Great Britain’s men produced a solid performance to win team gold at the European gymastics championship in Leipzig, Germany.
Olympic medallists Jake Jarman and Harry Hepworth, double European floor champion Luke Whitehouse plus Jonas Rushworth and Jamie Lewis – two newcomers to the senior squad – combined for a winning score of 247.528 points.
That total was enough to see off the challenges of Switzerland and Italy and earn Britain a first gold in the event since 2022.
Jarman, who was part of the quartet who won that title in Munich, told BBC Sport: “I’m incredibly proud of this team. It was a new team coming into this and I was a bit unsure how we’d get on together, but from day one it just seemed like the chemistry of the team came together so seamlessly.
“I was just trying to tell them to enjoy it. We do all the hard work back in the gym at home and when it comes to the day you don’t want to walk away from a competition wishing you’d enjoyed it more.”
Rushworth, 19, was making his senior debut for GB.
He told BBC Sport: “It’s a privilege, I feel blessed to be in this team.
“There’s no better group of lads to be here with. The experience was immense and I’m just excited for the future.”
The team event also served as qualification for the men’s all-around and apparatus finals, while the mixed team final takes place on Wednesday.
Mining company Sibanye-Stillwater says all workers are safe and have been provided with food as they await rescue.
Rescue efforts were under way in South Africa on Friday as more than 200 miners were trapped at a gold mine for a second day.
Mining company Sibanye-Stillwater said on Thursday that the miners were trapped after what it referred to as a “shaft incident” at the Kloof gold mine, one of the company’s deepest.
It said that all the workers were safe and gathered at an assembly point where they had been provided with food as efforts were being made to get them out.
“It was decided that employees should remain at the sub-shaft station until it is safe to proceed to the surface,” the company said.
The total number of workers trapped was not immediately clear. News agencies reported that 260 people were trapped, while a company spokesperson said 289 miners were in the shaft.
A Sibanye-Stillwater sign for the Kloof gold mine, where miners are trapped underground in Westonaria, near Johannesburg, South Africa [Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters]
The National Union of Mineworkers, representing the workers at the Kloof mine, said they had been trapped for more than 24 hours as Sibanye-Stillwater continued pushing back its estimated time to retrieve the workers.
“We are very concerned because the mine did not even make this incident public until we reported it to the media,” said NUM spokesman Livhuwani Mammburu.
The mine, located 60km (37 miles) west of Johannesburg, is among a few collecting from some of the world’s deepest gold deposits.
Ghana wants to optimize the benefits from its largely anarchical artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) sector.
For this reason, Africa’s largest gold producer—and the sixth largest in the world—is ushering in a “new order” for gold trading.
As of April 30, no foreign company may purchase and export ASM gold. The move follows the annulment of all licenses held by foreign trading firms. The Ghana Gold Board (GoldBod), a state entity created in March, will now oversee all buying, selling, and export of ASM gold.
“Goldbod will give us better control over our gold exports and help shore up our foreign exchange reserves,” said Ghana Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson.
The West African nation has long wanted to restructure and streamline ASM mining, which accounts for one-third of its gold production, generating $5 billion in 2024. The subsector employs 1 million people and supports 4.5 million indirectly. Cumulatively, Ghana raked in $11.6 billion in gold exports last year.
Despite its importance, chaos reigns. Illegal mining, locally known as “galamsey,” thrives on child labor and is responsible for rapid land degradation, deforestation, and health risks.
By centralizing trading, Ghana hopes to end a mindbogglingly large culture of smuggling. In 2022 alone, 60 tons of gold worth an estimated $1.2 billion was smuggled out of the country.
Suppressing illegal trade is expected to result in increased revenues, with the ripple effect boosting reserves and stabilizing the local currency, the cedi.
The timing appears perfect. Global dynamics, including disruptions owing to last month’s US tariff announcements, are driving demand for gold; prices have soared 29% this year, to $3,500 per ounce in April. Some analysts expect prices to cross the $4,000-per-ounce threshold by the second quarter of 2026.
Ghana’s new gold order is a shock to foreign firms, however, which purchase most ASM gold and export it to international trading or refining companies based in Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, India, and elsewhere.
To continue operating, these firms will have to source gold through GoldBod. This adds another layer of complication, since the new law sets a 14- to 21-day approval period for gold acquisitions, which threatens to disrupt supply chains and reduce earnings.
‘Cuchillo’ (Knife) accused of organised crime, aggravated kidnapping and homicide over murder of 13 miners.
Police have arrested the main suspect in the kidnapping and murder in early May of 13 gold miners in Peru.
Miguel Antonio Rodriguez Diaz, also known by the alias “Cuchillo” (Knife), was detained in the Colombian city of Medellin on Thursday, the Ministry of the Interior in Lima said.
The murders in early May put the spotlight on increasing violence provoked by a gold rush in Peru’s northern Pataz district. The burned bodies of 13 missing gold miners were recovered after being reported as kidnapped by illegal miners allied with criminal armed groups.
Diaz was detained in a joint operation by the Peruvian National Police, Interpol and the Colombian National Police, the Peruvian ministry stated. He is accused of “organised crime, aggravated kidnapping, and aggravated homicide” and due to be extradited back to Peru.
Colombia’s police chief, Carlos Triana, wrote on X that the capture of Diaz was with the support of the United States Homeland Security Investigations agency, which is responsible for investigating transnational criminal gangs.
