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Hundreds of thousands of students will soon know what grades they achieved in their BTecs.
Results day is here for lots of students, but some BTec results have already been published, depending on the course.
The final BTec national results, which combine all unit grades, are often released at the same time as A-level results day – which this year is Thursday 14 August.
What are BTec Firsts and BTec Nationals?
A BTec, which stands for the Business and Technology Education Council, is a practical qualification. Courses are assessed through exams, regular coursework and projects, and sometimes placements.
BTec Firsts are Level 2 qualifications, meaning they are equivalent to GCSEs. Students often take a mixture of the two. They can be helpful for people trying to get into further education colleges.
BTec Nationals are Level 3 qualifications, so can be taken alongside or instead of A-levels.
They are studied over one or two years.
Research suggests one in four students use them as a route into university, while others gain occupation-specific skills and go straight into employment.
How are BTecs graded?
BTecs are graded on a scale:
Starred Distinction/Distinction Star (D*)
Distinction (D)
Merit (M)
Pass (P)
Some BTecs are worth two or three A-levels.
Students normally receive their results on the same days as A-level and GCSE students, but some receive them before this.
Who takes BTecs?
PA Media
BTec results normally come out on the same days as A-level and GCSE results
How are BTecs changing?
In 2020, there were more than 12,000 vocational qualifications at all levels, offered by more than 150 awarding bodies, according to Ofqual, which oversees qualifications in England.
Plans by former Conservative governments to streamline post-16 education had meant many BTecs and other Level 3 courses were due to lose their funding, to make way for T-levels.
However, the Labour government paused and reviewed the plans, and has since announced that 157 qualifications will no longer be scrapped as planned.
Some have had funding confirmed until July 2026 and others until July 2027.
The government also confirmed that more than 200 qualifications with “with low or no enrolments” would still have funding withdrawn from 1 August 2025.
Sarah Hannafin, head of policy at school leaders’ union NAHT, said that “for A-levels and T-levels to be the only two qualification pathways post-16 would have failed to meet the needs and ambitions of many students”.
The government has confirmed the rollout of T-levels will continue.
In the first three years, T-levels have faced delays, high dropout rates and an exam board being fined £300,000 over “major failings” with the papers.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived on Wednesday in Berlin for a virtual summit with European officials and United States President Donald Trump, convened by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
The call was meant to bring European leaders together with Trump before the planned August 15 Alaska meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Those on the call included Merz and the US president, as well as US Vice President JD Vance, Zelenskyy, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof, among others.
Here are the key takeaways:
What happened on Wednesday?
The prospect of Trump meeting alone with Putin has left European leaders uneasy. Since the Alaska summit was announced, they have worked to secure Trump’s ear one last time, and on Wednesday, that effort resulted in a series of high-level calls.
About 12:00 GMT, European leaders and NATO members held a video conference with Zelenskyy. Roughly an hour later, Trump and Vice President JD Vance joined the discussion.
Chancellor Merz and President Zelenskyy then delivered joint statements, followed by a separate address from Trump at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
Later in the day, the “Coalition of the Willing”, a group of 31 countries committed to strengthening support for Ukraine against Russian aggression, met in a separate virtual session, issuing a statement.
What were the key takeaways from all these talks?
Here is a breakdown.
EU leaders:
Following the talks with other European leaders and Trump:
Merz said that European and Ukrainian security interests must be respected at Friday’s Alaska summit. He underlined the importance of Ukraine having a seat at the table in any peace discussions, with a ceasefire as the essential first step.
“We have made it clear that Ukraine will be at the table as soon as there is a follow-up meeting,” Merz told reporters in Berlin alongside Zelenskyy. “President Trump wants to make a ceasefire a priority,” he added.
Any territorial exchange in Ukraine “must only be discussed with Ukraine”, French President Macron told reporters in Bregancon, France, following the call.
“Trump was very clear on the fact that the US wants to obtain a ceasefire at this meeting in Alaska,” Macron said. “We must continue to support Ukraine, and when I say ‘we’, I mean Europeans and Americans,” he added.
Ukraine needs credible security guarantees as part of any peace deal, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Starmer said following the virtual summit. The United Kingdom’s support for Ukraine is “unwavering”, he added.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, right, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attend a joint news conference in Berlin after a virtual meeting with US President Donald Trump [Omer Messinger/Getty Images]
Zelenskyy statements:
Zelenskyy, during the news conference with Merz, said Putin is “bluffing” about being interested in peace. “Russia is attempting to portray itself as capable of occupying all of Ukraine. That is undoubtedly what they want,” Zelenskyy said.
The Ukrainian leader also warned that “talks about us, without us, will not work”.
“Everything concerning Ukraine must be discussed exclusively with Ukraine. We must prepare a trilateral format for talks. There must be a ceasefire,” Zelenskyy added.
He also said “there must be security guarantees – truly reliable ones”.
Among the agreed principles, Zelenskyy said, is that Russia must not be allowed to block Ukraine’s path to joining the European Union or NATO, and that peace talks should go hand in hand with maintaining pressure on Russia.
The Ukrainian leader also emphasised that sanctions should be strengthened if Russia fails to agree to a ceasefire during the Alaska summit. “These are effective principles. It is important that they work,” Zelenskyy added.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) August 13, 2025
Trump’s news conference:
Following the call, Trump spoke at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC:
“We had a very good call. I would rate it a 10, very friendly,” Trump explained. The US leader then went on to discuss potential next steps ahead of Friday’s meeting.
“There’s a very good chance that we’re going to have a second meeting, which will be more productive than the first. Because the first is: I’m going to find out where we are and what we’re doing,” he said.
Trump also mentioned the possibility of a later meeting “between President Putin and President Zelenskyy and myself, if they’d like to have me there”, after the first meeting between him and Putin.
Trump also said he plans to call Zelenskyy and other European leaders after Friday’s discussions with Putin.
The US president also said there will be “very severe consequences” for Russia if Putin doesn’t agree to end the war after Friday’s meeting.
US President Donald Trump speaks during the unveiling of the Kennedy Center Honors nominees on August 13, 2025, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC [Mandel Ngan/AFP]
“Do you believe you can convince him to stop targeting civilians in Ukraine?” one journalist asked Trump. “I’ve had that conversation with him,” Trump said.
“Then I go home and I see that a rocket hit a nursing home or a rocket hit an apartment building and people are laying dead in the street. So I guess the answer to that is no, because I’ve had this conversation,” he added.
However, he reaffirmed his intention to find a solution: “I want to end the war. It’s Biden’s war, but I want to end it. I’ll be very proud to end this war, along with the five other wars I ended,” he said, without explaining which other conflicts he was referring to. He has claimed credit for ceasefires between India and Pakistan in May and Israel and Iran in June, and helped mediate truce pacts between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda. Trump has also repeatedly made it clear that he covets a Nobel Peace Prize and believes he is deserving of one.
The Coalition of the Willing:
The coalition issued a statement outlining four key requirements they believe should form the basis of Friday’s talks.
They said “meaningful negotiations can only take place in the context of a ceasefire or a lasting and significant cessation of hostilities”.
Second, if Russia refuses a ceasefire in Alaska, sanctions and other economic measures should be intensified to further strain its war economy.
Third, “international borders must not be changed by force”.
Fourth, Ukraine should receive strong security guarantees, with the Coalition of the Willing ready to help, including a reassurance force after hostilities end. “No limitations should be placed on Ukraine’s armed forces or on its cooperation with third countries,” the statement said. And Russia cannot veto Ukraine’s path to EU or NATO membership.
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer co-chairs the Coalition of the Willing video conference call with European leaders on Ukraine [Jack Taylor/Reuters]
Will the European intervention influence the Alaska summit?
It’s unclear, but analysts say that Wednesday’s calls show how Europe has managed to make sure that Trump can’t ignore the continent.
“Even if certain commitments are given, we don’t know what will happen once Putin and Trump find themselves in a room,” Lucian Kim, a senior analyst for Ukraine with the International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera.
“The Europeans have quite a lot of power and even more than they realise themselves,” he said, adding that it was an “achievement” for European leaders to get Trump’s attention, and there is now a difference in tone.
“It was not a given when Trump first got into office that he would listen to the Europeans,” he said. Kim also noted that Europe has used its power and influence to pressure Russia over the war.
“Russia was heavily dependent on Europe, not the United States, and this lack of trade is hurting Russia,” he said. “Also, you have European banks that are holding hundreds of billions of dollars in Russian government assets.”
