organisation.

For its part, Hamas has publicly rejected calls to give up its weapons, but experts say that the group has expressed openness in private to hand over some of its arsenal.

“When it comes to disarmament, this is where you have seen the biggest shift in Hamas’s position,” said Hugh Lovatt, an expert on Israel-Palestine with the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).

“[Hamas officials] have said in private to interlocutors that the group may be open to a decommissioning process of Hamas’s offensive weapons,” he told Al Jazeera.

Shaky ceasefire

Negotiations over Hamas’s arsenal could torpedo the ceasefire and prompt Israel to resume its genocidal war on the destitute and beleaguered Palestinian population in Gaza, analysts said.

An armed group has the right to bear arms and resist an occupying power in line with international humanitarian law – the main framework referenced to protect civilians in times of war.

Yet, Israel and its Western allies have historically demanded that Palestinian factions give up armed resistance as a precondition to launching a peace process ostensibly aimed at ending Israel’s occupation over Palestinian territories.

This was the framework underpinning the Oslo Peace Accords in the 1990s, signed by then Palestinian and Israeli leaders.

Israel is likely to try and make similar demands this time around, but Hamas is unlikely to completely disarm, according to Azmi Keshawi, a Palestinian from Gaza and a researcher with the International Crisis Group (ICG).

He said that he could only envision Hamas surrendering some “offensive weapons” such as short-range and long-range missles.

However, he believes Hamas will never give up its small arms and light weapons, nor hand over a map of its sophisticated tunnel network, which it spent decades building to resist Israel.

“[Hamas] will only give up [light] weapons when there is no need for these weapons. This means they will only hand them over to a Palestinian leadership that assumes control of a state after Israel ends its occupation,” Keshawi told Al Jazeera.

Power vacuum?

Hamas was the largest of several armed groups in Gaza before Israel began its war on October 7, 2023, after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.

Some of these groups include Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

These groups have long been committed to waging armed resistance against Israel, and it is unclear to what degree they have been degraded by Israel’s relentless carpet bombing over the last two years.

During Israel’s genocide – recognised as such by scholars, the United Nations and human rights groups –  Israel has also propped up notorious gangs to steal and profiteer off the little aid it has allowed into the Gaza Strip.

Many Palestinians in Gaza believe Hamas should preserve some military capabilities to stop these gangs from exploiting a possible power vacuum, Taghreed Khodary, an analyst on Israel-Palestine who is from Gaza, told Al Jazeera.

“Israel created gangs and gave them weapons and guns to kill their own people [in Gaza]. Now Israel wants to expel Hamas, but Hamas is needed to maintain internal security,” she said.

“Hamas is very good at providing security,” she stressed.

Lovatt, from ECFR, added that Hamas may be willing to cooperate with an interim task force deployed to provide security and oversee a partial decommissioning of its weapons.

However, he said that Hamas would only agree to coordinating with such a force if its mandate clearly stipulates that it will not counter “terrorism” in any way.

“I’m sure there is very little appetite in Western capitals to play that ‘counterterrorism’ role, and it certainly wouldn’t be acceptable to Hamas. It would expose the international task force as explicitly serving Israel’s goals,” Lovatt told Al Jazeera.

‘Hamas as an idea’

Throughout Israel’s genocide, Israel has claimed that its war aim is to ostensibly dismantle Hamas. But Keshawi, the ICG researcher, said Hamas will never be fully defeated.

He predicts the group will absorb thousands of destitute and vengeful young men into its ranks in the coming years. To many people, he said, Hamas is not merely an organisation, but an “idea” that symbolises resistance.

“The [group] has set an example for the whole Arab world. They fought a war that nobody thought they could fight, even though the cost was very high,” Keshawi told Al Jazeera.

Still, Lovatt said the group remains pragmatic and is willing to make concessions to extend the ceasefire for as long as possible.

He noted that the sustainability of the ceasefire ultimately hinges on US President Donald Trump and other Western leaders reining in Israel and its maximalist demands.

“There is a very high risk that Israel is able to win the argument in Western capitals … that Hamas must be fully demilitarised [before the occupation ends],” he said.

“If that happens, then it will be a new pretext for Western states to let Israel off the hook as happened under the Oslo Accords,” Lovatt told Al Jazeera.

UP here at the Tory Party conference in Manchester, comparisons between Kemi Badenoch and United’s Ruben Amorim write themselves. 

Two gaffers tasked with getting a once-formidable colossus back to winning ways — and both finding that nothing they do seems to work. 

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Supporters who long for the glory days of old are solemn, and the dressing room is fast losing faith. 

Both watch enviously as their gloating rivals in light blue continue to shine. 

Both beg for more time. 

After her bullish conference speech ­yesterday, Badenoch has bought herself that time. 

It was well delivered and she hit the right notes on the economy, welfare, crime and immigration. 

Her pledge to abolish stamp duty should also prick the ears of voters who until now have not been paying her ­attention. 

As an exercise in corralling despondent Tory members and seeing off any immediate leadership threat, it’s job done, Kemi. 

Back down to Earth 

Much the same can be said of Sir Keir Starmer’s run out in Liverpool, where he successfully united his party against their common enemy, Nigel Farage. 

He too delivered an address lapped up by his grassroots to the extent the prospect of impending mutiny melted away. 

The North West has been kind to them both, and they appear stronger. 

But the crashing thud of reality awaits them back in Westminster, where the mirage of the past fortnight will soon be shattered. 

Party conferences are bubbles frozen in time, and it is easy to be suckered into believing a leader has played a blinder just because their own side cheers them to the rafters. 

Both Badenoch and Starmer now need to come back down to Earth and confront some home truths. 

The first is that Nigel Farage is still leading the polls by a mile, opening up a 12-point gap according to More In ­Common.

May’s local elections are almost certain to be bloody, with the party at risk of ­falling to a humiliating fourth in both Wales and Scotland. 

Labour’s conference failed to make a dent, with the party registering “no change” in its position at 20 per cent ­compared to Reform’s 33 per cent. 

If Badenoch also fails to make inroads, the same doubts over her leadership will come flooding back. 

May’s local elections are almost certain to be bloody, with the party at risk of ­falling to a humiliating fourth in both Wales and Scotland. 

Badenoch’s allies are setting expectations on the floor — but as one of her Shadow Cabinet tells me: “You can roll the pitch as much as you like, nothing prepares you for the pain until it actually hits.” 

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Mass losses would spark a fierce ­internal debate between those gunning for regicide and those who despair at the thought of the Tories killing off yet another leader. 

One prominent donor has been telling friends that he will close his chequebook forever if Badenoch is toppled. 

Whereas a Shadow Cabinet minister says: “If she’s not going to be Prime ­Minister, you might as well get rid of her now.” 

Her main rival, Robert Jenrick, is sitting back, but king cobras also sit back before they strike. 

While plotters are setting their watches for the May 1 polls, smart Tories are ­looking towards November 26 to mount a fightback. 

The upcoming Budget on that date was barely ­mentioned in both Manchester and ­Liverpool, but it could turn the fortunes of all parties on their head. 

Last year Chancellor Rachel Reeves claimed her £45billion tax raid was a one-off forced upon her by years of Tory ­economic recklessness. 

Now she is coming back for more in a Budget that risks being even more toxic. 

Bond markets have put the Chancellor in fiscal handcuffs, rightly stopping her borrowing even more money on the slate. 

Labour MPs have put her in a political straitjacket by vowing to vote down any serious spending cuts, including to the eye-watering benefits bill. 

Despite the chaos of Liz Truss, voters on YouGov’s tracker still view the Tories as the most trusted custodians of the public finances. 

And growth is so puny that it will barely move the dial, all pointing to ­taxpayers being rinsed even further to make the sums add up. 

Ms Reeves is privately furious with the Office for Budget Responsibility, whose decision to downgrade productivity leaves her with an even bigger black hole — in the region of £30billion. 

Perhaps she regrets fawning quite so much over the economic watchdog when it was a thorn in the Tory side. 

She is preparing to once again blame the Conservative record, but that is unlikely to wash for a second time, ­especially if she finds money to lift the two-child benefit cap to placate her own MPs. 

A fight on the economy is fertile ­territory for Badenoch, who spent much of yesterday attacking this “high-tax, low-growth doom loop”. 

Shock therapy 

Despite the chaos of Liz Truss, voters on YouGov’s tracker still view the Tories as the most trusted custodians of the public finances. 

Some at the top of the tree believe ­economic implosion is the shock therapy needed to get them back in the game. 

One Tory Shadow Cabinet minister tells me: “People don’t yet realise how bad things are, but be in no doubt, we are flying into the mountainside. And when we crash, that is our chance to make our case to the country once again.”

Farage will of course give this short shrift, arguing he is not only reaping ­justified anger from years of immigration failure, but also decades of working people feeling no better off. 

It is clear Badenoch still needs to go toe-to-toe on borders to have any hope of winning back voters. 

But if a miserable Budget sees voters crying out for economic competence, the Tories might at last have their pitch. 

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Many children, their eyes wide with shock, cling to the arms of rescuers after explosions tear through their neighbourhoods.

Some images are too horrific to show, with small bodies crushed beneath rubble, homes erased in an instant, and the innocence of youth replaced by trauma.

These faces, once vibrant and full of life, grow thinner and paler, fading under the weight of hunger and loss.

One such image, taken on May 21, 2024, by Ashraf Amra, shows a child with a broken arm wrapped in plaster, lying on a hospital floor stained with blood. He stares fixedly up at the camera, the blood on the floor seeping closer to his uninjured shoulder.

He was one of the injured Palestinians brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital following Israeli attacks on the Bureij refugee camp in Deir el-Balah.

Also among them are Gaza’s women – mothers, teachers, doctors, journalists, and caregivers, carrying heavy loads, both physical and emotional. Some are guided by faith, in mosques or churches.

The older generation bears the eyes of displacement, having lived through such events before.

One of the most powerful images shows Palestinian woman Inas Abu Maamar, 36, embracing the body of her 5-year-old niece Sally, who was killed in an Israeli strike, at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on October 17, 2023.

Photographer Mohammad Salem was at the hospital morgue that day.

“It was a powerful and sad moment, and I felt the picture sums up the broader sense of what was happening in the Gaza Strip,” he said.

“People were confused, running … anxious to know the fate of their loved ones, and this woman caught my eye as she was holding the body of the little girl and refused to let go.”

The image went on to win the 2024 World Press Photo of the Year award, recognised for capturing the profound grief and chaos experienced by those living through the attacks in Gaza.

Many of the men pictured are carrying shrouded bodies, the weight of loss heavy.

Rescue workers and young men, often civilians turned first responders, move through the rubble with grim determination.

Each shrouded body tells a story of tragedy and sudden loss, and each man’s face reflects exhaustion, grief, and the urgent need to help in the midst of chaos.

One image taken by Omar Al-Qattaa shows a man carrying the shrouded body of a child killed in overnight Israeli bombardment at the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City on October 2, 2024.

Explore an interactive mosaic of nearly 2,000 photos spanning two years in Gaza. Hover over or click on each icon to view the full image.

A few metres away from the piles of stones that were once the first homes as you entered their small village, three men sat on a traditional woven bed.

One of them was Hayat’s cousin, Mehboob.

“When the earthquake happened, my 13-year-old son Nasib Ullah was sleeping next to me. I woke up, got out of bed, and started looking for the torch. Then, suddenly, the whole room moved from the falling rocks. When I tried to reach my son, the wall and the floor slid down, and I couldn’t catch him,” the 36-year-old explained.

“[It was] worse than the day of judgement.”

“Houses collapsed, boulders from the mountain came crumbling down; you couldn’t see anything, we couldn’t see each other.”

Everyone was injured, he explained. Some had broken ribs and broken legs.

“In the dark, we took our kids who were still alive to the farmland below, where it was safer from the boulders.”

That night, he counted more than 250 tremors, he said: aftershocks that continue to shake the valley even weeks after the earthquake.

When daylight came, he tried to dig through the rubble to find his loved ones. “But my body didn’t want to work,” he said.

“I could see my son’s foot, but the rest of his body had disappeared under the rubble.”

His 10-year-old daughter, Aisha, had also been killed.

“It was the worst moment of my life,” he said.

It took two days for villagers and volunteers to recover the bodies.

