Jabalia, Gaza – Between the arms of his father and the family who cared for him during his disappearance, little Mohammed plays happily.
About 16 months ago, a 13-month-old Mohammed sat crying beside his mother’s lifeless body, surrounded by the dead and wounded, after an attack on the school the family was sheltering in.
That day, amid the chaos and fear as displaced families fled, he disappeared.
His father, Tareq Abu Jabal, spent more than a year looking for Mohammed while, unbeknownst to him, another man from the school was looking for Tareq.
‘A little guest’
Rasem Nabhan and his family were also displaced and sheltering in al-Rafei School in Jabalia in northern Gaza when two Israeli bombs hit it in late December 2023.
“We were terrified, the children were screaming,” the 41-year-old said. “Moments later, quadcopters appeared, broadcasting orders for everyone to evacuate immediately. There was gunfire everywhere.”
Rasem focused on getting his wife and seven children out of the school with the other women and children, then ran to help extinguish the flames still burning in the bombed classrooms. They needed to check if anyone was left alive.
Tareq Abu Jabal spent more than a year looking for his youngest child [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
“Blood covered the walls. … Body parts were scattered on the floor among the wounded and the dead. It was beyond words,” Rasem said.
Amid the carnage, he said, “I saw a baby crying and screaming. Next to him lay the body of a woman – her head and stomach torn apart, her body covered in blood. I think she was his mother.”
He picked up the child and ran, not thinking. “The baby’s face was red, and he could barely breathe, he was crying so hard.”
“I kept asking people around me: ‘Do you know this child? His mother was killed.’ But no one did,” he recounted. “It was impossible. … It felt like the Day of Judgement, everyone fleeing, clutching their children.”
Tanks had surrounded the school by then, he said, forcing everyone to walk south. Rasem walked with the baby in his arms until he reached his wife, who was waiting for him by the road with their children.
“I handed the child to my wife and told her I’d found him at the school with his dead mother,” he said.
Fawakeh Nabhan, Rasem’s 34-year-old wife, took the baby as her older daughters clamoured to be allowed to hold him.
“For a moment, the fear faded as we welcomed this little guest,” she said. “He had the most beautiful face, and I felt an instant connection.”
They nicknamed the baby Hamoud, the diminutive for Mohammed and Ahmed, two popular names, and took him along as they walked south towards Rashid Street, passing through the Israeli army’s Netzarim checkpoint.
They took turns carrying the baby – Rasem, Fawakeh and their two older daughters, 19-year-old Islam and 18-year-old Amina.
“He would fall asleep and wake up in our arms, like any other child, unaware of what was going on around him,” Fawakeh said.
Growing attached
The family didn’t know how old the baby was, but they guessed he was seven to nine months old, based on his size and weight.
“We’d never seen him at the school before and had no idea [about] his real age or when he was born,” Fawakeh added.
The family walked to central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah, resting there a while before continuing to Khan Younis in the south, where they had heard there were spots available at another school-turned-shelter.
“Despite the risks, I felt a school was better than living in a tent. At least we would have a concrete roof over our heads,” Fawakeh said.
Mohammed (Hamoud) plays happily, watched by his two families [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
The story of their displacements is long and complex because they moved from school to displacement camp to sleeping rough back to a tent for months.
Through it all, Rasem and Fawakeh saw the baby as a source of warmth and joy.
“At first, he was withdrawn and silent, never laughing, no matter how much we tried. For nearly 50 days, he was like that – as if he were searching for his mother and wondering who we were,” Rasem recalled. “But over time, he started to open up. He grew attached to us, and we to him.”
Throughout their displacement, Fawakeh, with Islam and Amina, cared for the baby. But when it came to feeding him, Fawakeh insisted on doing it herself.
But caring for a baby as Israel wages its genocidal war on Gaza is a huge financial strain because formula, diapers and nutritious food are either not available or are exorbitantly priced.
“When we arrived in the south, we bought formula and a pacifier, but he refused. I think he was breastfed by his mother,” Fawakeh said. “In a way, that was a relief because formula was expensive. Instead, I fed him lentils, beans, rice. He ate whatever we ate.”
“He loved bananas so much. We could only afford two – one for him and one for my four-year-old son, Abdullah.”
Diapers had to be rationed as their price skyrocketed, reaching 10 shekels a diaper (about $2.70).
“I would put one diaper on him at night, and during the day, I used cotton cloths that I changed frequently,” Fawakeh explained.
Blessings
As the family moved around, the baby became well known and adored, bringing blessings to the family, Rasem said.
Hamoud did not look like the Nabhans, and people would ask Rasem and Fawakeh about him. When they heard his story, their hearts would melt, and they would shower the little boy with whatever small gifts they could find.
“Our neighbours in the camp would send us plates of food just for him,” Fawakeh said with a laugh. “They would say, ‘Make sure he eats this.’”
Mohammed with Islam, who helped her mother take care of him for more than a year [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
“He calls my husband Baba and me Mama. He sleeps in my lap, runs straight to me when he needs comfort,” Fawakeh said, lowering her voice as she glanced at her youngest son.
“Abdullah, my four-year-old, would get so jealous and cry whenever I gave the baby too much attention.”
Overall, the couple’s children – Mohammed, 20; Islam, 19; Amina, 18; Maryam, 12; Nour el-Huda, 10; Mustafa, nine; and Abdallah, four – embraced the baby as one of their own.
Despite numerous offers from organisations, orphan sponsorship programmes and even other families willing to adopt the baby, Rasem refused.
“He is my eighth child. I love him deeply, and I refused the idea of someone taking him from me,” Rasem said.
“My answer was always firm: The only way I would ever let him go is if I found his real family.”
Then, in a hushed voice, he confessed: “But in my heart, I prayed I wouldn’t find them. I stopped searching. We had become too attached.”
A father’s search
As Rasem spoke, Mohammed’s father Tareq, 35, sat nearby listening, smiling at his youngest son.
The father of three – Omar, 14; Tolay, nine; and Mohammed, now 26 months – had never stopped looking for his missing child.
“On the day al-Rafei School was bombed, my wife and three children were inside our classroom,” Tareq recalled. “I was in the schoolyard when the air strike hit. I ran, screaming, towards them.”
The Israeli army had shelled both al-Rafei and the school next door. “In that strike, my wife, my nephew and six others were killed – eight lives lost in an instant,” he said.
“When I reached our classroom, I saw Omar and Tolay, both injured. Omar had shrapnel in his back, and my daughter had been struck in the stomach. Then I saw my wife. … Her body was torn apart.”
His voice faltered. “I collapsed. But somehow, I forced myself to help evacuate her body with the others.”
His wife, Iman Abu Jabal, was 33. Tolay carried shrapnel in her stomach for three months.
“Grief, fear for my wounded children, the screams, the rush to evacuate, the army’s drones circling overhead,” Tareq recounted. “In the panic, I didn’t take Mohammed with me when I carried his siblings out.”
When he went back for Mohammed, he couldn’t find him. The baby was gone.
“I started asking everyone,” he said. “Some told me he had been killed. Others said someone took him. The stories kept changing.”
Rasem Nabhan with, from left, Mustafa, nine; Maryam, 12; Nour el-Huda, 10; and Abdallah, four [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
“I was devastated. I searched through the crowds, but everyone was running, screaming, grabbing their children and fleeing,” he added.
He was not able to find his baby.
He went back into the school with a few others to bury the victims of the bombing.
“We wrapped my wife’s body in a sheet and waited for three hours in a classroom, unable to go outside to the yard to bury her,” Tareq recalled.
“The shelling and gunfire were relentless, but I wanted to bury my wife, no matter what.”
Among those who remained at the school was a surgeon who treated the wounded, including Tareq’s children, as best he could.
“My nephew was bleeding heavily. A young man helped him leave the school and walk to al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, but he arrived in critical condition and passed away there.”
Tareq and the children spent the night in the school with the others who had stayed to bury their loved ones. In the morning, they snuck out through a gap in the school’s walls, taking detours to reach his brother’s house in western Jabalia.
After dropping the older kids off, Tareq spent the rest of the day searching the hospitals in Jabalia for Mohammed, then at the various spots where displaced people had gathered.
