South West State Minister of Security, Hassan Abdukadir, has called on the Federal Government to hand over federal lawmaker Dahir Amiin Jeesow to the South West administration to face trial.

Speaking to the media on Sunday, Minister Abdukadir accused the MP of instigating deadly clan conflicts and acting as a spoiler in Walanweyn district and other parts of the Lower Shabelle region. He urged the people of Yaqbari Weyne to work toward peace, coexistence, and maintaining stability in the area.

The Minister also welcomed the recent rulings of the Military Court, which imposed harsh sentences on individuals involved in the latest clan clashes in Walanweyn. He praised the Somali National Army and the South West Dervish forces for restoring order, saying they had “completely stabilized the situation” in the district.
Meanwhile, MP Dahir Amiin Jeesow issued denied the Minister’s accusations, describing the remarks as “a violation of the law and the reputation of a national MP.”

“I am not responding to a local minister, and he is a man whose land is under al-Shabaab control,” he added.

The MP insisted that he has long played the role of peacemaker and mediator in efforts to stabilize and reconcile warring clans.

The Lower Shabelle region has experienced a series of deadly clan conflicts in recent weeks, despite the Military Court sentencing several individuals linked to the violence.

Asylum seekers will be banned from using taxis for medical appointments from February, the government has announced.

It comes after a BBC investigation found some people had travelled long distances by taxis or minicabs, with one asylum seeker saying they went on a 250-mile cab journey to a GP, costing the Home Office £600.

In response the government launched an urgent review into the use and cost of taxis to transfer asylum seekers from their hotels to appointments in September.

Now, the government has confirmed it has spent an average of around £15.8 million per year on transport for asylum seekers.

Earlier this year, BBC Radio 4’s File on Four found asylum seekers were being issued with a bus pass for one return journey per week. For other necessary travel, like doctor’s appointments, taxis were used.

And on Friday, one subcontractor told the BBC his firm would do up to 15 drop-offs daily from a hotel in south east London to a doctors surgery around two miles away. These journeys alone would cost the Home Office £1,000 a day, he said.

But Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said this was now going to change.

She said: “I am ending the unrestricted use of taxis by asylum seekers for hospital appointments, authorising them only in the most exceptional circumstances.

“I will continue to root out waste as we close every single asylum hotel.”

She said the government had inherited expensive Conservative contracts.

Instead of taxis, ministers want asylum seekers to use alternatives like public transport.

There will be some exemptions for people with physical disabilities, chronic illnesses and pregnancy related needs. These will have to be signed off by the Home Office under the new rules.

There are other circumstances in which taxis can be used – such as moving between accommodation – but ministers are reviewing the wider use of taxis for asylum seekers and want to extend the principle that they are only used in exceptional circumstances with support evidence.

Ministers have pledged to end the use of asylum hotels by the next election. They want to increase the use of alternative accommodation, such as large military sites.

But figures earlier this week showed 36,273 people were still living in asylum hotels in the UK – an increase compared to June.

There has also been criticism of the growing cost of running asylum accommodation – which has gone up significantly since the contracts were signed.

When the home secretary was asked if the government was prepared to exercise break clauses in contracts with providers in a BBC interview earlier this year, Mahmood said she would explore all options.

But doing so would mean alternative accommodation needs to be found.

The government has also announced significant changes to overhaul the asylum system – with refugee status becoming temporary and the ending of guaranteed housing support for asylum seekers.

The government has recovered £74m since it came to power – but the chair of the home affairs select committee said that was only a start.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said: “The issue is that Labour can’t get a grip on the illegal immigration crisis.

“As Labour hammer working people with £26 billion in tax rises, they have allowed costs for illegal arrivals to spiral because Labour don’t have the backbone to take the tough decisions needed. Namely, deporting all illegal arrivals and leaving the ECHR. Until that happens, the bills will keep mounting.”

The home secretary has said she will end the UK’s “golden ticket” for asylum seekers as part of a major immigration crackdown which she claims will prevent division in Britain.

Shabana Mahmood has outlined a raft of radical measures, including introducing a 20-year wait for those who arrive in Britain by means such as small boats or lorries to qualify for a permanent stay.

But her big announcement, which will be finalised in the Commons on Monday, has been overshadowed once again by Labour leadership rumours after a turbulent week for the government involving anonymous briefings about an alleged coup against Sir Keir Starmer.

Ms Mahmood described the row, which centred around disputed claims that Wes Streeting is vying to be prime minister, as “deeply mortifying” and referred to it as a “tittle tattle”.