When Hayat’s brother, Rahmat Gul, received a message from his brother telling him that the entire village was gone, he immediately rushed there from his home in Parwan province, some 300km (185 miles) away.

When he finally reached Aurak Dandila, the surviving villagers asked him to wrap Mehboob’s dead son in a blanket.

“Mehboob asked me to show him the face of his son, but I could not do it,” Rahmat Gul explained as Mehboob, sitting beside him, looked out over the farmland in the valley below.

Nearby, Hayat stood up and began pacing.

“God has taken my sons from me, and now I feel like I have left this world as well,” he said.

In Aurak Dandila, a small cornfield has become a graveyard. “Here is where we buried our loved ones,” Hayat said. The graves are marked by stones.

He remembers how he had urged Abdul Haq to stay in the village. “The next day, everything was gone, and he lost his life.”

Now, Hayat believes, “there is nothing left to live here for”.

“How can I continue living here?” he asked, pointing at the debris of what was once his home.

“The stones are coming from above; how can anyone live in this village?”

“We will settle somewhere else, and we will look for the mercy of God. If he has no mercy on us, then we will also die.”

Varanasi, India – Mohammed Ahmad Ansari has spent his entire life in the narrow and congested lanes of Varanasi, a city often described as the spiritual capital of India, and the constituency of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The 55-year-old has spent decades weaving Banarasi saris and thoroughly enjoys the clacking noises of handlooms at work against the backdrop of temple bells and evening calls of azan in the holy city that is widely believed to be the oldest settlement in India, dating back as early as 1800 BCE and known for the blend of Hindu-Muslim culture.

But of late, sales have taken a hit for a range of reasons, the latest being ongoing tensions between India and its neighbour, Bangladesh.

Diplomatic relations between the once-close allies have been sharply tested since August last year, when former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled to New Delhi from Dhaka after an uprising against her rule.

Bangladesh blames India for some of its troubles, including Modi’s support for Hasina when she was in power.

There have been a few attacks on religious minorities, including Hindus, since her overthrow, as those communities were viewed as Hasina supporters, and Indian businesses, too, have been boycotted or attacked in Bangladesh as the country demands that New Delhi hand over Hasina to face charges in her home country.

In April, Bangladesh restricted the imports of certain items from India, including yarn and rice. On May 17, India retaliated by banning the imports of readymade garments and processed food items from Bangladesh across land borders. While Bangladesh can still send its saris to India, it will have to use the more expensive and time-consuming sea route.

Banarasi saris are globally known for their exquisite craftsmanship, luxurious silk, meticulous zari work of fine gold and silver wire embroidery, and it can often take up to six months to weave a single sari. These can sell for as much as 100,000 rupees ($1,130) each, or more, depending upon the design and the material used.

“These saris are in high demand in Bangladesh during festivals and weddings, but the ban has led to a more than 50 percent drop in business,” Ansari told Al Jazeera.

This is the latest blow to the industry that has already been hit with earlier government policies – including the so-called demonetisation when India overnight invalidated high-value notes and a hike in power tariffs – as well as the COVID-19 pandemic and cheaper competition from saris made on advanced power looms in other parts of the country, particularly Surat in Gujarat in western India.

This onslaught of the past few years has added up, forcing weavers out of the business and halving their numbers to about 200,000 now, as the rest either left the city in search of other jobs or took up new jobs, like driving rickshaws to earn a living.

Pawan Yadav, 61, a wholesale sari trader in Varanasi, told Al Jazeera that the business has come to a standstill since the change of regime in Dhaka.

“We used to supply around 10,000 saris annually to Bangladesh, but everything has come to a halt,” Yadav said, adding that he is still owed 1.5 million rupees ($17,140) by clients in the neighbouring country, “but the recovery seems impossible due to the political turmoil.”

India has 108 documented ways of draping sarees that hold a special position globally for their intricate designs, vibrant colours symbolising timeless elegance and beauty.

Despite the current turmoil, the textile sector employs the second-highest number of people after agriculture in India, with more than 3.5 million people working in it, per government data. Within that, the sari industry is valued at approximately 80,000 crore rupees ($9.01bn), including some $300m in exports.

Varanasi’s weavers and traders, who voted Modi into parliament for the third consecutive time, are waiting for the prime minister to find an amicable solution to the trade issue with Bangladesh.

In 2015, the Modi government designated August 7 as the National Handloom Day and promised to bring a change in the lives of handloom weavers by promoting domestic products. But nothing meaningful has come of that so far, traders and weavers who spoke to Al Jazeera said.

“India has a unique handloom craft which no country can compete with,” but without sufficient businesses or reliable income, many artisans have been forced to abandon the trade, and now “it is difficult to even find a young weaver”, Ramesh Menon, founder of Save the Loom, a social enterprise working for the revival of handloom, said. “The need of the hour is to re-position handloom as a product of luxury, and not poverty.”

West Bengal traders welcome ban

The situation, however, is completely different in West Bengal, around 610km (380 miles) from Varanasi and along the border with Bangladesh.

The ban on the sari trade between the two countries has offered a new lease of life to the traders of cotton saris in Bengal, who had been losing market share to Dhaka’s saris.

Tarak Nath Das, a cotton sari trader for the past four decades in Shantipur in West Bengal, supplies saris woven by local artisans to various showrooms across the country.

After years of losses, the 65-year-old finally saw business boom in the last few weeks in the lead-up to the main festival of Durga Puja, and was all smiles.

“The saris from Bangladesh had devoured at least 30 percent of our market, and the local industry was bleeding. We have slowly started to recapture our old markets as orders have started pouring in. The sale of the saris during the just concluded festival was better by at least 25 percent as compared to last year,” Das told Al Jazeera.

Shantipur is home to more than 100,000 weavers and traders and is regarded as the hub of the sari business in eastern India. The town and surrounding areas in Nadia district are famous for their handloom weaving industry, which produces a fine variety of saris, including the highly popular Shantipur cotton sari.

Nearby areas of Hooghly and Murshidabad district are also famous for their cotton saris, and these are sold both locally and across the country as well as exported to Greece, Turkiye and other countries.

Sanjay Karmakar, 40, a wholesale trader of cotton saris in Nadia district, is also happy with the ban.

“The local women prefer to buy Bangladeshi saris as they come in attractive packaging and the fabric used there is slightly superior to ours,” he said.

That, coupled with younger women choosing leggings, tunics and other modern clothes over traditional saris, had been pinching sales.

Santanu Guha Thakurta, 62, a fashion creator, told Al Jazeera that Indian weavers and traders would benefit immensely from the import restrictions on Bangladesh. That also shut down cheap knockoffs of the more expensive designs.

“The restrictions came at the right time, just before the onset of the festival season and that immensely benefited the industry.”

WE all know gardening is good for you.

But did you know that when you’re getting older, it can also help with arthritis?

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Research published in the Journal of Ageing and Physical Activity also found gardeners were 30 per cent less likely to report falls than non-gardeners, with improved gait and balance helping you along the way.

World Arthritis Day is celebrated on October 12th, so why not get out there and garden – safe in the knowledge that you’ll actually be helping your aching joints.

Dr Wendy Holden, Arthritis Action’s Medical Advisor and Honorary Consultant Rheumatologist at North Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, told Sun Gardening: “Being active and incorporating exercise into your life helps arthritis .

“Even if joints are hurting, they can’t be harmed by exercise.

“Getting outside in the fresh air, being close to nature and nurturing plants also improves both mood and mental health.

“Just remember to pace yourself, take breaks when you need them and make use of many types of adaptive tools available to assist you.”

She added: “Whatever type of arthritis you have, staying active, keeping your joints moving and looking after your sleep and mental wellbeing are all vital to help beat pain.”

Naomi Patrick, Clinical Director at Medella Home Physio & Occupational Therapy, based in Dorset and Wiltshire, added: “Pruning requires controlled movements that work through the full range of motion in shoulders, elbows and wrists.

“These actions can help maintain joint flexibility and may reduce stiffness in people with early-stage arthritis.

“The reaching and snipping motions help maintain the upper body mobility that’s essential for everyday tasks like dressing, cooking and personal care.

“Research shows these movements can be as effective as targeted exercise therapy for certain conditions.

“For those with painful joints, we recommend using lightweight, ergonomic secateurs and taking regular breaks,” she said.

TOP TIPS FOR ADAPTING YOUR GARDENING

Make access easier by using raised beds, vertical gardens, hanging baskets, or containers
Reduce stress on joints and muscles from repetitive movements by using garden tools that keep hands and wrists in a good position
Minimise bending and stress on back, neck and shoulders by using special long-reach easy grip tools – this includes bulb planters
Reduce the amount of weeding you do by applying a weed barrier with mulch
Reduce the amount of force required to trim plants by using power assisted tools

ADAPTIVE TOOLS FOR ARTHRITIS

Essentialaids.com is a website selling adaptive tools for gardeners. They include tools like easy grip gardening tools with arm supports, and long handled tools for those who struggle bending down. Great for easier weeding and digging. From £29.99

Stiga.com has a cordless, battery powered electric pruning shears and saw. I’ve tried both of these and the pruning shears especially, are fantastic for those with limited strength, as they require no effort to cut. From £129

Flexon Guard N Grip Hose, which earned an Arthritis Foundation Ease of Use certification, makes connecting it to outdoor faucets less strenuous on hands and wrists and stops the need for lugging around heavy watering cans.

Safetygloves.co.uk has a whole range of gardening gloves for arthritis from £3

Amazon.co.uk sell Bionic ReliefGrip Premium Leather Gardening Gloves which are good for arthritic hands. From £29.99

New company www.rootup.co.uk has launched a new product perfect for people with limited reach. Called the Growyo Hanger, it is endorsed by thirteen-time gold Chelsea Flower Show winner, Medwyn Williams MBE. The hanger organises individual yo-yos used to lift the branches of heavily-laden plants — such as tomatoes, aubergines, cucumbers and apple trees — allowing users to more easily and efficiently support and train them. £14.99

Also in Veronica’s Gardening Column this week…

Top tips, Gardening news, plant of the week, and a competition to win a year’s subscription to 123Flowers

For more gardening content and competiitons, follow me @biros_and_bloom

WIN! 123 Flowers is a UK-based online florist designed to make flower delivery ‘as easy as 1-2-3’, with a commitment to sustainability and ethical sourcing. They’re offering one Sun Gardening reader a whole year flower subscription.
To enter, visit www.thesun.co.uk/123FLOWERSCOMP or write to 123 Flowers Competiton, PO Box 3190, Colchester, Essex, CO2 8GP. Include your name, age, email or phone. UK residents 18+ only. Entries close 11.59pm. October 18, 2025. T&Cs apply

PLANT OF THE WEEK! CORNUS ‘Midwinter Fire’ AKA Dogwood.
This is a perfect plant to see you through Autumn and Winter. Not only does it provide lovely green leaves over summer and into Autumn – they fall to reveal stunning vivid orange red and yellow stems which look like fire through Winter.

JOB OF THE WEEK Don’t throw away all your raked up leaves – they can be turned into leaf mould – literally chop them up, pack them in binbags hidden away – and eventually after a year or so, they’ll turn into lovely usable nourishing compost.

IT is often a shock when celebrities suddenly find themselves sprayed orange and squeezed into a skimpy outfit for Strictly.

But for proud Geordie Vicky Pattison it is not a problem, because that is how she has spent most Saturday nights since she was as a teenager.

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For the TV star, getting dolled up to the nines every weekend is not being Strictlyfied, it is just being a lass from Newcastle.

Vicky, 37, said: “Everybody knows I’m super nervous about this entire process, I’m just a gobby girl from the north east doing her best.

“The dancing, the being out my comfort zone, learning something new, being judged by the public is also terrifying.

“But the one element that made me feel really excited and I had no reservations about at all was definitely being Strictlyfied.

“I’m sorry but the tan, the hair, the glam! I’ve been preparing for this for like 25 years.

“Like, I didn’t even have to change my fake tan routine at all — this girl was ready.”

Although Vicky, who is partnered on this series with pro Kai Widdrington, admits she likes a party her blind spot is actually the dancing.

She said: “I’ve joked that this is the first time I’ve danced sober but it’s probably not that far from the truth.

“You normally see me at people’s parties at the bar or chewing someone’s ear off in the kitchen. Definitely the last place you’d find me is on the dance floor.