“Trump has realised that without the Europeans, it will be very hard to reach any solution in Ukraine.”
What has Russia said so far about any peace agreement?
On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Alexey Fadeev told a news conference that Moscow’s position remained unchanged since President Putin outlined it in June 2024.
At the time, Putin had said that a ceasefire would take effect immediately if the Ukrainian government withdrew from four Ukrainian regions partially occupied by Russia – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia. He also insisted that Ukraine must formally abandon its bid to join the NATO military alliance.
Russia currently controls about 19 percent of Ukraine, including the entirety of Crimea and Luhansk, more than 70 percent of Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson, as well as small portions of the Kharkiv, Sumy, Mykolaiv, and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
Kim Yo Jong denies claims that Pyongyang has removed propaganda-blaring loudspeakers at the inter-Korean border.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister has accused South Korea of misleading the public about ties between the Koreas, denying claims that Pyongyang removed some propaganda-blaring loudspeakers from their shared border.
In a statement carried by the state-controlled Korean Central News Agency on Thursday, Kim Yo Jong blasted the claim by South Korea’s military as an “unfounded unilateral supposition and a red herring.”
“We have never removed loudspeakers installed on the border area and are not willing to remove them,” Kim said.
Kim accused Seoul of “building up the public opinion while embellishing their new policy” towards Pyongyang.
“It is their foolish calculation that if they manage to make us respond to their actions, it would be good, and if not, their actions will at least reflect their ‘efforts for detente’ and they will be able to shift the responsibility for the escalation of tensions onto the DPRK and win the support of the world,” Kim said, using the acronym of North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Such a “trick” is nothing but a “pipedream” and “does not arouse our interest at all,” Kim added.
“Whether the ROK withdraws its loudspeakers or not, stops broadcasting or not, postpones its military exercises or not and downscales them or not, we do not care about them and are not interested in them,” she said, using the acronym of South Korea’s official name, the Republic of Korea.
“The shabby deceptive farce is no longer attractive.”
In a statement quoted by local media, South Korea’s Ministry of Unification did not directly address Kim’s claims, but said it would continue its efforts toward the “normalisation” and “stabilisation” of inter-Korean ties.
Kim’s broadside comes after South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Saturday that Pyongyang had removed some of the loudspeakers, days after the South Korean side took down similar speakers on its side of the border.
North Korea is highly sensitive to criticism of the ruling Kim family, which has ruled the isolated state with iron first for nearly eight decades and is treated with God-like reverence in official commentary.
Since the inauguration of left-leaning South Korean President Lee Jae-myung in June, Seoul has been seeking rapprochement with its reclusive neighbour, after years of elevated tensions between the Koreas under the conservative ex-president Yoon Suk-yeol.
But Kim Yo Jong, who oversees the propaganda operations of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, has repeatedly shot down the possibility of reconciliation between the sides.
In a scathing dismissal of Lee’s rapprochement efforts last month, Kim said there was no “more serious miscalculation” than believing that relations could be repaired “with a few sentimental words.”
In her remarks on Thursday, Kim also poured scorn on South Korean media reports suggesting that Pyongyang could use Friday’s summit between United States President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin to communicate with Washington.
“This is a typical proof that the ROK is having a false dream,” she said.
“If a dream is dreamed very often, it will be an empty one, and so many suppositions will lead to so many contradictions that will not be solved. Why should we send a message to the US side.”
United States President Donald Trump has unveiled his slate of picks for the Kennedy Center Honors, an annual awards show designed to honour actors, musicians, designers and creative professionals who have dedicated their lives to the performing arts.
On Wednesday, Trump appeared on stage at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, one of the premier stages in Washington, DC, in a show of power over the national cultural institution.
“We’ll make it better than it ever was, frankly,” he said of the awards show. “ It’ll be something that people are going to be very proud of.”
This year’s five honourees include disco singer Gloria Gaynor, country music performer George Strait, the rock band Kiss, British comedian Michael Crawford and actor Sylvester Stallone, star of the classic films Rocky and Rambo.
Trump, a former reality TV star, also revealed that he would host the award show himself. In his opening remarks, he suggested his allies strong-armed him into taking the hosting gig.
“I’ve been asked to host. I said, ‘I’m the president of the United States. Are you fools asking me to do that?’” Trump said. “ So I have agreed to host. Do you believe what I have to do?”
Wednesday’s announcement was Trump’s latest foray into the arts, as he seeks to reshape the US’s cultural institutions to reflect his agenda.
Presenters unveiled the nomination for country music artist George Strait at the Kennedy Center on August 13 [Alex Brandon/AP Photo]
Exerting power over the Kennedy Center
During Trump’s first term, from 2017 to 2021, the Republican leader never attended the Kennedy Center Honors, breaking with a longtime presidential tradition.
Since the ceremony’s beginnings in 1978, presidents have been regular attendees, except in rare cases, including Cold War-era negotiations and the 1979 Iran hostage crisis.
But since returning to the White House for a second term in January, Trump has not only sought to make his presence known at the Kennedy Center, but he has also sought to wield power over its programming.
On February 7, Trump announced he would purge the Kennedy Center’s governing board and declared his intention to lead the institution as its chair.
“I have decided to immediately terminate multiple individuals from the Board of Trustees, including the Chairman, who do not share our Vision for a Golden Age in Arts and Culture,” Trump wrote at the time. “We will soon announce a new Board, with an amazing Chairman, DONALD J. TRUMP!”
By February 12, the new Kennedy Center board had made good on its promise to elect Trump as chair.
Since then, Trump has expanded his reach into the country’s arts and culture spheres. On Tuesday, for instance, his administration revealed it would undertake an “internal review” of several Smithsonian museums, to “ensure alignment with the President’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism”.
Trump also teased his new vision for the Kennedy Center Honors — and appeared to troll critics who expressed outrage over Republican proposals to rename the performing arts centre after the Republican leader.
“GREAT Nominees for the TRUMP/KENNEDY CENTER, whoops, I mean, KENNEDY CENTER, AWARDS,” Trump wrote on social media in the lead-up to Wednesday’s announcement.
He pledged the revamped award show would reflect “the absolute TOP LEVEL of luxury, glamour, and entertainment”.
Presenters unveil a portrait of the rock group KISS at the Kennedy Center on August 13 [Alex Brandon/AP Photo]
A crackdown on crime in the capital
The Kennedy Center Honors is expected to air on the TV channel CBS in December, and it broadcasts from its eponymous theatre.
In Wednesday’s speech, Trump tied the upcoming ceremony to his broader campaign to crack down on crime in Washington, DC.
“ In the coming months, we’ll fully renovate the dated and, really, the entire infrastructure of the building and make the Kennedy Center a crown jewel of American arts and culture once again,” he said.
“ We have the right location, and soon we will be a crime-free area.”
Earlier this week, Trump invoked the capital’s Home Rule Act to take control of the local police force, and he deployed members of the National Guard to patrol the city’s streets, despite the fact that violent crime in the city was at a 30-year low.
Trump, however, has denied the legitimacy of those statistics, a claim he made again at the Kennedy Center on Wednesday.
“ You’re gonna see a big change in Washington crime stats very soon — not the stats that they gave because they turned out to be a total fraud. The real stats,” he said.
Trump also faces legal limitations to his efforts: The capital’s police can only be federalised for a period of 30 days, barring congressional action.
When asked about that limit at Wednesday’s news conference, Trump indicated he would seek to retain control of Washington’s police for the long term.
“ If it’s a national emergency, we can do it without Congress,” Trump said, though he added that he would introduce a crime bill that would allow him to extend his control over the local police.
“ We’re going to do this very quickly, but we’re going to want extensions. I don’t want to call a national emergency. If I have to, I will, but I think the Republicans in Congress will approve this pretty much unanimously.”
Donald Trump stands in front of a portrait of Sylvester Stallone, a 2025 Kennedy Center honouree [Alex Brandon/AP Photo]
Trump ‘very involved’ in honouree selection
The Republican leader also hinted at a potential political bent to the reimagined Kennedy Center Honors.
He has previously denounced the Kennedy Center’s programming, pledging to nix artistic productions like drag shows and book classic Broadway hits instead.
In response, over the past year, the touring production of the hit Broadway musical Hamilton cancelled its scheduled stop at the Kennedy Center, as did comedian Issa Rae and the opera Fellow Travelers.