“I was told a family had taken him to the south while others hadn’t seen or heard anything about him.”
But Tareq also had to focus on his other children, traumatised by seeing their mother die and in need of food, medicine and care.
By the end of February 2024, northern Gaza was in the grips of famine, so Tareq decided to move south to save the children from the severe hunger sweeping the region.
As soon as he arrived in Rafah, Tareq resumed his search for Mohammed.
“I started asking relatives, acquaintances and neighbours who were with us in the school we had fled from, but I found no trace of him,” he continued. “I spent days like this until I lost all hope and turned to God.”
“I was seeing people fleeing, leaving their children behind in the bombings and evacuations. I saw children lost and crying. … It made me think about my child.”
Fawakeh and her family embraced their ‘little guest’ as one of their own [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
Reuniting
On January 27, when displaced families were allowed to return to northern Gaza, the Abu Jabals and the Nabhans walked back to Jabalia.
“By 8am, my children and I were standing on the rubble of our home in Jabalia,” Tareq told Al Jazeera. “We had set out at 4am – we couldn’t wait any longer.”
Rasem and Fawakeh’s family headed out a bit later, and along the way, they were stopped for an interview.
“I talked about my joy to be going back. Then the journalist asked me about the baby, thinking he was my son and how he had grown up in the south,” Rasem recalled.
“I told her he wasn’t my son and explained his story. She was so moved, she made a plea on air for anyone to identify the child’s family,” Rasem added.
The family eventually got to Rasem’s parents’ home in Jabalia, not too far, as they would find out later, from Hamoud’s “real” family.
The next morning, Tareq came across the video from the TV interview.
“His features hadn’t changed although he had grown a little. I started shouting out across the rubble: ‘My son’s alive! My son Mohammed is alive!’
“My brother, his wife, the family and neighbours rushed over, asking what was wrong.
“We all watched the video together. Rasem’s face was familiar because we’d been sheltering at the same school.”
Asking around, Tareq figured out where Rasem’s family was staying and rushed over.
“Me, my children and brother went over, and I introduced myself to Rasem, who recognised me right away.
“Mohammed didn’t recognise me and cried,” he said, smiling in gratitude anyway.
The Nabhans were conflicted, happy that Hamoud, who they now knew was named Mohammed, had found his family but sad that he was leaving.
“It felt like I was giving away a piece of my soul,” Rasem said. “The hardest moment was when they left, and Hamoud was calling me, crying, ‘Baba, Baba!’”
Luckily, Mohammed’s family lives nearby, and his adopted family can see him often [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
“I spent the night crying from the sadness over Hamoud’s departure,” Fawakeh said, her eyes brimming with tears.
“My daughters cried for an entire week. The house felt like a wake. Hamoud had become a part of us,” Fawakeh added as she held the visiting Mohammed, who still calls her Mama, close.
“I told my husband and Tareq that Hamoud should come see us often. He’s like our son, and he’s very attached to me.
“Luckily, they live nearby, and my children always go to bring him over, so he can spend time with us. He brings us such joy,” she beamed.
Watching the Nabhans playing with his son, Tareq smiled. “I’m so grateful to them, from the bottom of my heart. They raised him as if he were their own. … He was with a family who showed him the love and care of the mother he lost.
“But as you can see, when Mohammed sees Rasem, his wife and their family, he completely forgets about me,” Tareq said.
United States President Donald Trump’s administration announced a major military offensive against the Houthis a few weeks ago.
The United States has carried out more air strikes in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, after targeting Kamaran Island and Marib governorate earlier, Houthi media outlets report.
No details on casualties have been provided yet.
In Sanaa, two US airstrikes targeted the area of Attan, which has been controlled by the rebel movement since 2014. US airstrikes also reportedly targeted a sanitation project in the Asir area, as well as the Furwah neighbourhood and a popular market in the Shoub district, according to Houthi media.
The strikes on Sunday come a day after the US launched 13 strikes on Hodeidah’s port and airport, and three days after its deadliest attack to date targeted the Ras Isa port, also in Hodeidah, killing at least 80 people and wounding more than 150.
Houthi-held areas in Yemen have been subjected to near-daily air strikes by Washington. Civilians have been targeted, families wiped out, military sites destroyed and soldiers killed.
More than 200 people have been killed since US President Donald Trump’s administration announced a major military offensive against the Houthis in March. It said the air strikes are aimed at forcing the group to stop threatening ships sailing on the Red Sea on a route crucial to international trade.
Since November 2023, the Houthis have reportedly launched more than 100 attacks on vessels they say are linked to Israel in response to Israel’s war on Gaza and in solidarity with Palestinians.
Houthi attacks have paralysed shipping through the Suez Canal, a vital waterway through which approximately 12 percent of global shipping traffic normally passes, forcing many companies to resort to costly alternative routes around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.
The Houthis halted attacks on shipping lanes during a two-month ceasefire in Gaza earlier this year. But they vowed to resume strikes after Israel renewed its assault on the besieged enclave last month.
The Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah or “supporters of God”, emerged in the 1990s but rose to prominence in 2014 when they seized Sanaa and forced President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to flee the country.
At some point in the mid-1960s, artist Don Bachardy began to make a regular practice of having the sitter for a portrait-drawing sign and date the sheet of paper, just as the artist did, at the end of a rigorous, multihour session. The dual signature routine continued for more than six decades as his career unfolded, until finally Bachardy largely retired his pencil, pen and brush in 2022. The practice is revealing.
On the one hand, it memorializes an origin of Bachardy’s intense commitment to portraiture as an artistic genre. The Los Angeles native, born in the midst of the Great Depression, was a devoted movie fan. Signing pictures of oneself is what an actor does.
On the other hand, the sitter’s handwriting is also proof that the portrait was drawn from life, not copied from a photograph. After World War II, the camera had become portraiture’s primary tool.
Finally, the dual signatures identify a distinctive point of view that makes Bachardy’s portraits so compelling: His drawings are performances. Both artist and sitter participated in putting on a pictorial show. A Bachardy portrait enacts an extended visual encounter between two people, its intimacy inescapable. The “actors” autograph their picture.
Don Bachardy’s 1966 pencil and ink portrait of critic Harold Rosenberg is an early example in the 60-year drawing survey.
(Christopher Knight / Los Angeles Times)
At the entry to “Don Bachardy: A Life in Portraits,” the beautiful survey of just over 100 works on paper newly opened at the Huntington in San Marino, a vitrine holds an example of his mother’s Hollywood celebrity scrapbooks. Two rather inert pencil sketches (Montgomery Clift and Bette Davis), made when Bachardy was exiting high school, were copied from photographs in movie magazines, while a couple of excited black-and-white snapshots with movie stars (Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall) were taken by his brother, Ted, during the boys’ public excursions to nab autographs at the Oscars and at Hollywood premieres.
Then, the show quickly shelves the cinematic celebrity angle. That curatorial decision was critical. The exhibition has other, more important things on its mind — specifically, cementing Bachardy’s reputation as a serious artist, rather than a graphically talented movie fan. In that it succeeds.
Bachardy, who will be 91 in May, has drawn countless boldfaced names over the decades, friends and acquaintances generated through his loving 34-year partnership with celebrated writer Christopher Isherwood (“The Berlin Stories,” “A Single Man,” “Christopher and His Kind,” etc.), who died in 1986 at 81. Popular Bachardy books like “Hollywood” and “Stars in My Eyes” are compendiums of many of those movie star drawings, and lots of them are very good. But the glare from all that vivid starlight has gotten in the way of seeing his work for what it is — an evolving artistic project that illuminates acute elements of contemporary portraiture. Now, he’s more than ready for his close-up.
In the chronologically installed exhibition, for every Charles Laughton or Bette Davis, there are 20 drawings of sitters either unknown to a viewer — friends, romantic partners — or else focused on other artistic provinces outside Hollywood’s magnetic field. There are riveting portraits of painters (Billy Al Bengston, Elaine de Kooning, David Hockney, Patrick Hogan), writers (James Baldwin, William S. Burroughs, W.H. Auden), musicians and dancers (Lotte Lenya, Igor Stravinsky, Trisha Brown, Alicia Markova), and art-world figures (critic Harold Rosenberg, dealer Nicholas Wilder, bookseller Dagny Corcoran). The result, smartly conceived by guest curator and the artist’s longtime friend Gregory Evans, decisively shifts the frame to Bachardy as living a life among diverse artists.