“Everyone is gonna think I’m a novice — and they’d be right. But I am ready for a challenge and desperate to prove myself and some people wrong along the way.”

‘Reality TV scum’

Vicky admits people constantly underestimate her and in the 14 years since she shot to fame on MTV series Geordie Shore, has always been a bit of an underdog.

It was something Vicky, who last year married fashion brand businessman Ercan Ramadan, faced when she was a contestant on ITV’s I’m a Celebrity . . . Get Me Out Of Here a decade ago.

Cynics would do well to remember she won that contest after a substantial public vote.

She said: “Winning the jungle was the best moment of my life, maybe tied with the day that I got married to Ercan.

“Everybody just wanted us out initially. Obviously I was in there and in me bubble and I’m actually really grateful for that, you know.

“But I learned afterwards everyone was like: ‘Get her out. We don’t want her in here. Reality TV scum blah, blah, blah.’

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I’ve joked that this is the first time I’ve danced sober but it’s probably not that far from the truth. You normally see me at people’s parties at
the bar . . . not on the dancefloor

“I don’t know what they thought I was gonna do like, go in there and down a Jaegerbomb and punch a kangaroo or something?

“I just wanted a chance to prove myself, to show people that I could be something different than what they’ve seen before.

“I just want to put my best SELF forward and within about 24 hours I was the favourite to win. I’m so proud of me achievement there.

“This is a very different ball game. I’m totally aware of that. But, like I say, I have always been the underdog and if people wanna get behind us, that is really nice.”

Although the public have yet to be fully won over by her dance on last week’s first live show, she finished in fifth place on the scoreboard — which is pretty impressive given she is one of 15 celebrities competing.

Meanwhile bookies Ladbrokes have her as favourite to win at 5/1, ahead of West End star Amber Davies and ex-footballer Karen Carney whose sensational jive saw her top the scoreboard last week.

Vicky said: “I can’t believe anyone would have us down as favourite in the lasses to win. I mean, have you seen the women in this competition? They’re all incredible.

“Amber’s amazing, did you see Kaz Carney’s jive on Saturday night? I mean, come on, that’s my winner right there!

“Bal is beautiful inside and out and just has so much rhythm. Alex is so theatrical and emotional when she dances it’s so beautiful.

“Ellie’s energy is infectious, just don’t even get us started on La Voix, you can’t look anywhere else when she’s on the stage.

“Maybe there’s a mistake there with those odds.”

Despite being up against the likes of Amber, who has appeared in 9 to 5 The Musical and stage show Back To The Future, plus Lewis Cope who was in the stage version of Billy Elliot, she feels no resentment.

Instead she adopts a more philosophical approach to the issue which pops up each series.

I don’t know what people thought I was gonna do in the jungle . . . like go in and down a Jaegerbomb
and punch a kangaroo?

Vicky said: “Every year Strictly has people of different abilities, doesn’t it? Some people who have never danced before, totally inexperienced, and some people maybe did ballet before as kids, some people a bit more.

“I don’t think it’s a big problem.It’s part and parcel and there’s loads of different styles of dance isn’t there?

“Just because someone’s experienced in one, doesn’t mean they’re experienced in another.

“Also, I do think it’s nice for the viewers at home that they get to watch some really good dancers early doors, like you know when maybe the rest of us are just learning. There is some still really brilliant performances to watch and everyone goes on a journey.”

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Vicky sees her journey continuing after she has completed Strictly, whether that is after this weekend’s first eviction, or after potentially making her way to the final.

But she admits wherever her career goes, it won’t be in dance.
She said: “I honestly haven’t thought past getting through the first week.

“Like if I managed to stay in on Saturday I’ll be shocked and over the moon.

“I certainly haven’t got any Grand Designs on being a West End star or, you know, pivoting into the world of performing. There’s far more deserving and better people than me. I’m a big fan of Strictly, I’ve watched it since I was a kid.

“I watched it with me grandma — it was me grandma’s favourite. I think that’s why I’m doing it, great big tick off the bucket list.

“But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t hoping it would take us to different opportunities.

“The BBC is British institution, it’s a great channel. I would love to make more TV with them so, yeah, maybe I am hoping it will lead to more things but probably not in the dance space to be totally honest.”

Vicky and Kai will be dancing a foxtrot to the track Rein Me In tonight, which has special meaning as its by Sam Fender who she describes as “a Geordie legend.”

She added: “I feel like I’ve got the weight of the world on my shoulders trying to do, like, all the Northeast proud, Ercan proud, Kai proud, myself and my family proud.

“I’m absolutely terrified. Everyone keeps saying like, ‘Oh do you feel a bit better now you’ve got the first show and the first live dance done?’ I’m like, no I’m not.

“I’m still nervous. I can actually go home you know. It’s just like we’re dancing for fun. It’s not even a pre-record, we’re live and I’m just not ready.

“I’m not ready to say goodbye to people. I’m not ready for this journey to be over so I actually feel sick to my stomach about it.

“By nature, I’m not a very confident person, despite appearances.”

• Strictly Come Dancing is on BBC One today at 6.20pm.

Returning home

About 70 percent of the Nukak population remains displaced from their ancestral lands, according to the FCDS.

Most families have been pushed into sedentary lifestyles, settling in makeshift camps on the edge of towns, where addiction and child sexual exploitation became widespread.

Others have settled on small plots in rural areas, where tensions with settlers flared over land disputes.

“The settlers took over the land as if it were vacant. They say there were no Nukak, but what happened was that the Nukak got sick and left,” said Njibe.

In the most remote reaches of the Amazon, where the Nukak reservation is located, the Colombian government has little presence.

The Nukak, therefore, have few legal protections from settler violence when they try to reclaim their lands.

But in recent years, Nukak members like Njibe, tired of waiting for government action, resolved to return on their own.

The idea gained traction in 2020, when several clans retreated into the jungle for fear of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But after returning to their relative isolation, the clans considered staying for good. They called on nongovernmental organisations like FCDS for support.

At that time, Njibe was living on a small farm inside the limits of the Nukak Maku reservation.

Even within the reservation, decades of colonisation had razed large swaths of the forest. Grassy pastures dotted with cows had replaced the Amazon’s towering palm trees.

Deforestation had increased in the wake of a 2016 peace deal between the government and the FARC. The rebel group previously limited deforestation in the Amazon in order to use its dense canopies as cover against air surveillance.

But, as part of the deal, FARC — the largest armed rebel group at the time — agreed to demobilise. A power vacuum emerged in its place.

According to FCDS, powerful landowners quickly moved into areas formerly controlled by the FARC, converting the land into cattle pastures.

Armed dissident groups who rejected the peace deal also remained active in the area, charging extortion fees per cow.

“The colonisation process has caused many [Nukak] sites to be either destroyed or absorbed by settler farms,” said a FCDS expert who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation.

Still, in 2022, the FCDS forged ahead with a pilot programme to support seven Nukak communities as they settled deeper into the reservation, where the lush forest still remained. There, the Nukak hoped they could revive a more traditional, if not completely nomadic, way of life.

But many of the expeditions to identify permanent relocation sites failed.

Initially, Njibe hoped to move to a sacred lake inside the reservation that he recalled from his childhood, but once he arrived at the site, he found that it was now part of a ranch.

When he asked the settler who ran the ranch for permission to stay there, the rancher rejected his request, and Njibe was forced to choose another place to live.

He considered returning to a forested area — about 24 hectares (59 acres) wide, roughly the size of 33 football fields — that he considered his childhood home.

But that too lay within a ranch. This time, however, the settler in question, who Njibe said was more sympathetic to his land claims, allowed him to stay.

Rumours across social media platforms that a huge comet is on a collision course with Earth have been circulating, with some users describing it as a major threat to humanity.

Others are debating how the comet – known as 3I/ATLAS and detected by NASA’s ATLAS telescope on July 1 – might be diverted from the Earth. Some have even gone so far as to highlight “news” of military movements and an international coordination to counter the comet before impact, prompting further alarm.

So is there any truth to these rumours and what do we know for sure?

When and how did rumours about the comet start?

Rumours began spreading after the New York Post published a story on September 29 under the headline: “‘Massive’ comet hurtling toward us is larger than previously thought, could be alien tech, scientist says: ‘It could change everything for us’.”

Users on X (formerly Twitter) circulated screenshots of the article to support their claims. One account, under the name Steven Greenstreet, wrote: “Scientists say a massive alien spaceship is hurtling towards Earth. Why aren’t more people talking about this?”

Scientists say a massive alien spaceship is hurtling towards Earth. Why aren’t more people talking about this?!?! 😱😱😱 pic.twitter.com/Q2NvVdcXa7

— Steven Greenstreet 🐷 (@MiddleOfMayhem) September 29, 2025

Another account called Dr Disclosure reposted the story, adding: “This is why all the generals are gathering!” – a reference to a September 30 meeting of US military leaders chaired by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. That post racked up more than half a million views.

This is why all the generals are gathering!!!!!! https://t.co/qzeeUAiR2P

— Dr. Disclosure (@Docneuroeo) September 29, 2025

Meanwhile, an account under the name Richard Roeper shared his concerns: “A massive comet is reportedly hurtling toward Earth at 130,000 mph! Can we stop it? I’m told there are two missions in the works – one involving the specially selected “Messiah Crew,” and one utilizing two squads, known as the Freedom Team and the Independence Team. We got this.”

A massive comet is reportedly hurtling toward Earth at 130,000 mph! Can we stop it? I’m told there are two missions in the works–one involving the specially selected “Messiah Crew,” and one utilizing two squads, known as the Freedom Team and the Independence Team. We got this. pic.twitter.com/dsbgW0giLD

— Richard Roeper (@RichardERoeper) September 29, 2025

Why do some people claim it’s an alien aircraft?

Speculation escalated, with some accounts suggesting the object was not a comet at all but in fact a spacecraft heading towards Earth.

An account under the name Lord Bebo shared statements falsely attributed to US physicist Michio Kaku, claiming the object was on the way “to conduct a reconnaissance mission, possibly with hostile intent”. The post, accompanied by an edited screenshot of a television interview with Kaku and the caption, “It might be an ALIEN probe sent to Earth” garnered more than 290,000 views and dozens of comments.

☄️ Comet stirs debate among astrophysicists & they call for urgent international attention on interstellar object 3I/ATLAS

Physicist Michio Kaku: its acceleration cannot be explained by conventional causes, and it’s approaching Earth CLOSER than expected

Professor of natural… pic.twitter.com/zEt0NO34bm

— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) October 1, 2025

Similarly, another account called Astronomy Vibes suggested: “While most scientists agree it’s likely a strange comet, a few bold voices suggest it might be something more – maybe even an engineered probe from another civilization.” No evidence was provided.

🚨 Breaking Cosmic News!
Scientists have spotted a 7-mile-wide interstellar visitor — the largest of its kind ever seen — racing through our solar system. Known as 3I/ATLAS, this giant comet isn’t from around here… it comes from deep interstellar space! 🌌

What’s shocking is… pic.twitter.com/DDxOJPDlUg

— Astronomy Vibes (@AstronomyVibes) October 1, 2025

So, what are the facts?

Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency, SANAD, investigated the claims about the comet known as 3I/ATLAS, an interstellar object, to determine whether it really poses any real threat to Earth or could even be a hostile probe.

The comet was in fact detected by NASA’s ATLAS telescope on July 1, 2025. NASA, which describes it as having “a teardrop-shaped cocoon of dust coming off its solid, icy nucleus”, confirmed that it poses no danger to Earth. It noted that the closest it has come to the Earth was about 270 million kilometres (167.8 million miles) on July 21.

The European Space Agency (ESA) also confirmed that the comet poses no threat to Earth or to any other planet, explaining that its closest distance was more than 2.5 times that between Earth and the Sun.

According to NASA, the comet will reach its closest approach to the Sun on October 30, 2025. At that point, it will be about 210 million km (130.5 million miles) from the sun, just inside the orbit of Mars.

This is a significant comet, however. According to the Hubble Space Telescope, it is travelling at about 210,000 kilometres per hour (130,500 miles per hour) – the fastest speed ever recorded for a “visitor” to our solar system.

🆕 Hubble has caught an interstellar interloper — comet 3I/ATLAS! 

Read more: https://t.co/fSIpjDYeu1 or in 🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/6dUojFwdnW

— HUBBLE (@HUBBLE_space) August 7, 2025

NASA said the comet presents a rare opportunity for scientists to study an interstellar “visitor” as it passes through the solar system.

