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Jemma Louise Gough

Jemma Louise Gough

Reasons why a host can cancel

Vehicle overturned after Israeli forces directed it down an ‘unsafe road’, local officials tell WAFA news agency.

At least 20 Palestinians have been killed and many injured after a truck carrying humanitarian aid overturned onto a crowd of people in central Gaza, according to the Government Media Office in the enclave.

The incident occurred on Wednesday as large numbers of Palestinians gathered in central Gaza in search of food and basic supplies, amid an increasingly dire humanitarian crisis.

Local officials quoted by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa said the vehicle overturned after Israeli forces directed it down what they described as an “unsafe road”.

Gaza Civil Defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that 20 people were killed and dozens were wounded in the incident while hundreds of civilians were waiting for aid, the AFP news agency reported.

“Despite the recent limited allowance of a few aid trucks, the occupation deliberately obstructs the safe passage and distribution of this aid,” the Gaza Government Media Office said in a statement.

“It forces drivers to navigate routes overcrowded with starving civilians who have been waiting for weeks for the most basic necessities. This often results in desperate crowds swarming the trucks and forcibly seizing their contents.”

The incident comes as humanitarian organisations warn of famine and disease spreading across the enclave, while deaths from starvation and malnutrition continue to rise.

At least three people died from malnutrition on Wednesday, medical sources told Al Jazeera. A source at al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza confirmed that Hiba Yasser Abu Naji, a child, died from malnutrition. An infant also died from malnutrition, according to the source. An adult from Jabalia was also reported to have died as a result of malnutrition.

On Monday, the Israeli military permitted 95 aid trucks to enter Gaza – a figure far below the 600 trucks a day needed to meet basic requirements, according to UNRWA. The current daily average is 85 trucks.

Meanwhile, Palestinians approaching aid distribution sites run by the notorious GHF have frequently come under Israeli fire since the organisation launched operations in late May. Such shootings have become near-daily occurrences near its sites in central and southern Gaza.

Jens Laerke, a spokesperson for OCHA, said that while some aid was entering the enclave, “there should be hundreds and hundreds of trucks entering Gaza every day for months or years to come.

“People are dying every day. This is a crisis on the brink of famine,” he said, adding that tonnes of life-saving aid remain stuck at border crossings due to bureaucratic delays and a lack of safe access.

Elsewhere in Gaza, several Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across the enclave.

Al-Awda Hospital reported that five people – including a woman and two children – were killed, and others wounded, in an Israeli raid on a house north of the Nuseirat refugee camp.

Four more people were killed in an Israeli raid on two homes in the Shujayea neighbourhood of Gaza City.

Son Heung-min left the Spurs squad on their tour of his native South Korea on Tuesday to fly to Los Angeles.

Son Heung-min has agreed to a contract with Los Angeles FC, finalizing his move to Major League Soccer (MLS) after a decade at Tottenham Hotspur.

The 33-year-old South Korean superstar forward is joining LAFC three days after he formally announced his decision to leave Tottenham.

Son attended LAFC’s Leagues Cup match against Tigres at BMO Stadium on Tuesday night, watching from a luxury suite. LAFC will formally introduce Son at a news conference Wednesday, but the club showed the forward on the stadium video board late in the first half as he waved to roaring fans thrilled by their team’s landmark acquisition.

LAFC, a deep-pocketed club with significant team success in its first eight seasons of existence, reportedly paid a transfer fee of more than $20m, which could end up being the most ever for an MLS move.

Son was a beloved presence at Spurs, scoring 173 goals in 454 competitive appearances for the North London club, while rising to global prominence with his combination of speed, playmaking skill and finishing acumen.

The captain was given a memorable farewell last week in Seoul during Tottenham’s exhibition match against Newcastle, getting a guard of honour from both teams and tearfully exiting in the second half while nearly 65,000 fans roared.

But South Korea’s most popular athlete – and almost certainly the greatest Asian soccer player in history – has chosen an auspicious stage for the next chapter of his ground-breaking career.

Los Angeles has the world’s largest ethnic Korean population outside Korea, with the city’s vibrant Koreatown district sitting just a couple of kilometres (miles) from LAFC’s BMO Stadium.

LAFC is undoubtedly hoping to market Son as a soccer counterpart to the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani, albeit on a smaller scale. Ohtani, the three-time MLB MVP from Japan who is on a trajectory to become the greatest Asian player in baseball history, draws fans from across the Pacific Rim to Dodger Stadium while attracting millions in sponsorships and partnerships for the Dodgers.

Son’s move to California also puts him in a position to have an effect on and off the field at the World Cup, which will be held across North America in 2026. Son, the captain of his national team, has already said he will play in his fourth World Cup.

After leading Tottenham to its first European trophy in decades by winning the Europa League in May, in a fitting cap to his English career, Son will go straight into the MLS Cup race when he suits up for his new club. LAFC currently sits sixth in the Western Conference at 10-6-6, but with multiple games in hand on every team ahead of it due to its participation in the Club World Cup.

Son’s seven Premier League goals last season were his fewest since his Tottenham debut, but he still appears to have the pace and skill necessary to be a difference-maker at any level. He also turned 33 only a month ago, putting him on the younger end of the global stars recently arriving in MLS.

Lionel Messi and Marco Reus were 35 and Luis Suarez was 37 when they went stateside in recent years, while Olivier Giroud and Hugo Lloris were both 37 when they joined LAFC last year.

Son will be reunited in Los Angeles with longtime Tottenham teammate Lloris, who has been outstanding since becoming LAFC’s goalkeeper last season.

High-scoring French forward Denis Bouanga is the only designated player currently under contract for LAFC, and general manager John Thorrington has been criticised by some fans for not using the full power of his financial resources this season. LAFC spent months on an ultimately failed attempt to get France’s Antoine Griezmann to leave Atletico Madrid.

Bouanga and Son have both thrived on the left wing during their careers, but Son likely has more positional versatility than Bouanga, making him a candidate to line up in the middle or even on the right wing.

Son seems to be an infinitely better fit for LAFC than Giroud, who moved to Lille last month after one disappointing year in California. LAFC plays a counterattacking, speed-based style that didn’t suit Giroud’s goal-scoring strengths, while Son should be right at home in such a system.