Performers in a touring production of Les Miserables also boycotted performances at the Kennedy Center to protest Trump’s changes.
Still, Trump doubled down on the programming changes, saying his ratings success on the reality TV show The Apprentice testified to his arts-industry smarts.
“I shouldn’t make this political because they made the Academy Awards political and they went down the tubes,” Trump said on Wednesday.
“They’ll say, ‘Trump made it political,’ but I think, if we make it our kind of political, we’ll go up, OK? Let’s see if I’m right about that.”
He also confirmed that he had played a large role in selecting this year’s Kennedy Center honourees.
“I would say I was about 98-percent involved. No, they all went through me,” Trump explained, adding that he turned down “plenty” of candidates, including “a couple of wokesters”.
Looking ahead, Trump said the Kennedy Center would feature heavily in his plans to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding in 2026.
“I’m going to be president for the Olympics. I’ll be president for the World Cup. And the 250th is going to be maybe more exciting than both,” Trump said. “It’s a great celebration of our country. We’re going to be using this building for a lot of the celebration.”
Watch: Taylor Swift appears in Travis and Jason Kelce’s podcast ‘New Heights’
Taylor Swift made her highly anticipated podcast debut on New Heights, hosted by boyfriend Travis Kelce and his brother Jason Kelce.
The pop superstar used the appearance to announce her new album, The Life of a Showgirl, and give some updates on her life since the Eras Tour, which ran almost two years and spanned five continents before ending in December.
More than 1.3 million tuned in live for the programme as Swift offered insights into her relationship with Travis, the notorious easter eggs she plants in music for fans and even titbits on her sourdough-bread-baking hobby.
It marked a change for megastar, who is notorious for not giving interviews and instead sharing updates on her life through song lyrics, which frenzied fans analyse and piece together.
The American football star brothers offered a warm welcome to Swift, calling her “Tay Tay” and running through a list of her many awards.
Teaser clips of the New Heights podcast went viral before her episode aired, including one video clip where Swift unveils a briefcase with “TS” on it and pulls out her new 12th studio album, which will be available 3 October.
The record was simultaneously made available for pre-order on her website – which also had a countdown clock to the moment when she would appear on the podcast.
Here is some of what we learned from her appearance.
What the cover of her new album looks like
As the countdown clock ran down on her website and the podcast started, Swift’s website updated with the cover of her 12th studio album.
The Life of a Showgirl features Swift wearing a dress emblazoned with diamonds lying in turquoise green.
She is seen submerged in the water, with only her face above the surface.
The website to pre-order the album started crashing as soon as the podcast began, with some users receiving error messages. It will be released 3 October, according to her website.
Swift explained that she wrote the album while on her Eras Tour and said she would frequently return to Sweden while doing concerts in Europe, in order to record it.
Wondery/Taylor Swift
“I was basically exhausted at this point in the tour, but I was so mentally stimulated and so excited to be creating,” she said.
Travis added: “Literally living the life of a showgirl.”
Swift went on to read out all 12 track names, including the title track which features Sabrina Carpenter.
Travis said the album is “upbeat” and will make people dance – a true pop album. He called it a 180 degree difference from her last album, The Tortured Poets Department.
“Life is more upbeat,” Swift said in response, smiling and looking at Travis.
She said it’s also unlike her last album due to the number of tracks – making clear it will only include 12 tracks and that is it.
Swift said the album tells the story of “everything that was going on behind the curtain” of her time on tour. The colour orange was chosen because it’s a colour she likes and felt energised by, she added.
Swift says the podcast ‘got me a boyfriend’
Toward the beginning of the show, Swift was asked why she chose to appear on the podcast, which caters primarily to sports fans.
“This podcast has done a lot for me. This podcast got me a boyfriend,” she said, accusing Travis of using the podcast as his “personal dating app” before he met her.
Before they started dating – or even met – Travis famously gushed on the podcast about attending one of Swift’s concerts and being saddened when they couldn’t meet. He talked about making her a beaded friendship bracelet, which were popular during the Eras Tour, and said he wanted to give her his phone number.
She said the clip, which went viral, felt almost like “he was standing outside of my apartment, holding a boom box saying, ‘I want to go on a date with you'”.
She said this was exactly the moment she had “been writing songs about, wanting to happen to me since I was a teenager”.
“It was wild, but it worked… He’s the good kind of crazy,” she said, calling her boyfriend “a human exclamation point”.
She said she was circling back to the podcast show as a way to say thank you.
Poking fun at male sports fans
The episode began with a screaming introduction from Jason, the former Philadelphia Eagles player, who runs through a long list of his brother’s girlfriend’s accomplishments, including being the only artist to win the album of the year Grammy four times.
Swift sat beside Travis, chuckling along before thanking Jason for his enthusiasm.
She then went on to poke fun at her appearing on a podcast that typically caters to American football fans.
“As we all know, you know, you guys have a lot of male sports fans that listen to your podcast,” she said.
“I think we all know that if there’s one thing that male sports fans want in their spaces and on their screens, it’s more of me,” she deadpanned, looking straight into the camera.
Swift’s appearance at Kansas City Chiefs games caused a frenzy over the years. In 2023 when the pair started dating and she started making appearances, game cameras looked for the singer in the stands – cutting to her more than a dozen times during some games.
The NFL promoted her appearances at games heavily on social media, posting videos and tweets about the singer and her celebrity entourage that often accompanied her.
Some football fans weren’t happy with the new focus.
Swift was booed by NFL fans during her appearance on the jumbotron screen at the Super Bowl last February, which drew headlines and even social media posts by President Donald Trump.
But despite the criticism, Jason assured her that she has been the “most requested guest on the podcast”. Other recent guests on the show include basketball stars Caitlin Clark, Shaquille O’Neal and LeBron James, and actors Brad Pitt, Ben Affleck, Bill Murray and Adam Sandler.
Insights into how she crafts her hidden easter eggs
She also spoke about all the ways she uses easter eggs to tease her music and plant hidden clues for fans.
She said she has rules for the hidden clues in her music and performances.
“I’m never going to plant an easter egg that ties back to my personal life. It’s always going to go back to my music,” she explained, joking that some of fans have gotten so good at decoding her that it’s almost gotten a bit “zodiac killer”.
The hidden clues are “something that you don’t know I’m saying for a specific reason, but you’ll go back and be like ‘Oh my God!'”
She said that her favourite example was a speech she gave when she received an honourary doctorate.
“I put so many lyrical easter eggs in that speech that when the Midnights album came out, after that, the fans were like, ‘The whole speech was an easter egg!'”
She spoke about her love of numbers and dates. “I love math stuff,” she said, calling out 13 as her favourite number. Travis, she said, is “87” – the number he wears on his jersey during games – and she noted that 13 plus 87 equals 100.
Some of her hidden messages are so complex, she said, they are crafted “upside down, backwards in Braille”.
She added one of her biggest clues for fans came at the conclusion of the Eras Tour.
Every performance of the tour ended with Swift leaving the stage by descending through an elevator. But for the final show, she took stairs and walked through an orange-coloured door – which she admitted was one of her easter eggs.
“I wanted to give a little subliminal hint that I may be ending the Eras Tour era, but I may be entering a new era,” she said.
The new vinyl record, she showed, is a sparkly shade of orange.
Swift didn’t know about football – until Travis
Wondery/Taylor Swift
Swift said that she knew nothing about football before their romance began.
“I didn’t know what a first down was,” or a “tight-end,” (which is the position Travis plays), she said.
She said she appreciated Travis’ patience and understanding when they started dating and introducing her to his world.
She’s now found herself personally invested – citing an episode where she found herself interested in a recent player trade. She recalled thinking to herself: “Who body snatched me?”
Travis told her that he will be “forever grateful” that she dove fully into his world “wholeheartedly”.
After her original masters sold, she vowed to re-record all six albums, which became known as “Taylor’s Versions”.
Swift grew emotional as she explained the process by which she purchased her master recordings, after trying for an entire decade to secure the rights.
She said she was not interested in the financial “returns” the albums would bring.
“For me it’s not ‘I want to own this asset because of its returns’,” she said. “I want this because it was my handwritten diary entries from my entire life.”
She said that her mother and brother talked with with Shamrock Capital, a Los Angeles-based investment firm, about purchasing her music.
When her mother called her, saying “You got your music,” she said: “I just very dramatically hit the floor. For real.”