The Huntington show downplays Don Bachardy’s famous Hollywood portraits to focus on friends and colleagues.
(Christopher Knight / Los Angeles Times)
While the camera has long since replaced drawing and painting as portraiture’s primary medium, Bachardy’s unmistakable obsessiveness — more than 15,000 of his drawings, a prodigious daily output since 1959, have been gifted to the Huntington — pays off in work that could only be accomplished by a human hand. We tend to think of drawings as preparation for paintings or sculptures, which they had been for centuries. But drawing is the most direct record of evolving artistic thought — a charged current running from brain to hand to sheet. Because of that, drawing flourished as a wholly independent medium in the 1970s, thanks to the concurrent rise of idea-intensive Conceptual art.
By then, Bachardy’s keenly focused portraits were already occupying specific drawing territory in what would become a wide, rich artistic field. He had studied at the Chouinard Art Institute (now CalArts) and London’s Slade School of Fine Art in the 1960s, but oil painting was never an interest.
Black-and-white drawings dominate the show’s first half, in which closely observed, acutely detailed faces emerge out of the blank void of colorless sheets of paper. Settings rarely turn up, nor do identifying attributes — a musician’s instrument, a scholar’s book, a geographer’s globe. Hands are typically next in line for precision, while bodies are often merely suggested with loose, generalized marks of the pen or brush, leaving room for a viewer’s perception to fill in vacancies. A person seems to be coming into view, materializing from emptiness before your eyes.
Bachardy draws the eyes first — for practical reasons, he once explained. If the eyes don’t come out right, the portrait fails, so why waste the time and effort on everything else before drawing them?
One subtle but vital through line in the show is the 34-year relationship between Bachardy and Isherwood — with Allen Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky, arguably the most public queer couple in America before homosexuality was decriminalized nationwide in 2003. Bachardy’s self-portraits and drawings of Isherwood pepper the galleries, a confluence that reveals something that should be obvious: Two portrait artists, one pictorial and the other literary, resided for decades in the same household. Since Bachardy was Isherwood’s junior by 30 years, he no doubt learned a lot; and no doubt the tutelage also went the other way.
In 1985, Don Bachardy drew several hundred portraits of Christopher Isherwood during the celebrated writer’s final weeks of life.
(Christopher Knight / Los Angeles Times)
A pivot comes midway, opening final rooms of colorful acrylic portraits, with four heart-rending drawings of Isherwood’s last weeks of life. The figure is roughly life-size, rendered in spare, firm strokes of black acrylic applied with Japanese brushes to sizable sheets of paper. Hooded eyes, a linear slash for a mouth, a square jaw, a tousle of hair — the startling frugality of lines that bring the dying sitter to full life embodies the knowing depth of the couple’s relationship.
Isherwood, who had been Bachardy’s first live sitter in 1953, knew he was dying of prostate cancer. But he gave himself over to the substantial demands of sitting for what became hundreds of final portraits.
And the process is arduous. I sat for a Bachardy portrait in 1983 — one of two he made that day is in the Huntington exhibition — and the experience was unnerving. Not only is being scrutinized by another person for a few hours discomforting, but there are also worries about remaining stock-still and maintaining agreed-upon silence, necessary to his method, plus apprehension about what’s unfolding unseen on the other side of the easel. The experience remains vivid.
At some point I realized that, as a sitter, I was engaged in “performing” for the artist — prepared hair and wardrobe, lighting angle, precise placement of hands and body for the duration, all left to my choice. Meanwhile, his drawing was performing for anticipated audiences — even if the spectators would only consist of the two of us. The vulnerability was mutual, extending to both artist and sitter.
Don Bachardy, self-portrait, 2018, acrylic on paper,
(Don Bachardy / The Huntington)
There’s a habit of claiming that a portrait means to “capture an essence” or “reveal interiority” concealed within the subject, but I’m skeptical of such assertions. Portraiture is instead all about recording a surface — as fully, robustly and truthfully as possible — which, if successful, will allow for the unencumbered experience of the sheet of marked paper set before a viewer’s eyes. What was going on inside Isherwood as his mortality approached, I cannot say — nor do any of the show’s other 102 drawings offer inner revelations of their varied subjects. But the intensity of Bachardy’s rendering of a man he loved so deeply and who was slipping away is all over those sheets — they’re brilliant performances of a relationship — and they are profoundly moving.
The show was ably organized by Evans, who whittled the initial selection from Bachardy’s prodigious archive, with Dennis Carr, Huntington chief curator of American art, and Karla Nielsen, the library’s senior curator of literary collections. The illustrated catalog, which includes six informative essays, is also excellent.
‘Don Bachardy: A Life in Portraits’
Where: The Huntington, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino When: Through Aug. 4; closed Tuesdays Admission: $3-$29; children under 4 are free Info: (626) 405-2100, huntington.org
KATHMANDU, Nepal — One of the greatest mountain guides will attempt to scale the world’s highest peak for the 31st time — and possibly the 32nd — and break his own record.
Kami Rita, 55, flew to Mt. Everest on Sunday from Kathmandu, Nepal, to lead a group of climbers who will try to reach the 29,032-foot summit during the spring climbing season.
“I am mentally, emotionally and physically prepared to climb the mountain,” Kami Rita told the Associated Press at Kathmandu’s airport. “I am in my top physical condition right now.”
He holds the record for the most successful ascents of Mt. Everest at 30. Last May he climbed the peak twice.
“My first priority is to get my client to the summit of the peak. Then I will decide on whether I will climb the peak more than one time during the season. It depends on the weather and conditions on the mountain,” he said.
His closest competitor for the most climbs of Everest is fellow Sherpa guide Pasang Dawa, who has made 27 successful ascents.
Kami Rita first climbed Everest in 1994 and has been making the trip nearly every year since. He is one of many Sherpa guides whose expertise and skills are vital to the safety and success of foreign climbers aspiring to stand atop the mountain peak.
His father was among the first Sherpa mountain guides. In addition to his Everest climbs, Kami Rita has scaled several other peaks that are among the world’s highest, including K2, Cho Oyu, Manaslu and Lhotse.
According to Nepal’s Department of Tourism, 214 climbers have been issued permits to attempt Mt. Everest from the Nepali side of the peak in the south this climbing season, which ends in May. Most climbing of Everest and nearby Himalayan peaks is done in April and May, when weather conditions are most favorable.
Everest was first climbed in 1953 by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepali Sherpa Tenzing Norgay.
One London airport topped the list of shame, with air traffic control chaos meaning departures left an average of more than 23 minutes behind schedule, according to a new study
An analysis of Civil Aviation Authority data has revealed the UK’s worst performing airports for delayed flights (Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Gatwick airport has been ranked the worst in the UK for flight delays, according to a new study.
Air traffic control (ATC) chaos meant departures from the West Sussex airport were an average of more than 23 minutes behind schedule in 2024, according to analysis of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) data. It represents an improvement from nearly 27 minutes during the previous 12 months but is longer than at any other UK airport.
Gatwick, which is the UK’s second busiest airport, was badly affected by ATC staff shortages across continental Europe in 2024, and suffered the same problem in its own control tower. Flights from Birmingham airport had the second poorest punctuality record last year, with an average delay of more than 21 minutes. In third place was Manchester airport, with 20 minutes. Flight delays are often caused by issues outside the control of airports.
Gatwick Airport – which was severely affected by air traffic control chaos across Europe – suffered delays in flights averaging 23 minutes(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief executive of Advantage Travel Partnership, a network of independent travel agents, said many holidaymakers “save all year” for their trips, so flight disruption can cause an “emotional toll” as people feel “their time and investment aren’t being respected”. She went on: “Passengers expect and deserve not to spend hours stuck in terminals with little information or support.
“Reliable service, clear communication and efficient operations should be the standard, not the exception, and airports must take this responsibility seriously. This summer is set to be exceptionally busy, therefore it is essential airports and airlines do all they can to ensure consumer confidence to travel remains high.”