But LAFC could also alter its style in the winter, after coach Steve Cherundolo departs for Germany following four largely successful seasons highlighted by an MLS Cup championship.

Russian Pacific Fleet says joint patrol with China in the Asia Pacific will follow naval drill in the Sea of Japan.

Russian and Chinese naval vessels plan to conduct a joint patrol in the Asia Pacific region, following recent exercises in the Sea of Japan, Russia’s official Interfax has reported.

Citing a statement on Wednesday from the Russian Pacific Fleet’s press service, Interfax said that ships from the Russian Navy and China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy “will form a new task group to carry out joint patrol missions in the Asia-Pacific region”.

“After replenishing supplies from logistics vessels, the crews of the Russian Navy and the PLA Navy will form a new detachment to carry out joint patrol tasks in the Asia-Pacific region,” the news agency said.

Russia is conducting a series of military exercises with China in response to the build-up of US military potential in the Asia Pacific region, Interfax said, citing Russia’s chief of staff, Valery Gerasimov, in 2022.

Moscow and Beijing have already conducted joint air patrols in the Asia Pacific region since 2019, it added.

The joint patrol announcement comes as the two countries conclude five days of joint naval drills in the Sea of Japan that focused on anti-submarine and air defence missions.

During the final phase of the exercises, Russia’s large anti-submarine ship Admiral Tributs and the corvette Gromky, together with the Chinese destroyers Shaoxing and Urumqi, carried out live-fire drills while crews practised searching for and neutralising a mock enemy submarine, Interfax reported.

Russia’s Pacific Fleet earlier said that the drills were defensive in nature and not directed against any other countries.

The reported formation of the Asia Pacific joint patrol comes as China modernises and upgrades its naval fleet to become a “blue water” force, capable of carrying out long-range operations in the world’s oceans, similar to the United States and other Western forces.

Russia and China, which signed a “no-limits” strategic partnership shortly before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, conduct regular exercises to rehearse coordination between their armed forces and send a deterrent signal to adversaries.

Taxes must rise in the autumn if Chancellor Rachel Reeves is to meet her self-imposed borrowing rules, according to an economic think tank.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (Niesr) said the government was on track to miss the target it has set itself by £41.2bn.

It recommended “a moderate but sustained increase in taxes” including reform of the council tax system to make up the shortfall.

The government said “the best way to strengthen public finances is by growing the economy”, but the Conservatives said Labour “always reaches for the tax rise lever”.

When she became chancellor, Reeves set out two rules for government borrowing, which is the difference between public spending and tax income.

The first rule was that day-to-day spending would be paid for with government revenue, which is mainly taxes. Borrowing can only be for investment.

The second rule was that debt must be falling as a share of national income by the end of a five-year period.

Reeves has repeatedly said these rules are “non-negotiable”.

The chancellor originally promised not to raise taxes further, but recently refused to rule it out after disappointing data on economic growth.

Stephen Millard, deputy director for macroeconomics at Niesr, said Reeves “will need to either raise taxes or reduce spending or both in the October Budget if she is to meet her fiscal rules”.

Niesr argues that raising taxes would help build a “buffer” that would reassure investors about the stability of the UK’s public finances.

That in turn “may reduce borrowing costs” for the government, it said.

Niesr said the £41bn shortfall in the government’s budget was in part due to weakening growth over the past few months, resulting in a lower tax take and higher government borrowing.

But the reversal of welfare cuts, which were originally designed to save £5.5bn a year by 2030, had also had an impact, it said.

The welfare cuts were watered down, following opposition from within the Labour Party, and are now expected to save less than half the original amount.

As a result the chancellor now faced a “trilemma”, the thinktank said, over which of her pledges to fulfill: meeting her spending commitments, her manifesto promises to avoid tax rises on working people, or meeting the limits she has set on borrowing.

One of these commitments will need to be dropped, Niesr concluded, but it said the government should prioritise protecting public expenditure that supports the most vulnerable, while also safeguarding public investment which supports future growth.

Niesr said the government’s other priority should be policies to promote growth and productivity, to boost living standards across the UK.

It said that the living standards of the poorest 10% of the population were now 10% lower than pre-Covid levels.

When Labour came to power a year ago, it said it wanted to make the UK the fastest growing country in the G7 group of nations.

However, the UK had faced trade policy uncertainty and geopolitical risk, as well as domestic challenges, the thinktank said.

Niesr said its analysis suggested the economy would grow “modestly” at 1.3% in 2025 and 1.2% in 2026, placing the UK in the middle of the G7 economies.

The IMF recently said it thought the UK was set to be the third fastest growing economy out the world’s so-called most advanced economies this year and the next, after US and Canada.

Niesr said inflation, the rate at which prices are rising, remained “stubborn” and would be 3.5% this year and 3% next year.

The think tank, which is not affiliated to any political party or movement, did not suggest which taxes should rise or by how much.

However, it added that the government should also consider reducing welfare spending by speeding up plans to help people relying on benefits get into work.

The chancellor should also consider reforming council tax or even replacing it altogether with a land value tax, Niesr suggested.

A Treasury spokesperson said: “As set out in the plan for change, the best way to strengthen public finances is by growing the economy – which is our focus.”

However, shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride accused Labour of not understanding the economy.

“Experts are warning Labour’s economic mismanagement has blown a black hole in the nation’s finances which will have to be filled with more tax rises – despite Rachel Reeves saying she wouldn’t be back for more taxes,” he added.

US president says the Treasury secretary wishes to stay in his current role.

United States President Donald Trump has ruled out Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent as his pick to replace Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

Trump, who has repeatedly criticised Powell for not moving faster to lower interest rates, said on Tuesday that Bessent wished to continue in his current role.

“I love Scott, but he wants to stay where he is,” Trump said in an interview with CNBC, adding that Bessent was doing a “great job” and had told him as recently as Monday that he did not want the position.

Trump said he had four candidates in mind to replace Powell, whose term expires in May, including Kevin Warsh, who formerly served on the Fed’s seven-member board of governors, and Kevin Hassett, the director of the White House National Economic Council.