“Bawling my eyes out, and just weeping. And just like ‘Really? Really? What do you mean?'”
“This changed my life,” she continued. “I can’t believe it still.”
Which version of her albums should fans listen to?
She also thanked loyal fans for listening to her re-recorded albums, saying they reacted to the dispute over rights to her music with the Western cowboy expression, “We ride at dawn”.
She also said that it was through her fans that she was able to buy back her music.
“The reason I was able to purchase my music back is, they came to the Eras Tour,” she said.
She was also asked which versions of her albums her fans should listen to – now that she owns both versions.
“I think a lot of the vocals I did on the re-records were better than the original,” she said, adding that she is especially fond of the remake of her 2012 album Red.
Speaking about her Eras Tour, which ended in December, she immediately drew comparisons to football.
“It was a lot of physical therapy. It was a lot of being in a state of perpetual discomfort,” she said.
“I’m not getting hit by huge 300-pounders. But the heels!” she said.
She also talked about life after the tour. She and Travis spoke fondly about their love, describing how they bake sourdough bread together.
His dough winds up with chest hair in it, while hers has extra cat hair, she joked.
“I had never experienced something so mesmerising on stage, and then so real and beautiful in person,” said Travis.
Jason then joked that maybe he should leave, and give them some privacy, as Swift swooned.
“Yeah I think so, honestly,” Swift responded. “At this point, I think everyone should leave.”
While Swift has at times been shy about discussing her relationship in public, Travis has been more outspoken. Before the podcast aired, he told GQ in an interview, “I love being the happiest guy in the world”.
He also praised Swift for her athleticism, comparing her three-hour long concerts to his football games.
“That is arguably more exhausting than how much I put in on a Sunday, and she’s doing it three, four, five days in a row,” he said.
‘Stop killing children, Stop killing civilians’ banners shown at match after criticism over tribute to Palestinian footballer Suleiman al-Obeid who was killed by Israel.
UEFA has unfurled a banner with the message “Stop Killing Children. Stop Killing Civilians” on the pitch before the Super Cup football match between Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham in Udine, Italy, in the wake of heavy fallout over its meek tribute to a Palestinian player killed by Israel.
“The message is loud and clear,” European football’s governing body said in a post on X om Wednesday. “A banner. A call.”
Nine children refugees from Palestine, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Iraq carried the banner onto the field of play before the game began.
Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah last week criticised a UEFA tribute to the late Suleiman al-Obeid, known as the “Palestinian Pele”, after European football’s governing body failed to reference the circumstances surrounding his killing.
The Palestine Football Association said al-Obeid, 41, was killed by an Israeli attack on civilians waiting for humanitarian aid in the southern Gaza Strip.
In a brief post on X, UEFA called the former national team member “a talent who gave hope to countless children, even in the darkest of times”.
Salah responded, “Can you tell us how he died, where, and why?”
Speaking to Al Jazeera last week, Bassil Mikdadi, the founder of Football Palestine, said he did not expect the football body to respond to the criticism.
“UEFA have not issued a follow-up, and frankly, I’d be surprised if they do,” he said, citing the “complete silence” of football and players’ bodies since the start of the war on Gaza.
Even UEFA’s tribute to al-Obeid “was a bit of a surprise”, Mikdadi said.
“Suleiman al-Obeid is not the first Palestinian footballer to perish in this genocide – there’s been over 400 – but he’s by far the most prominent as of now.”
Salah, one of the Premier League’s biggest stars, has advocated for humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza during the nearly two-year-long war.
But some responding to Salah’s post asked why it had taken the 33-year-old Egyptian so long to weigh in on Israel’s genocidal war.
The banner move came a day after the UEFA Foundation for Children announced its latest initiative to help children affected by war in different parts of the world – a partnership with Medecins du Monde, Doctors Without Borders (known by its French initials MSF), and Handicap International.
They are charities “providing vital humanitarian help for the children of Gaza,” UEFA said in a news release on Tuesday.
UEFA has supported projects regarding children affected in conflict zones in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Sudan, Syria, Yemen and Ukraine.
‘Stop killing children, Stop killing civilians’ banners shown at match after criticism over tribute to Palestinian footballer Suleiman al-Obeid who was killed by Israel.
UEFA has unfurled a banner with the message “Stop Killing Children. Stop Killing Civilians” on the pitch before the Super Cup football match between Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham in Udine, Italy, in the wake of heavy fallout over its meek tribute to a Palestinian player killed by Israel.
“The message is loud and clear,” European football’s governing body said in a post on X om Wednesday. “A banner. A call.”
Nine children refugees from Palestine, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Iraq carried the banner onto the field of play before the game began.
Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah last week criticised a UEFA tribute to the late Suleiman al-Obeid, known as the “Palestinian Pele”, after European football’s governing body failed to reference the circumstances surrounding his killing.
The Palestine Football Association said al-Obeid, 41, was killed by an Israeli attack on civilians waiting for humanitarian aid in the southern Gaza Strip.
In a brief post on X, UEFA called the former national team member “a talent who gave hope to countless children, even in the darkest of times”.
Salah responded, “Can you tell us how he died, where, and why?”
Speaking to Al Jazeera last week, Bassil Mikdadi, the founder of Football Palestine, said he did not expect the football body to respond to the criticism.
“UEFA have not issued a follow-up, and frankly, I’d be surprised if they do,” he said, citing the “complete silence” of football and players’ bodies since the start of the war on Gaza.
Even UEFA’s tribute to al-Obeid “was a bit of a surprise”, Mikdadi said.
“Suleiman al-Obeid is not the first Palestinian footballer to perish in this genocide – there’s been over 400 – but he’s by far the most prominent as of now.”
Salah, one of the Premier League’s biggest stars, has advocated for humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza during the nearly two-year-long war.
But some responding to Salah’s post asked why it had taken the 33-year-old Egyptian so long to weigh in on Israel’s genocidal war.
The banner move came a day after the UEFA Foundation for Children announced its latest initiative to help children affected by war in different parts of the world – a partnership with Medecins du Monde, Doctors Without Borders (known by its French initials MSF), and Handicap International.
They are charities “providing vital humanitarian help for the children of Gaza,” UEFA said in a news release on Tuesday.
UEFA has supported projects regarding children affected in conflict zones in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Sudan, Syria, Yemen and Ukraine.
Possible ways to mitigate the risk include armouring the coastline and building breakwaters to relocating the monuments.
The Journal of Cultural Heritage has published a new study indicating that rising sea levels could push powerful seasonal waves into Easter Island’s 15 iconic moai statues, in the latest potential peril to cultural heritage from climate change.
“Sea level rise is real,” said Noah Paoa, lead author of the study published on Wednesday and a doctoral student at the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology. “It’s not a distant threat.”
About 50 other cultural sites in the area are also at risk from flooding.
Paoa, who is from Easter Island – a Chilean territory and volcanic island in Polynesia known to its Indigenous people as Rapa Nui – and his colleagues built a high-resolution “digital twin” of the island’s eastern coastline and ran computer models to simulate future wave impacts under various sea level rise scenarios. They then overlaid the results with maps of cultural sites to pinpoint which places could be inundated in the coming decades.
The findings show waves could reach Ahu Tongariki, the largest ceremonial platform on the island, as early as 2080. The site, home to the 15 towering moai, draws tens of thousands of visitors each year and is a cornerstone of the island’s tourism economy.
Beyond its economic value, the ahu is deeply woven into Rapa Nui’s cultural identity. It lies within Rapa Nui National Park, which encompasses much of the island and is recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The roughly 900 moai statues across the island were built by the Rapa Nui people between the 10th and 16th centuries to honour important ancestors and chiefs.
The threat isn’t unprecedented. In 1960, the largest earthquake ever recorded – a magnitude 9.5 off the coast of Chile – sent a tsunami surging across the Pacific. It struck Rapa Nui and swept the already-toppled moai further inland, which damaged some of their features. The monument was restored in the 1990s.
While the study focuses on Rapa Nui, its conclusions echo a wider reality: Cultural heritage sites worldwide are increasingly endangered by rising seas. A UNESCO report published last month found that about 50 World Heritage sites are highly exposed to coastal flooding.
A UNESCO spokesperson told The Associated Press news agency that climate change is the biggest threat to UNESCO’s World Heritage marine sites. “In the Mediterranean and Africa, nearly three-quarters of coastal low-lying sites are now exposed to erosion and flooding due to accelerated sea level rise.”