Delays cause misery for millions of passengers each year – but they could be eligible for refunds and compensation(Image: Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Belfast City (George Best) airport recorded the best punctuality performance in the UK for the second year in a row, with a typical delay per flight of less than 12 minutes. The analysis took into account scheduled and chartered departures from the 22 commercial UK airports with at least 1,000 outbound flights last year. Cancellations were not included.
The average delay for all these flights last year was 18 minutes and 24 seconds, down from 20 minutes and 42 seconds in 2023. Depending on the distance of the route and length of delay, passengers booked on flights from UK airports which are running behind schedule are entitled to assistance such as a reasonable amount of food and drink, a means to communicate and overnight accommodation if required.
Gatwick bosses insist it is “the world’s most efficient single-runway airport, with flights departing or arriving every 55 seconds”(Image: Getty Images)
Airlines often fail to provide this during major disruption as they are overwhelmed by requests. Passengers may also be able to claim compensation of up to £520 from the airline if the reason for the delay is deemed within its control, which could be a fault with the aircraft or pilot sickness.
ATC issues are considered to be an “extraordinary circumstance”, meaning affected passengers are not entitled to payouts.
Selina Chadha, a director at the CAA, which has consumer advice on its website, said: “The industry works hard to ensure flights are punctual, but sometimes delays occur. What is important to us is what airlines and airports do to minimise disruption, as well as comply with their legal obligations to look after passengers if something happens to their flight. We also advise consumers to ensure they know what assistance they are entitled to.”
Birmingham Airport came second in the list, compiled after an analysis of data by the Press Association(Image: Getty Images)
A spokesperson for Gatwick said: “Air traffic control restrictions in other parts of Europe have continued to impact the airport. Together with our airlines, we’ve put in place a robust plan … to improve on-time performance further in 2025.”
This includes using a new method to separate arriving aircraft, and trialling the co-ordination of connecting jet bridges to planes remotely, which are both designed to boost efficiency
The spokesperson added that Gatwick is “the world’s most efficient single-runway airport, with flights departing or arriving every 55 seconds”. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said in February she is prepared to support Gatwick’s expansion plan to bring its emergency runway into routine use – which is partly aimed at improving its resilience – if the project is adjusted. The airport has until April 24 to respond.
Manchester Airport came in third spot for delayed flights, with planes leaving an average of 20 minutes behind schedule(Image: Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
A Manchester airport spokesperson said it is “committed to doing everything in our power to support all our carriers to achieve the best possible on-time departure rates.” A spokesperson for trade body AirportsUK said: “Aviation continues to recover from the pandemic, and operates in an extremely busy, global environment with resilience challenges.
“It is therefore positive that the data shows delays continue to come down as everyone in aviation works together to provide the best possible service to passengers.” Birmingham airport did not provide a response.
FULL BREAKDOWN OF AIRPORT FLIGHT DELAY FIGURESThis is the full ranking of UK airports based on flight punctuality in 2024.Airports are ordered from the longest average delay per departing flight to the shortest (duration in brackets).1. Gatwick (23 minutes and 18 seconds)2. Birmingham (21 minutes and 18 seconds)3. Manchester (20 minutes)4. Stansted (19 minutes and 36 seconds)5. Teesside (19 minutes and six seconds)6. Exeter (19 minutes)7. Edinburgh (18 minutes and six seconds)8. Bournemouth (17 minutes and 48 seconds)9. Luton (17 minutes and 42 seconds)10. Cardiff Wales (17 minutes and 36 seconds)=11. Heathrow (17 minutes and 24 seconds)=11. Newcastle (17 minutes and 24 seconds)13. Bristol (17 minutes and six seconds)14. Southampton (16 minutes and 24 seconds)15. Leeds Bradford (16 minutes)16. Glasgow (15 minutes and 12 seconds)17. London City (15 minutes and six seconds)18. Belfast International (14 minutes and 42 seconds)19. Aberdeen (13 minutes and 18 seconds)20. Liverpool (John Lennon) (12 minutes and 42 seconds)21. East Midlands International (12 minutes and 30 seconds)22. Belfast City (George Best) (11 minutes and 36 seconds)
Gatwick Airport has been named the worst performing airport in the UK for delayed flights, leaving millions of passengers unsure if they’re entitled to compensation. Here the Mirror answers 13 key questions so you know what your rights are…
An analysis of Civil Aviation Authority data has revealed the UK’s worst performing airports for delayed flights – but what are your right?(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Gatwick Airport has been named the worst performing airport in the UK for delayed flights, leaving millions of passengers unsure if they’re entitled to compensation. Here the Mirror answers 13 key questions so you know what your rights are…
What flights are covered by UK consumer law?
Flights operated by an airline departing from a UK airport, flights operated by a UK or EU airline arriving at a UK airport, or flights operated by a UK airline arriving at an EU airport.
How long must a flight be delayed before I am entitled to assistance?
It depends on the distance of the flight. For flights under 1,500km (932 miles) such as from Glasgow to Amsterdam: at least two hours. For flights between 1,500km (932 miles) and 3,500km (2,175 miles) such as from Manchester to Marrakesh: at least three hours. For flights over 3,500km (2,175 miles) such as from Heathrow to New York: at least four hours.
Gatwick Airport – which was severely affected by air traffic control chaos across Europe – suffered delays in flights averaging 23 minutes(Image: AFP via Getty Images)
What should this assistance include?
A reasonable amount of food and drink (often via vouchers), a means for you to communicate (often by refunding the cost of phone calls), and accommodation and transfers if an overnight stay is required.
What happens in reality?
Airlines often fail to provide this assistance during major disruption because of being overwhelmed by requests and a shortage of available rooms in local hotels. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) says in this scenario, passengers can organise their own assistance and claim the costs back from the airline by submitting receipts.
Delays cause misery for millions of passengers each year – but they could be eligible for refunds and compensation(Image: Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Does that mean I should book a luxury hotel suite and order champagne?
Airlines are unlikely to reimburse you for that. The CAA advises passengers not to “spend more than is reasonable”.
How long must assistance be provided?
Until your flight takes off or you accept a refund after deciding not to travel.
What about getting to my destination?
If a flight is cancelled, airlines are required to get you to your destination if you still want to travel. Most will book you onto another of their flights, but you may be entitled to travel with another airline or by an alternative mode of transport if it will get you to your destination significantly sooner. Passengers doing this are often required to purchase their own tickets and submit a claim to their original airline for reimbursement.
Manchester Airport came in third spot for delayed flights, with planes leaving an average of 20 minutes behind schedule(Image: Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
What if I no longer want to travel?
You are entitled to a refund if you have been delayed by more than five hours.
Am I entitled to compensation for a delayed flight?
Airlines may be liable for compensation if the reason for a delay is deemed within their control, such as a fault with the aircraft or pilot sickness. Causes of disruption classed as outside their control include severe weather, air traffic control restrictions and security alerts.
How much can I claim for a delay?
It depends on the length of the flight and how much its arrival was later than scheduled. For flights under 1,500km (932 miles): £220 for a delay of at least three hours. For flights between 1,500km (932 miles) and 3,500km (2,175 miles): £350 for a delay of at least three hours. For flights over 3,500km (2,175 miles): £260 for a delay of at least three hours but less than four hours. For flights over 3,500km (2,175 miles): £520 for a delay of at least four hours.
What if my flight is cancelled?
You are entitled to a refund or a replacement flight, and the same assistance as if your flight was delayed.
Can I claim compensation if my flight is cancelled?
You can if the reason is deemed within the airline’s control, you received no more than 14 days’ notice, and depending on the timings of a new flight offered.
If I can claim, how much money will I get?
Between £110 and £520, depending on the length of the route and the timings of a new flight.
TEMPLEGATE tackles a busy Bank Holiday Monday confident of banging in some winners.
Back a horse by clicking their odds below – and check out our man’s Irish Grand National tip, 1-2-3-4 prediction and complete runner-by-runner guide.
WESTPORT COVE (2.35 Plumpton, nap)
He is improving with every run over fences and went close at Wexford last time. He has a fair weight for this handicap debut and can land a blow in the title race for Irish maestro Willie Mullins. He goes from the front which usually pays dividends at this tight track.