He said he could use the opportunity to replace Adriana D Kugler, who last week announced her early resignation as one of the seven governors, to put his pick for chair on the board in advance of Powell’s departure.

“I’m going to make the decision soon,” Trump said.

Trump’s repeated attacks on Powell, whom he has mockingly dubbed “too late”, have stoked concern about the US central bank maintaining its independence, which investors view as crucial to the health of the US economy.

Following reports last month that Trump had asked Republican lawmakers whether he should fire the Fed chair, the benchmark S&P 500 tumbled 0.7 percent.

US stocks swiftly recovered after Trump denied that he had any intention to remove Powell early.

Under legislation and US Supreme Court precedent, the president may only remove the Fed chair “for cause”, widely interpreted to mean proof of corruption or malfeasance.

A new report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has found that crime in the United States decreased in 2024, continuing a trend of improved public safety after a spike in murders during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The report, released on Tuesday, estimates that 1,221,345 incidents of violent crime – including murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault offences – took place in the US last year, down by 4.5 percent from 2023.

Intentional homicides decreased by 14.9 percent. But at a rate of 5 for every 100,000 people, the murder rate in the US remains significantly higher than throughout most of the world.

For example, according to United Nations data, the murder rate in Japan in 2023 was 0.23 per 100,000 people. In Oman, the rate was 0.14. In Norway, it was 0.72. And in the US’s northern neighbour, Canada, the rate was 1.98.

Nonetheless, the 2024 murder rate in the US represents a nine-year low and a major decline from a recent peak of 6.7 per 100,000 in 2020, the first year of the pandemic.

Rape offences also went down by 5.2 percent in 2024, the report said, while reports of hate crimes decreased by 1.5 percent.

Data submitted to the FBI shows a violent crime occurred on average every 26 seconds in 2024 and law enforcement made more than 419,000 violent crime arrests.

Read more in the FBI’s “Reported Crimes in the Nation, 2024” summary: https://t.co/YWWyPCxuVw. pic.twitter.com/i7twv3QoPB

— FBI (@FBI) August 5, 2025

Overall, a violent crime occurred in the US every 26 seconds, a murder every 31 minutes and a rape offence every four minutes.

Property crime also decreased in 2024, according to the FBI report. The bureau recorded 5,986,400 such offences, an 8.1 percent decrease from 2023.

The data is based on the reporting of thousands of law enforcement agencies that cover 95.6 percent of US residents, the FBI said.

According to the report, 64 police officers were criminally killed last year, and 43 others died in accidents. More than 85,700 officers were assaulted, a slight uptick from 2023 and a 10-year high.

Gun violence has been a leading driver of crime in the US. According to the database Gun Violence Archives, there have been 8,878 gun-related deaths and 261 mass shootings so far in 2025.

Last week, an attacker armed with a rifle killed four people, including a police officer, near the headquarters of the National Football League (NFL) in New York City.

Last year, US President Donald Trump made public safety a major theme in his election campaign, portraying his Democratic rivals as weak on crime and anti-police.

Although the initial uptick in crime rates happened during the last year of Trump’s first term, the Republican leader repeatedly promised to restore “law and order”. It is largely the states and local authorities that oversee policing.

On Tuesday, Trump renewed his criticism of local policing and prosecution in Washington, DC, threatening to have federal authorities take over the US capital city.

He claimed that teenage “thugs” are randomly attacking people in the capital city and called for any youth suspects to be prosecuted and tried as adults.

“Washington, DC, must be safe, clean, and beautiful for all Americans and, importantly, for the World to see,” Trump wrote in a social media post.

“If DC doesn’t get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City, and run this City how it should be run, and put criminals on notice that they’re not going to get away with it anymore.”

However, official data shows that crime has been on a downward trend in Washington, DC, contradicting Trump’s claim that the capital “is totally out of control”.

For example, violent crime went down by 35 percent in 2024 compared with the previous year, and homicide dropped by 32 percent.

Tuesday’s data does not reflect the state of public safety under Trump, who returned to the White House in January this year.

Armenia and Azerbaijan’s leaders met in the UAE last month, but no breakthrough in their decades-long conflict was reached.

United States President Donald Trump will host the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan for peace talks at the White House, a US official said.

The official told the Reuters news agency on Tuesday that there is a possibility a framework for a peace agreement could be announced at Friday’s meeting in Washington, DC.

The leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan met in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, for peace talks last month, but no breakthrough in the decades-old conflict was announced.

The two South Caucasus countries have been in conflict with each other since the late 1980s, when Nagorno-Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia.

The region, which was claimed by both Azerbaijan and Armenia after the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917, had a mostly ethnic Armenian population at the time.

Azerbaijan recaptured Nagorno-Karabakh in September 2023, prompting almost all of the territory’s 100,000 Armenians to flee to Armenia.

Armenia has accused Azerbaijan of “erasing all traces” of the presence of ethnic Armenians in the contested territory, in a case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

The case stems from the 2020 war over Nagorno-Karabakh, which left more than 6,600 people dead, one of three full-scale wars that the two countries have fought over the region.

The United Nations’s top court has ordered Azerbaijan to allow ethnic Armenians who fled Nagorno-Karabakh to return. Azerbaijan says it is committed to ensuring all residents’ safety and security, regardless of national or ethnic origin, and that it has not forced ethnic Armenians, who are mostly Christian, to leave the Karabakh region.

Azerbaijan, whose inhabitants are mostly Muslim, links its historical identity to the territory, too, and has accused the Armenians of driving out Azeris who lived near the region in the 1990s.

The meeting in Abu Dhabi last month between Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev came after the two countries finalised a draft peace deal in March.

The two leaders “agreed to continue bilateral negotiations and confidence-building measures between the two countries”, but no more concrete steps were outlined in the final statement from the talks.

Ceasefire violations along the heavily militarised 1,000km (620-mile) shared Armenia-Azerbaijan border surged soon after the draft deal was announced in March, but later diminished.

Escalating attacks in Cabo Delgado are taking place amid major cuts in international aid.

Nearly 60,000 people have fled Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province in two weeks, a United Nations agency has said, amid a years-long rebellion by fighters affiliated with ISIL (ISIS).