It comes after former deputy leader Angela Rayner insisted she had “not gone away” when quizzed on whether a return to frontline politics may be on the cards.

US President Donald Trump has authorised the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela, provoking outrage from the South American nation’s leader.

The US has conducted at least five strikes on suspected drug-carrying boats in the Caribbean in recent weeks, killing 27 people. US Air Force B-52 bombers also circled over the Caribbean Sea on Wednesday for several hours.

Trump has said the US “is looking at land” and eyeing more strikes on drug cartels in the area. The flurry of action came as a top US military leader in the region announced his sudden retirement.

Nicolás Maduro, whose legitimacy as Venezuela’s president is internationally contested, has appealed for peace with the US.

He addressed the “people of the United States” in the television address, saying “no war, yes peace”.

Speaking at the White House, Trump said he believed the military had sea drug operations under control but was now looking at land.

The increased US military presence in the region has raised fears in Caracas of a possible attack. There are reportedly about 10,000 US forces built up in the Caribbean, either on ships or in Puerto Rico, a US territory.

UN-appointed human rights experts have described the US strikes as “extrajudicial executions”.

BBC Verify confirmed that three B-52 bomber planes – the likes of which have been used during conflicts in Iraq and Syria – took off from Barksdale Air Force base in the gulf state of Louisiana.

A Global Strike Command spokesperson also confirmed to CBS, the BBC’s US media partner, that the three aircraft had flown missions near Venezuela.

Meanwhile on Thursday, the commander of US Southern Command (SOUTHCOM), Navy Admiral Alvin Holsey, announced on social media that he would retire by the end of the year. His purview includes the Caribbean Sea, where the US has conducted strikes against alleged drug boats at Trump’s behest.

“The SOUTHCOM team has made lasting contributions to the defense of our nation, and will continue to do so,” he said. “I am confident that you will forge ahead, focused on your mission that strengthens our nation and ensures its longevity as a beacon of freedom around the globe.”

Defence secretary Pete Hegseth praised Holsey’s career and wrote on social media that the admiral “demonstrated unwavering commitment to mission, people, and nation”.

What could the CIA do on Trump’s orders in Venezuela?

According to the New York Times, Trump’s authorisation of the CIA would allow the agency to carry out operations in Venezuela unilaterally or as part of any wider US military activity.

It remains unknown whether the CIA is planning operations in Venezuela, or whether those plans are being kept as contingencies, but the spy agency has a long history of activities in South America.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday alongside FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi, Trump was questioned about the New York Times report.

“Why did you authorise the CIA to go into Venezuela?” a journalist asked.

“I authorised for two reasons really,” Trump said in a highly unusual acknowledgement from a US commander-in-chief about an intelligence organisation whose activities are typically shrouded in secrecy.

“Number one, they [Venezuela] have emptied their prisons into the United States of America.”

He added: “And the other thing are drugs. We have a lot of drugs coming in from Venezuela, and a lot of the Venezuelan drugs come in through the sea, so you get to see that, but we’re going to stop them by land also.”

Venezuela plays a relatively minor role in the region’s drug trade. The president would not be drawn on whether the CIA’s goal was to topple Maduro, for whom the US has offered a $50m (£37m) bounty.

“Wouldn’t it be a ridiculous question for me to answer?” he said.

In the most recent US strike on Tuesday, six people were killed when a boat was targeted near Venezuela’s coast.

On Truth Social, Trump said that “intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics, was associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks, and was transiting along a known DTO [drug-trafficking organisation] drug-trafficking route”.

As has been the case in previous strikes, US officials have not specified what drug-trafficking organisation was allegedly operating the vessel, or the identities of those aboard.

Maduro took to the airwaves on Wednesday night to warn against escalation.

“No to regime change, which reminds us so much of the endless, failed wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and so on,” said the Socialist leader.

“No to CIA-orchestrated coups d’état.”

He added: “Listen to me, no war, yes peace, the people United States.”

Earlier in the day Maduro ordered military exercises in the Caracas suburb of Petare and in neighbouring Miranda state on Wednesday.

In a message on Telegram, he said he was mobilising the military, police and civilian militia to defend the oil-rich country.

Foreign Minister Yván Gil said on Telegram that Venezuela “rejects the warmongering and extravagant statements of the president of the United States”.

“We view with extreme alarm the use of the CIA, as well as the military deployments announced in the Caribbean, which amount to a policy of aggression, threat, and harassment against Venezuela,” he added.