BOTANICAL (2.55 Kempton, nb)
He looked badly in need of the run when a solid third in a Doncaster Listed contest last month. He was up front into a strong headwind, which didn’t help, and he just faded in the closing stages. Moving up to his best trip is a wise move and he’ll be right there.
COUP DE FORCE (4.40 Kempton, treble)
She has won three of her past four on the all-weather, including a victory over this course and distance. She’s a fair 3lb higher than her last success at Southwell and trainer Stuart Kittow is in excellent form.
Templegate’s TV verdicts
KEMPTON
2.55
BOTANICAL looked badly in need of the run when a solid third in a Doncaster Listed contest last month.
He was up front into a strong headwind, which didn’t help, and he just faded in the closing stages.
Moving up to his best trip is a wise move and he’ll be right there.
Okeechobee has never fulfilled his potential thanks to a series of injuries and hasn’t been seen since his Sandown Grade 3 win this time last year.
He has loads of talent and will figure if wound up.
Teumessias Fox has a fitness edge over some of his potentially classier rivals and trainer Andrew Balding is in red-hot form.
His handicap win on comeback here last month was pretty smart and he looks a big price to make the frame.
Military Order is back from a long break but has Group wins on his CV and won the Winter Derby last year so should handle the surface.
Watch for a market move.
Lion’s Pride is proven at this level but would probably prefer an extra quarter-mile.
Checkandchallenge has a run under his belt this season but is better over a mile.
3.30
SKY SAFARI enjoyed dropping down from Listed level to take a Wolverhampton handicap last time out in October.
She has gone well fresh before and should be well ahead of the handicapper from a mark of 76.
Top Of The Class had plenty up her sleeve when winning here in February and lost her chance with a slow start at Southwell latest.
Winning jockey Billy Loughnane gets back on board today which could make the difference.
Mercury Day has her sights lowered after tackling Listed company here last time.
Her handicap mark could be a little kinder but she has an each-way shout under Rossa Ryan.
Atlantis Blue likes this trip but should come on for this comeback run.
4.05
NORTH VIEW needed his very rusty comeback at Yarmouth 16 days ago when his favoured blinkers were left off.
The headgear returns as he moves back up to his best trip and he has a nice draw in stall four.
He went close here in September off this mark and looks the one to beat.
Supreme King would be a big threat if repeating his 6f form over this longer trip which isn’t guaranteed but he goes well here.
The booking of Oisin Murphy takes the eye on Metaverse who looked rusty at Doncaster last month.
He’s dropped to the mark that saw him score at Newmarket last season and this is his best trip.
Follow Your Heart is a regular winner and had a bit up his sleeve when scoring at Wolver last month.
This track suits too and he’ll go well under William Buick.
Kitaro Kich has been flying at lower levels and isn’t underestimated, while market support for the capable Ahlain on this comeback would be telling.
4.40
COUP DE FORCE has won three of her past four on the all-weather, including a victory over this course and distance.
She’s a fair 3lb higher than her last success at Southwell and trainer Stuart Kittow is in excellent form.
Cypriot Diaspora will be winning races like this soon but just may need the comeback even with Oisin Murphy in the saddle.
Hierarchy is always thereabouts despite winning rarely so should be on the podium again under Saffie Osborne from an unchanged mark.
Rebel Path is consistent at this level and went close at Wolverhampton last time. He’s back from the same mark with place prospects.
PLUMPTON
2.35
WESTPORT COVE is improving with every run over fences and went close at Wexford last time.
He has a fair weight for this handicap debut and can land a blow in the title race for Irish maestro Willie Mullins.
He goes from the front which usually pays dividends at this tight track.
JPR One has plenty of weight but this is a drop in class after his midfield run in the Grand Annual at Cheltenham.
He was in place contention until clouting the second-last and looks dangerous.
Sans Bruit couldn’t have been more impressive when taking the Red Rum at Aintree last time but he went 12 months without a win after taking that race last year which has to be a worry.
Asta La Pasta scored by a distance at Ayr last weekend but is another who can’t be relied on to follow that up in what looks a much stronger contest.
Teddy Blue is in good form and followed a Kempton win with a solid Newbury second.
A repeat of that would bring him into the place picture.
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Remember to gamble responsibly
A responsible gambler is someone who:
Establishes time and monetary limits before playing
Only gambles with money they can afford to lose
Never chases their losses
Doesn’t gamble if they’re upset, angry or depressed
Justin Thomas beat fellow American Andrew Novak in a play-off to win the RBC Heritage as he claimed his first win since the 2022 US PGA Championship.
Novak needed a birdie at the 18th to secure his first PGA Tour title with Thomas having gone into the clubhouse on 17 under after a 68, but he missed a putt for victory and also carded a 68.
The two players headed to the 18th for the first play-off hole and Thomas holed a lengthy putt for a birdie to secure the title at Harbour Town Golf Links in South Carolina.
“Winning is hard, it’s really hard but I’ve worked my butt off and stayed patient and positive,” said Thomas, who shot a course-record 10-under-par 61 in his opening round.
“I didn’t realise how much I missed winning and battling out there today was so much fun.”
England’s Tommy Fleetwood, chasing his first PGA Tour victory like Novak, was three shots off overnight leader Kim Si-woo going into the final round and ended on 13 under after a 70.
Kim shot a three-over-par 74 in his final round as his challenge faded and he finished on 12 under, along with defending champion Scottie Scheffler (70).
Defending champions Real Madrid net an injury-time win in 1-0 victory against Athletic Club to keep pace with Barcelona.
Federico Valverde’s superb 93rd-minute strike kept Real Madrid on Barcelona’s tail in Spanish football’s title race, earning the champions a 1-0 win over Athletic Club.
Madrid stayed four points behind Barca after Valverde smashed into the top corner on Sunday with a sliced, swerving effort.
After Champions League elimination by Arsenal, it looked like Madrid were set for another devastating result until the Uruguay international’s stoppage-time intervention.
Athletic, who are based in Bilbao and reached the Europa League semifinals on Thursday by beating Rangers, rotated heavily.
Despite that, the Basque side proved a hard nut for Madrid to crack, especially with their top goalscorer Kylian Mbappe both suspended and recovering from an ankle problem.
The forward was whistled by some fans for his failure to help the team overcome Arsenal in the Champions League quarterfinals in midweek when he was shown watching the game on the stadium screens.
Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham shows his frustration during a difficult match in front of the club’s own support [Isabel Infantes/Reuters]
Vinicius, who was previously criticised by coach Carlo Ancelotti for a lack of defensive work ethic, was running hard on the left, which fans at the Santiago Bernabeu appreciated.
The Brazilian has struggled for form at times this season, but was Madrid’s brightest player against Athletic, giving Unai Nunez a difficult night.
Madrid played with intensity after their European elimination, trying to keep La Liga in their sights after Barcelona made a late comeback to beat Celta Vigo on Saturday.
Rodrygo Goes came close early in the second half before Athletic goalkeeper Unai Simon saved from Eduardo Camavinga.
The hosts began to push Athletic deeper and started to create better chances.
Vinicius bent a delicious cross with the outside of his boot into the six-yard box for Jude Bellingham to meet, but Simon made an excellent save to tip over his header.
Federico Valverde fired narrowly wide of the near post, and Vinicius did find the net, but Endrick was offside in the build-up.
Bellingham appealed for a penalty after going down softly in the area, and then fired over from close range in the final stages.
It was the kind of chance the England international managed to turn into late match-winning goals last season as he inspired Madrid to La Liga and Champions League glory.
Instead, it was Valverde who took up that role with a sublime blast that left Simon with no chance.
The victory offers Madrid hope of salvaging their season and a morale boost ahead of next weekend’s Copa del Rey final against Barcelona.
Celebrity Big Brother fans were left shellshocked during the family challenge after the famous faces transformed into different roles, with Danny Beard being mother
23:01, 20 Apr 2025Updated 23:01, 20 Apr 2025
Danny Beard took on the mother role
Fans of Celebrity Big Brother were left stunned as Danny Beard destroyed the set in the latest challenge. The group were set a task to gain a luxury shopping budget which transformed all the celebrities into a “family”.
Among the characters was Donna as grandmother and JoJo as granddad. Chris and Ella were the babies of the clan, while Danny played the role of mother.