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a statement on Tuesday that escalating attacks that began on July 20 had displaced 57,034 people, or 13,343 families.

Chiúre was the hardest-hit district, with more than 42,000 people uprooted, more than half of them children, the IOM said.

“So far, around 30,000 displaced people have received food, water, shelter, and essential household items,” Paola Emerson, who heads the Mozambique branch of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told the AFP news agency.

Emerson said OCHA was preparing to step up its assistance in the coming days. “The response, however, is not yet at the scale required to meet growing needs,” she said, in a context of cuts to international aid by the United States and other countries.

“Funding cuts mean life-saving aid is being scaled back,” she added. The UN’s 2025 Humanitarian Response Plan for Mozambique has so far received only 19 percent of the pledges requested.

The organisation also stressed that the lack of safety and documentation, and involuntary relocations, were compounding protection risks.

The Southern African nation has been fighting a rebellion by a group known locally as al-Shabab,  though with no links to the Somali fighters of a similar name, in the north for at least eight years. Rwandan soldiers have been deployed to help Mozambique fight them.

More than 6,100 people have been killed since the beginning of the insurrection, according to conflict tracker ACLED, including 364 last year, according to data from the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies.

Cabo Delgado has large offshore natural gas reserves, and the fighting caused the suspension of operations by the French company Total Energies in 2021. The French fossil fuel giant has said it hopes to re-ignite the $20bn gas project this summer.

Human Rights Watch last month said the armed group had “ramped up abductions of children”, using them as fighters or for labour or marriage. The group said recruiting or using children under the age of 15 to participate actively in hostilities constitutes a war crime.

The island of Santa Rosa sits in the Amazon River between Colombia and Peru, with the government in Lima recently naming it a federal district.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro has accused the neighbouring country of Peru of annexing a disputed island on the Amazon River, resuscitating a longstanding disagreement between the two nations.

In a social media post on Tuesday, Petro said that Peru had acted to “unilaterally” assert control over the small island of Santa Rosa in a recent congressional vote.

“The Peruvian government has just appropriated it by law,” Petro wrote on the social media platform X.

He added that Peru’s actions could block the Colombian city of Leticia from accessing the Amazon River. “Our government will resort to diplomacy to defend our national sovereignty.”

Petro’s comments appeared to be a response to a vote in June, whereby Peru’s Congress designated the island of Santa Rosa a district in its Loreto province.

Who controls the island has been a subject of debate between Peru and Colombia for nearly a century.

Peru has claimed ownership based on treaties from 1922 and 1929, and it has administered Santa Rosa for decades.

But Colombia maintains that the island of Santa Rosa had not emerged from the Amazon River at the time of the treaties and therefore is not subject to them.

It has also argued that the treaties set the boundary between the two countries at the deepest point of the Amazon River, and that islands like Santa Rosa have emerged on the Colombian side of that dividing line.

“Islands have appeared north of the current deepest line, and the Peruvian government has just appropriated them by law and placed the capital of a municipality on land that, by treaty, should belong to Colombia,” Petro wrote.

He warned that Peru’s claims to Santa Rosa could inhibit travel and trade to nearby Leticia, which boasts a population of nearly 60,000.

“This unilateral action”, Petro wrote on Tuesday, “could make Leticia disappear as an Amazonian port, taking away its commercial life”.

Petro said he would hold celebrations commemorating Colombian independence from Spain in Leticia on Thursday, framing the island’s status as a symbol of national sovereignty.

The Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also said in a social media post that it would push for further diplomacy in determining the nationality of newly emerged islands.

“For years, Colombia has maintained the need to carry out bilateral work for the allocation of islands,” the ministry wrote. Colombia, it added, “has reiterated the position that ‘Santa Rosa Island’ has not been allocated to Peru”.

The Amazon River is one of the longest waterways in the world, with the most water discharged of any river.

But those powerful currents deposit and rearrange sediment throughout the river basin, forming – and sometimes erasing – islands.

Santa Rosa is one of those newer islands. The land now contains forest and farmland, as well as the village of Santa Rosa de Yavari.

That town is home to a population of fewer than 1,000 people, according to Peru’s latest census, and is largely reliant on tourism, based on its proximity to the Amazon.

The Peruvian government has argued that making Santa Rosa a district was necessary to ensure it received federal funds and could collect taxes.

“Peru is complying firmly with its obligations under international law and with valid bilateral treaties,” the Peruvian government said in a statement.

A student uprising shook Bangladesh, toppling its most powerful leader. After 15 years in office, Sheikh Hasina’s grip on power broke under the pressure of a movement that began with a dispute over government jobs, and ended with her fleeing the country. To mark the anniversary, here’s the first episode of 36 July: Uprising in Bangladesh, the new season of Al Jazeera Investigates.

Anti-discrimination charity Kick It Out says it received record-high reports of discrimination during the 2024-25 season with a rise in sexism, transphobia and faith-based abuse.

Across all levels of English football last season, there were 1,398 incidents reported – up from the 1,332 published in last season’s figures – and the most ever received by the organisation.

Reports of sexism and misogyny rose by 67%, with reports increasing from 115 in the 2023-24 season to 192.

Faith-based abuse climbed from 117 to 132, while reports of transphobia doubled from 22 to 44.

Reports involving girls’ football doubled to 31, including two at under-9s level, while overall youth reports rose from 144 to a record high of 186.

Overall reports of racism fell across all levels of football, but the number of racist incidents in the professional game increased from 223 to 245.

Kick It Out also noted in its end-of-season reporting statistics for last season:

Kick It Out chief executive Samuel Okafor said “discrimination remains deeply embedded across the game”, and the rise in abuse in youth football “should be a wake-up call”.

Okafor acknowledged there had been a “clear shift” in people “calling out sexist behaviour”, but he wants to see greater action to tackle online abuse.

“It’s clear that online platforms are still falling short. The volume of abuse remains high, and too often those responsible face no consequences,” said Okafor.

“Fans are doing their part by speaking up. It’s now up to football authorities, tech companies and government to show they’re listening, and to act.”

The United States Department of State has announced the first foreign citizens to be subject to bonds of up to $15,000 should they visit the country on tourist visas.