Trump has deployed eight warships, a nuclear-power submarine and fighter jets to the Caribbean in what the White House says is an effort to crack down on drug smuggling.

In a leaked memo recently sent to US lawmakers, the Trump administration said it had determined it was involved in a “non-international armed conflict” with drug-trafficking organisations.

US officials have alleged that Maduro himself is part of an organisation called the Cartel of the Suns, which they say includes high-ranking Venezuelan military and security officials involved in drug trafficking. Maduro has denied the claims.

Mick Mulroy, a former CIA paramilitary officer and Assistant Undersecretary of Defense, told the BBC: “In order to conduct covert action, there needs to be a presidential finding for the CIA specially authorizing it, with specific actions identified.”

Mulroy added that such a finding would mark a “substantial increase” in efforts against drug trafficking organizations.

“Perhaps a real life ‘Sicario’,” he said, referring to a 2015 film that depicts US operatives launching clandestine operations against drug cartels in Mexico.

The Trump administration again finds itself caught up in the Jeffrey Epstein saga after the House Oversight Committee released emails from the late convicted sex offender’s estate that mentioned President Donald Trump.

In one of the messages, the disgraced financier tells longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell that Trump spent “hours” at his house with one of Epstein’s victims and in another states that he “knew about the girls.”

The latest tranche of private emails and messages reveal that the commander-in-chief was a regular topic of discussion as Epstein frequently turned to close Trump ally Steve Bannon, journalist Michael Wolff and others for counsel as the net closed around him. He died in a New York jail cell in August 2019.

The BBC has apologised to Donald Trump over the editing of a speech in a Panorama programme, but won’t pay compensation.

The corporation said it was an “error of judgement” and the programme – from shortly before last year’s presidential election – will “not be broadcast again in this form on any BBC platforms”.

But it added that it “strongly” disagrees that there is “a basis for a defamation claim”.

Mr Trump’s legal team had threatened to sue the BBC for £1bn (£792m) unless it issued a “full and fair retraction” of the programme, apologised immediately, and “appropriately” compensated the president.

The White House has not offered comment on the BBC’s response, and told Sky News to direct questions to “the president’s outside counsel on this matter”.

Roman Starovoyt was found dead in an apparent suicide, Russian authorities said, hours after he was fired by President Vladimir Putin from his role as transport minister.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said Starovoyt, 53, was found with a gunshot wound in his private car on Monday. He was in Odintsovo, where he lived, on the outskirts of Moscow. A criminal probe into his death has begun.

Starovoyt was the governor of Russia’s Kursk region until May 2024, when he was appointed to the transportation role by Putin.

But Ukraine’s incursion into Kursk fueled scrutiny of Starovoyt’s job preparing the border defenses before he left the role, and his deputy was implicated in a corruption scandal related to the border fortifications, The Moscow Times reported.

Kursk Corruption Case
Alexi Smirnov stepped in to replace Starovoyt as Kursk governor from May to December, coinciding with the surprise Ukrainian incursion, which began in August last year. He resigned over his handling of the incursion.

Smirnov and his first deputy, Alexei Dedov, were arrested in April 2025 by the Russian Interior Ministry on allegations of embezzlement of public money over contracts for the construction of fortifications in Kursk.

There were reports across Russian media, including pro-Kremlin Telegram channels and the newspaper Kommersant, that Starovoyt had been implicated in the case.
The Kremlin’s announcement gave no reason for Starovoyt’s dismissal. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said if the dismissal was a result of loss of confidence, it would have been mentioned in Putin’s decree.

“In the case of Starovoyt, there was no such wording,” Peskov said, state-run RIA Novosti reported.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has issued a warning that if Israel is not held responsible for its assault on Iran, “the entire region and beyond will experience repercussions”.

“The US-Israeli assaults on our nuclear facilities represent a clear breach of the NPT [the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty] and UNSC Resolution 2231, which unanimously endorsed Iran’s peaceful nuclear program in 2015,” Araghchi stated during a speech at the BRICS summit in Brazil, as reported by state-run Press TV.
“The subsequent involvement of the US in this aggression, by targeting Iran’s peaceful nuclear installations, has unequivocally demonstrated the full complicity of the American government in Israel’s acts of aggression against Iran.”

Iran garnered the backing of fellow BRICS+ nations during their meeting in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, with the bloc denouncing the recent Israeli and US airstrikes that targeted military, nuclear, and other sites.