Throughout the day, the housemates were given tasks to complete by Big Brother. After dropping the toddlers off at the nursery, mum Danny and dad Jack P Shepherd returned for their “kids”.
However, things almost went all wrong as Danny stumbled and fell through the set. And fans quickly took to social media to share their delight at the mishap.
Danny went to pick up his ‘kids’ in the CBB task(Image: @bbuk/X)
“Mother Danny fell with style #CBBUK,” one user wrote with a gif of Buzz Lightyear. Another joked: “I hope mammy Danny has her Tena on after that fall #CBBUK.”
A third pleaded: “OMFG someone please rewind their telly and repost that fall,” with a fourth saying: “Omg that fall was everything.”
The challenge comes after Daley Thompson had warned Ella Rae Wise about a potential game-playing tactic of JoJo Siwa and Chris Hughes. Chris, 32, and reality star JoJo, 21, have formed a strong bond in the house, but Ella believes there is more to it than Chris has been letting on.
Danny fell through the nursery blocks(Image: @bbuk/X)
She pulled Danny Beard and Donna Preston to reveal advice Daley shared with her. Ella said: “Daley just basically said that you’ve got to be careful. There are two reality stars in here that do reality every single day.”
She continued: “He said they know what they’re doing, if they pair up, they’re going to take a lot of air time from people. And it’s going to be very fixated on them both. And just to be mindful.”
Danny told her it was a “Daley bomb” before Donna said: “I just think that, at the end of the day, it’s a game.”
After Danny revealed Daley’s comments, a gobsmacked Chris took to the Diary Room. He called out Ella for potentially being “jealous” of his relationship with JoJo.
Ella took up residency in Daley’s bed following his eviction. Danny then hinted he and Ella could use the bed to “gossip”.
More in Common director Luke Tryl said: “We are a long way from a general election and trying to predict the result is a fool’s errand.
“But what we can say for certain is that as of today British politics has fragmented to an unprecedented level.
“The coalition for change that elected Keir Starmer’s Government has splintered right and left.
“Labour, having secured a historic victory now find themselves on the wrong side of a disillusioned electorate frustrated at the slow pace of change and some of the Government’s early missteps.”
Reform would sweep through Labour’s Red Wall at election, shock poll reveals as 68% think Britain is broken
ARLINGTON, Texas — Tyler Glasnow stood on the back of the mound, rotated his right ankle as if trying to test how it felt, then threw his first pitch of the fifth inning on Sunday afternoon.
In the Dodgers’ 1-0 win against the Texas Rangers, it proved to be the right-hander’s last one of the day.
Though the Dodgers salvaged a series win at Globe Life Field, grinding out the lone run of Sunday’s rubber-match contest on a Freddie Freeman sacrifice fly in the eighth, they first had to overcome yet another injury concern from Glasnow, who left the game after just four innings with what the club later said was lower leg cramping.
Early on Sunday, Glasnow had been rolling, stranding four runners over his first three innings before striking out the side in the fourth. During that fourth-inning sequence, however, Glasnow was visited on the mound by head trainer Thomas Albert.
Following a brief conversation, Glasnow stayed in the game and retired the side. But when he returned for the fifth, the 31-year-old still looked bothered; beginning the inning by flexing his leg on the backside of the bump, before showing more discomfort following a first-pitch fastball that clocked only 93.7 mph (one of the slowest he’s thrown all season).
The good news for the Dodgers: Glasnow’s diagnosis suggests nothing serious — though the full severity of the issue wasn’t immediately clear.
Among the many injury problems that have plagued his big-league career, occasional bouts of cramping have been the most benign. Around this time last season, Glasnow also exited a start early in Toronto with cramping in his calf and his hand. He missed no time after that episode, completing a strong first half that earned him his first career All-Star selection.
Still, any physical issue for Glasnow comes with some cause for concern.
The 10th-year big-leaguer has never pitched more than 22 starts or 134 innings in a single season. And he set both of those high marks last year — when a late-season elbow injury still sidelined him for all of the playoffs.
The Dodgers could ill afford to have lost Glasnow to a more serious ailment Sunday.
Already this month, the team put top offseason signing Blake Snell on the injured list with shoulder inflammation. On Saturday, Snell threw his first bullpen session since getting hurt, but he probably remains at least a couple of weeks from returning.
Then, this weekend, top right-handed reliever Blake Treinen went down with a low-grade forearm sprain. Manager Dave Roberts put that diagnosis in the “dodged-a-bullet category,” noting it could have been worse. But it nonetheless leaves Treinen’s timeline to return unclear.
“We’ll get the doctors to look at it and get an assessment,” Roberts said of Treinen’s recovery plan. “I think [he will only need] rest and rehab. But, again, once they get the doctors’ eyes on it, then we’ll have a better prognosis.”
April 20 (UPI) — Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., in an interview Sunday defended his recent trip to El Salvador to meet with a man from his state who was erroneously deported by the Trump administration.
Van Hollen, speaking in an interview with ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl, said the visit to meet with imprisoned Kilmar Abrego Garcia was a matter of defending the U.S. Constitution.
“I am not defending the man. I’m defending the rights of this man to due process,” Van Hollen said. “My mission and my purpose is to make sure that we uphold the rule of law, because if we take it away from him, we do jeopardize it for everybody else.”
Van Hollen pointed to how the Trump administration has admitted in court that he was wrongfully detained and deported because of an “administrative error” to be held in El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center mega-prison, despite a 2019 court order prohibiting his removal due to safety fears.
The U.S. Justice Department later suspended a lawyer who told a federal court that he did not understand the government’s reasoning while attempting to justify the Trump administration’s position.
A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration had to arrange for Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States, but the government has argued that it cannot since the Salvadoran prison where he is being held is outside the jurisdiction of the United States.
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, who is holding alleged gang members at the CECOT prison, has not expressed willingness to return the U.S. resident.
The U.S. Supreme Courtlater agreed with U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis’ ruling, which it said “properly requires the government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.”
However, the Supreme Court included a stipulation that Xinis must “show due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs” and clarify the intended scope of the term “effectuate” in her order requiring Abrego Garcia’s return.
Van Hollen then traveled to El Salvador, but was initially denied a visit with Abrego Garcia after meeting with the country’s vice president, Felix Ulloa.
His trip prompted Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives to deny requests from other Democrats for official trips to visit El Salvador, which would afford them more oversight and security resources, even after the GOP sent its own delegation.
“I think, at some point, the president of El Salvador realized it was looking really bad to have this person who had been absconded from the streets of Maryland in one of their prisons and not able to communicate,” Van Hollen said Sunday.
On Friday, Van Hollen revealed that Abrego Garcia had been moved from CECOT to another detention center and that he had been able to meet with his constituent for half an hour on the prison grounds.
“His conversation with me was the first communication he’d had with anybody outside of prison since he was abducted,” Van Hollen said. “He said he felt very sad about being in a prison because he had not committed any crimes.”
After the visit, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security published a report that alleged Abrego Garcia was an MS-13 member who likely engaged in human trafficking while in the United States. Van Hollen pushed back on such claims and their relevance.
“The idea that you can’t defend people’s rights under the Constitution and fight MS-13 and gang violence is a very dangerous idea. That’s the idea the president wants to put out. That’s why they’re spreading all these lies.” Van Hollen said.
“I would say that anyone that’s not prepared to defend the constitutional rights of one man when they threaten the constitutional rights of all doesn’t deserve to lead.”
The Israeli military has released details of an investigation into its own killing of 15 Palestinian paramedics and aid workers in Gaza last month, saying its code of ethics was not violated and only one soldier is dismissed, in an attack that sparked outrage in the international community.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and the Israeli rights organisation Breaking the Silence rejected the findings of the Israeli probe on Sunday.
PRCS’s president told Al-Araby TV that the Israeli narrative on the killings in Rafah was “contradictory”.
“It is incomprehensible why the occupation soldiers buried the bodies of the paramedics in a criminal manner,” Younis al-Khatib said.
Al-Khatib added that the Israeli army communicated with the paramedics before killing them and that the evidence – including a video showing their ambulances flashing emergency lights – proved “the falsity of the occupation’s narrative regarding the limited visibility at the site”.