On Tuesday, Zambia and Malawi, both African countries, were the inaugural entries on a list of countries that the State Department will subject to visa bonds.

The idea, announced earlier this week, is to impose bonds on countries whose citizens have high rates of overstaying their US visas.

Tourists from those countries would have to pay an amount ranging from $5,000 to $15,000 at the time of their visa interview to enter the US. Then, if the tourist departs on or before their visa’s expiration, that amount would be refunded to them.

The money would also be returned if the visa were cancelled, if the travel does not occur, or if the tourist is denied entry into the US.

Should a tourist overstay their visa — or apply for asylum or another immigration-related programme while in the US — the federal government would keep the money.

More countries, in addition to Malawi and Zambia, are expected to be added to the list. The bond requirement is slated to take effect for those two countries starting on August 20.

“This targeted, common-sense measure reinforces the administration’s commitment to US immigration law while deterring visa overstays,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said on Tuesday.

US President Donald Trump has taken a hardline approach to immigration since his return to office in January for a second term.

On his first day back in office, Trump signed an executive order called “Protecting the American People Against Invasion”, which denounced the “unprecedented flood of illegal immigration” into the US.

It pledged to forcefully execute US immigration laws. That executive order was ultimately cited as the basis for the new visa bonds.

The bonds are part of a pilot programme announced on Monday, slated to last 12 months.

“This [temporary final rule] addresses the Trump Administration’s call to protect the American people by faithfully executing the immigration laws of the United States,” a filing to the Federal Register reads.

Every year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) releases a report about visa overstays in the US.

The most recent report, released in 2024, found that there were 565,155 visa overstays for fiscal year 2023. That amounted to only 1.45 percent of the total non-immigrant admissions into the US.

“In other words, 98.55 percent of the in-scope nonimmigrant visitors departed the United States on-time and in accordance with the terms of their admission,” the report explains.

In its breakdown of country-by-country overstay rates, the report indicated that both Malawi and Zambia had relatively high visa overstay rates, at 14.3 and 11.1 percent, respectively.

But Zambia and Malawi are both smaller countries with relatively few tourism- or business-related arrivals in the US.

According to the report, only 1,655 people arrived from Malawi in fiscal year 2023 for business or pleasure. Of that total, 237 overstayed their visas.

Meanwhile, 3,493 people arrived from Zambia for tourism or business during the same time frame. Of that total, 388 surpassed their visa limits.

Those numbers are dwarfed by the sheer numbers from larger, more populous countries with larger consumer bases. An estimated 20,811 Brazilians stayed in the US longer than their tourism or business visas allowed, for instance, and 40,884 overstays were from Colombia.

Critics have also pointed out that the newly imposed bonds put travel to the US — already a pricey prospect — further out of reach for residents of poorer countries.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an advocacy group, was among those that denounced the new bond scheme as discriminatory. It described the system as a form of exploitation — a “legalised shakedown” — in a statement on Tuesday.

“This is not about national security,” said Robert McCaw, CAIR’s government affairs director. “It’s about weaponising immigration policy to extort vulnerable visitors, punish disfavored countries, and turn America’s welcome mat into a paywall.”

Citizens of countries that are part of the US’s visa waiver programmes are not subject to the visa bonds unveiled this week.

A 12-year-old volunteer is making sure visitors to Hiroshima’s Peace Park get a personal look at the tragedy of the world’s first nuclear bombing, recounting his own family’s experiences as passed down generation to generation.

Former US President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary are among a range of high-profile people to be sent subpoenas from a congressional committee investigating deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Republican James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, issued the subpoenas on Tuesday to the Clintons, as well as eight other individuals.

The committee is seeking information about Epstein’s history, after President Donald Trump’s administration decided against releasing more federal files on the late financier.

That decision sparked outrage among Trump’s supporters and some Democrats, as many believe the files include a “client list” of famous men affiliated with Epstein.

As the rift between Trump and his conservative base on Epstein continues to widen, the committee, made up of both Democrats and Republicans, recently voted to issue the subpoenas.

They cast a wide net across justice department leadership during the George W Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden administrations, and the committee also subpoenaed the department itself for records related to Epstein.

Lawyers for Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s associate who is currently serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking, had indicated she was willing to testify before the powerful investigatory committee, with strict legal protections. Her scheduled 11 August deposition, though, has been postponed indefinitely.

The Epstein legal saga has spanned two decades, with Florida police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation first scrutinising the well-connected man for allegations of sexual abuse in the early 2000s.

Comer wrote in letters to each person that the committee must “conduct oversight of the federal government’s enforcement of sex trafficking laws generally and specifically its handling of the investigation and prosecution of Mr Epstein” and Maxwell.

He also indicated that depositions will start this month and run through the fall, with Bill Clinton scheduled for 14 October.

Former attorneys general Merrick Garland, Loretta Lynch Eric Holder and Alberto Gonzales, were summoned, along with Jeff Sessions and William Barr, who both led the department during Trump’s first term. Former FBI directors James Comey and Robert Mueller were also sent subpoenas.

The Clinton administration predates the Epstein investigation, but the couple’s critics have long questioned their relationship with Epstein.

A spokesperson has acknowledged that Bill Clinton took four trips with staff on Epstein’s private plane in 2002 and 2003, and met with Epstein in New York in 2002. Clinton also visited Epstein’s New York apartment around that time.

The letters to each Clinton cites these incidents, as well as other alleged encounters and connections, as reasons for summoning them.

In 2019, a spokesman said the former president “knows nothing about the terrible crimes Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to in Florida some years ago, or those with which he has been recently charged in New York.”

The Clinton Foundation and Bill Clinton’s press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Department of Justice had no comment.

The committee is seeking all of the department’s documents and communications on Epstein and Maxwell “relating or referring to human trafficking, exploitation of minors, sexual abuse, or related activity”, as well as files from the US criminal cases against Maxwell and Epstein, documents from a 2007 agreement to not prosecute Epstein and federal investigations into the former financier.

It is not immediately clear if individuals named by Comer will appear before the committee and, if they do, whether they will testify publicly.

Over the last 200 years, only four other former Presidents have received subpoenas from congressional committees, and only two provided testimony.