Possible defences for Ahu Tongariki range from armouring the coastline and building breakwaters to relocating the monuments.
Paoa hopes that the findings will bring these conversations about now, rather than after irreversible damage. “It’s best to look ahead and be proactive instead of reactive to the potential threats.”
Goncalo Ramos gets on the end of a fizzing Ousmane Dembele cross as Paris Saint-Germain come from two goals down to draw level with Tottenham in the UEFA Super Cup final in Udine.
Peruvian President Dina Boluarte has signed into law a controversial piece of legislation that would shield the military, police and other government-sanctioned forces from prosecution for human rights abuses committed during the country’s decades-long internal conflict.
On Wednesday, Boluarte held a signing ceremony at the presidential palace in Lima, where she defended the amnesty law as a means of honouring the sacrifices made by government forces.
“This is a historic day for our country,” she said. “It brings justice and honour to those who stood up to terrorism.”
But human rights groups and international observers have condemned the bill as a violation of international law — not to mention a denial of justice for the thousands of survivors who lived through the conflict.
From 1980 to 2000, Peru experienced a bloody conflict that pitted government forces against left-wing rebel groups like the Shining Path.
Both sides, however, committed massacres, kidnappings and assaults on unarmed civilians, with the death toll from the conflict climbing as high as 70,000 people.
Up until present, survivors and family members of the deceased have continued to fight for accountability.
An estimated 600 investigations are currently under way, and 156 convictions have been achieved, according to the National Human Rights Coordinator, a coalition of Peruvian human rights organisations.
Critics fear those ongoing probes could be scuttled under the wide-ranging protections offered by the new amnesty law, which stands to benefit soldiers, police officers and members of self-defence committees who face legal proceedings for which no final verdict has been rendered.
The legislation also offers “humanitarian” amnesty for those convicted over the age of 70.
Peru, however, falls under the jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, which ordered the country’s government to “immediately suspend the processing” of the law on July 24.
The court ruled against past amnesty laws in Peru. In cases of severe human rights violations, it ruled that there can be no sweeping amnesty nor age limits for prosecution.
In 1995, for instance, Peru passed a separate amnesty law that would have prevented the prosecution of security forces for human rights abuses between 1980 and that year. But it was greeted with widespread condemnation, including from United Nations experts, and it was eventually repealed.
In the case of the current amnesty law, nine UN experts issued a joint letter in July condemning its passage as a “clear breach of [Peru’s] obligations under international law”.
But at Wednesday’s signing ceremony, President Boluarte reiterated her position that such international criticism was a violation of her country’s sovereignty and that she would not adhere to the Inter-American Court’s decision.
“Peru is honouring its defenders and firmly rejecting any internal or external interference,” Boluarte said.
“We cannot allow history to be distorted, for perpetrators to pretend to be victims, and for the true defenders of the homeland to be branded as enemies of the nation they swore to protect.”
Peru’s armed forces, however, have been implicated in a wide range of human rights abuses. Just last year, 10 soldiers were convicted of carrying out the systematic rape of Indigenous and rural women and girls.
Drawing from Peru’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission report, the human rights group Amnesty International estimates that the country’s armed forces and police were responsible for 37 percent of the deaths and disappearances that happened during the conflict.
They were also credited with carrying out 75 percent of the reported instances of torture and 83 percent of sexual violence cases.
Francisco Ochoa, a victims’ advocate, spoke to Al Jazeera last month about his experiences surviving the 1985 Accomarca massacre as a 14-year-old teenager.
He had been in the corn fields preparing to sow seeds when soldiers arrived and rounded up the residents of his small Andean village.
Despite having no evidence linking the villagers to rebel groups, the soldiers locked many of them in their huts, fired into the structures and set them ablaze.
As many as 62 people were killed, including Ochoa’s mother, eight-year-old brother and six-year-old sister.
“The first thing I remember from that day is the smell when we arrived,” Ochoa, now 54, told journalist Claudia Rebaza. “It smelled like smouldering flesh, and there was no one around.”
When asked how he and other survivors felt about the amnesty law, Ochoa responded, “Outraged and betrayed”.
Protests and vigils have taken place around the world in support of Palestinians suffering in Gaza and to pay tribute to the four Al Jazeera journalists and two freelancers killed by Israel in the besieged enclave in a deliberate targeted assassination on Sunday.
Journalists, students, activists and members of civil society – notably in Cape Town, South Africa; Manila, the Philippines; and London, the United Kingdom – held the protests on Wednesday to call on their governments to put pressure on Israel to allow international media into Gaza and bring an end to Israel’s genocidal war there.
Late on Sunday, Al Jazeera correspondents Anas al-Sharif and Mohammed Qreiqeh, along with cameramen Ibrahim Zaher and Mohammed Noufal, were killed in an Israeli strike that had targeted their media tent located by al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
Al-Sharif had been one of Gaza’s most recognisable faces for his constant reporting of the reality on the ground since Israel’s war on Gaza began following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks on southern Israel.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 61,722 people and wounded 154,525. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7, 2023, attacks in southern Israel, and more than 200 were taken captive.
Members of civil society and journalists gathered at St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town on Wednesday to express their anger at al-Sharif’s murder, sporting placards with one reading “your voice was louder than their bombs”.
The location is significant, said Al Jazeera’s Fahmida Miller, reporting from Cape Town, as “it’s been an important signal against oppression here in South Africa, especially during the decades of apartheid”.
The people gathered here “have condemned what Israel has done”, Miller said.
“They want the entry of international journalists into Gaza in addition to the work being done by Palestinian journalists,” she said. “People here are angry.”
Journalist Zubeida Jaffer told Miller, “I was one of the journalists who were targeted, you know those media that documented apartheid, so this really resonates with me.”
Miller said, “The South African government has previously condemned the killing of journalists in Gaza, specifically in 2022 when Shireen Abu Akleh was killed. The South African government had said it was a violation of international law.”
Abu Akleh was a Palestinian-American journalist who worked as a reporter for 25 years for Al Jazeera, before she was killed by Israeli forces while covering a raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
In December 2023, South Africa brought a case before the International Court of Justice, accusing Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip.
United Kingdom
Reporters belonging to the UK branches of the National Union of Journalists paid their respects on Wednesday to the slain Al Jazeera workers outside the prime minister’s residence at Number 10 Downing Street, said Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull, reporting from London.
The reporters, holding placards bearing the names of journalists killed since Israel’s war on Gaza began, read out the names of each journalist that appeared on their placard and “symbolically, recited Islamic funeral prayers” for those killed on Sunday, said Hull.
Those present “have really condemned the British government … talking about its complicity in what is going on in Gaza, for not doing more and speaking out more,” said Hull.
While British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday “talked about his grave concern” about the killings of the Al Jazeera journalists, those present on Wednesday “want outright condemnation and nothing less”, said Hull.
“They also want the government to take firm steps to pressure the Israeli government to ensure the safety of journalists in Gaza, importantly to allow international journalists into Gaza to be able to work freely there and for an independent investigation to be carried out by … the International Criminal Court in order to provide justice and accountability for those involved.”
Last week, Starmer condemned Israel’s plans to take over Gaza City, saying they were “wrong” and “will only bring more bloodshed”. He has also announced that the UK will recognise a Palestinian state in September unless Israel meets certain conditions, including agreeing to a ceasefire in Gaza and reviving the prospect of a two-state solution.
Philippines
Students, campus journalists and activists gathered at the University of the Philippines on Wednesday to express outrage at the killing of the Al Jazeera journalists.
They say “the attack … is a deliberate cover-up by Israel of its crimes against humanity” in the Gaza Strip, said Al Jazeera’s Barnaby Lo, reporting from Manila.
“They also describe the accusation that Anas al-Sharif, one of the most prominent voices reporting from within Gaza, is a member of Hamas is baseless,” said Lo, noting that protesters say “this is an age-old tactic used by governments who are bent on silencing the truth”.
“Any imperialist power … will choose a scapegoat to use as a pretext, however false it is,” campus journalist Karl Patrick Suyat told Lo.
These protesters also gathered to urge “the international community to ramp up pressure on Israel to stop its genocide, including for the Philippine government to cut its trade and defence ties with Israel”, said Lo.
The Philippines is the third-largest importer of Israeli weapons.