“An independent and impartial investigation must be conducted by a UN body,” he said.
PRCS, which had medics killed by Israel in the incident, also denounced the Israeli report as “full of lies” on Sunday. “It is invalid and unacceptable, as it justifies the killing and shifts responsibility to a personal error in the field command when the truth is quite different,” Nebal Farsakh, spokesperson for the organisation, told the AFP news agency.
The PRCS said last week that it received confirmation from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) that one of its medics who was missing is being held by Israel.
🚨Urgent: We have been informed by the International Committee of the Red Cross that PRCS medic Assad Al-Nsasrah is being held by the Israeli occupation authorities. His fate had remained unknown since he was targeted along with other PRCS medics in #Rafah. 📢We call on the… pic.twitter.com/l0oOxujS8G
The Israeli army on Sunday claimed that six of the aid workers who were killed and buried in a shallow mass grave along with their ambulances were Hamas “terrorists”, without providing any evidence.
It admitted its probe detected a series of “professional failures”, including partial and inaccurate reporting by the commanding officers in the field invading southern Gaza’s Rafah.
The deputy commander of the Golani Reconnaissance Battalion will be dismissed, while the commanding officer of the 14th Brigade is to receive a reprimand.
The examination also found “no evidence to support claims of execution or that any of the deceased were bound before or after the shooting”, despite the testimonies and the evidence.
The Israeli military had initially claimed that the ambulances and aid workers were not clearly marked as first responders and approached its troops “suspiciously”.
A mobile phone video recorded by one of the killed aid workers that was obtained by the New York Times showed that the crew were clearly marked and visible to Israeli forces, and were killed by Israeli fire that lasted several minutes.
United Nations and Palestinian officials later found the mass grave and the bulldozed ambulances and bodies after Israeli authorities granted access to the area of the mostly destroyed city of Rafah bordering Egypt.
‘Another day, another cover-up’
The Israeli anti-occupation group Breaking the Silence said the military investigation is “riddled with contradictions, vague phrasing, and selective details”.
“Not every lie has a video to expose it, but this report doesn’t even attempt to engage with the truth,” the group said. “Another day, another cover-up. More innocent lives taken, with no accountability.”
But far-right voices in the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believe the army is going too far in punishing the soldiers.
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s ultranationalist national security minister, said the decision to dismiss the deputy commander was a “grave mistake” that must be reversed.
“Our combat soldiers, who are sacrificing their lives in Gaza, deserve our full support,” he said.
Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir [File: Gil Cohen-Magen/Pool Photo via AP]
‘Report invites many questions’
Human rights lawyer Geoffrey Nice told Al Jazeera that the findings of the probe raise questions about the Israeli military’s conduct in Gaza and the thoroughness of the investigative process.
“It’s a pretty surprising document. It’s also a document that invites many questions that it will be difficult, I suspect, for the [Israeli military] to answer,” Nice said in a television interview.
“For example, [there is] the proposition that six of these people were Hamas, presumably members of Hamas on active [military] service, not people who might have been associated with Hamas in some way. No documentary evidence at all is identified [for that].”
Israel has a track record of denying accusations of wrongdoing and contradicting its own earlier statements.
Past investigations have exonerated the armed forces or placed the blame on a single individual without broader repercussions.
The UN accused the Israeli military of being responsible for the killing of the 15 aid workers, along with the killing of a Bulgarian UN staff member and wounding of six other foreign staff in Gaza’s Deir el-Balah last month.
The organisation has been forced to significantly cut its staff in Gaza as the war’s death toll continues to mount.
The couple won a record-breaking £184million jackpot in May 2022 and shared hopes of a Hawaiian holiday and a new horse box for their children’s ponies.
Joe bought his winning ticket online on May 10, 2022, and the following morning received an email with good news.
As he learnt of the huge win, he was in disbelief and initially kept it for himself as he did not want to disturb his wife, who was sleeping.
Joe, a communications sales engineer, and Jess, who runs a hairdressing salon with her sister, have been married for 11 years and have two children.
Colin and Chris Weir, £161,653,000
Colin and Christine Weir landed the colossal prize money in 2011 and were Europe’s second-biggest winners until someone in Italy won a jackpot worth £193m in 2019.
They splashed the cash at an astounding rate of £100,000 a week before tragedy struck.
NEW YORK — New York’s $9 congestion toll on most drivers entering the busiest part of Manhattan remained in effect Sunday, despite an Easter deadline from the Trump administration to halt the first-in-the-nation fee.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency overseeing the tolls, confirmed Sunday that its system of traffic cameras continues to collect the fee assessed on most cars entering the borough below Central Park.
President Trump’s Transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, rescinded federal approval for the program in February, calling it “a slap in the face to working-class Americans and small-business owners,” and initially gave New York until March 21 to comply.
The MTA challenged Duffy’s decision in federal court, and he pushed the deadline back a month, to April 20. The Transportation Department insisted that it would not back off the deadline even as the court case plays out, saying it would “not hesitate to use every tool at our disposal” if the state failed to stop the toll.
“In case there were any doubts, MTA, State and City reaffirmed in a court filing that congestion pricing is here to stay and that the arguments Secretary Duffy made trying to stop it have zero merit,” John J. McCarthy, the MTA’s chief of policy and external relations, said Sunday.
Spokespeople for the Department of Transportation didn’t immediately respond to messages seeking comment Sunday.
The fee began Jan. 5 and is meant to not just reduce traffic jams but also raise billions of dollars in revenue for New York’s subways, commuter trains and public buses.
Trump, whose namesake Trump Tower and other properties are within the congestion zone, had vowed to kill the plan as soon as he took office.
The transit authority, meanwhile, has continued to tout the benefits of the tolling program, saying fewer vehicles are coming into the heart of Manhattan.
Around 560,000 vehicles per day entered the congestion zone in March, a 13% drop from the roughly 640,000 that the MTA projects would have driven through the area without the tolling scheme, according to data the agency released this month.
The agency has previously said it’s on track to meet the $500 million in revenue initially projected this year from congestion pricing.
The toll varies depending on type of vehicle and time of day and comes on top of tolls drivers pay to cross bridges and tunnels into Manhattan.
Other big cities around the world, including London and Stockholm, have similar congestion pricing schemes.
On Thursday, a Manhattan federal judge dismissed a series of lawsuits brought by the local trucking industry and other local groups challenging the toll.
Most of those lawsuits had argued that the fee was approved by federal transportation officials without proper scrutiny and that the court should order the completion of a more comprehensive environmental impact study.
As the plane’s banner suggested, director of football Jon Rudkin and the board have been the target for fans this season.
They see Rudkin as a root cause of their decline in recent seasons. He was, of course, in the same position when the Foxes stunned the world to win the Premier League in 2016, but supporters have made up their minds.
It does not help that the hierarchy rarely speak publicly, allowing supporters to understand and digest the situation.
Chief executive Susan Whelan twice met with the Foxes Trust and the club’s Fan Advisory Board in February for candid and constructive meetings but the wider fanbase remain disconnected.
Does chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha decide to make a change at the top, does head of recruitment Martyn Glover’s position come under more scrutiny following a number of poor transfer windows, regardless of financial constraints?
Van Nistelrooy’s position remains a doubt and it is hard to see a long-term future in the wake of damning statistics.
Defeat against Liverpool leaves him with the unenviable record of having lost 17 of his 22 games, winning just three. He has lost 16 of his last 18 matches in charge, and what manager with that record survives?
Van Nistelrooy, who confirmed there was no date set for talks on his future, said on Sunday: “I’m waiting on the clarity of the club and how they want to continue.
“It is the goal to lead the club. I have to wait on how the club sees things and take it from there.
“The club has to use this time, otherwise you will waste it. In a situation like this you have to sit very carefully with the club to discuss the matters.”
Yet sacking a second manager of the season has financial consequences and with money tight, it will be a consideration. Can Leicester financially afford to sack Van Nistelrooy but, going forward, can they afford not to?
There is also an acceptance the squad needs a reset but only three players are out of contract – goalkeepers Daniel Iversen and Danny Ward, and 38-year-old captain Jamie Vardy.