Notably, the committee investigating the 6 January 2021 Capitol riot voted during a televised hearing to subpoena Trump, who then sued to stop it. The subpoena was dropped when the committee disbanded.

Federal prosecutors charged Epstein with sex trafficking of minors and other crimes in 2019, during the first Trump administration.

He died by suicide in jail that August, and almost immediately afterward many began questioning the circumstances of his death.

This summer, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced her department, after conducting a review, had found no evidence of the long-rumoured “client list”. She also said evidence supported that Epstein died by suicide and the government would not release any more files.

The announcements sparked outrage among some supporters of Trump, who promised in his campaign to release the records.

The fight among House Republicans over the case grew so contentious that House Speaker Mike Johnson sent lawmakers home early in July to block a vote over the Epstein files’ release.

As demands grew for Trump for more Epstein records, the justice department recently met with Maxwell, and it is currently seeking to release grand jury transcripts from her case. On Tuesday, Maxwell’s lawyer said she opposed the release of the transcripts.

The BBC has asked the White House for comment on the subpoenas.

In the early hours of Sunday, July 27, as most of Yola South slept, a violent flood tore through the communities of Sabon Pegi, Yolde Pate, and Shagari, submerging homes and shaking lives in the darkness. Panic spread as terrified families scrambled to higher ground with parents clutching their children and whatever belongings they could salvage. While some residents found safety in the highlands, others were trapped in their homes because the water levels were too high. 

One of the trapped residents was Hope Bitrus. 

Hope, a resident of Sabon Pegi in Yola South, Adamawa State, northeastern Nigeria, said, like everyone in the community, the flood took her family by surprise, as it came while they were asleep around 3 a.m.  

“We heard someone knocking on the door. It was our neighbour who came to inform us that the whole street was getting flooded,” she told HumAngle.

Just then, her whole verandah became flooded, and the water level rose so high that it poured into their rooms through the open window. 

“And at that point, we knew the best thing to do was to get out. My husband and I were able to get our smaller children out of the house, but their eldest sister, who was in the other room, was trapped,” she said.

Hope and her husband struggled with the door, but it didn’t open.

“There was no way we could leave without our daughter, so we screamed from outside the door and told her to climb through the window, but then, the water was pouring inside her room through the window.” 

The girl started to panic, crying, and her parents got even more confused.

“We added more pressure on the door and managed to open it, and then she was able to get out,”  she recalled.

By the time the girl got out, the water level had gone higher. All three of them had to climb the wall for support and then get to the roof for safety. 

“I watched my items flooding away. I think the things that didn’t move were the couch and other heavy items, but clothes, utensils, food items, and other things were washed away before our eyes,” Hope said. 

No place like home 

Like Hope Bitrus, many residents of the affected communities lost their properties and valuables in the flood. When HumAngle spoke to some of them on the day of the incident, their basic concern was food and shelter.

To address these immediate concerns, the Adamawa State government turned a public secondary school in Yola South into a temporary displacement camp. Security forces were deployed to guard the area and regulate movement among the displaced. 

HumAngle learned that a public announcement was made, urging all those affected by the flood to come to the school for formal registration.

According to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), a total of 5560 persons were displaced; about 927 households were affected, with 524 households displaced, and 25 people dead. At least 11 people are still missing. 

“When the announcement was made, even those who were not affected by the flooding trooped into the school to obtain meal tickets and registration cards, so by the time most of us who were affected got there, basic relief items had finished,” Rukaiyah Hamid Jalo, one of the affected residents from Yola Bypass, told HumAngle. 

Hope explained that during the three days they spent in the makeshift camp, she and her family had to spread a wrapper on the bare floor for the children to sleep because the camp had insufficient supplies like mats and blankets. 

“Before we got the news that the camp was opened and that people were asked to come and register, it was already Monday, so by the time we reached, relief materials like mats, buckets, and soaps were already shared by the Red Cross, so we didn’t get any,” she said. 

Like many others, Chafari Wisdom, another affected resident, told HumAngle that her family couldn’t access basic supplies in the camp due to severe shortages. She added that the classrooms were overcrowded and lacked mats to lie on, leaving her desperate to return home, even though her home was ruined. 

“One morning, my sister and I left the camp to go and check our home because we wanted to leave there as soon as possible but when we got home, we noticed that even though the water level had gone down, the place was yet to dry up so we had no choice but to go back to the camp because there was no place we can stay,” Chafari said. 

When HumAngle visited the temporary camp, the crowd was largely made up of women sitting in groups. Some of them explained that their husbands had stayed behind to guard what was left of their destroyed homes to prevent vandalism and theft. 

Healthcare workers from the primary healthcare centres in Yola South, the International Community of the Red Cross (ICRC), Nigerian Air Force emergency clinic, and others were deployed to provide medical assistance to the people. Complicated cases were said to be referred to the State Specialist Hospital. 

In the school kitchen, members of the ICRC had taken over to cook meals for the displaced. 

Despite getting a roof over their heads, Hope said there was nowhere she wanted to be other than home because life in the camp was difficult. 

HumAngle gathered that the displaced people receive two meals a day provided by the ICRC. Civil society organisations and some individuals have also visited the camp to distribute cooked meals and snacks. However, some of the displaced people said the crowd was so much that the food hardly went round. 

Chafari mentioned that she had to leave the camp one time and head back to her house to see if she could get something for her children when the food rations didn’t reach them. 

“I couldn’t get anything. The entire storeroom was flooded,” she said. 

A woman who pleaded anonymity told HumAngle that she felt abandoned by the government because most of the healthcare and feeding support they received in the camp was from non-profit organisations, particularly the Red Cross. 

“We were overcrowded. We barely had any food. At one point, we just wanted to go back home even though it was yet to dry up,” she said. 

HumAngle tried to reach the Adamawa State Emergency Management Agency (ADSEMA) for a comment on matters like the shortage of food and basic supplies, but all efforts proved abortive.

On July 30th, the Agency’s executive secretary, Celine Laori, disclosed during a gathering where HumAngle was present that the camp was officially closing based on directives from the Adamawa State Governor. Displaced persons received cash tokens, relief materials like blankets, mats, rice, and noodles. 