“Hubble’s continuing observations allow astronomers to more accurately estimate the size of the comet’s nucleus,” the agency said in a statement. “Observations as of August 20, 2025, indicate that the upper limit on its diameter is 3.5 miles (5.6 km), though it could be as small as 1,444ft (440 metres) across.”

Comet 3I/ATLAS doesn’t pose a threat to Earth, but it does provide NASA scientists and spacecraft with a rare opportunity to study an interstellar comet as it passes through our solar system. ☄ https://t.co/B1MkBRZuT4 pic.twitter.com/wAmBUEte8l

— NASA Solar System (@NASASolarSystem) September 30, 2025

As for the quotes attributed to physicist Michio Kaku, SANAD found no evidence supporting them. The image circulating online was taken from an older interview with US outlet Nation News on February 20, 2025 – months before the discovery of 3I/ATLAS.

Will a huge “city-killer” asteroid collide with Earth in 2032? The odds don’t rule it out. So what can we do about it? I appeared on @NewsNation‘s On Balance with @LelandVittert to discuss the possibilities. #asteroid #asteroidimpact pic.twitter.com/ZHYi982SEi

— Dr. Michio Kaku (@michiokaku) February 20, 2025

LOOKING for some domestic help around the house this autumn?

Head straight to Amazon, where there’s a self-emptying robot vacuum on a massive, limited-time sale, slashed to under £200.

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Vexilar Self-Emptying Robot Vacuum
Cleaner, £199.98 (was £329.99)

Robot vacuums come in a wide variety of budgets and capabilities, from basic models that just sweep to high-end devices that map your entire home and even mop.

But you don’t always have to splash the cash for great features, as Amazon often drops the price on some leading cleaning devices.

Right now, you can snap up the Vexilar Self-Emptying Robot Vacuum Cleaner for an absolutely steal.

It was priced at £329.99, but is currently reduced to just £199.98 – that’s a discount of almost 40%.

We in the Sun Shopping team haven’t tested out this particular models ourselves – for some tested recommendations, you’ll need to head to our best robot vacuum cleaners page.

But this device has proved incredibly popular with shoppers, currently ranking as the third-best selling robot vacuum on the Amazon site.

The Vexilar packs two pieces of impressive tech for a price that’s now firmly in budget territory.

Firstly, it’s unusual to get a robot vacuum for less than £200 that comes with a self-emptying bin – that’s usually the domain of premium devices.

(I recently reviewed a flagship robot vac that self-empties, but it costs a whopping £1,119 – read my Eureka J15 Max Ultra review if you’re curious.)

The Vexilar’s base station contains a 2L dust bag, which is advertised to last for 60 days before you need to empty it.

That’s a massive plus for busy households.

Secondly, there’s the laser-mapping, which is something you’ll not often see with cheaper devices.

Basically, its Advanced LDS Laser Navigation will precisely map your home in 360 degrees, allowing it to plan the most efficient cleaning route.

It even lets you set virtual ‘no-go’ zones and customise suction or water levels for specific rooms via the app.

When it comes to power, the vacuum boasts a 6000Pa suction, and the manufacturer says it’s effective at tackling pet hair and debris on everything from hardwood floors to low-pile carpets.

The device also has a long 180-minute runtime on a single charge in quiet mode, before returning to its base station to re-charge.

You can control it via the companion app, or connect it to your smart home using Alexa, Google Home, or Siri – that’s seriously hands-off cleaning.

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Vexilar Self-Emptying Robot Vacuum
Cleaner, £199.98 (was £329.99)

Over 800 people have left five-star reviews on the Amazon page for this device.

“Worth it – powerful, reliable, and hassle-free,” says one happy customer.

“[I’m] really happy with this robot vacuum. Easy to set up, cleans well, and the auto-empty base is a big time saver.

It navigates around furniture without any issues and picks up dust and pet hair easily… Makes life a lot easier. Definitely recommend.”

Another shopper writes: “I’ve been using this for a few days now but oh boy! I’m honestly impressed!

“The battery lasts long enough to finish the whole house, and if it runs low it goes back, recharges and picks up where it left off.

“I also like that I can control it with the app or just ask Alexa to start cleaning,” said another.

“Worth every penny, don’t hesitate!” wrote a third shopper, while other buyers described it

“Complete game-changer,” commented a fourth.

“Life-changing,” was the verdict of a fifth reviewer.

This huge saving on the Vexilar Self-Emptying Robot Vacuum Cleaner is marked as a limited-time deal, so you shouldn’t wait too long if you want to bag this bargain.

Keep in mind that Amazon Prime Day is happening next week (October 7th-8th), and it’s not impossible that this device could drop even lower in price.

However, any potential further discount will likely be a deal only available to Amazon Prime members.

Shoppers getting winter-ready shouldn’t miss a superb deal on a heated throw, which has been reduced by 54% on Amazon.

The Gaza ceasefire proposal presented by US President Donald Trump, and which Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he has accepted, may not deliver the results Palestinians have long hoped for, analysts tell Al Jazeera.

While people on the ground would be infinitely relieved by a halt in Israel’s vicious bombardment that has killed at least 66,055 people and wounded 168,346 since October 2023, the 20-point Trump plan contains almost nothing else positive for the people of Palestine, analysts say.

“Ending the genocide is tied to this very colonial approach in which Israel – the party that has carried out the genocide –  and the US – who has funded it – are the ones who get to decide the future of the people against whom they’re committing genocide,” Palestinian lawyer and analyst Diana Buttu, who was a legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team from 2000 to 2005, said

“If you read the agreement itself, there are no guarantees provided to the Palestinians, not a single guarantee,” she added.

“All guarantees are provided to the Israelis.”

Focus on Gaza, but no clarity

Under the plan, fighting in Gaza would cease, captives from Israel who are held in Gaza – alive or dead – would be returned, in return for hundreds of living Palestinians taken by Israel, as well as the remains of hundreds who have died.

Then, Hamas is required to give up control over the Gaza Strip to the “Board of Peace”, an international transitional administration chaired by Trump, with members including Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Hamas members who promise “peaceful coexistence” and disarmament will be granted amnesty. Others “who wish to leave Gaza will be provided safe passage to receiving countries”.

Aid deliveries would resume, Israeli troops would allegedly withdraw after certain conditions are met, though it is unclear who would enforce their withdrawal, and an economic revitalisation plan would be developed by experts who created “thriving modern miracle cities in the Middle East”.

Hamas has said it is currently deliberating on the plan.

Trump warned that if it rejects his offer, Israel would have free rein, with full US support, to take any action it sees fit in Gaza. Human rights organisations and scholars have already called Israel’s current actions in Gaza a genocide.

However, this leaves many questions unanswered, Muhannad Seloom, assistant professor at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, told Al Jazeera.

For example, while the Palestinian Authority (PA) is mentioned in the plan, there is no immediate role for it until it completes a reform programme composed of various proposals. While Trump listed his 2020 peace plan and the Saudi-French proposal, it’s unclear which reforms he specifically means. The PA has, in the past, been told it should reform its governance, deal with endemic corruption, change the education curriculum, and change the social welfare system that supports Palestinian prisoners’ families.

The PA has reformed the prisoners’ families’ payment programme, but that did not stop Secretary of State Marco Rubio from disregarding the changes and criticising the PA for an old policy, according to the Times of Israel.

What is clear to analysts is that the PA will have to satisfy Israel and the US that it has completed its reform process before it can rule Gaza, and with no clear goals, that could extend indefinitely.

Meanwhile, the plan says aid will be provided by the United Nations and the International Red Crescent, but does not mention whether the notorious Israeli and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which has led to more than 1,000 Palestinians killed waiting for aid, will be disbanded.

“It seems like a rushed agreement that will be worked on as they go along,” Seloom said.

What state is the state of Palestine in?

On September 21, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom recognised the state of Palestine. More European countries, including France and Portugal, followed suit shortly after.

Global leaders paid tribute to the “two-state solution”, despite analysts claiming that the act of recognition was largely a face-saving exercise.

The international community has often spoken of a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine, and the UN General Assembly voted to back a resolution aimed at reviving a two-state solution on September 12.

However, analysts argue that the term “two-state solution” has little relevance to the reality on the ground and that this plan makes the question more pressing: Even if Israel’s two-year-long genocidal campaign against Gaza is paused, realistically, what shape would the state of Palestine be in?

Often when discussing a Palestinian state, the territories envisioned include the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, with East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital.

But those areas are increasingly splintered and isolated by Israeli policy. And illegal Israeli settlements mushroomed in the occupied West Bank, further shrinking any potential future Palestinian state, with international complicity.

This was true before October 2023, but actions like movement restrictions, land grabs, settlement expansions, settler and military violence, and home destructions have all accelerated since.

Before Israel’s war on Gaza, the Gaza Strip was the largest continuous stretch of Palestinian land, but people in Gaza could not go to the occupied West Bank and vice versa, while travel out of Palestine was a Herculean feat due to Israeli impediments.

Now, analysts worry this plan will further divide Gaza from the occupied West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem. It makes only one brief mention of a potential “credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood”, a pathway that is contingent on the vague PA reform program being “faithfully carried out”.

In light of the recent recognitions, analysts asked, what is left from which to fashion a Palestinian state?

“This is the million-dollar question,” Buttu said. “Everyone is recognising the state of Palestine as it is being erased, that’s the problem.”

Trump’s plan also leaves the Palestinians reliant on the goodwill of outside actors, including having no recourse if Israel does not withdraw from Gaza, as the plan says.

For his part, Netanyahu has repeatedly sworn to scupper any efforts at establishing a Palestinian state. A day before a UNGA vote that approved a resolution supporting the two-state solution, Netanyahu signed an agreement to move ahead with a settlement project to dissect the occupied West Bank and told supporters, “there will be no Palestinian state”.

Analysts believe the agreement relies on two things that have long been in short supply: Netanyahu’s goodwill and US guarantees that Israel will stick to the agreement.

Netanyahu’s history of undermining the peace process and entrenching the occupation has led analysts to doubt it will actually be implemented.

The agreement is “workable on paper”, according to Seloom,  but “from experience, there are so many details that are unclear.”

Palestinians negotiating an end to their own genocide

Palestinians have gone through this before with Israel.

The Oslo Accords, a pair of interim agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), laid what should have been the foundations for an eventual Palestinian state in the early and mid-’90s.

But little progress has been made in that direction since the second accord was signed in 1995. Instead, analysts say Israel has repeatedly undermined Palestine’s efforts to establish a state. And after years of Israel eroding Palestinians’ control over their own land and two years of the genocidal campaign in Gaza, the current situation appears even worse to analysts.

“This is worse than Oslo,” Buttu, who was a legal adviser at Oslo for the PLO, said. “At least in Oslo, there was a Palestinian voice.

“This is a removal of all Palestinian voices, and we’re back to the era when other people are speaking on our behalf.”

Trump met leaders of Arab and Islamic countries on September 23 to discuss his plan, but no Palestinian leaders.

Still, the US has laid the responsibility for ending Israel’s war on Gaza on the Palestinians themselves. Should Hamas not accept a deal that provides few guarantees to the Palestinian people, Israel’s genocidal war will continue and possibly even intensify.

“There’s a huge problem in that this genocide’s been going on for two years and … Palestinians are being forced to negotiate an end to their own genocide,” Buttu said.

In the narrow alleys of Old Mosul, once the proud heart of Iraq’s shoemaking industry, the workshops are coming alive again.

After years of conflict and destruction, artisans like 58-year-old Saad Abdul Aal are reviving a tradition that dates back more than 1,000 years.

Shoemaking in Iraq, known as al-qandarjiya, flourished during the Abbasid Caliphate, when Baghdad was a global hub of trade and culture.

Generations of families devoted their lives to transforming rawhide into durable footwear, their skills handed down from master to apprentice.

Before the war, the capital city of Baghdad had more than 250 factories, while Mosul boasted over 50. Iraqi-made shoes were prized for their elegance and resilience – a symbol of national pride.

“Our work began more than 40 years ago,” says Abdul Aal, his hands quick and steady as he trims a piece of leather. “I learned the profession, fell in love with it, and never left it.”

That proud tradition nearly disappeared in 2014, when ISIL (ISIS) seized Mosul. Workshops and factories were bombed, looted, or abandoned.

