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USA: Former US attorney for Eastern District of Virginia Jessica Aber found dead
Jessica Aber, the former US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, was found dead at a residence on Sunday morning.
Police in Alexandria, Virginia, responded to reports of an unresponsive woman at about 09:18 local time (13:00 GMT), the department said in a statement.
Officers then located a deceased woman, who they later identified as Ms Aber, police said.
Ms Aber, 43, was appointed by former President Joe Biden in 2021. She stepped down in January when Donald Trump took office.
Ukraine: Seven killed in Russian attacks on Kyiv before peace talks in Saudi Arabia
At least seven people have been killed in overnight Russian drone attacks on the Ukrainian capital, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged his Western allies to put more pressure on Moscow to cease its attacks on the country in advance of peace talks in Saudi Arabia.
Three people, including a five-year-old, were killed and 10 were injured in a drone attack on Kyiv, the city’s military administration said on Sunday.
Vatican: Pope Francis makes first appearance from Rome hospital
Pope Francis has appeared at the window of the hospital in Rome for the first time since being admitted on 14 February.
The 88-year-old pontiff was discharged minutes later and doctors say he will need at least two months of rest at the Vatican.
During the past five weeks, he presented “two very critical episodes” where his “life was in danger”, Dr Sergio Alfieri, one of the doctors treating the Pope, said.
Pope Francis was never intubated and always remained alert and oriented, Dr Alfieri said. The Pope is not completely healed, but no longer has pneumonia and is now in a stable condition, according to his doctors.
Lebanon warns of ‘new war’ as death toll from Israel strikes rises
The death toll from the series of Israeli strikes across Lebanon has risen to seven, the government said, as Prime Minister Nawaf Salam warned that his country was at risk of being drawn into a “new war”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Israel Katz ordered “a second wave of strikes against dozens of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon”, the defence ministry said on Saturday, in the largest escalation since a November 27 ceasefire.
UK: Civil Service told to slash running costs by 15%
The government is to tell the Civil Service it must make savings of more than £2bn a year from its administrative costs by the end of the decade, Whitehall sources have told the BBC.
Civil Service departments will be instructed to reduce running costs by 10% by 2028-29 and then 15% the following year, an efficiency target that would save £2.2bn annually.
Front-line services directly serving the public are not in the firing line – it will be the spending on sectors such as human resources, policy advice, communications and office management that are to be slashed.
But unions who represent rank-and-file civil servant staff are still adamant that the changes will mean significant numbers of job cuts – and have challenged ministers to be upfront about what areas of work they are prepared to stop as part of the cuts.
The changes are part of the government’s ongoing spending review, the BBC understands, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves set to deliver her Spring Statement on Wednesday.
South Korea: At least two dead as wildfires rage
At least two people died and hundreds evacuated their homes as wildfires raged in South Korea on Saturday.
Two firefighters were found dead in Sancheong County in the country’s south-east, news agency Yonhap reported, citing local officials.
Two others were reported missing as multiple fires blazed across the country, according to the Korea Forest Service.
A state of national disaster was declared at 18:00 local time (09:00 GMT), covering Ulsan city and North and South Gyeongsang provinces in the south-east.
USA: Trump envoy dismisses Starmer plan for Ukraine
Sir Keir Starmer’s plan for an international force to support a ceasefire in Ukraine has been dismissed as “a posture and a pose” by Donald Trump’s special envoy.
Steve Witkoff said the idea was based on a “simplistic” notion of the UK prime minister and other European leaders thinking “we have all got to be like Winston Churchill”.
In an interview with pro-Trump journalist Tucker Carlson, Witkoff praised Vladimir Putin, saying he “liked” the Russian president.
“I don’t regard Putin as a bad guy,” he said. “He’s super smart.”
Palestine: Israeli air strike kills top Hamas official in Gaza
An Israeli air strike on the southern city of Khan Younis in Gaza has killed top Hamas political leader Salah al-Bardaweel, a Hamas official has told the BBC.
Locals say the air strike killed both Bardaweel, regarded as Hamas’s highest-ranking political leader, and his wife. Israeli officials had no immediate comment.
The total death toll in Gaza since the war began surpassed 50,000 on Sunday, its Hamas-run health authorities said, with least 30 people killed in Khan Yunis and Rafah so far on Sunday.
Israel resumed heavy strikes on Gaza earlier this week – in effect ending the first phase of a ceasefire that lasted almost two months. It blamed Hamas for rejecting a new US proposal to extend the truce.
Turkey: Istanbul mayor arrested ahead of selection to run against Erdogan
A rival to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been formally arrested and charged with corruption.
Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of the Turkish city of Istanbul, is expected to be selected as the opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) 2028 presidential candidate in a ballot on Sunday.
Imamoglu denies the allegations and in a statement on social media, he is quoted as saying: “I will never bow”.
His detention on Wednesday has sparked off some of the largest protests in more than a decade. Erdogan has condemned the demonstrations and accused the CHP of trying to “disturb the peace and polarise our people”.
USA: Earrings worth $769,500 recovered by Florida police after alleged thief swallows them
Orlando police have recovered two sets of earrings worth a combined $769,500 (£597,000) after an alleged thief swallowed them more than two weeks ago.
Jaythan Gilder, 32, swallowed the Tiffany & Co. diamond earrings around the time he was taken into custody on 26 February, police said.
Mr Gilder was monitored by detectives at an Orlando hospital for “more than a dozen days” before the earrings were expelled from his system, according to the Orlando Police Department.
Mr Gilder faces charges of robbery with a mask and grand theft in the first degree.
Tiffany’s has since cleaned the earrings.
USA: The man with a mind-reading chip in his brain – thanks to Elon Musk
Having a chip in your brain that can translate your thoughts into computer commands may sound like science fiction – but it is a reality for Noland Arbaugh.
In January 2024 – eight years after he was paralysed – the 30-year-old became the first person to get such a device from the US neurotechnology firm, Neuralink.
It was not the first such chip – a handful of other companies have also developed and implanted them – but Noland’s inevitably attracts more attention because of Neuralink’s founder: Elon Musk.
But Noland says the important thing is neither him nor Musk – but the science.
He told the BBC he knew the risks of what he was doing – but “good or bad, whatever may be, I would be helping”.
“If everything worked out, then I could help being a participant of Neuralink,” he said.
“If something terrible happened, I knew they would learn from it.”
Venezuela: Authorities to resume repatriation of migrants after deal with US
Venezuela will resume flights for its nationals deported by the US, after reaching an agreement with the Trump administration.
Venezuela, which does not have diplomatic relations with the US, had initially agreed to accept deportees in February. But President Nicolás Maduro halted flights in March after a dispute with the Trump administration.
“Tomorrow, thanks to the government’s perseverance, we’ll resume flights to continue rescuing and freeing migrants from prisons in the United States,” Maduro said in a televised address on Saturday, Reuters reports.
USA: Columbia University agrees to Trump administration’s demand for mask ban
Columbia University has agreed to several demands from the Trump administration after $400m (£310m) in federal funding was pulled over accusations the university failed to fight antisemitism on campus.
Columbia says face masks used for the purpose of concealing identity are no longer allowed, and anyone involved in a protest must, when asked, present university identification.
Friday’s memo from the university comes after the Trump administration gave Columbia a list of nine items that were required before it would reconsider the $400m in funding.
Columbia has agreed to much of the demands, but the Trump administration is yet to respond and it is unclear if the funding will be restored.