Even though residents like Hope and Chafari wanted to get back home due to a lack of access to food and relief materials, others were not ready. HumAngle observed that some houses, particularly at the end of Shagari Phase 2, were yet to dry up, but since the camp has been closed barely 3 days into operation, residents were left with no choice 

Back to the ruins

On the streets of Yola By-pass and Sabon Pegi, drenched carpets, mattresses, and furniture were littered across the streets to dry. Collapsed fences and broken walls showed dismantled roofs and ruined homes. Women and children swept and mopped while some men collected blocks and zincs. 

Chafari’s entire furniture is covered in mud, with many items gone. She noted that apart from the financial cost of the incident, she is also grappling with the mental toll. 

“Among the dead bodies recovered from the flood were my neighbour’s children. Two of them were washed away, and right now, their father is yet to be found. We don’t know whether he’s dead or alive,” she said. 

Rukaiyah is back home with her children, but she says she doesn’t know where to begin. Even though the token she received at the camp doesn’t make up a fraction of what she had lost, she expressed gratitude for it. 

Enoch Jared, a resident of Sabon Pegi, said he didn’t go to the camp because his family had already managed to wash one of the rooms after the floods and so they stayed there instead. He also needed to be at home to watch over what was left of his house since the floods destroyed the fence. 

“It’s been days since the incident occurred, and no one from the government has come down to even greet or check up on us in our community. Only those who made it to the camp got aid,” he said. 

After losing his animals, properties,  and a portion of his home, Enoch said right now, he’s focused on fixing his fence and ensuring his family members get food on their table. 

The cause

Since the flooding occurred, there has been intense debate among locals and on social media about its cause. Some alleged that a Chinese mining company operating in Bole, a community in Yola South, blocked a natural water channel due to its mining activities. As a result, when heavy rainfall occurred, the water had no passage and was forced to flow back into residential areas. Others claimed that a dam in the Bole area had broken, thus triggering the flood. 

HumAngle visited the Bole community and the mining site, which is used for extracting fluoride. While the dam itself remains intact, HumAngle observed that a waterway was constructed by the mining company to reduce excess water from the dam when it reaches high levels. The diverted water from the dam flows through the company’s man-made water channel and then empties itself into the Yola River. 

A stakeholder in the Bole community and also a staff member of the Mining Company, Aliyu Umaru, said allegations that the mining activities blocked a water channel or that a dam broke are untrue. 

According to him, the company constructed the dam to serve as a water source for washing extracted materials during the mining exercise.

“We have a license here, and the government is aware, so it is our responsibility to protect the community and not do anything to harm it,” Aliyu said.

The Governor of Adamawa State, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, and his team visited the mining site in Bole on July 30th for an assessment. The visit was said to be prompted by concerns raised by locals who attribute the flooding to the mining incidents. After conducting the assessment, the Governor clarified that neither the dam nor the mining activities were responsible for the flood. He stated that the unauthorised construction of buildings on waterways and drainage channels impeded the natural flow of water, thus resulting in the flood.

Rwanda has confirmed it will accept deported migrants from the United States, as US President Donald Trump continues to push for mass deportation from the North American country.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the Rwandan government, Yolande Makolo, acknowledged that the African country had agreed to receive up to 250 deported individuals.

Rwanda is now the third African country, after South Sudan and Eswatini, to strike a deal with the US to accept non-citizen deportees.

“Rwanda has agreed with the United States to accept up to 250 migrants, in part because nearly every Rwandan family has experienced the hardships of displacement, and our societal values are founded on reintegration and rehabilitation,” Makolo said in a statement obtained by the Reuters news agency.

But the Trump administration’s efforts to rapidly deport migrants from the US have raised myriad human rights concerns, not least for sending people to “third-party countries” they have no personal connections to.

Some of those countries, including Rwanda, have faced criticisms for their human rights records, leading advocates to fear for the safety of deported migrants.

Other critics, meanwhile, have blasted Trump for using African countries as a “dumping ground” for migrants with criminal records.

In this week’s statement, Makolo appeared to anticipate some of those criticisms, underscoring that Rwanda would have the final say over who could arrive in the country.

“Under the agreement, Rwanda has the ability to approve each individual proposed for resettlement,” she said.

“Those approved will be provided with workforce training, healthcare, and accommodation support to jumpstart their lives in Rwanda, giving them the opportunity to contribute to one of the fastest-growing economies in the world over the last decade.”

Trump’s mass deportation campaign

In 2024, Trump successfully campaigned for re-election in the US on the premise that he would expel the country’s population of undocumented immigrants, a group estimated to number around 11 million.

But many of those people have been longtime members of their communities, and critics quickly pointed out that Trump lacked the infrastructure needed for such a large-scale deportation effort.

In response, the Trump administration has surged money to immigration-related projects. For example, his “One Big Beautiful Bill”, which was signed into law in July, earmarked $45bn for immigration detention centres, many of which will be run by private contractors.

An additional $4.1bn in the law is devoted to hiring and training more officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with another $2.1bn set aside for bonuses.

But the Trump administration has made expelling migrants from the country a top priority, prompting legal challenges and backlash to the rapid pace of such deportations.

Critics say deported migrants have been denied their right to due process, with little to no time allotted to challenge their removals.

Then, there are the cases where undocumented migrants have been deported to “third-party countries” where they may not even speak the language.

Within weeks of taking office in January, Trump began deporting citizens of countries like India, China, Iran and Afghanistan to places like Panama, where migrants were imprisoned in a hotel and later a detention camp.

Trump also accused more than 200 men, many of them Venezuelan, of being gang members in order to authorise their expedited removal to El Salvador in March. Lawyers have since cast doubt on Trump’s allegations, arguing that many of their clients were deemed to be gang members based on little more than their tattoos and fashion choices.

El Salvador reportedly received $6m as part of a deal to hold the men in a maximum security prison, the Terrorism Confinement Centre or CECOT, where human rights abuses have been documented.

The men were ultimately released last month as part of a prisoner exchange with Venezuela, but a federal court in the US continues to weigh whether the Trump administration violated a judge’s order by allowing the deportation flights to leave in the first place.