Abdul Aal lost everything – his equipment, his shop, his workers. “Bombings, destruction,” he recalls. “There was no money even to consider starting again.”

By the end of the war, Mosul’s 50 factories had dwindled to fewer than 10. Thousands of shoemakers were left unemployed, their skills at risk of vanishing.

The turning point came with the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM’s) Enterprise Development Fund-Tameer, which provided grants and training to displaced entrepreneurs and returnees.

For Abdul Aal, this was an opportunity to buy sewing and pressing machines, reopen his workshop, and hire staff.

“It’s not easy, but little by little we are moving forward,” he says.

Today, Abdul Aal produces about four pairs of shoes a day – fewer than before, but enough to keep his business alive. Competition from cheap imports is fierce, but he insists Iraqi craftsmanship still has an edge.

“Our shoes are genuine leather; they last. Imported shoes may appear visually appealing, but they lack quality.

“In contrast, the shoes produced in my factory are visually similar to imported shoes but offer superior quality.

“That is what makes us proud.”

New Delhi, India — Meghna Gupta* had planned it all – a master’s degree by 23, a few years of working in India, and then a move to the United States before she turned 30 to eventually settle there.

So, she clocked countless hours at the Hyderabad office of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest IT firm and a driver of the country’s emergence as the global outsourcing powerhouse in the sector. She waited to get to the promotion that would mean a stint on California’s West Coast.

Now, Gupta is 29, and her dreams lie in tatters after US President Donald Trump’s administration upended the H-1B visa programme that tech firms have used for more than three decades to bring skilled workers to the US.

Trump’s decision to increase the fee for the visas from about $2,000, in many cases, to $100,000 has imposed dramatic new costs on companies that sponsor these applications. The base salary an H-1B visa employee is supposed to be paid is $60,000. But the employer’s cost now rises to $160,000 at the minimum, and in many cases, companies will likely find American workers with similar skills for lower pay.

This is the Trump administration’s rationale as it presses US companies to hire local talent amid its larger anti-immigration policies. But for thousands of young people around the world still captivated by the American dream, this is a blow. And nowhere is that more so than in India, the world’s most populous nation, that, despite an economy that is growing faster than most other major nations, has still been bleeding skilled young people to developed nations.

For years, Indian IT companies themselves sponsored the most H-1B visas of all firms, using them to bring Indian employees to the US and then contractually outsourcing their expertise to other businesses, too. This changed: In 2014, seven out of the 10 companies that received the most H-1B visas were Indian or started in India; In 2024, that number dropped to four.

And in the first six months of 2025, Gupta’s TCS was the only Indian company in the top-10 H-1B visa recipients, in a list otherwise dominated by Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and Apple.

But what had not changed until now was the demographic of the workers that even the above US companies hired on H-1B visas. More than 70 percent of all H-1B visas were granted to Indian nationals in 2024, ranging from the tech sector to medicine. Chinese nationals were a distant second, with less than 12 percent.

Now, thousands across India fear that this pathway to the US is being slammed shut.

“It has left me heartbroken,” Gupta told Al Jazeera of Trump’s fee hike.

“All my life, I planned for this; everything circled around this goal for me to move to the US,” said Gupta, who was born and raised in Bageshwar, a town of 10,000 people in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand.

“The so-called ‘American Dream’ looks like a cruel joke now.”

‘In the hole’

Gupta’s crisis reflects a broader contradiction that defines India today. On the one hand, the country — as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government frequently mention — is the world’s fastest-growing major economy.

India today boasts the world’s fourth-largest gross domestic product (GDP), behind just the US, China and Germany, after it passed Japan earlier this year. But the country’s creation of new jobs lags far behind the number of young people who enter its workforce every year, widening its employment gap. India’s biggest cities are creaking under inadequate public infrastructure, potholed roads, traffic snarls and growing income inequality.

The result: Millions like Gupta aspire to a life in the West, picking their career choices, usually in sectors like engineering or medicine, and working to get into hard-fought seats in top colleges – and then migrating. In the last five years, India has witnessed a drastic rise in the outflow of skilled professionals, particularly in STEM fields, who migrate to countries like Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the US.

As per the Indian government’s data, those numbers rose from 94,145 Indians in 2020 to 348,629 by 2024 — a 270 percent rise.

Trump’s new visa regime could now effectively close the pipeline of those skilled workers into the US. The fee hike comes on the back of a series of tension points in a souring US-India relationship in recent months. New Delhi is also currently facing a steep 50 percent tariff on its exports to the US — half of that for buying Russian crude, which the US says is funding the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine.

Ajay Srivastava, a former Indian trade officer and founder of the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), a Delhi-based think tank, told Al Jazeera that the hardest-hit sectors after the new visa policy will be “the ones that Indian professionals dominate: mid-level IT services jobs, software developers, project managers, and back-end support in finance and healthcare”.

For many of these positions, the new $100,000 fee exceeds an entry-level employee’s annual salary, making sponsorship uneconomical, especially for smaller firms and startups, said Srivastava. “The cost of hiring a foreign worker now exceeds local hiring by a wide margin,” he said, adding that this would shift the hiring calculus of US firms.

“American firms will scout more domestic talent, reserve H-1Bs for only the hardest-to-fill specialist roles, and push routine work offshore to India or other hubs,” said Srivastava.

“The market has already priced in this pivot,” he said, citing the fall of Indian stock markets since Trump’s announcement, “as investors brace for shrinking US hiring”.

Indian STEM graduates and students, he said, “have to rethink US career plans altogether”.

To Sudhanshu Kaushik, founder of the North American Association of Indian Students, a body with members across 120 universities, the Trump administration’s “motive is to create panic and distress among H-1B visa holders and other immigrant visa holders”.

“To remind them that they don’t belong,” Kaushik told Al Jazeera. “And at any time, at any whim, the possibility of remaining in the United States can become incredibly difficult and excruciatingly impossible.”

The announcement came soon after the start of the new academic session, when many international students – including from India, which sends the largest cohort of foreign students to the US – have begun classes.

Typically, a large chunk of such students stay back in the US for work after graduating. An analysis of the National Survey of College Graduates suggests that 41 percent of international students who graduated between 2012 and 2020 were still in the US in 2021. For PhD holders, that figure jumps to 75 percent.

But Kaushik said he has received more than 80 queries on their hotline for students now worried about what the future holds.

“They know that they’re already in the hole,” he said, referring to the tuition and other fees running into tens of thousands of dollars that they have invested in a US education, with increasingly unclear job prospects.

The landscape in the US today, Srivastava of GTRI said, represents “fewer opportunities, tougher competition, and shrinking returns on US education”.

Nasscom, India’s apex IT trade body, has said the policy’s abrupt rollout could “potentially disrupt families” and the continuity of ongoing onshore projects for the country’s technology services firms.

The new policy, it added, could have “ripple effects” on the US innovation ecosystem and global job markets, pointing out that for companies, “additional cost will require adjustments”.

‘They do not care for people at all’

Ansh*, a senior software engineer at Meta, graduated from an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), one in a chain of India’s most prestigious engineering school, and landed a job with Facebook soon after that.

He now lives with his wife in Menlo Park, in the heart of the US’s Silicon Valley, and drives a BMW sedan to work. Both Ansh and his wife are in the US on H-1B visas.

Last Saturday’s news from the White House left him rattled.

He spent that evening figuring out flights for his friends — Indians on H-1B visas who were out of the country, one in London, another in Bengaluru, India — to see if they could rush back to the US before the new rules kicked in on Sunday, as major US tech firms had recommended to their employees.

Since then, the Trump administration has clarified that the new fees will not apply to existing H-1B visas or renewals. For now, Ansh’s job and status in the US are secure.

But this is little reassurance, he said.

“In the last 11 years, I have never felt like going back to India,” Ansh told Al Jazeera. “But this sort of instability triggers people to make those life changes. And now we are here, wondering if one should return to India?”

Because he and his wife do not have children, Ansh said that a move back to India — while a dramatic rupture in their lives and plans — was at least something they could consider. But what of his colleagues and friends on H-1B visas, who have children, he asked?

“The way this has been done by the US government shows that they do not care for people at all,” he said. “These types of decisions are like … brain wave strikes, and then it is just executed.”

Ansh believes that the US also stands to lose from the new visa policy. “The immigrant contribution is deeply sprinkled into the DNA of the US’s success,” he said.

“Once talent goes away, innovation won’t happen,” he said. “It is going to have long-term consequences for visa holders and their families. Its impact would reach everyone, one way or the other.”

India’s struggle

After the announcement from the White House on Saturday, Prime Minister Modi’s principal secretary, PK Mishra, said that the government was encouraging Indians working abroad to return to the country.

Mishra’s comments were in tune with some experts who have suggested that the disruption in the H-1B visa policy could serve as an opportunity for India — as it could, in theory, stanch the brain drain that the country has long suffered from.

GTRI’s Srivastava said that US companies that have until now relied on immigrant visas like the H-1B might now explore more local hiring or offshore some jobs. “The $100,000 H-1B fee makes onsite deployment prohibitively expensive, so Indian IT firms will double down on offshore and remote delivery,” he said.

“US postings will be reserved only for mission-critical roles, while the bulk of hiring and project execution shifts to India and other offshore hubs,” he told Al Jazeera. “For US clients, this means higher dependence on offshore teams — raising familiar concerns about data security, compliance, and time-zone coordination — even as costs climb.”

Srivastava noted that India’s tech sector can absorb some returning H-1B workers, if they choose to return.

But that won’t be easy. He said that even though hiring in India’s IT and services sector has been growing year-on-year, the gaps are real, ranging from dipping job postings to new openings clustered in AI, cloud, and data science. And US-trained returnees would expect salaries well above Indian benchmarks.

And in reality, Kaushik said, many H-1B aspirants are looking at different countries as alternatives to the US — not India.

Ansh, the senior engineer at Meta, agreed. “In the US, we operate at the cutting edge of technology,” whereas the Indian tech ecosystem was still geared towards delivering immediate services.

“The Indian ecosystem is not at the pace where you innovate the next big thing in the world,” he said. “It is, in fact, far from there.”

A year on from Israel’s assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, reports say Hezbollah, the Lebanese group he led, is regrouping.

Analysts believe that while a weakened Hezbollah can no longer pose a significant threat to Israel, it can still create chaos and challenge opponents domestically as it tries to find a political footing to preserve its clout.

Long viewed as the strongest nonstate armed actor in the region, Hezbollah found its star waning in the past year, culminating in an international and domestic push for it to disarm entirely.

Handled recklessly, analysts believe, pressures to disarm the group could lead it to lash out and create internal strife that could outweigh international and regional pushes.

Hezbollah’s rhetoric remains defiant, and it has promised to reject Lebanese government efforts to disarm it – as its current leader, Naim Qassem, reiterated on Saturday to a crowd of thousands of people who had gathered at Nasrallah’s tomb to commemorate his assassination.

“We will never abandon our weapons, nor will we relinquish them,” he said to the crowd, adding that Hezbollah would continue to “confront any project that serves Israel”.

No action yet

Hezbollah started trading attacks with Israel on October 8, 2023, the day after the latter launched its war on Gaza. This continued until September 2024 when an Israeli military intensification and subsequent invasion killed about 4,000 people in Lebanon, injured thousands more and displaced hundreds of thousands.

By the time a ceasefire was announced on November 27, much of Hezbollah’s senior military leadership, including Nasrallah, the group’s secretary-general, had been killed by Israel.

The terms of the ceasefire were poorly defined, according to diplomatic sources with knowledge of the agreement, but the public understanding was that both sides would cease attacks, Hezbollah would disarm in southern Lebanon and Israel would withdraw its forces from the south. But soon after, Israel and the United States argued that Hezbollah must disarm entirely.

Seeing it weakened, Hezbollah’s domestic and regional opponents began calling for the group to give up its weapons. Sensing the changing regional winds, many of Hezbollah’s domestic allies jumped ship and voiced support for full disarmament.

The Lebanese government, under pressure from the US and Israel, announced on September 5 that the Lebanese armed forces have been tasked with forming a plan to disarm Hezbollah.

In the meantime, Israel has continually violated the ceasefire, bombing southern Lebanon. UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force in the south, said Israel is committing “continuous violations of this [ceasefire] arrangement, including air and drone strikes on Lebanese territory”.