What happens with Vardy – influential at the club as their last remaining title winner and the scorer of 198 goals – remains open, but it’s the biggest decision the club has to make in terms of the squad given his reputation and achievements.
It means Leicester must shift big earners to make wholesale changes to a squad which has, in the main, brought them down twice.
Wilfred Ndidi signed a new three-year contract last summer but his appetite for another Championship campaign is likely to have waned and the same will go for defenders Ricardo Pereira and Wout Faes. Although, as part of Leicester’s decline, they must find takers.
Goalkeeper Mads Hermansen has been a rare bright spot and will have his admirers, as will Bilal El Khannouss, despite an underwhelming first season in England, while Winks’ situation could depend on Van Nistelrooy’s exit.
Like every club, Profit and Sustainability Rules will be a concern so sales are inevitable and the threat of possibly further action from the EFL remains.
Yet, they have to fall under some jurisdiction and cannot be left to float.
For now, though, Leicester know they will be a Championship club next season and deep-rooted problems – which pre-date and go beyond Van Nistelrooy – need to be dealt with.
They made an immediate return last time they went down in 2023. This time their short-term future is far less certain.
ESTATE cars are one of the most popular options for your burgeoning family, and are a great alternative to a sometimes clunky SUV.
These motors can fit a large group and all of life’s luggage in a sleek and driveable body, combining the capacity of an SUV with the sharpness of a saloon.
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The Toyota Corolla Sports Touring was praised as an affordable and comfortable estateCredit: SUPPLIED
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The enormous seven-seater Dacia Jogger was also complimented for its large capacity and budget-friendly priceCredit: supplied
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Experts recommended the Citroen C5 X for familiesCredit: Getty
The cliché of being “all the car you’ll ever need” holds ever true for estates, especially in recent years, as the range available for consumers has become increasingly diverse.
However, if you don’t want to break the bank, you may find yourself struggling to find the perfect motor.
Thankfully, experts at Autocar have listed the seven best-value options for estates, including a versatile hatchback and a seven-seater that’s perfect for family days out.
A major standout on the list was the Toyota Corolla Touring Sports, which received an overall rating of 4.5 stars out of five.
Praised for its excellent fuel economy and capable handling, the Corolla helps combine the traditional strengths of an estate with powerful handling.
Its perfect driving experience comes thanks to its use of Toyota’s Next Generation Architecture, and it retails for around just £32,000 new.
Second-hand versions from around five years ago sell for better than half of that price.
Road tester Illya Verpraet said: “The Corolla isn’t the hottest, most exciting or trendiest thing around, but there’s something very pleasingly fit for purpose about it.”
However, despite its nice ride and functionality, experts did warn that its interior lets it down, especially its “poor” infotainment system.
The model comes standard as a petrol-electric hybrid these days, although you do have the choice of either a 1.8L or 2.0L engine.
Iconic fast estate revived by car brand – 14 years after it was discontinued
While the 1.8 is likely best on congested local roads, you may opt for the 2.0 if you have lots of long motorway drives planned for you and your family.
Speaking of carrying a large group, Autocar also recommended the larger seven-seater Dacia Jogger as part of its best estates list.
Also scoring 4.5 stars, the big Romanian motor was praised for its incredible value for money, extra space, and fuel efficiency.
Costing just under £18,000 new, for the basic version, the motor is a fantastic option if you want to buy a cheap, spacious car.
Add a little bit more onto the price and you could even nab yourself heated seats, cruise control, and an in-built sat-nav.
While it has a fairly bare-bones interior as standard, the motor still provides great value for your money.
Autocar’s seven best cheap estates
Skoda Superb Estate
Toyota Corolla Touring Sports
BMW 3 Series Touring
Volvo V90
Dacia Jogger
Ford Focus Estate
Citroën C5 X
Its 1.0L petrol engine may be no powerhouse but it will be able to propel itself just fine along most roads, thanks to its snappy six-speed manual gearbox.
You can also get your hands on an even better fuel-economy version of the vehicle if you opt for the Jogger Hybrid, which also comes with automatic transmission.
Road test editor Matt Saunders said: “The Jogger is a product unlike any rival.
“An MPV/estate/crossover/SUV that’s both affordable and versatile enough to insert itself into myriad buying conversations and ownership scenarios.”
Filling up the rest of Autocar’s list were myriads of other estates which combine sleek exteriors with comfortable and spacious interiors.
The car magazine highly recommended the Skoda Superb Estate, rating it five stars out of five, saying it was an excellent mix of petrol, diesel and hybrid powertrains.
While not overly comfortable or sporty, it manages to combine the two, giving drivers comfortable steering and storage.
You can grab one new for around £37,000, while second-hand versions, registered in 2020, typically sell for less than £18,000.
‘We don’t value them’ – the best estate cars you can pick up for under £5k…they’re better than SUVs
A CAR dealer has shared his top picks for the best estate cars that you can still pick up for under £5,000.
The body type used to be among the most popular in the UK but has almost died out in recent years as trends have shifted towardshatchbacksandSUVs.
The latest data from the SMMT, the trade body representing car makers, suggests that around 110,000 estates were registered in 2023.
While a decent increase on the pandemic years, it’s still nowhere near the peak of the late ’90s and early 2000s.
Today, the estate car has been largely supplanted by the crossover SUV as a spacious, practical option for drivers.
And the latter also tends to offer more power and sharper performance into the bargain.
Matthew Goodwin of High Peak Autos recommended buying the Audi A6 Avant, BMW 5 Series, Jaguar X-Type, Mercedes E Class, and Vauxhall Insignia – saying they were the best cheap buys.
Also coming in on the list was the BMW 3 Series Touring, which retails for just under £44,000 new.
Praised for its excellent driving dynamics and “world-class” blend of performance and fuel economy, the motor is a perfect option for families looking for a bit more class and comfort than the more budget choices.
The Volvo V90 was also recommended, being rated 4.5 stars for its sleek looks and practicality.
Costing around £45,000 new, these reliable Swedish motors are powerful and provide great comfort.
However, it should be noted that these only come as a plug-in hybrid these days.
Finishing off the list were the Ford Focus Estate and Citroen C5 X, which cost £28,000 and £30,000 to buy new respectively.
While the Ford was praised for its agile and playful chassis, the Citroen was recommended for those looking for economical powertrains and a well-built interior.
In terms of criticism, the Ford has quite limited engine options, while the Citroen has an occasionally jerky automatic gearbox, experts mention.
April 20 (UPI) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday dismissed as a “hoax” a draft Trump executive order that circulated over the weekend and would gut the U.S. State Department.
“This is fake news. The @nytimes falls victim to another hoax,” Rubio said on social media with a link to an article from The New York Times, which first reported news of the draft order. The document had also been viewed by Bloomberg and Politico.
The draft order was reported to propose eliminating most of the State Department’s operations in Africa, shrink its presence in Canada and cut offices at home that address issues related to climate change, refugees and human rights.
Changes would be made by Oct. 1, if implemented. Currently, the State Department employs some 13,000 members of the Foreign Service, 11,000 Civil Service employees, and 45,000 locally employed staff at more than 270 diplomatic missions worldwide.
It was not immediately clear how many people and offices would be cut under the draft order.
Despite Rubio’s claim, officials who spoke with the news outlets said that the draft order had been circulated among American diplomats worldwide who feared that the cuts would overhaul how the United States conducts its foreign service.
Officials said the administration was planning to announce the reorganization plans as soon as Tuesday, while Politico reported that even if the document is fake, its rapid circulation demonstrates how fearful career diplomats are of the Trump administration.
“Bonkers crazypants,” one diplomat said of the draft to Politico.
In their analyses and reporting, the newspapers noted that the draft order did not follow the standard format of a Trump executive order while some employees doubted in comments online that the order could be implemented.
“I suspect this is being leaked as a red herring designed to make us grateful for a more modest but still unpopular reorganization,” one user wrote in the Reddit group r/foreignservice.
“It will be basically immediately challenged and enjoined, and then ‘implementation’ will be dragged out until Trump is voted out.”
The State Department cuts would also reportedly target educational programs including the famed Fulbright scholarship, which sends students around the world for work and study, and fellowships associated with Howard University, a historically Black institution.
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