In June, the Philippines voted in favour of a United Nations General Assembly resolution demanding an immediate and lasting ceasefire in Gaza. This resolution also condemned Israel’s use of starvation as a weapon of war and called for Israel to lift its blockade on humanitarian aid in Gaza.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has reiterated that there should be no peace talks to end the Russia-Ukraine war now in its fourth year without representation from his country, and also said Russia should face sanctions if it does not agree to an immediate ceasefire, following a virtual meeting between him, United States President Donald Trump and European leaders.
Zelenskyy delivered the message after the call on Wednesday, two days ahead of a summit between Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska, which comes as part of Washington’s so far failed attempts to end the war in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Trump promised to hold trilateral talks with both Ukraine and Russia, if Friday’s summit “goes OK”.
“I would like to do it immediately,” he said. “We’ll have a quick second meeting between President Putin and President Zelenskyy and myself if they’d like to have me there.”
The US president also vowed that Moscow would face “severe consequences” if Putin did not agree to end its war.
In a joint statement, leaders of the UK, France and Germany said that Russia should face tougher sanctions if it fails to agree to a ceasefire on Friday.
Kyiv must also be given “robust and credible security guarantees” and have no limitations placed on its armed forces or on its cooperation with other countries, they added.
“The Coalition of the Willing is ready to play an active role, including through plans by those willing to deploy a reassurance force once hostilities have ceased.”
The rapid developments came after Trump met virtually with Zelenskyy and other European leaders including France’s Emmanuel Macron and the United Kingdom’s Keir Starmer on Wednesday.
Arranged in a bid for Europe to try and influence Trump’s meeting with Putin on Friday, this second call took place after talks earlier in the day between Zelenskyy, European leaders and the heads of NATO and the European Union.
Thanking German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for hosting the meetings, Zelenskyy said on X that Ukraine and Europe were “cooperating constructively with the United States”.
“I hope that today we have come closer to ending the war and building a guaranteed peaceful future,” he concluded.
Trump and European leaders called their joint meeting a success, with the US president describing it as a “very good call”.
“I would rate it a 10. Very friendly,” he said, speaking during a press conference at the Kennedy Center.
Trump noted that he would be calling Zelenskyy and European leaders immediately following his meeting with Putin.
At a press conference with Merz, Zelenskyy expressed his hope that the Trump-Putin summit would focus on an “immediate ceasefire”.
“Sanctions must be in place and must be strengthened if Russia does not agree to a ceasefire,” he added.
His choice of words, a term commonly used in reference to poker, evoked Trump telling Zelenskyy, “you don’t have the cards” in the infamously hostile news conference at the White House on February 28th.
“He is trying to apply pressure before the meeting in Alaska along all parts of the Ukrainian front,” Zelenskyy suggested. “Russia is trying to show that it can occupy all of Ukraine.”
After the Trump call, Merz, who described the meeting as “exceptionally constructive”, stressed that Ukraine is willing to negotiate, but noted that “legal recognition of Russian occupation is not up for debate”.
US President Donald Trump speaks during the unveiling of the Kennedy Center Honors nominees on August 13, 2025, at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, the US [Mandel Ngan/ AFP]
“The principle that borders cannot be changed by force must continue to apply,” Merz said.
“Negotiations must include robust security guarantees for Kyiv,” he added. “The Ukrainian armed forces must be able and remain able to effectively defend the sovereignty of their country. They must also be able to count on Western aid in the long term.”
After the online meeting, France’s Macron said Trump would be seeking a ceasefire in Ukraine during his meeting with Putin on Friday.
The US president would also seek a trilateral meeting with Putin and Zelenskyy in the future, the French president noted.
The Trump-Putin summit in Alaska has been a cause for anxiety in Kyiv and Europe more widely, after Trump declared that both Ukraine and Russia would have to swap land if a truce is to be reached.
Speaking from the UK on Wednesday, JD Vance, the US vice-president, seemed to try to allay fears in Europe.
“I just talked to him [Trump] right before I came on the stage, and he said very simply that we are going to make it our mission as an administration to bring peace to Europe once again,” Vance said.
Reporting from Berlin, Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen said there was “some optimism” in Europe that Trump had agreed to Wednesday’s meeting.
However, Vaessen noted that European leaders were still “concerned that everything changes as soon as President Trump is in that room with President Putin, who they know is a very keen, a very sharp negotiator”.
Elsewhere, the Russian Foreign Ministry sought to downplay the relevance of Europe’s last-minute diplomatic efforts with Trump, branding them “practically insignificant”.
On the battlefield, Russia has claimed to have captured the villages of Suvorovo and Nikanorovka as its gains in Donetsk continue, with the Ukrainian authorities issuing evacuation orders for around a dozen settlements.
The Kremlin’s forces achieved their largest 24-hour advance in more than a year on Tuesday, according to data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War.
Graham Clark hit the final ball for six to snatch a dramatic three-wicket victory for Northern Superchargers against Southern Brave in The Hundred.
Needing five for victory or four for a tie, Durham batter Clark heaved England international Tymal Mills over the boundary at mid-wicket.
In a see-sawing finale, Superchargers needed only 11 from the last 10 with five wickets left before Jofra Archer struck twice and conceded only one run from his final five balls.
Clark swept the second ball of the last set from Mills for four to leave five to get from three but when Mills followed with two dot balls the hosts still appeared favourites.
Mills opted for a slower ball again, however, and dropped to the ground when Clark clubbed it for six.
Clark, in contrast, roared in delight and finished 38 not out from 24 balls, having left the previous delivery believing it to be a wide outside off stump.
“That felt euphoric,” he told Sky sports.
“I thought I messed it up when I left the ball before, but it’s a good feeling to get over the line.”
Clark came in at number six when Superchargers and England white-ball captain Harry Brook was caught off Mills for 24. Dan Lawrence holed out for 10, while opener Zak Crawley was caught for 29.
Superchargers were helped by an injury to Chris Jordan, who left the field with an apparent groin injury with 49 needed from 35 balls and Mitchell Santner capitalised by hitting Michael Bracewell’s spin for a six and a four.
Santner, who took 2-24 in Brave’s 139-5 – with fellow New Zealander and debutant Jacob Duffy also taking 3-26 – became Archer’s first victim and Tom Lawes followed for a duck, but Clark proved to be Superchargers’ match-winner.
The victory is their second from three games in this year’s Hundred and ends the Brave’s winning start.
The occupied West Bank town’s mayor says Thamin Khalil Reda Dawabsheh killed as Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians.
A Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank has been shot dead in an attack instigated by Israeli settlers, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry as cited by the Wafa news agency.
Thamin Khalil Reda Dawabsheh, 35, was shot Wednesday morning in the town of Duma, south of Nablus, by an Israeli off-duty soldier who was accompanying “an Israeli civilian” near Duma “during engineering works”, the Israeli army said.
Earlier Palestinian reports of the attack had stated that Dawabsheh was killed by an Israeli settler.
35-year-old Thameen Khalil Reda Dawabsheh succumbed to his wounds after being shot by colonists during an attack on the village. pic.twitter.com/cHfdUg4Unl
— WAFA News Agency – English (@WAFANewsEnglish) August 13, 2025
According to the mayor of Duma, Palestinians in the town were “startled” by an Israeli settler attack, said Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim.
“The settlers started assaulting a 14-year-old, leading many Palestinian men to go and try to defend him,” Ibrahim said.
Later, more armed settlers arrived, and they started shooting at the Palestinians, resulting in the death of Dawabsheh, “whose only crime was being on his land”, she added.
Suleiman Dawabsheh, the head of the Duma village council, said that settlers attacked Palestinians and opened fire on them in the southern part of the village, amid land-levelling operations that have been taking place in the area for days, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
Ibrahim said that Thamin Dawabsheh’s killing is part of a pattern of increased Israeli settler violence against Palestinians that is often filmed on camera.
“Every day, we stumble upon more videos showing how Israeli settlers are attacking Palestinians – intimidating them, shooting them, killing them. And they are not being held accountable by the Israeli authorities,” said Ibrahim.
The statement published by the Israeli army claimed dozens of Palestinians were hurling rocks towards the Israeli civilian and soldier, and “in response, the soldier fired to remove the threat, and a hit was identified”.
A deadly pattern of Israeli military, settler attacks
Recently, 31-year-old Palestinian activist and English teacher Awdah Hathaleen was shot dead by an Israeli settler on July 28 in the village of Umm al-Kheir, south of Hebron.