Despite media speculation that Hezbollah is regrouping in southern Lebanon, particularly in anti-Hezbollah media outlets, it has only claimed one attack since the ceasefire was announced in November.

Analysts believe Hezbollah is no longer in a position to threaten Israel, meaning that any decision by the latter to expand attacks in Lebanon would be for considerations other than Hezbollah’s current capabilities.

Hezbollah and its supporters argue that Israel’s threats and continued violations as well as its continued presence occupying five points on Lebanese territory justify the need for resistance.

“The continued existence of a real threat justifies the maintenance of deterrence and defence capabilities because deterrence is not a one-time event but rather a cumulative process that requires a stable and integrated power structure within a broader political context,” Ali Haidar, a columnist with the pro-Hezbollah newspaper Al-Akhbar, wrote recently.

Al Jazeera reached out to Hezbollah for comment but did not receive a response before publication.

What does ‘regrouping’ mean?

“No military or political military force [will not] regroup after suffering a major defeat as [Hezbollah] did last year,” Michael Young, a Lebanese analyst and writer, said.

“But are they in a position to mount rockets and bomb northern Israel along the border? No. Are they in a position to fire missiles at towns and cities? No.

“So what does [regrouping] mean?”

Lebanese political scientist Imad Salamey told Al Jazeera: “Hezbollah is significantly degraded – leadership attrition, [communications] penetrations and blows to command and control have been real. They will try to recover, but the plausible path is a smaller, cheaper, more agile Hezbollah.

“Israeli assessments themselves note both the damage done and Hezbollah’s attempts to regenerate via smuggling/self-production under intense intelligence pressure, suggesting any rebound will be partial and tactical rather than structural in the near term,” Salamey added.

In early December, the regime of Hezbollah ally Bashar al-Assad was toppled in Syria, another blow to the group, as it cut off a direct land route for weapons and financing to reach the group from Iran.

In the meantime, however, analysts said Hezbollah has been trying to use its remaining leverage through diplomacy, even sending signals to longtime foes like Saudi Arabia.

“We assure you that the arms of the resistance are pointed at the Israeli enemy, not Lebanon, Saudi Arabia or any other place or entity in the world,” Qassem said in a speech on September 19.

The message to Saudi Arabia, which has previously funded Hezbollah’s opponents in Lebanon, is part of a shift in the group’s strategy, analysts said.

“There’s a hint that they feel they can deal with things politically,” Young said. “They may feel they don’t need to resort to force or weapons if they can get more out of the system.”

It is also a reflection of the new political reality in Lebanon and the region, where Israel and the US have ascended in power and Iran, Hezbollah’s close ally, has faltered.

“Hezbollah is starting to realise that it is entrapped,” Lebanese political analyst Karim Emile Bitar told Al Jazeera.

Before the war, Hezbollah had the ability to make or break governments. But President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam were elected in early 2025 despite neither being Hezbollah’s preferred candidate.

Still, Hezbollah was either unwilling or unable to disrupt the formation of Salam’s government. Analysts said the group is in dire need of foreign aid that the government could secure to help rebuild its constituencies damaged by Israeli attacks.

But that money has yet to arrive as there is regional and domestic debate over whether the government should receive reconstruction funds before Hezbollah’s disarmament and other banking or political reforms.

Analysts and diplomats told Al Jazeera Hezbollah is still capable of raising tensions but has avoided fanning any flames due to the Lebanese state’s rising support as well as the fatigue and trauma Hezbollah members and supporters have due to last year’s war and continuing Israeli attacks on Lebanon.

Still, on Thursday, Hezbollah supporters flocked to Beirut’s seaside in remembrance of Nasrallah. Supporters projected their late leader’s image onto the Raouche Rocks, defying orders from the prime minister’s office that banned the act.

The event was seen as an expression of love for Nasrallah by his supporters and a provocation by Hezbollah’s opponents. But the group, which has threatened violence to get its way in the past, has largely avoided provocations since the war, apart from occasional attempts to block roads that were quickly reopened by the Lebanese military.

If Hezbollah is pursuing military regrouping, a senior Western diplomat with knowledge of the issue said, it would be more likely in the Bekaa Valley than in the south, where the ceasefire mechanism had been largely effective at supervising Hezbollah’s withdrawal.

The group, however, does appear to be altering its political strategy, Young said, adding that Hezbollah, via instructions from Iran, may eventually be looking for certain compromises.

He pointed out proposals by parliamentarians Ali Hassan Khalil, a Hezbollah ally, and Ali Fayyad, a Hezbollah MP, in their subcommittees, where they spoke about implementing the 1989 Ta’ef Accord, an agreement that ended the civil war, declared all militias should give up their arms and Lebanon should transition to a nonsectarian system of power.

“Their implicit point is that ‘If we implement Ta’ef in its entirety, then that can give us a greater role with better representation, and then we can talk about weapons,’” Young said.

‘Time for Hezbollah to go’?

Amid the intensifying pressure to disarm Hezbollah, analysts and diplomats fear that if pressed too hard, the group could lash out.

The US has announced a $14.2m aid package for the Lebanese military to help it disarm Hezbollah, and visits by US officials – including Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, deputy special envoy Morgan Ortagus and special envoy Tom Barrack – have intensified pressure on Lebanon.

“It’s time for Hezbollah to go,” Graham said during his visit in late August.

But Lebanon’s military has rejected setting a strict timetable for Hezbollah’s disarmament over fears the tense situation in Lebanon could descend into violence.

And news of the US aid has been received poorly in parts of Lebanon, where it is seen as part of a US effort to use Lebanon’s military to execute Israeli interests.

“[The Lebanese army] will never serve as a border guard for Israel. Its weapons are not weapons of discord, and its mission is sacred: to protect Lebanon and the Lebanese people,” Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who is a Hezbollah ally, said in a statement on Tuesday.

The fears of diplomats and analysts are that a confrontation between the army and Hezbollah could lead to internal strife and a potential fracturing of the army along confessional lines – similar to what happened in the early days of the 1975-1990 Lebanese Civil War.

“[Disarming Hezbollah by force] is the worst possible option, but obviously, this is how the Americans are increasingly pressuring the Lebanese government to resolve this,” Young told Al Jazeera.

“The Lebanese army is not willing to resolve it through the use of force because they don’t want to be pushed into conflict with Hezbollah.”

Putrajaya, Malaysia – When Malaysia’s former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad turned 100 earlier this year, he marked his birthday by following a lifelong routine of discipline: he ate little, worked a lot, and did not succumb to the lure of rest.

“The main thing is that I work all the time. I don’t rest myself,” Mahathir told Al Jazeera.

“I am always using my mind and body. Keep your mind and body active, then you live longer,” he said.

From a desk at his office in Putrajaya city, south of the capital, Kuala Lumpur, he spent his centenary like most days: penning his thoughts on the Malaysian economy, the country’s political situation and unfolding world events, particularly the situation in Gaza.

Sitting down with Al Jazeera for an interview after recovering from a spell of exhaustion around the time of his birthday, Mahathir predicted that Israel’s ruthlessness against the Palestinian population of Gaza would be etched into world history.

Israel’s killing of nearly 66,000 Palestinians in Gaza, the majority women and children, will be remembered for generations, possibly for “centuries”, Mahathir said.

“Gaza is terrible. They killed pregnant mothers… babies just born, young people, boys and girls, men and women, the sick and the poor… How can this be forgotten?” he asked.

“It will not be forgotten for maybe centuries,” Mahathir said.

Describing the war in Gaza as a genocide that parallelled the killing of Muslims during the war in Bosnia in the early 1990s and the Jews by Nazi Germany during World War II, Mahathir said he was confounded that the people of Israel, who had experienced genocide, could, in turn, perpetrate a genocide.

“I thought people who suffered like that would not want to visit it on other people,” he said. Victims of a genocide should “not want to wish their fate to befall other people”.

However, in the case of Israel, he was wrong, he said.

At the height of his power in the 1980s and 1990s, Mahathir earned a reputation on the world stage as an outspoken voice for the Global South, and a vocal critic of Western imperialism and its contemporary exploitation of developing countries through flows of financial capital.

A staunch and lifelong supporter of the Palestinian cause, Mahathir was also roundly criticised for making “anti-Semitic” statements alongside his tirades against the West, particularly the United States.

But, as he told Al Jazeera, he had sympathised deeply with the Jewish people when the horrors of the Nazis became known after World War II.

Israelis, he now says, “did not learn anything from their experience”.

“They want the same thing that happened to them, they want to do it to the Arabs,” he said.

Now, the only “reasonable” way to address the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people is to implement a two-state solution, he added. But Mahathir said that such a solution – which received a major boost when Palestinian statehood was recently recognised by Australia, Belgium, Canada, France and the United Kingdom, among other countries – is still a very long way off, and he would not live to see it.

“In my lifetime, no. Too short a time,” he said.

China: ‘Number one country in the world’

A survivor of three heart attacks who pulled off a stunning political comeback in Malaysian public life when he was over 90 years of age, Mahathir held power for a combined total of 24 years, and earned himself what is likely to be the unassailable title as Malaysia’s longest-serving leader.

When he was born on July 10, 1925, in the northern Malaysian state of Kedah, the king of England was George V, the grandfather of the late Queen Elizabeth II, and Malaysia was a British colony known as Malaya.

He entered politics in the 1960s and became prime minister from 1981 to 2003 before stepping down, for the first time.

He then made an astonishing return to power in 2018, when he led a coalition of opposition parties to beat the long-governing Barisan Nasional party to be re-elected prime minister at the sprightly age of 92, becoming the world’s oldest leader as a result.

But he stepped down under a cloud for the last time in 2020 after losing support due to political machinations from inside his own political party, Bersatu.

A medical doctor by training, even Mahathir’s critics acknowledged that he laid the economic foundations that transformed Malaysia’s agricultural economy of the 1960s into the modern industrialised state of today, with the iconic twin Petronas Towers crowning the skyline of its thriving modern capital city, Kuala Lumpur.

Despite having lived past the age when most politicians would have retreated from the spotlight, Mahathir at 100 remains as vocal, sharp and acerbic as ever.

He also had some surprising memories of a bygone China and predictions about the future of the United States to share.

Among his prized recollections are his impressions of visiting China in the 1970s, when it was “very poor” and there were few cars on the streets.

Being Malaysia’s deputy prime minister at the time, authorities in Beijing rolled out the red carpet and their “Red Flag” model car to chauffeur him around, he said.

“It was a very big Chinese car which China produced themselves. They called it The Red Flag,” Mahathir said, recounting how that vehicle was among the first to be independently produced by the Chinese.

Fast forward to today, China’s economy has come a very long way, and so too has its thriving car industry, which is giving Western-produced cars a run for their money, particularly with electric vehicles.

China’s surpassing of the US to become the “number one country in the world” is inevitable, he said, due to its huge domestic market and hard-working population.

“It will take China 10 years to catch up with America. After that, China will overtake America,” Mahathir said.

“China by itself is bigger than Europe and America. It’s a huge market. It is quite rich. And Chinese people are very smart in business,” he said, recounting how, as a youth, he witnessed new Chinese migrants to Malaysia take on “very heavy work” to earn a living. Within a generation or two, those families had managed to improve their lives, give their children a good education, and some of their grandchildren had gone on to become quite wealthy.

‘America will not be able to compete with the rest of the world’

Contrasting contemporary China with the US under the presidency of Donald Trump, Mahathir said that Trump’s “tariff war” was “very damaging”, and his plans to bring production back to the US would increase costs and pave the way for China’s further rise.

“[Trump] wants companies to shift their factories to America. The wages are very high there. The work attitude there will be very different from Chinese workers, who can stay for hours and do the work,” he said.

“American workers cannot do that. Anything produced in America in the future, if they do move the factories there, will be costly,” he added.

“America will not be able to compete with the rest of the world.”

Importantly, Trump does not have the time to follow through on his promised economic vision, as it would take a minimum of three to eight years to move manufacturing facilities to the US, he said.

“And Trump will not be president any more after three years,” he added.

Despite being 100 years old , Mahathir walks unaided, exercises daily, goes to work every day and receives visitors.

He uses social media and travels outside of Malaysia whenever he receives invitations to be a guest speaker.

The key to longevity, Mahathir said, is to stay physically and mentally active and not overeat .