Deportations to Africa

In May, the Trump administration unveiled efforts to start “third-party” deportations to countries in Africa as well, sparking further concerns about human rights.

Initially, Libya was floated as a destination, and migrants were reportedly loaded onto a flight that was prepared to take off when a judge blocked its departure on due process grounds.

The Libyan government later denied reports that it was willing to accept deported, non-citizen migrants from the US.

But the Trump administration proceeded later that month to send eight migrants on a flight to South Sudan, a country the US State Department deems too dangerous for Americans to travel to.

That flight was ultimately diverted to Djibouti, after a judge in Massachusetts ruled that the eight men on board were not given an adequate opportunity to challenge their removals.

Seven of them hailed from Laos, Vietnam, Cuba, Mexico and Myanmar. Only one was reportedly from South Sudan.

The Trump administration said all eight had criminal records, calling them “sickos” and “barbaric”. A spokesperson pledged to have them in South Sudan by the US Independence Day holiday on July 4.

The US Supreme Court paved the way for that to happen in late June, when it issued a brief, unsigned order allowing the deportation to South Sudan to proceed. The six conservative members of the bench sided with the Trump administration, while the three left-leaning justices issued a vehement dissent.

They argued that there was no evidence that the Trump administration had ascertained the eight men would not be tortured while in South Sudan’s custody. They also described the deportations as too hasty, depriving the men of their chance to appeal.

“The affected class members lacked any opportunity to research South Sudan, to determine whether they would face risks of torture or death there, or to speak to anyone about their concerns,” the justices wrote, calling the government’s actions “flagrantly unlawful”.

In mid-July, the Trump administration also began deportations to Eswatini, a tiny, landlocked country ruled by an absolute monarchy. It identified the five deported individuals as hailing from Laos, Vietnam, Jamaica, Cuba and Yemen.

“This flight took individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back,” administration spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin wrote on social media.

Lawyers for the five men have since reported they were denied access to their clients, who are being held in a maximum-security prison.

Cosying up to Trump?

Little is known so far about the newly announced deportations to Rwanda. It is not yet clear when deportation flights to Rwanda will begin, nor who will be included on the flights.

Reuters, however, reported that Rwanda will be paid for accepting the deportations in the form of a grant. The amount is not yet known.

Rwanda also has set parameters for whom it may accept. No child sex offenders will be allowed among the deportation flights, and the country will only accept deported individuals with no criminal background or whose prison terms are complete.

But the deportation announcement continues a trend of Rwandan authorities seeking closer relations with the Trump administration.

In June, President Trump claimed credit for bringing peace between Rwanda and its neighbour, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

He invited leaders from both countries to attend a ceremony at the White House and sign a peace deal. Critics, however, noted that the deal was vague and did not mention Rwanda’s support for the M23 paramilitary group, which has carried out deadly attacks in the DRC.

The deal also appeared to pave the way for Trump to pursue another one of his priorities: gaining access to valuable minerals in the region, like copper and lithium, that are key to technology development.

In an interview with The Associated Press news agency, Rwandan political analyst Gonzaga Muganwa said that his government’s recent manoeuvres seem to reflect the mantra that “appeasing President Trump pays”.

Muganwa explained that Tuesday’s agreement to accept migrants from the US will strengthen the two countries’ shared bond.

“This agreement enhances Rwanda’s strategic interest of having good relationships with the Trump administration,” he said.

Israel international Shon Weissman was expected to complete move from Spain’s Granada to Germany’s Fortuna Dusseldorf.

Bundesliga 2 side Fortuna Dusseldorf has pulled out of signing Israel striker Shon Weissman in response to fan anger about his social media posts on the Gaza war, German tabloid Bild has reported.

Fan furore erupted online on Monday when news emerged that Weissman was on the cusp of joining Dusseldorf from Spanish side Granada FC.

On Tuesday, the club tweeted: “We looked into Shon Weissman intensively, but ultimately decided not to sign him”.

The club did not reveal the reasons for the decision, but Bild reported the club reacted to fan anger about social media statements from Weissman, who was already in Dusseldorf and had completed a medical exam.

The centre forward, who has 33 Israel caps, made several social media posts after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that set off the Gaza war.

Bild reported that Weissman called for Israel to “wipe Gaza off the map” and to “drop 200 tons of bombs on it”.

The 29-year-old had also liked posts saying “there are no innocents [in Gaza], they don’t need to be warned”.

Weissman, who deleted the posts soon after making them, has since said he made a mistake and was acting in the heat of the moment.

Dusseldorf fans launched an online petition on Monday saying Weissman’s “disrespectful and discriminatory” comments are in stark contrast to the principles Fortuna “stand for and try to promote”.

Weissman has already been the subject of fan protests in Granada, a side he joined in January 2023.

Bild reported that Dusseldorf and Weissman had planned to issue an apology statement for the posts, which was to be made public after the signing was made official.

After 22 months of combat in Gaza sparked by the October 7, 2023 attacks by Hamas that killed 1,219 people and saw hundreds kidnapped, the Israeli army has devastated large parts of the Palestinian territory.

More than 60,933 Palestinians have been killed, according to figures from Gaza’s Ministry of Health, and humanitarian agencies have warned that the territory’s 2.4 million people are slipping into a catastrophic famine.

Germany, as it has sought to atone for the Holocaust, has long been a steadfast supporter of Israel, but concern has risen sharply over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

The war has previously made an impact in professional football in Germany.

In 2023, Bundesliga side Mainz decided to sack player Anwar El Ghazi for statements made on social media about the conflict.

El Ghazi, a Dutch international with Moroccan roots, won a wrongful dismissal case in a German court against the club, who have since appealed.

Former Bayern Munich defender Noussair Mazraoui, now with Manchester United, apologised publicly after making several social media posts on the conflict, including one which called for “victory” for “our oppressed brothers in Palestine”.

German football fans are heavily involved in major decisions, from signing players to setting fixtures, due to the so-called 50+1 regulation, which requires club members to retain overall control of professional football sides.

Urgency surrounds the future of the two-state solution as Israel ramps up its control of historic Palestinian territory. And even though several countries have moved to recognise a Palestinian state, many observers say it’s too late. Soraya Lennie breaks it down.