Hathaleen was well known for his activism, including helping the creators of the Oscar-winning film No Other Land, which documents Israeli settler and soldier attacks on the Palestinian community of Masafer Yatta.
Israeli settlers, protected by the Israeli military, are often armed and fire at will against Palestinians who try to stop them. They attack residents and burn property with impunity, rarely if ever facing legal consequences.
The Israeli military has also been intensifying its deadly raids, home demolitions and displacement campaigns in the West Bank.
Violent attacks by Israeli settlers and soldiers in the occupied West Bank have surged since October 2023, in tandem with Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, with the United Nations reporting that almost 650 Palestinians – including 121 children – have been killed in the territory by Israeli forces and settlers between January 1, 2024 and the start of July 2025.
A further 5,269 Palestinians were injured during that period, including 1,029 children.
The security chief’s visit comes after Iran expressed opposition to a government plan to disarm Hezbollah.
Lebanon’s president has told a senior Iranian official that Beirut rejects any interference in its internal affairs and has criticised Tehran’s statements on plans to disarm Hezbollah as “unconstructive”.
Iran’s Supreme National Security Council chief Ali Larijani’s visit to Beirut on Wednesday comes a week after the Lebanese government ordered the army to devise plans by the end of 2025 to disarm the Iran-aligned Lebanese armed group.
Iran expressed opposition to the plan to disarm Hezbollah, which before a war with Israel last year was believed to be better armed than the Lebanese military.
“It is forbidden for anyone … to bear arms and to use foreign backing as leverage,” Aoun told Larijani, according to a statement from the Lebanese presidency posted on X.
Larijani responded to Aoun by stating that Iran does not interfere in Lebanese decision-making, and that foreign countries should not give orders to Lebanon.
“Any decision taken by the Lebanese government in consultation with the resistance is respected by us,” he said after separate talks with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, whose Amal Movement is an ally of Hezbollah.
“Iran didn’t bring any plan to Lebanon, the US did. Those intervening in Lebanese affairs are those dictating plans and deadlines”, said Larijani.
He said Lebanon should not “mix its enemies with its friends – your enemy is Israel, your friend is the resistance”.
Larijani further added that Lebanon should appreciate Hezbollah, and its “value of resistance”.
Reporting from Beirut, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr said Larijani appeared to have softened his language on the visit.
“Ali Larijani has been using more diplomatic language than … a few days ago [when] he was blunt that Iran opposes the Lebanese government’s decision to disarm Hezbollah.”
“He said that Iran’s policy is about friendly cooperation, not giving orders and timetables, so he was referring to the United States, the US envoy, which presented a plan to end tensions with Israel, and that plan involves disarming Hezbollah [on] a four-month timetable.”
A ‘state-by-state’ relationship
Dozens of Hezbollah supporters gathered along the airport road to welcome Larijani on Wednesday morning. He briefly stepped out of his car to greet them as they chanted slogans.
“If … the Lebanese people are suffering, we in Iran will also feel this pain and we will stand by the dear people of Lebanon in all circumstances,” Larijani told reporters shortly after landing in Beirut.
The Iranian official is also scheduled to meet Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, as well as Berri, who is close to Hezbollah.
Iran has suffered a series of blows in its long-running rivalry with Israel, including during 12 days of open war between the two countries in June.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, was weakened during the war with Israel, which ended in a November 2024 ceasefire that Israel continues to violate.
The new Lebanese government, backed by the United States, has moved to further restrain the group.
“What the new Lebanese leadership wants is a state-by-state relationship, not like in the past where … the Iranians would be dealing with Hezbollah and not [with] the Lebanese state,” said Khodr.
Hezbollah has called the government’s disarmament decision a “grave sin”.
Khodr said the tensions have sparked concern about potential unrest in the country.
Hezbollah is part of Iran’s so-called “axis of resistance” – a network of aligned armed groups in the region, including Hamas in Gaza and Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who oppose Israel.
Last week, actor Dean Cain, known for portraying Superman in the 1990s TV show Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, announced that he was going to be sworn in as a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent.
Cain said he was joining the agency because ICE agents, whom he described as the “real true heroes”, were being vilified. He also posted an ICE recruitment video on Instagram with the Superman theme song playing in the background, and promoted the generous pay and benefits that come with being an ICE agent.
Cain is not the only one. Some pro-Trump celebrities have also defended or praised ICE. And Dr Phil tagged along on ICE raids in Chicago and quizzed apprehended migrants on camera.
But setting aside the irony that the Man of Steel himself was in fact also an undocumented alien, why would Superman be so keen to join ICE’s draconian raids targeting immigrants?
For one thing, we need to understand the allure of these ICE operations.
The visuals of masked federal agents, hopping out of armoured vehicles, in military-style gear and swiftly descending on what ICE enthusiasts would claim are terrorists, rapists, paedophiles, murderers, drug traffickers and gang members, are deeply comforting for many in the US.
This is a consequence of a long history where militarised policing gained a semblance of sacrosanctity in the country.
It is well documented that contemporary policing in the US has its origins in slave patrols. This means that the development of the US criminal justice system has its roots not only in slavery, but also in the belief that slave revolts or any effort to upend the racial hierarchy in American society are an existential threat to the established social order.
Over the years, the gradual militarisation of the police has drawn its rationale from periods of perceived existential crises in American society. Whether it was the rise of organised crime during the Prohibition era of the 1920s, uprisings during the civil rights movement of the 1960s, or when President Richard Nixon declared drug addiction “public enemy no 1” requiring an “all-out offensive”, these have served as the pretext for strong, military-style policing on American streets.
This militarisation of the police has been supported by Section 1033 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1997, which President Bill Clinton signed into law, allowing local law enforcement agencies to access excess military equipment from the Department of Defense (DOD). The 1033 programme has allowed the DOD to “sell or transfer”, among other things, mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles, grenade launchers, aeroplanes and helicopters.
This love affair with ICE is also a cultural phenomenon. The hard-edged, violent and brash cop, willing to stray outside the bounds of the law to protect innocent civilians from evil (the Muslim terrorist, the Soviets, the Germans) is a popular Hollywood and American TV show staple. This has normalised the perception that to keep America safe from such existential threats, it is sometimes necessary to use deadly force or extrajudicial actions, no matter how cruel or excessive they may seem.
Of course, in all of this, we cannot ignore the deep, anti-immigrant sentiments that drive the support for ICE.
In my adult life, this xenophobia has taken many forms.
As an 18-year-old college student in upstate New York in the early 2000s, I was the physical epitome of all things evil and anti-American as the country waged its “Global War on Terror”. At the time, I remember a fellow student justifying the extra security checks I had to suffer through at airports, saying, “You cannot ignore the fact that you look like the people who hate us.”
In my late 20s as a PhD student in Copenhagen, I had to hear a senior colleague say, “You’re Indian. I guess your skill is raping women.” He was referring to the 2012 Delhi bus gang rape and murder that received global attention.
Globally, we have also seen a proliferation of reality TV shows like Border Security: Australia’s Front Line and Nothing to Declare UK that claim to show the reality of the multiple threats that Western countries encounter at their borders.
It is now all but commonplace to imagine the figure of the migrant as a vessel for all things we fear and hate.
When Syrian refugees arrived in Europe in 2015, they were portrayed as a security threat, a burden on public services, and a threat to European values.
Last year, the United Kingdom saw a wave of far-right anti-immigrant riots after a mass stabbing of girls in Southport. The riots followed false claims that the attacker was a Muslim migrant. Rioters attacked minority-owned businesses, the homes of immigrants and hotels housing asylum seekers.
This year, Ireland has seen anti-immigrant attacks on South Asians, including a six-year-old girl who was punched in the face and hit in the genital area. Reportedly, these attacks have been fuelled by anger over the affordability and housing crisis.
Such anti-immigrant sentiments have been endemic to American politics.
While the discourse during the Obama years was not as antagonistic, the removal of undocumented migrants was still a political priority. President Obama was called “deporter-in-chief”, and in 2012, deportations peaked at 409,849. That said, in the same year, he also signed the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, allowing undocumented migrants who were brought into the country as minors to apply for “renewable two-year periods of deferred action from deportation, allowing them to remain in the country”. DACA also made them eligible for work permits.
Deportations were also a priority during the Biden years. In fiscal year 2023, US immigration authorities deported or returned 468,000 migrants, surpassing any single year during Trump’s first term.