“Don’t eat so much,” he told Al Jazeera.

“My mother’s best advice to me was, ‘When the food tastes nice, stop eating.’”

THE world’s best will step up to the oche once again for this year’s Swiss Darts Trophy – and the action is underway!

Martin Schindler pulled off an incredible comeback against Ryan Searle to win the 2024 crown.

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However, the German returns to Basel as a 16th seed, meaning he could face a potential banana skin in his opening encounter.

World No1 Luke Humphries is also competing in Basel and will be determined to bounce back from his shock quarter-final defeat in last weekend’s Hungarian Darts Trophy.

But teen sensation Luke Littler will not be participating in the 13th stop on the PDC European Tour.

When is the Swiss Darts Trophy 2025?

• The Swiss Darts Trophy 2025 got underway on Friday, September 26.
• It then concludes two days later – Sunday, September 28.
• Afternoon sessions take place from 12pm BST while the evening sessions start at 6pm BST.
• St.Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland is the chosen venue for the penultimate PDC European Tour event.

What TV channel is the Swiss Darts Trophy 2025 on and can I live stream it?

Swiss Darts Trophy 2025 schedule and results

Friday, September 26
First round
Afternoon sessions from 12pm

• Connor Scutt 1-6 Callan Rydz
• Niels Zonneveld 6-3 Dalibor Smolik
• Krzysztof Ratajski 6-0 Owen Bates
• Andrew Gilding 3-6 Cor Dekker
• Ryan Joyce 6-0 Rocco Fulciniti
• Luke Woodhouse 6-5 Lukas Wenig
• Ricardo Pietreczko 6-3 Oskar Lukasiak
• Mensur Suljovic 6-2 Martin Lukeman

Evening sessions from 6pm

• Chris Landman 6-3 Denis Schnetzer
• Wessel Nijman 5-6 Ritchie Edhouse
• Raymond van Barneveld 6-3 Ansh Sood
• Richard Veenstra 6-5 Niko Springer
• Jermaine Wattimena 6-1 Stefan Bellmont
• Dirk van Duijvenbode 6-2 Jitse van der Wal
• Daryl Gurney 1-6 William O’Connor
• Nathan Aspinall 6-0 Andreas Toft Jorgensen

Saturday, September 27
Second round
Afternoon sessions from 12pm

• Ryan Searle 6-3 Niels Zonneveld
• Luke Woodhouse 6-2 Dave Chisnall
• Cor Dekker 6-3 Peter Wright
• Krzysztof Ratajski 6-5 Mike De Decker
• Rob Cross 6-2 Richard Veenstra
• Gian van Veen 6-0 Dirk van Duijvenbode
• Danny Noppert 6-5 William O’Connor
• Ritchie Edhouse Bye (Ross Smith withdrawn)

Evening sessions from 6pm

• Ryan Joyce 6-5 James Wade
• Martin Schindler 6-2 Ricardo Pietreczko
• Jermaine Wattimena 6-1 Josh Rock
• Luke Humphries 6-2 Callan Rydz
• Jonny Clayton 6-4 Nathan Aspinall
• Raymond van Barneveld 6-5 Damon Heta
• Stephen Bunting 6-3 Chris Landman
• Chris Dobey 6-4 Mensur Suljovic

Sunday, September 28
Third round from 12pm

• Luke Humphries v Ryan Searle
• Jermaine Wattimena v Luke Woodhouse
• Jonny Clayton v Martin Schindler
• Chris Dobey v Cor Dekker
• Stephen Bunting v Krzysztof Ratajski
• Raymond van Barneveld v Ritchie Edhouse
• Ryan Joyce v Gian van Veen
• Rob Cross v Danny Noppert

Quarter-finals, semi-finals and final from 6pm

IT will come as no surprise to their stylish famous fans, but Chelsea supporters are the best dressed in the Premier League.

The club’s followers are most likely to wear a smart suit for a night out, a survey has revealed.

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Celebrity fans including Gordon Ramsay, Jeremy Clarkson, David Baddiel, Madness singer Suggs and actor Phil Daniels are always well turned out for a trip to the club’s Stamford Bridge home — and regular fans have followed suit.

But it’s not really a surprise, as back in the Seventies Chelsea’s players, including Alan Hudson and Peter Osgood, were known as the kings of the King’s Road for their fashionable sense of style.

And the club’s 21st-century fans have maintained the tradition, according to research by betting site freebet.com, with 16 per cent getting suited and booted for a big night.

While fans of Newcastle, Burnley and Wolves were in the relegation zone with just one per cent being bothered to look smart.

The table shows there’s a clear North/South divide when it comes to off-the-pitch style.

The top seven spots are filled by teams from London and the south, with Man City and Leeds sharing eighth place with Brentford and West Ham with five per cent.

Spokesman Tim Agnew said: “Our research shows Chelsea fans are the best dressed fans in the Premier League.

“They already had a reputation for wearing Gucci and Prada and our research confirms Chelsea fans like to look sharp.”

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IT was the Autumn equinox on Monday – which means the days are about to get a lot shorter.

Before you know it, it will be dark when you get home from work and when you get up in the morning.

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And although that means less gardening time – there’s still loads you can get in the ground or your greenhouse.

In fact, Autumn is a great time to get planting – simply because the soil is still warm but the weather is cooler – which means roots can establish well before Winter.

Whether it’s for produce or colour before Christmas – or flowers after – I’ve put together a guide on what can go in the ground now.

FLOWERS

You can always tell from what’s on sale in your local garden centre or supermarket as to what will bring you colour in the run up before Christmas.

But staples like container grown Geums, Cyclamen, Astor, Japanese Anenome, and Chrysanthemums can be bought in flower and planted now.

Plus racks of bedding plants like pansies, viola and primroses are filling supermarket shelves.

I managed to find three packs of eight viola plugs from Asda for just a fiver last weekend – which means each of the 24 plugs are only 20p.

Plus the gorgeous colour combinations will fill your garden with rainbows of colour.

And a lot of the garden centres are offering Winter Bedding packs – which takes the decision of what to buy out of your hands – and provides you with a lovely rainbow of colours for your outside space.=

Seeds-wise – you can plant sweetpea, poppies, calendula, cornflower, nemesia, forget-me-nots, and lavender under cover.

BULBS

Daffodils, crocus, alliums and grape hyacinth bulbs are good to go in September and October – as well as the more unusual large Fritalliaries  and Camassia – which look really like bluebells.

But hold fire until November until you plant your tulip bulbs – they love the colder weather.

If you put them in too early, you’ll risk the change of Tulip Fire, which is a fungal disease that causes distorted leaves and spots – that look like scorch marks – on the tulips themselves.

A lot of online garden centres have big bulb sales on at the moment, so it’s worth shopping around.

Suttons Seeds are offering Sun Gardening readers an exclusive link to get 80 per cent off their bulb sales right now.

Access it now at www.suttons.co.uk/sunoffer

VEGETABLES AND FRUIT

Butterhead and Lamb’s lettuce actually like the colder weather – so under a cloche or cold frame, or in a greenhouse – sow the seeds thinly, about 1.5cm deep. Sow every 2-3 weeks for a continuous supply.

Overwintering cauliflower seeds like ‘All The Year Round’ and ‘Autumn Giant’ can be planted now – under protection.

Plus onion seeds, winter greens, garlic, pak choi, spinach and kale.

There’s a lot of fruit you can grow in pots – including cherries, raspberries, strawberries and blueberries.

Then wait until November for bare root season

Also in Veronica’s Column this week…

Gardening news, top tips, Plant of the Week plus a chance to win a £200 Gardening Express voucher.

Fore more gardening content and competitions follow me @biros_and_bloom

NEWS! Did you know that 22 billion carrot seeds are sown each year in the UK, and we eat our way through 700,000 tonnes of carrots annually?
This works out to be around 100 per person, and laid out end to end they would stretch 1.4 million miles – two and a half trips to the moon.  
And as British growers provide 97 per cent of the carrots consumers buy in the UK, there is almost no need to buy imported carrots.
They’re also worth £290m to the UK Economy yet are one of the cheapest vegetables – with loads of nutritional benefits.  
The incredible stats have been released in time for British Carrot Day on Friday – which celebrates the UK carrot growing and encourages people to buy, get creative, eat, and cook with carrots.
For more information visit www.britishcarrots.co.uk 

NEWS! A whopping leaf four metres long has been grown at the Eden Project, Cornwall. Lodoicea maldivica, more commonly known as coco de mer, is native to the islands of the Seychelles and is famous for producing the world’s largest and heaviest seed.
The mature leaf has taken around ten years to develop to this stage. And over the next decade, it could reach a massive eight to ten metres. A coco de mer can live for up to 800 years, reaching up to 112 feet tall.

TOP TIP! September is the start of baby hedgehog (hoglet) season, and you may find that they need your help.
Autumn Juvenile hedgehogs are old enough to be away from their mums, but often too small to hibernate successfully.
Guidance from the British Hedgehog Preservation Society  says that “if the hedgehog is a regular visitor to your garden, is only seen at night, appears active and you are prepared to feed it every night then it can be left in the wild.
But  if the hedgehog goes off its food, wobbles and staggers or starts coming out in the day, then it needs extra help as soon as possible.
The best way to ensure wild hedgehogs are well-fed is to create organic wild spaces, leafy corners and log piles where they can forage for natural foods, like grubs and insects.
To supplement their diet in the wild, you can offer hedgehogs a good quality meaty hedgehog food, meaty cat or dog food or dry biscuits for cats.

NEWS! If you fancy turning your hand to growing houseplants, Unwins have launched a brand new Houseplant Seed Collection, a curated range of eight varieties that have been specially selected and bred to flourish in UK and Irish homes.
Including Asparagus Ferns, Sempervivum, Bird of Paradise and Dichondra Silver Surfer, the packs are available now in your local garden centre.
Natasha Lane, Head of Seed, for Unwins, commented: “We’re very excited to be launching a collection of houseplant seeds for the first time. It now means that it’s easier than ever to create your very own indoor jungle. Whether you’re looking to enhance wellbeing, purify the air, or simply add style to your space, our houseplant seeds are ready to grow with you.”

WIN! One lucky reader can win a £200 Gardening Express voucher to spend online. To enter, visit www.thesun.co.uk/EXPRESSVOUCHER or write to Sun Gardening Express competition, PO Box 3190, Colchester, Essex, CO2 8GP. Include your name, age, email or phone. UK residents 18+ only. Entries close 11.59pm. October 11, 2025. T&Cs apply

PLANT OF THE WEEK! Japanese Anemone. Blooming now, they’re graceful and tall with long stalks and single or double flowers – great for brightening up shady corners, but prefer a bit of sun. Spread by rhizomes.

JOB OF THE WEEK! If you’ve got a pond it’s time to get it ready for winter – net it before leaves start to fall and trim back any overgrown pond plants. Put a tennis ball in to help prevent freezing.

Lilongwe, Malawi – In the rural valleys of Malawi, where homes are built of mud and grass, and electricity is scarce, Tamala Chunda spent his evenings bent over borrowed textbooks, reading by the dim light of a kerosene lamp.

During the day, he helped his parents care for the family’s few goats and tended their half-acre maize field in Emanyaleni village, some 400km (249 miles) from the capital city, Lilongwe. By night, he studied until his eyes stung, convinced that education was the only way to escape the poverty that had trapped his village for generations.

That conviction carried him through his final examinations, where he ranked among the top 10 students in his secondary school.

Then, this May, a letter arrived that seemed to vindicate every late-night hour and every sacrificed childhood game: a full scholarship to the University of Dayton in Ohio, the United States.

“I thought life was about to change for the first time,” Chunda told Al Jazeera. “For my entire family, not just myself.”

News of the award brought celebration to his grass-thatched home, where family and neighbours gathered to mark what felt like a rare triumph. His parents, subsistence farmers battling drought and rising fertiliser costs, marked the occasion by slaughtering their most valuable goat, a rare luxury in a village where many families survive on a single meal a day.

Distant neighbours even walked for miles to offer their congratulations to the boy who had become a beacon of hope for the children around him.

But just months later, that dream unravelled.

The US embassy informed Chunda that before travelling, he would have to post a $15,000 visa bond – more than 20 years of the average income in Malawi, where the gross domestic product (GDP) per person is just $580, and most families live on less than $2 a day, according to the World Bank.