The 11-nation coalition declared that the attacks “constitute a breach of international law”.

“We condemn the military strikes against the Islamic Republic of Iran since June 13, 2025,” the leaders stated in a summit declaration, refraining from naming the United States or Israel.

“We also express grave concern regarding intentional attacks on civilian infrastructure and peaceful nuclear facilities,” the bloc further noted.

This declaration marks a diplomatic triumph for Tehran, which has received limited regional or global backing following a 12-day bombing campaign by the Israeli military that culminated in US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities at Natanz, Fordow, and Isfahan.
Israel initiated the unexpected assault on Iran’s military, nuclear, and civilian sites on June 13, resulting in the deaths of at least 935 individuals. The Iranian Health Ministry reported that 5,332 people sustained injuries.

Tehran retaliated with missile and drone strikes on Israel, resulting in at least 29 fatalities and over 3,400 injuries, according to data released by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The conflict concluded with a US-sponsored ceasefire that came into effect on June 24 and remains in place.

At least 51 people have died after heavy rain caused flash flooding, with water bursting from the banks of the Guadalupe River in Texas.

An unknown number of people remain missing, including 27 girls from Camp Mystic in Kerr County, a Christian summer camp along the Guadalupe River.

Xavier Ramirez told NBC News, Sky’s US partner network, that five members of his family – his mother, stepfather, uncle, aunt and cousin – were missing following the floods, while another cousin had been found in a tree 20 miles down river from the campground outside the town of Ingram where they had all been staying.

Mr Ramirez, 23, from Midland in central Texas, said his uncle had been “lost” to the waters but his mother, stepfather and cousin managed to reach higher ground.

One of the trucks the group had taken shelter in was found “in Ingram, against a tree, crushed and flipped, not far from the campground,” he said.
Rescuers have already saved hundreds of people and would work around the clock to find those still unaccounted for, Texas governor Greg Abbott said.

The overflowing water began sweeping into Kerr County and other areas around 4am local time on Friday, killing at least 43 people in the county.

This includes at least 15 children and 28 adults – among those are five children and 12 adults pending identification – Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said at a news conference.

In nearby Kendall County, one person has died. At least four people were killed in Travis County, while at least two people died in Burnet County. Another person has died in the city of San Angelo in Tom Green County.

But as rescue teams are searching for the missing, Texas officials are facing scrutiny over their preparations and why residents and summer camps for children that are dotted along the river were not alerted sooner or told to evacuate.

AccuWeather said the private forecasting company and the National Weather Service (NWS) sent warnings about potential flash flooding hours before the devastation.

Israel has turned down Hamas’ suggested modifications to the most recent hostage and ceasefire agreement concerning Gaza. However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced on Saturday that negotiators will travel to Qatar on Sunday to attempt to bridge the remaining gaps.

Why it matters: Despite significant obstacles still in place, the revival of indirect discussions in Qatar represents a crucial advancement towards a possible ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

The two sides have not participated in negotiations since the last round of discussions failed six weeks ago.
Driving the news: President Trump has been urging both Israel and Hamas — via Qatari and Egyptian intermediaries — to reach an agreement that encompasses a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza along with the release of 10 living hostages and 18 deceased individuals.

He is seeking to witness some progress by Monday, when he intends to meet with Netanyahu at the White House. Trump expressed to reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday night that he is “very optimistic” regarding the likelihood of securing a deal next week.
What they’re saying: “The modifications that Hamas seeks to implement in the Qatari proposal are unacceptable,” stated the Israeli prime minister’s office in an official announcement.

Nevertheless, Netanyahu has accepted Qatar’s invitation for “proximity talks” with Hamas. The announcement indicated that the Israeli negotiation team will depart for Doha on Sunday, underscoring that the discussions will be “based on the Qatari proposal that Israel has consented to.”
Catch up quick: Hamas declared on Friday that its reaction to the proposed ceasefire and hostage agreement “can be characterized as positive” and that the Palestinian militant organization is prepared to initiate implementation discussions.

However, Hamas also presented three reservations to Qatari mediators that it wishes to address in indirect negotiations with Israel and the U.S. Once the ceasefire is established, Hamas requests that the UN regain control over the distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza. It has insisted that the Israel and U.S.-supported Gaza Humanitarian Fund no longer be involved in the aid distribution process.
Hamas further demands that the IDF withdraw to the positions it occupied prior to the collapse of the March ceasefire. Israel has dismissed these requests.