The suspect’s lawyer, Kevin Diaz, told local radio station RPP that his client had been in Venezuela for “a few days” before returning to Colombia, where he was arrested.
Wave of violence
The wave of violence sparked by the gold rush in Pataz has led the government to establish a military facility in the area.
Mining company La Poderosa, which owns the mine where the murders took place, claimed earlier this month that nearly 40 people, including contractors and miners, have been recently killed in the district by criminal gangs.
The threat is of national importance. As one of Latin America’s biggest gold producers, mining is a key economic avenue in Peru.
However, with the financial success of the market, illegal mining has taken off. The practice involves more money than drug trafficking, amounting to $3bn-4bn per year, according to the government.
That has helped bring an unprecedented wave of gang violence, with several areas of the country under a state of emergency.
On May 4, Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) launched a barrage of suicide drones at Port Sudan, the army’s de facto wartime capital on the Red Sea.
The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) accused foreign actors of supporting the RSF’s attacks and even threatened to sever ties with one of its biggest trading partners.
The RSF surprised many with the strikes. It had used drones before, but never hit targets as far away as Port Sudan, which used to be a haven, until last week.
“The strikes … led to a huge displacement from the city. Many people left Port Sudan,” Aza Aera, a local relief worker, told Al Jazeera. “If the aggression continues … I think I’ll leave like everyone else.”
A drone war
When a civil war erupted between the SAF and RSF in April 2023, the army had aerial supremacy due to its fleet of warplanes and drones.
Yet the RSF is closing the gap with an arsenal of suicide drones, which it used on Port Sudan for six consecutive days, hitting an army base, a civilian airport, several hotels, and a fuel depot, which caused a massive blast.
“Sudan had already entered the phase of drone warfare over the last … few months at least,” said Suliman Baldo, the founder of the Sudan Transparency and Policy Tracker think tank.
The army largely relies on the relatively affordable Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drones, reportedly receiving $120m worth of them since late 2023.
Bayraktars can travel long distances with a large payload, and the army says they helped it regain swaths of territory from the RSF in eastern and central Sudan between September 2024 and March 2025, including the capital Khartoum.
Despite losing significant ground, the RSF then stepped up its aggression against the SAF with Chinese-made drones, according to a recent report by Amnesty International.
The human rights group, Sudan’s de facto military government and other monitors all accuse the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of purchasing these drones – and other weapons – and supplying them to the RSF.
“The UAE strongly rejects the suggestion that it is supplying weapons to any party involved in the ongoing conflict in Sudan,” said Salem Aljaberi, a spokesperson for the UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a statement on X.
Regardless, the increasing use of drones by both sides marks an escalation and risks exacerbating an already catastrophic situation for civilians, according to experts and human rights monitors.
Bold announcement
On May 6, the army-backed authorities in Port Sudan announced the severing of all ties with the UAE after accusing it of being behind the attacks.
The army relies on relatively affordable Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones [Courtesy: Creative Commons]
That announcement was not well thought-out, according to Baldo.
Sudan’s army could lose tens of millions of dollars in gold revenue, as well as access to vital banking operations, he told Al Jazeera.
A UAE-backed company, Emiral Resources, owns a majority of shares in Sudan’s largest gold mine, the Kush mine.
Kush is administered by Sudan’s army, which likely sells tens of millions of dollars worth of gold to the UAE.
According to the Central Bank of Sudan, about 97 percent of gold exports from army-controlled areas went to the UAE in 2023.
Kush exported at least one tonne of gold in 2024, although it is unclear how much higher the number is for production.
Furthermore, UAE banks own a majority share in the Bank of Khartoum, whose digital platform, Bankak, facilitates money transfers for millions of displaced Sudanese and public institutions.
The UAE state also owns El Nilein Bank, which manages and approves international transactions on behalf of Port Sudan, according to a report that Baldo co-authored in March for the Chatham House think tank.
“This was a rushed decision [to cut ties with the UAE] that will have serious consequences … due to the UAE’s control over [Sudan’s] national economy,” Baldo told Al Jazeera.
Major escalation?
Sudan’s army has not clarified how and when it will sever ties with the UAE.
On May 6, SAF chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan vowed in a video to “defeat the militia (RSF) and those who help them”.
Al Jazeera sent written questions to army spokesperson Nabil Abdullah, asking if Port Sudan will implement the announced suspension.
No reply was received by time of publication.
For its part, the UAE’s Foreign Ministry told Al Jazeera in an email that it will not retaliate against Port Sudan.
“The statement issued by the so-called ‘Security and Defence Council’ will not affect the deep-rooted and enduring ties between the UAE and the Republic of the Sudan, and their peoples,” the emailed statement said.
Meanwhile, experts and observers believe the war in Sudan is trending towards a major escalation.
The army’s regional backers could respond to the RSF’s increased use of drones by doubling down on their support for the army, warned Alan Boswell, a Sudan expert for the International Crisis Group.
“The obvious risk [from the attacks on Port Sudan] is that it brings other [regional powers] into deeper involvement on the army’s side,” he told Al Jazeera.
“We could see an escalating war with greater and greater firepower, and nothing would be left of Sudan’s infrastructure by the end of it.”
Thousands of people have been pushed to informal campgrounds, like this one near Tawila in North Darfur, as the fighting rages on between the army and RSF. On February 11, 2025 [Unknown/AFP]