“That scholarship offer was the first time I thought the world outside my village was opening up for me,” he said. “Now it feels as if I’m being informed that no matter how hard I work, doors will remain sealed by money I will never have.”

A sudden barrier

Chunda is one of hundreds of Malawian students and travellers caught in the sweep of a new US visa rule that critics say amounts to a travel ban under another name.

On August 20, 2025, the US State Department introduced a yearlong “pilot programme” requiring many business (B-1) and tourist (B-2) visa applicants from Malawi and neighbouring Zambia to post refundable bonds of $5,000, $10,000 or $15,000 before travelling.

The programme, modelled on a proposal first floated during the Trump administration in 2020, is intended to curb visa overstays. But Homeland Security’s own statistics suggest otherwise.

In 2023, the department reported that Malawian visitors had an overstay rate of approximately 14 percent, which is lower than that of several African nations not subject to the bond requirement, including Angola, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Liberia, Mauritania, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

“It is the equivalent of asking a farmer who earns less than $500 a year to produce 30 years’ worth of income overnight,” said Charles Kajoloweka, executive director of Youth and Society, a Malawian civil society organisation that focuses on education. “For our students, it is less of a bond and more of an exclusion order.”

A US embassy spokesperson in Lilongwe told local media that the bond programme was intended to discourage overstays, and said it did not directly target student visas.

While student visas, known as F-1s, are technically exempt from the bond requirement in the pilot phase of the programme, in practice the situation is more complicated, observers note.

International students on F-1s are allowed to enter the US up to 30 days before their programme start date. However, for those needing to arrive prior to that – for orientation programmes, housing arrangements, or pre-college courses, for instance – they must apply for a separate B-2 tourist visa.

That means that many scholarship recipients need tourist visas to travel ahead of the academic year. But without funds to secure these visas, the scholarships can slip away.

For students entering the US on tourist visas with the intention of changing their status to F-1 once they are there, this is legally permissible, but it must be approved by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. The visa bond requirements make this pathway much more complicated for Malawian students.

Even for those who manage to raise the funds, there is no guarantee of success. Posting a bond does not ensure approval, and refunds are only granted if travellers depart on time through one of three designated US airports: Logan in Boston, Kennedy in New York, and Dulles outside Washington.

Kajoloweka added that the policy also places extraordinary discretion in the hands of individual consular officers, who decide which applicants must pay bonds and how much.

Students in limbo

For decades, programmes such as the Fulbright scholarships, the Mandela Washington Fellowship, and EducationUSA have created a steady pipeline of Malawian talent to American universities.

“Malawi depends on its brightest young minds acquiring skills abroad, especially in fields where local universities lack capacity,” said Kajoloweka. “By shutting down access to US institutions, we are shrinking the pool of future doctors, engineers, scientists, and leaders … It is basically a brain drain in reverse.”

The visa bond has strained decades of diplomatic and educational ties between the US and Malawi, a relationship built by programmes dating from the 1960s and reinforced by sustained investment in education and development.

Last month, Malawi’s foreign minister, Nancy Tembo, called the policy a “de facto ban” that discriminates against citizens of one of the world’s poorest nations.

“This move has shattered the plans most Malawians had to travel,” said Abraham Samson, a student who had applied for US scholarships before the bond was announced. “With our economy, not everyone can manage this. For those of us chasing further studies, these dreams are now a mirage.”

Samson has stopped monitoring his email for scholarship responses. He feels there is little point, believing that even if an offer were to arrive, the overall costs of studying in the US would remain far beyond his reach.

Section 214(b) of US immigration law already presumes every visa applicant intends to immigrate unless proven otherwise, forcing students to demonstrate strong ties to their home country.

The bond adds another burden, wherein applicants must now prove both their intention to return and that they have access to wealth beyond the means of most.

Hope on hold

The situation is even more difficult for small business owners.

One businessman has spent two decades creating his small electronics import company in Lilongwe, relying on regular trips to the US to identify cost-effective suppliers.

In the aftermath of the mandate, the $15,000 visa bond has disrupted his plans, forcing him to buy from middlemen at outrageous prices.

“Every delay eats away at my margins,” he explained, speaking under the condition of anonymity to protect future visa prospects. “My six employees rely on me. If I can’t travel, I may have to send them home.”

Civil society groups, such as the one Kajoloweka helms, are mobilising against the policy. The group is documenting “real-life stories of affected students,” lobbying both locally and internationally, and “engaging partners in the United States and Europe to raise the alarm”.

“We refuse to let this issue quietly extinguish the hopes of Malawian youth,” he said. “This bond is a barrier, but barriers can be challenged. Your dreams are valid, your aspirations are legitimate, and your voices matter. The world must not shut you out,” he added, speaking generally to Malawian youth.

Meanwhile, back in his village, Chunda contemplates a future far different from the one he had imagined. His scholarship to the University of Dayton sits unused, a reminder of an opportunity denied.

“I thought life was about to change for the first time,” he lamented. “For my entire family, not just myself. I now have to look elsewhere to realise my dream.”

This article is published in collaboration with Egab.

HE was the down-to-earth Yorkshireman with one of the most famous gestures in sport.

The way cricket’s most famous umpire Dickie Bird gave batsmen their marching orders — lifting his arm, oh so slowly, index finger outstretched — became his trademark.

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Miner’s son Dickie, who has died at the age of 92, was as much a part of British summers as, well, the sound of bat on ball.

He will be remembered as the man whose popularity broke down the divide between the game’s officials and players — also winning him a huge army of fans way beyond the boundary rope.

Generation after generation watched as Dickie, real name Harold Dennis Bird, umpired 66 tests and 69 one-day internationals, including three World Cup finals, with fairness and humour while reining in the most cantankerous of players.

Dickie, who never married, is expected to leave his multi-million- pound fortune — most of it made when he published his autobiography in 1997 — to children’s hospitals which he often visited.

After his death was announced by Yorkshire County Cricket Club, tributes flooded in for the lord of LBW — when umpire adjudges ball to have hit leg before wicket.

A club statement read: “Dickie Bird enjoyed an illustrious career as an international umpire, writing his name into history as the most famous and popular official in the game’s history.

“He is synonymous with Yorkshire cricket, where he has been one of the most loyal supporters.”

The club named the former Yorkshire batsman as its president in 2014 and said it was a role he held with “pride and distinction” as the club won two country championships during his tenure.

It added that Dickie, awarded an MBE in 1986 and OBE in 2012, had become known “not only for his umpiring excellence but also his eccentricities and warmth”.

Leading the tributes was Yorkshire and England cricket great Sir Geoffrey Boycott.

‘Never officious’

The legendary opening batsman said of the umpiring great: “Dickie was a character, always fun. He was respected, admired and loved. A cricket icon.

“He was brilliant because he made a lot of good decisions but also he had humour and a firmness. He could handle players.

“You could talk to him. He would listen. But chatting him up did not change his mind. No chance. He would laugh with you instead.

“He would never be officious. He just had a way of defusing situations. That was his strength, why he was rated all over the world as the best.”

Boycott first met Dickie in 1955, when they played for Barnsley Cricket Club — and the pair were also friends there with another Yorkshireman who later found fame, the late TV host Sir Michael Parkinson. The three would remain pals for life.

He added of Dickie’s cricket: “I was slightly in awe, nearly every time he went out to bat he would score a 50.

“I was shocked when he would come up to me and say, ‘Put my gloves on for me, Gerald’. I would say, ‘My name’s not Gerald, it’s Geoffrey’. It made no difference because he would say, ‘OK, put the gloves on for me Gerald’. He called me Gerald for years.

Former England captain and opening bat Graham Gooch also has fond memories of Dickie — a­nd the time one of his shots struck him during a match against Australia at Old Trafford in 1985.

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Gooch told talkSPORT: “He tried to get out of the way of the straight drive but it hit him on the ankle. He wasn’t averse to making a bit of a song and dance about things — and he had to go off for treatment.”

Dickie was also in the middle when Gooch played his most famous innings — scoring 333 against India at Lord’s in 1990.

But Gooch added: “Things always happened to Dickie in the field. At Headingley, once they had a leaking pipe, right where he was standing, coming up like a sprinkler. It could only happen to him.”

BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew said of Dickie: “He was a terrific umpire, the players loved him.”

Others taking to social media to pay respects ranged from ex-Prime Minister David Cameron to former Liverpool and Nottingham Forest striker Stan Collymore.

Dickie was born in Barnsley — where he still lived before his death, although he swapped a two-up, two-down terrace with outside toilet for a luxury 16th-century four-bedroom cottage on the edge of the Pennines.

His dad Harold worked in the coal mines from the age of 13 until 65, but wanted better for his son.

Dickie was a character, always fun. He was respected, admired and loved. A cricket icon.

Sir Geoffrey Boycott

Dickie said: “My father would not let me go down the mine. ‘No way!’ he said. He instilled in me that I would play sport for a living.

“He would get up at four each day and go to the pit and when he came home in the afternoon, although tired, would spend hours with me playing cricket and football.”

Dickie’s teenage years at Barnsley Cricket Club were happy ones, as were the friendships he made with Boycott and Parkinson.

He wept as he recalled his final conversation with Parky, the day before his friend’s death in August 2023, aged 88.

Dickie said: “We cracked a few jokes together, we had a few tears in our eyes and we said goodbye, goodbye to each other at the end of the phone call as if we had this feeling that we wouldn’t see each other again and we said goodbye and that was it.

“It was so sad when I heard the news [of his death]. I slumped in my chair and shed tears.”

Another childhood pal was Tommy Taylor, the England and Manchester United centre forward, who died in the Munich air crash of 1958.

Two years earlier, Dickie had made his first-class debut for Yorkshire as a right-hand batsman.

Fervent royalist

He left the club after three years, and spent three more years with Leicestershire before a knee injury forced him to hang up his bat and he switched to umpiring.

He became the first umpire to attract queues of autograph hunters and was so popular with the females that women hung pairs of pants on his statue in his home town.

So popular was he in Barnsley that a local car dealership gave him a motor emblazoned with his name, urging drivers to follow him to their showroom. On the driver’s side they painted him sat at the wheel in his umpiring whites.

Dickie was a fervent royalist who met Queen Elizabeth II 29 times and remembered the time he had lunch with her in 1990.

He also told how he was so nervous about lunch that he turned up at the gates of Buckingham Palace more than four hours early.

He said: “The Queen laughed when I told her and said, ‘You better have a drink’.

“Prince Edward joined us, we had a magnificent lunch, and then it was just the Queen and I in the lounge all afternoon.

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“She had a lovely sense of humour. We talked about cricket and horse racing. She said, ‘We think the world of you and we think you do a good job’. That were the best day of my life.”

The pair then kept in touch. “I had a letter from her a fortnight before she died,” Dickie said after her death in September 2022, aged 96.

“She asked about my health, ‘How are you keeping?’, I used to write back and say, ‘You need to keep going, Ma’am. You’ve got to get there — 100 if you can.

“She was the rock of this country. Magnificent.”

It was just the Queen and I in the lounge all afternoon. We talked about cricket and horse racing. She said ‘We think the world of you and we think you do a good job’. That were the best day
of my life.

Dickie Bird

Dickie was an ambassador for the Children’s Heart Surgery Fund at Leeds General Infirmary and is expected to leave his money to kids’ hospitals after being reduced to tears during visits across the UK.

It is not known how big his estate is but humble Dickie — who counted a £5 glass of wine at his local restaurant as a treat — donated £35,000 to London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital, £70,000 to Barnsley Hospital and £30,000 to the children’s fund at Leeds General.

He said: “When I visit these hospitals and see sick little babies needing surgery, or cut from their groin to their neck after heart operations, I break down in tears. I am not ashamed to admit it.”

His money-spinning, self-titled autobiography sold more than a book about Princess Diana, after her death the same year.

But ever-modest Dickie said: “Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would go to the bestsellers’ list, and beat even Diana’s book.”

His devotion to cricket left little time for much else, and he admitted he regretted never marrying and having children.

He said during the Covid lockdown: “If I miss having something in life, it’s having a family. I’ve had girlfriends. I nearly married twice. But I never married because in cricket you are never at home. I thought it would never work.

“It would have been wonderful to have a lad and watch him play. I missed that. But you can’t have everything. I gave myself to cricket, and it has given me a real good life.”