That said, during Trump’s tenure in the White House, the anti-immigrant rhetoric has been vicious, and the Republican leader does not shy away from portraying migrants as synonymous with criminality and an existential threat to the demographic, moral and cultural fabric of the United States.
This framing of immigrants as a problematic presence in American society served as a pretext for Trump’s plan to build a wall across the US-Mexico border to stop the movement of undocumented migrants, the travel ban on citizens from several Muslim countries, and a suspension of the US Refugee Admissions Program.
Trump’s second term has only been a continuation of such policies. With the genocide ongoing in Gaza and the concurrent visibility of the Palestine solidarity movement, the anti-immigration movement has merged with anti-Palestinian racism, with ICE also targeting pro-Palestine activists whom the Trump administration claims hold views that are antithetical to American values.
With all of this in the background, it then makes sense that an actor who once played an undocumented alien on TV and who himself has Japanese heritage would join ICE. In the era of Trump, targeting the tired and poor huddled masses who yearn to breathe free seems to be the American way.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has led tributes to Welsh Labour politician Hefin David, who has died suddenly, aged 47.
Mr David had been Member of the Senedd (MS) for Caerphilly since 2016.
Labour leader Sir Keir called him a “powerful voice for the people of Wales” who “dedicated his life to making sure every person and community in Wales had the opportunities and support they deserve”.
Gwent Police said a 47-year-old man was found unresponsive at a property in Nelson, Caerphilly county, on Tuesday evening, and the death was not being treated as suspicious.
First Minister and Welsh Labour leader Eluned Morgan called Mr David an “outstanding politician” who would be “greatly missed”.
His partner was Cynon Valley MS Vikki Howells, the minister for further and higher education in the Welsh Labour government.
Sir Keir said: “The entire Labour movement will join me in grieving the loss of Hefin David.
“He was a powerful voice for the people of Wales and a committed public servant, who dedicated his life to making sure every person and community in Wales had the opportunities and support they deserve.
“As Member of the Senedd for Caerphilly, where he was born and lived, he was incredibly proud of his community.
“Our hearts are with his family and those who knew and loved him at this painful time. May he rest in peace.”
The first minister said: “We are extremely saddened by the sudden death of Hefin. Our thoughts are with his family at this terrible time.
“Hefin was a much-loved member of the Labour family. He served Caerphilly as a councillor and a Member of the Senedd with pride and passion.
“He was an outstanding politician, warm and enthusiastic and a great communicator – especially on behalf of his constituents.
“He will be greatly missed.”
Gwent Police Chief Constable Mark Hobrough said his “thoughts and heartfelt condolences” are with Mr David’s family, friends and colleagues.
“After I joined Gwent Police as the chief superintendent for the area covering Caerphilly, I worked closely with Hefin on many occasions and I found him to be an engaging and thoughtful individual,” he said.
“A dedicated public servant to Caerphilly, his commitment to our communities will be a significant loss.”
Elected to Cardiff Bay in 2016, Mr David was one of the more prominent Labour backbench members and was never afraid to go against the party line.
Popular with politicians from across the political divide and journalists in Cardiff Bay, he made regular, lively contributions to Senedd debates, and was once reprimanded for calling Plaid Cymru councillors in his constituency as “mad as a box of frogs”.
He was also one of five Senedd commissioners, responsible for the day-to-day running of the institution.
The Welsh Parliament’s presiding officer, or speaker, Elin Jones, said the whole Senedd was “devastated by the tragic news of Hefin’s death”.
“Our thoughts go immediately to his partner, our colleague and friend, Vikki Howells MS and to his cherished children and family,” she said.
“Hefin was so full of life and enthusiasm for his constituents and their causes.
“He was a passionate politician, loyal to his party, his country, and constituents.”
Darren Millar, leader of the Welsh Conservative group in Cardiff Bay, said he was “very sad to hear the shocking news of Hefin David’s death”.
“My deepest condolences go to Hefin’s family and friends, and I would also like to extend my condolences to the Welsh Labour Party,” he said.
“He was a man who always stood up for his constituents and was respected on all sides of the Senedd.”
German chancellor has arranged a series of meetings, beginning with European leaders and followed by a call with the US president.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will travel to Berlin for talks with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, European leaders and top United States officials ahead of a planned summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin later this week.
Both the German and Ukrainian governments confirmed the visit on Wednesday, which comes as Kyiv and its European allies push to ensure their voices are heard in discussions about ending the war.
Merz has arranged a series of virtual meetings, beginning with European leaders and followed by a call with Trump and US Vice President JD Vance about an hour later.
The day will conclude with a separate discussion among leaders of the so-called “coalition of the willing” – an assemblage of Western countries allied with Ukraine.
At a news briefing on Wednesday, Merz also pledged to help Ukraine develop long-range missile systems without Western-imposed restrictions on their use or targets.
Trump to meet Putin
Trump has described Friday’s summit with the Russian leader in Alaska as “a feel-out meeting” to gauge whether Putin is serious about ending the conflict.
But he has unsettled European allies by suggesting Ukraine will have to give up some Russian-held territory and by floating the idea of land swaps, without specifying what Moscow might surrender.
European governments have insisted Ukraine must be part of any peace negotiations, warning that excluding Kyiv could benefit Moscow.
On Monday, Trump declined to commit to pushing for Zelenskyy’s participation in his talks with Putin, saying a meeting between himself, Putin and Zelenskyy could be arranged afterwards.
Zelenskyy claimed he rejected an offer on Tuesday that Putin had proposed, where Ukraine would withdraw from the 30 percent of the Donetsk region it still controls as part of a ceasefire deal.
Kyiv and European officials fear that any US–Russia agreement reached without them could legitimise Moscow’s seizure of Ukrainian territory – including Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson – four regions which are partly occupied by Russia.
Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday said Trump and Putin would discuss “all the accumulated issues” at the meeting.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Alexei Fadeev also said that consultations requested by European countries were “insignificant”.
Russia’s position on ending its war on Ukraine was set out by President Vladimir Putin in June 2024 and has not changed, he added. Putin at that time demanded a full Ukrainian withdrawal from the four regions of the country that Russia has claimed as its own territory but does not fully control.
Fighting continues in eastern Ukraine
Meanwhile, fighting continues along the front line, with the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reporting 165 clashes with Russian forces over the past day, with the heaviest fighting in the Pokrovsk, Novopavlivka and Lyman sectors.
In the Kherson region, Russian forces used a drone to strike a civilian car on the Novoraisk–Kostyrka highway, killing a man and a woman, according to regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin on Telegram.
The Russian Defence Ministry said its air defences destroyed 46 Ukrainian drones overnight across Russian territory and the Sea of Azov.
Debris from intercepted drones fell on the roof of an apartment block in the southern city of Volgograd and in the yards of four residential buildings in Slavyansk-on-Kuban.
The AFP news agency has also reported that Ukraine is continuing to lose more ground, with evacuations in Bilozerske, while Ukrainian battlefield monitoring group DeepState reported that Russian forces had advanced in Nikanorivka, Shcherbynivka and near Petrivka in the Donetsk region.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian General Staff said its forces were engaged in “difficult” fighting near Pokrovsk in Donetsk, a key logistical hub for Kyiv’s forces, whose capture would deal a significant blow to its front-line defences and prospects at securing a favourable peace deal with Russia.
Protesters in New York City rallied outside The New York Times over the killing of Al Jazeera journalists including Anas al-Sharif in a targeted Israeli air attack in Gaza, accusing US media of shielding Israel from genocide allegations. Al Jazeera’s Gabriel Elizondo was there.
Newcastle are in advanced negotiations with Aston Villa over a move for midfielder Jacob Ramsey, who will hold key talks with the Midlands club in the next 24 hours.
The two clubs are in negotiations over a deal for Ramsey to move to St James’ Park before the transfer deadline, with an agreement described as close.
The 24-year-old will hold talks with Villa before making a decision on his future, with Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe keen to secure his signature.
If the clubs reach an agreement and the ex-England U21s midfielder decides he wants to leave, he will enter into talks with the Magpies over personal terms.
Ramsey has also courted serious interest from West Ham this summer, but if he does leave Villa Park then Newcastle is believed to be his preferred destination.
He has scored 17 goals in 167 appearances for Villa since earning his senior debut in 2019 and was a regular for Unai Emery’s side last season.
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